Tag Archives: how to writing

News of the Week—Jan 18-22

Oh my goodness!!  I totally forgot to post last week’s blog.  I am sorry about the delay! 

LITERACY/PHONICS:  This week’s activities focused on writing popcorn words, identifying popcorn words, listening for initial, medial and final sounds in words, changing initial letter to make new words & syllables. We also learned about the H Brothers! The H Brothers story is about 5 brothers who all have an h as the second letter in their name. The H Brothers names are Charley, Shane, Whit, Phil and Theo. Each brother gives helpful hints as ways to remember what sound the start of their name makes.  We had fun labeling things around our classroom with sticky notes. We are getting good at stretching out words and listening for all of the sounds we hear.  I am so proud of the progress that they are making.  It was a good week of working hard during this time.

MATH: A few math skills we covered this week were decomposing teen numbers to show ten and extra ones, writing number partners, solving addition & subtraction problems.  We had fun playing a game to learn number partners. The kinders played TEEN NUMBER MEMORY (matching teen numbers & the equation) and BEARS IN THE CAVE (finding number partners of 7)

                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

POPCORN WORDS:  HE   SHE   

WRITING:  We wrote HOW TO… stories using another new format….one page paper.  That was exciting!  We wrote about How to eat an orange, How to put on winter gear and How to eat a snack. 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!  Next week the kinders will be writing their own HOW TO…stories!

READING:  We used a book this week called Can you see our eggs? and a poem called We Will Go 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 an imaginary 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.

NEW KINDER:  We are so excited to have another new kinder be part our class family. Lily joined our class this week.  She has been learning virtually and now will be learning with us at school.  I am proud of the way the kinders made Lily feel welcome!  

P.E. News:  The Annual PE Apparel sale is happening now until February 1.  The store is online only.  For more information go to the PE Blog. http://mvankoev.edublogs.org

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.  Many of the kinders are very hungry in the morning and want to eat both snacks.  If possible, please take time to give your kinder a good breakfast.

CALENDARS:  Here is the FEBRUARY calendar  You can read about upcoming events, birthdays and more.  It is also posted under CALENDARS at the top of our blog.  Here is the February lunch menu

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 25— GYM

*Tuesday, January 26—ART

*Wednesday, January 27—STEAMTAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!  Homework packets due  Book Orders Due (online or check & paper form)

*Thursday, January 28—MUSIC

*Friday, January 29—GYM

*Tues. Feb 2–Day 100 celebration. Bring in 100 collection! (see note that was sent home)

*Wed. Feb 3-Wed. Feb. 10–Bring in Valentines (see note that was sent home)

*Fri. Feb 5–Fast Friday. (early release day)

*Mon. Feb 8—Winter Break

*Tues. Feb 9—School again! 

*Fri. Feb. 12–Valentine Party 

Have a great weekend!   Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Jan 4-8

 

Oh, it is good to be back with my kinders.  I missed seeing them:)  We jumped right into learning this week by talking about setting goals for what we might want to learn or do this coming year.  We thought of goals that we can accomplish at school. For example: to add numbers, to be kind, to learn more popcorn words, to read books, to share. We made a fun Happy New Year craft. Our ‘party people’ will come home soon but for now they are decorating our room for the first part of January.  Welcome 2021

 

POPCORN WORDS: WAS    AT    THAT    We added three more words to our growing list of popcorn words that we are working on identifying in a snap. Many of the kinders noticed right away that “at” is hiding in “that” and that they rhyme. We also talked about how some letters make different sounds like in “was”. We read 2 books using these words and added the books to our blue book bins.  The kinders are doing an amazing job identifying “new” and “old” popcorn words.  We even noticed that -at words were inside our shared reading poem My Cat has a Hat.

MATH:  The kinders used common shapes to make new shapes. The kinders practiced sorting and classifying objects while giving reasons why they classified the items that way by using pictures of shapes and animals/people. We also practiced our teen numbers. We learned about how there is a “hidden” 10 behind teen numbers. For example, in the number 13 – there is a 10 and 3 extra ones. 

