The Kindergarten Times
Ms. Liddell's Class Newsletter
Week at a Glance
During our morning meeting this week, we are working on greeting each other and making eye contact as we do it. We have been working on greeting each other with a right handed high five and being confident about which one is our right hand. Many children know the difference but still defer to me to help. I am working on having them identify it without my help when they know! We continue to work on not talking when it is not our turn. We are practicing using eye contact for the two children who are doing the greeting.During our share, we have been practicing listening to a partner, and then sharing what the partner told them. We began playing a new game to work on our sight words called four corners. In each corner of the classroom, there is a sight word. We each choose a corner while I count backwards and I pick corners (with my eyes closed) until there is only one player remaining. We will work on some strategies as we play this game more.
Literacy
In literacy this week, we read a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts. We continued to read some of Eric Carle's books, like The Grouchy Ladybug and The Very Quiet Cricket. We practiced retelling the story in sequence as we read each of these books. We also read some non-fiction books about chickens and sunflowers as we continued to learn about the life cycles of both, and the parts of a sunflower. During writing, we did some interactive writing as a group to label the life cycles of chickens and sunflowers. We also worked together to label the parts of a sunflower. Look for these pieces of writing in the hallway!
I am currently working on giving the final Developmental Reading Assessment for the year, so we are continuing to work on our independence during Daily 5 time while I am reading with students.
Math
In math this week, we continued to practice our addition and subtraction skills. We used dice and worked in small groups to practice subtraction. One thing that many students struggled with was remembering that the larger number has to come first in the number sentence. We used counters to help us as we worked.
During our small group time, we worked on sorting number representations for 11 and 15, writing missing numbers on a number grid (we are really working on our tracking and number placement), played math games such as Top-It and Train Games, geoboards, and worked with twenty frames.
Learning Songs
Sight Words
We worked on our sight word what this week. You can practice these at home! You can also work on your child's fluency by combining sight words to make sentences to read such as I can see a ________________.
Words We Have Learned:
- a
- I
- see
- can
- the
- we
- to
- like
- and
- you
- go
- my
- said
- little
- is
- my
- it
- are
- have
- here
- went
- be
- she
- he
- up
- this
Ask Me About...
- My favorite book we read this week. Can your child identify the difference between a fiction and non-fiction book?
- Make a connection in a story you read - can they tell you about something the character did or had happen to them and how it made them think of something that they have done or has happened to them?
- Can they use their schema (what they know) to make a prediction when you are reading a story at home? What can your child infer when they look at pictures of the book?
- Skip count by 5's or 10's to 100! Use nickels or dimes to practice.
- Skip count by 2's to 20.
- Give your child a number. Is it even or odd? We are working on understanding the difference.
- Count backwards from 20 to 0.
- Sort loose coins - can I identify the different coins? What's their value?
- Sort items by length - either from longest to shortest or vice versa.
Dates to Remember
Friday, May 4th- Hat Day for $1 Donation to Monroe Fundraisers
Friday, May 4th - Super Kid's Day
Wednesday, May 9th - National Walk or Bike to School Day
Tuesday, May 15th - Monroe Sonic Night
Thursday, May 17: Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Tie Dye T-Shirts
Friday, May 18: I Scream, You Scream, We All Like Ice Cream!
Monday, May 21: Pancakes and Pajamas
Tuesday, May 22: Lettuce “Taco” About A Great Year
Wednesday, May 23: One Smart Cookie!
Thursday, May 24: Thunder Thursday
Friday, May 25: Oh! The Places You’ll Go! - Kindergarten Recognition
Tuesday, May 29: Arr Matey! Treasure Hunt Tuesday!
Wednesday, May 30: Popsicles in the Park
Thursday, May 31: Last Day! Hooray!