All About Gingerbread!

Last week we wrapped up our learning on Bears and began a new unit based on many different gingerbread stories.  We will continue reading gingerbread stories all week!  There are so many different fun versions. 

Reading:  We are having fun comparing and contrasting the characters and how the stories end.  We have noticed that in each story the 'big idea' is the same...a gingerbread character escapes from the oven and is chased by many different animals and people!  In each story we eventually meet a sneaky, clever fox.  Will the fox trick the gingerbread character or will the gingerbread character escape?!  This is always the most exciting part of each story.  So many of the children were shocked when the fox ate the poor gingerbread man!  We love chanting the repeating verses that occur in each story.  As you can imagine, we are having a lot of fun with these stories. :)

Projects:  As part of this unit, we will build gingerbread houses with our 5th grade buddies on Tuesday during the school day.  We will decorate the houses on Thursday, December 18th at 2 pm.  Please return the green paper and any supplies for our houses to help me plan accordingly. Thank you so much for your support!  Also, our December Family Projects are due Monday!

Gingerbread Exchange:  Last week the children each decorated a gingerbread man.  We sent 24 gingerbread men to 24 different schools in different states throughout our country.  We included a letter from our class telling a little bit about class.  Soon we should be receiving gingerbread projects from other schools in different states! All three kindergarten classes are participating in this exchange program this year. This means our school should receive approximately 75 projects from schools all over our country!  This is a new and exciting project for us. :)

Math:  This week we will focus on addition and writing addition number sentences.  We have been learning addition skills all year, but this will be our main focus during math activities this week.   We will work with many manipulatives to help us practices our addition facts.

Recess:  Weather permitting, please continue to send in snowpants, hats, gloves, boots, and warm coats for outdoor recess time.  Sneakers should be packed inside your child's backpack each day.  Boots are worn outside for play.  Sneakers are worn during the school day in our classroom.  The children are truly doing a great job getting ready for recess and LOVE playing in the snow together.  I'm not sure of the forecast, but the children and I hope we get some more!!!

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.  I am looking forward to a week filled with lots of fun and energy! :)

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

Bears

I hope you all had a great weekend!  This is a busy time of the year for families and for us at school too!  Please be sure to check the important dates listed on the left sidebar of our classroom blog. 

Word Wall:  This week we will add three new words:  'run', 'see', & 'can'.  The words on our Word Wall are:  I, a, the, is, me, go, it, and, no, in, at, my, like, will, yes, not, to, you, run, see, & can.  Practice reading these words at home.  Can you find them in stories and on signs?  You can also use playdough or magnetic letters to make these words at home.  We put each word on a heart to remind us that we soon we will know all of these words 'by heart' without needing to stretch out the sounds.

Math:  We are continuing our work on teen numbers.  This week we will continue counting, reading, writing, and searching for missing numbers from parts of a number line.  We have also been busy learning about adding numbers too! We have even talked about double facts...even though that is really 1st grade work!  Our math minds are thinking all day long in our kindergarten classroom :)

Reading & Writing:  We are reading many books about bears.  As we read, we are practicing to 'retell' the parts of the story in the proper sequence.  Using our voices to 'retell' stories is a very important skill.  Try doing this at home too!  Talk about the main characters, the setting, the problem, and the solution as you read each day.  Also discuss the big idea and what happened first (beginning), next (middle), and last (the end).  These skills help us when we are writing stories our own stories during writing workshop as well!  We will continue reading about bears, but will soon begin comparing all different kinds of gingerbread stories.

Teddy Bears:  We will wrap up our Bear Unit on Wednesday.  Your child may bring in one bear (small enough to fit in his/her backpack) to school on Wednesday, December 10th.  Our bears will help with our reading, writing, math, and learning throughout the day.  Any bears who do not follow our classroom rules will spend some time hibernating in our cubbies during the day.  Be sure to ask your child how his/her bear did! ;)

Scholastic Book Orders:  You many order books online or by sending in the form along with a check.  There are some great book choices. The children love the Bear Snores On series. I will place all orders on Thursday, December 11th.  This will allow plenty of time for delivery to our classroom.  Please send me an email or a note if you are ordering books as a gift.  I will put the books in a manilla envelope and tell your child it is 'boring parent stuff' from the main office!  

Extra:  Our children are very fortunate to be working with a new friend Tylor from the high school.  On Tuesday mornings, Tylor is working with small groups of children from our kindergarten class. Tylor is visually impaired and he is teaching the children all about the tools he uses to help him learn.  The children are currently learning about braille.  We are very lucky to be working with our new high school friend.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week!  

Sincerely,

Eileen Browne