KINDERGARTEN newsletter
A bi-weekly newsletter from Kindergarten at Lamplighter.
November 7 - December 4, 2017
Hello!
Literacy
While reading some of our favorite books, we can begin to look at what happens at the beginning, middle, and end of these books we know well. We will start focusing on who (the characters) and what (the action) that occurs at the beginning, vs. middle, vs. the end of books. While doing this, we can recognize that books follow a pattern, so we are able to know what to expect when reading stories.
We continue to work on our word families, sight words, and letter recognition/handwriting. Our short "a" work is wrapping up, and we are diving into work on short i words. Learning sight words requires authentic learning as we become sight word detectives highlighting all sight words we can find in magazines. We will also be Sight-Word-Sentence-Authors.
Questions to ask...
- What happened at the beginning? the middle? the end?
- Did the characters change in this book?
- Can you make some words that rhyme with _at, _an, _ag, _ad, _ap, _ab?
- Where can we find sight words?
Math
In math, students created a book about their small pumpkin. In this book they measured the height and weight. This was done using non-standard units of measurement such as cubes and bears. We also estimated how many seeds were in our class pumpkin and counted the seeds by grouping them into 5s and 10s. We are currently working on grouping items when counting by 5s or 10s.
We have also been learning all about graphs and how to create graphs on our own. We used tallies to graph our favorite candy and we made a bar graph over which pumpkin seed tasted the best (salty, sweet, spicy, plain). On Halloween, we used Skittles/M &M’s to graph. When graphing our students are working on identifying groups that have the most and least. They are also solving addition problems by looking at data on their graph.
Looking forward into November, “Number Stories” are a new focus. A number story is another name for a word problem or story problem. Students solve number stories in a variety of ways, including acting them out and using objects, fingers, and drawings. Number stories help develop children’s problem-solving skills and provide a solid foundation for addition and subtraction. Each student has a math journal where they will keep their number stories.
At home you can...
- Have your child group their toys by 5s or 10s and count them!
- Continue to practice counting to 110.
-Tell numbers stories, “I have 3 green apples and I have 2 red apples. How many apples do I have altogether?”
Science
Following our unit on trees, we have began learning about the sun and the energy it provides us. Students have conducted an experiment to test the effect of the sun on gravel, soil, sand, and water. Using a digital thermometer we measured the change in temperature over a 20 minute period. Students were surprised to learn that gravel became the warmest in sunlight. With our knew knowledge of the sun's energy we will be designing and building structures that can protect an animal (pipe cleaners with UV sensitive beads) from sunlight. Students must work to adjust plans as needed to protect their animal from the sun's energy.
-Read non-fiction books about the sun
-Plan/design and build using recyclable materials
-Build a solar oven to cook s'mores or another special treat: http://desertchica.com/diy-solar-oven-smores-kids-science-experiment/
-Check out the NASA Space Place website with information about the sun (we will be jumping into this more during our solar system unit): https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/sun/
Kodable
5 Reasons to Teach Children How to Code:
1. Learning programming empowers kids.
2. It's as easy as learning a language.
3. It offers diverse early learning benefits.
4. It helps children become fluent with technology.
5. We need more programmer in the world!
Technology & Makerspace
Makerspace benefits:
- Learning by making.
- Encourages openness.
- Focuses on design.
- Learning becomes personal.
Art with Mrs. O'Krent
How many textures can you and your child find inside your home?
Spanish with Mrs. Krage
Ask your child how to say Thanksgiving Day in Spanish. {{día de Gracias}}
Drama with Mr. Peck
Thinking Games Visit
Room 31 (Mrs. Curtis) - Tuesday, Nov. 7 @ 2:30-3:00pm
Room 33 (Mrs. Hicks) - Wednesday, Nov. 8 @ 2:30-3:00pm
Room 32 (Mrs. Reyna) - Thursday, Nov. 9 @ 2:30-3:00pm
Room 34 (Mr. Sizemore) - Friday, Nov. 10 @ 2:30-3:00pm