A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and staying warm in this chilly weather! Unfortunately last week got away from me and I didn't take as many pictures as usual. If your child is not featured in this week's blog post I will be sure to include them next week. My apologies!

Important Dates:

February 9th:

Valentine's Due

February 12th:

Valentine Exchange

Report Cards Posted on Aspen/X2

February 15th-19th:

Vacation Week

No School

Announcements:

3 Star Work!

Over the past several weeks we have been discussing the importance of putting our best effort into our class work and completing what I call "Good Quality Kindergarten Work". One way this has been reinforced is through the use of our classroom Proud Wall which features student work that is especially neat and colorful. Starting this week I am also hoping to motivate the students by starting a numbered star system when checking the activities they have completed in class. The following system will be used for "grading" your child's work:

*1 Star: Work is incomplete, messy, and/or includes only one color

**2 Stars: Work is complete, neat (to the best of your child's abilities), and uses three colors

***3 Stars: Work is complete, neat, uses more than three colors, demonstrates that a significant amount of time and effort has been put into the activity.

It is important to note that, particularly in the first few weeks, 3 stars will only been given on rare occasions for exemplary work. It is my hope that this new system will be motivating to the students while also providing families with ongoing feedback. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we completed Unit 2! In this unit we began "tapping" the sounds in CVC words such as hat, pig, and pot, and practiced writing our uppercase letters as well. The students were also introduced to three new sight words last week in, at, and up. We will continue to practice these words during the upcoming week, while also learning how the words at and it can have their own word families!

Reader's Workshop

Wonderful reading continues to happen in Room 202 and I couldn't be more impressed! Last week we practiced using letter-sound knowledge to help us read unknown words. One way we applied this skill was by reading alphabet books! We used our letter-sound knowledge to determine that "pants" would not belong in a book about the letter J, and rather the word/picture must be "jeans"! On Friday, Mrs. Miles introduced us to the concept of consonant clusters/blends and we practiced reading words such as sled, crab, and tree.

Math

In math we worked on teen number writing last week! We spent a great deal of time talking about the formation of each number, and carefully practicing our teen numbers through a variety of interactive activities such as Spin and Trace and Roll and Write. We also used these fun rhymes for a little extra motivation. Click here to read them!

Writer's Workshop

Our practice with "How To" writing continued in Writer's Workshop! While we had previously been doing mostly shared writing, last week the children started writing their own "How Tos" independently. It was SO much fun to read each child's work which included topics such as How to Surf, How to do a Flip, and How to Get Ready for Bed, just to name a few! 

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to see all that is new in Room 202! :)

A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone had a great weekend! Please enjoy a quick update on the wonderful learning that took place in our classroom last week!

Announcements:

Star Student

This week we will celebrate our first Star Student in Room 202! If your child has not returned their Star Student poster to school, please have them do so as soon as possible so that they are able to share it with their class during their special week. Thank you!

Sight Word Practice

Thank you SO much for all of your support with the sight word practice logs that were sent home a few weeks ago! I continue to be impressed with how hard the children are working at home to practice and learn their sight/snap words! Please note that at this point, the students have only been introduced to the words up to "from" and "do". I certainly do not expect the children to be practicing every sight word flashcard each night, as the complete set of words does not need to be mastered until the end of the year. Starting this week I will include which sight words were introduced in class in the literacy portion of my blog post. Feel free to add in these new words to your sight word rotation for the following week. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like a complete list of the words that have been introduced in class thus far. :)

Curriculum Update:

Literacy

Last week in literacy the students were introduced to two new sight words: from, and do. In Fundations the children gained more practice with tapping out CVC words such as mud, hat, and pig. We also reviewed the letter formation for uppercase letters I-P. In Reader's Workshop we continued to practice our "pattern power" and were on the lookout for times when the author surprised us by changing the pattern in the books that we read. We learned that sometime you need to use two or three other reading superpowers to tackle a pattern break!

Another exciting part of our week was starting Literacy Centers! This new part of our morning routine gives the students the opportunity to work independently while practicing important skills and concepts that have been introduced in class. Last week's center activities included two sight word centers, Write the Room, and Listening Center (on our chrome books of course!).

Math

Last week in math we completed a short unit on graphing! Since graphing is something we practice each day during our calendar time, the children were already experts and we were able to jump right into some graphing fun! We reviewed that graphs are a kind of chart that can give us information. We also learned about different types of graphs such as bar graphs and pictographs!

After reading the story What Pet Would You Get? by Dr. Seuss, the class have a blast asking each other what type of pet THEY would get and creating a bar graph to show their results.

Writing

We continued to practice sequence, or "How To" writing last week. Since we are still at the beginning of the unit, we spent much of our time completing teacher led and shared writing experiences. In the upcoming week your child will begin to tackle "How To" writing more independently as they will pick their own topics to write and draw about!

A highlight of Writer's Workshop was getting to write our own "How To" for making slime! After carefully writing each step, we decided to follow our directions and make slime ourselves! It was definitely a fun way to end our week!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to see all that in new in Room 202! :)

A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful LONG weekend! Last week was a another busy one in our classroom! Please take a moment to enjoy a few of the highlights below!

Announcements:

Schedule Changes

Due to this week's Monday holiday, we will have no remote learning day this week. The students will attend all four days (Tuesday-Friday) in person.

Star Student Posters

Your child brought home a Star Student mini poster at the end of last week. This poster will be put on display when your child is the Student Student for the week in our classroom (starting soon!). A friendly reminder to have your student return their completed poster to school no later than Friday, January 22nd. Thank you!

Curriculum Update:

Math

Last week in math be began Topic 13 which focuses on sorting. We learned that objects can be sorted by various attributes including color, size, shape, and texture!

The class had a blast sorting their shoes by size, color, and type after reading the story Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes.

The students also enjoyed sorting other items such as pattern blocks and buttons!

Fundations

In Fundations we began Unit 2 which provides the students with exposure and practice to uppercase letters. The pace of this unit is MUCH faster than Unit 1 as the students practice writing two letters a day! Last week the letters A-H were reviewed. The children also continued to practice their "tapping" skills and we incorporated a fun new CVC spinner into our daily routine. To try the spinner click here!

"Write the Room" is a fun way to get the students up and moving! Last week each child selected a Fundations letter we had learned about to find in the classroom. 

Writer's Workshop

It was an exciting time in our classroom last week as we began a new unit in our Lucy Calkins program! The focus of this unit will be "How To" writing, and the children are already having a great time sharing things they know how to do! After many days of discussing, modeling, and practicing we wrote our first "How To" together on Friday. 

Before we were ready to write our own "How To" pieces, we first tried following some! This "How to Draw a Cat" directed drawing was a great way for us to practice following directions step by step.

Reader's Workshop

Fantastic reading continued in our classroom last week during Reader's Workshop! During our lessons we took a closer look at "pattern power" in the books that we read and how these patterns can help us when decoding text. We also started using reading mats to help us organize our books when reading independently!

The students above practice using their reading mats during independent "Read to Self" time. A pile of books is organized on the green dot side of the folder (typically from easiest to hardest). The children then read their way through the pile placing each finished book on the red dot side of the folder.

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to see all that is new in Room 202!