Weekly News Mar 2-6

We had such a fun week together!  There is lots of fun in store for next week as well!  As a class we have been trying hard to think about how our words and actions can affect others feelings or learning.  Here is a chart we created together!

Important Dates and Reminders:

March 2-6 Read Across America Week Dress up days

3/2: Cat in the Hat- wear stripe or a hat

3/3: Grinch/ Green Eggs and Ham day- wear green

3/4: Wacky Wednesday

3/5: Red Fish, Blue Fish- wear red and blue

3/6: Twin/ Thing 1 and Thing 2- dress like someone else

Here's what's happening in K this week! 

Reading: This week we kick off a new reading unit called Growing Expertise in Little Books.  This unit has a focus on non-fiction reading and really reading to gain understanding and learn from the books we read.  This week we will sort our classroom library to get all of our informational books organized so they are easier for us to shop for.  We will learn that as we read about a topic we become experts on it and learn to share that information with others by telling the main topic of a book and giving key details learned in the book. We will also work on stopping and asking questions while we read.

Writing: On Monday, we will finish up our letters, using these checklists to make sure that our letters have everything persuasive writing needs and that is easy to read:

On Tuesday, we will walk to the post office to send our letters out into the world! Don't be surprised if you receive some pretty convincing letters:) 

Please return the signed permission slip by Monday!

Math: This week a major focus in math will be identifying and quickly recalling partners of a number or two numbers that combine to form a larger numbers.  Students will play a game called Missing Partner where they will have a set number of tools (2-5) and a part of the group will be removed and they will need to say the quantity that remains and then figure out the quantity that is missing.  Ex.  I see 2, 3 are missing, 2 and 3 are partners of 5.

Researcher's Workshop: After building knowledge about different kinds of weather, students will be rotating through the following centers: 

• Reading Center--Students will look through books on weather to learn even more! 
• Writing Center--This center will have supplies ready for students to write about what they have learned about weather
• Photo Center--Scientists will sort, uncover, label, and title weather photos
• Technology Center--scientists will explore weather using the Pebble Go app

Weekly News Feb 24-28

I love this time of the year!  Although the temps are low, they kids are on fire lately!  They are making huge jumps in their learning and are so proud!

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 27: PAC Field Trip
February 28: 1/2 day 11:30 dismissal
March 2-6 Read Across America Week Dress up days
3/2: Cat in the Hat- wear stripe or a hat
3/3: Grinch/ Green Eggs and Ham day- wear green
3/4: Wacky Wednesday
3/5: Red Fish, Blue Fish- wear red and blue
3/6: Twin/ Thing 1 and Thing 2- dress like someone else



Math: The mathematicians will learn about being flexible with writing equations. They will learn that they can write an equation like 10+3=13 or 13=10+3. We will begin to explore comparing groups of numbers to tell whether the group is greater or less than another group. Finally, we will work on acting out math story problems using a grocery store scene. Be on the lookout for a video on seesaw!


Reading: This week we will become avid readers of poetry!  We will learn how to make our reading sound smooth and will also work to show emotions in the poems we read.  We will end the week with a Poetry Extravaganza where we will perform, illustrate and even write our own poems using the beat of poems we know well.


Writing: Our focus will switch to writing persuasive letters this week. As students are writing letters to solve problems, they will learn that they can study the work of a mentor author and then try to incorporate what they have learned into their writing. Writers will also learn to think about their audience when writing and add possible ideas for how to fix the problem they are writing about.


Researcher's Workshop:  This week we will study the sun and the impact it can have on temperature as well as the way it provides light.  We will learn about a city in Norway that is situated in a way where it can receive no light and will hypothesize and experiment with ways we could create light.  We are in need of flashlights for this experiment!  If you can lend us some, please send them to school by Thursday!!!

