A Peek At Our Week!

pe everyone had a great weekend! There are many fun and exciting events coming up in the weeks ahead. Please see the announcements section below for some important details. 😊

Important Dates:

February 5th:

The 100th Day of School!

February 14th:

Valentines Day

(See below for details)

February 9th:

Early Release

Report Cards Available on Aspen/X2

February 19th-22nd

No School

February Vacation

Announcements:

The 100th Day of School! 

The 100th day of school will fall on Monday, February 5th. To celebrate, our class will be having a t-shirt fashion show! Please refer to the notice that was sent home with your child last week for specific details. You can also click here to view the notice. In need of an idea? Try one of these!

*Although the notice asks your child to bring their t-shirt to school by Friday, February 2nd, if it's easier for them to wear it to school on Monday the 5th that's fine with me! Please don't hesitate to let me know if you need help purchasing a plain t-shirt. A shirt you already have around the house is ok too!

Valentine's Day 💘

Our class will be celebrating Valentines Day on Wednesday, February 14th! As part of our celebration we will be exchanging valentines. Please click here for some helpful hints and tips for making our celebration an enjoyable one for your child. Please note food and candy is not allowed. A hard copy of this notice will be sent home this week. 

Star Student ⭐

Congratulations to Drew who was our Star Student last week! We look forward to learning about, and celebrating another friend from our class in the week ahead!

Awesome 80s Day!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight word has. We also continued to practice tapping or sliding CVC words such as hat, mug, and pot. Lastly, we reviewed how to write the uppercase letters O-Z. In the week ahead we will continue to practice CVC words and review the parts, and how to write a sentence.

The students above fist bump last week's sight word (and a review word) on their way out of the classroom. This is a fun and easy way to provide more exposure and practice to our weekly sight words. If you would like some fist bump cards to use at home please don't hesitate to let me know. I am more than happy to provide them!

Last week we added a sight word search to our practice routine. The children had a great time looking for the word "has"and seeing how many times they could find it.

Math

In math we continue to learn about measurement using nonstandard units! A highlight of our week was measuring the length of our foot using pasta, paper clips, unifix cubes, and plastic pennies!

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop we continue to apply our reading superpowers to decodable texts. Last week we also explored making connections with the main character of the story we are reading, and using our voices to reflect how the character is feeling.

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop the children are still working on their personal narrative/true stories. We are spending more time on stretching out the sounds we hear in words, and writing as many sounds (including vowels!) as we can. 

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 🍎📖🚌

A Peek at Our Week!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and staying warm in the chilly weather! It was another busy week in Room 115 (so much so I didn't take many pictures. My apologies! 😅). 

Announcements:

80s Day!

On Friday the Student Council will be hosting an 80s day at Boyden School! Students who wish to participate are welcome to wear 80s fashion and/or bright, neon colors. It is sure to be a tubular way to end the week!

Star Student ⭐

Congratulations to Helena who was our Star Student last week! We look forward to learning about, and celebrating another friend from our class in the week ahead!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight word as. We also continued to practice tapping or sliding CVC words such as hat, mug, and pot. Lastly, we reviewed how to write the uppercase letters I-N.

We also applied our tapping/sliding skills to a new word family! Last week we practice reading words in the "at" family, and had a great time making "at" cats!

Reader's Workshop

In Reader's Workshop we continue to apply our reading superpowers to the books that we read. This week the students will be introduced to "reread power" and learn that readers go back and reread sentences to make them sound smoother and less choppy. The class has been doing a wonderful job during Read to Self time where they go back and reread previously introduced books from their book bins independently. It is so exciting to see the AMAZING progress the children are making with their reading skills at this time of year!

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop the class continued to work on their narrative/true stories. Many students have completed one whole story and have now moved on to write a new piece. Last week we reviewed the importance of including vowels in the words that we write in order to make them more "readable". We also practiced using writing checklists to make sure our word included all of the necessary components such as starting with an uppercase letter, ending with an ending mark, and including fingers spaces.

In addition to our Lucy Calking writing curriculum, the children are also getting additional direct instruction in how to construct sentences. The students above practice writing a sentence using sight and CVC words.

Math

Last week in math the class began to explore the concept of measurement! Our main focus was comparing lengths and identifying objects that were shorter or longer than a given example. We are looking forward to having more fun with measurement in the week ahead!

The students above estimate the length of my lanyard using a piece of yarn. We discovered that most student's yarn strings were either too long or too short, but one child's yarn piece was the exact length of the lanyard! 😁

Social Studies

Last week in Social Studies we took a virtual field trip to Antartica through our Let's Find Out magazine! We learned that there are no stores, schools, or even plumbing in Antartica, and that the warmest it gets there is 32 degrees! Brrr!! 

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 🚌🍎📖

A Peek At Our Week!

  I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! A friendly reminder that class is back in session tomorrow, Tuesday, January 16th. I'm looking forward to seeing all my Kindergarten friends! 😊

Announcements:

Snow Fun! ❆

The children had so much fun playing in the snow during recess last week! 

