Queen Briley

Briley was our Queen of the Jungle this week and she loved it! Briley is such a fun loving girl whose giggle is contagious! She made us laugh many times this week and we all enjoyed learning more about her. Briley’s favorite color is orange and pink. She brought in her favorite book “Tiny Bear’s Bible” and the kids loved seeing this book because the cover felt like a real teddy bear, we all thought it was super soft. Her favorite movie is Dolphin Tail 2 and she LOVES swimming and likes the song Baby Beluga. She is a special kid because she can climb up trees which is very fitting seeing as her favorite animal is a monkey and she likes bananas! Something that Briley likes to do at home is hold her rabbit – who we hear a lot about and when she grows up she wants to be a zookeeper! Briley was a great Queen of the Jungle – please check out her video.

                     

Half way through October!

This week in Literacy we will be finishing up unit 2 week 3 which is a review week although we did get to read a wonderful story called "I Love Bugs" and we also got to talk about the different kinds of bugs we know about. The vocabulary words we learned about were curious, observe, attaches, process, and slender. As kindergarteners we know all there is to know about being curious! 

This week we will be starting Unit 3  and will be talking about the rules we have to follow in different places. We will be reading “How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? “ “Be Safe” and “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. In our crabby books we will read “Can I Pat It?” and “Tim Can Tip it”. We will be learning about the letter “i” and the sound it makes and will also be learning the word “to”. We are learning so much all the time in kindergarten! Our vocabulary words this week will be rule, cooperate, guard, prank, and responsible. I just know that we will be having some great collaborative conversations this week! I am also super excited because we will be learning about another great strategy that readers use – for the past few weeks we have been talking about how readers ask and answer questions while reading stories, and this week we will be introduced to a new reading strategy “visualize”. We will begin talking about how sometimes we can use the words and pictures in a story to make pictures in our minds of what is happening. Every week we read a story that only has four pictures so this will be a great strategy to use!

In math we will continue to tell addition and subtraction stories. We will also keep working on finding patterns and extending them! We learned about the equals and not equals signs last week and will keep working with them when we do our counting mats! Did you know that we are already learning about algebra in kindergarten? We also LOVE shapes and will keep working hard on describing shapes, drawing them, and finding them in the world around us. We will even get to make patterns using shapes this week! Ms. Kristen will also be teaching us a math lesson this Thursday on how to write the number 8! We are working hard everyday on writing our numbers and will keep practicing how to make them correctly.

In writing we will be introduced to the writing trait of conventions… which means we will learn about the CAPS man who helps us remember the conventions of writing. We will read the story “Caps for Sale” and talk a lot about the CAPS Man – we have a picture of him to help us remember what the conventions are. The C stands for capital letters at the beginning of the sentence, the A stands for artwork, the P stands for punctuation marks, and the S stands for spaces. We are becoming writers and will start using these conventions when we are writing! I promise we will be introducing these conventions slowly – remember we are just learning how to write so it might take us awhile to learn all of these!

During unit studies last week we were able to go around and check out other classroom doors and then we finally got to decorate our door! We had so much fun making our jackolanterns! This week we will continue to talk about staying healthy, making good choices and being drug free. We will start to work on our Drug Free books this week too. Friday, Oct. 24^th is another spirit day were students are asked to wear Meadow Lane colors because we will be having an all school assembly at the end of the day to get us ready for Red Ribbon Week – please make sure to ask your child about this! Please check out the picture of our door! I just know we will have another great week in Kindergarten!

                    

                                                We really do say NO to things that can hurt us!

Happy Birthday Keegan!

It was the first day back from our fall break and we had another birthday boy in our room today! Keegan turned 5 years old today! Snowflake came and was hiding by our literacy station pocket chart. We also all thought about words that describe Keegan and made him a special gift! Keegan brought in delicious m&m cookies! Here are a few pictures from his special day!

                                                Birthday boy, Keegan, and Snowflake

                                                 Birthday boy Keegan

                                             Keegan and his friends!

 

delicious cookies - thanks Keegan!

Quarter 2... Here we come!

I hope all of my friends enjoyed their 5 day break from school and they got to do something fun over Fall Break! I can’t believe we are already starting the 2^nd quarter because I feel like school just started! Time goes by so quick when you are having fun!

This short week we will be reviewing a lot about our school rules and we will have new spots on the carpet and new desks! We will talk a lot about what kindergarteners look like and sound like when they are working!

We will be finishing up week 2 in Literacy and starting Week 3 – so I will post more on that next week – please just know we will keep on learning more about what good readers do! We will keep practicing our letters and sounds and blending them together to make words! Please continue to practice at home using the packet I sent home at Literacy night! Also remember to READ, READ, READ for Book It – I can’t wait until I see all of your calendars at the end of the month!

In Math we will be continuing to tell math stories using addition and subtraction. We will start comparing numbers to see if they are equal or not equal. We will review how to do dot-to-dots using straight lines and going in counting order and we will also practice making the number 7. The five finder would be so proud of us and hopefully will come back soon… we have been making numbers 6-10 using groups of five during counting mats so we will just have to see!

