Kindergator Update 12.7.18


The holiday countdown is on. Already we are seeing lots of distracted kids as visions of sugar plums and LOL dolls dance in their heads. (Yes, LOL dolls are a thing. Mrs. Watson and I had to look them up to know what the kiddos were talking about in class.) Here are some other things we talked about this week:

Reading: We continued our study of non-fiction texts and how to identify the main idea and important details. Our topics were reindeer and bears this week. We worked hard on “mining for information” or getting the most learning we could out of thinking about what we read. This involves fluency and comprehension at the same time and can be very difficult for the students for a while.

Math: We continued our unit on measurement by studying capacity and temperature. We searched for things in the classroom that had capacity and looked for capacity numbers on certain containers. Then we examined thermometers and how they measure hot and cold.

Writing: We continued working on our “Types of Sentences” unit and thinking about the difference between asking and telling sentences. We introduced the exclamation point this week as a way to show loud communication when you are really scared, happy, angry or bossy.

Vocabulary for the Week: migrate, hooves, tundra, mammal, exclamation, index

BIG THINGS:
Please come and see us at the Holiday Shoppe Saturday morning. It is such a fun family event year after year and our PTA has worked very hard to make it successful. There are still lots of spots for you to volunteer if you can spare a half hour of your time to help.

Thank you to:
Reese who was elected our Leader of the Month for December. She was so excited, she did a 3 minute silent cheer and shake dance.

Reese, Rayell, Arnold and Elle who earned their STAR behavior this week.

Jackson who brought in lots of words for us learn this week.

Sarah Kate for rocking her counting to 100 (and being great at throwing things back at her super excited teachers.)

Reese’s mom and Grant’s mom who volunteered already to help at the Holiday Shop.

Rayell, Harper H., Landon, Dilan and Ava for writing great fiction reindeer stories this week.

The whole class for turning in amazing Thanksgiving Projects. I wish you could have heard the dialogue as they exchanged their customs. Here are some excerpts:

“I didn’t know you could have carrots for Thanksgiving. I thought carrots were for Christmas.”

“What is turkey pork?”
“It's turkey pork.”
“Oh. Okay.”

“We don’t get dressed up for Thanksgiving. We don’t get dressed at all.”

“You have to help with the cooking?????????”

“I am going to watch football all day Thanksgiving year next week.”


Popular posts from this blog

KIndergator Update 9.14

I am watching a 6 year old jump off a high diving board here at Georgia Tech as I type this. There is so much excitement and fear at the same time in her eyes as she gets ready to jump. It reminds me of how our kiddos look right before they sound out a big word in class. It is such fun to watch. Here are some things we worked on this week: Reading: We continued blending sounds together in guided reading groups. We began introducing the “letters that work together to make one sound” trick with blends like (sw, sn, st, sp). We also began our study of the parts of a story by discussing characters. Did you know anything can me a character if you write a story about it? We read about a blue dot as a character and a chameleon. We also reviewed th difference between real reading and fake fiction through our topic of chameleons this week. Math: We finished naming all the 2d shapes and describing them. Next week we will begin “eating” them. If your child can correctly describe the at...
Read more

KIndergator Update

Happy first week of Kindergarten! It has been a really smooth transition so far, so thank you parents. Here are some things we worked on this week: Rules, rules and more rules. What to do if you don't know what to do......raise your hand or look for a clue! Who are the people in your campground (school)? Who are the people in you camp (through sharing our all about me bags)? Next week we move into our regular schedule and begin curriculum. Our focus will be getting used to the schedule, building independence and an "I can" attitude. Look for an update next week to see how well we did. In the meantime here are some great quotes from our class this week. "I have a joke for you" "Okay" "What did the corn dog say?" "What?" "No. no monkey!" The whole class falls out laughing. "The lunch choices are hamburger, mac and cheese or salad. What would you like?" "Pizza." "Well there is ...
Read more

Kindergator Update 9.21 and some requests

Break time! I hope you have a wonderful week off. We can all use some rest and hopefully some fall weather. Here are some things we worked on this week. Reading: We continued working on the difference between real reading and fake fiction with our unit about apples. We also began our talk of how to do a great story retelling by focusing on the who (characters) and where (setting) in our first sentence. Math: We worked on comparing and contrasting 2d shapes and introduced vocabulary for 3d shapes such as edges, vertices and faces. Social Studies: We compared and contrasted the GA and US flags. Vocabulary: Cube, edge, vertices, orchard, pollen, nectar, symbol Big Things: We have had some big chats this week about how we treat others. Within the past week I have heard kids tell Mrs. Watson she doesn't pack them up right. After a student dropped their fruit on the ground they told Mrs. Watson she was supposed to clean it up for them. She and Mrs. McGhee have been told just ...
Read more