Shapes...

We have been working on identifying and describing shapes.  The children are doing a great job identifying and describing the shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon).  Identifying the shapes is the easiest part; however, describing is the challenging piece.  Yesterday we were working with rectangles and here are a few pictures of how the children described the rectangle.

Week of Learning...

This week we are moving into Unit 5 of Reading Street. The big question that the children will be focusing on is “How do people and things get from here to there?” This new unit will introduce the concept of transportation. In this section of Reading Street we anticipate that the children will be excited to talk about different forms of transportation they have seen in the community, on television, or the computer. We are eager to access prior knowledge to engage the children in the question of the week, “What are different ways of going places?” We know the children will have a lot of ideas before learning this lesson, and we plan to build on the student’s prior knowledge and experiences.

With our new unit comes six new transportation words plane, jetway, subway, tunnel, ferryboat, and sidecar! These words will be taught through the story Max Takes the Train and reinforced with pictures and a song.

The sight words this week are changing to yellow, blue, and green. It is unbelievable how many sight words your child has learned! Our word wall at school is filling up and we are very proud of the children. Thank you for continuing to practice with your child at home!

We will begin Chapter 9 in Go Math!  This chapter begin the exploration of geometry.  The children will identify and describe various shapes.  Many of the children know shapes, but we will concentrate on the description of shapes, sorting shapes, and talking about the shapes.  There are 5 shapes which we will work with: square, circle, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon.  Rectangle typically is the hardest shape for the children.

Thank you for your continued support!

New Year...New Fun...New Learning...

This coming week we are continuing to work with Unit 3 of Reading Street and we will be reading "Little Quack."  We will be working on the letter Rr and the associated sound.  The letter Rr is a short sound; therefore, please do not have your children add the "uh" sound.  In addition, we will continue to work with our sight words: she, me, with.  

We are planning to continue our work with our other sight words and using them to write sentences!   Students have been introduced to the basic elements of writing sentences.  They should be able to show you how they start a sentence with a capital letter, use two finger spaces between words, and end their sentence with a punctuation mark.  Please continue to encourage your child to be writing at home on their days off.  We love to see what your child does on their days off and they can bring their writing into class to share.  

Centers will be changing this week!  We will have five centers this week: library center, math center, art center, writing center, and teacher center.  In the library center, students will be able to browse winter books and complete their book report.  In the math center, children will continue to explore 2-D and 3-D shapes.  They will be comparing and contrasting the shapes, sorting shapes by 2 attributes, and discussing the shape's properties with their peers.   The art center will provide students with the opportunity to create a snowman and label all of the parts.  Finally, in the writing center, we will be working on our sentence writing and sharing our writing with the class!

In math, we will be reviewing 2-D and 3-D shapes.  The children are required to identify five 2-D shapes and four 3-D shapes for the report card.  The children will work with all 2-D and 3-D shapes and explore them in the way they move, look, and other properties.   We will also reviewing the similarities and differences between 2-D and 3-D shapes.

Also, this week, we will also be spending some time reviewing our classroom and school procedures!  We are looking forward to seeing the children on Tuesday/Wednesday and hearing all about their winter breaks!

Happy New Year!

Another Great Week...

This coming week we are going into Unit 3 of Reading Street and will be reading "Little Panda."  We will be working on two letters and their associated sounds: Nn and Bb.  The letter Bb is a short sound; therefore, please do not have your children add the "uh" sound.  In addition, we will have three new sight words: she, me, with.  We will also be continuing to work with our other sight words and using them in writing sentences.  Please encourage your child to be writing at home on their days off.  We love to see what your child does on their day off and they can bring their writing into class and share.  In our centers we are working with writing, math, art, and reading.  The children are able to view and browse through various holiday books and choose their favorite, in the math center children are exploring 2-D and 3-D shapes, the art center the children are working on creative thinking with various items, and finally the writing center we will be working on writing about the holidays!

