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)

Week Four

Important Read Alouds: The Ticky Tacky Doll by Cynthia Rylant,  Pumpkin, Pumpkin, by Jeanne Titherington,  I Went Walking, Sue Williams, Apple Orchard by Catherine Anderson

Phonemic Awareness Skills: Producing rhyme and alliteration.
Have some fun and alliterate around the dinner table. Try picking a food item and make up silly alliterations; for example, slippery spaghetti smells sweet.

Fundations: n, m practice and i & u introduction.
Please be patient, we spent very little time on  i & u last week and will continue into next week.

Poetry: Apples Three, On The Farm, and RED 

Math: Unit 2 Comparing and Ordering Numbers
Just Enough Carrots by Stewart J. Murphy
1.  Comparing numbers 1-5 and using the words more, fewer, and same as. 
2.  Interpereting data
3.  Finding like sets of numbers
4. Ordering numbers to ten. Counting up and back. 

Writing: Our class contines to listen to stories to help generate ideas for story telling. We are learning to make text to self connetions. In preparation for our field trip we read several non fiction titles on the apple and pumpkin life cycle. We learned that a good diagram can teach lots of information to the reader.

As writers we looked at the inside of an apple and a pumpkin to practice writing cross section diagrams. Ask your child about the features of a good cross section diagram.

(Hint: a realistic picture, a title, labels and arrows)

Reminders:

• Field Trip Thursday, October 8th; if you are no longer able to chaperone please contact me as soon as possible.  
• Yellow Folders are to be returned each Monday.
• No School on October 12th, Columbus day. 
• Scholastic Orders will be placed Friday October 2nd for all who ordered on line!!! Thanks