We are Thankful!

The past couple of weeks, we spent a lot of time reading stories about being thankful and talking about what we are thankful for.  The discussion began when most of us lost power and realized how thankful we are to have electricity in our lives!  We wrapped up our discussion last week with a turkey painting and list of things in our lives we are thankful for.

During Reading Workshop, we have continued to learn/practice strategies for reading words.

• We learned a new strategy, Lips the Fish, which reminds us to look at the beginning of a word and say the first sounds in the word.  
• We then practiced using Eagle Eye and Lips the Fish together, making sure that what we think we see in the picture matches what the word looks like.  
• We participated in an activity called Guess the Covered Word.  This activity required us to think of what would make sense for a hidden word in a sentence.  We listed all the words that made sense and sounded right, then slowly uncovered the word to see which of our ideas "looked right."  
• We added "you" to our word wall.
• We read with our first grade buddies.  Every Tuesday morning, we will do buddy reading with our buddies in Mrs. Boutin's first grade class. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Writing Workshop, we started our pattern book unit.  The children are working on writing books that follow a pattern, just like the books they are reading during reading workshop!

During Math, we:

• reviewed the characteristics of shapes and created shapes on geoboards.
  
   
  
  
• learned that there are many different ways to represent numbers.  We can use pictures, ten frames, numerals, and number models to represent a number. 
  
• played a game called Roll and Record to help us explore probability and graphing.
  
    
• practiced solving number stories.

During Word Work, we added e and r to the letters and sounds we are practicing.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and friends.  I am so thankful to be your children's teacher!

Gratefully,

Katie

Learning to Read Words!

It has been an exciting couple of weeks here in kindergarten!  We started learning "popcorn words" (sight words) and strategies for reading new words.  Here's what we've been up to during Reading Workshop:

• We learned two sight words, "I" and "the," and added them to our word wall.  The children are now on the lookout for these words in the books they are reading.  We call these words "popcorn words" because you need to know them as quickly as popcorn pops!
• We learned our first strategy for reading an unknown word, Eagle Eye.  Eagle Eye reminds us to look at the pictures for clues about what the unknown word could be.
• We reviewed that readers point and hop as they read words. 
• We learned that readers pay attention to characters' facial expressions and body language throughout a story.  This gives us information about how characters are feeling and how their feelings might change during a story.
• We practiced acting out stories. 
  
• We learned that readers can think of connections they have within and between books.  They can mark those connections with a sticky note and then share those connections with a friend during buddy reading.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Writing Workshop, we have continued our Looking Closely unit while also taking a detour last week to write stories about the storm.  We have learned to:

• stretch words out slowly and write a letter for every sound we hear.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• draw objects from multiple angles and label all the details.
  
  
  
  
• write a sentence about the object.
• write a story about something that has happened to us and stretch the story out across multiple pages.  I was so impressed with the stories the children wrote about the storm!

During Math we:

• worked on counting a collection of objects and discussed strategies to use when the collection is set up randomly or in a circle.
• reviewed the names of shapes, then created a bar graph to show the number of pattern blocks we received.
  
  
  
  
  
• practiced sorting based on attributes.
• solved number stories.
• worked on mathematical writing to move from concrete math to more abstract math.
• learned about a number line and played Bunny Hop to help us practice moving on a number line.
  
• played a game called Ten Bean Spill to help us learn about combinations of ten.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

During Science, we started a unit on the life cycle of a plant.  We talked about the needs of plants and animals, then set up an experiment to test what plants need in order to grow.  We will watch these plants grow over the next few weeks, and we will discuss our observations along the way.

During Word Work, we added a, g, d, and s to the letters and sounds we are practicing.  We have also been working on syllables, rhyming words, and sentence structure.

I know last week's storm took a toll on quite a few families.  I hope you are all back to feeling a sense of normalcy in your homes.

Have a great week!

Katie