January 18

The children came back from vacation well rested and ready to learn!

In math we have been learning about combinations of ten.  We have played a variety of games, including Spill the Beans and Bears on the Bus to practice this skill.  Knowing different combinations to make ten will help students as they practice addition and subtraction in kindergarten and beyond.

Bears on the Bus

We have also been focusing on shapes during math time.  Students looked for different shapes in pictures and made recording of these shapes.  They also created shape collages.   These collages are hanging on the hallway outside our classroom.

During Reader's Workshop the students were introduced to Chunky Monkey.  Chunky Monkey helps us decode words by finding chunks we know in words.  We have focused on at and an so far. The students also picked out new read to self spots.   

I have introduced twenty sight words to the students.  We call them snap words because they

are words we need to know in a snap when reading and writing.  Keep an eye out for the the kindergarten sight word lists coming home in backpacks this week.  

During Writer's Workshop, writers have been writing personal narratives called small moments. Writers have learned to plan a story before writing by touching each page and telling the story aloud. They are working on including  a beginning, a middle, and an end.

The students are beginning to add spaces between words.  Have your heard your child talk about spaghetti and meatballs?  Spaghetti spaces are small spaces between letters in words.  Meatball spaces are the bigger spaces between words.

The students love getting to fancy up their work on Fancy Fridays!

Upon returning from vacation the children were asked to write a small moment story independently.  It was exciting to see the children telling stories with pictures and words across pages.  I will share these stories with you during parent conferences in February.

 The kindergarten teachers had a release day to look at all the kindergarten writing prompts.  We were able to celebrate all the wonderful writing our students are doing.  We were also able to collaborate to decide what to teach next in writing.  We collected work samples to show a range of typical kindergarten writing for this time of year.

During the month of January there is a lot of assessing happening.  Students are assessed so we can share progress with you during conferences.  We also use the information to make sure all students are making progress.  If there are students who need extra support or enrichment we use the assessment data along with our knowledge of our students to create a plan.  There are a team of ed techs and support staff who help with the assessing so the classroom teachers can continue to teach.  Therefore your child may report that another staff member took them out of the classroom to complete some activities.

Do not worry!  We are also finding time to play outside and enjoy the snow!  Thank you for making sure your children are prepared to play outside each day.