Kindergarten News
Adventures in Ms. Kovalesky's Kindergarten Class
January 13, 2016
Notes From Ms. Kovalesky
This year has been flying by! We're already 73 days into kindergarten.
We've been busy learning how to be good friends, readers, mathematicians, and problem-solvers. We have all gotten used to being in the routine and the students call me out if I do something out of routine :)
Please continue to sign up to volunteer in the classroom. The students love have you here and so do I!
Your child may have told you that we started using a new program in the computer lab called Raz-Kids. This is an online program that provides each students with books at their just right level. They can listen to the book and then practice reading the book on their own. They even take a quiz after the book to show their reading comprehension. I'll be sending home information soon so you can access it at home as well.
Literacy
One of big focuses in literacy has been on retelling stories including the characters and setting. We used two versions of The Mitten to compare the stories to see how the characters and setting were the same. We've also been using the book The Snowy Day to work on retelling the events of a story.
Since winter break, we've worked on visualizing in reading. We've talked about how writers use describing words to help us make a picture in our heads which then helps us remember and understand the book.
Home-School Connection
While reading a book to your child, stop and ask, "What has happened so far?" When you finish reading, ask who was the story about, where were they in the story, and what happened? Encourage them to talk about the story without looking back at the book.
We continue to add sounds and sight words in PALS. Our big focus has been on reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). Words such as map, fan, tub, etc that are easy to stretch out and put back together.
We also did a Gingerbread unit. We read multiple versions of the Gingerbread Man. Then we charted the characters, refrain, and ending for each story. We ended the unit by making our own Gingerbread Men and then had to go on a hunt around the school after they disappeared!
We continue to do literacy centers. The students are either working on phonics, writing, word work, read to self, iPads, listen to reading or working with a teacher. This is many of the students favorite part of the day. They get to play games or do activities and they don't even realize that they are learning!
Home-School Connection
Ask your child what literacy centers they've done this week. Which one was their favorite?
In writing, we continue to push ourselves. We wrote a paragraph that included a topic sentence, 4 detail sentences, and a closing sentence! Now we're starting to work on writing our opinion.
Math
In math we've starting working on teen numbers. We practice building the numbers using tiles, pennies, or tens frames. We've been trying to see that teen numbers have a group of ten and extra ones. We are working on quickly identifying the extra ones in each number.
Home-School Connection
Help your child practice teen numbers. Quiz them by asking, "what is 10+4? 10+9?" Then you can do the opposite and say 13 is... and they say "10+3"
We've also been working on partners. We've used both tiles and pennies and a break-a-part stick to visually see the two numbers we add together to make a bigger number. We've also been working on identifying switch partners (1+4 and 4+1).
Home-School Connection
Ask your child to find the partners for a given number (less than 10). They can use objects around the house to help them such as cheerios or blocks.
We've also been working on finding one more and one less. This week we read the book Ten on the Sled to find one less. We're learning that one less is the number that comes before and one more is the number that comes after. We're trying to become fast with these facts, these are things that should be automatic.
Inquiry
Home-School Connection
Ask your child to identify some of their abilities, what things can they do?
We'll be starting our next unit of inquiry in a few weeks. We'll be learning about materials. We'll explore different materials, what we do with those materials and how we can change those materials.
Other Activities
- We had our first Picture Person lesson. We learned about how artists use texture. Then we created our own picture using texture.
- We've had more Sparks lessons with Mrs. Moore. We continue to learn how to be an upstander and how to resolve conflict.
- We've also had lesson with Ms. Michelle. She has helped us learn that their are expected and unexpected behaviors to situations.
Upcoming Events
Monday, January 18: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 29: NO SCHOOL
Contact Info
Kindergarten Teacher
Room 300
Email: kovalesky.katelyn@slpschools.org
Location: 4801 W 41st St, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Phone: 952-928-6645