100th Day

We enjoyed celebrating the 100th day on Friday! The projects students brought in looked fabulous. We lots of different representations of 100 objects. We went on a parade to see other kindergarteners projects too. Some of our 100 day activities included:

• Color by picture. Students color lots of little pictures and count up how many of each item which equaled 100.
• Students made a 100 day hat which contained 10 pictures on 10 different color strips. 10x10=100!
• Students identified and colored numbers on a 100's chart which revealed a hidden picture at the end.
• Students wrote about themselves when they will be 100. We also took pictures with AgingBooth which made them look 100. I couldn't print them out so keep an eye on your email.
• Students also completed a 100 day puzzle where they put strips in order either 1-10 or skip counting to reveal a 100 days of school picture.

Pictures aren't uploading so I'll update them later (hopefully!)

School Family Update 1.26

Happy January to everyone! We have been very busy since our return from break.

Reading
In reading, students have reviewed the letter sounds of b and w. We have reviewed word families, rhyming words, and middle sounds. We also focused on identifying a missing word in a sentence that makes sense.

This week students will be reading two leveled books in our reading groups. One of the books has a w theme. Students are visiting centers this week. At ABC center, students are identifying syllables. At game center, they are sounding out cvc words (consonant, vowel, consonant) and determining if it is a real word or a nonsense word.

Writing
Students have been working on our book publishing project with PTA. Students are completing an 8 page book about their favorite things. Students just completed their 8th page today. We will give it to our parent volunteers who will scan the pages onto stickers and put them in books! Then, students will illustrate their books. To celebrate their hard work, there will be an Author's Party. The date will be announced when it is confirmed with PTA. **Last week an Author's Profile went home. Please fill it out with your child and return it by this Friday. It will be the About the Author section in their books. You may also turn in a wallet size photo to be included.**

On Tuesday, students will begin our third writing genre, persuasive. Students learn that persuasive writing shares an opinion and gives reasons to support it. This week the class will be working on the same topics. For example, what is the best restaurant or which is better dogs/cats will be topics.

Social Studies
Students spent 2 weeks learning about Martin Luther King Jr. We read many books and watched a short video. Students learned he was a leader who wanted equal, fair laws for everyone. We listened to a snippet of his "I have a Dream" speech, and students created their own dreams for a better world. You can hear your child's dream on their padlet! (Students recorded each other with the ipads! Our class was mentioned on the school twitter account.) Students finished the unit by creating their own peace prize for MLK and sharing about why he deserved the prize.

Science
Students are learning about rocks and soils. Last week, we focused on the 4 things the Earth is made up of: 1) Rocks 2) Soil 3) Water 4) Air. We made a chant with hand motions together. Students will be expected to name all 4 items by the end of the week. We also looked at rocks and discussed attributes you can sort by. Some attributes are color, size, texture, and weight. It aligns nicely with our measurement unit in math.

Math
Students have been learning about measurement. There are 2 standards we focus on this unit. One is measuring and item and the other is comparing items. When measuring items, students go from end to end. We usually mostly nonstandard units (popsicle sticks, paperclips, cubes), but the students have been introduced to the ruler. They will do more ruler practice next week.  There is also a lot of vocabulary in this unit. Students have learned they can meausure an objects weight, lenght, and height. We have compared 3-4 items and used the words taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest, long, longer, longest, heavy, light, etc. We also spent a day on capacity. Which container holds the most? the least? These are excellent words to review at home. We have this week to review these items and next week we will be assessing.

Other
Continue to practice tying shoes at home and following directions. Give students a direction, have them repeat it to check for understanding, and then they should be able to complete the task. Some examples are cleaning up toys or putting away or putting out a plate/napkin/fork for dinner.

New Class Member

We welcomed a new student, Michalel, to our class this month. We are excited to have him learn and grow with us!

