Teaching Arizona Kids

Schedule for Last Week of School

Please have your child bring their backpack every day except the LAST day.

Monday May 21st:  Class room talent show

We will begin shortly after class begins.  This is very casual and fun.  Some parents like to watch their child perform.  If you would like to do so then please let me know what time you plan on coming by so I can wait to have your child go until then.  We will be performing with Mrs. Abbott’s class. 

Tuesday, May 22nd:  Summer birthday party and game day:

If your child has a summer birthday I will send home a note for them.  Each child may bring in a board game to play and share with their friends.  Please label the game with your child’s name on it. 

Wednesday, May 23rd: 100 Book Club  Ice Cream Party : 

We will be having an ice cream party to celebrate the student’s 100 Book Club accomplishments.  Everything will be provided. 

Thursday, May 24th: End of the Year program:

(NO BACKPACK NEEDED ON THIS DAY)

The program begins at 8:30 in the multipurpose room.

Have your child wear their class shirt.  The program will last approximately one hour.  Students will be dismissed to you (from the multi-purpose room) immediately after the program.

April 2nd to April 13, 2012

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION FOR NEXT YEAR HAS BEGUN!

 May 11th – 8:30am to 9:30am – Muffins with Mom in the cafeteria – invitations and information will come home next week.

May 24th – 8:30am – Last Day of School AND Kindergarten Program in the multi-purpose room (cafeteria) - We will be entertaining you one last time for the year.   Feel free to invite family and friends.  If you have siblings at the school that you would like to attend then just get with their teacher.   Please have your child wear their class t-shirt for this event.  Your child will come to school just as they usually do, we will get ready for our program, perform, then they will be dismissed to you from the multi-purpose room immediately following the program – well – after we gets some hugs in to say good-bye for the summer…

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading 

We have been reading lots of informative texts about insects over the last 2 weeks and will continue through to next week.  Ask your kindergartener how many body parts, legs, eyes, and wings an insect has.  Ask your kindergartener if a bug is an insect.

We have been creating a booklet that will be sent home next week.  It will have a couple of facts about ants, bees, butterflies, and ladybugs.  Be sure to read this with your kiddo when they bring it home.

We are reading “The Magic Finger” by Roald Dahl.  The girl has a magic finger that makes things happen when she gets angry and ‘turns red’.  Ask your kindergartener why she got mad at the Gregg family and what is happening to them.  Ask if they think it is fair what she has done and why they think that way.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

Almost everyone has mastered this skill!!!!  We have been practicing on our whiteboards but we will be having a test next Thursday.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Reviewing strategies now – this week and next week – ‘Making Connections’

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

6. Asking Questions – when reading if you are asking questions as you read – that assists the comprehension process

MATH – continue with addition sentences and ‘how many more to make 10′ to the end of the year.

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS -

I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are, for, you, do, and, this, here, was, in , it, she, with

ORAL VOCABULARY

pesky, frilly, mammoth, convince, insect

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution, coin, conscience,

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

Pull your phonogram cards for these sounds and practice with your child.

New this week: /sh/

sounds for letters a to z, th, ee, wh, ar, ay, ow, 00, ch

WRITING

We are writing to convey information – like insect facts.  The students will be writing a ‘report’ about insects next week. 

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY

New – ‘ake, & ‘ine

previous word families: at, op, ig, in, en, ug, ing

Pizza Attack – we are learning to attack long words like we would eat a pizza – one piece at a time!  Just another silly way to get the students to not be intimidated by a looooooong word – just take it a piece at a time. 

We have really been having fun ‘attacking’ pizza words.  They did a great job “taking pieces at a time” to write tarantula and taekwando for Luc’s Super Star page this week.  Ask your kiddo about pizza words.

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

March 26 to March 30 – 2012

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION FOR NEXT YEAR HAS BEGUN!

Friday, April 6 – Egg Hunt @ the park 8:30am

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading 

We finished our unit on plants with a book titled Sunflower House.  We also wrote a book about how to plant a seed using the words first, next, and last.  This book was sent home today (March 30). 

