Starting Unit One...

    

This next week in kindergarten is going to be a fun one because we are starting unit one in literacy which means we will be talking a lot about what good readers do! The strategy we will be focusing on is “asking and answering questions” and we will get to read a great book called “What about Bear?”. Our essential question this week is “how can we get along with new friends?” which is wonderful because we are continuing to build relationships with our new classmates and this ties in very nicely to making good choices and being respectful and responsible! We are going to be focusing on the letter “M” this week as well and will be sorting pictures that start with the sound M makes and we will also work hard on making the letter m correctly and by the end of the week we will be blending sounds together to make words! We will be making connections between all of the books we read and it is going to be a blast! We will also be putting the word “the” up on the word wall – please ask your child about the chant we do when we spell the word “the”.  Remember any extra practice you do at home will only benefit your child! We are also going to be starting guided reading (start is the key word) but please know it might takes us a few weeks to get into the full guided reading routine – your child will either be reading the story “Soup” or “Mouse and Monkey” at the rainbow table with me. Remember you can go online to the wonders website and check out the things that we will be doing in our classroom!

In writing we will be talking about nouns – yes I know what you are thinking nouns in kindergarten  but we really do learn about them and the kids do a great job! We will learn that a noun can be a person, place, thing, or animal! We will also be focusing a lot on our pictures when we are writing our stories from our lives, because readers can find out more detailed information from our pictures. We will be talking about planning out our pictures and what we should if we don’t know how to draw things – although the most important thing to remember in kindergarten is that we always try our best! Hopefully by the end of the week we will get the chance to read the story “Scaredy Squirrel” and talk about why authors sometimes use labels in their stories.

In Math we will be continuing to learn more about numbers but will really be focusing on the numbers 4 and 5 and how to write them. We will also be distinguishing between different sized groups and counting a certain number of objects. Last week we started talking about 2 and 3-dimensial shapes and will continue to talk about the difference between them this week too and also have some discussions about shapes and what makes something a shape! I love when the kids learn the characteristics of shapes and are able to tell me all about them! For example a triangle has three corners and three sides that are all connected and that triangles can be all different sizes and can look different. Oh how we love shapes and numbers!! We will also be having homework every single night this week so please be on the lookout!  Don’t forget to make sure your child’s name is on it so they can get credit for doing it!

America… America… America! We are loving learning about the symbols that represent our wonderful country! We started our symbols book and will continue to work on it this week as well. This Thursday, Sept. 11 is Patriot’s Day and I would love for every child in my room to wear red, white, or blue as we honor and remember our patriots.  We will be talking about how we need to stand tall and be proud of the country that we live in! I truly feel so lucky to live in this country!

Also this week is StudentServe week at LPS and you might see things in the paper or on the news about it.  Student Serve is a student-led, district-wide initiative committed to instilling civic responsibility and preserving democratic ideology in students by promoting behaviors of good citizenship in their local, national, and global communities. This year in kindergarten we are going to try and do one project a month that will benefit people in our community - this month we are going to help make cards for the organization called "Cards for Seniors". They distribute cards through Tabitha, Meals on Wheels, and other nonprofit organizations to seniors. I am sure my friends will love making the cards to fill up other people's buckets!

Thanks again to all the families that were able to come to our Literacy night – I hope you had as much fun as I did! It was great to see all of you there and I am hoping you all learned something new – remember I will be sending home more things throughout the year to put in your binder if you purchased one.

I know it is going to be another fun and busy week in our classroom! :) Mrs. Woita