Oct 30-Nov 3

I hope your child enjoyed the break from school and their time was filled with lots of outdoor fall fun...despite the chilly weather!  This time of the year is so beautiful that sometimes we need to slow down and remind ourselves to enjoy it!!  I cannot believe we are gearing up for our third month of learning in Kindergarten!!

With Tuesday being Halloween, NDLC students will celebrate by dressing in orange and black and teaming up to do some reading in buddy classrooms.  Students may bring in 2 fall or Halloween books to read with their second grade buddy.  We will also share a snack with them and learn a fun fall dance!

Important Dates and Reminders:
10/30: Pajama Day
10/31: Orange and Black day
11/6:  Packer Day
11/8: Dress Like Your Parents Day
11/9: Conferences 4:00-7:15pm
11/10: Wear Red, White and Blue for our Veterans
11/14: Conferences 4:00-7:15pm
11/17: 11:30 dismissal (no lunch served)
11/20: Badger Day
11/22-11/24: NO SCHOOL

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: We are continuing to work hard to tell story problems to practice our addition and subtraction skills.  We will also be focusing on number formation for number 6-10 and will also work to see 6-10 as a group of 5 and some extra.   Two new math symbols will be introduced this week: the equal sign and not equal sign and we will practice using them as we investigate numbers, quantities and equations.

Reading: We are so excited to be learning about our reading super powers!  Did you hear...we had a visit from Reader Man and he left us some very cool pointers to help us activate our pointer power!  This week we will learn how long words can try to test our pointer power, but we know that each word (no matter how long) gets just one point.  We will also be working on using snap words to really help us keep track of our pointing and will rely on our partners to help us make sure we are using our best pointing.  Lastly, we will learn that super readers combine powers to do their very best reading!

Writing: This week in writing we will work to incorporate snap words into our books to make books with patterns, which are similar to the books we have been reading and writing together as a class.  We will learn to pick one or two snap words and plan for our books to have those words on each page (Ex. The apple is read.  The leaf is brown, The grass is green).  We will also focus on planning and writing one whole book each day.  In order to keep this unit exciting and motivating for students, please feel free to send in any fall artifacts (small pumpkins, gourds, corn...) you have at home that may be interesting to us as science writers.  Thanks for your help!

Social Studies: This week we will work in our school helper centers and will also be working to do so me social goal setting that will be shared at conferences.

Snap Words: Snap words are words that we frequently read and write but cannot easily sound out. Knowing these words in a "snap" makes our reading and writing much easier to tackle. I would encourage you to practice snap words at home with your child! 

Here are a few ways to practice:

• Write them in sand, shaving cream, or any other fun materials
• Search for them in books, newspapers, and magazines
• Write them in different color markers. We call this rainbow writing.
• Build snap words using toys, noodles, or anything you can find!  

The snap words we have worked on so far are: I, a, and, the, this, is.

This week we will learn: look, to, you, here.

Oct 23-27

This will be a short week, but it will be filled with LOTS of learning!!

Important Dates and Reminders:

10/23-10/25: Red Ribbon Week (dress up days below)
10/23: Sweats and team apparel
10/24: Neon day
10/25: Red day
10/26 & 10/27- NO SCHOOL
10/27: PSC Skate City Event
10/31: Orange and Black day

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: On Friday we took our Unit 1 math test.  This week I will meet with each of the students to go over their test and celebrate the parts they were successful with and then talk about what (if any) mistakes they made and how they can grow from those.  This is part of a growth mindset and embracing mistakes as a way for us to recognize where we have room to improve!

Reading:This week we will start a new reading unit called "Super Powers."  This is an amazingly fun and meaningful unit for  the students as it takes skills we have been working on (high frequency word recognition, using picture clues, 1:1 matching) and turns them into Super Powers that kids will use to really begin reading! This week we will also be getting our own books bins and start doing our own book shopping!!

Writing: The field trip to Heckrodt on Tuesday really jump started our science writing!  We learned so much more about looking closely and observing to see small details! Click here to see some photos of us as scientists in action!

Social Studies:  This week we will learn about centers we will work in to apply our school helper knowledge.  In centers, students will:  build areas of the school and solve problems using mini versions of our helpers, sort artifacts that our helpers use and problems they solve, and make webs using words and pictures to show all they have learned about our school helpers.

Oct 16-20

The boys and girls are REALLY looking forward to our field trip this week!    At Heckrodt we will learn more about looking closely (like scientists) and this will have a great impact on our writing...I just know it!   Please be sure your child dresses for the weather on Tuesday, unless there is rain, we will be outdoors for the entire afternoon.  Also, unless you have ordered a lunch through Chartwells, please send your child with a lunch (with a drink) in a disposable bag.

Important Dates and Reminders:
10/16: Badger Wear Day
10/17: Heckrodt Field Trip
10/17: Goodies and Grandparents Family Night 6-7pm
10/23-10/25: Red Ribbon Week (dress up days below)
10/23: Sweats and team apparel
10/24: Neon day
10/25: Red day
10/26 & 10/27- NO SCHOOL
10/31: Orange and Black day

Here is a peek at our week:

Math:  At the end of the week, students will take the unit 1 assessment. As a culmination of this unit's big ideas, mathematicians will be rotating through centers based on adding and subtracting, subitizing, number order, and number identification.  Here are some pictures of what the centers will look like:

This bingo game supports subitizing. Subitizing is the ability to 'see' a small amount of objects and know how many there are without counting. Click here to download.

A great way to practice number identification. Click here to download.

