Week 4- Fiction and Nonfiction

This week we will be enjoying the story Bear Snores On, as well as reading a nonfiction book about cats and dogs. With this week's theme, we jump into an important concept, distinguishing between fiction and nonfiction. Students will be learning about how works of fiction are stories that are made up and works of nonfiction teach us real information and facts. You can reinforce these concepts when reading with your child by having them identify what they are reading using these terms and having them explain how they know. These terms are very similar and are often switched or used inconsistently which makes it important that the students have many encounters with the terms and opportunities to use them appropriately in their conversations.

This week, we begin a phonemic awareness focus of rhyming. Kindergartners need to be able to identify rhyming words as well as generate their own examples. This link includes a couple of ideas you can use to reinforce this skill at home, if you are interested: http://www.4nannies.com/blog/10-fun-rhyming-games-to-play-with-kids/

The students are now working to incorporate all 3 Ways to Write (detailed pictures, letter/sound labels, and planned out sentences) to craft their writing pages. They are doing impressive jobs, especially with only 3 weeks of Kindergarten under their belts!

In math, we continue to work on the important skills of being able to determine, model, and label amounts. Our work on ordering numerals and amounts continues. We are also comparing amounts to determine which has more and which have less/fewer. This week will end our first math unit. In addition to the listed objectives for this week's homework, now is the perfect time to have your child revisit any objectives from IXL sections A and B as you see fit.

The students will meet another Tribble this week- No Put Downs. This Tribble helps us recognize how our words can upset and hurt others. It also helps us realize that our words can uplift others as well, which will lead into our final Tribble- Appreciations. The story The Crayon Box That Talked illustrates both impacts. (We also have several activities this week that will have us working with color words.) 

The students will have a 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed take home game. This game serves double duty, when it is used to practice retelling the story AND to reinforce math concepts (both number orders are illustrated, as well as one to one correspondence when counting).

We will be beginning our Listen to Reading station this week. Please send in some over-the-head, inexpensive headphones that can stay here at school, as soon as you are able. Only a limited amount of children can visit this station per day, so if you need a bit of time to get your child's headphones- no worries. 

Reading: 
10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, and working on alphabet sounds and letter names. I strongly recommend having your child sing and act the Zoo Phonics song with you. These animals serve as fun anchors to the all important letters and sounds that we use so much!

Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes. 
Monday- B.9 One less - up to 5
Tuesday -B.10 Count one less - up to 5
Wednesday- G.1 Are there enough?
Thursday- G.2 Fewer and more - compare by matching

Skills can be revisited and repeated to increase your child's automaticity. 

Optional math extension: Count small objects with your child. Have them move each object as it is counted. Have them count as high as they can. Some ideas for objects are cereal, pennies, tiny toys (Shopkins or Hot Wheels or LEGO pieces or whatever your child has a bunch of).

At times, your child may bring home a math sheet that appears to be "unfinished". This will be because the back sheet was an extension activity for students that finished the assigned task earlier than others. If your child is interested or if you desire, they may finish the sheet as part of their homework time. It is not required, but it is encouraged.