 

HANDWRITING:  We focused on learning the proper formation of the CLOCKWISE upper letters P,B,R,D,J in their booklets. The kinders are doing a super job writing letters in isolation but transferring the proper formation during ‘regular’ writing time is not consistent.  Extra encouragement as they write at home is always helpful. 🙂  The kinders were excited to see that I exchanged their names on their pencil boxes to include their last name. They will now begin adding their last name to their papers, working towards writing their full name by memory.  

READING: We began a new unit called Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles. 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 so PATTERN POWER is needed! We learned that when readers figure out the pattern it makes reading easier. We also found out that sometimes the pattern changes at the end giving us a surprise! The kinders were encouraged to use a new tool…a reading mat to organize their books as they read.  They begin by stacking their books from easier to hardest and then placing their books on the side with the green arrow because it tells them where to start reading. The kinders move their books to the other side when they are finished reading them. Once all of the books have been moved to the finished side, the kinders can move the books back to the green arrow which will allow them to go back and re-read their books again. I am so proud of how hard the kinders are working during reading.

LITERACY:  The kinders worked on identifying ending sounds in words, putting words in correct sentence order, reading CVC words and identifying and writing popcorn words. The kinders practiced making more words by taking away “th” from “that” and adding different beginning letters to “at”. (cat, fat, sat, mat, etc).  Have fun at home using your Cat slider to practice this skill. 

WRITING:  I am so proud of the kinders and their writing. This week we began writing HOW TO…. stories.  We shared what we thought we could teach others to do with our partners.  Some examples were: how to ride a bike, how to read a book, how to play football and more. We learned that writers write about what they know, use mentor books to help them write, ask themselves “Does this make sense?” when putting pictures in order and have partners ask questions while deciding the steps. Our writing topics were How to Get Ready for School, How to Make Cookies, How to Build a Snowman and How to make a Root Beer Float. We did some cutting and pasting (instead of drawing) to put the pictures in order of First, Next, Then, Last and then wrote words to tell the steps. The kinders did a marvelous job! We will write more HOW TO… stories next week.

PHONICS:  We will be looking closely at how parts of words work together for awhile.  We used our pointer power to remind ourselves that each word in a sentence gets one tap as we read. The kinders practiced this by writing sentences for Mabel on their whiteboards, using snap words, before re-reading the sentence and tapping each word. (Ex: I can write sentences. I can do it.) We had fun pretending to be a sentence by having some kinders stand in a line and then saying each word by pointing to each kinder.  They were reminded that it is easier to read a sentence when there are spaces between words instead of having words squeezed together.

*TAKE HOME BOOK PROGRAM:  I am so excited for this program to begin. Books and a detailed informational note came home this week. The kinders will keep and read the books at home before returning them each Wednesday.  We will exchange books and the kinders will take home new books each Thursday.  It is so exciting to see and help our kinders become readers. 

REMINDERS:

*WINTER GEAR: Please send appropriate winter gear with your kinder each day.  It keeps them warm when playing outside. An extra pair of socks, mittens or gloves might be a good idea to keep inside their backpacks if their original pair gets wet.  Please take time to label your ALL of your kinder’s winter attire if you have not done so. Often these winter clothes are easier to be transported in an extra bag (If you go this route PLEASE be sure to label the bag with your kinder’s name).  If you are in need of winter clothes, PLEASE reach out. We have many helpful resources at Georgetown.

*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.  Some kinders are commenting that they don’t like the snacks that are packed.  Thank you!

*EXTRA CLOTHES:  Please check to see that these clothes, stored in their backpacks, are weather appropriate now that our season has changed.  

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 11—MUSIC

*Tuesday, January 12—GYM

*Wednesday, January 13—ART;  LIBRARY and TAKE HOME books due!  Don’t forget your books! Homework packet due! 

