Tag Archives: Math

News of the Week—March 8-12

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ATTEND YOUR KINDER’S CONFERENCE.  THEY ARE MAKING FABULOUS PROGRESS AND GROWTH.  I WAS SO HAPPY TO SHARE THEIR PROGRESS WITH YOU!  IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AS WE MOVE INTO THE SPRING, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

POPCORN WORDS:     WHERE    THERE      WERE         Please, please keep practicing at home!  Some of these popcorn words are a bit more challenging to learn and remember.  You are unable to stretch them out but need to just remember them by looking at them.  However, we do like it when some words rhyme like ‘where’ and ‘there’. 🙂

MATH:  The kinders worked on drawing and writing number equations, decomposing teen numbers into tens and extra ones (refer to the number booklet sent home), writing numbers in order, doing dot to dot pictures, looking for number partners and solving addition and subtraction problems.  It was a busy week for math learning!

WRITING:  The kinders worked on another persuasive writing.  This week’s topic was about lining up quickly when the whistle blows at the end of recess.  We thought of 2 reasons why this is a problem and then wrote a solution to the problem.  The kinders enjoyed creating a poster to remind us to line up fast!

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We worked on the these skills….syllables, rhyming, word families, medial sounds (vowels), sight words and h brothers. Mabel put on her cowgirl hat and used her lasso to rope the word-part of a word while we added new beginning sounds.  For example: -op to create mop, top, pop.

READER’S WORKSHOP: The first few days of the week, the kinders learned that avid nonfiction readers compare information by noticing what is similar and what is different in two books on the same topic.  We did this by looking at books about dragonflies and honey bees.  For example, we found out that the legs on both insects have important jobs. The kinders learned that nonfiction readers can pretend and act out parts of the text, just like they did with fiction stories.  The last few days of the week, the kinders started to explore poetry.  We practiced reading a favorite poem The Isty Bitsy Spider and a new poem The Swing for meaning and feeling.

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Kool Kinder and the Surprise Bag: This week the SURPRISE BAG was filled with a shark, a talking bird, a monster truck, a bird and a mailbox.  What great clues this week!  

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please.
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Boots, snow pants when needed.  Watch the weather.  Coats as the days are still chilly.
  • Saddle Up and Read…March is Reading Month  Each kinder that brings back their TAKE HOME books on Wednesdays will be entered in the school-wide March reading month giveaways.  Kinders will not be participating in keeping track of reading minutes on a weekly calendar.   Dress up Fridays…..Wear clothing with words on them
  • Turn your clock forward Saturday night….SPRING AHEAD!

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, March 15—GYM

*Tuesday, March 16—ART

*Wednesday, March 17—STEAM; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!   Homework packet due  St. Patrick’s Day—Wear Green

*Thursday, March 18—MUSIC

*Friday, March 19—GYM; March is Reading Month: Wear clothing with words on them.

***Have a wonderful weekend!  Don’t forget to SPRING AHEAD by turning your clocks ahead 1 hour Saturday night.   Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Jan 11-15

Hooray for the hard working kinders!! We are working hard to make smart choices at school (keeping hands, to self, using kind words, following school rules, etc) while being ready to learn AND to listen when others talk. The kinders are also working hard to put their eyes on the teacher so that all directions/instructions are heard.  

MATH: This week we practiced counting things, writing the number of objects and then using an equal or not equal sign. We worked hard on noticing five groups. We looked at numbers 1-10 and noticed if there was a group of 5 within that number. We found the 5 group and circled it as well as drew 5 groups. We practiced adding and subtracting numbers.  The kinders played SCOOP UP THE SNOWBALLS, a game using paper snowballs, because real snowballs would melt in our room on Friday.  The game focused on writing and the identifying = and not = symbols. I am sorry about not being able to show you a picture but here are the directions.  Scatter paper snowballs on the floor.  While counting up to 3, have 2 people pick up as many of the snowballs as they can hold in their hands.  Lay and count the number of snowballs each person picked up.  Write each number and write = or not = between the numbers to compare the numbers.  Ask your kinder….they can show you how to play. It was as hit!! 🙂

 

PHONICS/LITERACY: We read a popcorn word book, highlighting the popcorn words we know! We listened for middle sounds in words and placed the picture by the correct vowel. We gave Mabel (our phonics stuffed elephant) encouragement to try and write words. We helped her by writing sentences and then showing her how to write some popcorn words!

POPCORN WORDS:   MAKE       SAID        We found them in our day’s messages and within our popcorn books.  We met Flippy the Dophin (a beanie baby used for a visual reading strategy) to learn about “Magic e” who quietly tells the hard worker (vowel) to say their letter name (long a) instead of their letter sound (short /a/ sound) in “make”. We had fun playing with letters to create more words using -ake.  We also learned to look for “talking” lines (quotation marks) to let us know that a character is talking.  Identifying “said” helped making this task easier.  Many kinders noticed that “ai” in the word said made the  short /e/ sound but in other words like rain, sail, “ai” work together to say a.  How silly and sometimes confusing! 🙂

WRITING:  More HOW TO….writing took place this week.  Our topics were How to wrap a gift, How to go shopping, How to make a PB and J and How to make a sundae. We are writing as a class, remembering to include capital letters, spaces, sentence stoppers and to use as many popcorn (sight) words as possible.  We are really enjoying this kind of writing!

