This Week in Kindergarten (October 24-28)

Guest Reader, Ms Jane (my mom) reading a childhood favorite of mine, "Owl at Home"

This Week in Literacy: Some things we worked on.

• Readers can make plans for how to read emergent storybooks with a partner and what to talk about together.  We are using post-its to mark places in books to share with our partners.
• Readers can read emergent storybooks like storytellers.
• Readers point under the words, rather than on top of them.
• Readers notice words they know in text and practice reading those words with ease.
• Writers do their best and keep on going. When writing an unknown word writers: say the word, ask, "what do I hear?", then write it.
• Writers go back and read what they have written to help remember the story.
• Writers make stories come to life by adding what people are saying.

Partner Reading (Sharing a Funny Part in "Green Wilma" by Ted Arnold).

Counting and Comparing Lengths

This Week in Math: Some things we worked on.

• Reading and Writing numbers
• Creating simple graphs of dice rolls
• Comparing the weight of different objects
• Comparing and ordering numbers
• Measuring objects using  objects of uniform length
• Comparing lengths and arranging items by length
• Developing strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems using concrete objects

Reading our shared reading poem of the week to Mrs. Campbell.
I love you, I love you
I love you so well.
If I had a peanut, I'd give you the shell.

Partner Reading

This week we read many books about firefighters and fire safety. We identified which books were fiction and which were nonfiction.  On Friday, we made a special fire truck snack.  Yum!!!  

Website for Students

The following website has age-appropriate literacy activities:

http://www.uen.org/k-2interactives/abc.shtml

It has been said that the lobster ABC game has a lot of advertisements.

This Week in Kindergarten (October 17-21)

Rainbow Writing of Sight Words

This week in Literacy (some things we worked on):

• Determining if a book is fiction or non-fiction and thinking about author's purpose.
• Rainbow Writing...a  new way to practice sight words.
• Talking with each other about parts in books that give us strong feelings.  We practiced growing ideas by starting with, "This part made me feel ...because..."  Saying "because" helps us say more.
• Building our reading muscles by reading long and strong.
• Strategies for staying focused on reading when our minds start to wander.
• Finishing up vowel introduction, with E,e and U,u (We are only using the short sound of the vowels at this point)



Fancy-Up Friday
Adding Color to Books 

• Discussing why illustrators choose to draw the pictures in books the way they do and about color choice.  (Today was "Fancy Up Friday", where students can color the books they made this week)

Shared Reading was:

I Love You Little

I love you little.

I love you big.

I love you like

a little pig.

This Week in Math (some things we worked on):

Building and Reading Patterns

Favorite School Activity Graph

Matching Numerals to the Correct
Number of Objects

• Patterning
• Drawing and solving number stories
• Numeral writing
• Graphing our Favorite School Activity
• Matching numerals and number words with the correct number of objects

Bottle Redemption to Help build a Basket Ball Court at WCS

WCS has partnered with Bootleggers Beverage Warehouse to assist us with raising money to help build a new basketball court on the playground.  When you return your cans/bottles at Bootleggers just let them know you'd like the money to go to WCS.

Arts and Crafts Basket Donations

Friday, October 28 is the deadline for donations for our class "Arts and Crafts" basket.  Some ideas for donations are: markers, crayons, colored pencils, paints, scissors, glue, paper, etc.  If you don't have time to shop, but would like to donate, you can send a monetary donation to school.  The Friends of Williams Cone will do the shopping for you.  The basket will be raffled off at the pasta dinner.  Money raises will support programs at our school.

Craft Fair Volunteers Needed, November 5th

• Put up signs
• Donate soup or baked good (to be dropped off at 8am)
• Attend bake sale table 

1. 8am-10am (includes set-up)
2. 10am-12pm
3. 12pm-2pm
4. 2pm-4pm (includes clean-up)

• Attend Kid-Made craft table

1. 8am-10am (includes set-up)
2. 10am-12pm
3. 12pm-2pm
4. 2pm-4pm (includes clean-up)

• Help Clean up and take down 3pm-4pm

Please email Mandy Russell at arusse71@maine.edu or call 729-7460

This Week in Kindergarten (October 10-14)

A fun fall birthday snack!  Jack-O-Lanterns made from oranges, filled with fruit salad.

