Life in Kindergarten

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.  I am very thankful to be teaching all of your children at Rowe School!

I enjoyed meeting with you at your child's conference.  It was exciting to be able to share the learning of your child.

The children have been very busy learners the last two weeks (as they are every week!).  During Reading Workshop I have been teaching the children strategies for reading words.  The children have learned the following strategies for reading text:

• When reading an unknown word, use the pictures to help think of what the word could be.
• "Get your mouth ready" by saying the first sound of the word.
• Locate "word wall words" in the books we're reading.  
• After figuring out what an unknown word could be, reread the sentence to make sure the word makes sense in the sentence.
• Point once under every word we see, even if the word has more than one syllable.

• Sound-out words by saying the sounds we have learned for each letter.

We started doing literacy stations a couple of weeks ago.  Children participate in literacy stations on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  The children rotate through several stations over the course of the week.  The pictures below show children at some of these stations.

Children sort rhyming words at the "Word Work Tub Station."

At the "Handwriting Station" children have the opportunity to practice writing letters we've learned.

This child is putting letters in ABC order at the "Word Work Station."

These children are sorting pictures at the "Pocket Chart Station."

These boys are preparing to listen to a story at the "Listening Station."

The children had another opportunity to meet with their first grade buddies.  This time we shared books with our buddies instead of our writing.  All the children took turns reading to their buddy.  The children were very engaged and on-task.  The pictures below show the children with their first grade buddies. 
During Writing Workshop we have continued to write small moment stories.  The children have been working on adding more details to their stories to help their readers feel like they are part of the story.  Children have been making the people in their story talk and have been including feeling details.  I have been very impressed with the stories your children are writing!


During Math we have:

• Continued to solve addition and subtraction number stories.  Students even created their own number stories during math centers!

• Learned and played a game called "Monster Squeeze."  This is a game that children play in groups of three.  One child picks a number between 1 and 20.  The other two children take turns guessing a number.  The child who picked the number gives clues after each child makes a guess, such as "my number is higher than 12."  The two "guessers" hold monsters on a number line and squeeze their monsters closer and closer together until they guess the correct number.  This game helps children compare numbers. 

• Continued to learn about symmetry.  Children made symmetrical shapes during math centers.

• Participated in math centers to practice skills previously learned.  The pictures below show what we've been doing during our math centers. 

Children put pictures strips in numerical order to practice sequencing numbers

Cutting symmetrical shapes

Playing a number roll dice game

These children are playing "Teen Tangle" to help practice naming and finding teen numbers.  The children had a blast playing this game!!

Next week we will begin a Gingerbread Man unit that will bring us to our December vacation!  I'm sure the children will enjoy the many activities the kindergarten teachers have planned.