A Peek At Our Week!

 Last week was an exciting one in our classroom as we celebrated the 100th day of school! Please enjoy a few pictures of our celebration!

Important Dates:

March 5th:

Storybook Character Dress Up Day!

Curriculum:

Hip Hip Hooray for the 100th Day!

We had a blast as we popped our way through the 100th day! To mark the occasion the students completed math centers which encouraged their identification and counting of numbers to 100. Another highlight of our day was our t-shirt fashion show! A video of our show has been posted on Seesaw. Be sure to check it out!

We had SO much fun counting to 100 by 10s as we popped each balloon on our whiteboard! Inside each balloon was a set of ten exercises we had to do. When we finished popping all of the balloon we had done 100 exercises!

A Special Visit from Len Cabral!

Another highlight of our 100th day was getting a virtual visit from storyteller Len Cabral! Len is an award winning storyteller who has traveled all over the world. It was an honor and pleasure to have him "visit" Boyden School. Thank you Len!

A Little Fun on Day 101!

Not only did we have a fantastic time celebrating the 100th day of school last week, but we also set aside some time for a little fun on day 101! The class had a great time channeling their inner Dalmatian and even got a surprise visit from a very special guest! ;)

 Fundations

Last week in Fundations the class continued to practice tapping CVC words such as pot, hen, and lip. We also reviewed silly nonsense words like nim, buj, and fip. Your child's ability to read nonsense words demonstrates their understanding of short vowel sounds, and is a skill we will be working on extensively in class. Lastly, the children were also introduced to the sight/snap words it, in and on. It sure was a busy week!

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop we continue to use extra strength super powers as we learn to decode more challenging texts. Last week we used extra strength rereading power to bring our stories to life and avoid the dreaded "robot reading". The class also used everything they know about stories to make predictions about the books we read together. 

Writer's Workshop

Last week in Writer's Workshop we completed our unit on "How To" writing! The students worked hard to revise and perfect their pieces so they were ready to be published. On Friday we had a festive celebration and shared our finished work! This week we will be taking a break from Writer's Workshop as we participate in various author studies in honor of Read Across America week. I'm excited that the students will have to opportunity to produce different types of writing based on the work of famous children's authors!

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 is having a wonderful weekend and staying warm during this wintry weather! It was another busy week in Room 202. Please enjoy some of the highlights below!

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

Thank you SO much for all of your support with our new 3 Star "grading" system for student work. The increase in effort and attention to detail has been AMAZING and the children's classwork has never looked better! While consistently receiving two stars was the original goal, I am blown away at all of the three star work I have seen in the last week! Please continue to encourage your child to always put their best effort into their assignments, especially as the mid-year "slump" is upon us. Thank you so much again for all of your help!

Report Cards

A friendly reminder that your child's Term 1 report card will be available for you to view on their X2 account starting this Friday, February 12th. It is important to review your child’s progress report with them and to celebrate all that they have accomplished this term! It is also a great time to discuss areas of focus or improvement. When viewing your child’s report card please remember that the skills shown on the report are what we expect our students to master by the end of Kindergarten. Being that it is only the first term, it is completely appropriate for students that are doing well to earn scores of "N" or "P" as they are working towards mastering each standard by the end of the year. After reviewing your child’s progress report, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions that you may have! I am SO proud of each child for working very hard this term, and look forward to supporting their continued success in our second term together!

Curriculum:

Groundhog Day!

Our class had a great time celebrating Groundhog Day last week! We had fun making predictions about whether the groundhog would see his shadow, and discovered that more friends thought that we would (and they were right!). We also learned that another name for a groundhog is a whistle pig because they make a whistling sound when they sense danger.

Math

Last week in math we practiced counting and identifying numbers to 100! In addition to our whole group lessons the children enjoyed completing interactive center activities that helped them practice this skill. Center time is also a great time for us to sneak in some ST Math! A friendly reminder that ST Math is also a great way for your child to sharpen their skills during our remote Wednesdays. It is hoped that each child will spend approximately 60 minutes on ST Math each week. While we do as much as we can in the classroom, a small portion of time on the site at home would be incredibly helpful!

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop we continue to strengthen our early literacy skills by applying problem solving strategies to unknown words. Last week the readers practiced using all of the letters in a word (not just the first one or two) when decoding. We also previewed each new page in the books that we read and located known sight words before reading. In addition to these two skills the class also practiced reading words with beginning blends such as sled, crab, and tree.

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we continued to practice reading CVC words such as cat, pig, and rug. The children were also provided with extra exposure to the sight/snap words it, at, and up. To extend this practice we discussed how it and at can be found in bigger words such as fit, sit, bit, and cat, hat, and mat. We learned that these types of words are called word families!

The students above are working hard during literacy center time! Last week's centers included listening center (on chrome books), write the room with beginning blends, and word work which challenged the students to make works in the "at" word family.

Writing

Our "How To" unit continued last week as the class worked hard to teach others to complete various tasks step by step. As a result of last week's lessons the children learned how to include elaboration and comparisons in their work, as well as picture and act out each step of their "How To" in order to insure their directions were clear and concise.

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