January STEM

This month students listened to the book The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. They completed their stemfolios and were challenged to make a pinwheel with a partner. The students did a wonderful job folding or cutting paper to create a pinwheel. Students chose a type of paper (tissue paper, construction paper, or copy paper) and a design (# of blades, shape of blades). Then, I pushed their pinwheel into a pencil with a thumbtack. We tested them and many didn't work. However, we stressed this was a learning process and sometimes our first design doesn't work. The students handled the struggle well and had fun. There were three that spun around. We learned it worked better for two students to blow together instead of only one student. The tissue paper and construction paper both worked. The ones with two or four blades seemed to spin better.

 STEM days are always the first Friday of every month. Parents are welcome to join us!

School Family Update 1.5

Upcoming Dates:

Friday-STEM Day; volunteers welcome

Learning Update:
- Please see previous post regarding 2015 changes.

Reading
Students will rotate through literacy centers. During centers, I will pull students over to read leveled readers. Students' goals vary. We will be reviewing retelling stories, characters, settings, rhyming words, syllables and blending.

Writing
Students will choose a final topic for a how to writing on Tuesday and Wednesday. Students should be writing phonetically with spaces. The first letter should be capital and the rest lower case. Students are still working on where to place endmarks but should be able to identify question marks, periods, and exclamation points. Our next genre is persuasive. Students will be introduced to the concept this week. We will complete some examples together (shared writing). In the following weeks, students will be asked to develop an opinion with and without prompts and give supporting reasons.


Math
Students will begin our measurement unit this week. It is a five week unit. Students will learn about standard and nonstandard units. They will measure items and compare items by lenght, height, and capacity.

Social Studies
Students will begin learning about Martin Luther King Jr.

Changes in 2015

Changes in 2015

Happy New Year! There are a few changes I always make midyear. Explainations are below.

Eaglets

Eaglets are paper dollars that students can earn for good behavior. It is an additional behavior management system. We will continue to have clips and red/yellow/green marked in folders. The eaglets are meant to positively reinforce great choices and offer new motivation. I have found it helpful to give students a new reward when returning from the holiday break. Students will earn eaglets throughout the week and on Friday's they will visit the treasure box. Items in the treasure box cost ten eaglets. If students do not have ten yet, they will keep what they have earned and add more the following week. If students earn twenty, they can pick a second prize or a bigger prize. I would LOVE donations to the treasure box. It does not have to be anything big. Many items have come from the Target dollar section. Anything your child would like other kids will too! Thank you in advance!

Book in a Bag
Students have grown so much in their reading skills through hard work, various teaching strategies, and your support at home. To continue this growth, students will each have their own book in a bag. It will contain a book on your child's level and that we have worked on in our reading group. Students will take it home each night and need to bring it back each day. These are the books we read in groups to it is very important they have them for class. Some may be on white copy paper, but they still belong to the classroom. Please let your child read the book to you at home. They will receive the same book on multiple days during the week to build their confidence and reading fluency. In the bag will also be strategies we use in the class to help students decode (figure out) the words.

Thank you in advance for your continued support in 2015.

Our class size is now 20 students. We will miss Ava and Valentina but wish them the best at their new schools. They moved over the break. Snack helpers only need to bring in snack for 20 students now.

See you soon,

Mrs. Daugherty

Winter Party

Our class had a winter party where students decorated and ate a cookie as well as decorated a gingerbread houses. Hopefully the houses made it home safe! Thank you to everyone who dontated their time or materials to make this party possible! Below are some pictures from the event.

 

Ms. Jackson and I also gave the students a candy cane and book as a holiday gift. Below is a picture of their cubbies on Friday morning and a video of them opening their gifts. The book is called Sneezy Snowman. We read it as a class Friday morning and completed some reading activities with it. I hope you enjoy reading it with your child at home. It's a really cute and silly book (with rhyming words too!).

 

Hope you have a wonderful winter break! Check back soon for 2015 updates!

Mrs. Daugherty