Reading: Our work in storybooks has really gotten us ready to tackle the challenges of conventional reading!  This week we will wrap up the use of story books by acting our favorite stories out using puppets.  Performing these books will truly be a way for us to show off the many skills we have acquired while working with these books...a huge skill being comprehension of character feelings and actions.  We will also take some time as a class to write some predictable books that include sight words and repeated patterns...we will aim to make these books similar to the leveled books we will be reading soon.

Writing: Our writing like scientists unit is up and running and the kids are amazing me at the work they are doing!  This week we focused on choosing one fall artifact and observing and saying all we could about it and then showing what we learned with words and pictures!  All of the students are bravely attempting to write words on every page!!  This week we will focus on planning sentences, using high frequency words, listening for more sound in words and adding new information to books we have already finished.

Social Studies:  We will have 2 final interview this week with our school police liaison officer, Mr. Krueger and one of our Educational Assistants, Mrs. Vosters.

Oct 9-13

On Friday afternoon we were able to unwind from a busy week with some yoga!  Mrs. Mcaneany will be here one time per month to lead us through a half hour session of yoga!

Important Dates and Reminders:
10/17: Heckrodt Field Trip
10/17: Goodies and Grandparents Family Night 6-7pm
10/23-10/25: Red Ribbon Week (dress up days below)
10/23: Sweats and team apparel
10/24: Neon day
10/25: Red day
10/26 & 10/27- NO SCHOOL
10/31: Orange and Black day

Here is a peek at the week:

Math:  We will work on number order this week, especially how to find missing numbers in a series.  We will also review the shapes and work on seeing numbers in various ways.  We will work with a new game called Tiny Polka Dots.  The cards for the game show numbers in a variety of ways and we will work together to sequence numbers in a variety of ways.  This would be a great game to purchase for home as there are SO many things you can do with the cards to promote math thinking.

   

Reading:  We are showing so many important skills of conventional reading in this unit so far!  The boys and girls are doing so well remembering to use the pictures to help read what makes sense and understand that pointing at words 1:1 will help us read the words correctly.  This week we will work on writing labels to add to our old favorite storybooks using post-its.  Writing during reading will be a sneaky way to activate our knowledge about letter sounds and help us to see how use initial letter sounds can help us read too! We will also work to add high frequency words (a, is, the) to our labels and will even attempt to write simple sentences about pages in our story pages. 

Writing:This week we will begin a new writing unit called: "Looking Closely: Observing, Labeling and Listing Like Scientists."  In this unit we will be focusing on the changes that are happening around us.  We will take several outdoor adventures to observe and collect artifacts to write about.   The goal of this unit will be to draw and write details about our observations as a way to teach others.

Social Studies: This week we will interview Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Waters, the lunch workers, Mrs. Frischmann, our principal and Mr. Tom, the custodian.

Weekly News Oct 2-6

We ended our week with a reading parade!!  The boys and girls came together with Mrs. Lenzner's class as a group of readers and proudly paraded through the hallway holding their "trophies" (books they are proud to be able to READ).  It was such a fun way to celebrate their accomplishments during our first reading unit!

Click here to watch the parade!

Important Dates and Reminders:

10/8: Ride to Read
10/17: Heckrodt Field Trip
10/17: Goodies and Grandparents Family Night 6-7pm
10/23-10/25: Red Ribbon Week (dress up days below)
10/23: Sweats and team apparel
10/24: Neon day
10/25: Red day
10/26 & 10/27- NO SCHOOL
10/31: Orange and Black day

Here is the October lunch menu.  Here is the October school newsletter.

Here's a peek at our week:

Math: We will focus our work this week on ordering numbers 1-10 and also showing number quantity up to 10.  We will pay special attention to seeing/creating a group of 5 when showing numbers 6-10 using math tools.  We will also be working with the concepts of addition and subtraction and will be introduced to how to solve addition and subtraction problems using our fingers. We will also work to tell math story problems to help us practice our addition and subtraction.

Reading: We will now launch into a new unit that will continue to focus on reading emergent story books but will delve deeper into focusing on character feelings and actions.  Students will also start to build comfort with conventionally reading familiar texts that they know well--like their Star Name books, songs, and rhymes we been reading regularly in class together.

Writing: This week will be our last week of writing true stories.  We will work hard this week to add more details to our pictures and to also add more sounds and words to our writing.  We will get ready to celebrate by picking our favorite story to revise AND edit!  We will use a checklist to make sure our story shows something that happened, who was there and how they felt.

Social Studies: Now that we are settling into the normal routines of school and have built the foundation for our classroom community, we will be kicking off our first social studies unit.  This unit is a School Study.  This week we will build some background on our school study and list all the different jobs that people in our school do.  We will formulate interview questions and the boys and girls will do  interview Mrs. Mitchell, our admin assistant and Mrs. Geoffrey, our EA in the health room.  In the coming weeks we will take many tours and conduct interviews of these people to learn all about our school.

FUNdations: Fundations is a new phonics program adapted by our school this year.  Fundations lays the groundwork for the skills students need to be proficient readers and writers.  We have been using this program daily since the first day of school.
So far we have been reviewing letter names and sounds and learning and practicing lower case letter formation.  Please look for a writing grid to come home for your child to practice letter formation on.  I will also include a sheet with letter formation cues for you to guide your child.  A thin dry erase marker would work great for this.
Other skills we have been and will continue to cover are:

• Print awareness
• Word awareness
• Story re-telling and comprehension
• Rhyming 
• Phonemic awareness skills to identify beginning and ending sounds in words