We are reading Ready Freddy – Don’t Sit On My Lunch.  Freddy wanting to try out for Jessie’s ice hockey team but had to ‘convince’ his mom to let him.  Has your child ever tried to convince you to let them do something?  They had fun telling me what they have ‘convinced’ you to do.  Ask them about it… 

Max is a regular character in the Ready Freddy books.  Ask your kindergartener what they think of Max.  Would they want to be friends with Max and why or why not?

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

We took a break from this test this week!  We continue to practice on our white boards.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Reviewing strategies now – this week and next week – ‘Making Connections’

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

6. Asking Questions – when reading if you are asking questions as you read – that assists the comprehension process

MATH – -continue with addition sentences and ‘how many more to make 10′ to the end of the year.

Identifying how many more to make 5 or 10 from a given number.

Addition sentence the ‘elevator’ way – going up and down instead of left to right with a loooong equal sign.  Ask your kindergartener to show you the ‘plus’, ‘minus’, and ‘equal’ sign with their fingers.

Working on addition using manipulatives and our whiteboards.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to at least 20 and seeing how far past 20 (within a given time) we can go – highest number so far has been 62.  Do you know how many numbers your child can write?

Identifying numbers to 100.

Counting sets of numbers up to 20.

Saying numbers sequentially to 100 – almost everyone can do this!!!

Counting  by 5′s to the number of days in school – at 140!

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS -

I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are, for, you, do, and, this, here, was, in , it, she, with

ORAL VOCABULARY

mammoth & convince

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution, coin, conscience,

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

Pull your phonogram cards for these sounds and practice with your child.

New this week: ‘ch’ (as in ‘Chase’ )

sounds for letters a to z, th, ee, wh, ar, ay, ow, 00

WRITING

Sentence conventions using 5 Star Sentence practice. 

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – no new ones this week

previous word families: at, op, ig, in, en, ug, ing

Segmenting and writing words.

Reading make-believe words

Pizza Attack – we are learning to attack long words like we would eat a pizza – one piece at a time!  Just another silly way to get the students to not be intimidated by a looooooong word – just take it a piece at a time. 

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

March 5 to March 9

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION FOR NEXT YEAR HAS BEGUN!

Thursday, March 15 – Sardella’s Night from 5 – 8 (Green information paper went home today.)

Friday, March 16th – Donuts with Dad in the morning 8:30-9:30  Dads (or a dad substitute) are invited to enjoy center type events with their kindergartener outside on this day.  Moms – we will be asking for some volunteers to help us set up and run the centers for our dads.  This is a kindergarten wide event. 

March 19 to March 23 – NO SCHOOL – Spring Break

March 28th – 3rd Quarter Report Cards go home

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading 

We began a new unit on plants.  We read an information book titled “Oak Trees” and worked with sequencing words first, next, last in our Oak Tree pamphlet that we made today.  We will continue this through March.

We also planted mammoth sunflower seeds on Tuesday.  We predicted that some might be sprouted by Monday.  Ask your kindergartener what it means when a plant sprouts.  Also ask them what grows from the seed first – the roots or the stem.

We are still reading “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”.  We will finish it on Thursday of next week and watch the movie on Friday. 

Ask your kindergartener if they would trust Ralph with the motorcycle, if it is ever found.  Ask them why they would trust Ralph or why they would not trust Ralph.  Ask your kindergartener if they feel that they are trustworthy and why they think they are or are not.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

Testing is every Thursday at 8:15am.  After spring break we will be mixing in 2-letter phonograms and everyone will go back to taking the weekly test. 

Most students have achieved a score of 100% 3 times in a row!

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Still working on “Asking Questions” – we will keep this through our Mouse and the Motorcycle book

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

6. Asking Questions – when reading if you are asking questions as you read – that assists the comprehension process

MATH -

Identifying how many more to make 5 or 10 from a given number.

Addition sentence the ‘elevator’ way – going up and down instead of left to right with a loooong equal sign.  Ask your kindergartener to show you the ‘plus’, ‘minus’, and ‘equal’ sign with their fingers.

Working on addition using manipulatives and our whiteboards.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to at least 20 and seeing how far past 20 (within a given time) we can go – highest number so far has been 62.  Do you know how many numbers your child can write?

Identifying numbers to 100.

