**THIS WEEK, WE WILL TAKE SOME TIME TO WORK ON INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS
Unit-5 Week 2 (Thematic Unit-Animals) Week's Main Focus: How Animals Change and Grow
Each week will follow a predictable format including all parts of a balanced literacy program. The children will engage in lessons that center around phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, shared and guided reading, in addition to shared, interactive, and independent writing. The kids will also work on handwriting.
Reading Workshop:
WALT (We are learning to...)
make text-to-self connections by marking the text (using post-its and symbols to represent how the pictures and words make us feel, what they remind us of, what questions pop into our mind while we read)
recognize beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words WHILE WE CONTINUE TO...
connect letters to their sounds (see list above for known sounds); blend the consonant-vowel-consonant words fan, fin, fit, and fat
recognize and read high frequency words in isolation and text
act like good readers (ask questions, track print, make predictions, use picture clues, use beginning/ending sounds, etc.)
WILF (What I'm Looking For...)
Can the student mark the text correctly? Make some connections to text?
Does the student recognize beginning, middle, and ending sounds of words?
Can the student read blended sounds/words?
Can the student read our word wall/high frequency words?
Does the student match sounds to a given letter?
Does the student: use picture clues, make predictions, make inferences, ask questions, and point to each word as they read?
Literature the children will be exposed to:
Trade Books: The Night Before the 100th Day of School, Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten, Arthur's Valentine
Through various texts and some additional poems, the children will learn and practice to make predictions, inferences, and connections to the texts. We will learn to use symbols on post-its (and place them right onto the texts) to make these connections (i.e. placing a star means this is important, a ? means I don't understand, and ! means "wow!") which engages the children in the text and further increases their comprehension. Simultaneously, we will use the texts as a springboard to study the 100th day of school and Valentine's day. For example, in the Miss Bindergarten book, each student brings in 100 of something that starts with the first letter of their name; each child in our class will come up with something similiar (i.e. my name is Evan so I can bring in 100 envelopes; Linda can bring 100 lollipops, and we will make a class book).
Big Book of Explorations: N/a
Interactive Read-Aloud: N/a
Decodable Reader: N/A
The children will work in small groups or within their centers to increase their fluency, comprehension, and retelling skills. The children will also work together to help each other decode text and watch/comment on the reading behaviors they demonstrate.
ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT WHISPER READING!!!
SNOWBALL FIGHT! This is one way to have fun and practice our word wall words. I give each child a plain white piece of paper. They chose one word off our word wall word and wrote it on the paper. They all then crinkled the paper (which is a great fine-motor exercise) and then "threw the snow ball" around the room. Each child then picked up a "snow ball" and read the word on the paper.
Writing Workshop
WALT (We are learning to...)
write letters using the correct formations
hold a pencil and scissor correctly
use letters, symbols, and/or pictures to express our ideas
leave a space between words
use punctuation correctly at the end of sentences **NEW
WILF (What I'm Looking For...)
Does the student use the word wall or other environmental print to help them form letters/words?
Does the student use proper pencil and scissor grips? (We're working on this for quite a while at the beginning of the school year).
Does the student use, at least, a letter/symbol/picture to represent their idea?
Does the student use their finger or a "space manipulative" to leave a space between his/her words?
Does the student start their sentences with upper case letters?
Does the student end their sentences with punctuation?
This week...
The children will engage in Writing Workshop mini lesson and journal writing procedures.The children are practicing their handwriting diligently and we are working to make sure they are exercising and developing strong hand-muscle skills. Proper pencil grip, sitting up straight, and starting their letters from the top are a great start-but require much practice. Home reinforcement is beneficial and crucial.
This week, the children will write for a variety of purposes. The children will write about what they would buy with $100 (and find their picture on a $100 bill) as well as write special Valentine letters to someone special in their lives. We are learning that leaving spaces between words helps the reader know when one word is finished and when another word begins. The children are also learning to sound out the word before writing it, writing heard letter(s). The children are encouraged to use their word wall words in their sentences (and since they should know these words automatically-it makes them feel even more successful as a writer). The hardest part-but most important-is having the children go back and reread what they wrote!
Weekly, the children participate in both shared and interactive writing sessions. Shared writing is where the teacher "controls" the pen, while the children generate the ideas for writing and the teacher simply records their thoughts and ideas. Interactive writing is also known as "sharing the pen," and is where the children come up to the easel and write known letters and words; the teacher simply adds the missing parts.
Eventually, the children will use two colored pens (red and green) to mark up their writing. For example, the first word in a sentence from our morning message will be traced in green (go, start) and the last part/punctuation is traced in red (stop, the end). This will enable us to see where a sentence begins and ends.
Additionally, we continue to focus on the following concepts throughout the year:
A sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark.
We are learning to only use lower case letters in the middle of words
We use a space between words
The following concepts/skills will be introduced, reinforced, and practiced throughout the year.
1.) Good writers don't erase, rather, make a neat "cross-out" line. This allows the children to remain on their thought, instead of stopping, erasing, and restarting.
2.) Good writers include a page number, so the reader knows what page he/she is on while they read. The children learned that once they "finish" one page, they are to start a new page in their story, or to automatically begin a new story. No one is ever "finished" with their writing!
