Thank you to everyone who was able to attend Curriculum Night on Thursday! It was so wonderful to see you all and be able to discuss more fully your children’s days. In addition, I still have volunteer sign-up sheets (Diversity Book Bag, In-class Volunteering, Big Backyard) if anyone is interested in adding your John Hancocks. Lastly, if families are able to contribute certain consumables that the class uses every day, please take note of the tree full of apples outside the classroom that lists what is needed. Thank you.
We have started our letter of the week work! Every week a new letter, named an Alphafriend, is introduced. Each letter has a song, and the students are able to sing it every day and complete some phonemic awareness activities that accompany the specific letter. This week, the boys and girls of Room #7 met Sammy Seal! The students loved singing his song and are on the look-out for “s” words around the room, in books we read, and in our work. They are thrilled to recognize the letter and are so proud of themselves! Each week, the class will learn a new Alphafriend – check out the Alphafriend tab on this Website to learn more!
This week, Room #7 began to talk about expected and unexpected behavior. We read the book, David Goes to School, and the boys and girls identified his behaviors as either expected or unexpected. The kiddos noticed that when, at the end of the book, David turned his behavior around, how happy and proud he was of himself. A great discussion ensued where the cherubs recognized various other behaviors as expected or unexpected as we sorted some pictures. Super and thoughtful work, Kindergartners!
On Monday and Tuesday, the cherubs and I discovered that there are three different ways to read a book! We can read the words, read the pictures, and retell the story! All three ways are excellent choices when reading books both in and out of the classroom! As the weeks continue, everyone will practice these skills independently!
Math:
· Play Dough Ten Frames – We work a lot with 10 frames in Kindergarten! They are an excellent way for the students to gain number sense as they continually practice identifying what a 5, 7, 9 or even a 12 looks like on a 10 frame (or two!). At this center, students used Play Dough balls to represent the number on each ten frame. Superb fine motor practice, too!
· Grow and Shrink on Ten Frames – In a small group, a teacher asked the students to show a certain number on our ten frame manipulatives. Next, the teacher told the students to either add (grow) or subtract (shrink) to a new number. The students then discussed how many they had to add or take away to obtain that number, and they pointed out the different configurations that made the same number.
· Roll a Tower – At this independent station, a cherub rolled a die, built a tower with enough cubes to match the number rolled, and then placed the tower on the game board in the corresponding column. The child kept rolling the die and building towers until an entire column was filled and a number had “won”! The boys and girls got so excited to see which number ended up winning!
· Great Dice Race – This independent activity required students to roll dice and trace the number their dice had landed on. The students continued rolling and tracing until a particular number won!
· Grab Bag Counting – Given a bag of cubes, the students grabbed a handful. They then counted how many they acquired and finally, wrote down the corresponding number!
· 1-10 Number Puzzles – The kiddos concentrated on putting together a variety of puzzles. On the bottom of each puzzle were the numbers 1-10. This station had the students working both to recognize those numerals and put them in consecutive order! The pictures also helped them to check their sequencing!
The cherubs have also been looking at the specific shapes of the letters of the alphabet and connecting a name and sound to each. Together, we’ve been exploring the letters in each child’s name, noting how the letters are always in the same order for that name. Alphabet charts and manipulating letters in each other’s names are helping to cement this concept!
In class, the boys and girls continue to notice letter features. We’ve been paying close attention to distinguishing the characteristics of each letter by noticing their parts. For example, the children are learning that some letters have short sticks, such as n and u, and others have long sticks, such as h and d. As a class, we did a letter sort, and they did great comparing and noticing the differences among the letters. Try it at home too!
On Tuesday, I read the book, Whole Body Listening Larry at School, to the class. One of our class rules is: We keep our brains in the group. This story helped the kids to understand how to listen not only with their ears but also with their whole body! This engaging story was a fun tool to teach the kiddos the very abstract skills of listening and attending.
Important Notes:
· Please remember to send in Library books on Monday so that your child can pick out a new book! Thank you!