READING: This week we learned that careful readers check their reading.  They ask themselves “Does it make sense?  Did it sound right?” If not, they don’t just keep going. Readers try to fix it. Wise Owl, a beanie baby, is a fun visual reading strategy the kinders met to help them remember this. They also learned that PATTERN POWER doesn’t only help you read the words in books but patterns can also help you think about your whole book.  Does the ending go with the pattern? What is this book really saying?  It is a good thing that we know our letters & sounds because that helps readers read words and figure out unknown words.  The kinders used ABC books to be encouraged to think, talk, play and sing the alphabet.  They were able to get to know all of the fun ways that letters and sounds go.  We also were reminded that we can activate our sound power in a bigger way to try a word they may not know by looking closely at the beginning sounds in it. Then think, “What word could this be?”  It is so exciting to see the kinders becoming readers!

We used the pattern and the ending to understand our books…

We used our sound power to help us read – we looked at the first letter in the word and the picture…

We also enjoyed reading Move Over, Rover! by Karen Beaumont, a fun story about animals climbing into Rover’s doghouse. We made a text to text connection between these two books by noticing that animals climbed into a mitten and a doghouse.

BREAK TIME:  The kinders had fun playing rhyming games, addition puzzles, building with shapes and lacing alphabet beads to make their names & words.  A fun way to take a brain break!  

FUN TIME DURING CHOICES:  Enjoy the pictures of these fabulous kinders.

REMINDERS:

WINTER GEAR: It looks like we might get some snow again this weekend along with cold weather.  Please remember to send your kinder with snow pants, boots, a hat, gloves/mittens and coat every day!  We want them to stay warm! 🙂

*BACKPACK SNACKS & WATER BOTTLE:  Don’t forget we take a snack break 2 times each day…morning & afternoon.  Please include your kinder in choosing their snacks so that they like them.  Don’t forget to give your kinder a healthy breakfast.  Many are very hungry by snack time because they have not eaten breakfast.

HEADPHONES:  Please send in a pair of headphones for STEAM if you have not done so already.  See previous posting for further information.

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 18— MUSIC

*Tuesday, January 19—GYM

*Wednesday, January 20—ARTTAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget ALL of your books!  Homework packets due

*Thursday, January 21—STEAM 

*Friday, January 22—MUSIC. Report cards come home

*Friday, February 5: Fast Friday (early release day)

*Monday, February 8: Winter Break

Have a great weekend.   Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Nov 16-20

We had very short in-person week in kindergarten.  Look what we did at school.

MATH: We took our unit #2 math test.  This kinders did a great job!  We also practiced putting numbers 1-10 in the correct order by playing a fun fall fox game.

WRITING: We continued to work on writing our personal narrative/small moment stories this week.  The kinders thought of a real story that happened to them.  They told the story to their partner and then worked on their OWN story by writing the beginning and middle of their story in a 3-page writing booklet. They can finish the ending at home.  They were reminded to use ALL of our writing charts when writing real stories. They learned that writers say their sentence, working hard to write word after word on their paper.  

READING:  We added another Super Power to our chart. PERSISTENCE POWER reminds us to never give up when trying to tackle unknown words.  Using our Super Powers really helps us be Super Readers!  

zPOPCORN WORDS:  AN,  CAN,  MAN,  RAN    The kinders were excited when they noticed that “an” was hiding inside of our other popcorn words.  Our shared poem and book also included this week’s word…..can.  We had fun making up a new story for when Max gets ready for a rainy day after reading how he gets ready to play outside.

HANDWRITING:  We completed learning the proper formation of the lower case letters j,g,q,p,y,  This booklet came home with your kinder.  Please refer to it as you practice at home.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS for this month 

SPECIAL TO GO BAGS: You are welcome to use the supplies inside of your kinder’s to go bags but please keep all materials inside the bag.  Once we return to school, the kinders will be asked to return the bags to school for usage during their special classes.

LEARNING PACKETS:  Please refer to the 2 learning packets that your kinder took home this week.  Be mindful of the week’s dates as you continue learn at home.

UPCOMING DATES

*Thurs Nov 19 At home learning.  Please refer to the learning packet.

*Fri Nov 20. At home learning.  Please refer to the learning packet.  Class Zoom Meeting 10:30-11:00. Link will be sent to your email this weekend.

*Mon Nov 23 At home learning. Please refer to the learning packet.

*Tues Nov 24. At home learning. Please refer to the learning packet.

*Nov. 25—Nov. 27—NO SCHOOL, Thanksgiving Vacation   

*Mon Nov 30 At home learning.  Please refer to the learning packet.

*Tues Dec 1 Virtual learning begins 

Again, thank you for taking the time to attend your kinder’s virtual conference this week.  You have amazing kinders and I am so grateful to spend my days with them.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitant to contact me at kbohl@hpseagles.net.  I am willing to help you as we navigate and learn together in kindergarten.

I am very THANKFUL for each kinder and how they make a difference in our class family.   Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

News of the Week–Oct 5-9

A busy week of learning in school.

