The children did a wonderful job remembering our classroom rules! We reviewed them for our new student Gustas. The kindergartners did a great job welcoming him to our classroom. Welcome Gustas!
They did a great job remembering to bring back the math packet. We had some Homework Stars!
POPCORN WORDS: We sorted our popcorn words. The words that are in the plastic ziploc bag are words we know. 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: I introduced a poem to the children this week. My goal is to introduce the children to one poem a week. 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.
This week's poem is called "The New Year".
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!
This week we learned the popcorn words the, you, down. Please practice popcorn words at home with your child. The popcorn words are found in the red bag in their green folder. The bag should contain the following words: I, a, it, in, like, see, big, my, up, run, is, but, can, am, did, not, we, me, on, at, on, ran, for, yes, and, little, so, go, no, the, you, down, and into.
Next week we will be introducing: he, she and be
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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| We will need to know 90 popcorn words by the end of kindergarten |
Next week we will be introducing: he, she and be
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. |
Mrs. Will did not visit our classroom this week due to benchmarking. 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!
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| Box Tops!!! |
BOX TOPS: Don't forget to send in Box Tops!!!
This week we read books about subtraction. We started the week with a book called Ten Little Puppies. We discussed how in the book the puppies were decreasing in number by one. 10 Red Apples and 10 Gingerbread Men also followed the same pattern. We wrote out number sentences to show the story. We also acted out subtraction sentences. We also read the Weekly Reader called Brrr, It's So Cold and highlighted the popcorn words. The kindergartners also worked on the sounds "ch" and "sh". The action for "ch" is like a choo, choo train and the sound for "sh" is shushing because a baby is sleeping. Please stress that the sound for "ch" is the sound the train makes "choo" "choo" and NOT in train. They have a tendency at this age to think that train starts with "ch". It does kind of sound like it though...they have a point!
***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. ***
In math, we have been working with numbers 1-10. We are slowly making progress with the correct form of each number. We worked on writing the numbers 8, 9 and 10 this week. We also worked on adding a subtracting this week, more so on subtraction.
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). We have also been working on the concept of adding and subtracting (numbers to 10). Please practice addition and subtraction at home. Have a great weekend!