Independent Reading 

Partner Reading (sharing our favorite part of a story)

This was a busy week in kindergarten.  We read many new books (check the shelf) and then worked on retelling the stories in our own words, using story language and character's voices.  The primary focus is on building meaning and growing our talk about books.    In writing, we began book making and this will continue as we learn to tell/illustrate/write stories across pages.  Again, the focus is on making meaning.


Shared Reading this week was a poem by Nellie Edge called, "Reading is Fun" it goes:

Reading is Fun,

Reading is Fun,

Reading is Fun for everyone.

The more you read

The better  you read.

So, Read, Read, Read.

We worked on finding words we know, counting words on each line, reading  fluently, together with "one voice".  On Friday, students read and illustrated the poem, then added it to their shared reading binders.

Students worked with partners to build chains to represent "teen" numbers.

Making Number Charts

In math we continued to work on number sense, counting and building number grids.  We also began exploring "teen" numbers by writing numbers 10-19, using visuals to represent teens as ten and some more, and building chains with partners with 12-19 links...the first ten one color, then adding on another color. (see photo above)

Going Green

Mr. Ciembroniewicz is interested in sending his monthly principal's newsletter electronically to save on paper.  Some of you have already let me know that you would like to receive the letter via email rather than receive a paper copy.  If you want to make this change, just send me a note or an email and I'll communicate this to the office.

This Week in Kindergarten (October 3-6)

This Week in Literacy (some things we worked on):

Seven Guiding Principles of the Independent Reading Workshop within a Balanced Literacy Framework:

• Readers have time to read books independently every day.
• Readers select their own appropriate books.
• Readers take care of books.
• Readers respect each other's reading time and reading lives.
• Readers have daily opportunities to talk about their books in genuine ways.
• Readers don't just read the words but also understand the story.
• Readers' work in the independent reading workshop is replicable outside the classroom.            (Collins 2004, Growing Readers)      

All of the students are working on using story language and character's voices to retell familiar stories that we have read repeatedly in class.  All students are encouraged to be detectives and find words they know in print.  All students are encouraged to pay attention to the pictures and to print and use what they know about letters and sounds to read words.  Some students are using this information to read whole books at their just-right reading level.  Other students will be doing this soon, as they become ready.

• We learned the letter name, sound and correct formation of the "plane line round letters" g and o.  
• Our shared reading poem this week was "Colors of the Flag"  We focused on reading it fluently (with a talking voice), and reading the color words red, white blue and the.  It goes:

I stand with hand on heart.
My teacher stands up, too.
We look at the flag together.
It is red, white and blue.


In Writer's Workshop we focused on a procedure to write.  This includes: think, draw, label and write.  Students are encouraged to write a story from their own lives by thinking, "One day..."

This Week in Math (some things we worked on)

• Developing number sense by representing numbers in many different ways.
• Understanding that each consecutive number is one more than the last.
• Making patterns using our knowledge of pattern and how to draw simple shapes.
• Counting, beginning at many different numbers.
• Writing the numerals 0-8 correctly.
• Making numerals with play dough. 

Next week, on Friday it will be picture day.  Mrs. Rogers will be in for me on Friday.  Ms. Dutton, Mrs. Anderson (our literacy teacher leader) and I will be attending a workshop in Portland on teaching beginning writers.  I am very excited about this workshop and look forward to bringing what I learned back to the classroom.

Upcoming Events

•       Friday, October 14th is Picture Day
•     Tuesday, October 25th 7:00pm, Friends of Williams-Cone Meeting
•     Thursday, November 3rd KinderConcert Field Trip
•     Saturday, November 5th WCS Craft Fair
•     Friday, November 18th, Friends of Williams-Cone Pasta       Dinner and Basket Raffle