We are Thankful

I asked the students what they were thankful for today and I was so impressed with their responses I just had to share.

"I am thankful for..."

• all the people in the world.
• all of the teachers.
• all of my friends.
• all of my grandpas.
• all the stuff we do at school.
• the Earth that gives us a place to live and for trees that give us oxygen.
• everything that is in our village.
• our families.
• my brother.
• everything and everyone.

And I am thankful for all of the kindergarten families!  It was so nice to meet with all of you for conferences.  I know this is a busy time of year and I really appreciate the time you took.  Have a wonderful holiday.

This Week in Kindergarten (November 14-18)

Putting an ABC puzzle together in ABC order

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

• This week we talked about how all of the strategies we have for reading are like superpowers.  So many concepts have to come together for children to decode and understand what they are reading.
• Readers look at the pictures and really think about what the book is about.  This includes making a movie in our minds about the book.
• Beginning readers point under each word and make sure the number of words said matches the number of words on the page.
• Readers read words we know by heart in a snap.
• Readers look at the first letter in words and get their mouths ready to say that sound.  
• Writers go back into their books to make a good book, great!  We add to the words and the pictures to help the reader read the book.
• Writers leave spaces between words.
• We studied the letters /Z,z/ and /Q,q/ and learned how to write them properly.
• Shared Reading this week was:

Apples,

Pears,

Peaches,

Plums,

Tell me when

your birthday comes.

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

Measuring using nonstandard measurement

• Developing and using strategies to find the sum of two dice rolls.
• Creating a graph of dice rolls.
• Making squares, rectangles and triangles using geobands and geoboards.
• Counting by 1s through 50 using different starting points.

This Week in Kindergarten (November 7-10)

Partner Reading

Taking turns as "Drill Leader"
during Fundations letter practice.

Reading in our Shared Reading Binders

This Week in Literacy (some things we worked on)

• We talked a lot about building our reading muscles and stamina by being engaged in our books.  We reviewed strategies for what to do if our minds start to wander.  
• Readers know that pointing helps you focus on the words.
• In writing we talked a lot about making plans for our writing by telling the story across the pages before putting the words down. 
• We can write about things we know about!!!  Students have been writing about: dresses, McDonald's, trucks, getting ready to go outside in snowy weather and so much more!!
• We read and colored a mini-book about Veteran's Day.
• We are almost through the Fundations lowercase alphabet.  This week we studied the formation, name and sound of /v/ and /w/.  
• We also worked on word awareness and ending punctuation of sentences.

This Week in Math (some things we worked on)

• Reading and comparing numbers.  
• Solving addition number stories using linking cubes.
• Recognizing "joining" situations as addition.
• Learning about the plus symbol.
• Creating and describing patterns with pattern blocks.
• Continuing pattern block patterns.
• Constructing a class bar graph of our favorite colors.
• Discussing information presented in a bar graph and answering questions.

Thank you Kindergarten Families for the great items in our Arts and Crafts Basket!!!  You are the best!!!  It was great to see many of you at our Thanksgiving Lunch on Thursday.