News of the Week—Feb 15-19

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Look what we learned in kindergarten this week

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ALL ABOUT PRESIDENTS:  In honor of Presidents’ Day this past Monday, the kinders learned some interesting facts about 2 famous presidents.  We learned that George Washington was our very first president, he owned 5 farms, he wore white powder in his hair (Ewww…many thought this was strange), his picture is on the quarter and the one dollar bill.  Abraham Lincoln was an honest man who lived in a log cabin. He was the 16th president, he wore a stove pipe hat and kept important papers inside of it and his picture is on the penny and the five dollar bill. We read some books to learn facts and placed facts on posters. The kinders enjoyed making a fun President flip craftivity to complete their learning. Did you ask them what they learned?

     

READING: We learned that we can use more precise words to tell how a character is feeling besides just happy or sad. When the character was happy, we tried to think of a word that would describe happy in more detail – like excited or thrilled. When the character was mad, we tried to think of a word that would describe mad in more detail – like angry or frustrated. We learned that avid readers make goals to help them be better readers – something that we are each going to work on during reading time.

WRITING: Our opinion writing topics this week were: 1. Eating ice cream in a bowl or in a cone. 2. Favorite holiday…Halloween, Christmas or Valentine Day. 3. Favorite special…Art, Steam, Music, Gym.  The kinders are really working hard during this time. They are enjoying using my microphone to read their reasons to their friends. I am proud of them! 

POPCORN WORDS:      HAD     BAD     MAP

MATH: We practiced adding “food” from the “grocery store”. We used some of our play food and added different food items together. Then we pretended we ate some of the food and practiced subtraction. We also continued practicing teen numbers. We wrote the equation and then showed the group of ten and extra ones. We compared numbers using the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN and solving addition and subtraction math stories.  The kinders completed pages in their math workbooks, used 11-20 mats and manipulatives.

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We worked on listening for beginning, medial and final sounds in words and identifying sight words.  We activated our word-part power to add a letter in front of a snap (sight) word to make a new word. (f-in=fin, p-in=pin, m-an=man, r-an=ran). We sang a fun song to help us practice this power. We also sang “Down by the Bay” to practice rhyming words.  We used this week’s sight words to create new words by substituting letters in the beginning, middle and end. For example: mad-map-mat-hat-hot-pot OR bad-bed-red-ted-ten.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH:  RUBY BRIDGES This week we learned that Ruby Bridges showed courage and bravery when she never gave up and became the first black girl to go to a white school. Thanks to her, anyone is welcome to attend a school of their choice.

ASSESSMENTS:  Assessing your kinder in their literacy and math skills are underway.  I am so proud of the progress I am noticing. Notes stating your kinder’s independent reading levels are starting to come home.  Notice that their TAKE HOME books have reflected the change in levels. Please continue to work with your kinder at home by writing upper and lower case letters with proper formation, reviewing their popcorn words, reading books with them and listening to them read to you.  Don’t forget the math skills of counting by 1’s and 10’s to 100, writing numbers 1-20 with proper formation, telling, drawing and solving addition/subtraction stories and looking for number partners (2+4=6 & 10+4=14). As you can see, we are very busy learning and reviewing many skills in kindergarten.  I am excited to share your kinder’s personal progress with you at our March virtual conferences.

BEHAVIOR:  As we move into the last of February and hopefully the beginning of spring as well as our curriculum grows it is essential for our kinders to be ready to learn. Following classroom rules class rules (in the classroom, in the hallway, on the playground) is a must. Our rules are simple: 1.FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS QUICKLY. 2. RAISE YOUR HAND TO SPEAK. 3. MAKE SMART CHOICES 4.BE KIND. 5. MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY.  Being in a class filled with friends can be a challenge for a 5 and 6-year-old.  We always strive to help the kinders to remember “how is my behavior helping or hurting my team (class)?”  We also let them know that mistakes are important because it helps us to learn red choices (bad) and green (good) choices.  Please encourage your kinder to try to be and do the best that they can.  Thanks for your continued support!