Star Student ⭐

Congratulations to Annie who was our very first Star Student last week! We look forward to learning about, and celebrating another friend from our class in the week ahead!

Curriculum Update:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight word can. We also continued to practice our "tapping" skills and became more comfortable with applying them to various CVC words. Additionally, we began to review how we write our uppercase letters. While we spent an entire week learning how to write each lowercase letter at the beginning of the year, our uppercase review is moving MUCH quicker, and we are practicing how to write two letters each day!

Last week our class reviewed the sight word an, and learned that this little word can be found inside many bigger words! We took the time to brainstorm bigger words with the word "an" such as fan, man, ban, and tan, and learned that all of these words (and many more!) belong to what we call a word family!  The class then practiced reading words in the "an" word family as they created their own an vans!

Reader's Workshop

We continued to practice applying our reading superpowers to new stories last week in Reader's Workshop! We also added two new superpowers, thinking power and fix it power. Thinking power encourages students to not just read the words on each page of a book, but to make predictions, comments on what they notice, and make connections. Fix it power requires students to monitor their reading and go back to "fix it" when their reading doesn't sound right, look right, or make sense. 

Writer's Workshop

Last week in Writer's Workshop the student's continued to work on their personal narrative/true stories. They learned that writers make their books "readable" by remembering to include finger spaces and as many letters as possible in the words that they write. We have also been exploring other conventions of sentence writing such as beginning each sentence with a capital letter and ending with a punctuation mark.

Math

Last week in math we continued to practice counting, adding and subtracting. We learned to play a fun new game called Foxes and Dens where the children added two numbers using a "counting up" strategy. This means if they rolled the numbers 5 and 2, they would say "5, 6, 7" instead of starting at one, counting to 5, then counting up two more. We also played a game called Beat You to Twenty where the students rolled a number cube and added that number of unifix cubes to their tower. The first played to 20 wins! 

Social Studies

In Social Studies we discussed the important contributions of Martin Luther King Jr. The students watched a portion of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech" and learned about his life through our Let's Find Out magazine. 

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 🍎📖🚌

A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the first snowfall of the season! ❄ Last week was a busy one as we settled back into our daily schedule and routines. Please enjoy a few pictures and curriculum updates below.

Important Dates:

January 12th:

No School

Professional Development Day

January 15th:

No School

MLK Day

Announcements:

Snow Gear

The snowy weather is finally here and we will continue to go outdoors for recess as often as the weather permits. The children will be allowed to play in the snow as long as they bring snow pants and snow boots to school. A blacktop area is available for children who do not have these items or do not wish to play in the snow. PLEASE have your child practice putting on their snow gear at home. With only two adults in the classroom we are not able to individually dress each child. Your child's snow gear will be sent home each Friday. If you would like it to come home more or less frequently please let me know!

Star Student ⭐

Next week we will begin Star Student! When your child is the Star Student they will get to enjoy many special jobs and activities in the classroom such as helping with the calendar and picking each day's movement breaks. We will also get to know more about them by creating an All About Me poster together in class. On Wednesday of your child's Star Student week they will be invited to bring in a few small items from home for Show and Tell. A new Star Student will be selected at random every Friday afternoon. I am SO excited to start this very special celebration in Room 115!

Curriculum:

Fundations

Last week in Fundations we practiced reading the sight word an. The children were also introduced to the concept of "tapping out" the sounds they hear in words. Click here to watch a quick video that models this skill.

Reader's Workshop

It was an exciting time in Reader's Workshop last week as we began Unit 2 in our units of study! This unit focuses on developing our reading superpowers, or the different strategies we can use when encountering unknown words. Last week's superpowers were snap/sight word power, pointer power, and slide/tapping power.  I am looking forward to supporting the children as they develop and apply their reading super powers during Reader's Workshop for the remainder of the school year!

The students above practice reading, and then matching, vowel, consonant, vowel words (also known as CVC words) such as mat, pig, and hot. At this point in the year the majority of students are using their slide/tapping power to read these words. With frequent exposure and practice, quicker and more automatic reading of these words will develop.

Costumes always make learning new things more fun! We had a great time practicing our first three reading super powers this week with Super Reader (aka Mrs. Buchanio 😂)

Writer's Workshop

In Writer's Workshop last week we also began Unit 2 which focuses on personal narrative, or true stories. The class learned that all stories must have a beginning, middle, and end, and enjoyed writing pieces about real life experiences they've had. We will continue to work on our true stories this week in class!

Math

In math we began Unit 4 in our Bridges curriculum and took a closer look at number lines! We enjoyed having our own giant number line, and learned about the different parts (arrows, tick marks, etc) as well as practiced sequencing numbers. 

We also continue to practice writing our numbers with extra focus being placed on directionality in order to reduce reversals.

The students above enjoy playing a game called Scrambled Numbers. This game was an engaging way to the children to practice their number sequencing skills.

Holiday Raffle Winners!

Congratulations to Addie and Gio who were the two raffle winners from last month's holiday breakfast! They were excited to invite two friends to join them for lunch in the classroom with me!!

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to watch us learn, grow, and play in the wonderful world that is K! 🍎🚌📖