Woo hoo! We made it through our handwriting practice at the beginning of the year and are moving on to Writer's Workshop! We are so excited to continue our journey as beginning writers. We learned how our workshop format will look each day...we always start with a short 10 or so minute mini-lesson about a writing topic to help us become even better writers, the students then go write, write, write and we finish with a share time.
We first began this workshop time by discussing our writing tools and how to draw a picture. We talked about how authors can write about any topic they want, and we created a writing topics chart about possible ideas of things we can write about. Of course we can write about much more!
We finished our time this week by learning how to label our illustrations by using the beginning sound we hear in the word/picture we are labeling. We are well on our way to becoming amazing kindergarten writers!
Labeling pictures using the beginning sound!
Reading:
This week in reading it was all about the characters in a story. Our CAFE strategy was titled "Name the Characters". We learned that the characters in a book, movie, TV show...are vital for the entire story to be told. Without characters we would not know what is happening or who it is happening to in a story. We learned that characters can be people, animals and even tractors! To be a character, they need to talk, move or have some impact in the story.
I asked the class to take a look at the books and shows they have at home and to bring in a picture of their favorite characters. We had so much fun sharing our favorite characters and why they are our favorites!
We also learned a few new things on our iPads this week! We learned how to use a QR code to listen to a story, read and listen to stories using an app called Epic and we continued to gain more independence in searching for our apps using the search tool on our iPads!
During our review vocabulary lesson on Thursday, we took one of our words "JOB" and went on a hunt around the school to find people doing their jobs. We found so many people doing their jobs and we took pictures of our custodian, nurse and a 5th grade teacher! When we got back to our classroom, we used the app called PicCollage and put the pictures together and labeled the picture with our vocabulary word!
Poem of the week!
Math:
Math this week was full of fun! We learned how to sort by color, use and show positional terms (above, below, behind, in front of, next to, beside, in between and more!) and we practiced our shapes with our GeoBoards both on the iPad and using our GeoBoard squares!
Content:
Pumpkins! This week was all about pumpkins! We even went on our very first field trip to Exploration Acres! Our field trip was full of fun. We got to ride a tractor hay ride to pick a pumpkin out of the patch, go on an adventure through corn mazes, slide down slides, play in corn, search for gems in a gem mine, raise rubber duckies, ride small sized bike tractors and so much more! We had a great time!
The rest of the week we learned about how pumpkins grow from seeds to the big orange pumpkins we love to carve and eat! We read a story called Spookely the Square Pumpkin and created our own colorful and oddly shaped pumpkins. We even had a tasty rice crispy treat that looked just like the character from the story Spookely!
We finished the week off by cutting a pumpkin open and examining the inside and outside of a pumpkin! We used the pictures we took during our pumpkin investigation and used PicCollage to label the pictures with words that described our pumpkin both inside and out!
Other:
Gym class was so exciting this week! We played a game called "Muncher Tag". The object was to try and use the noodle to "munch" or tag the other student if they weren't on base. The trick was they were only allowed to stay so many seconds on base as the number that was written on it before they had to run to another base! So much fun!
PRACTICE AT HOME:
Counting! Whenever you can have your child count for you. Have them count in the car, at dinner or while walking up and down the stairs! Counting in everyday life will help your child with various math skills!
Next Week:
- In reading we will learn the CAFE strategy "Identify the Setting".
- In writing we will learn how to write a sentence using sight words.
- In math we will focus on shapes and numbers!
- Our theme next week is all about Community Helpers!
- Please return your child's "I'd like to be..." community helper homework assignment by Monday
Important Dates/Information:
- 10/9 K-2 Movie Matinee
- 10/9 End of First 9 Weeks
- 10/19-10/22 Parent/Teacher Conferences
- Please send in your conference confirmation paper
- 10/30-Grandparent's Day 10-11AM
- Sending information home Monday
