Jan 29-Feb 2

Yikes!  How is it almost February already?!  February brings some exciting events in Kindergarten!  We will celebrate Valentine's Day and the 100th day of school.  We will exchange valentine cards with the class!  Here is a list of student names if you'd like to get started early!  I'll be sending a hard copy of this list home soon as well!   Be on the look out for 100 day information to come home soon too!

Important Dates and Reminders:

Feb. 12th: 100th Day of School

Feb. 14th:  Pink, White and Red Day 

Feb 16th: Funky Friday 

February 22nd  and 23rd: NO SCHOOL 

Here is a peek at the week:

Math: This week in math we will continue to solidify our understating of teen numbers and the equations and quantities that represent them.  We will be matching equations to representations of teen numbers and work to understand that the extra ones that join with ten are always the second digit displayed in a teen number.  It is common error for kindergarten students to write 71 for 17.  We will also work with partners of numbers and will play a game called missing partner.  This will help us to visualize how quantities combine to make a larger numbers.  This is something that could be played at home with coins or any small plastic object.  The goal is to display a set of objects and then cover part of that set and for students to be able to say what they see and say what is missing to make the total number of objects.  For example: "I see 4, one is missing, 4 and 1 make 5."

Reading: We have been loving digging into non-fiction books and showing and sharing our thinking with our reading partners and playdate groups.  Check us out adding post-its to our books!

This week we will continue with some non-fiction work and will meet in topic clubs to do more talking about and comparing books.  We will also take some time to become avid readers of poetry.  This will really help us to read more smoothly and to really understand what feelings poems are conveying.  

Writing: We will give our how to writing a jump start this week by working to write procedural books about this we do throughout the school day.  Since our daily routines can be easily transferred into a series of steps this will  be a chance for us to get some new pieces of writing done quickly while trying out some of our new writing 'moves.' We will also  add introductions and conclusions to our how to books.  We will also learn to use comparisons in our writing to give more specific directions.  

Science:  Well, our room has now become a plant and animal habit.  Our lima bean and alfalfa plants are growing more each day and we have three new fish: Cupcake, Fluffy and Flash Hermine.  We also have a colony of beetles for us to observe.  This week we will make further observations of our growing plants and will also begin to study how people can have an effect on the environment as a whole and also on animal habitats.  This will bring up the topics of reusing and recycling.  

Fundations: We will focus on new snap words this week:  get, big, little, not, away. As we work to improve our spelling, we have really been paying attention to the vowels sounds we hear in words.  The students have realized that some of the vowels have similar sounds so this can be tricky.  We are also learning as writers it is ok to go back and fix up vowel sounds that we have forgotten our used incorrectly.  We have been using a vowel chart similar to this to check our use of vowels in reading and writing!

Jan 22-26

This will be a busy and exciting week as we take time to CELEBRATE all that makes our school such a special place to BE!  Each class chose a word to represent what NDLC is all about and decorated their classroom door to match.  Our class selected the word CONFIDENT!  We used the book The Little Engine That Could to inspire us!  Check it out!

Important Dates and Reminders:
Jan. 19th:        ½ Day, 11:30 Dismissal              
Jan. 22nd:        NO SCHOOL          
Jan. 23rd-26th: Celebrate New Directions Week             
Jan. 23rd:        Family Art Night  5:30-6:30 pm  
Jan. 23rd:        Game Day Wear (Characters, Twister, Mario, Etc.)         
Jan. 24th:        Backwards Wear Day         
Jan. 25th:        Family Gym Night  5:30-7:00 pm         
Jan. 25th:        Active Wear Day           
Jan. 26th:        Camping Wear Day

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: In math this week we will review partners of numbers and teen numbers. Some of the activities we will be working on will be:  building teen numbers with cubes to see the ten and extra, playing a game called "toss the chips" to quickly see and record partners of 5, working with flash cards to see teen number equations more than one way (10+7=17 or 17=10+7) and playing a subitizing and adding game called "hide and add" where two dice are rolled and one is quickly covered and students are challenged to give the total of the two dice and then check and record the partners.

Reading:  This week as Super Avid Readers we will look more closely at non-fiction or informational texts and how we can really learn from what we read in them.  To pique our interest in looking more closely at non-fiction topics we will watch this video.   The kids do seem to really like this video and learn so much from watching it, but some may find it a tad scary a first.  There will be lots of discussion around it so I wanted it to be available to you as well :).  Some of the ways we will work with non-fiction books this week we will be: to use new vocabulary we have learned about our topics when talking about our books, finding multiple books on a topic that interests us and comparing and contrasting various books we read.

