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News of the Week—March 29-April 1

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Well, we made it!  It is officially SPRING BREAK!  The kinders have been anxiously counting down the days.  Take a peek at what happened this week in kindergarten.

POPCORN WORDS:  A week of review

WRITING:  This week we complied facts about bears onto a large chart and referred to that chart throughout the week.  We organized our facts onto our individual “have, can, are” papers.  As we wrote our informational booklets we asked ourselves “What else can I add?” by remembering what writers and illustrators do…write words and drawing matching detailed, labeled pictures.  The kinders did a great job writing their All About Bears books.

FAIRY TALES—-GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS:  We read MANY stories of The Three Bears…the ‘original’ versions, along with others like Goldilocks and the 3 Hares, Tackylocks and  Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears.  We practiced using different words to describe Goldilocks. For example she had yellow hair, she was naughty, curious, she was rude and likes porridge.  We used the Shape Go map during retell, focusing on what happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of story.  We had fun retelling the story using puppets.  

MATH:  We worked on learning more about number partners of 10 using stars in the night sky, practiced telling story problems with drawings and worked with teen numbers. We had fun finding number partners of 10 using jelly beans in an Easter Basket.

READING: We learned that readers can add an ending to a nonfiction book. Some non-fiction books just end, others invite readers to do something.  Readers can notice & use their nonfiction FEATURE POWER. This power helps us gather even more information about our book. Non-fiction illustrators use bold words, labels and headings to highlight specific facts too.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We worked on …. 

  • writing and reading CVCe words (consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e)
  • writing and reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant)
  • identifying ST and BR blends
  • reading and finding popcorn words in Goldilocks and the 3 Bears story

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG:  The items this week were: a stuffed dog, glow in the dark bat and LOL doll.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAWYER

In between our “regular” learning  this week we squeezed in some fun by….going on an Easter Egg hunt on our playground and by decorating an egg.  The kinders decorated an egg before it was taped to the seat of their chair.  It was the kinders’ responsibility to keep their egg warm by sitting on it while waiting for it to hatch.  Throughout the day on Thursday, the eggs began to hatch chicks….PEEPS chicks that is.  What a lot of fun it was when the kinders realized their egg had hatched.  You just have to LOVE kinder humor and excitement! 

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
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be wet and rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :) 
  • Change of clothes check.  Be sure to check the extra clothes baggy in your kinder’s backpack that they are season and size appropriate.  With spring weather, recess can sometimes get messy.
  • TAKE HOME Books:  Your kinder will not have a book to take home over Spring Break.  They will be taking home a new book to read on Wednesday, April 14.  If you have free time, continue to practice popcorn words, addition & subtraction stories with written partner equations and write various kinds of stories…narrative, informational and pattern books.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, April 12—STEAM. WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL Celebrate Emily’s birthday (4/8)

*Tuesday, April 13—MUSIC

*Wednesday, April 14—GYM; TAKE HOME BOOKS come home again & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!  Celebrate Grayson’s birthday

*Thursday, April 15—ART 

*Friday, April 16–STEAM. Celebrate Sophia’s birthday

***Have a wonderful, safe, relaxing break!  Enjoy creating memories this week with your family   Mrs. Bohl

 

News of the Week—March 22-26

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POPCORN WORDS:  AS    HAS   

MATH:  We reviewed various math concepts such as solving addition & subtraction problems, drawing & writing partner equations for story problems, identifying 3D shapes, writing number partner equations, drawing tens & extra ones for teen numbers on Monday.  On Tuesday, the kinders worked inside their “office spaces” to take the Unit #4 test.  These tests will come home soon.  We began Unit #5 by telling math stories and drawing scenes with teen numbers. We looked for partners of 10 by using Stars in the Night sky.  We solved addition problems by cracking open Easter eggs and rolling a giant die to find partners of 6. We ended the week by playing a fun game called BUNNY HOP.  The kinders LOVED hopping out addition equations to find the answer.

WRITING:  We began a new style of writing….NON FICTION. We read a collection of non-fictional books about pigs and located many interesting facts to write on our chart paper.  We used this information to help us write our information writings All About Pigs.  The kinders are beginning to use spaces between words, popcorn words and sentence stoppers with more regularity.  Hooray for them!