KOOL KINDERS SPREADING KINDNESS AND A BEING BOOK LOVER. The kinders are showing kindness by playing with their pets, giving their mom and dad hugs, reading a book to Grandma and more.  It is fun reading books at school that the kinders like reading at home.

NEW KINDER:  We are so excited to welcome another new kinder to our class family.  This week Junseo (pronounced ChoonSaw) Choi from South Korea joined our class.  This is Junseo’s first experience in American school so this is a big adjustment for him…especially since he is learning how to speak and understand English too!  I am so proud of the way the kinders are modeling how to do things, showing Junseo where things are located and just being kind kinders.  We LOVE how our class family continues to grow!

REMINDERS

WINTER GEAR: Please remember to send your kinder with snow pants, boots, a hat, gloves/mittens and coat every day!  Unless the wind chill is below -0, we go outside for some fresh air and exercise.

SNACK & WATER BOTTLE:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks AND a water bottle with your kinder each day. 

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, February 22—STEAM

*Tuesday, February 23—MUSIC

*Wednesday, February 24—GYM; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!   Homework packet due

*Thursday, February 25—ART

*Friday, February 26—STEAM

*Tuesday, March 2 Dr. Seuss’ Birthday…Dress in your Seuss-ish attire (black, white, red colors or your favorite Dr. Seuss character?)

*Friday, March 5– Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal

*Monday, March 8 and Wednesday, March 10…Parent/Teacher Zoom style conferences

Enjoy the weekend! Be safe and stay warm! Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Feb 8-12

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POPCORN WORDS:   NOT   WHO

MATH: We started Unit #4 by telling math stories using our fruit from our ‘fruit & vegetable market’ and looking for groups of items 1-10 in a market scene. We practiced finding partners of 10 by looking at ladybugs that were sleeping and awake. We made teen numbers 11-20 using a 10 group and extra ones using ten sticks and mini cubes.  We  learned you can write a teen number equation two different ways but they mean the same thing.  One way is to write the partners first and then the total (10+4=14) or write the total first and then the partners (14=10+4)  

READING: This week the kinders learned that an AVID READER reads a lot, finds places everywhere to read, keeps a stack of book nearby, can’t stop reading and really pays attention to the book but a BLAH READER is disinterested. The kinders sorted pictures to decide if it showed an avid reader or not an avid (blah) reader. They also learned that AVID READERS try to feel what the characters are feeling.  Are the characters feeling happy, sad, excited, scared?  This makes the story enjoyable to read. We re-visited an old favorite The Carrot Seed to notice feelings along with the poems Mary Had a Little Lamb and The Itsy Bitsy Spider. The kinders found important parts in their books and put a sticky note on that page.  

WRITING: We continued with Opinion writing. After hearing a story that relates to the day’s writing, the kinders give their opinion, write two reasons to support why they feel that way and write a closing sentence such as “_____ is my favorite.” or “I really like _______.”  WOW!  WOW! They are encouraged to include popcorn words, spaces between words, sentence stoppers as well as giving awesome reasons. Our topics this week were: 1. Favorite season…winter or summer. 2. Choosing hot lunch or home lunch. 3. Going to the beach or playing in a pool. This is difficult writing but they are working hard and making progress.  

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We worked on sorting pictures by /ow/ like in snow or /ow/ like in cow, hearing syllables in words, using our word-part power by putting a new letter at the beginning of a snap word. (b-at=bat, h-ot=hot, f-in=fin) and matching CVC words to the picture. 

BLACK HISTORY MONTH:  JACKIE ROBINSON This week we learned that Jackie Robinson showed determination when he never gave up and became the first black man to play in the major league. Thanks to him, anyone is welcome to play baseball.

VALENTINE FUN!: After listening to a valentine story of The Day it Rained Hearts, the kinders retold the story by recalling the characters, setting (where did it take place) and the order of events. Enjoy hearing your kinder retell you The Day it Rained Hearts using the picture cards at home.

I introduced the kinders to one of my favorite book characters, Love Monster. We read Love Monster and learned about making friends.  We read another Love Monster story called Love Monster and the Last Chocolate before creating our own math story of dark and milk chocolate candy. The kinders had fun making their own Love Monsters!  

