We began this month by welcoming a new student into our classroom. The children and I were so excited to meet our new friend Colin! Everyone has done a terrific job helping our new friend learn all about our school and daily routines.
This month will be short due to the upcoming winter break. It will, however, be packed with fun and interesting kindergarten learning. We are wrapping up our mini unit on penguins. We have learned so many interesting facts about these fascinating animals! Did you know that the male penguin can slide on his belly while continuing to protect the precious egg that his female partner layed? We thought this was very cool! Be sure to ask your child all about penguins at home. This month we are also learning about and celebrating Groundhog's Day (6 more weeks of winter), The 100th Day of School (counting & sharing 100 collections), Valentine's Day (love and friendship), Presidents' Day, and Dental Health. Whew...we sure are busy! In addition to these fun February themes we are working hard as kindergarten readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists.
Reading: We are now rotating through different groups during our Daily Five Literacy block each day. The children are choosing to work in different literacy work stations in small groups while I work with different small groups of children on reading, writing, and letter sounds each day. We are working hard on using whisper voices and staying on task during this time each day.
Writing: We continue to practice printing our uppercase and lowercase letters using white boards, markers, crayons, and pencils during handwriting lessons each week. We are also working on printing our names by using an uppercase letter for the first letter only. We are getting so much better at this! During writing workshop, we are working on writing list books. Currently we are writing and illustrating short list books about all the different things we can do. We have many talents in our kindergarten classroom!
Math: We began using Cuisenaire Rods this week to help us learn more about counting and comparing numbers. These are very colorful and fun math tools! We are playing and learning at the same time. We will also counting numbers 1-100 as we prepare for our 100 Days of School celebration, which we are very excited about.
Word Wall: We now have 26 heart words on our wall. These words are helping us to become readers! The words are: the, no, in, is, I , it, go, me, and, a, at, to, he,run, my, yes, like, will, see, am, on, not, we, can, you, & she. We have been adding two new words each week and we are practicing reading and writing these words daily.
Additional Reminders: Each day the children have two separate snack times. We eat once in the morning and once in the afternoon in addition to lunch. Some of the children have been eating their snacks during lunch or buying ice cream or two milk items despite reminders. Please have a quick conversation with your child about your family rules regarding snacks and lunch time. Thank you for your support. Also, several children have recently begun bringing in toys and stuffed animals. Please encourage your child to keep these items at home or in their backpacks so that they are not lost, damaged, or disruptive to our learning activities. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
We are looking forward to another busy and fun week of kindergarten fun! :)
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)
No comments:
Post a Comment