March 19-23

This week will be busy for all of us with conferences!  I am so excited to share with you all of the progress your child has made! 
Today we had an assembly to kick off a school wide service project and learned about the supply drive we will be having for Homeless Connections.  You should have received a note about it earlier this week.  Donations should be brought to conferences.  Kindergarten has been assigned to bring individually packaged snacks (granola bars, fruit cups, bags of Goldfish).  Thanks so much for your support with this!


3/19: Badger Day
3/20 & 3/22: Parent Teacher Conferences
3/28: 1/2 day 11:30 Dismissal
3/28: Egg Crack off and class color day- more info to come
3/29-4/2 NO SCHOOL
4/10: NO SCHOOL
4/13: Knowledge-a-thon (KAT)
4/18: Performing Arts Center Field Trip (more info to come)

Math: This week we will focus on subtraction!  The students have worked so hard to automatically use the patterns we have been focusing on in addition, but we still need work with the -1 and -0 patterns to become more fluent when solving subtraction equations.  We will also work on using strategies for equations that do not have a pattern (4-3, 5-4...).  
One way we will be working on the -1 pattern is by playing the game speed.  Students play as a pair and hold 5 cards each in their hand, they then flip one card over from the deck and need to lay down the card the comes before that card as quickly as they can.  This is a fun way for them to practice using the -1 strategy and to recognize that subtraction pattern automatically.  

Reading:  Next week, we are going to dive into each of these word solving questions and figure out exactly how readers use them. 

Does it make sense? 

This is the first question readers should always ask! Often, as soon as students see an unknown word, they sound out letter by letter. Students are urged to look at the picture and think of what's happening in the story and ask "What would make sense here?" 

Does it sound right?  

Readers will learn to think about what kind of word would fit where they are trying to solve. For example, would word would come after "said" in a book... A person? A place? A thing? An action. 

Does it look right? 

The very last thing students should rely on is visuals, or what the word really looks like. When they think they know what would make sense and sound right, they can check the letters at the beginning middle and end of a word to see if it looks right. We will also talk about checking the vowel in the word. 

Writing: Kindergartners begin writing opinion pieces this week! As you may have seen in your child's folder, each student is welcome to bring 4 items from home that they have strong feelings about. For example,  it could be their favorite toy OR a picture of a food that they do NOT like. We will use these items to start discussions and generate ideas for our writing. The goal is for students to start their writing with "I like/do not like_____" and then add reasons to each page of the book. I can't wait to learn more about the opinions in our classroom! 

Science: This week we will begin an exploration of weather.  We will become "weather watchers" and will learn important things to be on the look out for when studying the weather.  We will be spending time outside to observe and write about the weather and will begin to discuss how the weather impacts people and the things they need.  

Fundations: We are beginning a new unit in Fundations and one of the main focuses is on digraphs (two letters that work together to make one sound).  Students are very aware of these in their reading so it is the perfect time to really be aware of including them when we are writing!  
Check out this short video for an explanation.

March 12-16

I cannot believe spring conferences are next week!  I am anxious to share the wonderful things your children are doing with you very soon!  Please use this link to sign up for a conference if you have not yet!!

Important Dates and Reminders:
3/16: Wear Green
3/19: Badger Day
3/20 & 3/22: Parent Teacher Conferences
3/28: 1/2 day 11:30 Dismissal
3/28: Egg Crack off and class color day- more info to come
3/29-4/2 NO SCHOOL


Here is a peek at the week:

Math: Mathematicians are digging deeper into teen numbers. We know that teen numbers are a group of ten and extras; we will discover that mathematicians can see that when they build numbers OR look at equations. Each student will create a book that shows a picture, equation, and correct way to write the digits for each teen number to solidify this understanding. We will look at partners of the numbers 6-10. Although students are not expected to know these partners fluently, they are expected to build with tools or draw to show the partners to 10. Mathematicians will review position words and shapes this week.


Reading: To wrap up our nonfiction unit, students will work in nonfiction book clubs to learn all they can about topics they are interested in. After readers read about the same topic, they can talk about the key details and ask “What’s the same? What’s different?” Readers will then be able to invent their own ways to share their books and keep the conversation going!

Some examples of how to share include:

 Acting out the book
Preparing a read aloud--just like a teacher!
Planting questions in the book to ask their "students"

Writing: As we are nearing the end of our All About writing unit. the writers will be focusing on revising and editing. We will check over our work to make sure we:

used lowercase letters in the middle of our sentences
used uppercase letters at the beginning of the sentence
have snap words spelled correctly
have punctuation in our books
included an introduction and conclusion
included our opinion on some pages

Students will write their final All About piece on Friday that will go into their portfolios! I can't wait to share how far they have come as writers during conferences.


Social Studies: After starting to think about what makes them so special, students will have a chance to show what makes them unique in the following centers:

Photographs—We will sort pictures on a timeline. Then students will create their own timelines.
Collage—Kindergarteners will look through magazines and cut out things that represent them. They will glue these onto a poster. We will share these at closing circle.
Starfall.com—Students will work with partners on Ipads to “write” about themselves

We will also put our writing skills to work and spend sometime composing An All About Me book. 

March 5-9

This Thursday we will have our Author's Breakfast!  It will take place in our classroom from 7:15-7:45am.  Stop by and admire some of your child's published work and enjoy a donut and juice.  Please come and go as you are able!

Important Dates and Reminders:

3/8: Author's Breakfast
3/9: 1/2 Day 11:30 Dismissal
3/16: Wear Green
3/19: Badger Day
3/20 & 3/22: Parent Teacher Conferences- more info coming soon
3/28: 1/2 day 11:30 Dismissal
3/28: Egg Crack off and class color day- more info to come
3/29-4/2 NO SCHOOL

Here is the March menu.
There is a menu change on 3/16- Corn dogs will be served in place of pizza dippers.

Here is a peek at the week:


Math: Mathematicians will learn about "magic number equations". Magic number equations make everything disappear! For example, 3-3, 5-5, etc. Students will be able to practice this skill by making a snack disappear:) Here are all the patterns we have learned to help us add and subtract so far:
When you +1, you count up
When you -1, you count backwards
When you +0 or -0, the number stays the same
When you subtract a number from the same number, it disappears to make 0

Mathematicians have been learning that there are some equations that they just know by thinking of the pattern, but there are some equations that they may need to solve using a strategy. We will introduce this chart as a reminder of the strategies the Kindergartners can use to solve addition and subtraction equations..



Reading: We are learning SO much about non-fiction topics during reading workshop!  One important strategy readers will work on this week will be to first say as much as they can while studying a page of their book and to listen carefully to the words they use and then to read the words.  Readers will come to realize there is a good chance many of the words they said while talking about the page will be there in print for them to read.  This helps us to read for understanding and also to take some of the heavy work out of decoding new vocabulary words.

Writing: This week in writing we will be looking closely at our books to make sure they have as much important information about our topic as they can.  We will use this chart to revise our books to make them better and will also work on editing so our books will be easy for others to read at Author's Breakfast.

Social Studies: This week we will switch gears and begin a 'self study' in social studies.  We will be reading books and listening to a song and poem to help us to begin thinking about what makes us unique and special.  This is such a fun time of year to do this unit because students are really coming into their own and are so self aware.