Polar Express Day

Polar Express Day was a huge success. We traveled between our room and Mrs. Percoskie's class to accomplishes as many tasks as possible. Ask your child how he or she got a "ticket punch". In addition to exciting crafts and games our class joined the entire Memorial Student body for a whole school reward. The kids viewed Frosty the Snowman as a school in the cafeteria What an exciting way to kick off the holiday break. Happy New Year!!! 

Week 13

This week was filled with amazing accomplishments. We finally displayed our persuasive posters for all of Memorial to enjoy.

In addition to completing this guided writing project, we wrote about the Best "Gingerbread" story too!


This independent project began as a way for us to assess how much the children understood how to persuade and ended as a published piece. They are terrific!!! Here are a few. I will be sending them home next week for you to enjoy.

Thank you to Aaron and Joseph who donated books to our class from the book fair. We are excited to use these book for our January theme, ocean animals.
In Phonics: 

• Letter writing, sound association for v,w,x, & y. We are almost through all of the lowercase letters

In Phonological Awareness:

• On set and rime continued, see last weeks blog. Listening for beginning and ending sound in words.

In Reading: 

• We spent more time comparing gingerbread stories and noticing repeated text. These stories were similar in many ways which helped us focus on predicting outcomes and character traits. 

In Math:

• We completed Unit 6, number patterns to 100.  Again, a very challenging unit. We are going to spend next week both reviewing teen numbers and looking for patterns. It is helpful if parent utilize any opportunity to identify or write numbers to 100. Practice counting by 1's from any number and practice counting by 10's. 

Guiding Questions:

How do you show family you care about them? 

Why is it important to ask questions?

How were the Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends similar? 

How were they different? 

If you were the conductor of a train where would you go? Why? 

Count by 2's to 20. 

Important Books:

Build and Grow Workshop

 Thank you to Lowes, of Woburn, for bringing an amazing Build and Grow workshop to Memorial School. The students had an opportunity to follow directions and build a real wooden train. Have fun enjoying this handcrafted toy at home.    

    Watch as we build our very own train cars. 

Week 12

We have lots of exciting activities planned for the next week and a half.  Let's take...

A look ahead.

On December 16th, at 9:00 am, students will attend the 4th and 5th grade winter concert.
    This is a students only dress rehearsal.

December 17th is the Book Fair.  Please remember to send your child with money if he/she will be purchasing books. Do not feel obligated, this is optional.

On December 18th, we have the Lowe's Build and Grow workshop.
Thank you to all who volunteered. The more the merrier!!!

December 23rd is Polar Express Day, kids will wear pajamas. We will also have several craft activities.

Last week...
We spent more time retelling and acting out the timeless tale of the gingerbread boy. Our theatre performances were outstanding.
We completed persuasive toy posters advertising for some of the most amazing toys of the time. We are planning to display them in the hall at memorial school. Perhaps you child's poster will convince you to run right out and add that amazing toy to your holiday gift list. Oh, I'm just kidding. Our class also talked about gift giving and the real reason why people give gifts. We brainstormed some wonderful gifts of the heart.

Phonological awareness:
Onset and rime, isolating the beginning sounds and counting words in sentences.

Phonics:
New letters: v and w, also writing initial and ending sounds in words. Reading simple three letter words.

Writing: 
We are almost finished with a unit on persuasion. We also had guest teachers from the Saugus Public Schools who came to observe and learn from our writer's workshop. They were very excited to see kids telling stories and taking risks in writing and sharing.

Math: 
Our unit five test revealed a challenge in number identification for teen numbers. As we move forward, I will review teen numbers with many kids but please take time to help your child recognize the teen number automatically. Please keep practice counting up and back from any number 0-30. This is more challenging than you might think.

Social Studies:
Winter holiday's, needs vs wants, and community helpers.

Science: 
Changes in the environment and changes in animal behavior.

Guiding Questions:
Which Gingerbread story do you like best? Why?
Do you like acting out stories?
Why do people give gifts?
How do different people celebrate holidays?
What number comes before? 
What number comes after?
Can you find the number---?