After reading Big Hugs, Little Hugs we tasted candy hugs and candy kisses. Yum! Next we colored our paper kiss to reflect our choice.  Then we created a graph of Hugs or Kisses on the board. Last we gave a reason why we liked a candy hug or a candy kiss.

We created a mini book about Things I Love.. 

We used candy hearts for some math activities

We played Valentine Bingo

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed eating a Valentine party snack

KOOL KINDERS SPREADING KINDNESS AND A BEING BOOK LOVER

REMINDERS

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

SNACK & WATER BOTTLE:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks AND a water bottle with your kinder each day. 

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, February 15—ART

*Tuesday, February 16—STEAM

*Wednesday, February 17—MUSIC; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!   

*Thursday, February 18—GYM

*Friday, February 19—ART

Enjoy the weekend! Be safe and stay warm! Mrs. Bohl

 

 

 

News of the Week–Feb 1-5

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GROUNDHOG DAY: We learned a few fun facts about groundhogs, we made a groundhog craft and predicted if the groundhog would see his shadow and go hiding for 6 more weeks of winter OR would he not see his shadow and stay outside for an early spring. According to our classroom graph, many of the kinders were predicting a cloudy day.  How about you? What did you predict?

POPCORN WORDS:  HOW   NOW   The kinders noticed right away that these two words rhyme and that we wrote “how” A LOT of times during our How to….writing.  

READING:  They learned that snap words (popcorn words you can identify in a snap) can be disguised with endings of -ed, -ing, -s.  The kinders  activated their extra strength book talk power by remembering what we read by retelling who was in the story, where it took place, and predicting what might happen. The kinders are developing this skill as their reading level grows.  

MATH:  We reviewed math skills in preparation for our unit #3 test on Wednesday.  The kinders worked hard as “office workers”.  I will share their math test results with you next week. We enjoyed reading Ten Grouchy Groundhogs a few times before we read and completed the emergent reader Ten Little Groundhogs. We looked at the ten frame to determine how many groundhogs there were.  Then, we reread the text and crossed off the last groundhog.  Last, we completed the number sentence at the bottom of the page.  See the earlier posting for our Day 100 activities.  We will begin Unit #4 next week.

WRITING: The kinders began learning how to write a new style  of writing…..Opinion writing.  We started with learning the difference between fact and opinion.  Then we sorted statements into an opinion or fact column.  After hearing a story that relates to the day’s writing, the kinders give their opinion, write two reasons to support why they feel that way and write a closing sentence such as “_____ is my favorite.” or “I really like _______.”  WOW!  WOW!  The kinders are working towards writing like almost first graders! Do I dare say that?  🙂 They are including popcorn words, spaces between words, sentence stoppers as well as giving awesome reasons. Our topics this week were: 1. What animal would you take home from the zoo? 2. Liking the swings or the slide. Have I said lately, how proud I am of them! 🙂 . This is difficult writing but they are off to a GREAT start!

BLACK HISTORY MONTH:  ROSA PARKS This week we learned that Rosa Parks showed courage when she refused to give up her seat on a bus. Thanks to her bravery, anyone can sit where they choose on a bus. 

WE HAVE MAIL:  Yes, we have mail inside of our valentine mail bags.  How exciting!  The kinders were able to begin mailing the valentines this week. They were a bit disappointed that the mail bags were not coming home right away but they became excited when they found out more valentines are coming their way.  Memory kind of moments.  🙂  I also wish that I could include the conversations that took place during these first mailings.  So many kinders filling each others’ buckets by offering to help and squealing with excitement when they saw similar valentines.  Oh my…I love this time of the year!  Please bring the rest of the valentines to be mailed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

KOOL KINDERS SPREADING KINDNESS AND A BEING BOOK LOVER: We heard about kinders showing love to their cats and giving their parents and grandparents hugs this week.  What kind hearted kinders! 🙂 We also read some fun books.

PE NEWS: Kids Heart Challenge through Feb 15.  Please see the PE Blog for more information. Below is the sign up link. http://www2.heart.org/goto/georgetown

TAKE HOME BOOKS: I want to take a moment and thank you…kinder families…for writing comments about your kinder’s reading.  Those comments are very helpful.  I am working on having the kinders read for me to determine their best independent reading level.  Your kinder may be taking home new level books.