3.) Good writers label their illustrations.
4.) Good writers use spaces between words so the reader knows when a word stops and a new one begins.
5.) Good writers spell words by following this process:
1. Say the word two times. 2. Hear the 1st sound Spell that sound. 3. Read it. Say the next part of the word. Write that. 4. Hear the next sound. Spell that sound. 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you can't hear anymore sounds. 6. Read it.
**They can also: stretch the sounds like a rubber band, use the word wall/name wall, etc...
6.) Good writers go back and reread what they wrote. This helps them make sure their sentence makes sense and it sounds "like we talk."
7.) Good writers "take the idea that's in their mind" and sketch it on paper-a graphic organizer!. From there, they will label their illustrations and begin to write sentences.
to introduce the addition and subtraction symbols and terminology through number stories and concrete experiences (dots on a domino!)
to introduce calculators
to review attribute blocks
to introduce "What's My Rule?" fishing game
to continue patterning activities using pattern blocks and the pattern-block template
to continue to explore 2-dimensional shapes and symmetry
to reinforce and extend counting, numeral recognition, and number-writing skills (the weekly number grids!)
to continue graphing, measuring, estimation, and probability activities
WALT (We are learning to...)
This week we will play "Are You Smarter than a Kindergartner" in order to review Unit 4 skills and concepts prior to taking our Unit 4 assessment this week. See your child's review guide in order to practice. The children are working really hard to identify the smallest or largest number in a given set of 2-digit numbers. I taught them to look at the number in the ten's place first, then the one's place)--we know the ten's place is on the left and the one's place is on the right (like our word wall word "TO")
On Friday, we will celebrate the 100th day of school with a rodeo! Each Kindergarten class will rotate through all the Kindergarten classrooms, working on different projects and activities that center around the number "100." We will make necklaces, count to 100 in different ways, stamp 100 objects, and much much more! This is always a special day in the Kindergarten wing!
Continue to...
find the sum of two numbers by either counting the dice or using the counting up method (taking the higher number and counting up from that point; for example 3+7, put 7 in their head and say to themselves 3 more (8, 9, 10) rather than counting all of the dots
recognize the smaller or largest number in a given set of numbers
work collaboratively and demonstrate mastery of learned skills by engaging in Everyday Math Games: Top-It, Spin a Number, "Train Games," and now "Monster Squeeze"
Use the pattern blocks link below to practice our 2-d shapes!
WILF (What I'm Looking For...)
Can the student count to 50, given various starting points?
Does the student read a bar graph? Does the student recognize 2-dimensional shapes? Copy and extend and label patterns?
Can the student find the sum of two numbers using at least one learned strategy?
Does the student understand how to find the largest or smallest number in a set of numbers (i.e. 37 vs. 73 --37 means 3 groups of 10, so it's smaller than 73 with 7 groups of 10)
Does the student wait their turn, share, and work collaboratively in small groups during math games?
At this point, the children should be writing, counting, and identifying numbers up to at least 60. Please continue to practice. In terms of identifying/writing numbers, please note that it is developmental for children to reverse numbers. For example, if the number is 27 and they say 72, that's normal-as long as they realize their mistake. Prompt them--tell them to look at the number again. If they consistently reverse numbers and don't self-correct, then we will look into it further.
Ongoing math skills (addressed through Calendar Math and/or daily lessons) include:
patterning (identifying, extending, naming the letter pattern)
counting (by 1's, by 10's; eventually by 2's and by 5's)
place value (exchange 10 one's for 1 group of 10)
graphing (collecting and graphing data, and interpreting a graph)
matching sets (using dominoes)
3.) Interdisciplinary (Social Studies, Science, Fine Motor, etc)
Please have your children describe what "I-messages" are and when we use them. This is a powerful skill that will enable your child to communicate clearly about their feelings, without hurting another's feelings. I encourage the children to be specific: "I don't like when you hit me" versus "I don't like that..."
Social Studies-We will continue to practice using I-messages through role-play and situations that arise in the classroom.
Social Studies-The children will continue work in our new unit, entitled "In Town." We will continue to learn about safety workers by playing a memory game, whereby they turn over 2 cards trying to match a worker to their work site. For example, a postal worker and the post-office; a police officer and the police station, etc.
Fine Motor-The children will strengthen their fine motor skills by forming letters, shapes, and numbers in play dough and shaving cream.
Refer to the Weekly Homework Chart sent home on Mondays.
HW
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Reading
No HW
Practice reading and writing your word wall words. Scramble the letters and try to guess the words.
NO HW
Practice stretching words like rubber bands!
NO HW
Make sentences using your word wall words and decodable words (words like pop, fat, fin, Tom, Sam, etc; using sounds we know!0
NO HW
Practice reading and marking text at home using post-its, just like in class.
Math
NO HW
Practice writing your numbers 1-10 using proper formations.
NO HW
Have mom or dad write 3 2-digit numbers and you tell them the biggest and smallest number. (i.e. 23, 32, 12)
NO HW
Practice solving number stories. *Example Sam has 3 apples. Tom has 5 apples. How many apples do they have?
NO HW
Practice writing your numbers and counting by 10's to 100.
Play the Everyday Math Games that are linked above...
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