Classroom jobs began yesterday with the hiring of students to fill specific positions. This is how the kids are becoming leaders in our classroom. They accept responsibility for the job the requested, and handle any issues that arise. Kids completed job applications and brought them back for review. They enjoyed learning who will be fulfilling what duty for the month of November. Now for training them in their jobs! We still have several jobs available. Six kids have not completed their applications. They can return them next week for a chance to be hired.
Habit 2 is "Begin With The End In Mind" which is setting goals. This week we discussed our WIGs - Wildly Important Goals, and how we can reach them. Kids chose a learning goal and a personal goal. With their personal goal they had to decide on three things they can do to help them reach it. These goal setting pages are hanging in our hallway for you to enjoy. Their learning goal is stapled to their name tag in the room for a constant reminder. Our weekly theme was Pumpkins. In Reading we read non-fiction texts about the life cycle of the pumpkin plant. Kids sequenced the life cycle on their own. We also compared and contrasted nonfiction books about pumpkins. Sight Words: a review of my , it, in, the, went. I've tested sight word recognition and included the page in progress report information. The words kids know within three seconds are marked. At this time kids have been taught: and, are, all, can, down, got, is, in, like, my, see, the, to, up, we, went, and you. Ask your child to practice reading and writing them. They must be spelled correctly in writing. In Handwriting kids practiced the correct formation of letters Tt and, Pp. We spend two days with each letter. The first day is charting words that begin with the letter. I love this activity because I get to model and practice spelling WITH the kids. It begins to make more sense to the kids when they see me model over and over. This activity takes quite a bit of time, so I've cut the writing page to just one side. The back is available for homework or additional practice as needed. If kids can write three capital and three lowercase letters correctly, they do not have to fill the lines. They have to keep trying until they get three of each though. Any time there are pictures on a learning page the kids are expected to write the words. They spell the best they can. Every opportunity the have to spell on their own is one step closer to writing becoming easier. In Writing kids learned how to make their stories more clear by writing a simple sentence to go with the pictures. We will continue working to stretch words to hear and write as many sounds as possible. Spacing between words is a huge factor in being able to read the story when finished. If kids can't read their story, they have to erase and start again. Many kids are starting to realize how much easier it is to read when they space. It's fun to see the light bulb turn on suddenly. Next week we will be working toward making stories come alive by adding facial expressions, sound words, and bold or larger words. The Topic 4 math assessment was given Wednesday. Most kids did really well. An understanding of numbers 0-10 is a must. At this time kids should be able to count correctly, say the number the counted, then write the correct number. We started Topic 5 Friday. Lessons in this unit focus on classifying and counting objects in categories, then comparing how many objects are in each category. Understanding vocabulary words is a must: similarities, alike NOT, alike, and different. Science/STEM: We are continuing our investigation of gravity and motion by learning what rolls and slides, and what attributes materials have to allow them to move in this way. We have discussed: push, pull, force, friction, slide, roll, speed, and distance. Be sure to send a jacket or coat every day with a jacket. Hats and gloves would be great to leave in the backpack for days like today. We go outside for recess unless the temperature is below 25 degrees. Many kids were freezing. I want to thank all of my parents who sent items for the Fall Party as well as those who sent $2 to help with the cost of the craft, prizes, drinks, and treats! We don't have a homeroom parent, but we have many parents willing to do a bit extra for the kids. Thanks to your efforts the kids had a great time. One boy said, "This is the best day of my life!" That says it all. It doesn't take much to please a Kindergarten child during a party. I realized last week that the Winter Party has been taken off the calendar. I don't know why, but we won't be having one. Our next party is the Friendship Party in February. A huge THANK YOU as well to Ryan's mom and aunt, and to Amiya's mom for buying pencil sharpeners for our classroom. I am excited to put our Lumber Jack to work! Upcoming Events: October 30 – Parent/Teacher Conferences October 31 – Book It Due November 3-7…FALL BREAK/NO SCHOOL November 21 – Picture Retake Day November 22-24…NO SCHOOL/THANKSGIVING BREAK Please remember that you are free to email questions at any time throughout the year. Emailing is the best way to "talk" to me without interrupting what I am supposed to be doing with the kids - especially in the morning. Please ask questions by emailing or write a note. My website, Willard South's website, and the district website are also useful tools for answering general questions.
