Kindergator Update 2.7.19

Punxsutawney Phil may have predicted early spring, but no one could have predicted the amazing weather we have had for recess this week. Dilan and I were having so much fun laying Frisbee, we forgot to go inside at our scheduled time and had to be reminded that we couldn’t stay out forever. The funniest part was that it was some of our classmates that reminded us, not the other adults! Here are some things we did inside the classroom this week.

Reading: We compared and contrasted versions of the Three Pigs. So far the favorite is The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. If you have never read it, look it up on Youtube. It is a wonderful piece of work. We did lots of work with the 3 sounds of Y and building our reading stamina. We did want to pass on a little reading tip. We have noticed the kiddos turning their heads to look at us lots when reading aloud. This usually means they are getting a bit too much help as we move our lips and fill in sounds for them, or that they are seeking immediate verification for their attempt at sounding it out. We learned our lesson: Be careful how much unknowing help you give. And, give them a chance to figure out if the word sounds right to them before telling them they are correct.

Math: We worked on the difference between addition and subtraction, the different way the models look and what subtraction might mean in a story problem. We even had some help from a mathematical magic hat.

Writing: We wrote our writing fair pieces and really pushed ourselves further into narrative writing. I cannot wait to see how all the pieces come out.

Science: We went further in our living versus non-living unit. Most of the kiddos can tell you that living things eat or get energy, drink or take in water, move on their own, grow, make more of their kind, have senses that help them survive and can die. We will take our assessment on this next week. We also began our unit on rocks. We will be comparing and contrasting rocks, and soil for this unit. Usually during this unit, the kids begin noticing and bringing home rocks from outside, so you may want to check pockets before laundry day.

BIG THINGS:

Even with Mrs. Watson and Mrs. McGhee sitting at our lunch table, we are getting lots of sad reports about our behavior at lunch. The lunch monitors started an incentive program two weeks ago where well behaved classes can earn a silver spoon each day, but we have only earned 3. Please take some time to reinforce table manners with your kiddos at home. This includes: sitting through meal, not screaming, staying facing the table, not playing with the food or spitting it back into the tray or containers. Fingers crossed for better reports next week.

Don't forget to look for any lost library books! We had lots of kiddos unable to check new books out last week because they had not returned the old ones. 

THANK YOU TO:

Arnold, who got to 100 sight words this week! Woo-Hoo.

Harper J. who was voted our February Leader of the Month! It was well deserved for sure!

Harper H. who earned her sight word trophy this week too.

Zeb, Elle, Gustavo and Reese who wrote super creative, delightfully descriptive stories for the writing fair contest.

Ava, Jackson, and Jaliegh for reading a level 2 book to us and earning their next Alligator Award.

Landon for finding me a rock with “real diamonds” in it.

Elle for winning our classroom writing contest with her story of a horse who is pestered by the sun.

The whole class for their cool STEM designs that Goldilocks will use to fix Baby Bear’s broken chair.

Grant for always passing a paper before taking one of his own.