The week of Sept. 5-8.

I sure enjoyed my 3 day weekend!  I hope you did too!  The kids shared a lot of fun things they did in their journals today!  We are working on using at least 5 different colors on our pictures, labeling our pictures, and writing the date!  They are really doing well adding details to their picture!  I have quite the bunch of illustrators!

This week in reading we are continuing to read books about going to school.  We review the parts of a book, look for the five finger retell, and we are making predictions about the ending.

Poetry:  Can I tell you what the person is called that writes poems?  This has been tough for the kids to remember as it seems to be introduced to them for the first time.  We talk a lot about authors and illustrators but not poets.  Can you child tell you the difference between a poem and story?

Rhyming is an important skill in kindergarten.  If they hear rhymes, they will also understand how word families rhyme, which will help them spell words.  For instance; man, fan, can, pan--all rhyme and are called word families.  If I can spell one of the words, I can spell all of them by changing the first letter.

Body Walk:  We began body walking last week when sounding out to read words and spell words.  We place our hands on our head to say the first sound of a word, then or hands go on our shoulders for the second sound, and on our waist for the third sound.  Then, we blend the word by moving our hands from our head to our waist.  The kids just learned about his last week and we will continue to sound out words using it.  Body walking helps us give a place to a sound/letter so we don't forget the first, middle, and last of each cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) word.  You will see your child do this as we are reading words more.

Syllables:  We have clapped out the syllables in our first names already.  This week we will be clapping out the syllables in our last name.  Can I show you at home?

Grandparents Day!:  Did you know Grandparents Day is this Sunday, Sept. 10?  The kids will be making cards for their grandparents.

Sight words:  can, blue  (We are getting good at putting our sight words in sentences!  We are learning that if we put can at the beginning, it will turn in to a question!) 

Color of the week:  blue is our color of the week!  Please have your child wear blue tomorrow, Wednesday!

Handwriting--  This week I will be introducing the letters:  Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq and the numbers 7, 8.  Look for another number writing packet for 7, 8 coming home on Friday.  Thank you for getting those turned in the day after your child brings them home.  Since, it is a review, they should be able to write them easily.

Math this week:  We are on Topic 2 now.  Comparing numbers and Ordering 0 to 5.
We will learn about more, fewer, same as.  The word fewer can be confusing at this age.  I let them know it means the same as less, but they do need to know how to use the word fewer.  It may be helpful if you use more and fewer at home also when counting out things such as plates or utensils for dinner.  If someone is missing a utensil, you could ask how much fewer utensils than plates are there.  Or how many more.

Imagination Station:  The kids are absolutely playing terrific together!  We have one more day in our 8 day rotation of learning what to do in all of them.  Then on Wednesday, the kids will get to choose where they want to go.  We will be talking about how if there's only one student at a station, they may like a friend to play with.  The class has been with the same kids in each rotation, so it will be interesting to see how they play with others.

Istation:  Istation is an app on our laptops that are educational and work on skills that your child needs to focus on.  First, the kids will work on it to get a baseline, so it knows what level they are learning at.  Then, they will get to play on it during my Ipad station of my Daily Five rotations.  It is also available for your child to work on at home to improve their level they are on and progress on certain skills.  The class will test on Istation next week.  I will let you know the info. you need for your child to work on it at home too after they have tested.

Coming up!
Sept. 6          Wear blue today!
Sept. 7          Apple Day planning meeting at 4:15 in Room 309, Mrs. Casper's room
Sept. 13        Wear green today!  Ari has the green snack!
Sept. 15        Lap-a-thon
Sept. 20        Wear purple today!  Jack has the purple snack!
Sept. 27         Parent/Teacher conferences after school today
Sept. 28         Parent/Teacher conferences all day
Sept. 29         No School

Pics from Imagination Station

(A few kids are absent) (Sorry they are sideways!)