FIRE PREVENTION:  We spent some time reviewing fire safety rules for in school and at home.  We watched one of my favorite movies called Snuffy’s Fire Bargade.  A great short movie that helped the kinders learn more about “hot spots”, “Stop, Drop, Roll”, “stay low and get out”.  It is now available on youtube if your kinder wants to watch it again.  I didn’t dare tell the kinders that I first showed this movie using a film projector with reels at the start of my teaching career. Oh, my!  That really tells you how old I am. 🙂 The movie will jump for a few seconds at the start but smooths out.  Don’t miss the dragon…it is my favorite part. 🙂  We also read many fire safety books and our weekly newspaper to learn more information and just for fun.  Fire Truck by Ivan Ulz became a favorite of every kinder.  Here is a link on youtube if your kinder wants to listen to the story again and sing the song!  Here are some of the fire safety tips that we learned:

  • Check the smoke detectors in your house to make sure they work properly. Change the batteries yearly.
  • Go outside!  Talk about a safety plan for your family in case of a fire – where is your meeting spot? 
  • Call 911 immediately! 
  • Do not play with matches or lighters– they are dangerous and can cause fires! They are tools for grown-ups only!
  • If a part of your clothing or your body catches on fire, STOP, DROP, and ROLL. 

Many of the kinders already knew these fire safety rules.  It is good to “not be scared but be prepared”. 

POPCORN WORDS:  ME   BE   WE   WILL   The kinders were excited to see that our popcorn words rhymed (at least 3 of them).  We found these words inside our daily message, we unscrambled the letters to spell them correctly and found them in books. Thank you for working with your kinder at home.

COLOR WORDSBLACK    WHITE       We read many books with black and white characters such as Harry the Dirty Dog, Harry and the Neighbor, Harry goes to the sea, Please, Mr. Panda and Thank you, Mr. Panda .  We also watched a non-fiction video about panda bears. We all agreed they are cute black and white bears so it was obvious that we needed to make panda bears.  It was fun to use a fork as our paint brush. Thanks for participating by wearing black and white! 🙂 We also made our weekly color flip book, went on a I Spy hunt for black & white pictures and made a picture of Harry the Dirty Dog.  

MATH:  We spent the first part of the week reviewing the math skills that we learned…writing, identifying and counting object for numbers 1-5, identifying and drawing shapes, completing dot to dot pictures.  On Thursday we took our first math test using individual “office spaces” (a folder separating them from their neighbor) .  They settled in and did a GREAT job of working hard on answering all the questions.  These tests will be graded and given to you soon. I am amazed at how much each kinder has grown in their math skills and abilities!! Thank you for working and supporting them at home.  We will begin Unit #2 next week. 

We had fun practicing writing numbers 1-6 by playing PUT OUT THE FIRE on Friday.

PHONICS:   Mabel, our stuffed elephant kept us busy this week.  We used our names to build new words which was really fun. (ex: Cade=Bade) We labeled various things in our classroom, stretching out the sounds of each word. We practiced handwriting & learning more words by writing some popcorn words and friends’ names in our journals.  

READING: We used storybooks like Piggy and Elephant  to help us notice that characters have feelings.  Sometimes the characters even show strong feelings, as in the book Ilama llama mad at Mama.

WRITING: The kinders learned that Show and Tell writing can be about important places.  Together we wrote a Show and Tell 3 page book about the library. We learned (once again) that we can write across pages and add many details to each page.  While doing this we are working on stretching our words to add labels and add sentences to our writing. Writers and illustrators make decisions on what to draw and label.  The kinders worked hard to do this on each page.  Our Show and Tell book sounded like this:  We will hear a book. We will pick a book.  We will get a book.  The kinders are turning into fantastic writers!

LITERACY/SPLIT LIT:  We finished ABC Boot Camp with letters Ww,Xx,Yy, Zz.  We will continue to review these letters, practice producing their sounds in small groups and in large group. We worked in small groups with Mrs. Bynum, Mrs. DeGroot and Mrs. Bohl to practice identifying letters, producing the sounds and recognizing rhyming words. Our shared reading book for the week was It Is Too Hot!.  Reading this book together helps us in identifying parts of a book, noticing patterns, rhymes, popcorn words and more. It was pretty cool that our poem was about fall leaves. It is becoming a favorite part of our morning.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION:  Cora turned 6 on Oct 6! 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

FALL PARTY:  Thank you so much for the quick response in willing to donate supplies to our upcoming Fall Party.  All requested items have been spoken for.  

BACKPACK SNACKS: THANK YOU SO MUCH for being conscientious about sending ONLY TWO healthy, NUT FREE snacks…one for the morning, one for the afternoon.  Our snack time is short but enough time to become refueled.

KOOL KINDERS:   The kinders are excited to be the Kool Kinder again.  We are now drawing out a stick with a kinder’s name on it to determine the next day’s Kool Kinder.  A yellow reminder note will come home the day prior. The kinders are asked to bring a show and tell item from home.  After you choose the show and tell item, please talk with your kinder about what information they are going to share with the class.  We love to hear why they chose it, who gave it to them or where did they get it, etc. 

LUNCH: Hot lunch is FREE to ALL students until Dec. 31, 2020.  If your kinder orders milk with their home lunch that is a charge.

BLUE FOLDERS and BACKPACKS:  Please get in the habit of taking out your kinder’s blue folder each night and removing the papers, art work, etc.  Please place any notes back inside the folder.  That is the best place for me to find them.  Cleaning out your kinder’s backpack of extra things will make it less heavy and allow more room for their folder and lunch box.  Thank you!

TURKEY TROT:  The Turkey Trot is going to be a virtual race this year. Check out the PE blog for the Turkey Trot information.   http://mvankoev.edublogs.org

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Oct 12—STEAM 

*Tuesday, Oct 13—MUSIC 

*Wednesday, Oct 14—GYM; Library…Bring back your library book, Homework packet due.   

