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.

Dec 18-22

The kids have been having so much fun spending their recesses in the snow!  Just a quick reminder to label your child's snow accessories...you'd be amazed at how many black and pink snow pants and gloves pass through this hallway each day!  Due to the time of year, this will be an exciting week for kids!  We will keep our learning focused, but also make time for some holiday fun!


Important Dates and Reminders:
December 21: PJ day
December 22-January 1: NO SCHOOL

Math: Those tricky teen numbers will continue to be one thing we focus on this week, as we look for groups of ten ones and then add on any extra ones to determine quantity.  We are learning it is easy to see a group of ten when it is organized in two groups of 5 or a long group of 10, but tricky when we are looking at a random group of objects (see picture below).

 We will also work hard this week to show, recognize, understand and name the partners of numbers 2-6. Please see this note for an explanation of partners and how we use this term in math.

Reading: This week we will continue super charging our reading super powers!  We will focus on using book talk power and partner power to not only read new and challenging books, but to really understand what the books are teaching or how the story goes.  We will also work on making predictions and rereading when something doesn't make sense to us.

Writing: We will be wrapping up our true stories unit this week.  We will learn to revise and edit so our writing is readable to others.  To do this we will use a checklist that includes revising and editing tasks and will also work with a partner to ask and answer questions about our story.

Social Studies: This week we will participate in some holiday activities from the new holidays we learned about.  We will be playing the dreidel game and making Kwanzaa mats.  We will also have some Christmas fun by writing our own song to a familiar Christmas tune!

Dec 11-15

This  month's school focus is BE Caring!  Last week classrooms buddied up with another grade level classroom and watched and discussed some videos that showed various acts of caring.  Students then drew or wrote what caring was to them and this display was created.  The kids amazed us with what they had to say about caring for others and why it is important at this time of the year and always!!

Here is our school newsletter for December.

Important dates and reminders:

12/12: NO SCHOOL
12/13: Holiday Wear Day
12/21: PJ Day
12/22-1/1: NO SCHOOL

Here is a peek at our week:

Math:  We wrapped up unit 2 with a test on Friday.  I will be meeting with each student to go over the test and celebrate success and fix any mistakes (that's how our brains grow).  Keep your eyes peeled for tests to come home in folders this week.  We will also being unit 3.  The main focus of this unit will be: developing awareness of numbers 11-20 and recognizing these numbers as groups of 10 tens and extra ones.  As in all units we will continue deepen our understanding of addition and subtraction and showing expressions that match story problems as well as writing our own story problems to demonstrate our knowledge of addition and subtraction equations.  We will also work to understand and become more fluent with partners of numbers.  

Reading: We have been working incredibly hard to read unknown words by using picture support, syntax (how a book sounds) and the letters sounds at the beginning and end of a word.  This week we will continue to check our reading by asking all three of these things at the same time.  We will learn that when books have more words and more detailed pictures we need to study the pictures more closely to really understand what is happening to help us read the words.  Finding our snap words in disguise (looking, sees, looked) will also be a powerful strategy we will work on this week.  Thank you for taking the time to read with your child each night and to return their books and book bags to school each day!  Your support is so appreciated!

Writing: This week our writing focus will be on revision.  We will add details in our pictures to make our stories come to life and will add beginnings to our stories.  We will also be introduced to flaps as tool to quickly revise and add on to our writing.  We will even use a different color pen to revise so the changes we make to improve our writing can be visible to ourselves and others.  This is serious and important work!

Social Studies: Our holiday unit is up and running!  This week we selected and studied 4 holidays we didn't know much about.  Those holidays were:  Hanukah, Kwanzaa, Cinco de Mayo and Veteran's Day (very eclectic, I know).  This week we will study the familiar holidays we selected: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and St. Patrick's Day.   Each day we have been reading a non-fiction text closely and then discussing what we learned AND writing about it!  The kids are blowing me away with conversations and writing they are doing around these topics!

Fundations: Last week we wrapped up our first unit in Fundations.  Our next unit will focus using letter sounds to more easily spell new words.  To do this we will "tap" words to hear beginning, middle and end sounds.  This is something we have been doing in writer's workshop, but now we will be doubling up on our practice with this.  Check out this video to see "word tapping' in action.  It is a first grade video, but explains the process well!

Dec 4-8

Thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us for Afternoon with Astronauts!  The students were elated to share their science knowledge with you and, of course, loved being dressed as (and eating) like astronauts!

Just a quick reminder to have family night RSVP's in by tomorrow.  It was a quick turn around this month, but we want to make sure we have enough pizza for everyone :).

Here is the December lunch menu.

Important Dates and Reminders:
12/5 Christmas Parade- NDLC families can meet by Bank of Kaukauna to watch together
12/7: PJ day and PJ's, Pizza and Publishing Family Night 5:30-7:00
12/12: NO SCHOOL
12/13: Holiday Wear Day
12/21: PJ Day
12/22-1/1: NO SCHOOL

Here is a peek at the week:

Math: This will be our last week working in Unit 2.  We will be working in math centers this week to better finalize and consolidate the concepts we have learned while working in this unit.  Our math centers will be:

• Nearby Numbers: using forward and backward number sequence to fill in a series of missing numbers. This will help us to count on from a given number which is an early addition strategy. 
• Break Apart Sticks and Chips: representing a quantity using math chips and then placing a break apart stick to create 2 groups and recognizing how they work together as partners to make a number and then writing an equation to match
• +1/-1 dice game: using a dice, game piece and 1-10 number parade to practice automaticity with +1 and -1 equations and to better understand the connection these equations have to forward and backward counting.
• 5 frame subtraction:  filling a 5 frame with 5 dots/circles. rolling a die and then crossing out to show subtraction and writing an equation to match.  This will help us with our subtraction fluency within 5. 

If you are looking for some great at home activities to support the Kindergarten math standards we will focus on all year.  Here is a fantastic resource.  As always, let me know if you have questions or need specific feedback.

Reading: At the end of last week we learned some important questions to ask ourselves when solving new words: 1."Does it make sense?" To answer this question we need to rely on the picture and make sure that what we are reading matches what the photo or illustration is showing in our book. 
2. "Does it sound right?"  To answer this question we need to listen to ourselves as we read and make sure what we are saying sounds like a book.  This can be tricky as 5 and 6 year olds are sometimes still developing language skills. 
This week we will rely on letters at the beginning and end of words to ask the question "Does it look right?"  For example, if a student reads the word dog, they are able to point and notice the word begins with d.  These three questions are integral to self monitoring our reading and we will work hard with these concepts over the next several months.

Writing: This week we will use all we know about readable writing to "publish" a story to showcase at our family night this week.  We will specifically be working on strategies to hear more sounds in a word we are writing by using a partner to help us check our writing and to use a resource when stretching out words.

Social Studies: We are sad to see our space unit come to an end, but we will begin a new inquiry unit into holidays.  This week we will use a calendar to notice the many holidays that are celebrated across a year and will then identify holidays we already know about and those we'd like to learn more about.  Overall, we will be choosing 8 total holidays to study from now until winter break.  Stay tuned to hear the holidays we choose!