In math, we will work on two new 3-D shapes.  We will work on the cone and the cylinder.  The children are required to identify these two 3-D shapes for the report card.  The cone is typically an easy one to remember because of ice cream and a party hat.  The cylinder is harder for the children because the children do not use this shape or have experience.  The children will work with all the 3-D shapes and explore them in the way they move, look, and other properties.  In addition, we are also reviewing 2-D shapes and the similarities and differences of 2-D and 3-D.

Finally, we are planning the "Winter Celebration" for the children.  The celebration will be held on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd at 1:45.  We are asking families not to send in items unless asked too.  This is important as we do have allergies in the classroom and we want to make sure we are able to include everyone and not to exclude them.  We will be sending out more information in the coming week!  We appreciate your patience and your help as we plan a great celebration for the children.

OMG! December Already...

This week ends November and begins December and I cannot believe we are already this far into the year.  The amazing thing is we have only had school approximately 30 days because of the unique schedule (this shows just how important being at school is every day).  I am pleased with how the children are working hard and learning a lot too.  I sure hope you have seen this at home.  In addition, please continue to work on letter sounds, sight words, and numbers at home daily.  The progress made would not be possible without your help at home as I only have them 2 or 3 days a week.  In addition, it is important for your child to be at school.  If they are ill and have to miss school please contact me and I can let you know what your child has missed.  It is helpful for you to review these things with your child.  In addition, if you another child in the school I am able to send home work with them.

This week we will be working on the letter Ii and its sound of /i/ as in igloo, insect, ink, etc.  This sound can be easily confused with the short e sound as in elephant, elevator, escalator, etc.  We will be working on this particular sound and reading a series of new words with short i and a.  This will allow us to have some new words to work with and to blend.  In addition, we will be working with new sight words or "popcorn words."  This week the words are for and he.  We will continue to work with segmentation and begin bridging this into our writing.  The children will begin to develop an understanding of when you are unsure of how to spell a word, you can segment the word to hear all the sounds.  Currently, it is developmentally appropriate for children to only hear the first and/or last sound of a word.  Some children may be able to hear the middle sound too, but be aware this is the last sound children hear.

In math, we will conclude our work with 2-dimensional shapes by learning about the hexagon (six sides).  We will also review all the shapes.  We are working with some children on a deeper understanding of 2-dimensional shapes by learning their attributes and why the shapes are this way (the difference between a square and a rectangle).  Research has shown us it is important to extend their thinking and develop a deeper understanding of a specific items (this means we just do not want them to identify the shape, we ask questions and delve into their thinking).

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

3-D Fun...

The children this past week had the chance to explore 3-D shapes and then had the opportunity to build 3-D shapes. The children had a great time using marshmallows to build this shapes. The children had great discussion on the difference between 2-D and 3-D. The children learned 2-D shapes are flat and are on paper; whereas, 3-D shapes are objects you can feel and have sides and can put in your hands. This allowed the children to have a concrete definition of the difference between the two. We are going to go into the similarities and differences between 2-D and 3-D. For example, we will look at a square and a cube. I look forward to listening to the discussions we have.

Shape Fun...

This past week we have been working on identifying 2-Dimensional shapes. The children have to be able to recognize circle, rectangle, square, triangle, and hexagon. The children are doing a fantastic job recognizing them. We went on a shape hunt around the school to see what shapes we noticed on the building. We were able to find windows that were rectangles and squares. We even saw the circle window on top of the building. We noticed the bricks were rectangles and a metal piece that looked like a diamond, but we were smart kindergartners and knew it was a square standing on its point. We made shape posters by looking through magazines and looking for a particular shape. The children worked as a team at their tables to complete the posters (I will say they did an AWESOME job working together)! We challenged the children to look for hexagons and I was amazed on the objects they found in the magazines. The children were able to find snowflakes, beehives, and a game that were all in the shape of a hexagon! We are moving into 3-Dimensional shapes and will notice the similarities and differences of the objects!