Life in Kindergarten

Dear Parents,

I hope you enjoyed the first week of Fall!  It's hard to believe September is already over.  We read many books about Autumn last week.  The children learned that Autumn is another name for Fall.

I hope your child told you about the nature walk we took on Thursday.  We began our Science unit on trees.  On our walk we talked about, visited, and sat under many trees.  We discussed the different parts of a tree, labeled tree posters, and the children were able to see what the inside of a tree looks like by passing around a tree round (a slice of a tree).  That day in writing many of the children wrote about this exciting adventure!

Last week in Reading the children:

• Started using their own book bags during Reading Workshop time.  Every student has a book bag with 8-10 books in it.  The children will keep the same books in their bags for a week and select new books the following week.  
• Continued to work on one-to-one correspondence when reading. 
• Practiced identifying and sorting the letters m, s, t, and g (both uppercase and lowercase!).
• Identified rhyming words during shared reading of poems.
• Began reading from their own poetry folder!  Each time the class learns a poem or song I will add a copy of that poem to their poetry folder.  Children use Popsicle sticks as pointers to track their reading.

Last week in Writing the children:

• Learned that writers make sure they can reread their story after they have finished.
• Continued stretching out words like a rubber band.  I retaught the children that they always write at least one letter for each sound they hear.
• Began using an alphabet chart to help them find and write letters.
• Fancied up their work on Friday.  Friday is the day children can use color to add detail and fancy-up their work.  Pencil is used every other day of the week so that the children focus more on writing instead of coloring.
• Practiced writing the letters D and P during handwriting.

Last week in Math the children:

• Used pattern blocks to complete pattern block puzzles.
• Practiced one-to-one correspondence when counting a set of objects.
• Identified numbers and named the next number in a sequence.
• Finished our study of one-digit numbers by exploring the numbers 8 and 9.
• Identified characteristics of triangles, squares, and rectangles and discussed how those shapes are alike and different.

Tomorrow begins another busy week!
~ Katie