Miss Vickers' Kindergarten Class
Kindergarten Happenings!
Wow! Can you believe it is almost May? The kids have worked so hard and come so far since they entered the doors of IES. I can tell that everyone had a great time at home last week and they came back excited and ready to take on the rest of the year. This wonderful weather has not stopped us from working hard! Take a look at what we have been up to!
Matthew Smith taught us about playing guitar on Career Day!
Dr. Allison Jacques taught us about how we can grow up to teach both children and adults! Thank you Dr. Jacques!
Irmo Fire came and taught us about how to be a fireman and what all of their equipment is used for. So neat!
Writing
In Writer's Workshop, we have been working on How-to stories. We have been writing stories that teach people how to do something in steps. For example, how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, how to play soccer, or how to braid hair. With these stories, our goal is to add lots of detail so that someone who has no idea how to do the topic could do it just by reading our story. The stories and topics that the kids have come up with are amazing!! If you want to further this at home, think about involving your child the next time you use a recipe, are putting something together, or if there is an opportunity for them to teach someone something.
Math
In Math, we just finished describing and comparing objects by length, weight, and height. We are just starting to classify objects. You can do this at home by classifying the colors and kinds of food at your table, have the kids help sort laundry or toys, etc. Remember to be practicing addition and subtraction fluency within 5!
Science/Social Studies
We have been talking about Earth Day and the importance of keeping the Earth clean, recycling, and preserving energy. We talked about where trash goes when you throw it away and and what happens when you stick it in the recycling bin. The kids loved learning about landfills, the importance of trees, and why we shouldn't litter!
We are finishing up our insect unit the best way possible, by getting larvae in our room that we can watch as they grow into caterpillars, make their chrysalis, then become butterflies! We are thrilled! Next we are going to talk about the parts of plants and how they grow.
Reading
For the end of the year, we are focusing a lot on practicing the sight words that were sent home a few weeks ago. One way that we practice them in here is by having a "Word Wall Challenge" where I give the students a sentence using only the words that are on the word wall and have them practice writing the sentence. This way, they become really comfortable with these sight words and build that writing and reading fluency. If you want to do something like this at home, you can modify it in many ways. You can introduce a few words per week that your child is unfamiliar with and add those to a personal word wall for them and have them practice writing sentences with those words. There are also a lot of play games to make sight words fun!! You can put sight words on a Twister board, put them on a Candyland board, play hide-and-go-seek with them, and if you are a Pinterest person like me there are a lot of fun sight word game ideas on there!