*Thursday, Oct 15–ART 

 *Friday, Oct 16—STEAM;  Wear ORANGE

Have a fabulous weekend.  ~~Mrs. Bohl

 

 

News for the Week–Sept 8-11

Here is a peek at what your kinder did at school this week:

POPCORN WORDS:     I       SEE                                                                                      

COLOR WORD:        YELLOW     We learned another song to sing to help us spell yellow.  We read many books with yellow characters such as Pete the Cat…The Wheels on the Bus and Curious George books. We learned about different things that are yellow, practiced writing the word, made a yellow flip book and made a yellow bus craft, adding a fun message using our popcorn words, I see a yellow bus. I was able to get a safe social distance unmasked picture of all of our friends when they finished.  Mrs. Bohl LOVED getting to see our faces!! 

SHARED READING:  We have been practicing our reading skills by doing shared reading each day. Shared reading is a time when the kinders and I all read a poem or story together at the same time. This helps build fluency and some important concepts of reading for our little ones!  We read a poem called I See. There were familiar words in the poem (I, see, a). We highlighted the words we know and then put them in our 3 ring binder to practice at school. We also added a paper book to our book boxes, the book included our popcorn words. 

COOL TOOLS: We finished learning about the last two cool tools and then read two more books to help us know how we can further use our cool tools. 

Being Friends was a great book that showed us that it is okay that we are not all the same…we are different and special, just like a KALEIDOSCOPE. It was fun to look through a real kaleidoscope and then color our own.

We read Mine-a-saurs and learned that we can tell a friend to STOP in a kind way by saying “It bugs me when ______, I wish that you would stop.”  A ladybug and a wishing wand helps us remember this. 

We read Howard B. Wigglebotttoms learns about bullies and learned about what bullying is.  The kinders were reminded about how important and useful it is to use our cool tools. We talked about how we need to care of our friends and stand up for them when someone teases them.  We are a class family….inside our room and on the playground.  We have very caring kinders.

We also read A Monster who lost his mean. Monster lost his M and was now called “Onster”.  We were reminded that being kind and doing kind actions is much more fun that doing monster actions. The kinders did an amazing job figuring out which actions a FRIEND would do OR a BULLY would do.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: We practiced drawing a picture and adding a label to go with it. We listened for the first sound in the word and labeled the picture with the first sound. For example, we drew a picture of us lining up at the door. We drew ourselves and the door and then added other people to the picture. We labeled the door with a D for door and the floor with an F for floor. We also labeled ourselves. We finished our writing this week by doing a shared writing – we added pictures of our playground and labeled the pictures with the first letter sound. It was a fun way to do writing! 

ABC BOOTCAMP:  We learned about the letters Ff, Gg, Hh and Ii this week. We will continue to review letters and learn new ones.

READER’S WORKSHOP: The kinders learned what jobs the teacher and kinders do during Reader’s Workshop time.

This week in readers workshop we focused on what it means to private read and partner read. They practiced reading real world books (non-fiction) using a level 1 voice (a whisper voice). We learned that we can read the pictures in the book and we need to start reading at the cover.  We then read page by page until we get to the end. We also worked on partner reading with our table buddies.  They did a great job and had fun reading together! 

LIBRARY:  We visited the library for the first time on Wednesday! Mrs. VandenBerg, our school librarian, read the book, Mr. Wiggle’s Book.  This book is about how to take care of books and to be a book lover!  We learned that we must treat them very gently and be kind to them, otherwise they may break.  We also took a tour of the library and learned where we can find books to check out!  Next week we are planning to check out books.

MATH:  We read Anno’s Counting again to help us better understand “number scenes,” which are pictures that have a specific number of objects (3 buildings, 3 people, 3 birds, 3 bridges, etc.)  before we drew our own scenes of 2,3,4 & 5 on paper.  We also practiced ordering, counting and visualizing the numbers 1-5 by using our white boards.  The kinders enjoyed working on counting by placing play dough balls on a bus mat.  We did this all together and discussed the concept of adding one more to get the next number.

Mask Free Work Spots:  In our classroom, I have set up 2 mask free work spots for the kinders. These spots are 6 feet from peers. If at any point they would like a mask break, they may move to one of these spots with their work and unmask. They have done a great job learning our sign for this and letting their friends have a turn.  I will add more mask free spots as necessary.

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

*OUTDOOR CLOTHING….Please continue to send a coat or sweatshirt with your child.  The weather can quickly change so it is good to be prepared.

*BACKPACK SNACK…THANK YOU SO MUCH for being conscientious about sending TWO healthy, NUT FREE snacks…one for the morning, one for the afternoon.  Many kinders are bringing multiple snacks.  Our snack time is short but enough time to become refueled.

*GYM DAYS..Please consider having your kinder keep a pair of socks either in their cubby or backpack to wear during gym days.  On these warm days, many kinders do not like to wear their gym shoes without socks when they come to school wear sandals or flip flops.

*TOWELS..Please send your kinder’s towel back to school on Monday.  The towels went home on today so they could be washed over the weekend.

*LUNCH MONEY..Hot lunch is now FREE for ALL students until Dec. 31st.  Therefore, if your kinder would like hot lunch you do not need to send in money until after the holiday break.  If your kinder currently has money in their account it will be held until they take hot lunch after December 31st. 

