Kindergator Update 3.22.19

Happy Spring! It has been happy, with no rain so far and lots of time outside to play. Things are blooming outside the school and our kindergarteners are starting to bloom in their learning. Here are some super smart things we discussed in class this week:

Reading: We have been working on the 3Cs…..character traits, conflicts and connections. That means we are working through fiction frog stories noticing the positive and negative traits the characters portray. We are identifying the new types of conflicts we encounter and adding them to our ideas chart. And we are thinking about ways to connect our lives to the characters, setting, conflict or resolution of the story. We read a Frog and Toad story about grumpy Toad not wanting to wake up in the morning and lots of our students (and some teachers) could connect to that!

We also worked on the long A sound and the reason /a/ will switch its sound (ay, ai, eigh, a_e). The students are doing well with this. Expect that there make be some back slide in their reading as they begin to put the long /a/ sound in all the time and forget all about the short sound. With a little practice, they will recognize what sound it is supposed to make with more ease.

Math: Well you might have heard that we are working on some pretty advanced math skills in class now. Most of our 4^th quarter curriculum will be review to the kids, so we have extended some of our lessons into 1^st grade and beyond. This week we worked on fact families, number bonds, missing addend equations, balancing equations and a bit of simple algebra. The kids are soaking up everything we put before them and loving the challenge. That makes teaching fun! Hopefully they are sharing their new ideas with you.

Writing: We worked on expanding our list of possible conflicts and brainstormed lots of things that can go wrong for characters. We discussed how conflicts can come from another character, from nature, from machinery and from the character themselves. Then we began looking at ways to extend our writing of conflicts to include more detail.

Science: We had soooooo much fun learning about the attributes of water. We showed how it can change its shape to any container because it is a liquid. We showed how it can be “sticky” and likes to adhere to itself. We used water to pull water into other shapes. We even noticed how much it like to stay together…so much so that it can hold up a paperclip on its surface tension. We had lots of kids in class who were able to get their clip to rest on the surface.

Vocabulary: grumpy/grouchy, quarrelsome, greedy, traits, fact family, attributes

BIG THINGS:

1. Please sign and return your child’s report card envelope to let us know you have seen it.
2. Next Friday, 3/29, AESF is hosting a kick-a-thon to raise money for the Science Lab and for new technology throughout the school. Your child will attempt to kick 10 soccer goals during specials that day, but must be registered and have pledges to participate. Don't let your child miss out. $1 a kick goes a long way if everyone participates! I'd love my class to have 100% participation, so please register your child  at http://www.sportsathon.fun/ Thank you and happy kicking!
3. Don’t forget Spring Break is April 1-5 so there will not be school that week.
4. Parents are needed for kindergarten Parent Pedagogy week. Parent Pedagogy week is when parents are asked to come in and teach a lesson to the class about anything they want to. We have had people discuss their careers, travels, do crafts, experiments or just read their favorite story from childhood. We would be glad to brainstorm ideas with you. Please, please consider signing up for a 30-45 minute spot during the week of May 13-17. Moms, dads, and grandparents are welcome. We hope we can fill up the week with fun ideas and extend your child’s learning beyond the state standards.

Thank You To:

• Kendal who has been asking the coolest questions to extend our learning. After our discussion about soil and how different plants may prefer different types of soil, she gave a sigh and asked, “How will we know which one is best for our plants?” She is always thinking ahead and making cool connections between all she learns.
• Olivia who reached 100 sight words!
• Sarah Kate for coming back to school after a two week+ sickness. We were seriously missing her and class wasn’t the same without her.
• Harper H., Kendal, Elle, Reese, Jaleigh, Gustavo, and Olivia for earning their STAR behavior reward this week.
• The whole class because we finally earned our 10 silver spoons and extra recess.
• Reese and Elle, who use their STAR behavior reward to take the whole class out to the big playground.
• Mother Nature for giving us 5 days in a row without rain so we could have extra recess in the sun.
• All the kiddos for helping make my mom’s 80^th birthday special with a song, cards and flowers.