What an awesome and warm week this has been!! Thank you for checking in on the Blog to see and hear all of the latest out of our classroom. A special thank you to Samantha Ogle and Ashley Kurpinski for an awesome Halloween Party last Friday afternoon. It was wonderful to see so many parents, grandparents and siblings all come to our parade and party. We had a fabulous time!
Reader's Workshop:
The past couple of week's in workshop we have introduced some new sight words to add to our rapidly growing list! So far we have the following four sight words: a, see, the, is. We have now added: like, it, and I. These are words your child is expected to know - both being able to read them and write them. The list will continue to grow as the year goes on and I will continue to update you here, on the blog, of our sight word list. Please make sure as new familiar books are coming home they are being stored in a safe place at home and you are continuing to practice reading these books with your children on a nightly basis. The repetition and frequency will help strengthen them as new readers.
In the next few weeks guided reading groups will be starting. I will be meeting with groups of kids based on skills and abilities. Work will come home typically 2-3 nights a week with your child and a note saying when it needs to be returned. This may be books coming home, this may be word cards to sort with directions, white boards and markers, etc. it all depends on the needs of your child. Please make sure these items are returned in the bags in a timely manner.
In Workshop mini-lessons we continue to work on building our routines for Reader's Workshop, how to manage the supplies in our book drawers, how to share books and how to be good listeners during mini-lesson time. We have picked "elbow-partners" and practiced doing a "Lean and Tell" and a "Turn and Talk" often with our classroom book discussions.
Writer's Workshop:
In Writer's Workshop the goal has been to get your kids to write!! Young writers can be very reluctant so I have been modeling daily writing with the kids to help them learn to stretch out words, look for sounds and write the letters down on paper. At conferences you'll have a chance to see the written work your child has completed during our Launching unit of Writer's Workshop! They have come a long way!
In mini-lessons we have also been focusing on our writing stamina, our writing routines for folders (green dot work vs. red dot work), sharing with elbow partners and the routines for workshop time.
In the next month or so we will begin using writing folders to encourage daily writing at home. Look for more info to come soon about this neat experience helping to connect our school writing to writing we can do at home!
Math Workshop:
Counting, counting, counting and counting!! Lately all we have been doing is counting numbers!! We are getting better and better at writing our numbers. We practice daily and go up to 30 most days. We have done several counting chants orally (counting by twos, fives and tens) as well as singing songs that help us learn the names of the numbers up to 100! Our goal in Kindergarten is to have all kids able to recognize any number up to 100 and be able to write all of their numbers on a blank grid up to 100. This week we did a whole group hundreds grid... it took us forever, but we did it!! We celebrated our hard work and while some got further than others, that was okay!!
Parent Teacher Conferences:
I am looking forward to sitting down with everyone next Thursday, November 12th. I have lots of great information to share with you and would be glad to review your child's report card as well! Please bring any questions or concerns you have as well, as this is a great time to chat and explain anything that I can about kindergarten! Please remember this is a no school day and ideally this is just an adult-only conference. If you are unable to find childcare, your kiddo is fine waiting in the hallway with something quiet to do if you are comfortable with this. We will have chairs out in the hallway.
Bundle up this weekend... Looks like we won't be seeing those 70 degree temperatures for many more months to come!!
:-) Mrs. Weckstein