Week 12

December is in full swing. It was wonderful meeting with you last week for conferences. I love sharing stories and perspectives.  Ms. McMahan and I have been amazed at how hard working and motivated this group of students is. Let's keep up the momentum.[

We will begin to give the DRA (Developmental Reading Assessments) assessment for the district next week. This will help establish guided reading groups for all students in anticipation of January. Please continue to work with your child on letter formation and work level work as directed by Fundations newsletters. We will spend slightly less time in class on that and more time decoding words for fluency and confidence in reading.

Last Week...

Our important read alouds were The Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Man. This is such a fun traditional tale for this time of year. We have continued to develop and understanding of story elements. The student have already sequenced events, identified the characters, and discussed the impact of the setting on a story. We have begun to look at proble==ms/solutions (Remember those thanksgiving tales.). In addition, the class has connected problem and outcome of a story to endings.

Examining different versions of this classic, Gingerbread, tale will help student make the connection between ending and outcome.  I am looking forward to introducing students to the Gingerbread Girl next. She is one smart little cookie.

In Phonological Awareness:
We are learning to isolate beginning and ending sounds.
For example, "man", begins with the sound, /m/. The last sound we hear in "man" is /n/.
This skill will help students sound out words and recognize patters in similar words for spelling.

Previously taught skills: rhyming, syllabication, alliteration, onset and rhyme.

Phonics:
Letter identification, sound association, letter formation: t,b,f,m,n,a,g,o,c,p,j,r,u,e,d,l,h,k,i,s

Songs:
We all Celebrate, Counting by 10's, Months of the Year

Writing:
The students are learning to persuade...watch out parent they can be very convincing at times. Our first task is to create a poster persuading other kids which toys is the best. We looked through some toys books and newspaper ads to collect just the right toys. We will then work to identify statements of opinion and fact. ( This race car can loop-de-loop). This race is awesome.

Math: 
Understand the teen numbers
Writing teen numbers
Using a tens frame to count on
Identify what number comes before and after

Social Studies: 
Family traditions
Needs vs wants

Science:
Changes in the season, environmental observations and animal behavior

Guiding Questions: 
What are some of the similarities between the Gingerbread Boy and the Gingerbread Man?
Why do you think people use the phrase; as sly as a fox?
Do you remember any other books with repeated text?
What are some of our families traditions?
What are some things we need?
Why do people give gifts?
What are things we want but don't really need?
What changes in the winter?

Reminders: 
Friday, December 18th.  Build and Grow Workshop
 Thanks to all of you for volunteering, the more the merrier for this project, it's not too late is you  would like   to join.
Wednesday, December 23rd Polar Express Day, 
 More information to come, we will need four volunteers to help with craft projects.
 Thursday.

Thanksgiving Week

Disguise a Turkey

Catch a dream

Think about all that we have now

Read a good book and thank about what we can learn. 

Week 11

Native American tales have given us the opportunity to read and reread stories with multiple lessons. We've read several trickster tales and tales of triumph. Last week, we made a shift toward thanksgiving stories that can also teach lessons. Our focus story was, Thanksgiving at the Tappleton's by Eileen Spinelle. This is the story of a family's Thanksgiving dinner gone wrong. Each character makes a mistake and contributes to a big problem, no traditional dinner. Luckily, Grandmother Tappleton reminds everyone of the true spirit of the holiday. We focused on two new story elements this week, problem and solution.

After being extremely impressed by how many students were able: to retell the Tappleton's Tale , sequence pictures, and identify both problem and solution, I decided to read another Thanksgiving story, Cranberry Thanksgiving, by Wende and Harry Devlin . This story also contains life lessons. The very literal, be kind to others and never take what doesn't belong to you.  In addition, we had a brief discussion about the saying, "never judge a book by it's cover." That idea is very difficult for literal minds but several kids were able to make the connection and discuss character traits.