*Thursday, January 14—STEAM; If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 1/14

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

*Winter Break: February 6-8

Have a wonderful weekend!  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—Jan 13-17

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.  I think a 5 star award day might be happening next week. 🙂 Thank you so much to Mrs. Voss for being able to be with the kinders this week as I recover at home.  I am SO looking forward to seeing everyone Monday afternoon!!!

MATH: This week we worked on teen equations (10+6) and teen totals (16), writing teen numbers, identifying partners of 6,7 & 8 and showing numbers by using 5 groups.  For example: to show 7, we drew 5 circles in a line and then drew 2 more circles underneath.  Telling and solving addition and subtraction problems are also part of our daily routine.  Our Friday math games were TEEN NUMBER MEMORY (matching teen equations to the total) and SCOOP UP THE SNOWBALLS (identifying = and not = symbols and writing addition equations)

 

POPCORN WORDS:        MAKE       SAID        We found them in our day’s messages and within our popcorn books.  We learned 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.  This time the kinders drew pictures and wrote out the steps on how to do something.  The kinders are experts on many things so choosing topics were a bit hard but we settled on writing How to make a pizza, How to make a snowman, How to eat cereal and How to eat an orange.  We had fun acting out the steps before writing.  The kinders are doing a great job remembering to include capital letters, spaces, sentence stoppers and to use as many popcorn (sight) words as possible.

READER’S WORKSHOP: 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 so exciting to see the kinders becoming readers!

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?” 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.

MYSTERY READER: Ellery gave her grandmother, whom she calls Situ, and her little sister, a sweet hello.  Sorry about the lack of pictures again this week.  I will post them next week when I get back to school.  Thank you so much for coming in to read the kinders a story.  There are still open spots available.  Go to the Mystery Reader link on the side bar of the blog to sign up.  We would love to have you visit again or grandparents or older siblings visit too.

REMINDERS:

WINTER GEAR: It looks like we will get some snow again this weekend. 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!

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 20— STEAM, Bring back TAKE HOME books

*Tuesday, January 21—MUSIC

*Wednesday, January 22—GYM;  LIBRARY Don’t forget your book!  Homework packets due

*Thursday, January 23—ART. Bring back TAKE HOME books

*Friday, January 24—STEAM

*Friday, Jan 31–Fast Friday (Early Release) @ 12:15pm

*Winter Break—February 1-4

*Wed. Feb 5—Day 100 celebration  Details coming soon!

*Friday, Feb 14–Valentine Day Party 2:00-3:00pm Please email me if you have NOT attended a party and would like to attend.  If you would like to attend again, I will be happy to put your name on a waiting list.

Have a great weekend.   Mrs. Bohl

 

NEWS—Jan 6-10

 

WELCOME BACK!

Oh, it is good to be back with my kinders (at least for 2 days).  I missed seeing them:)  As stated in my letter, Mrs. Voss has been the teacher for the past 3 days and will be also be in the classroom through next Wednesday.  I hope to be back later in the week.

We jumped right into learning this week. We talked about setting goals for what we might want to learn or do this coming year.  We thought of goals that we can accomplish at school. For example: to add numbers, to be kind, to learn more popcorn words, to read books, to share. We made a fun Happy New Year craft. Our ‘party people’ will come home soon but for now they are decorating our room for the first part of January.  Welcome 2020!!

POPCORN WORDS: WAS    AT      THAT               

We added three more words to our growing list of popcorn words that we are working on identifying in a snap. Many of the kinders noticed right away that “at” is hiding in “that” and that they rhyme. We also talked about how some letters make different sounds like in “was”. We read 2 books using these words and added the books to our blue book bins.  The kinders are doing an amazing job identifying “new” and “old” popcorn words.  We even noticed that -at words were inside our shared reading poem My Cat has a Hat.

WONDERFUL WINTER:  The snow outside was the perfect backdrop for learning inside.  We read another book by Jan Brett (she wrote The Gingerbread Baby) called The Mitten.  This is a great story about animals climbing into a mitten to stay warm.  We used our retelling skills to sequence the order of animals crawling into the mitten. We made a connection that this book was similar to our popcorn book, The Mitten.