Writing: We had so much fun sharing our how to books with Mrs. Lenzner's class last week and learned so much about getting tips and suggestions from other writers.  This week we will study another author's work to come up with some ways we can make our books even better.  The students have been working so hard to get more and more writing done each day, but to also improve the quality of writing with each new mini lesson.

Science: This week will bring the arrival of some animals in our classroom!  We worked together to create a fish habitat that is ready and waiting.  We will also create habitats for milkweed bugs and do some observing and comparing of their habitat to that of our zebra fish.  This will help us to better understand what animal needs have to do with their habitat.

Fundations: We will begin Unit 3 in Fundations this week.  This unit includes a less guided approach to hearing the sounds in words and then spelling them.  Students will be given a word and expected to tap out beginning, middle and end sounds independently.  We will then work to spell these words orally, write them and build them using letter tiles. Here is a video that shows the work we will be doing. 

Jan 15-19

The students have been really enjoying show and tell at morning meeting.  Just a reminder it will continue for the next 2 weeks!  Below are the assigned days:

Tuesday:  Reid, Reagan, Grace, Elsie, Nathan

Wednesday: Morgan. Arie, Abe, Addie, 

Thursday: Avery, Bailey, Aiyana. Bryce, Lydia

Friday: Owen, Paige, Evelyn, Riley, Gabby

Important Dates and Reminders:
Jan. 19th:        ½ Day, 11:30 Dismissal              
Jan. 22nd:        NO SCHOOL          
Jan. 23rd-26th: Celebrate New Directions Week             
Jan. 23rd:        Family Art Night         
Jan. 23rd:        Game Day Wear (Characters, Twister, Mario, Etc.)         
Jan. 24th:        Backwards Wear Day         
Jan. 25th:        Family Gym Night             
Jan. 25th:        Active Wear Day           
Jan. 26th:        Camping Wear Day

Math: This week in math we will review the importance of recognizing 5 groups in larger numbers and will use 5 groups to compose teen numbers.  We will also work on sorting and classifying shapes in many ways (size, color, number of sides). Another focus will be on using equal and not equal signs to compare numerals and groups of numbers.  As we continue to build our addition and subtraction fluency, we have been studying patterns that will help us to understand and automatically know the answer to an equation.  We have recently studied +0 and -0 and realized that any time an addition or subtraction equation includes a zero, the other number in the equation stays that same.  This week we will review this concept and work to identify and solve problems with a zero quickly and correctly when presented with a page of various addition and subtraction equations.

Reading:  Well, we have now declared ourselves Super Avid readers after realizing we still need to carry our super powers around with us to get lots of reading done.  This week we will discuss and practice how to handle distractions that may come about while we are independently reading.  We will also begin something called "Reading Playdates" during partner reading time.  This means students will work with a group of 2-4 other students and they will get to plan they type of reading work they will do during partner time.  Some options they will have are: playing school and reading aloud to one another, playing games and hunting for snap words, guessing character feelings and making predictions or playing pretend and acting out the book.  Giving students choice over how they interact with books will be so motivating to them and will really set them up to transfer the hard work of decoding, fluency and comprehension.

Writing: This week we will learn to be a bit more BOSSY with our writing!  We will add the word you to directions we are writing so those reading our books know we are talking right to them.  We will look at a mentor text and study different ways the author shared information in pictures and words and will look for new ways to make our writing better.  As a way to elaborate in our writing we will be working to use more precise words and detailed pictures with labels.

Science: This week we will begin to study animals.  We will compare and contrast different types of animals and will discuss where they live, how they act and what they need.  We will use our research skills to look more closely at the needs of fish as we will prepare a fish habitat for our classroom.  This will be SUCH exciting work!

Jan 8-12

We had a great 4 days of getting back into the groove of Kindergarten!  With inside recess all week we were certainly ready for a Friday of Super Reader fun!!!  Check out some action photos below!

 Build and smash snap word towers!

 Color by snap word!

 Snap word POW game!

Letter sound stomp!

