November 9-13

Wow! Was it a crazy week! The students did so great with welcoming back with open arms! They have been so nice and well behaved. 

This week, for read aloud, we read "Wemberly Worried". We practiced predicting, retelling the important parts of our story, studying our main character, connecting to our main character, answering comprehension questions, and telling our favorite part. 

Our poem was called "Out in the Garden". We made movements to our poem, practiced our movements, wrote words that rhyme with rake, and found vowels in our poem. 

Our big book was "Not Quite Right". We enjoyed trying to guess why Carly's playhouse was just not quite right yet. (she was missing her friends). 

For community writing, we thought of ways to make our worries go away just like Wemberly did in "Wemberly Worried". 

For writing, we finished up our writing unit and had an authors celebration where we shared 1 writing piece with the whole class. We have worked so hard on writing. We learned how to tell a true story, what details to add, how to write sentences, and how to edit our writing to get it ready to share. 

For handwriting, we practiced lowercase O and S. 

Our new word wall word was "is". "Is" is a tricky word wall word because it sounds like there should be a Z at the end but it is an S. 

In math we have been practicing counting by 2's. We have also been practicing writing equations. 

Red Squirrel vs. Gray Squirrel

 

Yesterday, we went outside into Thorson's outdoor classroom with Miss Rachel. We broke into 2 groups and pretended we were squirrels hiding our nuts for the winter! One group was red squirrels and they hid their nuts in one spot. The other group was gray squirrels and they hid their nuts all over. We found out that it is hard to find the nuts you have hidden if you are a gray squirrel because you may have forgotten where you put them. If you are a red squirrel, your whole stash of nuts could be taken all at once. Being a squirrel in wintertime is hard work! 

Fun Fall Week!

We had so much fun this week while learning a lot!     Since there were snowflakes last Sunday, we decided to play in our own snow (writing sight words, numbers, and tallies in shaving cream).  We learned about spiders and made some fun hats!  And just in case your child didn't tell you... one fact we learned was that girls spiders eat boy spiders :).  We also had fun with pumpkins this week!  Students did an awesome job painting their own pumpkins!

In Literacy, we focused on the book Spookley the Square Pumpkin.  We made predictions, discussed Spookley's character traits, and discussed the problem and solution of this story as well as other ways the problem could have been solved.   We learned the sight words "in" and "at" as well as finished learning all the letters in the alphabet, which is why their yellow phonics notebooks came home.  When Mrs. Kuck comes back the focus will be on word families.  

In writing, we have been so busy!  We have been learning how to form uppercase letters.  We have been learning to write sentences with a capital letter at the beginning, finger spaces between each word, and a punctuation mark at the end.  We have learned that pages have more that one sentence and that stories need to have an ending to them.  This week we will be going through our writing binders and I can't wait for your child to bring home his/her work to share with you!  What they have learned how to do in just 38 days of school has been AMAZING!

In math, the kids were SO excited to use candy corn as manipulatives!  We had fun making patterns, sorting, graphing and tallying our candy corn.  We also used candy corn when playing math bingo.  We continued to work on these skills with our math curriculum as well as continued to work with ten-frames and comparing numbers using greater than, less than, and equal to. 

I want to send a BIG THANK YOU to all the families that we able to send items in to help make this past week so much fun for the kids!!!  

At the end of the day on Friday we were able to have a Google Meet meeting with Mrs. Kuck and baby Luna.  We all danced to a song then modeled our costumes for Mrs. Kuck while also showing her the pumpkins each child painted.  

I hope these meetings we have had with Mrs. Kuck will have helped each and every student with the transition when she comes back!  Mrs. Kuck will back on Monday, November 9th and I can't stop telling her what an ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL class she has!!!  It has truly been a joy to have worked with you and your child this first quarter of kindergarten, even in such a difficult time!  Thank you for your patience as we began the school year with so many uncertainties and for trusting me with your child!  

Our Weekly News

We had fun talking more about fall this week and thought with all the colors, it was a great idea to work on learning some color words too!  

Literacy

We had fun reading Otis and describing his character traits.  We read other Otis stories and students made connections between all of them.  One thing they noticed was that Otis was always kind, caring and helpful.  This week we also learned to retell the story of Otis but we did it in a different way.  Each table took one part of the story and had to work together to draw and label what was happening in their one part.  Then I worked with each group to help them make a sentence and write the sounds they heard.  I couldn't believe how SO unbelievably engaged students were and how well they did with working together!!  I am so proud of them!  Here are a few of their pictures.  (I also tried to have each group practiced standing in front of the class to share their part of the story but, we need a little more to practice this before we record it and upload it on SeeSaw :)  Look for it soon!)