MATH:  The kinders are working on telling and solving addition and subtraction stories by using objects or their fingers.  As the kinders are beginning to learn this math skill, manipulatives are helpful in solving these problems. They also are working to see 5-groups for numbers 6-10 (ie: 5 and 2 more = 7) and to tell why that is useful when counting.

 The kinders practiced sorting and classifying objects while giving reasons why they classified the items that way by using pictures of shapes and animals/people. 

During Friday math games, the kinders played a game using paper snowballs, because real snowballs would melt in our room.  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.  They also played Hot Chocolate Math again to practice seeing tens and extra ones within teen numbers.

HANDWRITING:  We focused on learning the proper formation of the COUNTER CLOCKWISE letters C,G,S,O,Q,U in their booklets. hey also had fun using play dough to form all of the letter learned so far. The kinders are doing a super job writing letters in isolation but transferring the proper formation during ‘regular’ writing time is not consistent.  Extra encouragement as they write at home is always helpful. 🙂  I will be exchanging their names on their pencil boxes soon to include their last name. They will begin adding their last name to their papers, working towards writing their full name by memory.  

READING: We began a new unit called Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles. 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 so PATTERN POWER is needed! 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.

SPLIT LIT:  The kinders worked identifying the ending sounds in words, putting words in correct sentence order and identifying and writing popcorn words during their independent centers.  It is challenging for some kinders to stay focused during this work time so if papers like these come home incomplete, it is likely because they are not using their time wisely.  In the time alloted for each center, the kinders should be able to complete most if not all of of the task.  With Mrs. Bynum, the kinders practiced making more words by taking away “th” from “that” and adding different beginning letters to “at”. (cat, fat, sat, mat, etc).  Have fun at home using your Cat slider to practice this skill.  The kinders read books using whisper phones while I reassessed them on some literacy skills.  With Ms. Voss they worked on making -at words and reading CVC words.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  I am so proud of the kinders and their writing. This week we began writing HOW TO…. stories.  We shared what we thought we could teach others to do with our partners.  Some examples were: how to ride a bike, how to read a book, how to play football and more.We learned that writers write about what they know, use mentor books to help them write, ask themselves “Does this make sense?” when putting pictures in order and have partners ask questions while deciding the steps. Our writing topics were How to Brush your Teeth, How to Make Cookies, How to Wash your Hands and How to make Spaghetti. We did some cutting and pasting (instead of drawing) to put the pictures in correct order and then wrote words to tell the steps. The kinders did a marvelous job! We will write more HOW TO… stories next week.

MYSTERY READERS: On Wednesday, Evelyn was surprised to see her mom be the mystery reader.  On Friday it was Landon’s turn to see his dad come in the room.  Pictures were taken by Ms. Voss.  I will share those pictures next week.  Thank you for coming in.

REMINDERS:

*WINTER GEAR: Please send appropriate winter gear with your kinder each day.  It keeps them warm when playing outside.  An extra pair of socks, mittens or gloves might be a good idea to keep inside their backpacks if their original pair gets wet.  Please take time to label your kinder’s snow pants and boots if you have not done this.

*BACKPACK SNACKS:  Don’t forget we take a snack break 2 times each day…morning & afternoon.  Please include your kinder in choosing their snacks.  Some kinders are commenting that they don’t like the snacks that are packed.  Thank you!

*TAKE HOME BOOK PROGRAM:  I schedule has been sent home to all of the parents/grandparents who have volunteered.  Books will come home late next week.  Reading will begin on Monday, January 20.  It is so exciting to see and help our kinders become readers.

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 13— STEAM

*Tuesday, January 14—MUSIC

*Wednesday, January 15—GYM;  LIBRARY Don’t forget your book!  Homework packets due

*Thursday, January 16—ART

*Friday, January 17—STEAM TAKE HOME books come home

*Monday, Jan. 20 return TAKE HOME books for reading

*Friday, Jan 31…Fast Friday (Early Release) @ 12:15pm

*Winter Break: February 1-4

NEWS OF THE WEEK—April 29-May 3

Look what your kinder did at school this week.

