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