We had a great week in Kindergarten this week. The students really enjoyed reading Eric Carle books- noticing his patterned writing and discovering his "gimmicks". We took some time to explore Eric Carle's web site and watched some short video clips on how he creates his illustrations. We even got to see/hear him read his most famous book-The Very Hungry Caterpillar. What a great time we had painting in the classroom and recreating Eric Carle collage art. The pictures they created are beautiful!
We continued to work on Daily 5 and we practiced Work on Writing every day. The kids LOVED getting their special writing notebooks and I LOVED seeing the excitment on their faces as they began diving into their writing. I can't wait to read and share all the wonderful things they will write this year. We have been building stamina all week in our reading and writing segments of Daily 5 and next week we will train the students in Word Work. During this segment, kids manipulate letters and practice putting sounds together to make words.
In math we went on a number hunt around the school. We stopped and chatted with some teachers in the building to find out how they use numbers in their world. Take a few minutes to notice numbers in your house this weekend. Point out how often numbers are used and maybe have a conversation about how YOU interact with numbers on a daily basis. You can refer to math homelinks 1.5 (p.3) to guide you. The students also learned a game call -Please Get Me the Moon. While playing they had to practice one to one correspondence skills as well as counting up to 30 to see "how much was left".
Next week also begins our formal letter introduction. Each week we will focus on a specific letter. On Monday we will introduce the letter M. Each child has been placed in a flexible letter introduction group, based on their academic needs (these groups will be in the K classrooms, but your child may not be with their own teacher). Your child might be in enrichment group that focuses on voaculary words that begin with the letter M, in a group that is working on letter indentification, or a group that is focusing on shared reading. We will continually be monitoring these groups and moving children in and out of them based on each student's individual needs. Your child will be bringing home letter of the week handwriting and homework pages. Like I mentioned on Curriculum Night, these homework pages are OPTIONAL. If students bring them to school, they will be given a sticker, but I will not be keeping track of them. If your student struggles with letter/sound identification though, you may want to sit down with them and complete some of the activities. At the end of the week your child will bring home their next 'popcorn' word. Please place this word in the popcorn box you were given at Curriculum Night and refer to the handout on how to practice these sight words at home.
As usual it will be a busy week in Kindergarten. We always have a lot going on!