FAIRY TALES:  THE THREE LITTLE PIGS:  We also read the classic story The Three LIttle Pigs as well as some books with a twist The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Three Horrid Pigs and the Big Friendly Wolf and The Three Little Pigs and the somewhat bad pig.  Of course we needed to practice our retelling skills by creating props (character puppets and the straw, stick and brick houses out of a milk carton!) so that your kinder can tell you the story at home. We sang this fun song (using my CD) frequently this week. I found it on YouTube so that you can enjoy it at home. Here is the link to The 3 Little Pigs Blues by Greg and Steve.They also practiced reading popcorn words by playing RUN, PIGGY, RUN. Look for this game inside your kinder’s folder.

READING: We started a new reading unit learning about non-fiction books.  The kinders first reviewed what fiction and non-fiction books are.  Then they learned that reading non-fiction books isn’t that different from fiction books. Readers look closely, ask questions, point and talk so that they become experts on topics. Readers also ask questions, just like reporters do by saying  “This just in…”.  The kinders had fun practicing this after we read a Let’s Find Out newspaper about beavers.  We said “This newspaper was mostly about how beavers build their homes.  One example was……….”  Have fun listening to your reporter give you some facts at home!

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We practiced writing CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, unscrambling sight words and reading sight words, We learned that rhyming words are sometimes spelled the same at the end. Word part power can help us hear and see what is the same in a tricky word so that we can read and write them. Example: hop, top, stop, flop.

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG:  The items this week were: a football, Biscuit the dog, a pet cage, a motorcycle and a parrot

USING OUR 5 SENSES:  We reviewed what our 5 senses were…hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching.  The kinders were then asked to use their 5 senses to observe and describe a bunny Peep.  What fun!

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
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be wet and rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :) 
  • Change of clothes check.  Be sure to check the extra clothes baggy in your kinder’s backpack that they are season and size appropriate.  With spring weather, recess can sometimes get messy.
  • TAKE HOME Books:  Your kinder will not have a book to take home over Spring Break.  They will be taking home a new book to read on Wednesday, April 14.  If you have free time, continue to practice popcorn words, addition & subtraction stories with written partner equations and write various kinds of stories…narrative, informational and pattern books.
  • MONTHLY CALENDARS:  The APRIL calendar can be found under CALENDARS at the top of our blog.  It lists birthdays, events, and more.  Please take time to read it.  I also sent home a paper copy today. Here is the link to the April lunch menu.
  • WEEKLY HOMEWORK:  The subtraction page was missing from the homework packet that was passed out on Wednesday afternoon.  I placed it in your kinder’s return to school section of their Blue Daily Folder.  Please look for it and return it with the homework next Wednesday!

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, March 29—STEAM

*Tuesday, March 30—MUSIC

*Wednesday, March 31—GYM; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!   Homework packet due  

*Thursday, April 1—ART. Read and Feed:  Wear pj’s or comfy clothes for reading!

*Friday, April 2-Friday, April 9 Spring Break—NO SCHOOL

*Monday, April 12. WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL

***Have a wonderful weekend!   Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Nov 2-6

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POPCORN WORDS:  ARE    LITTLE     AM    We met a new reading strategy buddy “Chunky Monkey”.  It reminds us to  look for chunks in words that we know to help us figure out a word.  We did this by adding a letter to the beginning of “am” to make jam, ham, Sam, clam, ram.  We enjoyed reading the shared reading poem You Are and the book Biscuit. . Each day we read this poem and book, noticing popcorn words, rhyming words, making new endings to the poem and more.  It is one of our favorite times of the day.

READING: We started a new reading unit called “We are SUPER READERS!” The kinders learned they have POINTER POWER! The kinders started by looking around the room pointing at words they could read. We learned that we can use our finger to track under the words as we read, so we read the exact words, giving each word one tap, even long words. We did all of this with fun pointy fingers. We also learned about REREAD POWER! When we see words we are not sure of, we can go back and try again. We practiced using both of these new powers while reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, Who Do You See?

