Week 25- Rainforest Habitat Continued

This week, we continue to add to our knowledge about rainforests. Reading

 a variety of nonfiction and fiction books about a similar topic gives us 

several opportunities for making connections and comparisons. We will also 

zoom in a bit on snakes with a nonfiction book about snakes and an Eric 

Carle (and Richard Buckley) book about a Greedy Python.

We continue our PBL work on our desert animal as well. This week’s focus 

is on our animal’s adaptations.

Students have done a great job with using their 10s to skip count. Counting 

by 1s all the way to 100 has proven a bit more difficult for some so this is a 

skill we will continue to practice at school and you can reinforce it at home 

as well. Those jumps to the next set of 10 (like 19 to 20, 29 to 30, 39 to 40) 

can be so tricky! The students love counting out collections. It can also be 

fun to do a variety of movements in sets of 10. For example, stomp your feet 

while counting 1-10, wiggle your fingers 11-20, tap your nose 21-30, and 

so on.

In math, we begin a new unit which will focus on comparing sets up to 20. 

In addition to IXL objectives, Math Night materials can also be used to 

reinforce these skills and to reinforce those teen numbers. While we move 

into comparing these larger numbers, we continue to reinforce the “10 and 

some” concept.

We have been conducting assessment interviews and I just wanted to take a 

moment to note that discussing what your child is reading (or being read to 

about) is oh-so-important. We want our young thinkers connecting and 

comparing to other texts and life experiences. We want them sharing details 

that they noticed, things they wonder about, and special words they hear. 

All students are able to do this, but their degree of confidence and use of 

details can vary. The more they share and discuss, the more they remember 

and the more reflecting on what they read becomes a strong reading habit.

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the 

binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

Revisit any skill from the Comparing (G) section. We will be reinforcing 

comparing smaller amounts for a couple of days, before moving into 

comparing the teen numbers. IXL does not have objectives for comparing 

items within 20, so this is where materials from Math Night or collections 

of items from around the house can come in handy.  If your child seems 

pretty solid with comparing within 10, move on to comparing groups of real 

items up to 20. Using terms, such as “more”, “less”, “fewer”, “the same”, 

and “equal”. It is also great to practice “how many more/fewer”. For example,

if I have 12 crayons and 10 pencils, I could talk about how I have 2 more 

crayons or 2 fewer pencils. When making such comparisons, noting groups 

of 10 or how far away from a group of 10 is valuable too (I have 7 gummy 

bears- that’s just 3 away from a whole group of 10). When using real items 

you can physically group them into 10s. You can also physically line them up 

item to item to see how many more/fewer there are.

If it seems appropriate for your child, you may also spend some time revisiting 

any D section skill.

Week 24 - Rainforest Continued

Our exploration of the rainforest habitat continues this week. Along with a 

nonfiction book that will teach us more details about this habitat, we will 

learn a bit in particular about the sloth. We will also be beginning an author

study on the wonderful Eric Carle. I’m super excited about sharing not only 

his stories, but his artwork and ways of cultivating his ideas with the 

kindergartners!

We continue our PBL work on our animals. At least a couple of days this 

week will continue to be dedicated to our habitat focus on the dioramas. As soon as we 

finish with that, it is on to our animal’s diet.

In math, we will be practicing our skip counting by 10s. Skip counting by 2s 

and 5s was a bit tricky for some of the students. At this point in their learning, 

this skill is introduced for exposure. We are hoping to aid them in seeing the 

inherent patterns in counting and that smaller amounts make up larger

amounts. If your child does not seem to master the discrete skills of counting 

by 2s and 5s, please do not stress. While it is a helpful skill, mastery of it is 

not expected at this age (counting both by 1s and 10s to 100 is a Kindergarten 

skill to be mastered). It can be helpful to reinforce the more familiar 

counting patterns within skip counted by using Whisper- Loud counting

pattern: this is done by whispering the “skipped” numbers and saying the 

“pattern” numbers louder. For example: whisper 1, loud 2, whisper 3, loud 4 

AND whisper 1, 2, 3, 4, loud 5. Getting the whole body involved adds another 

dimension and concreteness to the skill. Your child can crouch down on the 

whispered numbers and stand/hop up on the out loud numbers. Also, counting 

out real materials can be helpful.

We will also spend some time reviewing and practicing describing and 

comparing shapes as well as our teen numbers- continuing to focus on how 

these numbers are 10 and some more.