IMPORTANT DATES:

*Monday, Sept. 14–MUSIC; Kool Kinder: Avery.  Bring back washed towels

*Tuesday, Sept 15—GYM;   Kool Kinder: Cora 

*Wednesday, Sept 16—ART; Homework due; Library….we will be taking home a book   Kool Kinder: Sawyer  Birthday celebration for Mrs. Bohl

*Thursday Sept 17—STEAM;  Kool Kinder: Marissa  EMAIL ME OR SEND A NOTE BY THURSDAY (9/17) IF YOUR KINDER WOULD LIKE A SACK LUNCH.

*Friday, Sept 18—EXTRA RECESS;  COLOR DAY…Wear BLUE!   Fast Friday (early release) Dismiss at 12:15  

*Thursday, Sept. 24—Walk-a-Thon: Please note the date change from our September calendar

~~~Have a great weekend.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at kbohl@hpseagles.net  YOUR KINDER IS SPECIAL TO ME! 🙂   Mrs. Bohl

NEWS—Jan 20-24

 

IT IS SO GOOD TO BE BACK WITH MY KINDERS!  I AM FEELING BETTER EACH DAY.  THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE KINDERS WHO MADE ME FABULOUS GET WELL CARDS.  I LOVED READING THEM!  I HAD SUCH A SWEET SURPRISE WAITING FOR ME MONDAY AFTERNOON….AN AWESOME GIANT WELCOME BACK CARD (SIGNED BY ALL OF THE KINDERS) AND THESE LOVELY FLOWERS (COURTESY OF MRS. BYNUM & MRS. SREMBA) . I AM TRUELY BLESSED TO WORK WITH THOUGHTFUL CO-WORKERS AND HAVE SWEET KINDERS IN MY CLASS!  

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY:  On Monday, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.  We learned that he was a famous American who was known for his dream that all the people in America would learn to get along and live in peace with each other, regardless of the color of their skin.  We spent the day reflecting on Dr. King and discussing how we can continue his legacy by being kind to others. 

SPLIT LIT:  This week’s activities focused on building a sentence, writing popcorn words, identifying popcorn words, listening for initial, medial and final sounds in words, changing initial letter to make new words & syllables. I am so proud of the progress that they are making.  It was a good week of working hard during this time.

MATH: Here are few math skills we covered this week.  Decomposing teen numbers to show ten and extra ones.

                                                  

Writing number partners, teen numbers and solving addition & subtraction problems.

The kinders played math games on Friday of BEARS IN THE CAVE (number partners of 7); TEEN MEMORY GAME (matching teen partners & totals); MAKE A FAMILY OF 5 SNOWMEN (number partners of 5): ROLL & COVER (addition)

 

We will become “office workers” by taking our unit #3 test next week. The test will cover number partners, showing teen numbers as tens and extra ones, solving addition & subtraction problems, combing shapes to make new shapes and more.

POPCORN WORDS:  HE   SHE   It was fun to see that if you add “s” to “he”, you have “she”.  We learned that SH is part of the “h brothers” family (sh,ch,wh,th).  The kinders did a fabulous job identifying if the /sh/ sound is at the beginning or ending of words. 

WRITING:  We wrote HOW TO… stories using another new format….a booklet form.  That was exciting!  We wrote about How to eat a snack, How to make a friend and How to make birthday wishes. The Kinders are getting more and more comfortable writing how-to papers, trying a little more on their own each time. Way to go Kinders!

READER’S WORKSHOP:  We used a book this week called Can you see our eggs? to help us learn that readers notice blends, like “gr” in “ground” or “fl” in “flower” to solve tricky words. We reminded ourselves that we can do this through sound power; looking closely at the beginning and the ending sound to solve the word.  We also learned that when we come to a word we may not know, we can bring out a magnifying glass to look closely at the letters.  We come to a snap word, we put the magnify glass away because we should know that word in a snap! It is so exciting to see the kinders making a connection to these reading skills when we are reading or writing together. Keep practicing those snap/popcorn words at home with your kinder! 

 

HANDWRITING: We practiced writing our full names….first and last names correctly.  Any extra practice at home would be helpful.  Some ideas to make writing fun is to use shaving cream (messy but oh so fun!), markers, pour salt in small tin, covering just the bottom and use finger to write, build name using blocks, legos, Cheerios, etc.

MYSTERY READERS: We were lucky to have 2 mystery readers this week.  On Wednesday, Evelyn was surprised to see her mom step into the room.  She read What Should Danny Do?  A fun book that we allowed us to make choices throughout the book to see how it would end.

On Friday, it was Kennedy’s turn to be surprised.  Her mom chose the book, 10 Rules of Birthday Wishes because it was Kennedy’s birthday.  What a special book that told us how to make birthday wishes.

Here are pictures of the Mystery Readers when I was gone.  Thanks so much for coming in!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Kennedy.  She turned 6 on Friday.  Thanks for the fun treat!

KOOL KINDER:  Snuggles had so much fun visiting your homes.  The kinders are going to enjoy their time with Snuggles at school.  For this turn of being the Kool Kinder, they are choosing a favorite storybook from home and bringing it to school so that we can read it together.

Allan brought Chicka Chicka Boom Boom because he loves learning about the alphabet.

