Martin Luther King Jr. was our star this past week. We learned that his dream was for all people to get along. He said we should not care about what people look like on the outside. We should care about who they are on the inside. We all agreed that this is a great dream!
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| VALENTINE'S DAY NEWS!!! Valentine's Day/100th Day Family Project due Friday, February 1. Have fun and be creative! Valentine's Day Party News: We have 20 students in our class. On the Valentine's, please only write who the Valentine is from. Please NO treats. You can do pencils, erasers, non-edible items. Thank you!!! |
Some pictures to enjoy. Yes, I got some help from Mrs. Foellmer.
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| Christmas 2012 |
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2nd Grade Reading Buddies |
Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Log Don't forget to read with your child. Keep a log of your minutes read until February 21st. If you reach 360 minutes, turn the log in to school on February 22nd, and your child will receive a free ticket for admission to Six Flags Great America.
POPCORN WORDS: We sorted our popcorn words. The words that are in the plastic Ziploc bag are words we know: a, and, at, am, big, but, can, did, do, for, it, into, I, in, is, like, little, my, me, not, on, run, ran, see, too, to, up, we, and yes. These words are now posted on a word wall in the classroom titled "WORDS WE KNOW". Please keep both bags in your child's folder (after you've practiced with him/her daily, hopefully!). We will continue to use all the words in the classroom.
POETRY: Using poetry, we will note rhyming words, highlight popcorn words and we will read the poem everyday in order to work on one-to-one correspondence, left to right progression as well as eventually noting punctuation. The children will each have a poetry folder that they will use to collect all the poems. This way they will be able to pull their poetry folder out anytime to read with a friend or read to self. Poetry can be a fun way to teach reading. It helps eventually build fluency in readers as well as a fun way to spot popcorn words and rhyming words.
POEMS: "The New Year" and Let's See"
A lot of the kindergartners are starting to notice popcorn words in books that we read, in writing or in posters/signs around the room/school. They are great word detectives and using their eagle eyes to find those words. Please encourage this everyday when at home or when you are out together. They love spotting those words!
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| We will need to know 94 popcorn words by the end of kindergarten |
Next week we will be introducing: now, get and help
We will be adding two/three words a week from now on; therefore, your support at home will only benefit your child.
Some ideas to do with popcorn words: write them in shaving cream, rainbow write (the kids know this one), write them in rice, use magnet letters to spell the words, stamp out the word using letter stamps, play memory using the words (you will need to make two sets of each word in order to play), write using chalk, find the words in books or magazines, use letter stencils to make the words, use play dough to make the words. These are all ways to help reinforce these popcorn words.
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| FOCUS and LISTEN...use your attent-o-scope!!! We need to use our eyes, ears and brain when we focus attention on something. We say "Eyes are watching. Ears are listening. Bodies still. Voices off. Or Mrs. Riadi rings the bell. Or we say attent-o-scope. These are all ways we remember that it's time to FOCUS and LISTEN. |
Building our social skills is also important in kindergarten!
Mrs. Will did not visit our classroom this week due to a meeting. We will see her again next week!
POSITIVE BEHAVIOR!!!
Our Good Job PAWS BIN!
Every Wednesday I will be picking three names out of the Paw Jar. These three students will be able to choose a prize from our GOOD JOB PAWS BIN! The more paws they earn the more of a chance they have of getting picked! Ask your son/daughter how he/she can earn paws!
In order to maintain a positive atmosphere at this age, we need to constantly reinforce expected behavior; therefore, I'm asking for your help to build a classroom treasure chest. I am looking for small items such as stickers, pencils, erasers, small toys (McDonald's Happy Meal toys), items that five/six years would be excited to get!
THANK YOU!!!
A big thank you to Cameron and Lindsy for donating items to our Good Job PAWS Bin. Every little bit helps!
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| Box Tops!!! |
BOX TOPS: Don't forget to send in Box Tops!!!
We started the week off by reading a Weekly Reader about Martin Luther King Jr. called Let's Get Together. We learned that Martin Luther King Junior's dream is something we should all try and do all the time. We also read the story Chicken Soup With Rice. This book included poems for every month. We talked about the different holidays, seasons and weather for every month. The children also enjoyed discussing and brainstorming weather words after reading the book What Will the Weather Be Like Today? We also enjoyed a just-for-fun book called The Magical Snowman. There was lots of onomatopoeia in this book. Ask your child if he/she remembers what onomatopoeia is (words used to represent a sound eg. whooosh).
The kindergartners also worked on the sounds "qu" and "ou". The action for "qu" is like a duck quacking. Use your hands to make the bill of the duck. The action for "ou" is pointing to your thumb and saying "ou" because you just pricked your finger with a pin.
***Please practice building fluency with your child. Make flashcards with the letters on them (mix uppercase and lowercase together). Time your child to see how many letters he/she can produce sounds for in one minute. Fluency with letters will eventually help with fluency in reading. We do this in the classroom so the children are familiar with this. ***
The goals in math for this quarter are adding/subtracting numbers 1-10 using objects or pictures to help solve a number sentence. The children will also be expected to count to 75. They will also be expected to recognize, write and compare numbers 11-20. The children will also be expected to know that numbers 11-19 have one ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.
We are continuing to count by 1's and 10's. Keep counting at home!
We will also continue to compare numbers (greater than/less than). Have a great weekend!