Please make sure your child has their 100 object bag ready to go for 

Monday. If your child does not bring a bag, they will still participate in 

the counting activities, but it won’t be quite as much fun.

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the 

binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent with 

the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!

Monday- F.6 Learn to skip-count by tens

Tuesday- F.7 Skip-count by tens

Revisit a concept of your choosing for Wednesday and Thursday.

Some suggestions are:

* Any skill from the D skill section (Numbers and counting up to 20)   

* Skip counting by 10, if it seemed tricky for your child  

* Any shape skill that seemed tricky for your child, particularly 

 V.7 Compare sides and corners and W.9 Shapes of everyday objects I

Week 23 - Rainforest Habitat

This week, we are learning about the rainforest habitat. We will be reading 

a nonfiction text to learn interesting facts and visiting the rainforest in 
another Jan Brett book, The Umbrella. This will allow us to compare and 
contrast the two texts from this week as well as make connections to other 
texts we have previously read.

This week for our research project we will be finishing up the writing page for

the habitat of their animals, and by Thursday we should be ready to start building

our habitats out of the shoe boxes! I popped over to the other kindergarten class last

week who have already started their dioramas and their creativity was amazing! I can't

wait to see what our little experts will come up with! Looking at their projects, I found

a lot more materials that I think could be useful for our class. If anyone could bring in any

of the following materials by THURSDAY, it would be greatly appreciated :)

• paper towel or tape dispensers
• glue bottles
• small paint brushes
• brown and green pipe cleaners
• fake decorative leaves

In math, we begin a new unit which focuses on numbers to 100. This unit 
begins with a focus on skip counting. Skip counting is an important concept
for developing strong number sense because it encourages students to see 
amounts within larger amounts and allows the to practice seeing and using 
number patterns.

We will be taking the MAPS test on Tuesday. We want the students to do 
their best, but this is not something I want to create stress about. Standardized 
assessments provide valuable information for driving instruction, but we also 
have to keep in mind the mode of assessment and that this is only one source 
of information about how your child is growing and learning.

The students voted on a special activity for this week… and reading won- by 
a landslide! We will be having this special reading time Thursday afternoon. 
For this special reading time, students are welcome to bring in a 
small blanket and stuffed animal to have a super comfy reading session! To 
keep this manageable, the blanket and stuffed animal must fit into a large 
brown paper bag (Winco style). I have plenty of these available so if you do 
not have one, let me know and I will send one home for your child to bring 
their special items in on Thursday. They really need to be in these bags so we
can easily store them while not in use.

Next week, students will be counting out collections of 100 items. This is an

exploration of how it is easier to use our handy dandy groups of 10. A gallon 

sized baggie will be coming home with your child this week, please assist 

them in counting out 100 small objects. Sanity saver: use the groups of ten 

strategy as you help count out the objects- it makes it so much easier to keep 

track when distractions or interruptions happen. These objects need to be 

relatively small as we will be using them to fill 10 frames (like the ones that 

were included in your Math Night goodies.)

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in 
the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent 
with the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!

Monday- F.1 Learn to skip-count by twos

Tuesday- F.2 Skip-count by twos

Wednesday- F.4 Learn to skip-count by fives

Thursday- F.5 Skip-count by fives

Please make sure your child has their 100 object bag ready to go for 

next Monday. You can send it in any day this week or next Monday 

morning. If your child does not bring a bag, they will still participate 

in the counting activities, but it won’t be quite as much fun.

Your child may review any past objectives that you feel they may benefit from. 
Those in the D section may be worth a revisit. Some of the shape names have 
been a little sticky for some students- if you noticed that this applies to your 
kiddo, they may also revisit those tasks.

Week 22- President of the USA

This week, we have a Social Studies focus on the President of the United States. We will read a nonfiction text that describes the roles and responsibilities of the position. We will also get to know Duck as a character who runs for office. We will be practicing the skills of sharing information, retelling, and comparing and contrasting. The students will be placing votes in a class ballot box to determine a fun activity for the following week.

Our shape unit wraps up this week and includes many opportunities for building flat and solid shapes. If you are able to send in some miniature marshmallows and/or toothpicks, it would be greatly appreciated. (We could also use paper towel rolls).

Our Research project continues with us writing the information we learned about our animals habitats and adding the information we learned about our animals habitat into our dioramas. The next fact section we explore is our animal’s diet. This includes whether they are herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores and examples of what they typically eat.

We will have a Wildlife Biologist (Gianna's dad) visiting our class to share information about desert animals. I can not tell you how excited I am for this- what a wonderful learning opportunity for our Kindergartners!

