Tag Archives: choices

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

Inside and Outside Fun!

INSIDE:  The kinders were SO excited to be able to have Choices (free choice) this week.  This is the time when the kinders can play with toys.  Each group of kinders (table partners) are given 1 bin of toys to play with.  During this time they are learning to share, problem solve, pretend and create.  The kinders did AWESOME and had a GREAT time getting to know their new friends.

OUTSIDE:  It was a perfect week to explore the playground with their friends.