Happy Spring!

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to in kindergarten these past two weeks.

During Reading Workshop we:

• spent time learning about two ways a vowel can make the long sound: super e (e at the end of a word) and two vowels walking together. 
• reviewed that when you finish reading a nonfiction book you should think/tell about the main idea and details you learned.
• reviewed and practiced short vowel sounds.
• learned to ask questions about words we are unsure of and to think about the meaning of those words.

During Writing Workshop we:

• edited one of our how-to books for lower case letters where they belong.
• published the how-to book we had been editing.  Children put forth a lot of effort on this project, and the final products show it!
  

• shared our how-to posters.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• started opinion writing.

During Math we:

• learned to skip count by 2s.  
• practiced figuring out mystery numbers on a number grid.  We used the number grid patterns we have learned to help us determine the mystery numbers.
• reviewed that teen numbers are always 10 + ___.
• practiced solving comparison number stories.
• learned about the word "half" and divided groups in half.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• divided shapes in half.

During Science we looked closely at sand and observed what happened when we added sand and water to a vile.  Children shook their vile, then we discussed observations and shared predictions for what we thought would happen when the vile was allowed to sit undisturbed overnight.  The next day, the children observed that the sand settled into two layers: sand and silt.  The water was now clear because the sand had time to settle.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!
Katie

Dr. Seuss Week

This week during Reading Workshop we:

• had a school community meeting to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.
• spent two days learning about the main idea and details in nonfiction books.
• learned to activate our prior knowledge prior to reading a nonfiction book.
• read with our first grade reading buddies.
• read several Dr. Seuss books.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

This week during Writing Workshop we:

• learned to add tips, hints, and/or warnings to our how-to books.
• reviewed that writers leave spaces between words.
• worked on editing some of our how-to books.
• read one how-to book to a buddy and revised that book according to buddy feedback.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

 This week during Math we:

• conducted surveys.  Children came up with their own yes or no survey question and asked their peers the question.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Made a bar graph to show our survey results.
• practiced counting and drawing tally marks.
• learned about the dime and played a coin exchange game.
  
• practiced balancing two sides of an equation.

This week during Science we continued our study of river rocks.  Students sorted rocks into three piles based on their type: sand, gravel, or pebbles.

This week we saw a glimpse of warmer weather!  Let's hope we continue to move in that direction.
Have a nice weekend!
Katie