March News

My goodness, our time in kindergarten seems to be flying by! I cannot believe that it is already March and half way through third quarter! We have been working hard in our classroom on many different topics and or projects.

Let's start with reading:

We are just  about to finished unit four.  We have had some of the best conversations about weather, the four seasons, the effects of pollution, and how to take care of nature. Our next unit, unit five, will be all about different kinds of celebrations. This will include everyday celebrations, family celebrations, celebrations in our country, and how we show pride in our country. This is a fun unit where many text connections come up.

Phonics:

Identify the beginning, middle, and final sounds of a word

blending sounds to form a word

vowel sounds - long & short

sounding out words / sliding through the sounds

segmenting words

Comprehension Strategies:

Make predictions

Draw conclusions

Make text connections 

• text to self 
• text to world 
• text to text 

Sight Words:

have     not      what     that     said      down      of      puts      on      was 

Writing:

This quarter we have really jumped into writing feet first. I am so impressed with their work thus far. (I know you haven't seen much of it!  I keep all of their writing in a binder for them and then at the end of the year they take home the binder full of all their hard work!) We have been working really hard on figuring out how to write complete sentences and even stories with more then one sentence. When we write we  follow this rubric:

1. I can start my sentences with a capital letter.

2. I can use finger spaces between my words.

3. I can sound out words.

4. I can use punctuation. ( .  !  ? )

5. I can draw a picture to match my words.

*When your child is practicing writing at home these are easy things to look for. Sounding out words has proven to be the toughest one yet. We still need practice.

As your child does start to bring home writing please don't be alarmed by spelling errors. In kindergarten we encourage the children to write the sounds they hear in a word. Here is a cute letter from a teacher explaining more on the spelling we use in kindergarten.

Don't be worried if things are not always spelled correctly. Be proud of the writing they have done. Encourage them to sound out more words and write the sounds they hear.  This will help build them into confident writers! 

Math update:

We are finishing the chapter 5 on addition this week. We will be moving on to subtraction next week. We still need practice in breaking numbers down into pairs for example, 8=4+4 or 8=7+1 or 8=6+2. We will continue to practice with these.

Math online problems sorted by standard and skill: great resource!

https://www.ixl.com/math/kindergarten

  a few online math games for addition/subtraction:

       balloon pop subtraction

       marble math addition

       word problems; add to ten

       word problems; add/subtract 

Our school carnival is March 11th. This year there will be a chili feed starting at 5:30. The games will take place in the classroom from 6:00-7:30. At 7:45 in the commons we will have the drawing for carnival baskets, 50/50 winner drawings, and silent auction results. This is a fun night designed to support Meadowlark and help us reach our goal towards building a new playground!

They have started a facebook group to promote the carnival. They are adding pictures of the baskets and other auction items. Here is the link to the page. Go check out all the cool prizes you can win! (Meadowlark Spring Carnival facebook event page)

Important dates to remember:

March 2nd: Field trip to Albert Bair

March 11th: School Carnival

March 16th: PTA meeting; 6pm in the libraryMarch 24th: Early out; dismissal at 11:45am

March 25th: No school

March 28th: No school

       

February News

We are Junior Engineers!

Here are some of the pictures we have taken while working our way through the first module of Project Lead The Way.

These kiddos continue to amaze me with all of their hard work and understanding of new topics. During this module we have learned about all different types of structures and how each structure has a function. I love hearing their conversations during Project Lead The Way. They really seem to grasp the concept of structures and figuring out the structures function. It has been fun to watch them learn through this process.  :) 

I apologize that I haven't had time to update the blog recently. We have just been busy playing and learning.

This month, we will be finishing up the first module of Project Lead The Way. All we have left is the final project, SO FUN! In reading, we have finished Unit 3 (all about homes & families) and we will be moving on to Unit 4 (Seasons, Weather, & taking care of nature) starting next week.

We are working on retelling stories using sequencing words. One way we do this is to color code the words. For example: FIRST I woke up. THEN I brushed my teeth. NEXT I got dressed. LAST I ate breakfast. I am hoping this will help them when we transition into writing events in the order they happen in.

Please continue to work on sight words at home. This is one skill that will boost your child's reading and writing.

Sight words to focus on this month:   
what, have, that, they, down, all, said, puts, of, here, this, liked, looked

Math Update:
We have just finished Chapter 4 in math. We will be moving into addition and subtraction. These are some skills that can be tricky for kindergartners to grasp. I will be attaching some of the homework pages from GOmath to the weekly homework. This is just for extra practice at home. The directions for the practice homework sheet are located at the bottom. They can be confusing at times. Please call me, email me, stop me in the morning/afternoon if you have any questions.  :)


Important Dates for February:
February 11th: Valentine's Day Celebration; Early Out (dismissal at 11:45)
February 12th: No School.
February 15th: No School.
February 18th: Skate Night; 6-8pm.