March 18-22

We had an EGGxellent time reading stories and doing activities involving eggs.  We took a look at the inside of eggs and discovered that not all eggs look the same. We read both fiction and non-fiction books about eggs during week. We read Chickens Aren't the Only Ones, The Easter Egg Farm, The Egg Book, The Talking Eggs, and more. Art activities and writing followed many of these books. We saw two interesting videos. One was about different kinds of eggs and who lays them. Another was about the process egg painting with author Patricia Polacco.

In math we continued to work on measurement and graphing. The students explored capacity, area, and weight through hands on activities and group discussions. We are always working on building our number sense, developing math vocabulary, and solving problems. Please refer to the new set of vocabulary words on the right hand side of the blog. Although they may seem easy, we want our students to be able to APPLY them in the real world. Ask them to go on a measurement hunt in your house. Perhaps they can bring you two objects that are SHORTER than a fork, or two objects that are TALLER than a cup. I am sure you can come up with many fun ideas to "test" their understanding of these mathematical concepts!

As we begin to prepare for first grade, you may notice some comments written on your student's work papers. I will be noting on them if your child needed assistance to complete something or if they are having difficulty understanding a concept. Although I will be working with your child to help them meet their goals, it would also be helpful if you spent some time reviewing these things at home as well. We want all our students to be ready for 1st grade! You may also receive emails from me from time to time with updates about your child's reading level or fluency (or math skills). It is my goal just to keep you informed as the final weeks of school approach and to do my best to have your child reach all our K goals!

Please read the following announcements from the LMC:

1   The Young Author’s Breakfast for all participants will be on Friday, April 12^th before school. Manuscripts and certificates will be passed out at that time. Watch for the permission slip to come home this Friday. 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place winners were announced in school and will be posted to the Edline LMC page.

2     If you are cleaning out your closets over break, please save your used children’s books for our 5^th Annual Book Exchange to be held the last week in April. More information will come home after Spring Break.

 Thank you for your support of the Book Fair! We will be able to purchase many new books for the library!

 

Please come to the Volunteer Celebration on Thursday, April 18 @ 2:00-3:30.

On Friday, our district celebrated Read Across America.  We had a special guest reader, Mr. LeCrone, who shared a family favorite with us.  We were also lucky to have Lucas' grandparents join us again as guest readers!  Thank you all!

 

We have no school from March 25-March 31 for Spring Break.  School Resumes April 1.

Happy a restful and happy break!

 

 

 

Mar. 11-17

What an eXciting week in kindergarten!

The letter of the week was X.  We looked at different x-rays and guessed what animals they were.  We read about things that are extinct in the Extinct Alphabet book.  But a largest focus was on mapping and pirates...because X marks the spot!
The kids had a great time learning about the country of the United States, our nation's flag, the national anthem and the song The Star Spangled Banner.  We read the book L is for Lincoln and made our own book about the symbols of the state of Illinois.  We read Me on the Map and made our own connections.  All week, we shared the maps showing the places that the class visited and we wrote a class book about it on Friday.
In math, we continued our unit on measurement.  We realized that we often determine size and length by comparing two or more items.  We also discovered that the best way to measure is by using a standard method of measurement (inches and feet) in order to be consistent.  We noticed that if a measurement tool is small, it takes more to measure than if the tool is large.
We had fun making Leprechauns and listening to our guest reader, Mr. McDonagh read with an Irish brogue.
Congratulations to Arth and Morwena for participating in Young Authors.  Congratulations to Morwena for winning first place in kindergarten for her story The Great Antarctic Friends.

I hope to see you tomorrow for the Fun Fair and Book Fair!  Have a great weekend!

March 4-8

"W"ow what a week!

This  week we focused on the letter W. Where the Wild Things Are, Mrs. Wishy Washy, and Wacky Wednesday are some of the great books we read during the week. Students worked on predicting and retelling stories as they picked out details from the beginning, middle, and end of our stories. It is important for your child to be able to identify the characters, setting, and details from each story we read. It would be beneficial to ask them about these things while reading to them at home. We want to eventually have the kindergarten students able to write their own stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Having conversations with your child DURING reading will help them to "notice" important details and become better at comprehending what they read. You can ask them if the story reminds them of any experiences they have had, or any other book they have read. Making connections while they read is an important skill.

In writer's workshop we will continue to focus spacing and conventions (capital letters where needed and punctuation at the end). I will also talk to them about revisiting stories and adding details to make them longer. When your child brings home books or papers they have written during writer's workshop, please ask them to read them to you. It gives you a great opportunity to celebrate their writing and encourage them to take more writing risks. At this time in the year we expect to see more writing, than drawing. If your child's work seems to be more drawing, try to encourage them to add details to their writing at home.

In math this week we will begin to learn about measurement. Students will compare objects. We will discuss which items are longer, shorter, or about the same length. Students will get a chance to explore height, weight, area, and capacity over the course of this unit. Report cards are right around the corner...we will spend some time assessing math skills this week and next as well.

Please read following about Fun Fair, March 16th:

The Fun Fair is the PTA's biggest fund raising event of the year and it cannot happen without volunteers to work the various attractions. We need over 85 volunteers on the day and with only 2 weeks to go, we are still short over 15 people.

Think how much your child would enjoy seeing you being involved in the Fun Fair. There are 2 shifts: the first from 11-1 and the second from 1-3 so there will be time for you to help and still enjoy going round the Fun Fair with your family.

We will struggle to run the Fair with such a deficit of help on the day. Please, consider giving just 2 hours of your time to help the PTA bring in thousands for the school.

If you can help out, please use the SignUpGenius form to do so, found at this link:

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A48ABA92BAA8-maywatts2

If you have any questions, please contact Debs McDonagh (deborah.e.mcdonagh@gmail.com), Volunteer Coordinator.

The Book Fair will also be held on March 16th.  Today you received a flyer that shows a sample of some of the great books available.  I will not be ordering online through Scholastic this month.  The Book Fair is a great opportunity to help our school.  See a fun book that you would like to donate to the class?  Not only will you be adding to your child's classroom library, part of the money spent on books will be given back to the May Watts LMC.   Thank you, in advance for participating.

Thank you to Mrs. Sajja, Mrs. Kalota, Mrs. Ashish, and Mrs. Cowan for helping with Literacy Centers this week.  It's always a fun time!  Finally, we welcome new student Eshal to our classroom.  Glad to have you at May Watts!

Have a great weekend!

Feb. 25-28

This week we officially introduced our last kindergarten sight word "little."  We will now focus on number words.  We  learned about things that start with the letter O... octopus, opposites, and the 'op word family. During the week we read a book called Otto Is Different and talked about the things that make us different from our friends. Each child will get to talk about something that makes them "different" as we celebrate what makes us unique. Students also spent time learning about the habits of an octopus when we read nonfiction books about this amazing animal and wrote a factual report about one. The class will also continue to enjoy the entertaining author Mo Willems as we wrap up our current author study.

In math we began building our fluency of subtracting within 5. We recently have learned some new games to work on this skill and will be playing them with partners during the week. Our collaborative problem solving will continue as well. We need to remember to listen for the important words in a problem, ask our selves what we are trying to figure out, and then draw a picture to show how we solved the problem. At the end there almost always is an equation and a labeled answer. Many students are getting very good with this.

There are several exciting May Watts events coming up in March....like the FUN FAIR and the book fair. Hopefully you will get to join in the fun! Have a super weekend!