 

This week we learned the sight words "it" and "you".  We reviewed letters and sounds, continued to work on phonemic awareness skills and started actual center time (modified this year of course).  One of the centers we are doing this year is called Lexia.  It is a literacy based program that students do on their Chromebooks.  Each child plays various games at his or her own level and it modifies the different skills when needed.  Students are allowed to use this program at home, but it is something they will often be doing in the classroom too.  

Writing

We worked hard this week on writing about places we love.  We also learned that we could take one of those places, such as school, and create a plan where we write about the different parts of school on different pieces of paper.  For example, one page could be about recess, another page could be about art, etc. 

In handwriting this week we learned how to write the letters B/R/N/M using the correct formation with big lines, little lines, and little curves.  

Math 

We continued to work on identifying numbers, writing numbers with correct formation, counting forwards and backwards, and identifying/making/describing a given number using a ten frame.  This week we also learned the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols.  We had fun comparing numbers with cards and playing a game working on this skill with our table partners.  

We also started to explore another new program called Dreambox.  This is much like the literacy program Lexia where it gives students math skills, in a game format, based on their own ability level.  This program however, is connected to the Bridges math curriculum that school district uses.  Dreambox can also be found on each child's Clever pages once they log into their Chromebook.  Students may use this program at home as well.

Friday Fun...I wish I took a picture! 

If your child didn't tell you... at the end of the day on Friday we had a Google Meeting with Mrs. Kuck!  They got to see her and her dog Bear (baby Luna was sleeping), show Mrs. Kuck the following directions-scarecrow drawing that they were finishing up, and even ask her questions.   I plan to do this a few more times over the next three weeks to help students with the transition!  Mrs. Kuck will be coming back on Monday, November 9th.  

Also, we are now having library class every Monday so please have your child read the books he/she brings home and send them back to school on or before the following Monday.  We are also done with art class and as of Monday we will be starting physical education, which takes place outside as long as the weather cooperates!  Please make sure your child has tennis shoes and warm clothes!        

  

Weekly Newsletter - Fun in Art!

We had a great 4 day week!  This week we began to talk about fall and learn color words.  We have enjoyed this nice weather and even took time to do some work in Thorson's outdoor classroom!

Literacy 

We focused on Knuffle Bunny, by Mo Willems, this week and we also enjoyed reading Knuffle Bunny Too and Knuffle Bunny Free! We practiced re-telling this story, made predictions, and discussed the similarities and differences between all three stories.  Our poem this week was The Itsy Bitsy Spider but it was different than you might expect!    

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The itsy bitsy spider

Crept up on ____________'s head.

He wiggled all around

Then used it for a bed.

He scampered down _________ back

And hopped down to the floor.

Then that itsy bitsy spider

Squeezed underneath the door.

We learned about the letters Jj, Ee, Oo and Qq as well as the sounds they make and words that start with these letters.  We learned the sight words "the" and "we".  We found them in books, spelled them in fun/active ways, and wrote them in sentences.  Also, in our Heggerty phonics curriculum we started to learn about syllables.

Writing

This week finished our first unit by having students choose one of their writing pieces and, together, we went through a checklist to learn the editing process.  We began a new unit called Show and Tell.  Thank you for having your child bring in one item that was special to them!  We learned that we have so much more to say when we have a connection to something.  We continued to practice the writing process with our special object which is to think of something to write about, put those ideas on paper with drawings, put as many labels as you can, and begin/attempt to write sentences. Today we re-read our story from yesterday and added more details such as colors and more labels.  

We also started our handwriting curriculum called Handwriting without Tears.  We learned how to correctly form the letters F, E, D, P using "big lines, little lines, big curves, and little curves".  We also learned a song called "Where Do You Start Your Letters?"... and the answer is at the top! :)  Developmentally this can be tricky because so many kids start making letters from the bottom up.                         

Math

We continued to work on counting (forwards and backwards), writing numbers with the correct formation, and creating different number combinations to make a given number.  We also started working on making patterns with up to three elements including AB, ABC, AAB, ABB.  

Social Skills

This year as part of PBIS, students can earn Cedarburg Pride tickets.  These are given to students as a reward when they are showing good character and setting a good example/being a good leader, doing what is expected of them, doing something kind for someone else without being asked, etc.  We have a wonderful class and each student has earned a few tickets!  The tickets all go into a grade level bucket and on the last day of each week two names are pulled.  Those students then get to choose a fun prize (extra recess for the class, talking on the morning announcements, bringing in something for show and tell, etc.).  We have had 3 names from our class pulled already and I will be sending you an email if your child happens to be a lucky winner! Keep showing that wonderful Cedarburg Pride kindergarteners!