Weekly News Feb 17-21

Important Dates and Reminders:
February 17: NO SCHOOL
February 18: Family Night 5:30 pm
February 27: PAC Field Trip- permission slips due 2/18
March 2-6 Read Across America Week Dress up days
3/2: Cat in the Hat- wear stripe or a hat
3/3: Grinch/ Green Eggs and Ham day- wear green
3/4: Wacky Wednesday
3/5: Red Fish, Blue Fish- wear red and blue
3/6: Twin/ Thing 1 and Thing 2- dress like someone else

Math: This week we will begin Unit 4.  The main concepts of this unit are finding partner numbers for 6-10 and identifying 3 dimensional shapes.  The unit also reinforces teen number composition and decomposition.  Please note that any partner work within 6-10 is expected to be done with math tools and drawings and students are by no means expected to be fluent in knowing their facts or partners to 10.  We will continue to work toward automaticity with addition and subtraction within 5.  So far we have learned these poems to help us solve +0/-0 and +1 facts!

Reading: We are having fun being avid non-fiction readers!  This week we will learn that acting out or pretending with non-fiction books can help us to better understand them.  We may even do a little acting on SeeSaw...keep your eyes peeled! This week we will also become avid readers of poetry!  We will learn how to make our reading sound smooth and will also work to show emotions in the poems we read.

Writing:I hope your child has shared with your some of the important topics they are writing about to persuade others.  Please know you may receive some books or letters regarding "problems" your child might want to persuade others to fix at home or in your neighborhood.  We are really working on using our words as a way to let people know about a problems see and ways we think it can be fixed.  This week we will work on keeping our writing stamina up by thinking of lots of causes to write about and will work on revision and spelling strategies.

Researcher's Workshop: This week our study of weather will lead us to discussing the 4 seasons.  We live in the perfect place to be able to really understand these weather differences and changes!  I am sure we will feel like WI is perfect right now, right?!  We will become data collectors and determine how many class birthdays occur in what seasons and will continue to weather watch using this chart!!

Weekly News Feb 10-14

We has SUCH a fun 100th day of school!!  It was fun to switch up our schedule and make everything all about 100!!!

 All of the 100 year olds!!

 Making 100 gumballs!

 Can you build something with 100 legos??

 100 cup stacking challenge!  

Each group worked SO well together they were able to stack 200 cups!!

How many licks does it take to get to the end??

Important Dates and Reminders:

February 14: Valentine day celebration-Here is our class list.

We will be making valentine bags as class, so no need to send in a separate Valentine box

February 17: NO SCHOOL

February 27: PAC Field Trip

Reading: This week as Super Avid Readers we will look more closely at non-fiction or informational texts and how we can really learn from what we read in them.  To pique our interest in looking more closely at non-fiction topics we will watch this video.   The kids do seem to really like this video and learn so much from watching it, but some may find it a tad scary a first.  There will be lots of discussion around it so I wanted it to be available to you as well :).  Some of the ways we will work with non-fiction books this week we will be: to use new vocabulary we have learned about our topics when talking about our books, finding multiple books on a topic that interests us and comparing and contrasting various books we read

Writing:  Opinion writing is up and running in Kindergarten!  This week we will learn that we can voice our opinion about problems we see around us and write as a way to try to fix it.  We will use the following chart to help us:

1. See a problem

2. Think

3.  Write

This work will lead us to writing letters, making signs and even creating petitions to make our school a better place.  The big goal for Kindergartners in this unit is to understand how powerful their words can be to persuade others.

Math: One way that mathematicians become more fluent in solving addition and subtraction equations is to study patterns. Students will start by exploring +0 and -0 equations and discover that it doesn't matter if you're adding or subtracting, when their is a 0, the number stays the same. Then, we will begin to study the +1 pattern, which is just like forward number counting! Students will practice solving equations quickly by using flashcards. We will continue to look for patterns to strengthen our fluency!

Researcher's Workshop: This week we will begin an exploration of weather.  We will become "weather watchers" and will learn important things to be on the look out for when studying the weather.  We will be spending time outside to observe and write about the weather and will begin to discuss how the weather impacts people and the things they need.