KINDERGARTEN CONNECTION ~ FEBRUARY 16th

KINDERGARTEN CONNECTION ~ FEBRUARY 16th

Please scroll/read all the way to the bottom of this post to see LOTS of wonderful photos of your children at work and play in kindergarten. I chose not to caption the photos this time around because I want to encourage you and your children to read/view the post together and talk about what's happening in the different photos. I'm guessing that they'll have lots to say about the Four Winds photos and 100th Day of School photos. There are surprise photos of your children blowing you kisses in the middle of the post. Enjoy!

Math Highlights

We are big thinking mathematicians in kindergarten! Our focus this week was on using ten frames and dot cards to develop our subitizing skills, the ability to “instantly see how many”. This skill plays a fundamental role in the development of students’ understanding of number. We also worked on modeling simple joining (addition) and separating (subtraction) situations with objects. 

We are working on...

-Counting on and backwards from a given number

-Reading, building and writing number sentences (equations)

-Solving and creating addition and subtraction story problems

Counting by two’s and doubles facts

-Creating and extending patterns

-Naming and exchanging coins (pennies and nickels)

-Analyzing graphs

-Comparing sets of numbers (more, less, equal)

-Representing teen numbers as a group of ten and some more

-Talking about math and justifying our math reasoning 

Literacy Highlights

We are learning strategies good readers use. We know that good readers sometimes 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. Good readers stretch words out and they put sounds together.  Good readers look for chunks or parts of words they know to read tricky words. Good readers read punctuation and pay attention to bold print. In addition, good readers ask, “Does it look right?” “Does it sound right?” "Does it make sense?”  

We are working on...

-Reading books at our instructional level in small groups

-Writing stories with a beginning, middle and end

-Writing complete sentences using adjectives

-Reading for information and pleasure

-Building reading stamina

-Read and writing high frequency words quickly

-Listening closely and speaking clearly

-Writing our first and last names

-Building word families (cvc words)

-Playing phonemic awareness games

Kindergarten Connection ~ January 20th

KINDERGARTEN CONNECTION

WE TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES

WE TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER

WE TAKE CARE OF THIS PLACE

January proves to be a magical time in kindergarten as the students’ academic and social skills really take off!

We can rotate independently through literacy and math groups! Ask your child to teach you all about the different stations: Guided reading, word study, iPad, ABC (phonics), FUNdations, Writer’s Workshop, number study, partner games, theme, Workplaces and math exploration.

Literacy Highlights

We can read and write the listed high frequency words quickly. Make a word wall in your home and encourage your child to practice reading and writing these words often. Hunt for high frequency words in books and magazines. Write a note/letter to someone special using these words. Write a story about an important moment or event and notice how many of these words you use.  These are the words we know in a snap: I, am, a, can, the, we, see, will, he, she, it, is,in, no, yes, on, have, like, look ,you, are, love, me, for, my, so, go, off, big, little, up, and, an, if, Mom, Dad, going.

We are learning how to put two sounds together to read and write initial blends in words such as flap,trip, brick, frog... We learned the –ake spelling pattern and discovered that –ake is in make, snake, cake, lake, rake, fake, bake and Jake. We noticed that the e at the end of these words is silent and helps the first vowel a make it’s long sound.

We are learning how to tap consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) words on our fingers to isolate individual letter sounds and then blend all three sounds together to read and write cvc words. Ask your child to teach you how to tap the words cat, dog, fun, lip, pot, sit, hot.  

As always, make time to read and write with your child everyday :)

Math Highlights

Our focus this week was on creating, representing, and solving addition and subtraction problems in multiple ways. Just for fun, play addition and subtraction games with your child using pennies and beans. Ask your child: How many different combinations to make 5 or 10? What happens to a group when you add or subtract 1? Encourage your child to justify his/her math reasoning with words, objects and equations.

Counting, counting, and more counting! We are working hard at counting on from random numbers, counting by 10's, counting backwards from 20, and skip counting to 20 by 2’s. We are also working on identifying before and after numbers. In addition, we are learning how to use graphs to collect and analyze date.

Science Highlights

Ask your child to describe the day's weather to you. Talk about why we have different weather conditions and how weather impacts our lives and choices. Study the weekly forecast with your child to look for weather patterns and changes.

We love to read with our 5th grade big buddies! 

We can represent teen numbers as a group of ten and some more ones.

We can decompose numbers.

We love to play partner games. This game is called Butterfly race and teaches us about ordinal numbers, addition, problem solving, and turn taking. 

This game is called Grab Bag Doubles. This game teachers about doubles, odd and even quantities, recording data with tally marks, comparing, and counting by 2's.

We made paper chain connections with our 5th grade buddies to discover how we are all the same, and how we are all different.

Our chain was more than 300 links long!

We just added this game to our iPad homepage. 

Look how engaged we are at our math Workplaces! 

It was easy for us to generate a list of cold weather words.

We are noticing that the more high frequency words we know, the easy it is for us to read and write.

One of focus words this week was look. We discovered that the word look can help us write book, cook, took, shook, and hook.

"I like to look at the moon!"

"I like to look at video games."

We are really into word searches!

"I am going to watch TV and have a snack."

Conferencing with Miss Akt. 

We created our own mandalas at Peace Time.

Our sight word book basket is overflowing! This book helped us learn to read the word my.

We are building our reading stamina! We can read basket books, guided reading books, and library books for up to 15 minutes independently! 

We are learning how to form uppercase letters the kindergarten way.

We love to write lists! This is a list to help a friend get ready to go pretend shopping.

These friends just went shopping at the grocery store with their  lists . Next up, cooking a meal for their restaurant. 

This book inspired us to make our own snowmen and write fiction stories about what their snow friend would do at night.

Our new favorite math game is called roll, add, and compare. Ask your child to teach you how to play with only two dice and piece of paper. 

We are having a dance party!

More practice forming uppercase letters 

UNTIL NEXT TIME!