WRITING:   Can I say it again?  I am so proud of the kinders and their writing. This month’s genre was about HOW TO….  do various things.  This week the kinders wrote How to marble paint, How to make a (birthday) wish, How to eat a snack and How to eat an Oreo.   Enjoy writing some more How to…. stories at home by using the idea chart that was sent home this week. 

   

SCIENCE:  Hooray! We have learned that not all plants grow at the same rate but thank goodness they all sprouted!  The warmer spring weather helped so much.  We are watering  and journaling about the growth of our bean plants.  

  

We explored each part of flower by reading informational books, labeling the various parts (seed, roots, stem, leaves, petals) and creating a craft.

 We also read and discussed a Let’s Find Out newspaper relating to the growth cycle of a butterfly.  We continued our learning about Living and Non-Living too.

      

MATH:  Our math lessons this week focused on number partners.  We wrote number partners of 10 by drawing sun and clouds in a ten frame (5+5=10 or 9+1=10).  We wrote number partners of 7 & 10 by looking at colored dots and white dots in different arrangements. We also wrote number partners by drawing tiny tumblers on their math mountains.  During Friday math games, the kinders were able to choose from activities such as identifying 3D shapes, solving addition and subtraction problems, showing tens & extra ones in teen numbers.

POPCORN WORDS:        HAVE     ON      OF 

                                                                   

LITERACY:  The kinders this week did various literacy activities while I listened to each kinder read a book.  They are doing AMAZING!  A progress note came home this week, letting you know your kinder’s independent reading level.  I will continue to support and monitor their progress during these last weeks of school.  Remember it is the goal to have kinders read independently at Level D at the end of the school year.  If you have any questions, please contact me.

READING:  When reading non-fiction books, the kinders were reminded to ask themselves questions such as “I wonder why…?” “Where does….?’ or “What is this…?”  During read to self time, we are working on retaining and increasing our reading stamina.  On a good day, we are up to 15-18 minutes.  Wow!  

 We are constantly celebrating being READERS!   We had SO MUCH FUN today reading the jokes the kinders brought into school.  A LOT of giggles and laughs!!!  Thank you so much for helping your kinder participate.  Next week we will celebrate BEING CRAZY FOR READING! by coming to school with CRAZY HAIR.

TAKE HOME BOOKS:  Thank you  so much for encouraging and supporting your kinder this year as they participated in our TAKE HOME book program.  We have two more weeks of reading. Then we will begin to collect all of the books for summer inventory. Thank you so much to all of the volunteers who came into school each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday to listen to the kinders read.  It would not have been possible without your assistance.  I am so grateful for your help!

MYSTERY READERS:  We were lucky to enjoy two visits this week.

Brooks’ dad come on Wednesday afternoon and read This Moose belongs to Me.  A fun book where many people thought the moose was their pet.

 

Jace was so surprised to see not only his mom but also his brother, Caden (who is in 2nd grade) come in the room Friday morning.  His mom read TWO of Jace’s favorite books, The Dinosaur who lived in my backyard and Froggy plays T-Ball.    

 

Some rainy day inside playtime pictures

REMINDERS

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

*BOOK ORDERS:  All orders (online or paper forms with a check) are due on Monday, May 6.  This is the LAST book order for this school year.

*PLAYGROUND:  Our playground is very wet and muddy and then it is dry and dirty.  Please keep this in mind as you send your kinder to school. Rain boots or outside play shoes might be a good idea until the spring weather clears.  Thank you for being considerate of helping to keep our inside floors and rugs clean.

*MAY CALENDAR:  The May calendar can be found at the top of our blog under CALENDARS.  You can also refer to the paper copy that was sent home this week.  I will send home the June calendar soon.

