Nov. 12-16

Language Arts: The letter of the week was C and our sight words were "in" and "it." Be sure to practice reading and writing popcorn words at home, learning the sight words is a very important part of Kindergarten. Last week and this week, much of our read aloud time was spent learning about the Five Senses. We enjoyed fun experiments on the senses smell, hear, and touch.  We talked about both the hard sound (k) and the soft sound (s). We sorted c words into hard c and soft c categories, we brainstormed and worked on spelling words that start with c, and we will of course practice the correction formation of the letter. In Language Arts, we will read the books, Cookie's Week, Bunnycakes, Little Cloud and Yes, We Can! We will work on sequencing events from the stories and discuss events that happen in the beginning, middle, and end of the stories. We played a fun listening game called Draw a Rhyme.  Everyone was very creative in drawing their clowns!  Next week we will create a book called Gobble Gobble.

Math: We continued to practice teen numbers when we learn a game called Nearby Teens. (That's the game I showed you at conferences.We also practiced sequencing numbers with the In the Clouds game. The class will also look more closely at the hundred chart. We will looked for patterns and practice reading larger numbers. We practiced our numeral writing and sequencing birthday cakes. Colorful corn is decorating our room after we created patterns on our Indian corn project.  Students worked together in a small group to solve a story problem from the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They used their cooperative skills to discuss and record what they did to solve the problem. Remember to use math talk at home. Ask your child to explain to you their thoughts about math and how they solve problems. Next week we will play a math attribute game using turkeys.  we will also practice addition problem using turkey manipulatives.  They will bring the pieces home.  You can play with your children by asking them to show number problems (Ex:  Show 4 turkeys on the top and 3 turkeys on the bottom.  How many all together?)  We will also be learning the Flash Game with Five Frames.
Social Studies:  Our Cool Tool this week was Anti-Bullying.  This is a hard concept for kindergartners.  When someone bothers you once, he or she is not a bully.  A bully is someone who repeatedly teases, bothers, or hurts another person.  We will be discussing what to do if someone is bullying. 

Science: We finished up our senses unit this week.  Next week we will begin our nutrition unit.

Notes:  Mrs. Ashish was a guest reader this week. Thank you! Please note that I have added a sign up for art awareness on the left side of this blog post. I would love to have someone come in during December to share the Grant Wood presentation.  Please let me know if you are interested.  It is a favorite with the kindergarten students.(The date for that presentation is past but we can work it out.) With Writer's Workshop beginning, I have two favors to ask: If you would like to donate reams of white copy paper, we use a lot of it for small books. If you would like to fold and staple small books at home, I would love and appreciate your help. Just email me and I'll send home supplies! Thank you!!!!

Our Treasure Box items are getting low!  That's a good thing because that means our students are earning yellow tickets for good behavior!  If you have anything to donate:  extra Happy Meal toys, small party favor toys, dollar store items...the kids would love it!!!  Thank you!

It was fun seeing May Watts families at our Culver's Night.

Remember, there is no school Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.  Enjoy your time with family and friends!!!

Have a great weekend!

Thank you to ALL of the parents who participated in parent/teacher conferences! Although the minutes seemed to fly by, it was valuable time well spent. Thank you for helping me to know your child better and for continuing to partner with me so we can work together to ensure your child's success!

We had a busy week!!

Language Arts:  The kindergarten classes had a wonderful experience this week. We were visited by an author! Don Booty, a local author, came to May Watts and read his newly published book Brave Little Starling . He talked to our students about when he wrote his first book (he was 8!) and where he gets his ideas for his stories (from his real life). This was an excellent way to kick off our writer's workshop. He was so nice to the students and really inspired them to come back to the room and write their own stories. A big thanks goes out to Jackie Hoheisel From Mrs. Wilke's class who arranged for this amazing opportunity. If you are interested in purchasing his book, you can click on the link in the top left hand side of the blog. It will take you to the Barnes and Nobel website where you can buy it. It is also available on Amazon.
We are very excited to be starting Writer's Workshop! We had a discussion about WHY we write (grocery lists, letters to people, to become smarter...better readers and writers, to tell people things) and about people we know who write (moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, friends, teachers, US.) We discussed what makes authors good writers (writing about what they know.) We also talked about what we can use in the classroom to help us with our writing (writing offices, word wall, dictionaries, other books, word lists.) Very soon, we will begin MAKING great things in Writer's Workshop!

Math: We showed our skills in identifying two d shapes and the use of positional words to describe their locations.  We are developing our fluency of making five with the Make Five finger game.  In addition, we had Game Day honing our counting and grouping skills with Monster Squeeze, Skyscrapers, Monkeys on the Bed, and Papa Get the Moon.

Science:A new topic we will focus on is our 5 senses. The class will be introduced to the 5 senses (taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell) through read alouds, short video clips, and hands on experiences. There also will be opportunities to visit our wonder center which will be filled with 5 senses materials. Our study of the 5 senses will carry into the following week and will lead into our next unit of study in science, nutrition.
Social Studies:  Empathy is our Cool Tool this week.  Understanding the feelings of others help us to make better choices with our friends.  We will continue read books about and discuss empathy.

Notes:  Thank you to PTA for our Popcorn Day!  Thank you to Mrs. Ashish for helping in the computer lab.  Thank you parents at home who are helping sharpen pencils and sending in supplies for our classroom.

Picture re-takes are being planned for Thursday, November 15, 2012, beginning at 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. If you need to have your child’s photo re-taken, please do the following:

1) Call the office to get your child’s name on the re-take list.

2) Return the complete original packet of photos on November 15.

If your child did not have money with them on the original picture day to purchase photos, forgot to turn in their payment envelope, was absent, or is new to May Watts School, they should also be placed on the re-take list. All students have their photos taken in order to have them appear in our May Watts yearbook and for their academic file regardless of whether you purchase photos or not.

If you have any questions, please contact the office at 428-6700.

Have a great weekend!

Oct 29-Nov. 2

Language Arts:  This week we finished Jolly Phonics with the ar sound. Our Jolly Phonics books will go home for extra practice at conferences. We will now concentrate on our sight words and phonemic awareness within words (ex: words with same beginning sound or ending sound, words that rhyme, syllables, blending) Our sight words this week were "to" and "do." Our letter of the week was T. We read The Teeny Tiny Woman and made our own teeny tiny books. We read Mr. Tannen's Tie and made our own ties that show something special to us.  We had a lesson and writing activity on adjectives. We used adjectives to describe a pumpkin that I brought in to class. The students looked at it and touched it and we wrote describing words on the pumpkin. We recorded our adjectives on the Tannen's Ties project.  We read a non fiction book about turtles and wrote a fact that we remembered from the book.  We made a fun Halloween book called We Weren't Afraid.  

Math: The book Tally O'Mally helped us understand why and how tally marks are used and bundled. We read a tall tale and wrote about things that are taller and tinier than us. We created jack o lanterns using our shape templates.  We practiced our math extended responses by drawing our thinking and using key math words in our answers. In computers, we practiced using positional words to describe where our shapes were in our building.  We also practiced recognizing different sizes.

Social Studies: We will be reading more books about good social behavior such as The Bear Who Shared, The Boy Who Wouldn't Share and Pumpkin Soup. Class discussions about making good choices and being a good friend will be a regular part of each day. 

Notes:  Next week conferences will be held.  If I have not gotten a response whether you will attend, I have sent another reminder in your child's folder today.  Please return slip by Monday.  There will be no school on Tuesday due to conferences.  I look forward to seeing you all!