Kindergarten Update

 Hello Families! We've been a little quiet on our blog but don't think we haven't been busy! We have been strengthening our reading and writing skills, learning about digraphs and doing even more with addition and subtractions. We do some fun crafts during our busy weeks too! We look forward to talking about what we've been learning at conferences with you 😊

The snow is just about gone but we enjoyed sliding down this hill during our wiggle breaks!

We LOVE playing math games during our center time. Shake and Spill and Add and Cover are two of our favorites.

We do a lot of directed drawings on Fridays, as a "Fun Friday" writing activity. We made some monsters, polar bears and snowman. We added some words to describe our monsters like "silly" "nis" "funne" "cut" and gihnt (that's silly, nic, funny, cute and giant). In Kindergarten we encourage writing sounds that we hear when we are writing. It helps us to become even better readers and writers.

       

Stop by for updates soon! 

January Update and Some Remote Learning Fun!

 Hello Kindergarten Families. January has been busy and it's almost over with no updates! We will be remote on Monday January 31 due to the storm we're getting this weekend, so a couple of fun learning videos will be at the end of this page for you watch if you want. Be sure to check SeeSaw for you assignments for the day and check in with your teacher on Google Meets.

 

In the month of January we started working on opinion/persuasive writing. This means we are trying to think of reasons why something is the best or why we would chose a certain item. An example is, "What do you think is the best hat to put on a snowman?" Simple questions like these help us to form opinions and give reasons to back up our choices. We will continue to work on expressing our opinions into February. In Math we have been writing and recognizing expressions. We have become  really good at adding and subtracting! Kindergarteners have also been coming up with their own story problems. We will be wrapping up the current math unit this week.

During reading, our focus has been on our super powers. Retell Power, Pointer Power and Picture Power have helped us to become even better readers. This powers can be practiced at home too! In phonics word families have been the focus. We take a word like bin and replace -b with -p to make the new word, pin. Kindergarteners have been doing a great job with word families and will explore new endings this week.

Do we think Phil will see his shadow on Wednesday? Learn more about groundhogs and the holiday below!

Stay tuned for more updates and more pictures from our classrooms. We didn't take many in January, we were so busy :) 

December 6-17

 Hello Families! We have been super busy in Kindergarten these past couple of weeks. We have been learning about how animals adapt and  get ready for winter. So far we've learned that some animals animals adapt by growing thick fur and some animals hibernate or torpor during the winter months. We also did an experiment to learn about blubber and how it keeps animals warm in cooler temperatures.

During our phonics time we have been busy "catching sounds" and really listening to the sounds that we hear. Mabel (the elephant) has also been helping us form sentences. This  helps us with our writing as well. We just wrapped up our Show and Tell writing unit and will have writing celebrations in our classrooms next week. 

In math we have finished our unit about shapes and have started talking about  addition and subtraction. We've been playing some fun games to help learn this new skill.

Just another reminder that with the snow coming this weekend to come to school dressed for the weather! We go outside even during the winter months and staying warm is important. Kindergarteners were super excited when we got a little dusting of snow last week!

Have a great weekend!

Week of November 30th

 Hello Kindergarten Families!

December is here, which means that winter is right around the corner. Remember to have your child dress warmly.  Packing hats, mittens or gloves in your child's backpack is a great idea. Please practice putting winter gear on at home, it will make it easier to get ready when they are at school! 

We've been doing some fun things during writing workshop. We've been working on show and tell writing where we pay close attention to the details in an object and start to add more labels or even a sentence to the page. It was nice to see what everyone brought in from home to write about!

We are continuing to explore and learn about shapes during math time and in reading we are practicing our small books that are packed with snap words. Our favorites right now are about the gingerbread man. Pumpkin Jack is still looking funky in Mrs. Kalloch's room, he has some pretty cool white fluffy mold. In Mrs. Burke's room they covered the completely flattened Pumpkin Jack with soil before Thanksgiving break and there are sprouts already! So cool. 

Mrs. Kalloch's Room

Mrs. Burke's Room

Be sure to check back to get another peek into our classrooms! 

Week of November 15

 Hi Kindergarten Families!

Wow! We have been busy in Kindergarten! Todays marks the 50th day in Kindergarten! Can you believe it? Days are getting shorter and temperatures are starting to drop. Please make sure that you send your child to school with layers! A warm jacket or a sweatshirt in addition to their school outfit is always a good plan, we go outside everyday! Please reach out to your child's teacher if you need warm clothing for your child and we will see what we can do! We look forward to seeing you this week for parent teacher conferences. We have A LOT to share with you.

We started a new math unit on geometry. We are learning all about shapes! Exploring pattern blocks, making shape designs and reading a lot of books with shapes in them. We even went for a shape hunt to see what shapes we spied in our classrooms. In reading we have been retelling familiar stories and acting them out. The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a class favorite!

 

  

During our phonics time we have been listening to beginning sounds and learning lots of new "snap words". We've been practicing snap words so much that we've starting using them even more in our writing!

          

 

In science we just finished our Pumpkin Unit and learned all about the life cycle and different types of pumpkins. Did you know that some pumpkins grow so big that you can use it as a boat? Pretty cool. An ongoing project that we're doing in kindergarten involves decomposition. We read the book Pumpkin Jack and decided to do our own experiment. Check out Jack on day 1 and on day 16. Yikes! He's fuzzy.

 

 

Stay tuned for more Pumpkin Jack updates! It's going to get gross before it gets cool. Here is the story of Pumpkin Jack and you'd like to watch it with your child.