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.