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, MAY 6:  ART; reading TAKE HOME books;  Book Orders due (online or paper forms);

*TUESDAY, MAY 7: STEAM; reading TAKE HOME books; LIBRARY…Return you library books.  NOTE CHANGE IN DAY DUE TO OUR FIELD TRIP;    JET’S PIZZA LUNCH

*WEDNESDAY, MAY 8:  Field Trip to Hemlock Crossing Nature Center &  Hager Park  HOME LUNCH WITH DRINK INSIDE OF LABELED PAPER BAG IS NEEDED. We will not be ordering hot lunch. Please feel free to join us for our picnic lunch. Younger siblings are welcome. We will be at the park around 12:00pm. Your kinder will need a home lunch and water bottle to enjoy during our picnic lunch.  NO SANDALS, FLIP FLOPS OR CROCS. TENNIS SHOES NEED TO BE WORN!!  We will be walking through woods and trails and playing on a big playground.  Please dress your kinder according to the weather. We will be OUTSIDE for most of the day! 

*THURSDAY, MAY 9:  GYM;   EMAIL ME OR SEND A NOTE BY THURSDAY (5/9) IF YOUR KINDER WOULD LIKE A SACK LUNCH.   reading TAKE HOME books

*FRIDAY, MAY 10:  ART: FAST FRIDAY (Early Release  Dismiss at 12:15pm);  Celebrate being READERS:  CRAZY HAIR DAY  Celebrate Lillian’s birthday (5/11)

*FRIDAY, MAY 17Celebrate being READERS: OUR STATE IS GREAT! wear clothing with places from Michigan on it

*FRIDAY, MAY 24: Celebrate being READERS: CELEBRATE AMERICA!  Wear  Red, White and Blue to school!!

