Monday, April 8, 2019

Kindergarten News


Curriculum Updates

Reading: We have started a reading unit called Becoming Avid Readers.
This units sets up the children to become less reliant on the teacher,
encouraging them to apply their strategies across multiple contexts.
This unit focuses less on new skills, but more about making sure that
what the children have learned has been internalized and automatic.  
Students will continue to be immersed in books, poetry and songs, but
children will now be encouraged to take more responsibility in making
decisions about what and how to read.

Writing: We have been having fun writing in our  persuasive writing unit.
We are busy working on posters and letters to fix problems we have noticed.
We are using our convincing skills to help readers learn about solutions to
problems. We are learning how to make the world a better place to be!
Math: Our topics include 2-D and 3-D shape review, “counting-on” from
various numbers, subtraction, place value, parts of ten, comparing numbers,
and ordering numbers from smallest to largest.

Integrated Studies:  We are starting a Science unit on Plants. We will learn all
about how plants are affected by our environment. Here are the topics we will
learn about: Living and Nonliving, Parts of a Plant, What Plants Need to Live,
Plant Life Cycles, How Plants Adapt to their Environment & much more! 


Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Kindergarten Science


Students experiment with "inclined planes."
 

Kindergarten students have been learning about “Forces of Motion” during our Friday science lessons and during center time. We have been introduced to different types of force- pushes, pulls, wind, gravity, magnetic force, etc. We have learned how force affects the direction in which an object moves and how fast it travels. Students have also had a chance to experiment with force and motion by trying out some “simple machines.” We practiced moving objects with levers, inclined planes, and wedges.
We made anemometers to test wind force.
We used a rolling motion to create marble paintings.