In Reading we read A Tree for All Seasons to learn about leaves and seasons. Students activated schema about seasons, then added more facts they learned from the text. Important vocabulary words learned are: bare, cozy, bud,. We also read Tap the Magic Tree which was a fun twist in learning the life cycle of an apple tree. Kids connected information from the text to what they knew about seasons to predict what the author meant when he wrote "be patient" on the page with a tree in winter. We answered text dependent questions and made text-to-self connections. Sight Words: it, up, down learned through the poem Leaves Falling Down Handwriting Letters: Gg, Hh Kids are expected to begin using lines to form letters correctly. When there are pictures on a learning page, kids are expected to write the words using many sounds heard within the word. In Writing kids added speech bubbles to add meaning to their stories. Adding facial expressions, sound words, and bold or larger words help the story come alive. We continue to work on stretching words to hear and write as many sounds as we can, and we will work on telling our stories to partners before we write to help remember all our details. Stories should be nearing completion and ready for publication next week. Topic 4 in math is Comparing Numbers 0-10. Kids focused on comparing numbers using numerals and counting items. Using a number line is an easy way to determine if a number is greater than another number or less than. Kids learned to place numbers in sequential order. We will continue to practice greater than, less than, and equal to next week. I am sending home homework pages daily. If you can work through the homework, you help your child understand concepts and become stronger. Classroom Needs: We are still in need of paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, swim noodles/pipe insulation (even small sections), index cards, masking tape, yarn, paper plates, things that roll: marbles, cars, balls - anything you and your child think of that we can use for the pushes and pulls science unit. Items you want to be sure are returned need your child's name on them. We are using these items to learn about force and gravity. Kids began learning about the Engineering Design Loop and the steps scientists use to work through solving problems. Students worked in groups to imagine a design that will support a tower that stands. They then created this tower as a team to experiment with their design. Afterward we reviewed their plans and discussed how we could make them better. The hardest part of the design is learning how to work as a team. In two groups several students were sticking tape all over index cards or cutting materials into small pieces without any plan at all. The other two groups were working together and created a free-standing design. Those two groups of kids learned that listening to directions, following directions, teamwork, communication, and rethinking the plan when failing are the keys to success. They will be choosing from our treasure chest Monday! Parent-Teacher conference reminder notes will be sent home Monday. We only have 12-13 minutes together. View Mastery Connect before coming to our conference to see assessments that have been completed and whether your child is mastering concepts or struggling. I am finding that few parents are reading my website. If you are one who is reading it weekly, please jot " I read the website!" on any paper and send it in your child's folder. Your child will be allowed to choose from the treasure chest because you take those few minutes to read about what we are doing in Kindergarten.. I spend approximately 2 hours creating the weekly website update, and I appreciate those who read it. Thank you for being that person! Upcoming Events: October 23 - 27 - Red Ribbon Week Events: *Monday-Dress as you would in your favorite decade *Tuesday-Favorite Team Jersey Day *Wednesday-Job Interview Day - dress as you would for a job interview *Thursday-Wear Red *Friday-Willard Tiger Gear October 25 – School Pictures October 26 – Parent/Teacher Conferences, Fundraiser Pick Up until 7pm October 30 – Parent/Teacher Conferences October 31 - Book It lists are due for a Pizza Hut free pizza coupon Above are pictures of the kids putting Habit 6 into play while "Synergizing" to build the tallest tower they could from our free choice materials. Three of our teams were able to accomplish a tower of some sort working together. Two teams worked individually and didn't have a team tower when time ran out. This was a fun way to help kids recognize that when we work together, we can accomplish so much more! Next week we will be discussing Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw.
Check out the Snapshots of Fun page for our applesauce tasting party! We peeled and cut 15 apples and put them into an Instant Pot. Then we added 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 t. of cinnamon. The apples cooked for 8 minutes. They smelled delicious when the lid was removed. Everyone gave our applesauce a thumbs-up and ate every drop! We enjoyed several apple-based activities and learning this week. In Reading we practiced inferring, predicting, comparing/contrasting, and making connections with our whole group texts "Apples for Everyone" and "Apples Grow on Trees". We learned a poem "Picking Apples" and marked the sight words "in," "a" and "we" that we found in the word "we're". Classroom Needs for next week: paper towel tubes, toilet paper tubes, swim noodles/pipe insulation (even small sections), index cards, masking tape, yarn, paper plates, things that roll: marbles, cars, balls - anything you and your child think of that we can use for the pushes and pulls science unit. We will begin using these items Tuesday, but please keep sending items through next week. Items you want to be sure are returned need your child's name on them. In Phonics and Handwriting kids practiced writing letters Ll and Oo. They are struggling to start letters at the top and touch the top of a letter on either the top line or the dotted line as needed. Both of these letters should touch the bottom line. We have 24 more letters to practice! I know there will be improvement with each letter as kids begin