MATH:  We practiced showing numbers using using blue dots. We added one blue dot each time to make the number bigger. Then we practiced showing the equations. For example, 2 + 1 = 3.  They noticed the pattern that occurs when you add these numbers, seeing that each number sentence has a + 1, each answer increased by 1.  One kinder said, “Hey it looks like stairs!”  We also focused on shapes and discussed the attributes of a triangle told addition and subtraction math stories by drawing and writing matching equations.  It was fun on Friday to play a Spin and Cover game focusing on shapes.

LITERACY:  The kinders worked as a whole group with Mrs. Bynum and Mrs. DeGroot on syllables, popcorn words (sight words) and vowels (which are super tricky) while Mrs. Bohl continued with assessments in preparation for the upcoming parent/teacher conferences.

WRITING:  We started writing PERSONAL NARRATIVE stories or as the kinders like to call them small moment or true life stories. These are stories about themselves, something that’s happened to them or something they’ve done. Together we wrote about when we were “BOOed” last week. We told what happened over our fingers using transitional words like “First, Next, Last”.  As writers we also told the story across our writing pages.  Then we drew detailed pictures, added labels, stretched out sounds in words before adding colored details.  This was hard work.  I am so proud of the kinders!

PHONICS:  The lessons this week were about listening for sounds in words and for identifying snap words (sight words). The kinders looked at pictures, listened for the ending sounds and wrote the letter on their whiteboards.  Together we helped finish a letter that Mabel wrote to her friend Blue Bear.  We also listened for all the sounds in words by stretching out the word and writing those sounds down.  Finally we practiced identifying snap words even when the font is different.  It was a good week of learning!

HANDWRITING: We practiced writing the lower case letters h,r,n,m,b. Thank you for working on this at home too.  We are continuing to work on writing our names too.

LEARNING ABOUT ELECTIONS:  On Tuesday, we read a newspaper explaining the voting process.  We had fun practicing this process by tasting an Oreo cookie and a chocolate chip cookie. Yum! 🙂 Then, we secretly made our choice on our ballot.  Finally, we tallied and graphed our votes to find the winner.  And the winner was (by a slim margin)……an OREO COOKIE!!!

REMINDERS

WINTER GEAR – Our Michigan weather is changing quickly. Please be sure to gather up those warmer coats, mittens, boots, hats and snow pants. When it snows, this gear is mandatory to play outside. When the snow arrives we do go outside and play! However, if the temperature or wind chill get below freezing we do opt to stay inside. If anyone needs any help with getting these winter items PLEASE let me know. Keep in mind that the goal for all kinders to get their winter gear on and off independently. Please LABEL your Kinder’s winter gear.  It will make it easier for me to help each child keep track of their own belongings.

SNACKS – Please remember to send your kinder with 2 snacks and a water bottle each day. We have a morning and an afternoon snack. Due to COVID restrictions, we can not use our drinking fountain.

Our annual P.E. C.A.R.E.S food drive started this week. We are asking for your help in bringing in non-perishable food items for Love Inc. in Hudsonville.  Food items to consider are canned vegetables and fruits, pasta, rice, baked beans, black beans, kidney beans, peanut butter, tuna fish, etc. (please no ramen noodles) The class with the most items at noon on Nov. 18 will win a bowling trip to Hudsonville Lanes (if allowed later in the year) and a P.E. C.A.R.E.S t-shirt.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS – Happy Birthday to both Isabelle and Jack!  Pictures to come next week.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Nov 9—GYM;  Cade’s birthday celebration

*Tuesday, Nov 10—ART 

*Wednesday, Nov 11—STEAM; Library–Please help your kinder remember their library book.  Homework packet is due    

*Thursday, Nov 12–-MUSIC   If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 11/12.   

*Friday, Nov 13—EXTRA RECESS  Fast Friday (early release) Dismissal at 12:15;  

*Nov. 16 & 18—Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences   Here is the signup link https://calendly.com/kbohl/bohl 

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

Have a great weekend.  Mrs. Bohl

NEWS—Oct. 14-18

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Our busy week of learning in kindergarten…..