*MONDAY, MAY 27:  Memorial Day, No School

*FRIDAY,MAY 31:  Kindergarten Olympics  A note asking for parent volunteers came home.  Volunteers will be notified shortly with details.  This special day would not be possible without your help.  Thank you so much.  If you still would like to be part of this fun day, please let me know soon.

~~~Have a great weekend.    Mrs. Bohl

 

NEWS OF THE WEEK—April 22-26

Can you believe it?  It is the end of April and next week we are moving into our last full month of school.  Take a look at what was accomplished this week.

SCIENCE:  What is Alive?  Living and Non-Living and Grow, Flower, Grow! were books that assisted us as we began learning about things that are alive and not alive.  The kinders learned that living things need *air, *water, *food, *soil (plants), *space (habitat)  and can *move, *grow.  Sorting living and non-living pictures was a fun activity to do.

      

We planted bean seeds and are patiently watering and waiting for them to sprout.  Hopefully the warmer, sunny spring weather helps.  We will keep you updated!

WRITING:   I am so proud of the kinders and their writing. This week we began writing  HOW TO…. stories.  We created a list of what we thought we could teach others to do.  Some examples were: how to ride a bike, how to read a book, how to play football and more.  We practiced telling the steps across our fingers using transitional words like First, Next, Then, Last.  Our writing topics were How to Wash Your Hands, How to Make a Pizza and How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  We will write more HOW TO… stories next week.

MATH:  The kinders practiced determining and writing number partners, writing numbers to 100! and drawing tens and extra ones for teen numbers this week.

The Friday math game was called FLOWER POWER.  The kinders took turns tossing a fly and bumble bee bean bag onto a large flower, using the numbers that the insects landed on to create addition and subtraction number equations.  For example: 1+3=4 or 7-3=4.

POPCORN WORDS:         COME   SOME

READING:  The kinders were introduced to poetry and what it looks like to be Avid Readers of Poetry.   We talked about how poetry is a lot like a song.  We hear songs and they get stuck in our heads and we sing them over and over.  So many of the poems we know are often sung like a song.  Making it easy for us to remember, allowing us to be Avid Readers/Listeners of Poetry.   The kinders were able to practice “How To Read a Poem” by….. 1.We read the words. 2. We think about the poem.3. We make our voices match the beat of the poem.  It was fun to practice this by using three familiar poems…It’s Raining It’s Pouring, Ring Around the Rosie and Baby Shark. It is fun to get to keep these poems in our book boxes!

MYSTERY READERS:  Colton and Jase were so surprised to see their mom walk through the door…again. She choose to read Hello, Paws because the boys like baseball and the Detroit Tigers!  A timely story with baseball season in full swing.  

Jacob jumped up excitedly when his mom and younger brother, Austin stepped into the room.  She read a favorite book from when she was a little girl called Mrs. Plug the Plumber.  What a funny, silly story.

KOOL KINDER: We have begun our last round of being the Kool Kinder.  Be on the lookout for the GUESSING JAR!  You will need to fill the jar with some items…but keep the number a secret!

REMINDERS

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

*TAKE HOME Books:  Please help your child to remember to return their book baggie EACH Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so that they are consistent with their read aloud practice and are able to check out a new book each time to build their reading experiences.  Don’t forget to sign the parent sheet and include comments or observations you feel may be helpful.  We only have a few weeks left…keep reading!!!

*REDUCE TRASH:  I posed a challenge to the kinders to see if we could reduce the wrappers thrown away during snack and lunch time.  A few of the kinders choose to take their snacks in containers this week instead of inside baggies.  Hooray!  Any more kinders want to join in the challenge?

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, April 29: GYM; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS 

*TUESDAY, April 30: ART; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS 

*WEDNESDAY, May 1: STEAM;  LIBRARY: Please return your kinder’s book.

 *THURSDAY, May 2: MUSIC; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS 
 

*FRIDAY, May 3: GYM

*WEDNESDAY, MAY 8:  Field Trip to Hemlock Crossing Nature Center & Hager Park.   Please feel free to join us for our picnic lunch.  We will be at the park around 12:00pm. Your kinder will need a paper sack lunch LABELED WITH THEIR NAME and water bottle to enjoy during our picnic lunch.  NO SANDALS, FLIP FLOPS OR CROCS. TENNIS SHOES NEED TO BE WORN!!  We will be walking through woods and trails and playing on a big playground.  Please dress your child according to the weather. We will be OUTSIDE for most of the day!  

*THURSDAY, MAY 9:  EMAIL ME OR SEND A NOTE BY THURSDAY (5/9) IF YOUR KINDER WOULD LIKE A SACK LUNCH ON FRIDAY. 

*FRIDAY, MAY 10:  FAST FRIDAY (Early Release  Dismiss at 12:15pm)  Birthday celebration for Lilly (May 11)

*THURSDAY, May 16— Birthday celebration for Alivia (June 22)

*FRIDAY, May 17–Birthday celebration for Sidney (July 8)

*FRIDAY, MAY 24…..RedWhite and Blue Day!  Wear your RedWhite and Blue to school!!

*MONDAY, MAY 27…Memorial Day, No School

*FRIDAY, MAY 31:  Kindergarten Olympics  Volunteer note (coming home this week) is due Friday, May 17

~~~Have a great weekend.  Mrs. Bohl

WHAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK—April 16-20

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EARTH DAY: We enjoyed making and wearing our Earth Day hats today. We read Just a Gum Wrapper and It’s Earth Day! by Mercer Mayer  among other books to assist in our learning about Earth Day.  We learned how we can take care of the earth and “go green” by recycling paper, cans and bottles, turning off lights when leaving a room, turning off the water while brushing teeth and using containers instead of plastic baggies for snacks. The kinders used this information to create a craft that is hanging in our hallway.  Having a chance to marble paint was part of the fun. 

        

We took a few minutes to find out where the 4th graders each week take our bags of scraps of paper.  The kinders were surprised to learn that we have a big recycling bin in our school parking lot.  Looking inside at all of that paper was pretty cool too. (Sorry…no pictures of that.  I was too busy lifting 24 kinders up to look inside) Many kinders said that they recycle at home.  Keep working to keep our earth healthy and clean.

   

Cheers were heard when I explained what we would be doing with blue & green frosting, a popsicle stick and a cookie……making an Earth Day cookie. Who knew that frosting and cookies make kinders explode with cheers?  🙂 Love it!!

