Communication Arts" Our focus book was Tacky the Penguin who was a unique bird. Kids practiced predicting the next event based on the text to a specific point, sequencing pictures to retell the story by including all important events, and inferring how characters felt and supporting why they think characters felt that way.
Sight Words: did, for, that Handwriting Letters: Ww and Qq Word Family: -in Writing: Kids continued How-to writing. using transitional words: first, next, then, and then, finally. Kids may also use: first, second, third, and so on. We discussed how zooming in on a picture can help the reader understand the instruction better, and adding labels helps even more. In order to give directions in a How-to book, kids need to provide a materials list. We worked with adding more paper to writing if a materials list needs to be added. Math: Topic 8: More Addition and Subtraction - Kids worked with composing and decomposing groups of 10 objects to find the missing addend. The assessment was given Friday. Assessments were sent home Friday. Scores can be found on Mastery Connect. Science: We are still working with various matter. Students were challenged to create playdough with a baggie of flour and salt by adding water. With team members, they considered how to make the solid into playdough by adding a liquid. Then they had to mark a cup with the amount of water they would add each time. Tally marks were used to count how many times the cup was filled to the line then added to the mixture. The ending result had to be a dough that a snake could be made of. The snake must hold it's shape without falling apart or drying out too quickly. After planning, creating, testing, planning, and testing again, most of our teams had achieved success. They had so much fun making the playdough. You can help at home! *Help your child practice reading each night from “on level” books. To access a variety of books on your child’s level you can login to https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login. For teacher username, enter willardsouthka or click on my name if it appears. This will take you to our class screen where your child can locate their name. Our class’ password is a picture of watermelon. Focus on tracking print, reading exactly what is on the page (no adding words), and using the strategies Lips the Fish & Eagle Eye as the first means for decoding unknown words. *Encourage writing every night. You can dictate sentences or let your child write about the school day. The additional practice will reinforce spacing between words, using capitalization correctly, using punctuation, and handwriting. This is also a great way to practice sight words, you can give them the beginning of a sentence and then they have to finish it. Example: I like to ___________. I can go __________. Upcoming Events: January 31- 100th Day of School January 31- Book It reading log due February 2 - Book orders are due by noon February 6- Hat Day- Bring food item February 16- Valentine’s Day Party February 16- Dismiss at 12:30 February 19- No School February 28-Book it reading log due March 1- Kindergarten Music Program 6:30 PM March 8- Literacy Night 6:00-7:30 March 9-End of 3rd Quarter March 9- Dismiss 12:30 March 13-16- No School - Spring Break Book orders were sent home today with a due date of Friday, February 2. There are hundreds of books online so you can shop for everyone in your home. Shop by reading level, topics, fiction or non-fiction, and favorite characters. Books are great Valentines gifts, birthday gifts, and just for fun. When shopping on-line, Scholastic will inform me that a parent has placed an order. On February 2nd, I will submit the order for completion. If you choose to shop using the book order flyers, simply mark purchases with a check mark, and send each order form purchased from with one check or money order written to Scholastic. You can also send cash, and I will write a check to Scholastic and place the orders for you.