Breckon chose Tyranosaurs Rex because he likes dinosaurs and this book was filled with popcorn word so he could read it by himself!

Kennedy shared her book of Princess! Fairy! Ballerina! because she wants to be a ballerina.

REMINDERS:

VALENTINE FUN:  A note arrived home this week about our upcoming Valentine Party.  It will be on Friday, February 14, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. As part of our Valentine celebration, we will be making Valentine “mailboxes” at school.  If your kinder would like to bring in valentines for their classmates, please use the labels that were sent home for easier valentine addressing.  You can begin sending valentines on Feb. 6, allowing the kinders time to deliver their Valentines in class. 

WINTER GEAR: Please remember to send your kinder with snow pants, boots, a hat, gloves/mittens and coat every day!  

SNACK:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks with your kinder each day.

TAKE HOME BOOKS – Please remember to return TAKE HOME books every Monday and  Thursday.  Look for new books to be coming home on those days too! Happy Reading!

CALENDARS:  Here is the  FEBRUARY calendar   You can read about upcoming events, birthdays and more.

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 27— GYM, Bring back TAKE HOME books

*Tuesday, January 28—ART

*Wednesday, January 29—STEAM;  LIBRARY Don’t forget your book!  Homework packets due

*Thursday, January 30—MUSIC. Bring back TAKE HOME books;  Email me by 1/30 if your kinder would like a snack lunch tomorrow 1/31

*Friday, January 31—MUSIC;  Fast Friday (Early Release) @ 12:15pm

*Mon. Feb 3 & Tues. Feb 4—Winter Break

*Wed. Feb 5—School again!   Day 100 celebration  Bring in 100 collection! (see note that was sent home)

*Friday, Feb 14–Valentine Day Party 2:00-3:00pm Parent volunteers for this party have been contacted.  Watch for a sign up list coming this week for party donations!

Have a great weekend!   Mrs. Bohl

NEWS OF THE WEEK—June 3-6

We made it!  Our last week of kindergarten!  Please check your kinder’s backpack for gym shoes, books, pictures, class keepsakes, and more!  Many different things have been coming home the past few days.

COUNTDOWN TO SUMMER CONTINUED……

DAY 5–CHALK DAY    It was fun to use our mini chalkboards again.  The kinders unscrambled popcorn (sight) words by writing the correct spelling of the word on their chalkboards.  They did fantastic!  In the afternoon, we took chalk outside to decorate our playground with some pretty cool pictures.

        

DAY 4—INK PEN DAY  Cheers rang throughout the classroom when the kinders found out that they would be able to write with an ink pen ALL DAY!  We had fun finding a friend who liked different things, such as; cookies, football, ice cream, reading a book, etc and then having them sign their name.  Learning that they were able to take the ink pens home, earned another round of cheers! 🙂

DAY 3–BE A SCIENTIST DAY  We did experiments like Walking Water, Swirly Twirly Milk, Erupting Lemon Volcanco, Mentos and Coke, Water in a bag and Salt and Popcorn.  We were reminded why doing science experiments are so fun. Sometimes the experiments work and sometimes we are not as lucky. Either way we had an absolutely fun day!

DAY 2—ICE CREAM PARTY DAY    We used our writing and retelling skills after reading Splat the Cat I scream for ice cream. We created an ice cream sundae and then wrote what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story on each of the ice cream scoops.  We also enjoyed making our own double scoop ice cream cone craft while thinking of a name of our new ice cream flavor. We also solved some addition problems…paddle pop style. 🙂 In the afternoon all of the kindergarten classes met on the playground. What a fun time to play with the friends we made this year. They waited very patiently as the teachers handed out ice cream so they could enjoy a cool dessert.  Yummy, Yum, Yum!

MATH:  The kinders once again dipped their toes into doing some first grade math by learning about odd and even numbers.   We used EVEN STEVEN and ODD TODD to help us understand this math concept better. ( I would love to take credit for this fun game but alas it came from this fabulous website called First Grade Parade.)  This is what we did….

First, I told the story that Even Steven LOVES things to be fair among his friends.  Everyone always needs to have the same amount.  It is all about being fair! 🙂  However, Odd Todd does not care if friends get a different amount.  It fact, he LIKES that! 🙂  We chose a number between 1-20 and a kinder counted out that many “crackers” (mini unifix cubes) to a plate.  We decided who would get the “crackers”…EVEN STEVEN or ODD TODD. Then, a kinder placed the “crackers” ,one at a time, onto each hand until the plate was empty.  This was a great way for the kinders to visually see if  the “crackers” were equal or not equal.  Finally we decided if we were correct in our choice.  Were the “crackers” divided fairly in each of EVEN STEVEN’S hands or was there a different amount in each hand that ODD TODD would like?

We also practiced solving addition problems by pretending to make a summer time drink…lemonade.

WRITING:  The kinders finished writing their own summer bucket lists.  They wrote a list of  PEOPLE TO SEE.  Get ready to do some of these things and check them off your kinder’s “bucket list”.  Some of the lists are quite long.  I think that you will stay busy this summer. 🙂 Have fun!

