Unfortunately, Ms. Krispien is leaving Hastings School. It is unexpected, but the team and I are working hard to hire a new Kindergarten assistant in the interim! Stay tuned for more information!
Day 100 is almost here! If we do not have any snow days, Wednesday, February 10th, is Hastings’ 100th day of school! The cherubs are beside themselves with excitement and anticipation! The next day, the 11th, will be our 100th Day Parade during All School Meeting! All three Kindergarten classes will march down the halls of Hastings wearing their vests they made at home as well as their 100 Noodle Necklaces and Crowns that were made at school. Around 9:00 we will all congregate in the gym to sing a song! Mark your calendars now and join us if you are able!
The mathematicians in Room #7 continued to concentrate on our unit on Bunk Beds and rekenreks this week. Many diligently worked to discover all nine combinations that equal eight. Others focused on writing their one-of-a-kind bunk bed stories! They are so excited about these!
The cherubs also worked on their 3-page stories this week! The kiddos are integrating all the skills they have learned since the very beginning of the year:
- Telling a story across 3 pages – making sure to include a beginning, a middle, and an end
- Circle words
- Stretching out unknown words
- Spaces
- Punctuation
- Pictures that match their words
- Labels and “fancy” labels
- Uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence
- Touch and read back their work
- Writing a complete thought
As the cherubs become more aware of the sounds in words, they learn to separate and identify the last sound they hear. This ability is the foundation for connecting sounds and letters beyond the first letter, knowledge that will help the children begin to solve words and also monitor and keep track of their reading as they read a whole story. They’re learning that:
• You can hear the last sound in a word.
• You can say a word to hear the last sound.
The children are also recognizing words that rhyme (have ending parts that are alike), which is helping them make connections between words that have the same ending sounds. This enables them to understand sound/letter relationships and break words apart to solve them. As they develop sensitivity to the sounds of oral language, they are learning to connect sounds to letter patterns. To further this skill, Room #7 has been reading lots of rhyming stories where the cherubs identify the rhyming words. They love this game!
Here’s a fun game that will assist you in helping your child recognize rhyming words.
• Encourage your child to cut out magazine pictures that represent rhyming pairs of words – house and mouse, pan and man – and glue them on a sheet.
• Together, play “Let’s Go Shopping” using magazine and newspaper pictures of food and other objects. Take the cut-out pictures and spread them on the table face down. Your kiddo turns over a picture and says its name and thinks of a rhyming word to match it – meat and feet or fish and dish, for example. Your child can then ask you to say a rhyming word for each.
Have a ton of fun!!!
Last Friday, the boys and girls learned about a new Unthinkable, Glassman! Dun, dun, dunnnnn! He makes us have big reactions to very tiny problems. After reading When Sophie Gets Angry by Molly Bang, the Kindergartners and I chatted about the strategies one can use to defeat Glassman. We talked about how taking a break can often calm oneself down. A kiddo can get a drink of water, go to the bathroom, take two minutes in our break space, or even visit the OT room for some trampoline jumping. Another strategy that often works is taking several deep breaths, making sure to breathe in the flowers, and blow out the candles. That always helps me calm down! Feel free to practice these strategies and use the lingo at home too! There’s more information about this pesky Unthinkable and Superflex on the Social Skills tab. Beware: Glassman and Rock Brain tend to stick together and can often “attack” at the same time!
In Reader’s Workshop, Room #7 Super Readers are learning about checking their reading to see if the words they read made sense and sounded right. They are discovering how important it is to one’s comprehension as well as building their skills. Once they figure out the word they read does not make sense, it is then of utmost importance to go back and problem solve this unknown word. Because they have so many super powers up their sleeves, the boys and girls are doing a great job of determining what the new word is! This is hard work, but they are certainly persevering!
Enjoy your weekend! Stay warm!