font-family: 'Shadows Into Light Two', cursive;/ Life in Kindergarten: February 2016

Friday, February 26, 2016

Celebrating the 100th Day!

On Tuesday, we celebrated the 100th Day of Kindergarten!  We began our day with a school community meeting, during which we counted how many bags of 100 pennies have been collected for our school playground.  A highlight of our day was the hats the children made.  Children decorated 10 strips of paper with 10 decorations on each strip for a total of 100 decorations.  They loved wearing these hats throughout the day!  Is it hard for you to believe that your child is already more than halfway through his/her kindergarten year?!  It sure goes by fast.













This week during Reading Workshop we:

  • learned about bold words in nonfiction text.
  • learned that when readers read a word they don't know the meaning of, they ask themselves "What could this word mean?"  Then, they search the pictures, text, and their prior knowledge for clues about the meaning of the word. 
  • reviewed that good readers do more than just read the text; they study the pictures to learn from the text and pictures.
  • learned to check for understanding as we are reading.  After reading a page or two, readers can stop to tell what those pages were about.
  • reviewed naming the main ideas and details after reading a nonfiction text.
This week during Writing Workshop we:
  • learned that we can add a What You Will Need page to our how-to books.



  • reviewed that writers can use tools around the classroom to help them spell words.  I gave students a blends and digraphs chart to keep in their writing folder.
  • reviewed that writers of how-to books label important parts of their pictures.


  • learned that writers can add a caution, tip, or warning to a step in a how-to book.
This week during Math we:
  • learned more about attributes and played a game to help children recognize common attributes between their peers.  They LOVED this game and keep asking to play it!
  • practiced writing and counting tally marks as we worked to collect 100 tally marks for the 100th day of school.




  • worked with a partner to determine if we would be tall enough to ride a roller coaster.  I told the children they would need to be at least 12 sticky-notes tall to ride the roller coaster.  Then they worked with their partner to measure each other and determine whether or not they could ride the roller coaster.  The problem solving and collaboration that was occurring between partners was impressive!


  • reviewed the names and characteristics of 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional objects. 
  • practiced writing and solving subtraction number models and solving subtraction number stories. 
Next week, we will celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday with several Dr. Seuss read alouds and literacy and math themed follow-up activities.  

Happy Weekend!
Katie 

Friday, February 12, 2016

Celebrating Friendship

Shrieks of "This is the best day ever!" echoed throughout the classroom today.  And a great day it was!  The children were thrilled to pass out their Valentine cards to one another, and as they carefully opened their cards one by one, they were sure to graciously thank the child who had given them that card.  It was a true moment of friendship!  They loved the shared snack, too.  It's amazing how a little whipped cream and special napkins and bowls can transform ordinary into something special.  Thank you for all your help in making this day so memorable for the children.


















 
During Reading Workshop time, we have been studying features of nonfiction text.  We learned that:

  • readers get ready to read a nonfiction text by doing a picture walk.
  • readers use their prior knowledge to help them comprehend nonfiction text.
  • even if readers can't read the words in a nonfiction text, they can still learn new information by closely studying the photographs.






  • many nonfiction books have a Table of Contents.  A Table of Contents tells us the different topics we will read about and what page we can find those topics on.  

  • readers can compare and contrast two different texts about similar/the same topics.
During Writing Workshop we have been writing How-To books.  The children took off with this writing unit (as I expected they would since their minds are filled with ideas of things they know how to do).  We learned to:
  • use sequencing words when writing our steps.
  • use a telling voice (First, get your dog's leash) instead of a story voice (First, I got my dog's leash).
  • leave spaces between our words.
  • act out the steps if we are having trouble remembering what comes next.
  • draw pictures that clearly show what each step is telling our reader to do.


During Math we:
  • learned about 3-dimensional objects (cylinder, sphere, cube, rectangular prism, and cone).
  • practiced adding by playing Dice Roll and Record.






  • practiced reading two-digit numbers and finding them on a number grid.
  • solved addition and subtraction number stories.
It was a pleasure meeting with so many of you this week to share the growth your little learner has made throughout his/her kindergarten year.  I hope you were as impressed as I have been.  It's hard to believe that your children have been kindergartners for 98 days and will be celebrating the 100th day of school after vacation!  I hope they all have a vacation filled with fun, laughter, and plenty of rest.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Katie