Counting sets of numbers up to 20.

Saying numbers sequentially to 100 – almost everyone can do this!!!

Counting  by 5′s to the number of days in school - at 125!

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS -

I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are, for, you, do, and, this, here, was, in , it, she, with

ORAL VOCABULARY

roots & stem

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution, coin, conscience,

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

Pull your phonogram cards for these sounds and practice with your child.

New this week: ‘oo’ (second  sound of this one)

sounds for letters a to z, th, ee, wh, ar, ay, ow,

WRITING

Sentence conventions using 5 Star Sentence practice. 

We have been working on question sentences in our dictation practice and in our morning message practice.  This week we began answering the questions with a sentence.  This practice will come home next week.

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – ‘ing’   (more work with this)

previous word families: at, op, ig, in, en, ug

Segmenting and writing words.

Reading make-believe words

Pizza Attack – we are learning to attack long words like we would eat a pizza – one piece at a time!  Just another silly way to get the students to not be intimidated by a looooooong word – just take it a piece at a time. 

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

February 27 to March 2

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION FOR NEXT YEAR HAS BEGUN!

March 5th – Kinder Field Day from 1 to 2:30-

Thurs., Mar. 8 – Early Release @ 11:00am

Friday, March 16th – Donuts with Dad in the morning 8:30-9:30  Dads (or a dad substitute) are invited to enjoy center type events with their kindergartener outside on this day.  Moms – we will be asking for some volunteers to help us set up and run the centers for our dads.  This is a kindergarten wide event. 

March 19 to March 23 – NO SCHOOL – Spring Break

March 28th – 3rd Quarter Report Cards go home

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading 

Last week we started our money books.  We read an informative book on a coin then wrote 2 facts (shared writing – I modeled and everyone wrote).  We also learned songs for each coin.  The books will go home next week.  Be sure to have your kindergartener read their book to you.  They are 10 pages long!

This week we finished our money books and celebrated Dr. Suess’ birthday.  We read Dr. Suess books each day and had fun with his silly characters and crazy rhyming words.  Ask your kindergartener which book they liked best and why they liked it!

We are still reading “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”.  It is a looooong book but we have been enjoying it.  The students have been an amazing job with the comprehension strategy of ‘asking questions’ with this book. 

Ask your kindergartener what happened to Keith’s motorcycle.  Ask your kindergartener if they would forgive Ralph and why they would forgive Ralph or why they would not.

A key part of instruction is teaching the students to know what they know – so by asking them ‘why’ it gives them an opportunity to explore their thinking and articulate their reasoning.  This is a skill modeled and taught across all areas of instruction.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

Testing is every Thursday at 8:15am.  After spring break we will be mixing in 2-letter phonograms and everyone will go back to taking the weekly test. 

Congratulations to all the students who have tested at 100% 3 times in a row – they are all part of the ‘reading group’ during this testing time.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Asking Questions – current focus but we are always incorporating multiple strategies.

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

6. Asking Questions – when reading if you are asking questions as you read – that assists the comprehension process

MATH -

Identifying how many more to make 5 or 10 from a given number.

Working on addition using manipulatives and our whiteboards.

Identifying shapes by name and number of vertices.

Identifying 2-dimensional shapes: triangle, rectangle, square & hexagon they need to be able to state the number of sides for each of these shapes as well as tell what items in the real world are these shapes. (pizza, door, window, bee hive honeycombs – to name a few.)

Comparing numbers up to 10 using the words  more or less.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to at least 20 and seeing how far past 20 (within a given time) we can go – highest number so far has been 62.  Do you know how many numbers your child can write?

Identifying numbers to 100.

Counting sets of numbers up to 20.

Saying numbers sequentially to 100.

Saying numbers sequentially within the range of 1 to 50 using a random starting point and going up to 50 or down to 0

Counting  by 5′s to the number of days in school - at 125!

Counting by 10′s to 100.

Counting backwards from random numbers up to 20.

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS - (introduced so far)

While we are working on many words – like the spelling words each week – all 26 high frequency words that are tested for the report card have been introduced.  It would be great if each student could master them by April.

I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are, for, you, do, and, this, here, was, in , it, she, with

ORAL VOCABULARY

coin & conscience

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

Pull your phonogram cards for these sounds and practice with your child.

