Weekly News Oct 7-11

The boys and girls are REALLY looking forward to our field trip this week!    At Heckrodt we will learn more about looking closely (like scientists) and this will have a great impact on our writing...I just know it!   Please be sure your child dresses for the weather on Friday; we will be outdoors for  much of the afternoon.  Also, unless you have ordered a lunch through Chartwells, please send your child with a lunch on this day.

This week I will be conducting some 1:1 literacy assessments with each student. In order for me to meet with each child individually, Mrs. V. and Mrs. Flanagan will be here as guest teachers. They are both familiar faces from 4K (and are some of my favorites too).
We will see Mrs. V on  Monday and Mrs. Flanagan on Wednesday!
I will be anxious to share the results of these assessments with you at conferences.

Important Dates and Reminders:
October 11: Field Trip 11:30-3:00
October 15 and 17: Conferences - Please sign up here
October 22: Family Night
October 31: Orange and Black Day
November 1: NO SCHOOL

Math: This week mathematicians will review the shapes circle, square and rectangle.  We will also be playing some fun games and making our own number parades (like the one below) to help us with number order and associating quantity with 1-10.

Reading: As the Kindergartners work toward more conventional reading, we will be working on learning "snap words", or words that appear frequently in books but are not easily sounded out. Our current snap words are I, the, a & to. This week we will work on labeling important parts of our story books and adding snap words to these labels.
Another strategy for beginning readers is to look at the picture, think about what would make sense, and then read! If you have any pattern books at home, give your child the pattern on the first page and then watch as they use the pictures to read the rest!  We have been trying this in the star name books about your child you have seen come home!

Writing:Wow! The Kindergartners have been LOVING our new writing unit. They are so motivated to write about things they love. Our focus will switch to places we love this week, so show and tell bags will be sent home,  This week writers will be encouraged to try their best to write words on the page, even if they know the words are not spelled exactly right! They will also work with writing partners to make their writing even better by asking questions and adding more.

Researchers Workshop:This past week, we began our School Study unit. Throughout the unit, we will be exploring who the community helpers are in our school and conducting interviews to learn more about what they do! So far we have learned about interviews and planned what kinds of questions we are going to ask our school community helpers. We started conducting interviews with a few school helpers this week and and will do some more next week!