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.