New this week: ‘oo’

sounds for letters a to z, th, ee, wh, ar, ay, ow,

WRITING

Sentence conventions using 5 Star Sentence practice. 

We have been working on question sentences in our dictation practice and in our morning message practice.

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – ‘ing’ 

previous word families: at, op, ig, in, en, ug

Segmenting and writing CVC words

Reading make-believe words

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

March 5th – Kinder Field Day from 1 to 2:30- The P.E. department organizes this fun filled afternoon of games outside on the back playground.  More details to follow as the event nears.

Thurs., Mar. 8 – Early Release @ 11:00am

Friday, March 16th – Donuts with Dad in the morning from 8:30 to 9:30.   Dads (or a dad substitute) are invited to enjoy center type events with their kindergarteners outside on this day.  Moms – we will be asking for some volunteers to help us set up and run the centers for our dads.  This is a kindergarten wide event. 

March 19 to March 23 – NO SCHOOL – Spring Break

March 28th – 3rd Quarter Report Cards go home

February 6 to February 10

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

Tue., Feb. 14th – Valentine’s Day Party in our classroom from 8:15 to 10:30 ‘ish’.  You can bring your valentine cards in on Monday if they are ready.

FEBRUARY 14 TH – Happy 100th Birthday Arizona

Thurs., Feb. 16 – Western Day – Wear ‘yer cowboy or cowgirl ‘get ups’ but save ‘yer guns and spurs fer home

Feb. 16th & Feb. 17th – Early Release @ 10:00am – Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held during this week beginning on Monday

Feb., 20th – NO SCHOOL President’s Day

March 5th – Kinder Field Day from 1 to 2:30- The P.E. department organizes this fun filled afternoon of games outside on the back playground.  More details to follow as the event nears.

Thurs., Mar. 8 – Early Release @ 11:00am

Friday, March 16th – Donuts with Dad in the morning (around 8:30 to 10:00 – more details to come as the event nears)  Dads (or a dad substitute) are invited to enjoy center type events with their kindergarteners outside on this day.  Moms – we will be asking for some volunteers to help us set up and run the centers for our dads.  This is a kindergarten wide event. 

March 19 to March 23 – NO SCHOOL – Spring Break

March 28th – 3rd Quarter Report Cards go home

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading 

We began reading “The Mouse and the motorcycle” this week.  We will be using this book for our comprehension strategy ‘asking questions’.  After we read a chapter we ask question about what we would like to know regarding what might happen next.  They are learning (and it is not easy) about questions words such as who, what, where, why, when, and how.  The next day, before we read the next chapter, we read our questions.  As we read, we stop if we come across and answer to a questions.  We are on the 4th chapter of the book and have generated 21 connected questions as a class.

Ask your kindergartener to tell you what this book is about.  Ask them if they would like to be Keith’s friend or Ralph’s friend and why.

When we are finished with the book then we will watch the movie (it is old…) then compare and contrast events in the book with the movie.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

Test for letters a to z is every Thursday.  We also write 4 words from our word family for the week.

Be sure to have your child practice the sounds they missed.  You say the sound, they write the letter. 

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Asking Questions

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

6. Asking Questions – when reading if you are asking questions as you read – that assists the comprehension process

MATH -

Working on addition using manipulatives and our whiteboards.

Identifying shapes by name and number of vertices.

Identifying 2-dimensional shapes: triangle, rectangle, square & hexagon they need to be able to state the number of sides for each of these shapes as well as tell what items in the real world are these shapes. (pizza, door, window, bee hive honeycombs – to name a few.)

Comparing numbers up to 10 using the words  more or less.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to 20.

Identifying numbers to 60.

Counting sets of numbers up to 10.

Saying numbers sequentially to 75.

Saying numbers sequentially within the range of 1 to 50 using a random starting point and going up to 50 or down to 0

Ordering numbers 1-22 – whole class activity – ask them what went wrong today when we did this (we have been doing this a couple of times a week for over a month – they each get a number card then put themselves in number order – using only each other to problem solve.

Counting by 5′s to the number of days in school.

Counting by 10′s to 100.