SCHOLASTIC link. I've sent emails inviting my families to view ClassDojo. This is a tool for the classroom that can be used for so many things. I've used the site for recording behaviors for families, but I haven't used the other options. I plan to tinker with the options to begin sharing your child's work with you. This won't happen for a week or two until I figure it out. I appreciate your patience! Valentines/Friendship Party on Friday, February 16th: We will celebrate having such great friends in our classroom from 10:00 to 10:50. Kids will exchange Valentines and have time to look through the pictures and sayings. I usually let kids begin passing their Valentines earlier in the week so we already have that part done before party day. This activity takes 15-20 minutes. We eat lunch at 11:00, so we don't need alot of treats. If you want to volunteer to plan a small treat and a game, please let me know. *Each family gets to choose whether to make Valentines boxes or not. Some parents are excited to do this, some don't have time, some don't have supplies. Those of you who live for this stuff, go for it. If not, I have bags and decorations to let kids create something at school. It will be fun either way. If making a box, please send it the week of February 12 - 16. Please send completed Valentines on Monday, the 12th. If you need Valentines, I can send some home. We have 17 kids in our classroom as of today. You may want to send a couple of extra in case we have new students join us. Please label a Valentine for each child: Alec Phoenix Ryan Laelle Amiya Taylor Braylen Tyrique Grayson Ruby Avaya Lilly Harmony Trystan Addalee Karter Madilyn Lego Club permission forms are being sent home today. They were to be sent home Tuesday with a due date of today, but the weather messed with timing. Yesterday was so busy that several teachers didn't get the forms in kids' backpacks. Only Kindergarten, First, and Second grade kids are invited. The limit is the first 20 kids, and I have no doubt 20 kids returned them this morning. I talked with the Mrs. Hendrix and Ms. Dunn to ask if my kids should bother turning in forms. Ms. Dunn said that they may open it to more than 20 kids or even open another evening. If you want your child to sign your child up for Lego Club on Thursday nights until 4:45, return this form first thing Monday. I will be happy to complete a form for you today if you catch me before 3:15. I will complete the bottom of the form and send the top home to you. I've pictured the form so you can read through it. Last week we read The Snowy Day and discussed winter weather. Perfect timing! Kids worked on visualizing what the illustrator might have drawn based on the own knowledge or something they have done. We are focusing quite a bit on retelling stories to get all of the important information retold. Kids are also thinking about stories and making connections to their own lives or adventures. These skills are all on the DRA (reading assessment) and difficult for kids to master. You can practice the same skills at home with bedtime stories. This week (2 days) we read The Mitten and really hit sequencing the events in a story to retell all of the important details. Our sight word was "here" in our Snowman poem. This week our sight words were "did" and "for". Your child should have lists A and B mastered and learning the words from list C in order to be on the expected reading level for third quarter. Kids learned how to form letters Dd and Vv correctly last week, and letters Xx and Jj this week. We are now working on a new unit in writing. Kids are writing "How To" books (teaching books) They focus on something they know how to do, then write specific directions for teaching someone else how to to it. Getting each step in is difficult because kids assume we know what they are talking about. But, they have to pretend we have no idea at all. It is a process of improving writing skills, thinking critically, and rereading to be complete. They will be assessed in March. At home you can ask your child to teach you how to do something, then follow their directions exactly as they present them. You will double over in laughter. This is what is takes for kids to realize how important each step is. This week we discussed that in pictures, the kids need to zoom in on details (like a close up) and label items so the reader knows what to get out to prepare for their How To task. We also learned that using procedural words is important to let the reader know we are moving to a new direction to follow. Kids should be using: first you need...., second or then or next, and then or third or next, last or finally. We missed two days, but we still learned quite a bit about How To writing. Topic 8 in math is working toward understanding that a group of objects can be broken apart to show the two parts we used to get a total. We use word problems to solve an equation where both addends are unknown. Kids are to check their answer when the equation is complete to be sure their answers total how many items they have. Important Dates: January 31 – 100th Day of School - January 31 – BOOK IT list due Happy New Year! We had a short week which was perfect for coming back after family time. Check below this post for pictures of our ice cream party and various pictures. We lost Jarin to Fair Grove, but will gain a new student tomorrow. Her name is Harmony. We need to be sure expectations are being followed throughout our school to help Harmony ease into our classroom environment and become a Willard South leader.
