Kindergarten Kibbitz
Mrs. Weiser's Weekly Newsletter
January 5th - January 8th
Literacy
The cold weather was a perfect way to begin our winter story unit. This week we spent four days studying The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. Each day of the week we looked at the story utilizing a different comprehension strategy. On Monday, we learned how to "visualize." We began reading the story, then paused to listen to a page in the middle of the story without being able to see the picture. We used this particular page to "visualize." what Mr. Keats was trying to convey by creating our own mental picture. We have loved enhancing our strategy of visualization by beginning our first read aloud chapter book during rest time. You would be so happy to know that each time I finish a chapter of Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne, your children are begging for me to read more! We loved making our own "retelling" strips for The Snowy Day and sharing these with our partners. It was fun to "connect" the story to our own life and write about what we would do in the snow. The final comprehension strategy that we delved into this week was "inferring" which is typically a more challenging strategy. After modeling what I inferred happened to Peter's snowball, the children worked hard to infer what they thought happened to the snowball in Peter's pocket. I encourage you to also utilize visualizing, retelling, inferring and connecting each time you read a book with your child. If you need further assistance with questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. I am so happy to provide more guidance in helping you strengthen and enrich your child's comprehension skills.
Math
This week in Math we are revisiting place value. We found it so helpful to use the base ten manipulatives and work mats to build various numbers. We loved playing Dinosaur Match and Place Value Path. Of course the biggest hit this week in math in helping us understand tens and ones was playing Shark Attack on the Smart Board. Your children have done a great job of understanding which digit is in the tens place and which digit is in the ones place! This week we also have reviewed and discussed estimating. We are working hard to be comfortable with making "smart guesses" and not being concerned with being exactly correct. It was quite delicious to practice our estimation skills by estimating how many Hershey's kisses it would take to fill an outline of our hand during Munchy Math:)
Estimation Jar
Writing Workshop
Upcoming Dates
-January 18: MLK Day No School
-February 4: 100th Day of School
-February 12-15: Mid Winter Break
Uniform Reminder
With a drop in temperatures, please check the following to make sure your children are coming to school compliant to the uniform.
Undershirt: Undershirts may not extend past the uniform shirt sleeve and must be white.
Outerwear: All sweaters and sweatshirts must be Davis Academy uniform items.
Socks/Tights: Socks must be ankle or knee length and must be solid white, black or navy only. Striped, patterned, and multi-colored socks are not permitted. Navy or white tights; no leggings are permitted.