Current Happenings in 235
Week of January 13th
Upcoming Dates
Monday, 1-20: NO SCHOOL
Tuesday, 1-21: cycle day 3
Wednesday, 1-22: cycle day 4; book bags back to classroom; Scholastic orders for January/February due
Thursday, 1-23: cycle day 5; book bag checkout; 2 hour early release; end of quarter 2
Friday, 1-24: NO SCHOOL
Colored Books
A pack of colored paper books will be coming home with your child today. These books are to KEEP at home and use as you desire. Finding HFW, practicing fluency, coloring--there are so many options for your child. Whenever it is that you do finish with these books, they can be passed along to another child. Enjoy!
Game Boards
In today's folder are several CVC game boards. These game boards are a great tool to practice locating word families in a fun way with your child.
Conference link
Did you sign up for conferences? If so, THANK YOU! If you haven't gotten around to it yet, no worries. Here is the link. Please sign up as soon as possible.
What we learned
Our First Chapter Book!
The last two school weeks we read our first chapter book! The Magic Tree House series is a fantastic beginner's chapter book as it helps us learn to visualize, predict, ask questions and comprehend in a variety of ways. The kindergarteners were engaged, excited and asking for more---that's exactly what this teacher wants to hear! Wondering what the book was about? Try asking your kinder the below questions so he/she can tell you about it:
- Who were the main characters? (A: Jack + Annie)
- What did Jack + Annie discover in the Frog Creek woods? (A: a magical tree house full of books)
- How did Jack + Annie end up in the time of the dinosaurs? (A: Jack wished he could see it, and the tree house spun them back to this time.)
- When they were exploring, what did Jack find in the grass? (A: a medallion with the letter 'M' engraved on it...we don't know what this means yet!)
- Which dinosaurs were helpful to Jack + Annie (A: the pteranodon + the anatasouraus)
- Which dinosaur made them frightened? (A: the tyrannosaurus rex)
- How did Jack + Annie get home? (A: Jack wished they could go back to the Frog Creek woods)
**We will continue on with this series for the next few weeks until we discover who the mystery M person is, and then we will try a new series to introduce the kindergartners to different styles of writing. :)
Take a look into our class
Reading:
- We worked on finding facts throughout nonfiction texts about winter. We discovered what happens to animals, trees and people, and next week we will wrap it up by writing about our findings.
Writing:
- I continue to show two pictures with two sentences. Your child may be doing only one picture and one sentence and this is okay! We are dabbling into the world of two sentences. It will take some time for everyone to get on board, but in time, you will see this happening for your child, too.
- Some fun moments happened in writing this week with introducing SUPER E! Knowing there is a silent /e/ on the end of a word is not a writing expectation in kindergarten, but it is needed as we become more proficient readers. This week I modeled it in my own writing and some of the kids were picking up on it, so that's always fun to see!
Phonics:
- Poem: Mary Had a Little Lamb
- Word family: /-ad/ (had, bad, ladder, etc.) What do we do with word families? Recognize chunks of words and hear the remaining sounds as a group and independently in our poems on Fridays.
- Focus: hearing sounds in CVC words to make words; writing CVC words (fan, rug, bit, etc.).
Math:
- Kindergartners practiced one more and one less throughout the week along with subitizing.
Kaitlin Wermerskirchen
Email: kwermers@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Phone: 952.496.5802
Twitter: @Kindersin235