Hello everyone! I hope you take advantage of this three day weekend!
Here are our hallway decorations! We have our collaborative flowers on either end of our self-portraits. We use this to enforce the idea that we are all unique and special, but this is what makes our community so beautiful! Can you spot which one is your student’s portrait? Which one is their flower?
In Reading this week, we worked on the letter Uu vowel sound! Here is a video to go over the different sounds the Uu makes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWiRgOuaS84
I also have another video for you all to watch together at home, so you can practice the vowel sounds at home as well!
We are continuing working on ending and middle sounds. This week we focused on words that end with Tt and Pp. One big activity students did was cutting out pictures and putting them on a chart to sort them by Tt, Dd, and Pp ending sounds. We also did some small group work to focus on the individual skills that some students need!
On Thursday we got some time to play our File Folder games, which also work on ending sounds, beginning sounds, and letter recognition. A fun way to review these skills!
Another exciting tool we got to use is the tablets! Students all have their own tablets that stay in their desks. The tablets have a few apps downloaded that we will be using for centers and/or independent work. We might even use them as a prize in the future! This week students got to go on Khan Academy Kids (an app I very much recommend for everyone to use at home) for some letter recognition and letter sound practice, and with Mr. McKay they used Everfi which is a website that combines Social Studies and Reading skills!
This week we read a story called How Anansi Got His Stories and Mosni Can Help, which are two different folktales. The former is from West Africa and the latter is from Mexico. We talked about how folktales help teach kids important life lessons, and they are told to the communities over time. We also watched another Anansi story on Youtube, which I linked below!
In Math, we are continuing working on addition vocabulary. We have been using terms like “in all”, “altogether”, “put together”, “add”, etc. We also have been working on some additional math skills, like transposing numbers (flipping the numbers around, being able to tell the difference between 32 and 23 for example), subitizing (being able to count groups of objects quickly) and identifying numbers 11-20. We used cubes to help practice identifying numbers and showing it with quantities, which students love to use to build! We also played a game where I would say a number and students would have to come to the board and circle the number I asked. This helps with transposing numbers and making sure that we are listening to the names of numbers. This is an easy skill to practice at home as well! And continue practicing counting all the way up to 100 at home!
Students also got to meet the new baby gerbils that are in middle school! They were so cute and little. We tied this into our continuing discussion on mammals. We also watched an episode of a show on Netflix called, If I Were An Animal. This show has real videos of animals and teaches students different aspects of how they survive in the wild. I totally recommend it for you all to enjoy at home!
The Museum of Kindergarten is looking beautiful! We have a wide range of art in there right now. Thank you to Sola, Matilda, Jalija, and Sydney for their art!
This week we also celebrated our first birthday in the classroom! Matilda turned six! We had ice cream with syrup and sprinkles, made cards for her that included some of her favorite things, and she got to do a special show and tell of some baby pictures of her! Students loved asking her questions about the pictures and what her life was like when she was little.
This week Gregory made a much anticipated return from vacation. We also received a new student who had previously been in virtual school, Sydney! While we were very sad to say goodbye to our friend Brandon, who will be doing virtual school, we are also excited to explore the new dynamic in our classroom with our new friend.
Next week is Catholic School’s week, and every day we will be doing something new! Be sure to check the Option C flyer that was sent out with more details.
Monday: Pittsburgh Dress Down Day
Tuesday: Class Color Day (Yellow for Kindergarten)
Wednesday: Red, White, and Blue Dress Down
Thursday: STBCA Day
Friday: Pajama Day
Also, don’t forget that there is homework for your student to complete in their folder! They have until next Friday to complete it.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Love,
Ms. V 🙂