CLASSROOM CLEANUP:  Again, the kinders were amazing helping to get our classroom ready for next year’s kinders.  If you need some cleanup done around home this summer….ask your kinder.  They did a FABULOUS job and had fun too!

TIME WITH OUR BUDDIES:  We spend some time on Tuesday and Thursday with our buddies.  They ALL had a lot of fun playing on the playground together.  Everyone was ready to enjoy a popsicle on Tuesday too.  We wish them well as they move on to the middle school next year.

Tomorrow is our last day of the school.  It is also FAST FRIDAY!  Fun things are planned for the kinders.  Be there or be square? 🙂 Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow morning!  DON’T FORGET TO HAVE THEM TAKE ALONG THEIR BACKPACKS AND FOLDERS!

I can’t wait to see my kinders tomorrow!  Mrs. Bohl

NEWS OF THE WEEK—May 20-24

POPCORN WORDS:  A week of review!

OUR AMERICAN SYMBOLS:  The symbols that were studied this week were:  The Bald Eagle, The Liberty Bell and the American Flag.  We learned that Bald Eagles have sharp talons, they build their nests high in trees near water and they eat fish.

The Liberty Bell cracked the first time it was rung, it is made from copper and tin and it hangs from a wooden yoke.

The American Flag has 50 stars and 13 stripes, it has many names like “Old Glory” and it is red, white and blue.

We talked about what it means to be patriotic and what we do to show patriotism. Examples were wear red, white and blue, hang a flag, say thank you to veterans, say the pledge.  At the start of each day, the kinders are learning to recite the Pledge of Allegiance by standing tall, still and straight.  They have learned what those very special words really mean and what sacrifices the men and women of our country made for our freedom. We THANK them so much!!! We practiced identifying ending sounds by sorting pictures, We made & read  books and made patriotic hats. It was fun to learn how to do a crossword puzzle and word search too. Be sure to have your kinders teach you some cool and interesting facts about ALL of the American symbols we have studied.

It was fun to see the kinders dressed in red, white and blue clothing, Thank you for participating!  The kinders were EXCITED (to say the least) to learn that I brought “dessert” for them to eat after lunch…..RED, WHITE  and BLUE POPSICLES!

MATH:  The kinders took their LAST unit #5 math test.  They did an AWESOME, FABULOUS, WONDERFUL job!  They worked hard showing what math skills they learned.  These tests arrived home this week.  I know that you are as proud of your kinder as I am!  We spent the other days “dipping our toes” into first grade math.  The kinders were very excited to use their own mini clocks to show the time by the hour.  

WRITING WORKSHOP:  Each day the kinders met with a group that had the same opinion on a topic, talked about the reasons for their opinion and then wrote about it.  These topics were saying why we like Georgetown school, what holiday we like best and which sport we enjoy playing. Our opinion writing ended by having the kinders  write their ON DEMAND piece about their favorite restaurant. This is when they do all of their writing independently, without teacher assistance. The kinders did an AMAZING JOB!  I am so very proud of them. I am in the process of grading them and will send home the writings home soon.

COUNTDOWN TO SUMMER:  Can you believe it? Ten more days of kindergarten!  Oh my! 🙂 The countdown to summer has officially begun in our classroom.  Each day we will open an envelope to see what fun activity is scheduled.  Today the first activity was…..EXTRA RECESS!!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:  We enjoyed giving the kinders who have “summer birthdays” (June, July, August) an early celebration.  Thank you for all of the birthday treats.

 Happy early Birthday Brooks!

 Happy early Birthday Aria!

 Happy early Birthday Breslyn!

 Happy early Birthday Elliot!

 Happy early Birthday Alesha!

MYSTERY  READER:  Brooks was so surprised and happy to see his dad step into the room.  He read another new story…one that Brooks’ grandpa gave him.  It was called  The Wolf, The Duck and The Mouse. Thank you so much for coming in….again!

REMINDERS

*LIBRARY BOOKS:  Almost all of the kinders have returned their library books.  Please return your book this week.

*BACKPACK SNACK:  Please remember to send TWO daily healthy snacks for your kinder, as we take a moment to refuel each day.  Thank you.

*KINDERGARTEN OLYMPICS:   A fun morning of games with all of the kindergarteners!  Kinders will need to wear TENNIS SHOES…NO FLIP FLOPS, SANDALS OR CROCS PLEASE!  They will also need a WATER BOTTLE, LABELED WITH THEIR NAME!  Don’t forget the SUNSCREEN…if we have sun :)!  Volunteers  should arrive at 8:45am for instructions. PARENTS & YOUNGER SIBLINGS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN US FOR A PICNIC LUNCH ON THE PLAYGROUND IF IT FITS INTO YOUR SCHEDULE.  WE WILL BE EATING AROUND 12:00PM

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, MAY 27:   MEMORIAL DAY, No School

*TUESDAY, MAY 28:  MUSIC; Birthday celebration for Colton and Jase;  Countdown to Summer Day 9

*WEDNESDAY, MAY 29:  GYM;  Countdown to Summer Day 8

*THURSDAY, MAY 30:  ART;  Countdown to Summer Day 7

*FRIDAY, May 31:  STEAM;  KINDERGARTEN OLYMPICS  Countdown to Summer Day 6

*FRIDAY, JUNE 7:  Last Day of School.  Dismissal at 12:15p.m.

