We've had a great two day week, reading about Thanksgiving, writing lists, and having our feast! Please look through your child's binder during the week...there are lots of things in there for you! I also have a special note for your child, too. I would appreciate it if you'd help him/her read it. I'm thankful for each one of the Peeps, and for YOU, too! Without your interest and support, we wouldn't be able to do everything we're doing. The children are learning so much, and showing amazing growth. We're on our 65th day learning together! Thank you for all you do! There is no school the rest of this week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Next week's schedule:
Monday is E Day - Library/Technology (Please remember library books.) Tuesday is A Day - Art Wednesday is B Day - Music Thursday is C Day - P.E. Friday is D Day - P.E. Click here to view our lunch menu.
Dates to Keep in Mind:
Tuesday, December 20: Winter Holiday Party
Wednesday, December 21-Tuesday, January 3: No School (Winter Break)
Wednesday, January 4: School Resumes
The first part of our Thanksgiving "feast" was a Squanto Snack. This snack helps us remember how Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn in the springtime. First, you need the soil. We crushed two Oreo cookies in a bag!
Then, we added corn seeds, and planted a dead fish next to them. The dead fish fertilizes the corn seeds, and helps the plant grow strong! Hmmm...candy corn and Swedish fish, planted in Oreo dirt. Can this be good?
We're not so sure about this snack...
WOW! It's actually very tasty!
The second part of our "feast" was the turkey that I baked in our Pretend Place kitchen. (We read some Thanksgiving stories this morning, and they made us hungry for Thanksgiving dinner. I told the children I'd bake a turkey in our oven, and they were very skeptical. I went into Pretend Place, and rattled around in the kitchen, getting everything I needed to cook a turkey. Then when we were eating our Squanto Snack, the turkey was ready!)
Yum!! Tasty popcorn "turkey!"
That was delicious! We ate it all up! Happy Thanksgiving!
Student leaders in our school developed the challenge to be more positive and show kindness to others. We're working on that all of the time in KINDergarten! We made a kindness tree to show how we are kind each day!
We had an exciting start to our week with "Moon Day!" The boys and girls loved learning all about the moon, and deciding what they would pack for a trip to the moon. They even had small moon souvenirs to take home!
Please look for 2nd quarter progress reports in binders today. Any item marked with an "x" is a skill that you can help your child practice at home. Please note that "counts objects 11-20" is highlighted. We have worked on that as a group thus far, and I haven't assessed the children individually. If you have any questions for me about progress reports, please don't hesitate to email or call.
We're using our Pointer Power and Re-Reading Power every day. We're working on a new strategy, too--"Get your mouth ready." That means to look at the first letter of a word, and get your mouth ready for that sound. Your brain can often think of the word that would make sense in the sentence, when your mouth starts with the first sound. When pointing to the words in a book, it also helps to point to that first letter. Even though we're at the busy holiday season, please continue practicing sight words at home, and working on your reading log goals.
Please look for your child's "If I Were President" writing in binders today. This week, we focused on writing lists, and developing more confidence stretching out words. We know that when we're writing we need to say the word out loud, stretch the word to hear the sounds clearly, and then write the sounds we hear. Sometimes we have to stretch each word a few times in order to write the sounds down. This can be a very difficult skill, because Kindergartners want to get things right. They know that there is a way that words look, and it's easy for them to get stuck asking, "How do you spell___?" The best answer to that is, "Write the sounds you hear" (unless it's a sight word, and then we say, "What does that word look like?"). As we've written lists this week of things we need to take to the moon, things we like to do at recess, and things we're thankful for, we're building confidence and stamina for stretching words out. We're learning that it's OK to try your best and write the sounds you hear!
At home, you can help by letting your child write lists for you. Write a list of items you need when shopping, a list of jobs to do around the house, a list of things you want for the holidays!
"Come on, everybody, let's get this done! Numbers in the teens, they start with a one!" We practiced singing this song this week, as we've practiced writing numbers in the teens. We are using our counting strategies to compare numbers to see which group is greater, less than, or equal to another group. We reviewed shapes this week, as I completed assessments for progress reports. Hexagons, octagons, and trapezoids are still very tricky for many of the Peeps. Please look for another math activity in your child's orange zippered pouch coming soon. We need to keep practicing those shape names!
Chapter 5 pages from our science book talk about the "Earth and Sky." Remember that these are great to re-read at home, and you can count them on your child's reading log! We've been talking about how the weather changes as seasons change. We had record-high temperatures on Thursday, and then it was much cooler today! We've started learning about the first Thanksgiving, and how the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims survive their first winter in America. We will be learning more about this on Monday and Tuesday of next week.
Monday is C Day - P.E. Please remember to wear tennis shoes!
Tuesday isD Day - P.E. Please remember to wear tennis shoes! There is no school Wednesday-Friday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Click here to view our lunch menu.
Dates to Keep in Mind:
Tuesday, December 20: Winter Holiday Party
Wednesday, December 21-Tuesday, January 3: No School (Winter Break)
Wednesday, January 4: School Resumes