During our two-day week students were placed into reading groups at the level where they are currently reading independently. We base reading groups according to DRA assessments, letter and sound recognition, number of sight words known, as well as teacher input. All K classrooms used our reading block to review smooth transitions where kids are ready to listen and learn. Daily 5 expectations and activities were reviewed to prepare students for working independently and problem solving for themselves when we begin working with two reading groups each day. We discussed: emergency restroom and drink permission signals, individual bubble spaces, problem solving for any issue, I-pad expectations, how to write during Work on Writing if pencils have disappeared from your tool kit (and that there must be writing), what type of Word Work activities are available and where to find supplies, and that Read to Self means reading pictures or words or looking for things we know in books. Next week we will teach our new reading groups what is expected in our small reading group as we work on their instructional levels. This is the first year Kindergarten has switched kids for groups. I was hesitant, but I've truly enjoyed doing so. In Writing we introduced a new genre of writing called "How-to". We listed things we know how to do really well that we can teach someone else. We have had three sessions where students have tried to teach me how to put on my boot, load my backpack with my mail and line up, and how to listen. We laughed uncontrollably as kids taught me how to put on my boot because they wanted to "show" me with their hands and pointing. We can't do this in our writing unless we have pictures that do it for us. With words such as "put your boot on your foot," I had a really hard time figuring out how to get my foot into my boot properly. Readers take writers literally, so I placed my boot on top of my foot with this direction. Kids have to pretend their reader has no clue how to do what they are teaching. I told them to pretend I am a complete idiot so they have to be careful with word choices. Boy they loved this idea! Talking through or working through the motions when giving directions is tremendously helpful. From what I have already seen, this is going to be a unit a amazing growth for kids. They are enjoying the new genre. Topic 8 in Math is: More Addition and Subtraction. Kids are extending their knowledge of how to make a certain number by breaking small groups of items and counting how many are in each group, then writing the numbers that equal the total amount. It is a bit confusing due to the equal sign coming before the numbers (ex: 5 = 3 + 2). We do most of math together. The homework sent home is for individual practice and a chance to strengthen skills. You can see what is coming up in the topic and work with your child. if they are having a hard time following in class or missing the last few they do by themselves. I do not need this homework back., but you can send it for me to see if you want to. I will always let you know if there is homework that must be returned. Science/STEM: We began a unit about "Matter". Students will learn about solids, liquids and gasses and how to determine which type of matter an object is, and how they might change into another. If you or someone you know has scientific knowledge in this area, we would love to have guests teach us with experiments or demonstrations. Progress reports will be sent home Friday along with important notes to show you how your child is progressing at this time. Do not hesitate to ask if you have questions! The progress report is yours to keep. Review Mastery Connect on-line for further information as well. Green areas and "M" represent Mastery of a standard, yellow areas and "NM" represent Near Mastery, and red areas and "R" represent Remediation. Red and yellow can be warning signs if they dominate the progress report. Keep in mind that kids are given additional opportunities each quarter to master math, language arts, and writing concepts they didn't master earlier. Kindergarten is a year of spiraled learning and practicing of all concepts. We will conference in March if your child is not progressing as expected. Ways to help at home: *Practice reading with your child each night from “on level” books. To access a variety of books on your child’s level you can login to https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login. The teacher username is willardsouthka. This will take you to our class screen where your child can locate their name. Our class password is a picture of a watermelon. Kids had individual pictures, but that was changed for ease of logging in when they are in another classroom. *Focus on tracking print, reading exactly what is on the page (no additional words, omitting words, or substituting words), and using the strategies Lips the Fish & Eagle Eye as the first means for decoding unknown words. *Talk about the pictures and stories in books you read together. Kids make connections when discussing what they just read or are about to read. Upcoming Events: January 9th - Hat day- Bring food item and wear a favorite hat all day for fun January 12th - 2nd quarter Progress Reports go home January 15th - No School January 31st - January Book-It list due Next Week: Our focus book will be: Snowy Day. Kids will learn to visualize, sequence and retell a story, make personal connections (important for the DRA assessment), and infer. Sight word - "here". Handwriting and letter review - "Dd" and "Vv". Word Family -ig. |
AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
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May 2019
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