Phonological Awareness: Listening for initial sounds, onset and rhyme review.
Phonics: Identifying, sound, and writing t,b,f,n,m,o,g,u,i,a,c,e,r,p & j.
Comprehension: Story elements and author's message
Writing: Composing a complete sentence, counting words in sentences and ending with punctuation. (A period)
Songs: Counting by 10's, Pow Wow Song, & Thanksgiving Dinner. (Children will be able to take their poetry notebooks home to read over break. Please return the notebook on Monday)
Math: We finished a very difficult unit on comparing the numbers through ten. We are going to spend the next few days reviewing and working together to solve problems. The children still had difficulty understanding the difference between fewer and more.

Reminders:

Early release on Wednesday, November 25th. 

No school Thursday and Friday, November 26, & 27th.

Book orders for the holiday will be placed by December 3rd to ensure delivery.

Week 10

November is going quickly.
Although it was a short week, we were able to accomplish a lot. We learned about the Native American tradition of story telling.  Respecting others, respecting the earth and learning from mistakes are only a few of the wonderful lessons taught through Native tales. The students used puppets to retell last week's story, Turtle and Beaver Race by Joseph Burchac. It is clear that the students are becoming more confident sequencing the events in a story. They are also learning to identifying main characters by name and importance.  We read a new Native tale, How Chipmonk Got His Stripes, also by Joseph Burchac. Our focus was character traits, this helped us identify the lessons in the story. We also  learned two story elements, identifying characters and setting. The children practiced describing the setting, (time and place) illustrating the setting and building the setting with play dough.

Building the setting of How Chipmunk Got His Stripes

Using our new sight word board to help spell words

Describing the parts of a story that help identify the setting

Introducing Asiya

We also want to welcome our new friend Asiya to class. The kids of room 177 did a wondeful job making her feel welcome. We reviewed some extremely important social skills; include others, make eye contact, use your friends name, use a kind voice and friendly face.

Click on the link below to listen to our new Pow Wow song by Jack Hartman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnGtg8CblWs

In Phonics: We added letters r and e to our list of letters we should be able to recognize, write and make a sound association with. We definately need a little more time to practice writing and recognizing our new letters, please be patient when you work at home. 

Phonological Awareness: We continued to isolate onset and rhyme.

Social Studies: Native American traditions, life then and now. 

Science: Classifying Animals and Animal Adaptation.

Math:Comparing numbers to ten. 

Using a number line to identify two more or two fewer. 

Next week we will be sending a new scholastic book order form home. Many parents use this opportunity to purchase holiday gifts. If you would like to keep your purchase, paper or on-line, a secret please just send me an email. I will keep the books out of sight and we can plan for a private pick up. 

Reminders:

Blue folders and clear book bags return daily

Green folders on Thursday

Library books Thursday

Yellow folders on Monday

Half day of school, Wednesday, November 25 th

No school Thursday and Friday,  November 26 & 27 th, Thanksgiving 

Week 9

The talk in class continues to be focused on animals and the characteristics that help classify them. After observing animals during the zoo trip and a looking at several non fiction books and photographs, we are moving toward animal tales. This will help to make a nice transition into character traits. 

The Story of Turtles Race with Beaver by Joseph Burchac is a Tale of a kind turtle who, after a long winter's sleep, finds a beaver has now changed his pond and claims it for himself. The turle offers to try to share the pond but beaver challenges him to a race. The turtle agrees to the race and cleaverly uses the beaver's tail to get him to the finish line. Turtle cheats, but wins the race. All of the animals in the woods are chearing for the turtle and he offers to once again share the pond with Beaver. Beaver is so embarrassed that he leaves the pond behind to find a new home. Beaver finds a great new home and is excited to share it with other animals. 

This Tale like many others teach the reader a lesson. We will repeatedly ask...
What can we learn from a tale that can help us with "real life"? (or friendship)

We read the classic tale of Peter Rabbit and will also talk about the lessons we can learn from The Boy Who Cried Wolf. 

Reading Comprehension: 
Story Retelling in sequence including character names
Character traits
Understanding that Tales can teach lessons

Writing: 
Students are completing their independent narrative. Surprisingly, or not, most of the class chose to write about Halloween. Stories of costumes and free candy overshadow those of the toothfairy and zoo field trips.  Features of a good Kindergarten narrative are: 
Includes a beginning, middle and end
Stays on topic
Illustrations match words.

