Tag Archives: popcorn words

News of the Week—Jan 11-15

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

REMINDERS:

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

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

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

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 18— MUSIC

*Tuesday, January 19—GYM

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

*Thursday, January 21—STEAM 

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

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

*Monday, February 8: Winter Break

Have a great weekend.   Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Nov 16-20

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

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

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

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

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

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

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS for this month 

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

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

UPCOMING DATES

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Tues Dec 1 Virtual learning begins 

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

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

 

News of the Week–Oct 5-9

A busy week of learning in school.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION:  Cora turned 6 on Oct 6! 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Oct 12—STEAM 

*Tuesday, Oct 13—MUSIC 

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

*Thursday, Oct 15–ART 

 *Friday, Oct 16—STEAM;  Wear ORANGE

Have a fabulous weekend.  ~~Mrs. Bohl

 

 

NEWS—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—Oct. 28-Nov 1

POPCORN WORDS:   IN   ALL   It was fun to see that we could make some new words by adding different letters to ALL and IN.   Our daily message does not just contain our weekly words but also includes popcorn words we have already learned. That makes reading the daily message so fun!  Our shared reading poem and book allowed us to read familiar popcorn words.  

COLOR WORD:     BROWN    The kinders had fun reading brown bear books like Bear feels scared, Bear Can’t Sleep and Very Hairy Bear 

We also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? .  We continued to practice our storytelling skills as we retold (and sang) the story many times this week.  Enjoy having your kinder practice their skills at home when they retell the story for you using their storytelling strip.  We made a brown bear hat while wearing brown. Thank you for helping your kinder participate in our color days by wearing particular colors.  The kinders (and I) looked forward to these fun days. The kinders enjoyed eating teddy grahams for the surprise brown snack.

 

MATH: We continued to tell math stories (even using real candy corn pieces) to solve the answers to the 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   We practiced writing tricky numbers 8 & 9 too. Friday math games were FALLING LEAVES (matching the group of dots to the number) and MISSING PUMPKINS (writing numbers & ID numbers in 1-10 order). 

SCIENCE:  Our weekly newspaper helped us learn about the seasons of a tree.

WRITING: We continued with our Show and Tell Unit.  At the beginning of the week the kinders wrote a pattern book about a leaf. We closely observed our individual leaves, noticing the shape and color.   We used the pattern, “This is a…”.  to write our pages about the stem, vein, color. I am so proud of how far the kinders have come in writing!  We start a new unit next week of writing personal narratives! 

READING WORKSHOP:  It was all about learning how to increase and  our stamina.  We started the week by reading quietly, staying in our own spot, staying on task for 5 minutes.  We increased to 7 min 20 seconds.  Way to go kinders!  Next week we start learning about Super Powers and how they can help us become better readers.

CHOICES: Our favorite time of the day to learn and put into practice important social skills such as sharing, taking turns, being creative and working together.

HANDWRITING:  We learned how “clockwise letters” (h,r,n,m,b) are written. It was so fun using gelboards to write them too. Keep up practicing at home….it is helping!

MYSTERY READERS:  Wednesday afternoon Jude and Kieran were so happy to see their aunt (and mom) walk in our room.  Their aunt was visiting their family all the way from Ireland.  What a special treat.  She read the boys favorite story…A Book With No Pictures.  What a funny, silly story!

Friday morning Kylie was the one to jump up and hug her mom.  She read us Desert Night, Desert Day because Kylie has relatives who live by the desert.  What a sweet story introducing us to animals who live in the desert.  She even brought their squishy catus to go along with the story.

REMINDERS

SNACKS:  Please remember to send in 2 snacks for your Kindergartner each day.  I do have graham crackers if it is forgotten.  Donations of graham crackers are ALWAYS welcome!!  Our supply is going fast! 🙂

WINTER GEAR:   Brrrr….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.  Also, if your kinder needs new boots this season, please, please purchase boots with velcro closings NOT with tie up laces.  Keep in mind that the goal for all kinders to get their winter gear on and off independently. Label, Label, Label your kinder’s winter gear.  It will make it easier for me to know which black snow pants belong to your kinder.

HEADPHONES:   Send in headphones for STEAM if not already done so.  Thank you to all who have already sent them into school.

CALENDARS:  Please refer to the November calendar that was sent home for events, birthdays, etc or view it at the top of the blog under CALENDARS AND SCHEDULES.  The November lunch menu is also available on the Food Service website.

 

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Nov 4—MUSIC

*Tuesday, Nov 5—GYM  

*Wednesday, Oct 30—ART; Library–Please help your kinder remember their library book.  Homework packet is due    

*Thursday, Oct 31–-STEAM    

*Friday, Nov 1—MUSIC  Wear  RAINBOW COLORS  

*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… 6:30 p.m. at Fair Haven Church in Jenison.  More details coming as date approaches.

Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to change your clocks to FALL BACK this weekend.  Mrs. Bohl

 

NEWS OF THE WEEK—Jan 14-18

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. This is what first graders do and we are practicing to do the same.  Thank you for the encouragement from home!  Their choices make the difference in their learning.  

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); MAKE 5 (number partners of 5); SNOWBALL COVERALL (identifying 1-20 & matching them to 1-20 in ten frames) and BEARS IN THE CAVE (identifying number partners of 6 & 7).  

 

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:  We reviewed that a small moment is a true story that happened to us and is a small part of a larger story that takes places during one event.  At the beginning of the week we worked together to create a list of “seed” stories about school. Then we chose a small moment story about being the Kool Kinder and enjoying taking Snuggles home. We practiced telling the story over our fingers using the words first, next last.  (First, we draw a stick out of the box. Next I take Snuggles home. Last I tell my friends what I did with Snuggles). Then we drew detailed pictures and worte as many popcorn words as we could and stretched out sounds in unknown words Don’t forget that we also work to include spaces between popcorn words and sentence stoppers (punctuation). Wow!!  This is a VERY challenging unit for kinders! I am proud of their perseverance and effort.  We are working to do our best!! ( I will do better next week taking pictures during this time.  We are just so busy that I that forget.  Sorry 🙁

SPLIT LIT:  This week the kinders worked on beginning sounds, rhyming, sorting upper & lower case letters, sentence order in their independent centers.  They worked on identifying the initial, medial and final sounds in words with Mrs. Rossback and read books while I re-assessed kinders on literacy skills.  I am so proud of their progress.  You will find a note listing the skills your kinder will be working on next inside of their blue folder.

HANDWRITING: The SLANT TO START letters A,Y,V,W,X  was spotlighted this week. This completed learning the formation of uppercase letters.  We will continue to review formation of ALL letters during writing times.  We will begin to write our “full name”  on our papers too….starting next week.  This means ONLY the first letter is capital and the rest of the letters are lower case.  The  kinders are able to write their full name but many of the letters are written incorrectly.  There is a mix of upper and lower case letters within the first and last name. Please begin practicing this new skill at home. Thanks! 🙂

READING:  This week we learned that we can activate our PERSEVERANCE POWER…that means we don’t give up! We continue to try to use all of our super powers while we read.  We also learned that readers use their voices to bring a book to life….and to make it exciting and interesting to read. We don’t want to sound like a robot but try to read fluently. The kinders are doing an awesome job!  We are increasing our reading time too.  We are averaging 15 minutes a day. Hooray for reading! 

 

MYSTERY READERS:  Lila was thrilled and excited to see that her mom (and baby sister, Nora ) was the mystery reader on Wednesday afternoon.  We heard There is a Monster at the End of the Book because her mom LOVED hearing this story when she was a kinder and Lila LOVES the book now!  How fun to pass down favorite stories.

Friday morning Lillian’s mom & Grandma entertained us with reading the book Not quite Norwhal.  A sweet story about learning who you are and accepting others.

REMINDERS

*BACKPACK SNACK:  Please remember to send TWO snacks each day with your kinder. They would probably enjoy a snack from home. Thanks so much for making these snacks healthy ones!  

*TAKE HOME BOOKS:  The TAKE HOME books will begin Monday! Thank you in advance for reading this book with your kinder and reminding them to return these books in the baggies each Monday,Tuesday and Thursday.   

*WINTER CLOTHES:  Thank you for dressing your child in warm outside winter gear.  Sending an extra pair of mittens or socks inside their backpacks might be helpful.

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY. JAN. 21–-ART; reading TAKE  HOME BOOKS; MLK Day

*TUESDAY. JAN 22–-STEAM; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS   

*WEDNESDAY. JAN. 23–MUSIC; LIBRARY Please remember to return your kinder’s book.

*THURSDAY. JAN. 24–-GYM; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS 

*FRIDAY. JAN. 25ART; birthday celebration for Tinley (1/26)

*FRIDAY. FEB. 1—Fast Friday (Early Release)

*MONDAY. FEB. 4 & TUESDAY. FEB 5—Winter Break Day—No School

*WEDNESDAY. FEB 6—School begins again

*THURSDAY. FEB 7—Day 100 Celebration…information coming soon

*THURSDAY. FEB. 14—Valentine’s Day Party 2:00-3:00pm A sign up sheet for volunteering and donations will be posted this weekend.  

~~ So many good things happening at school. We are learning a lot!  Have a great weekend!    Mrs. Bohl