Counting backwards from random numbers up to 20.

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS - (introduced so far)

This week:  what

Review from previous weeks: I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are, for, you, do, and, this

ORAL VOCABULARY

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

NEW THIS WEEK: ar

sounds for letters a to z, th, ee, wh,

HANDWRITING

Shared writing (I compose the sentence then segment and write the words to model for the students.  We are working at the same time and I am articulating letter formation)

We do shared writing everyday.

WRITING

Sentence conventions using 5 Star Sentence practice.  This week I dictated (told them) the sentence and they had to sound out and write the words independently.  Then they had to self-evaluate using the 5 Stars at the bottom of the page.

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – ‘ug’ 

previous word families: at, op, ig, in,

Segmenting and writing CVC words.

Reading make-believe words

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

January 17 to January 20,  2012

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

Thur., Jan. 26 – Early Release @ 11:00am

Feb. 1st or Feb. 2nd – Spring Pictures – another chance to purchase photos of your child through school.  Prepay envelopes and information will come home the week before this event.  I will tell you which day we will be going once I am notified.

Tue., Feb. 14th – Valentine’s Day Party in our classroom from 8:15 to 10:30 ‘ish’.  YES – we need parent volunteers for this.  More information will come towards the end of January with a form for you to say that you can volunteer.  YES – we will be exchanging Valentines too!  Our class phone list has everyone on it.

Feb. 16th & Feb. 17th – Early Release @ 10:00am – Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held during this week beginning on Monday

Feb., 20th – NO SCHOOL President’s Day

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading

This week we read 3 penguin informative books, discusses the information we already knew and the information we learned.  We created a ‘tableau’ (a picture with our bodies) about a fact.  We also completed a thinking map with 6 facts then wrote 2 facts to attach to our paper penguins.  These last 2 items are in your child’s folder today.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

Test for letters a to z is every Thursday.  Be sure to have your child practice the sounds they missed.  You say the sound, they write the letter. 

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Story Structure

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

5. Story Elements – This goes with story structure.  We completed one for “The New Year’s Eve Sleepover from the Black Lagoon” this week.  Ask your child to use the pictures they drew to retell the story to you.

MATH -

Learned what ‘vertice’ meant and identified the number of vertices in shapes as well as objects all around our room.  We also learned that the triangle is like “Superman” – it is used in real objects to give support (like bridges, ladders, tresses, etc.)  Ask you child if they remember which shape is like “Superman”!

Identifying 2-dimensional shapes: triangle, rectangle, square & hexagon they need to be able to state the number of sides for each of these shapes as well as tell what items in the real world are these shapes. (pizza, door, window, bee hive honeycombs – to name a few.)

Comparing numbers up to 10 using the words  more or less.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to 20.

Identifying numbers to 60.

Counting sets of numbers up to 10.

Saying numbers sequentially to 75.

Saying numbers sequentially within the range of 1 to 50 using a random starting point and going up to 50 or down to 0

Ordering numbers 1-22 – whole class activity – ask them what went wrong today when we did this (we have been doing this a couple of times a week for over a month – they each get a number card then put themselves in number order – using only each other to problem solve.

Identifying numbers 1-22 as more or less than the other

Counting by 5′s to the number of days in school.

Counting by 10′s to 100.

Counting backwards from random numbers up to 20.

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS - (introduced so far)

Review this week:  for & you

Review from previous weeks: I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play, are

ORAL VOCABULARY

vertice - math conceptkind – from Martin Luther King

waddle & predator - from penguin narrative

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market, kind, cruel, resolution

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

NEW THIS WEEK: ee

sounds for letters a to z, th

HANDWRITING

Practice pages with upper and lowercase letters

Numbers 0 – 20.

WRITING

Sentence conventions using 5 Star Sentence practice.

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – ‘en’  (pen, hen, ten, men, den)

previous word families: ‘at’,

Segmenting and writing CVC words.

Reading make-believe words

“If I can say it, I can write it!”

January 9 to January 13 – 2012

 CALENDAR REMINDERS and ADDITIONS

Mon., Jan. 16 – NO SCHOOL Martin Luther King Birthday

Thur., Jan. 26 – Early Release @ 11:00am

Feb. 1st or Feb. 2nd – Spring Pictures – another chance to purchase photos of your child through school.  Prepay envelopes and information will come home the week before this event.  I will tell you which day we will be going once I am notified.