Phonics: letter identification and writing for : t,b,f,n,m,c,o,a,g,d,s
Thank you for reading and rereading the letter poems at home. It has been difficult to reread them in class. We are so busy!!!

Phonological Awareness: We are still alliterating with sounds. Ask your child to sing Willaby Wallaby using the initial sounds for, d and s. We are going to begin isolationg the initial sound from simple rhymes. 

Science: Explored the characteristics of reptiles and how they live in different environments.

Social Studies: Our student were introduced to Native American culture and stories. We will be reading about the Native tradition of giving thanks to mother earth. This will help to lauch a comparison of Thanksgiving then and now. Good luck disguising the turkey. 

Math: Unit 4 Comparing Number to 10
We are comparing numbers to ten using the same vocabulary: fewer, less, greater, more and the same as. The students have been listening to math stories that involve comparative questioning. Ask your child about our Halloween candy graph. You can help by asking what comes before or after a specific number. 

Guiding Questions: 
Tell me the story of Turtle and Beaver?
Which character in _____ did you like best? Why?
Describe, (a character from a familiar story)?
How many more _____ then ______ do you have? How can you tell?
How can you tell an animal is a reptile?
What are some things around the house that start with...?


Reminders: 
No school Tuesday, November 10th PD
No School Wednesday, Vereren's Day
Please return your families "Disguised Turkey" by Friday Novenver 13th. 

Week 8

What a great trip to the zoo!!! Room 177 has been learning about classifying animals.  Our trip to the Franklin Park Zoo really helped. 
We are learning to become keen observers. We learned that mammals are warm blooded, they give birth to live babies, they drink milk from mothers and that mammals are covered with hair or fur.  We began with a comparison of bat vs owl and were able to extend the comparison to mammal vs reptiles. Next week we will look closely at turtles and beavers. 

Excited to see the lions

Looking closely at bones. 

Recordeing observations on the scavenger hunt.

Riding in the Safari Jeep

Waiting to visit with the gorillas.

Halloween was lots of fun. We had a great time visiting the other kindergarten classrooms and participating in Halloween themed crafts and activities. Once again, we had great parent volunteers. Each child brought home a reusable blue bag containing all of his/her projects and treats. Please empty the bag and return it to school on Monday. We will put these bags to good use throughout the year.

Ask your child to retell Witches Brew or the story of Stellaluna. Retelling familiar stories in sequence is an important skill we will continue to retell and compare stories throughout the year. 

Math:

We completed Unit 3 Counting Numbers to 10. 

Based on the results of our end of the unit assessment, we will revisit using a tens frame to count and compare. Be sure your child can recognize and write the numbers to ten. Unit 4 focuses on Comparing number to ten. The new vocabulary words are: compare, difference, greater than and less than.  ( <  > )

Reminders:
Return yellow folders each Monday
Return the green folder each Thursday
Library day is Friday.

November 10th No School, (This is a correction!!!)
November 11th No School
November 25th Half Day
November 26th & 27th Thanksgiving break
December 3rd Parent Teacher Conferences, A schedule will be sent home Monday
  
We are still missing our Ten Black Dots, class big book. Please look one more time. 

Week 6 & 7

Our class watched Brain PopJr's video clip biography on Christopher Columbus. This video clip helped students understand exploration and gave a developmentally appropriate look at the journey that lead Columbus to the Bahamas. I really enjoyed hearing all of the exciting journey's the students of room 177 hope to embark upon. Many students can't wait to explore Disney while others want to visit other planets. One student hopes to explore the inside of a volcano someday. 

The class did a wonderful job completing our first personal narrative about the Parlee Farm field trip.  We discussed the features of a good personal narrative:

•  A beginning that tells who, where, and when.
•  A middle that includes events in sequence.
•  An ending that concludes the story.

I am expecting our next narrative will be even better. You can prepare your child for writing by talking and telling stories about the past events or memorable moments. Sometimes the best stories are the stories of failure and eventual triumph. 
(Learning to ride a bike) 

Important Read Alouds: Christopher Columbus, My First Biography , The Leaves Come Falling One by One, by Steve Metzger, Who Took the Farmer's Hat by Joan Nodset, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves, by Lucille Colandro, and Stellaluna by Janell Cannon.

