Friday Motor Group

During motor group students are working on moving in  a slow and controlled manner.  They are working on balance, strength, recognizing and respecting other's "bubble space", and much more.

This Week in Kindergarten (Dec. 12-16)

We made new bags for our "Just Right Books"

Taking turns being the Teacher

Book Making

This Week in Literacy (Some things we worked on)

• Reading with engagement, independence, volume and stamina.  
• When we figure out a pattern in our book we can use that to predict what will happen next.
• We can guess at tricky words then check to see if we are right by: checking the picture, the beginning letter, and asking ourselves, "What would sound right in this book?" and "What would make sense here?"
• If we get stuck on  a tricky part we can go back a couple of pages and get a running start.  We read as smoothly as we can so we can really hear how the pattern sounds.
• Writers have to be brave word solvers: we have to use all of the resources we have, like the word wall to  write words that people can read.
• Writers can stretch words out and write down all of the sounds they hear to write words people can read.  
• We read some Hanukkah books and had a special snack of cookies shaped like dreidels, menorahs and stars.  Amy Wallace also discussed Hanukkah with our class and students got to play with dreidels.
• We read The  Gingerbread Man and got to eat some homemade gingerbread!  
• Shared Reading was sent home this past week.  We colored and read a mini-book: December is time to Celebrate.
• In our  Word Study time we are counting syllables in words, writing uppercase letters and working on ABC order.

This Week in Math (Some things we worked on)

• Developing and extending measurement skills by using children's feet to measure objects.
• Thinking about combinations of digits used to write numbers.
• Recognizing and finding equivalent names for numbers.
• Using addition and subtraction clues.
• Using multiple attributes to find and describe objects.
• Applying sorting rules.
• Copying and extending a visual pattern that is not based on color.

Holiday Book Festival at L.L. Bean

Chris Van Dusen,author of The Circus Ship, and Dahlov Ipcar (we've read The Cat at Night, it is a kindergarten favorite) and more than 25 other authors will be meeting fans and signing books all weekend long, turning each book into a one-of-a-kind gift.  Go to this link and scroll down for more information. http://www.llbean.com/shop/retailStores/northernLights/

Thank You

Dear Kindergarten Families,

I wanted to share a thank you note that our class received regarding the Arts and Crafts Basket that was won at the Pasta Dinner.  The winner of the basket wrote:

"To Ms Finnen and her class,
Thank you very much for the craft basket.  You have helped me make 7 children happy this Christmas.  It was very beautiful.  All of you keep up the good work.  Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you."

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Finnen

This Week in Kindergarten (November 28-December 2)

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

• Reading with engagement and independence, building stamina, reading lots of books.
• Building our reading lives by choosing a special spot to read at home.
• Warming up for reading by reading words we know by heart in a snap. (We now have these words on word cards in our reading bags.)
• Recognizing patterns in books and knowing that the patterns can sweep us along in our reading.
• Writing pattern books.
• Having whole class conversations about books.  (Looking at the person who is talking.  Building on what was said before.  Taking turns.)
• We finished learning the lowercase alphabet in our Fundations/WordStudy work with the letters: /y/ and /x/.  

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

• Modeling and solving subtraction stories using manipulatives.
• Learning the (-) symbol.
• Recognizing "take away" situations as subtraction.
• One-to-one Counting.
• Recognizing and writing numbers.
• Sorting blocks according to different attributes.
• Figuring out and applying sorting rules.