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent with the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!

Tuesday- W.1 Two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes

Wednesday- W.2 Name the three-dimensional shape

Thursday- W.9 Shapes of everyday objects I

                 W.10 Shapes of everyday objects II

Your child may review any past objectives that you feel they may benefit from. Those in the D section may be worth a revisit.

Week 21- Desert Adaptations and some Valentine Fun!

This week, we continue to study the desert habitat with more of a focus on adaptations. We have great nonfiction books to help us do this! We will continue to practice sharing facts from our reading. We will also be making comparisons and connections between texts about the same topic.

The students really seem to be enjoying our shape unit. We continue this week with a focus on flat, 2D shapes. We will discuss their characteristics as well as where we see them in real life.

Our Research Project continues with us diving deeper into our group texts. This week will begin with a focus on their animal’s habitat, including both the living and nonliving things found there.

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day with some fun stations. Please plan to purchase or make valentines cards for your child to share.  There is no need to address the Valentine to any child, just have your child sign the from section and they can pass them out without trying to match names. If they want to write something in the "To:" spot, please have them write friend, pal, or buddy. Thank you for your help. I am looking for one more volunteer to join us to run party stations. If you would like to volunteer to run a station, you would be responsible for overseeing a center activity with 4 kiddos at a time. We will be cycling through the stations at 15 minute intervals. All materials would be provided for you. Our party will be Wednesday, February 14th from 8:15-9:45.  HUGE thank you to those who have already volunteered and sent in requested items.

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent with the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!

Monday- V.1 Name the two-dimensional shape

Tuesday- V.5 Select two-dimensional shapes

Wednesday- V.6 Count sides and corners

Thursday- V.7 Compare sides and corners

Week 20- Desert Habitat

This week, we kick off our Desert Animal and Habitat Project! Yippee! Students will be choosing their focus animals and forming small groups on Tuesday.  It is difficult to predict the exact pace a project will progress at, but it is possible that we may begin building our dioramas as early as next week. At last count, we had 12 shoe boxes, so we still need quite a few more. If you do not think you will be able to supply one for your child please let me know ASAP so I can reach out to other community members for assistance. Two families have sent in additional materials (Huge thank you!), but we could still really use more sandpaper, blue and green felt, and rocks. Thank you for your help with our project! As a Project Based Learning school, it is very important that we introduce our little ones to this concept.  It will expand each year and is an important part of how we learn at Oasis Academy. 

Our theme this week will be desert. Since we are moving into our research project, writing will look a bit different for the duration of this unit. We will be reading, writing, and building their dioramas with different focuses related to the animal they chose to study. This project will last for several weeks. As we get further into this project, and can make some timelines for finishing, please watch for an email about project presentations. This will be several weeks away.

We will be reading A Desert Habitat and will practice pulling facts out of the text to share with others. This book is rich with information and will help us learn about common desert weather, plants, and animals. This information will add to what students learn about their focus animal during our project.

We will also be reading The Three Javelinas, which is a southwestern retelling of the three little pigs. This allows us another great opportunity for comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction texts, as well as contrasting between two similar fiction texts.

We will be starting our shape unit in math this week. Our unit will begin with an exploration of 3D, solid shapes. We will be learning the names of these shapes that can be found all around us. Kindergartners love finding these shapes as everyday objects and using the new terms (a party hat is a cone, a tissue box is a rectangular prism, a can of soup is a cylinder). We will also be exploring some of their characteristics- like if they can roll, slide, and stack. We will also be learning about 2D, flat shapes as well. 

Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Please plan to purchase or make valentines cards for your child to share.  There is no need to address the Valentine to any child, just have your child sign the from section and they can pass them out without trying to match names. If they want to write something in the "To:" spot, please have them write friend, pal, or buddy. Thank you for your help. I am looking for volunteers to join us to run party stations. I could also use some help with a few supplies and prep. If you would like to volunteer to run a station, you would be responsible for overseeing a center activity with 4 kiddos at a time. We will be cycling through the stations at 15 minute intervals. All materials would be provided for you. Our party will be Wednesday, February 14th from 8:15-9:45.  

HOMEWORK
Reading:
10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, sight words, and working on alphabet letter sound fluency.

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night. Time spent with the activities you got from Math Night is a great idea, too!
 

Monday- W.3 Spheres

Tuesday- W.4 Cubes

Wednesday- W.5 Cones

Thursday- W.6 Cylinders