Important Dates and Reminders:
Jan. 5th: Super Hero Day in Kindergarten
Jan. 19th:        ½ Day, 11:30 Dismissal              
Jan. 22nd:        NO SCHOOL          
Jan. 23rd-26th: Celebrate New Directions Week             
Jan. 23rd:        Family Art Night         
Jan. 23rd:        Game Day Wear (Characters, Twister, Mario, Etc.)         
Jan. 24th:        Backwards Wear Day         
Jan. 25th:        Family Gym Night             
Jan. 25th:        Active Wear Day           
Jan. 26th:        Camping Wear Day 

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: This week we will work in 4 different centers to really apply all we have learned so far about teen numbers and partners of numbers.  Our math centers will be:

example of race to teen # board

• Teen Counting Cup: students will determine how many objects in each cup as they make one group of 10 and extra ones to show a teen number and will then draw to show how many and record an equation to match. Ex. 17=10+7
• Race to Teen Numbers: students will roll dice and fill in boxes on a ten frame until they reach a teen number.  This will help them to more automatically see teen numbers as one group of ten first, joined by extra ones.  
• Marble Partners: students will work with bags of various quantities of marbles and will use one popsicle stick as a "break apart stick" to create two separate groups with the bag.  They will repeat this many times with one bag to see, say and write the different partners a number can have.
• Buttons in a Box: students will tell story problems as they use buttons to join or separate groups and will write equations to match 

Reading: This week we will begin a new unit called "Becoming Avid Readers."  Now that we are working on consolidating many strategies or super powers to read new books, this unit will really jumpstart our motivation to have strong reading habits.  I tell the kiddos all the time that the best way to become a strong reader is to READ as much as you can!  We will study photographs of "blah" readers and avid readers and discuss the differences we see and will also make goals for ourselves as readers.  

Writing: How-to writing is in full swing in our classroom!  The students have been loving studying the work of other author's who have done this type of writing and are coming up with great ideas of what they can teach others.  This week we will focus on adding more specific steps to our books and using a partner to make sure our procedural writing is able to follow.  We will also be working to make sure the illustrations in our books are using to understand and will use labels to show additional information.

Science: This week we will explore plants.  We will first look at seeds and compare and contrast different types of seeds and will even plant some of our own seeds. We will also learn about the life cycle of plants and what plants need to grow and change.

Jan 2-5

Happy 2018!!!  I cherished every moment spent and memory made with my family this break and hope you did the same!  January is one of my favorite months for teaching...there are few distractions and the kids seem to grow in unbelievable ways!  Here's to a "new" year of more fun and learning together!

Here is our January Newsletter.
Here is the January lunch menu.

Important Dates and Reminders:
Jan. 5th: Super Hero Day in Kindergarten
Jan. 19th:        ½ Day, 11:30 Dismissal              
Jan. 22nd:        NO SCHOOL          
Jan. 23rd-26th: Celebrate New Directions Week             
Jan. 23rd:        Family Night         
Jan. 23rd:        Game Day Wear (Characters, Twister, Mario, Etc.)         
Jan. 24th:        Backwards Wear Day         
Jan. 25th:        Gym Night             
Jan. 25th:        Active Wear Day           
Jan. 26th:        Camping Wear Day      

Here is a peek at our week:

Math: In math our main focus continues to be teen numbers and addition and subtraction fluency within 5.  We will also work to identify partners of numbers 2-6 by subitizing smaller quantities that work together.  We will work to see these partners automatically when using math tools or when looking at math drawings or pictures.  Our work with partners will contribute to our fluency as we can our knowledge of partners to solve equations quickly.

Reading: This week we will continue to focus on rereading, thinking and talking about the books we read during reader's workshop.  We will have a fun day celebrating everything we know as readers at Super Reader day on Friday!
I will also be formally assessing students' reading levels in the next few weeks; keep your eyes peeled for next "dot colors" in your child's book bag.

Writing: We said farewell to true story writing before we left for break and will welcome procedural or how-to writing this week. We will explore this type of writing by first reading and discussing many different how-to books and then we'll work together to write a class piece that teaches others, step by step, how to do something we do each day in our class (like making a lunch choice). Then the children will be off to brainstorm teachable topics and write their own teaching books. I know they will just love this type of writing! You can encourage idea generating at home by discussing things they do each day and then listing the steps involved in those tasks. Talking these things through will help them to easily transition to this type of writing.


Science: This week we will start a new unit on Plants and Animals.  The goal of this science unit will be to learn about the similarities of plants and animals as living things and to study closely the needs of each.  Later in the unit we will even have the chance to grow and observe living plants and animals.

Snap Words:

Here are the words we have worked on so far this school year. Please continue to practice these! Invite your child to try to spell these words in lots of ways: write them using a variety of tools, spell orally in the car, magnetic letters, or on a drawing app. Our new focus words the next 2 weeks will be:  did, do, play, make, for.