~~~Have a great long weekend. Enjoy the wonderful weather while you celebrate Memorial Day!  Mrs. Bohl

NEWS OF THE WEEK—Feb 11-15

What a crazy, snowy, icy, cold week…..again!! AHHH!  I was so glad to see my kinders on most of the days. We were busy learning when we were at school. 🙂

SPLIT LIT:  The kinders worked on various literacy skills like reading books, building a sentence, “th” brother at the beginning and ending of words, popcorn words, medial sounds in words.

WRITING:  We told small moment stories across our fingers about our morning routine at school and decorating our mail bags. The kinders are doing an amazing job drawing detailed pictures and writing sentences to match.  Many of the kinders are doing these tasks on their own with minimal assistance from me.  Wow!  I am so proud of them!  The kinders practiced their writing skills by creating a valentine card for their family too.

MATH:  We spent Monday reviewing math skills learned in unit #3 before taking the unit #3 math test on Wednesday.  I will share the results soon. The kinders took home their first math workbook. Have fun using this book at home to review skills learned.  Friday math games (all Valentine themed) included skills of addition, naming shapes, number partners.

READING: The kinders learned that some books are considered challenging because they have more words and more lines, longer words, new words and surprise endings.  That is when persistent power needs to be activated!  Books that contain patterns makes reading fun! We learned that when readers figure out the pattern it makes reading easier. The kinders were encouraged to use their reading mat to organize their books as they read.  Placing their books on the green dot side to start reading and moving the book to the red dot side when they are finished will allow them to go back and re-read their books again.

 

MYSTERY READER:  Wednesday afternoon, Aria jumped up with glee when her grandma and papa stepped into our room.  We heard the story When I Grow Up. An awesome story reminding us the importance of believing in ourselves because we have the power, within ourselves, to achieve any dream we put our minds and heart to.  

Parker was SO excited to see that his mom was our Mystery Reader again on Friday morning. She read one of Parker’s favorite books, My Lucky Day.  A funny story about how a pig tricked the fox into not eating him.

I introduced the kinders to one of my favorite book characters, Love Monster. We read Love Monster and Love Monster and the Last Chocolate and learned about making friends from the stories.  The kinders had fun making their own Love Monsters!

POPCORN WORDS:   BIG     WITH    HOW   NOW   WHO   NOT   I know that I have said it before but….the kinders are doing a fabulous job of learning their sight words.  Each day I try to include the week’s words in the daily message and they are able to locate them every time.  Hooray!  There were many words this week..a couple of new words and others from weeks’ past.  Thank you for continuing to practice at home.  Ask your kinder (or email me for instructions) how to play “Disappearing Snowman” or “Scrambled up”.  These are favorite games we play in school to identify popcorn words.

  

KOOL KINDERS ARE BOOK LOVERS: 

  Brooks likes the book The Little Engine that Could because Grandpa gave it to him.

  Jase likes books about dinosuars so he brought in Dinosaur Explorers that is filled with fun facts.

 . Jace enjoys reading Curious George rides a bike because he likes to ride his bike….in the summer.   

    Lila really likes Piggy and Elephant books so she brought I REALLY like slop! 

WHERE IS MRS. BOHL?:  I want to let you know that I will be out of the classroom a fews days this coming week.  On Monday 2/18, I will be screening next year possible kinders.  Mrs. Fredrick will be the teacher.  On Wednesday afternoon 2/20. I will be attending a kindergarten teacher meeting. Mrs. Brock will be the teacher.  Both are amazing substitute teachers that are in our building often. If you have ANY changes to schedules please let the office know, they will pass along the information. Please take a few minutes this weekend to talk with your kinder about showing these new teachers kindness and respectfulness by following our class rules and making green choices throughout the day.

REMINDERS

*TAKE HOME BOOKS: A HUGE thank you for remembering to return your kinder’s books on MONDAY, TUESDAY AND THURSDAY for reading.  The kinders are excited to take home new books and read them to you.  Thank you!  I SWITCHED OUT YOUR KINDER’S BOOK FOR A NEW BOOK TODAY.  THEY TOOK THAT NEW BOOK HOME SO YOU CAN READ IT OVER THE WEEKEND. PLEASE RETURN ALL BOOKS ON MONDAY!

*WINTER GEAR:  Thank you for sending your child with all that they need to stay warm outside….snow pants, hats, mittens, boots. Just a reminder, when it warms up, we will be outside for recess if the temperature is above 0 degrees. 

*BOOK IT CALENDAR: Return your completed January calendar soon.  

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, FEB 18—STEAM; reading TAKE HOME books; Mrs. Bohl gone all day  Book orders due (online or paper forms)

*TUESDAY, FEB 19—MUSIC; reading TAKE HOME books

*WEDNESDAY. FEB. 20GYM;  LIBRARY Please remember to return your kinder’s book.  Mrs. Bohl gone in afternoon  

*THURSDAY. FEB. 21ART; reading TAKE HOME books  

*FRIDAY. FEB. 22—- STEAM

   ~~~~Have a fantastic weekend! Mrs. Bohl

A Snow Day Math Game

We are busy practicing using 5-groups and 10-groups to make numbers, showing teen numbers as a ten and extra ones and matching partners and total for teen numbers.(10+3 is a match for 13).

The kinders learned a math game called UNKNOWN PARTNER.  This game focuses on identifying sets of partners for numbers.  For example, there are 7 cubes by number 7.  One kinder places the break apart stick (popsicle stick) between the cubes and removes some cubes from a side while the other kinder has their eyes closed.  The kinder opens their eyes and needs to tell what partner of 7 was taken away. 4 + ? = 7  Then together they use the number tiles to create the number equation.  4+3=7

IMG_3973

You can play this game at home using lego pieces, Cheerios, Barbie shoes, etc. A pencil works great as a break-part stick too. Start with a small number and work your way up to 10.  A fabulous way to learn and have fun at home….with your kinder being the teacher!

More math learning yet to come this week before we take our next unit test this upcoming week.  Take time on this snowy day and during the weekend to play this fun math game.