In Writing we will review what good writers do and we will also talk about what the teacher does during writing time – the teachers in the room during writing time will go around to individual students and conference with them about their writing (which is a fancy way to say talk about their writing). During the conference the teacher is going to give each student a helpful hint to help them become a better writer – for example using turtle talk, adding more details to the picture or taking your time when drawing, or even helping come up with a sentence to write. Now that we are in the 2^nd quarter we are going to start thinking of sentences to go with our stories – so we will think of a sentence and say it out loud a few times– then we will say it again and count how many words are in the sentence (this will help us remember what we are suppose to write hopefully). We will also hopefully be using our writer’s workshop folder as a tool to help us because it has an alphabet chart and all of our kindergarten words in there! I can’t wait to see all of the stories during writing time!

For Unit Studies we are going to jump back to Health and talk about drug safety – which ties in very well with Red Ribbon Week that is coming up. We will have discussions about drugs and how they can hurt our bodies if they are not used correctly. We will also be decorating our door this week with a drug free message and I encourage you to do the same at home – in the school newsletter you should have seen the information about this, but if you decorate your door and people vote for you – you have the chance to win money for Meadow Lane and an ipad for your family!  This Friday the 17^th is also Inside Out day so please have your child wear their clothes inside out if you can.

It is sure to be a fun week – I am looking forward to another great quarter in Kindergarten!

Queen Bella

Bella was the Queen of the Jungle this week and she had a great week! Bella’s favorite color is bright pink and she loves swimming. Her favorite book is “Why I Love My Daddy” which is a fabulous book and so cute! She loves the movie Despicable Me and likes to eat tater tot casserole. Bella also likes giraffes and the song “Happy” which of course we got to sing and dance to because it is Mrs. Woita’s favorite too! Bella is a special little girl because she has a really good memory, which is so true!  When she is at home she likes to play with her ipad and when Bella grows up she wants to be a teacher! Bella loved being the Queen of the Jungle – please check out her video! 

                     

Last week of Quarter 1

This week we will keep on learning  - although we really don’t ever stop learning in kindergarten! In Math I am super excited because we are going to start exploring with patterns. We will find patterns, make patterns, and extend patterns. We will use paper, manipulatives and ourselves to make different kinds of patterns –just wait I am sure your kindergartener will be finding patterns everywhere – although please help me teach them that patterns repeat over and over again and a pattern is not just two things in a row! We will also be focusing on the number 6 and will continue to tell math stories using addition and subtraction! Also did your child tell you about the five finder? It was crazy in my classroom that afternoon! The five finder burst out of the back room and was finding the number five and groups of five everywhere - she had on a cape, glasses, and carried a special wand - all of which had the number 5 on them! We are sure hoping the five finder comes back to our room soon!

In Writing we will continue to sound out the words we are wanting to write using our alphabet chart and start using finger spaces! Leaving spaces is a tricky thing but I know with some practice we will get them into our writing! I will be sending home our quarter 1 writing/drawings –and I want you to really look at it because at the end of the year you will be amazed at what your kindergartener can write!

In Literacy we will be talking about how shapes are all around us! We will continue to use the “ask and answer questions” strategy while reading our stories this week. My friends are getting really good at asking questions before, during, and after we read our stories. We will be reading “Shapes All Around”, “Kites in Flight”, “Find the Shapes”, “We Like Tam!” and “I like Sam” this week. Our vocabulary words are materials, nature, decoration, games, and world. We will also be learning the word “like” and focusing on the letter “t”. We will continue to practice blending sounds together to make words and sorting words that start and end with the “t” sound!

We will also be finishing up our five senses unit this week and will end with an activity that will make us use all five of our senses! I am certain your kindergartener will tell you all about it! We will also be listening to some sounds and feeling different objects and will try to guess what they are.

This week we will continue to do some assessments to find out all of the wonderful things your kindergartener has learned already this year! It is sure to be a great week!

A reminder that conferences are this week on Tuesday and Thursday night! Please turn in your forms and letters if you haven’t already and bring your kindergartener to your conference. Also during conferences you will have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair in the library – the book fair is a great place you can go to buy some books for your library at home – we will be going to check out the book fair on Tuesday as a class. Also speaking of books we will go to library on Thursday this week due to no school on Friday – so please make sure all of your books are returned so you can check out new some books! I am very much looking forward to conferences this week and can’t wait to see all of you!

Remember Friday, the 10th, we don't have school and next Monday and Tuesday, October 13th and 14th is our Fall Break! So that means your child will not be in kindergarten for 5 days - please look for a packet of homework I will be sending home on Thursday!

American Symbols!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get our American Symbols video up – this unit and Constitution Day are some of my favorite things we do during the year. I LOVED reading all of the family constitutions that you made together as a family! Thank you for taking the time to do this together – I hope you enjoy our video. We really do LOVE America and enjoyed learning about our American Symbols that represent our country! Please check out our video.