Tue., Feb. 14th – Valentine’s Day Party in our classroom from 8:15 to 10:30 ‘ish’.  YES – we need parent volunteers for this.  More information will come towards the end of January with a form for you to say that you can volunteer.  YES – we will be exchanging Valentines too!  Our class phone list has everyone on it.

Feb. 16th & Feb. 17th – Early Release @ 10:00am – Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held during this week beginning on Monday

New learning this week:  5 Star Sentences; Word Families; and double letter phonograms

LANGUAGE ARTS  - Reading

We read Jan Brett book The Mitten and practiced retelling the story using stick puppets.  We also solved some oral story problems using a white mitten shape and the animals.

WRITTEN PHONOGRAM REVIEW

We practiced this skill all week long and took a test today.  Look in your child’s folder for their results.  Many students had scores significantly lower than the last time we tested.  We will continue with daily practice of this skill and tests will be on each Thursday.  The tests will be sent home by each Friday.

COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES — Story Structure

1. Making Connections: text to text; text to self; text to world (ask your kindergartener to show you the hand signals we use for these.

2. Asking Questions: who, what, where, when, why, how, & I wonder… 

3. Visualizing – making a picture in our brain as we hear (read) the words

4. Story Structure – identifying characters and setting and knowing if the book has a problem and solution or is just event after event.

STORY ELEMENTS:

We will be practicing identify story elements using a thinking map.  Your child completed one for the book “Snowshoe Thompson” .  Look at their paper and ask them to identify the elements for you.  Please do this with every story element thinking map they bring home.  This will help to reinforce these skill and help to prepare them for the story writing they will be doing in late February and early March.

MATH -

Identifying 2-dimensional shapes: triangle, rectangle, square & hexagon they need to be able to state the number of sides for each of these shapes as well as tell what items in the real world are these shapes. (pizza, door, window, bee hive honeycombs – to name a few.)

Comparing numbers up to 10 using the words  more or less.

Composing and decomposing numbers to 10.

Adding numbers to 10 using oral story problems and manipulatives

Writing numbers to 20.

Identifying numbers to 60.

Counting sets of numbers up to 10.

Saying numbers sequentially to 75.

Saying numbers sequentially within the range of 1 to 50 using a random starting point and going up to 50 or down to 0

Ordering numbers 1-22 – whole class activity – ask them what went wrong today when we did this (we have been doing this a couple of times a week for over a month – they each get a number card then put themselves in number order – using only each other to problem solve.

Identifying numbers 1-22 as more or less than the other

Counting by 5′s to the number of days in school.

Counting by 10′s to 100.

Counting backwards from random numbers up to 20.

HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS - (introduced so far)

Review this week:  are

Review from previous weeks: I, can, we, the, like, a, to, see, go, said, to, at, is, my, for, have, are, you, do, play

ORAL VOCABULARY

resolution – from “Squirrels New Year’s Resolution”

kind – from Martin Luther King

cruel – from Martin Luther King

PREVIOUS WEEKS:  relatives,  change,  friend , favorite, responsibility, game, world, tradition, farmer, market

LETTER (phonogram) SOUNDS- (introduced so far)

NEW THIS WEEK: th

sounds for letters a to z

HANDWRITING

Reviewing lowercase a to z

Numbers 0 – 20.

WRITING

We are working on 5 star sentences.  Papers came home today and the poster is a link on our web-site titled “5 Star Sentence Poster”.

PHONICS

WORD FAMILY – ‘at’

We are beginning work with word families.  This week was the ‘at’ family.  We sounded out, read, and wrote the words then had 4 words we had to write for our phonogram test.  Practice reading these words with your student.  They wrote 10 of them on a sheet that went home on Thursday.

Segmenting and writing CVC words.

Reading make-believe words

KINDERGARTEN MOTO FOR WRITING – “If I can say it, I can write it!”

SHARING IS OVER FOR THE YEAR.

SCHOOL RESUMES

FROM WINTER BREAK ON

MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 2012

See you then!!