In addition to comparing the similarities and differences between books we are learning to orally retell a story in sequence. Learning to recall and retell are important standards for kindergarten. We are learning transition words and ordinal numbers to scaffold this task. The stories: The Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves and The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything proved to be great teaching tools. Ask your child to retell both of these stories. Visit the link below to see a YouTube song that is sure to help your child and put a silly smile on his/her face.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiUflxXF-Zg

Phonemic Awareness: Our new skill is learning to segment and blend syllables. 

We will continue to practice segmenting and blending beginning sounds with rhyme. The animal alliteration book is coming along. We hope to start circulation soon. 

Examples of on set and rhyme: say    c - at ... cat   b - ird...bird  z - ebra

Fundations: Letter formation and sound association for t,b,f,m,n,i,u,o,c, ...a,g. 

Poems: GREEN and BLACK color poems, When Is It Night, Five Little Pumpkins

Songs: Exercise and Count to 100 & Count Forward, Count Back By 10's
Most of the songs we use in class are written by Jack Hartman

Math: Counting and Writing numbers to 10. 

Science: Our topic is Animal Exploration, we will begin to explore environments and various animals. Starting with mammals and birds. Stellaluna By Jannell Cannon is the first of many stories we will use to compare the characteristics of birds and bats. 

Reminders:

OCTOBER 28th , ZOO FIELD TRIP
OCTOBER 30th , HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION
NOVEMBER 10th, PARENT CONFERENCES, (A Schedule will be coming soon)
NOVEMBER 11th, NO SCHOOL, Veteran's DAY

We are missing our TEN BLACK DOTS BIG BOOK.  
Cameron, Scarlette, JR, Sarah and Umar are the only kids that have taken it home so far. Please be on the look out.  

Week 5

What we have been up to...

Important Read Alouds:
Let's Go Visiting by Sue Williams helped students make text to text connections and discuss the similarities and differences between this story and last weeks book, I Went Walking. Knuffle Bunny Free, by Mo Willams, also provided us with an opportunity compare.  Sequencing story events will help students gradually learn to give a comprehensive retelling of progressively more complex texts. We spent time sequencing events and animals from The Scarecrow's Hat, by Ken Brown .

Phonemic Awareness: 
Farm animal rhyming words and name alliteration continued from last week.

Fundations: 
t, b, n, m, i, & u, formation, identification and initial sound isolation

Poetry/Songs: 
On the Farm, What Color, and YELLOW

Math: Unit 2
We completed unit 2, Comparing Numbers to Five. 
Students mastered the concept of more and fewer. However, it continues to be difficult for students to identify how many more or fewer when looking at bar graph's or number lines. We will keep practicing in class. You can help by counting up and back from at least ten. Also, continue to use the vocabulary: more, fewer, same as, and different. 

We played a fun card game where students flipped four number cards and placed the numbers in sequential order. You can do this at home with an ordinary deck of cards. Just remember to remove all picture cards from the deck before you get started. 

Writing:
Students independently labeled a cross sections diagram of a pumpkin. They learned how to make a list to keep track or remember new learning.
In addition, we are learning to read like writers and notice the purpose of various kinds of writing. We are learning to take ideas from story telling journals and turn them into stories. We are in the process of charting, "Why Writer's Write". 

Thank you to the AMAZING chaperones who joined us on Thursday. 
Enjoy these moments!

Guiding Questions for parents:

How do you make a diagram?

What does the inside of fruit look like?

How was the book, I Went Walking, different than Let's Go Visiting? 

Which Knuffle Bunny story did you like better? Why?

Why are farms and orchards important?

What else can you do with apples and pumpkins besides pick them? 

A look ahead...
No School on Columbus Day, Monday, October 12th
Field Trip to the Franklin Park Zoo,Wednesday, October 28th (a notice will be sent home on Tuesday)
Halloween Celebration, Friday, October 30th (volunteers needed, more information next week)