REMINDERS

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

SNACK & WATER BOTTLE:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks AND a water bottle with your kinder each day. If possible, enlist your kinder in choosing their snacks.  Many are commenting that they don’t like the snack that is packed.

HEADPHONES:  Please send in a pair of headphones for your kinder to use in STEAM If you have not already done so.  Thank you!

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, February 8—Winter Break–NO SCHOOL

*Tuesday, February 9—ART Mail Valentines. STUFFED ANIMAL DAY Bring a small stuffed animal that fits inside the backpack.

*Wednesday, February 10—STEAM; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!  Homework packets due  Mail Valentines

*Thursday, February 11—MUSIC 

*Friday, February 12—GYM Valentine Party 

Enjoy the 4 day weekend!  Be safe and stay warm!  Mrs. Bohl

Stuffed Animal Day–Feb 5

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We did it!  

We have earned our 5 star reward!

The kinders voted and we are having a…

STUFFED ANIMAL day tomorrow, Friday, Feb. 5!

The kinders may bring a small stuffed animal to school.  Please make sure that the stuffed animal fits inside their backpack.

It will be a fun day!

(In case we have a snow day, the stuffed animals can come to school on Tuesday, Feb 8 instead)

CELEBRATING DAY 100!!!

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DAY 100:  Wow!  Can you believe it? Today we celebrated 100 days of learning in kindergarten.  

All day long we did activities revolving around the number 100!  We read books, we made a special Day 100 hat and badge, we counted to 100, we played math games identifying 100 numbers, we showed our 100 collections, we did 100 exercises and so much more. 

100 COLLECTIONS: Thank you for helping your kinder collect and count 100 items!  They brought in fantastic, creative collections! 

WRITING

How many times can you write your name in 100 seconds?  The kinders did just that!  They also wrote about what they would do if they had 100….???

100 DAY SNACK:  The kinders enjoyed a snack of 10 different items like chocolate chips, marshmallows, cereal, pretzels, butterscotch chips, goldfish crackers, raisins, cereal, oyster crackers.

 PENNY FLIPS

The kinders learned how to flip a penny, recognize heads or tails, and record the results of the penny toss. They had lots of practice with this skill because they worked towards flipping a penny 100 times!!!

100 MINUTES OF PLAY

Throughout the day, our class was able to enjoy 100 minutes of play time (recess, break times, and play centers). Here are some of the play centers the kinders enjoyed.

  • GUMBALL MACHINE CRAFT: Kinders used do-a-dots to make 100 gum balls. 
  • 100 BLOCKS: Kindes built structures out of 100 wooden blocks and pattern blocks.
  • RACE TO 100: Kinders practiced counting to 100 and “counting on” from a given number. 
  • 100 CUPS: Kinders made towers & castles using 100 red plastic cups. 
  • 100 TEDDY BEARS & VEHICLES: Kinders used teddy bears and vehicles to sort.
  • 100 DAY COLORING PAGE:  Kinders colored a picture. 
  • WOLF’S 100 CHICKS:  Kinders matched 100 chicks to the numbers 1-100.

We are excited to have more days of learning in kindergarten ahead of us.

Day 100 tomorrow 2/2

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We will be celebrating 100 days in school TOMORROW..Tuesday, February 2!  Hooray!!

Don’t forget to have your kinder bring their collection of 100 items!  The collection will come home at the end of the day.  We will be having a day full of “hundreds” of fun activities and learning experiences! 

Kids Heart Challenge

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The Kids Heart Challenge (formerly Jump Rope for Heart) is in full swing!

Remember, more than 50% of kids are not getting the physical activity they need to be healthy. You’re helping to change that. We have a special incentive at our school. If we can get 50% of our students registered and taking the healthy challenges, we will receive an additional $500 to purchase new PE equipment.

 Help us reach our goal! Get your student registered for Kids Heart Challenge today!

Kids Heart Challenge Sign Up Link