Week in Review-Fall

Reading:
We had a fantastic week reading and learning all about FALL! Our main CAFE strategy that we focused on this week was "Sequencing". We talked about how when retelling a story it is important to know what happened first, second, third and fourth in order to tell the story correctly. If we retell a story out of sequence it might sound confusing! We discussed how things we do everyday are also in a specific sequence and if we did those things out of order it would be just silly and not make sense! We took pictures from books we read this week and put them in the correct order!

We learned a new app this week called "Skitch". This app has the students practice with the camera tool by taking a picture, using an arrow to point to parts in the picture, use the marker tool to label the picture and then save the picture to the camera role and start a new one! The students also learned how to delete marks or unwanted arrows that were made, as well as use the various tools and colors within the app!

Skitch

Sequencing

Using the app "Have Fun Teaching" for a little fun laid back video watching during morning work!

Writing:
This week in writing we discussed how writer's begin their sentences with more words than the word "I". We are really familiar with writing "I like..." or "I see..." sentences and are beginning to branch out by using the sight words "we, the, a, to" and more to begin our sentences! We also continued to focus on writing the beginning and ending sounds we hear in words that are not sight words. One of our favorite tricks to remembering how to write and spell sight words is pretending to take a picture of the sight word, write it down and then check it. We practiced doing this as a class for one of our mini-lessons this week!

Math:
This week was filled was so much math fun! We started the week off by learning a new math vocabulary word and writing that word in our math journals! We will eventually will be working in the math journals independently, but we will continue to practice whole group until we get the "hang" of it.

Our classroom exploded with QR codes again this week! We used the same QR codes from last week where we scanned a code and one of the numbers 11-20 showed up on our iPad. This week, we practiced scanning those codes in again and then toggled back and forth between our QR app and DoodleBuddy. In the DoodleBuddy app we wrote the word and either drew circles or dots that many times or we used the stamper tool to stamp that many times.

We added two new choices to our Math with Someone choice. These choices have the students practice sorting by shape and counting shapes and discussing with their partner "most, least, same". The second activity was working with links and number cards. One partner chooses a card and adds that many links to the card. The partner then checks the links by counting them to see if there is the correct amount on the card.

Math with Someone Choices

Content:
Autumn leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down.....woo hoo! We love Autumn! We started our week of learning about the season of Fall by scanning a QR code during morning work of Mrs. Brown telling the class what our new theme is for the week. Then each student scanned QR codes on the front table that linked to short educational videos about what animals, plants, people do in the Fall and why we even have a change of seasons. After viewing the video, the students were to come to me and tell me something they learned or heard on the video. I was impressed with what they learned!

A few other fun times we had this week with our learning about Fall focused around going on a leaf hunt, reading several books, measuring leaves, counting leaves and creating a leaf rubbing using our leaves from the leaf hunt!

Leaf Hunt

Leaf  Measuring and Rubbing

 



Other:

Thank you to everyone for coming to your child's Parent/Teacher conferences. Education plays such an important role in our lives and the sooner your child sees how important it is to his/her parents and their teachers, they will continue to believe in the importance as well. Each and every step taken at school and home helps your child improve in all subject areas. Keep up the great work you all are doing at home to help your child succeed both in and outside of the classroom!

We loved putting together a short video to welcome our families to conferences this week! If you didn't get a chance to see it, scan the code below!


   

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Go through various parts of your day, steps to making dinner, bedtime routine and put the steps in order and talk about how they need to be in a specific sequence in order to work. Try and do something out of order and see if it ends up working out or not working exactly right.

 

Next Week:

• In reading we will learn the CAFE strategy "Analyze the Characters".
• In writing we will learn how to write the middle sound(s) in a word.
• In math we will focus on 3D shapes!
• Our theme next week is all about Spiders!

Important Dates/Information:

• 10/28-Picture Retakes
• 10/30-Grandparent's Day 10-11AM
• 11/5 & 11/6-Donuts with Dad
• 11/11-Veteran's Day Program
• 11/19-Parent University



Week in Review--Fire Safety

Math:
This week was all about numbers 11-20! We practiced writing, counting and drawing objects with those numbers. At the end of the week, we used QR codes with a partner to reveal one of those numbers. After we recognized the number, we counted to that number by doing jumping jacks, touching our toes, side steps and more! We also learned how to use an app called DoodleBuddy to show the number!

We have a new choice at Math by Myself. This new choice has all the numbers 1-10 on a play-doh mat! We create circles of play-doh and place them in various objects, after we have the correct amount, we squish the play-doh down while counting to that number.

Reading:
This week in reading we focused on Text Features in books, middle sounds and vocabulary words. We learned that authors use various text features to make certain words and ideas stand out. They can use boxes around words, highlight words, make words BIG or small, use bubble letters, wiggly letters, labels, headings and more! As we read stories this week we looked for these features and discussed why the author decided to write the words that specific way!

During our accuracy mini-lessons the last few weeks we have focused on beginning and ending sounds. This week we continued to work on sounds, but focusing more on the middle sound(s) you hear in words. We wrote the middle sounds, stretched out words and repeated the middle sound and worked with partners on middle sounds!

During our morning work activity time this week we practiced with QR codes! Students first scanned a code on the board that linked to a video of me telling them their task for the morning. They then went around the room hunting for more QR codes. After they scanned the code, they read the name of a classmate and went to write that name down. The object was to hunt for their own name, all the while finding their friends! Once they found their name, they circled it on their paper and then continued hunting for more names!

Our vocabulary review lesson this week was so much fun! We reviewed the word "sprinkled". Each student sat by their iPad partner and took turns drawing a cupcake and adding sprinkles or a piece of pizza and sprinkling cheese on it. After the drawing, they wrote the word by stretching out the word and writing down the sounds they hear!

Writing:
This week in writing we learned how adding the words "a, the" and even "to" help our sentences in our writing journals sound even better! We also began writing the beginning and ending sound we hear in unknown words that are not our sight words. Students learn that all sight words should be spelled correctly, but any other word is written with the sounds they hear in the word. Some students have moved on from writing just the beginning and ending sound and are writing all of the sound they hear in the word! I am beyond impressed at how these kindergarteners are moving right along during our writing workshop time!

Content:
Fire Safety week was a success! We had so much learning about fire safety both in our homes and at school! We learned all about what fire fighters do, how to keep our homes safe and what to do in case of an emergency! One of our favorites was the STOP DROP AND ROLL lesson! We practiced stopping, dropping and rolling the flames out and made a fun hat to remind us of those three important words! At the end of the week, we combined the shapes we have learned in math class to create a fire truck!




























Other:
Every Friday (if we have time and we really, really try to have time) we focus on PLAYING! We get out our play centers and work on sharing, using kind words, using our imagination and getting along with our friends! I absolutely LOVE this time of the week. Getting to see the kids be KIDS in their element just exploring and having fun makes me smile! I hope every Friday we have time in the afternoon to enjoy being KIDS!

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Have your child stretch out words and tell you the sounds he/she hears when stretching those sounds out. Focus on three sounds, the beginning, middle and end. Some words have a LOT of sounds you hear and even some blended sounds. If they hear more sounds than those three, that is fantastic! Point out objects around the house and stretch the words out together!

 

Next Week:

• In reading we will learn the CAFE strategy "Sequencing".
• In writing we will learn how to write a sentence with words other than "I".
• In math we will focus on numbers in the teens!
• Our theme next week is all about FALL!

Important Dates/Information:

• 10/19-10/22 Parent/Teacher Conferences
• 10/22- First Nine Week's Awards Program
• 10/30-Grandparent's Day 10-11AM