5 Senses, Weather, Counting and More!

This week we read informational books about our five senses.

You can have fun exploring the senses at home by having your child try to guess household objects just by using one of the senses! For example, put a few items into a bag or box, and see if your child can guess the object by feeling it! 

Literacy centers are in full swing and I'm working hard to complete my individual reading assessments of each child. Reading groups will begin as soon as testing is complete. 

This week in writing we focused on drawing detailed pictures of our family, our favorite special, and what we like to do at recess. We labeled our pictures with letters to show what was in our picture. We tried to use at least five colors in our work. Today we wrote sentences with the words of the week: I am.  If you'd like to work on writing at home, please practice the words of the week.  Also, your child is expected to write his or her name on all papers, so practicing this will help.  Encourage them to use an uppercase letter for the first letter and lowercase letters for the rest of their name.  

In math we are learning strategies for counting. We have a counting jar that we fill with something each day. Then we use different ways to count. Consider creating your own counting jar at home!!  We continue to explore more math tools in math zones. 

We continued to learn weather vocabulary this week and read two non fiction books about weather. We record the weather forecast and temperature daily in our morning meeting. Show your child how you check the weather forecast at home!  The newspaper, internet, and TV channels are all great ways to see the weather forecast, and it's great for the children to see the differences with the weather symbols and maps.  In Social Studies we discussed the importance of rules and why we have them. We are also learning examples of each of the 6 pillars of character:  respect, responsibility, caring, trustworthiness, citizenship and fairness.  Please incorporate these words into your routines at home whenever possible!   

We went to the computer lab for the first time this week.  It was a lot of fun!  We explored a program called Mighty Math.  The students were able to play games with number order, geometry, coin counting, and lots more.  We will probably try to get to the lab every other week, if not more!

Literacy Centers in Full Swing!

YLiteracy centers are a big part of Kindergarten!! We work in small groups to rotate through different activities while the teacher works with students on reading. Here are some pictures of us hard at work. 

This is the ABC Island center. It will always have magnetic pieces. 

This is Book Browsing Beach. We can read in beach chairs and can read to stuffed friends!! 

This is Games Gulf. Right now it's just play dough letter making but soon there will be four fun activities and games here!!

  At Writers Reef we are practicing our friends names!!

We love Baileys Book House at Computer Cove!! 

What a fun first week!

We had a great first week of school!  Here is some information about our first week of Kindergarten.

We are getting really good at our morning routine!  There's a lot to do when we first come to school, like ordering breakfast and lunch, unpacking our backpacks and turning in our folders, and putting down our chairs.  We also have a morning meeting every morning where we sing songs, dance, complete the calendar, and count how many days we have been in school!

In reading we read First Day Jitters, Curious George Goes to School,  Curious George Goes to the Toy Store, The Monster Who Came to School, Chrysanthemum, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Alphabet Adventure!  After we read Chrysanthemum we counted the letters in our names and we made a puppet.  We also practiced the letters in our names by hiding them in a coconut tree after reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  We learned all about our literacy centers and we will start our rotations next week!

In writing we drew a self portrait of ourselves on the first day of school.  We will draw self portraits every month and display them in our classroom.  At the end of the year we will get to see how much we have grown and changed!  We also played “The Name Game".  We see mixed up letters on the Promethean Board and have to figure out who's name it is!  Then we reshuffle the letters and do the name cheer.  We even practiced writing our friends names in our best handwriting.  Now all of our friend's names are on the word wall!

We sorted classroom behaviors into groups and decorated our own monster after we listened to the story The Monster Who Came to School.  We talked about how to follow the rules in school every day, and we are getting better and better at raising our hands, walking in the classroom, listening to others when they are speaking, and following directions carefully.  Check out these monsters!

We took a school tour to see all of the important places we would be learning and we met a lot of the staff that works at Flora M. Singer! This week we went to Art, Music and P.E.  We collaborated to make a group art poster. We used our best singing voices and even dance.  In P.E. we got some exercise with Mrs. Mandel.  Next week we will go to the library and the computer lab.  On Wednesdays we don't usually have a special, so we have Starfish of the Week.  This week it was me!  I shared my poster, some photos of my family, and the class got to interview me. Soon it will be your child's turn to be the star!! 

This week in math we have been exploring math manipulatives like pattern blocks, linking cubes, geometric solids, teddy bear counters, and dominoes.  Next week we will explore more math tools!  We also got to know each other by collecting data and and making class graphs on the Promethean Board.  We graphed our favorite seasons, sports, foods, colors, and animals!  Then, we counted to see which choice was the most and least.

It really was a fun week and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful class. Please stay in touch with me if you have any questions or comments about anything your child is learning this year.  Enjoy the long weekend!   Before I go, here are a few important reminders: 

Please send in an extra pair of clothes for your child if you haven't already. You never know when they might need to change clothes! 

Please sign the behavior calendar with your initials daily. 

Homework starts next week.  It is due the following Monday.  

Scholastic Book Orders are due September 12th. 

Please return any forms that were sent home this week in the folder.  I know there were a lot! :) 

Thank you so much! 

Camping Day!

It's the last week of Kindergarten. Time for some fun!! 

Today was camping day. We read camping books, hung out inside of a tent, made a handprint campfire, and even made s'mores!! 

We had so much fun!! 

A Kindergarten Museum!

We worked on an inquiry project in Media Center where we learned about museums and then created our own museum. We brought in an artifact and made a display of a family tradition. We used the program Clicker 5 to type sentences. Then the whole school could stop by and see our work!! 

Future Journalists

In reading and writing, we are learning about biographies! We will read about lots of important people and their lives. So far, we have read about Dr. Suess and Benjamin Franklin. Ask your child to tell you each day who they read about!! 

 In writing today we each thought of an interview question. Then we asked our questions to Mr. Bernstein!  We learned a lot about his life, favorite things and his job!! Next we will  use what we learned to write his biography. It will be lots of fun!!! Who knew his favorite shape is a circle? 

The Blog is Back!!

I'm finally back!! I had some technical difficulties and one of the solutions was to erase the blog completely and start over. I didn't want to do that so after some troubleshooting and LOTS of technical support, we are back online!! I apologize for the delay. 

Here's what we are up to in Kindergarten these days. 

In reading and writing we have been learning about persuasion. We read some funny books about characters trying to persuade us to buy a book, stay up late, and a few about kids persuading their parents to ge them a new pet. So... If your child has been particularly persuasive lately, you know why!! We wrote persuasive paragraphs about the best pet, best special, best food, best season, and best part of kindergarten. We know that to be persuasive, we must give three good reasons. 

Did you know we can add and subtract? We use different strategies to solve basic number sentences. Drawing a picture and using a number line are two of te best ways to join and separate numbers. We can even read a story problem and decide if it is adding or subtracting. 

In science we had fun learning about animal camouflage and how animals move, but this week it's all about trees!! Today we went on a tree walk and discovered many different types of trees right in our backyard. 

There is no school for Kindergarteners on Thursday or Friday this week because of Kindergarten Orientation!!