Kindergarten Connection ~ October 25th

BOO Kindergarten families!

CCS Costume Parade

Next Friday, October 31st, is the CCS Halloween Costume Parade! On this day, the children will parade around the school in their costumes. The parade will take place shortly after classroom morning meetings.  All parents are welcome to watch the parade from designated viewing areas located behind the school. We will make sure to parade by our families! Please send your children to school in their costumes with their regular school clothes underneath. The children will change out of their costumes after the parade. Please label your children's costume pieces to ensure they are returned and ready to wear on Halloween. In addition, please send a labeled bag to return costumes home to avoid lost pieces and/or overflowing backpacks. Please remember to leave extra scary masks and costume weapons at home. We will end this special day with a whole kindergarten Halloween celebration. The children in both classes will work together to make crafts, sing songs, play games and enjoy a few treats. 

Please sign-up via BringIt if you would like to contribute a snack on this day http://rowntreekindergarten.bringit.bz/public/bdf27b You may drop snacks off in the morning or send them to school with your children. Thanks in advance for helping to make this day extra fun!

Family Fun Idea ~ Make Gooey Green Oobleck

Oobleck Ingredients: Cornstarch and water

Directions: Mix 1 part water with 1.5 to 2 parts cornstarch. You may wish to start with one cup of water and one and a half cups of cornstarch, then work in more cornstarch if you want a more 'solid' oobleck. It will take about 3 minutes of mixing to get the perfect consistency oobleck. Mix in a few drops of food coloring if you want colored Oobleck. Is it a solid? Is it a liquid? It's a liquid until pressure is applied. Squeeze it hard and it feels like you are holding a rock! Release your hand gently and the material will flow around your fingers like water! Have fun using different utensils to play - see what form it takes while using different cups, spoons, bowls, etc.

We had a great week in kindergarten!

Bus Safety Day

We learned how to board school buses with safe, calm bodies. 

Pumpkin Life Cycle

Ask your children to explain the life cycle of a pumpkin to you. If you have a pumpkin at home, ask your children to identify the shell, flesh, pulp, and seeds. 

Fire Safety Day

The Charlotte Fire Department visited CCS to teach children about fire safety. We learned all about fire safety, fire fighter gear, and how to get help if there is
a real fire in your home.

Stop, Drop and Roll if your clothes catch on  fire!

We are thankful for brave fire fighters!

Literacy Highlights

These magnetic letter boards and tiles help us match letters, connect letters to sounds, spell words, and sort letters into consonant and vowel groups.

We can put letters in ABC order! 

 We can read and write the sight-words: I, am, go, to, see, the, we, will, can, stop, yes, no, Boo, to, is, in, it, and like. Encourage your children to practice writing these words in shaving cream on a cookie sheet and in their everyday writing experiences.

 

Math Highlights

We are working hard at counting, comparing, and ordering numbers. Specifically, we are focusing on the teen numbers and working to understand how numbers 11-19 are made up of a group of ten and some more (additional ones). We are using tens frames, counting mats, and linking cubes to help us compose and decompose teen numbers. For example, we are learning to represent 13 by filling a ten frame with 10 pennies and then placing three more pennies on a second ten frame. This representation helps the children understand that the numeral 1 in 13 stands for one group of 10, and the numeral 3 in 13 stands for 3 more (10+3=13). Ask your children to show you how to organize a collection of beans or pennies into groups of ten and more. 

We are learning how to form numerals the kindergarten way.
The more we practice, the better our  numbers look!

We can represent different number combinations with unifx cubes.

We are learning how to represent number combinations with  equations. It's hard to see in this photo, but there are four white circles in the bottom row of this ten frame.

The SmartBoard is an engaging and interactive math tool.

We can sort and classify shapes by different attributes.

We are learning how to use the adding strategy to add sets together quickly.

We took a walk through our indoor pumpkin patch to practice reading teen numbers.

Rainy Day Indoor Physical Education

Mr. Bisonette taught us how to play jacks!

Happy Fall!

Kindergarten Connection ~ October 10th

Parent Teacher Conferences 

Start Next Week

Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for parents to come in to discuss their child’s transition into kindergarten, their progress thus far, ask questions and share concerns.  I especially love to hear your ‘hopes and dreams’ for your child’s kindergarten year. I look forward to our time together!

Bravo to your children! 

We had an excellent week in kindergarten filled with learning and lots of fun.

Literacy Highlights

We are learning strategies good readers use. We know that good readers use their pointer finger to track words (match) as they read print from left to right. Good readers look at the pictures. Good readers get their lips ready and look closely at the beginning letter/sound of new words.  

Fiction or Informational (Non-Fiction)?
We are learning why/how books are classified in 
these categories. 

Writer's Workshop

We are learning how to persevere when faced 

with writing challenges.

A student using the sound/letter cards to help her 
write a tricky word.

Friends sharing their writing ideas and 
asking for feedback.

We are busy authors and illustrators in kindergarten! We are using mentor texts to teach us how informational texts are organized as we work to write and illustrate our own teaching books. Ask your children to share their writing topics with you and to be specific about their writing thus far, and their plans for adding more to their books. Encourage your children to write at home. Kindergarten children love to create lists, write letters, label items, write words, practice forming letters.

Vowel Chart

We are learning about short vowel sounds.
We discovered that every word has at least one vowel in it. One friend said, "I think vowels are like the glue that holds the letters in words together.".

FUNdations Letter Formation Chart

We are learning how to form letters the kindergarten way.

Students learning how to form Plane Line Round Letters c, a, o, g, d, s, q and e. 
These are some of the trickiest letters to form. 
We discovered that starting with a nice round c curve helps us form these letters. 

Sentence Building

Respectful friends take care of each other.
We cut up, mixed up, and organized the sentence
I am a caring friend. This activity helped us learn about sentence structure.

We noticed that every sentence begins with a capital letter, has spacing between words,  and ends with a punctuation mark.

Work Board Time

 The children rotate through Work Board learning stations and learn to work independently
and in small groups. 

Read To Self Station

ABC Station

123 Station

Theme/Science Station

Pumpkin Patch Counting

We can count forwards and backwards by 1's and skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's. We can also identify missing numbers and by thinking about numbers that come just before and just after.

Math Highlights

We are working hard a counting, comparing, and ordering numbers. Specifically, we are focusing on the teen numbers and working to understand how numbers 11-19 are made up of a group of ten and some more (additional ones). We are using tens frames, counting mats, and linking cubes to help us compose and decompose teen numbers. For example, we are learning to represent 13 by filling a ten frame with 10 pennies and then placing three more pennies on a second ten frame. This representation helps the children understand that the numeral 1 in 13 stands for one group of 10, and the numeral 3 in 13 stands for 3 more than 10 (10+3=13). Ask your children to show you how to organize a collection of beans or pretzels into groups of ten and more. 

Fall Leaf Walk

Red, Orange, Yellow, Brown, Leaves Are Falling All Over The Town!

The best way to make it down a hill...
is to roll of course!

We like fall!

Computer Lab Time

We visit the Computer Lab every Monday. 
Mr. Bianchi is our CCS Technology  Specialist 
and he helps students use technology 
to enhance their learning.

Science Highlights

Ask your children to explain the life cycle of a pumpkin to you. 

If you have a pumpkin at home, ask your children to identify the shell, flesh, pulp, and seeds. 

Four Winds Worm Lesson

We learned all about soil and worms. 

Looking for worms in our beautiful outdoor classroom 
and garden space.

Have a wonderful weekend 

with your delightful children!