      

SCIENCE…IT ROCKS!:   This week we focused our learning on rocks.  We investigated our rock collections by sorting them to be either rough or smooth.  We also lined them up by size….from smallest to biggest. We continued to investigate our rocks by the look of them, the height, the texture and if whether they would float or sink in water.  Be sure to take a look at their booklet for their answers.  Don’t forget to read the previous posting to learn about our 3 types of rocks experiments.

       

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  The kinders are busy writing steps about how to do something. This week we wrote How to make a birthday wishHow to eat an orange and How to marble paint.They are working so hard remembering to use everything that a good writer uses….popcorn words, put spaces between their words, include sentence stoppers, detailed pictures.  I am so proud of them.  They are amazing writers!!

   

MYSTERY GUEST READERS:  This morning Peyton quickly popped up to hug his dad and say “hi” to his little brother, Chase, when they walked into our room.  He brought along a book that they enjoy reading at home called There’s a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss.  They enjoy reading all of Dr. Seuss’ books.  Thanks for coming in.

   

Later in the morning, Hunter was surprised to see his mom and little sister, Kenzie stop by.  We were happy to hear How to become a pirate.  A story that made us giggle and laugh.  We hearing new stories.

   

READER’S WORKSHOP:  Our focus was all about learning more about characters.  We explored what characters look like, how they act and what they are doing in books.  The kinders searched their books for characters as they read, talking to their partners about what the characters were doing and how the characters looked in these books. 

          

POPCORN WORDS:         THEY          THESE.                                        Be sure to ask your kinder the song that we sing to help us remember the spelling for “they”.  

SPLIT LIT (literacy time):  A few pictures of the kinders working on their literacy skills…reading sight words, building reading fluency, phonics building skills and more while having some fun.

    

 

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Caleb. He turned 6 on Monday. Who would have thought he would celebrate at home because of a snow day. 🙂  Thank you for the gift bags.

NOTES FOR MOM AND DAD

*OUTSIDE SHOES:  THANK YOU for sending your kinder in outside shoes or boots on rainy days.  Please remember that…..OUTSIDE SHOES CAN NOT BE WORN IN THE GYM AS MUD AND DIRT GETS ON THE GYM FLOOR.  PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU CHILD HAS GYM SHOES TO WEAR THAT ARE NOT THEIR OUTSIDE SHOES.  Thank you!

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

*TAKE HOME books:  Please help your kinder to remember to return their book baggie EACH Monday, Tuesday and Thursday so that they are consistent with their read aloud practice and are able to check out a new book each time to build their reading experiences.  Don’t forget to sign the parent sheet and include comments or observations you feel may be helpful.  We only have a few weeks left so let’s end strong! 🙂

*LUNCH MENU:  The May/June lunch menu is available under Food Service tab on the side bar of our blog.

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, APRIL 23: GYM;  reading TAKE HOME BOOKS; 

*TUESDAY, APRIL 24: MUSIC;  reading TAKE HOME BOOKS; GES Art Reception 5:30 p.m. Anderson’s birthday celebration

*WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25: ART;  HOMEWORK DUE….math and literacy  LIBRARY: Please return your kinder’s book; 

*THURSDAY, APRIL 26: STEAM; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS and Rainbow word lists 

*FRIDAY, APRIL 27:  GYM; FUN CENTERS…Parent volunteers please arrive at 1:40pm for instructions

*WEDNESDAY, MAY 9:  Spring Field Trip to Hemlock Crossing Nature Center and Hager Park Park.  Note come home this week.  Return ASAP if you would like to chaperone…FIRST COME FIRST SERVE.  All welcome to Hager Park lunch and playtime. It would be helpful if you would please return the bottom portion of the orange note so that your kinder and I know of your plans. 

*FRIDAY, MAY 11….Fast Friday (Early Release Day dismissal at 12:15pm)

*Friday, May 25…..Red, White and Blue Day!  Wear your Red, White and Blue to school!!

*Monday, May 28.. .Memorial Day, No School

~~~Have a great weekend.     Mrs. Bohl