Kindergator Update 10.11.18
What a
hurricane of a week we have had! There was lots o’ learnin’ in kindergarten
this week and lots o' assessing for report cards too.
Reading: We
are working on hard to notice the “Letters That Work Together to Make One
Sound” tricks in the words we read. I hope you are seeing improved sounding out
of words in their nightly reading like we are seeing here in class. We are also
working on how to do a wonderful retelling of the fiction stories we hear. That
means focusing on the characters, setting and major details in the story so you
can retell the most important parts in order.
Math: We are
continuing our exploration of 3D shapes (cylinder, cone, cube, sphere) in our
math centers this week. We are also learning about classifying (sorting) things
into groups. We have been discussing how classifying means looking at one rule
at a time only (by color, by shape, by size, by purpose) and how the name of
your group has to fit everything you put into that group. This is a skill that
will continue throughout the year in multiple subjects, so definitely a big
deal skill.
Writing: We
have been working on adding describing words to our writing by adding specific
color words, patterns and/or material to our sentences. The kids are doing a
wonderful job at thinking up unique ways to describe their characters this
week. One of our favorites went like this…. “Ella was a cotton candy purple and
sky blue bird.” Whoa!
STEM: We
built garden “gates” to hold 5 pumpkins like those we read about in our “5 Little
Pumpkins” book. The gates had to be between two things, off the ground or
surface and be able to hold 5 pumpkins. It was fun to watch them try to figure
it out.
Big Things:
Next week is
conference week. That means early dismissal from school all week. Be sure to
let us know if there are any transportation changes needed because of this. AND
don’t forget to come for your child’s scheduled conference time. We cannot wait
to meet with you and talk about all the progress we are seeing!
We are
hoping to do a fun pumpkin STEM project and pumpkin carving experience next Monday,
October 15th. We need help from you in order to be able to do that.
First we are seeking 3-4 boards approximately 2-3 feet long and about 6-10
inches wide to use as a ramps for our “runaway” pumpkins. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE THESE or spend your money for these. We are
hoping some of you have left over boards in your garages or attics for us to
use. If none are available, we will try to figure out a new plan for our ramps.
We are also seeking 3 parent volunteers for Monday morning from 9:00-10:30ish
to help us carve our pumpkins in class and perhaps monitor our runaway
pumpkins. Please email me if you are able to send in boards and /or volunteer.
I posted some pictures of our STEM projects and apple sauce experience on the blog today too.
Thank You
To:
Ava’s Family
for sending in delicious apple cake for us to try.
Grant’s
family for sending in a pumpkin for us to carve.
Jackson’s
family for sending in pumpkins and apple fritters for us to try. I am ashamed
to say how many times I went back for seconds on those.
Reese’s
family for bringing a pumpkin, teaching us how to make homemade apple sauce and
making a batch for us to try. They had to peel over 50 apples to make this
batch so please say thank you when you see them. It was amazing.
Harper H’s
family for sending in a pumpkin and two types of apples for us to try. We
actually had students, who had never given apples a try, say they loved them.
Landon’s
family for making us amazing pumpkin muffins.
Dilan,
Jackson, Reese, Harper J. Grant, Pennelope, Olivia, Elle, Arnold, Zeb, and
Harper H. for earning STAR behavior.
Congratulations
to Elle who was elected our October Leader of the Month. She is a wonderful
class leader for sure!