COLOR WORDS: BLACK    WHITE       We read Harry the Dirty Dog, Harry and the Neighbor, Harry goes to the sea, Please, Mr. Panda and I’ll wait Mr. Panda as our color theme books.  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 drew a picture of Harry the Dirty Dog.  Our surprise black & white snack this week was OREO cookies.  Not very healthy, I know, but very tasty. 

  

HANDWRITING:  We learned about the three different handwriting lines and how some letters are small, some are tall, and some fall below the lines.  Remembering to always start at the top is tricky so extra reminders at home is helpful. We started practicing the proper formation of Counter Clockwise letters (f,c,a,d).  We will finish the rest of these letters next week.

POPCORN WORDS:   YES   NO  STOP  GO We wrote these words in our journals, found/wrote them in our popcorn paper books, used magnets to create new words by changing the beginning sound (go, no, so, OR stop, mop, top, hop) and in our shared reading poem.  

READING:  As readers, we learned another strategy to use when we get stuck on unknown words.  Tryin’ Lion is a cute beanie baby that tells us to “reread and never give up.”  He joins Eagle Eye ( look closely at the words and picture) and Stretchy Snake (stretch out sounds in words) as useful reading strategies.   Readers also notice that important words have labels to make reading them easier.  We practiced this by labeling important words in two emergent books. The kinders were given a sticky note to use when they located a character showing a feelings.  A good review from last week’s lessons.

MATH: This week the kinders found out that they can tell math stories and solve the answers to their math stories. For example:  3 teddy bears came and sat at a table.  2 more teddy bears joined them.  How many teddy bears are at the table?”  3+2=5  In addition, they practiced drawing pictures of math stories on whiteboards. They used their math toolboxes to show groups of 5 within numbers (5+1=6) and to compare numbers by using a 5 strip and extra one tiles.  They drew groups of 5 and extra ones, wrote number 6 and counted groups of objects inside their workbooks.

WRITING WORKSHOP: During our writing time we learned that writers stretch out sounds in words, the words match the pictures, they talk and share with their partners. We worked together to create another Show and Tell book.  This time it was about our Homes.  The kinders shared information about where they eat, where they sleep and where they like to play with their writing partners before actual drawing and writing each day.  They are doing a fabulous job drawing detailed pictures, labeling parts of their drawings and trying their best to write a matching sentence such as “I eat at the table. I sleep in my bed. I play in the playroom.” (We try to use as many popcorn words as possible when we write together!)  On Friday, we met with Mrs. Tindall’s class to read our books together and celebrate being awesome writers!

LITERACY:  This week the kinders worked as a whole group with Mrs. Bynum while I reassessed the kinders are their letters/sounds and rhyming words.  We have been working hard in mastering these skills during Split Lit and in small groups.  Their activities focused on sight words, rhyming words, distinguishing between letter b and letter d and listening for sounds in the beginning, middle and end of words.  Look for a note in your kinder’s folder informing you of your kinder’s progress in the coming weeks.  Our shared reading book was filled with rhyming words.

MYSTERY READER: On Wednesday afternoon, Kennedy was surprised…again.  This time it was her grandma who came to read a story to us.  She brought The Day the Crayons Talked because Kennedy LOVES to color. A fun story to hear especially since we are learning our colors words!

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

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.

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!

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Oct 21—ART

*Tuesday, Oct 22—STEAM 

*Wednesday, Oct 23—MUSIC; Library–Please help your kinder remember their library book.  Homework packet is due 

*Thursday, Oct 24–GYM    

 *Friday, Oct 25—ART; Wear ORANGE

*Tuesday, Oct 29—Picture Re-Take Day AND Turkey Trot 

*Tuesday, Oct 29—Fall Party games and craft items should be sent into school

*Thursday, Oct. 31—Fall Class Party, 2:00-3:00 p.m.  Food items should be sent into school in the morning 

*Nov. 15—Fast Friday (early release) Dismissal at 12:15

*Nov. 18—Parent-Teacher Conferences

*Nov. 20—Parent-Teacher Conferences

*Nov. 27—Nov. 29—NO SCHOOL, Thanksgiving Vacation

*Dec. 12—Holiday Program…Details coming

Have a fabulous weekend with your kinder.  They are very special little people who I am so thrilled to be spending my days with.  Mrs. Bohl