font-family: 'Shadows Into Light Two', cursive;/ Life in Kindergarten: New Reading and Writing Units

Friday, February 9, 2018

New Reading and Writing Units

It's hard to believe it is already February.  Where did January go?!

This week at Rowe, we were lucky to have Erica Marcus from Wise Minds, Big Hearts visit all classrooms to work on mindfulness with the teachers and students.  Ms. Marcus will visit all classrooms once a week for the next six weeks to teach the students and teachers different ways to practice being mindful.  This week, we practiced being mindful listeners with a kind heart.  We will continue to practice what she taught us, and next week we will add to our toolbox of strategies.  Ask your child to tell you about what he/she did with Ms. Marcus.

This week during Reading Workshop we started our nonfiction unit.  We learned:

  • about the difference between fiction and nonfiction books.
  • that nonfiction books usually have real photographs that help us better understand what the author is trying to teach us.
  • that the title of a nonfiction book is like a road sign, telling us what to expect.  We can use the title and cover of the book to help us predict what the book will be about.
  • to tell the big idea and details when we finish reading a nonfiction text. 
This week during Writing Workshop we started our how-to unit.  Throughout this unit, students will write books to teach others how to do something they know how to do.  We learned:
  • that we are experts on how to do so many different things, and we can teach others how to do those things.




  • that we can get our minds ready to write by acting out the steps.
  • to use sequencing words to help us write our steps in order.
  • to use a teaching voice instead of a storytelling voice.
  • to draw pictures that will help our reader better understand what we're trying to teach.
During Math we:
  • played a game called "Bump."  This game helped us practice addition facts.  The children loved this game!  Ask your child to tell you about it.






  • played "The Growing Train Game," another game that helped us practice addition facts. 




  • were introduced to KIBO, a robot that children get to build and program.  Check out this link http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/ to learn more.  Thank you to the YEF for funding this innovative technology!  
  • started number scrolls.  Throughout the rest of kindergarten, children will continue to add to these number scrolls as a way to practice writing numbers.  They are excited to see how many numbers they can write.








During Word Work, we have been continuing to practice letters and sounds nearly every day.  We have also been spending a lot of time on decoding CVC words, words that have a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, like "bag."  Children have learned to "tap out" the sounds, saying the sound that each letter makes and then putting the sounds together to make the word.  Practicing this skill will support the students as readers and writers.  During station time, we have been working on reading and writing our "popcorn words."  We add a new popcorn word to our word wall most weeks. 

I look forward to meeting with all of you soon (if I haven't already) for your child's midyear conference!
Katie


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