KINDERGARTEN CONNECTION ~ SEPTEMBER 23rd

KINDERGARTEN CONNECTION 

September 23, 2016

Literacy Highlights

The children are so excited about the opportunity to write and illustrate in Writer’s Workshop. The “big ideas” in Writer’s Workshop thus far are:

• Writers can use pictures, letters and words to tell stories, share ideas, and to teach others
• Writers can reread and add to their work
• Writers can problem solve
• Writers can share their work
• Writers never waste precious writing time
  
  
  We are on our way to becoming letter/sound and “trick word” (sight words) experts in kindergarten! We can read the “trick words” I, a, go and to. The listed words are those I have formally introduced the children to. However, we also take notice of other “trick words” as we engage in shared reading and writing experiences. There are two important reasons why sight words are an essential component of good reading. First, many of these words do not sound like their spelling might suggest, so “sounding them out” would be unproductive. Also, good readers cannot afford the time to dwell on too many words, or he/she may lose the speed and fluency necessary for determining the author’s message. Therefore, good readers have a bank of words they can read automatically, and their energy is spent on applying learned reading strategies to decode and comprehend text.

Math Highlights

We are busy counting collections, naming and ordering numbers, and extending patterns. We are using five and ten frames and our math hands to support our understanding of numbers 1-10. 

Science Highlights

Fall is almost here! We are noticing early signs of fall such as leaves changing, chilly morning air, darker evenings, and fewer birds flying around the playground. We read a book about the change of seasons and predicted what the trees might look like in a few weeks. 

We made our own Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom trees!

We are learning that it feels good to persevere when work takes a long time and feels challenging.

This month's calendar focuses on shape names and attributes, patterning, recording the days of school with different math tools, collecting and organizing groups of objects, naming the month of the year and days of the week, using different counting strategies, and learning how to what productive math talk looks and sounds like in the classroom.

This is our Math Work Places menu board. The job cards will change as new math concepts are introduced. 

We learned how to play a game called Spill the Beans. This game taught us how to organize counters on a ten frame, recognize quantities quickly, and begin noticing combinations to make 5.

We worked with geo boards and rubber bands to to learn more about shapes and their
different attributes. 

We worked with unifix cubes to extend patterns, practice counting, and make groups.

We explored with pattern blocks to help us learn more about shapes and how they can be constructed to create different shapes, patterns, and designs.

We built three dimensional shapes with polyhedrons. We discovered that it takes six squares to make one cube.

We are learning how to use a hundreds chart to support our counting skills. We are beginning to notice patterns in the chart. 

We read this book to kickoff help us focus on how different letters are shaped and formed. We discovered that some capital and lowercase look alike and some look different. 

This is called a two-way sort.

Reading begins with our names! We are focusing on our first letters to help us make connections between words.

This chart helps us form letters the kindergarten way! We use the sky line, plane line, grass line and worm  to help us write letters. 

We went on a lowercase letter scavenger hunt.

We kicked off our our Writer's Workshop! We know that writers use pictures and words to teach what they know. We are working on adding on to our pieces and solving our writing problems.

And we always make lots of time for play!

Mrs. Vicki Nelson taught us about being bucket fillers. We talked about different ways to take care of each other by being bucket fillers. Ask your child to teach you what a bucket filler is.

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND WITH YOUR
SUPER CHILDREN!

First Days of Kindergarten 2016!

Kindergarten Connection

Mrs. Cota's Class

Charlotte Central School

WE TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES
WE TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
WE TAKE CARE OF THIS PLACE

 

Welcome to our classroom blog!

The children and I will post weekly about our classroom learning and play experiences. The blog will also keep you informed of important CCS dates and events.

Highlights of the Week

We had a great week! The children are quickly learning classroom routines and how to engage as a respectful and productive community of learners.  Furthermore, the children are so enthusiastic about learning how to read, write and work with numbers.  We are going to have a very successful year learning and playing together in Kindergarten!  

Literacy Highlights

We are already on our way to becoming super readers and writers.  Our focus this week was on reading and writing our names, reading the alphabet, making connections between letters and sounds, rhyming, counting syllables, and reading together with predictable texts. 

Math Highlights

Our focus this week was on oral counting, using our math hands, working with five frames, naming shapes and extending patterns.  We also had multiple opportunities to explore with math materials that will become Workplace Stations in the weeks to come.

  

Friendly Reminders

Please send your children to school with water bottles.

Please help your children pack their Peace Time (Quiet Time) towels every Monday morning.  I will send towels home on Fridays to be washed.

Please send your children to school in sneakers on Physical Education days - Thursdays and Fridays.

Say cheese!
First day of kindergarten pictures

We read The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn and made text to self connections with Chester the raccoon who was scared to leave his family and home on the very first day of school. 

We met Mrs. Vicki Nelson, our You Skills teacher. Mrs. Nelson will visit us on Mondays. Mrs. Nelson always brings her puppets, Luke and Same, to help us learn about taking care of ourselves, taking care of each other and taking 
care of this place.

Explore Time!

We are builders!

We are writers!

Mrs. Woods, kindergarten special educator, visits the classroom and lends a helping hand to a friend learning how to use scissors.

We made first days of kindergarten self portraits. We will make self portraits at the end of every month to celebrate our hard work and growing skills.

Look at us on the first day of kindergarten!

Reading starts with our names. We decorated our names with paper squares and looked closely at how letters are shaped and formed. We're excited to learn how to write letters the kindergarten way.

We read Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister at our very first Kindergarten Community Meeting with Ms. Rowntree's class. This book taught us the value or sharing and working together.  

WE LOVE KINDERGARTEN!