Week 26 - Ocean Habitat

This week, we will be widening our exploration of habitats by diving into 

a study of the ocean! We will begin with a look at the different ocean zones. 

Eric Carle will then lead us in a closer look at seahorses with his book

Mister Seahorse. Next, we will be learning interesting things about Weird 

Sea Creatures using a nonfiction text.

Asking thoughtful questions before, during, and after our reading takes on a 

bigger focus this week with a helpful animal friend Wondering Walrus. 

Asking questions is a huge part of truly understanding what we hear. It leads 

to deeper comprehension and critical thinking skills. If we can question, we 

are more likely to make meaningful connections, read with purpose, and 

reflect on what we have learned.

This week our project focus will be on diet. We are closing in on the 

completion of our projects, which means it is time to MARK YOUR 

CALENDAR!

Please plan on joining us at 1:30 on Thursday, March 29th.

Please enter through the front office and then come on down and join us. 

Some students will be presenting in the classroom, while some students will 

be set up in the hall right outside our classroom (in hopes of helping you to be 

able to focus in on the child you are listening to). Please plan to listen to your 

child’s presentation first and then visit a few other children’s presentations as 

well. They will present their information as many times as needed. When 

finished, your child will be able to leave with you, but please allow them to 

share their presentation with others before you go. You will need to sign your 

out at the office if you leave before 2:00. (There will be no after school session 

this day). Also, there will be a very easy feedback form for you to fill out as 

you listen to presentations. This allows me to share feedback with the students 

later in class and it also helps students understand the importance of presenting 

to an audience.

In math, we continue to compare numbers while reinforcing the 10 and some 

more nature of teen numbers. We also focus in on the amount of difference 

between two quantities by noting “how many more” and/or “how many fewer”.

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.

Your child should ideally be spending time with familiar texts (such as the 

printed books they bring home), as they help reinforce sight words in context 

and using word solving strategies. However, these books are not real meaty 

when it comes to comprehension, so they should also be spending time with 

trade books (high quality children’s literature- like from the local library or 

bookstore). These books lend themselves better to conversations. When you 

read to them, you are also providing important modeling of a fluent reader 

and a pleasant reading experience.

Math:

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

This is a great time to play math games with your child. You can use 

materials from Math Night, online or printable activities, or traditional 

board/card games that have a math component.

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 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.