October 12, 2023 Class News
We had fun discovering, sharing and adventuring together this week in kindergarten!
Next week, our Star Student will be Caroline.
Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: he and was. Next week we will learn for and on. Are you working on these at home? A good way to practice sight words is to keep a bundle of sight words (simple flashcards you can make with notecards) in your purse or bag and pull them out whenever you have an extra minute to spare – waiting for an appointment, quickly before you go out the door, etc.
Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we learned all about the letters /n/ and /p/. We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds /n/ and /p/, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with n and p. Take a look at your child’s spelling coming home in their Friday folder. If you choose to do homework at home, practicing lowercase letter formation is a good skill to practice with parent guidance! You might choose to brainstorm words that start and end with n and p while you’re driving, going for a walk or eating dinner.
Next week will be beginning sounds /c/ and /h/.
Handwriting: This week we practiced forming lowercase and uppercase letters n and p. We finished reviewing our uppercase letter formation in our Handwriting Without Tears workbooks and began with lowercase letters. The first letter we learned is “Magic C!” Students learned you can make many other letters with the magic c, such as o, a, s, and g! We are continuing to use our hat line, belt line, and boot line to make letters and numbers, as well as practicing writing our names with only one uppercase letter!
Literacy Centers: This week we continued reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, iPad center and at the phonics center students used magnets letters to identify the beginning sound in a picture. In reading groups, we continue to observe picture clues and word clues to make predictions about what the story will be about. Some students are working on mastering letter sounds while some are working on sounding out CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words.
Writers Workshop: This week, we started learning all about pumpkins! During writer’s workshop, we reviewed what a ‘label’ is (a word that tells us about a picture) and labeled the parts of a pumpkin. We also introduced the concept of ‘nonfiction’ books verses ‘fiction’ books. We learned a few clues that can tell us which one it is – real photographs, table of contents, glossary, real true information or, make believe components – not real photographs, talking animals, etc. At home, you can practice this by having your child identify whether the book you are reading is nonfiction or fiction and why.
Math: This week we began chapter two which explores numbers to 10. We continued to focus on “how many more” from 5 on a tens frame. For example, 6 is “one more” than 5. 7 is “two more” than 5. Students continue to practice writing numbers 0-10.
We continue using our counting collections to practice our one to one counting correspondence. We are even starting to counting bigger bags of items! Take a peak in your child’s Friday Folder to see the item they counted, how many they counted, and how they showed their number!
Science: We began our unit all about pumpkins! This week, we learned the parts of a pumpkin. Ask your child to name the parts of a pumpkin! We learned the life cycle of a pumpkin, too. Ask your child to retell you the life cycle of a pumpkin!
Second Step: In this week’s second step lesson, we learned that it is important to practice and keep trying in order to get better at something! Students shared things they are practicing and want to get better at. Some of us want to get better at bike riding and soccer, others want to improve writing and reading!
Common Core Standards we’re working on:
- I can read common sight words.
- I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
- With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
- I can spell simple words phonetically.
- I can read CVC words.
- I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
- I can read the words in a book in the right order.
- I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
- I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
- I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
- I can write numbers from 0-20.
- I can understand that the last thing I count tells the number of things in a group.
- I can name the number for each thing in a group as I count them.
Important Dates:
- Friday, October 13th – No School, Teacher In-service
- Tuesday, October 17th – Individual Portrait Day
- Wednesday, November 1st – All Saints Day Mass, Dress Uniform
- Wednesday, November 1st – Noon Dismissal/Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)
- Thursday, November 2nd – Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)
- Friday, November 3rd – Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)
- Friday, November 10th – No School, Veteran’s Day (observed)