Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you’ve been enjoying the cool fall weather! Kindergarten has been loving making observations about the leaves and trees. We even collected some brown and yellow leaves we found at recess!
In their folder on Thursday, students received some Computer homework from Ms. DeBruyn. Please be sure to have them complete it and return it by Tuesday, when they have Computers again!
In Social Studies this week we have been talking about families and homes, and how all families are a little different. We read The Family Book by Todd Parr, and the students were excited to see their own families represented! The following day we reviewed the book, ang thought of some words that we would use to describe our own families. Some of the ones that students came up with were thankful, messy, quiet, silly, and clean! Then students drew a picture of the home they live in and all of the people they live with and wrote a sentence describing their families. This assignment was a practice in patience and not worrying about perfection! Many students wanted to get their pictures juuuuust right. With a little perseverance, they all turned out great and will be kept in the student’s portfolios for everyone to see during conferences!
In Reading this week students focused on the letters Gg, Oo, Vv, and Yy! We talked about grapes, octopus and otters, vampires, and did lots of yoga! As we get closer and closer to finishing our alphabet, we are reviewing some previous letters and starting to introduce some letter sounds. When we finish our alphabet, we will go through it again to focus specifically on the sounds the letters make and not just what they look like! Here are some links to things we watched about animals that start with Oo!
Kindergarten is also starting to learn literary concepts like being able to identify the characters, setting, and events that happen in a story. We did a class book report this week on the book Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day. This story was one of my favorites as a child. I love to read it with Kindergarten because there are only two sentences in the whole story — the rest is just told with pictures! It’s very funny, and a great way for students to also learn how pictures can be vital elements to story telling. This is helpful for students who are emerging readers, who sometimes get discouraged when they can’t read the words of a book. They feel like because they “can’t read”, why should they pick up a book? Teaching them the importance of illustrations helps encourage their interest in books, which in turn will help them learn to read more quickly!
We did some partner yoga early on in the week and it was a BIG hit! The students loved working together to do each pose and there were a lot of laughs. We have been doing yoga daily to practice calming our body, practicing balance (a gross motor skill that is important to work on at this age!), and the importance of mindful breathing. Purposeful movement is a great way to help regulate a child’s behavior and have them refocus their minds. Mindful breathing has been especially helpful with teaching students how to calm themselves down when they are upset. We’ve also been practicing being thankful for our bodies and all the amazing things they can do for us!
Kindergarten also learned the words ‘me’, ‘for’, and ‘with’. They have been getting really great at spotting these high frequency words all over the place! Be sure to keep practicing those flashcards I sent out, and this week I will send out some more with new words!
In Math, students have been continuing reviewing numbers 6-10 and reviewing the words “before” and “after”. Because these numbers are a review for our students, we have been using it to practice doing independent work. Kindergarten is where students start doing assignments on their own, without a teacher doing every problem with them. This also helps raise their confidence in their academic abilities, seeing they can do school work on their own! After students complete their packet, I check it over for them and have them correct any mistakes I find. We discuss how mistakes can be good things because they teach us what we can do better next time (working on resiliency)!
In connection to Math AND Halloween, which is quickly approaching, we read a story called A Creepy Countdown! This story was a fun way to practice counting forwards and backwards, and had many spooky characters! Afterwards, we decided to make some ghosts to decorate the door of our classroom! This worked into our learning about the letter Gg that day as well! Kindergarten had a fun time drawing the shape of their ghost, and had some good practice cutting along the squiggly lines. They turned out so cute!
Students are also trying new things during Free Play! We have been encouraging them to try things they might not normally gravitate to by purposefully only having certain games or toys “open” during Free Play. Students love to make things using our Art Cart, including so many sweet pictures and messages for me! They also have enjoyed learning how to play Connect Four! Following the rules is tricky, but they’re getting the hang of it!
I’m looking forward to next week and all the fun things we have planned! As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns!
Love,
Ms. V