to recognize the importance of writing legibly. We charted words that begin with these letters to practice letter sounds, as well as saying words over and over to write each sound we hear so others can read them. During Writing kids continued to generating ideas for stories and learn how to plan stories across pages. They learned that adding more details is a must. Readers want to know where the story takes place, who is in it, and what happened. They used slinkies to stretch out words to hear as many sound as possible and learned that speech bubbles add feeling and bring dialogue to life. Students were assessed on Topic 3, Comparing Numbers 0-6. Most of them did really well! The assessment took so much time that some kids became fatigued and made mistakes. I asked those kids to look at the problems missed and correct them if they could. With this opportunity, even more kids scored 100%. Our new Math topic is Comparing Groups to 10. We will be counting to ten daily, drawing pictures to make a group of ten, comparing groups of ten, and writing numbers 1-10 frequently. Please help your child practice writing numbers properly if you see many reversals or numbers that are not beginning at the top. Fall Party: Our fall party is October 20th from 10:15-10:45. Please send in $2 to help with the party expenses if you have not already sent it. Three parents are bringing treats or a treat bag. I am purchasing drink boxes and planning a craft. Feel free to join us with planning or helping at the party. NOTE: Two kids brought more than $2 today without a note attached. If you sent money today, please let me know! Parent-Teacher conference notes were sent home today. I will write your conference time on the behavior calendar as well and send another reminder closer to our conference date. If a conflict arises, please let me know immediately. There are only four empty time slots available at this time. We can also meet on another day before school if necessary. Upcoming Events: October 20 - Book orders are due October 20 – Fall Party @ 10:15, Early Dismissal @ 12:30 October 23 - 27 - Red Ribbon Week Events: *Monday-Wear Red *Tuesday-Jersey Day* *Wednesday-Western Day *Thursday-Decade Day *Friday-Willard Tiger Gear October 25 – School Pictures October 26 – Parent/Teacher Conferences, Fundraiser Pick Up until 7pm October 30 – Parent/Teacher Conferences October 31 - Book It lists are due for a Pizza Hut free pizza coupon Did you know Willard South has a Facebook page? Willard South Elementary
"Like" our site to keep up with the most current events and news! This week in Reading we activated our schema about firefighters and read "Firefighters Help". In this book we learned these vocabulary words and their meanings: emergency, visit, tank, pump, and community from our book. We also learned non-fiction text features: title, table of contents, headings, labels, and photos. These help us understand the text and find answers to our questions. Next week we will have apple fun! We will learn new vocabulary and compare and contrast two non-fiction books about apples. We will be completing various experiments and activities this week including making applesauce and browning apples. If you are able to help by sending in 1-2 apples on Monday, the donation would be greatly appreciated! Please send an email letting me know that you can help. During enrichment time this week we learned about community helpers. Officer Bailey visited from the Willard Police Department. The kids got to sit in his squad car and play with handcuffs. Our school nurse, nurse Brandy, spoke with us about her job. Did you know that she sees 50-60 kids a day? Half of those kids do not need to be seen but want a mint for their throats. This wastes her time and takes away from those who truly need her help. The Willard fire department brought their firetruck and spoke about being a firefighter. In Phonics and Handwriting kids learned the letters Xx, Yy, and Zz. They learned each letter name, the sound it says, and how to write it correctly. Please help your child practice correct formation and always begin letters at the top and move downward. Extra practice with letters and sounds can be done as well by having your child say the letter when writing and tracing again for the sound. Sight Words learned in our poetry this week: you Next week sight words: in, like In math we finished Topic 3 about reading and writing numbers to 10. We learned to read and write 10 and how to make different combinations of 10. We also used a pattern to learn how to make all the different combinations of a given number. Next week we will review the pattern, work on finding the missing addend, and take our Topic 3 assessment. In writing kids spent an hour writing a narrative for the pre-formative assessment. Kids were told that we know they aren't ready to do everything correctly just yet. They haven't been taught everything they need to know, and they haven't had enough practice time. I sent these "books" home today with the scoring rubric used for Mastery Connect. This will help guide you when practicing at home when helping your child practice. The summative assessment will be given in December. We continued learning how to write a narrative - or true story. We discussed that everything we do can be made into a story. Eating breakfast, playing outside, and even getting ready for bed is a three to four page story! Next week we will work on adding details to both our pictures and our words. We will also learn to show action in our words by adding –ing and we will stretch out words to get more sounds down on our papers. I will retest letters and sounds known next week as well as sight words. These sheets will be sent home to catch you up on your child's progress. Any practice at home makes your child stronger in reading and writing. We are asking so much of kids at this age. Without a strong base in letter/sound knowledge, they struggle everyday. Enjoy your time with your kids this weekend, Mrs. Bailey Important Dates to Remember *Thursday, October 19 – Kindergarten Teachers are in a Science meeting all day *Friday, October 20th - Book orders are due *Friday, October 20th – Fall Parties – 10:15-10:45. Please send $2 to help with costs. *Friday, October 20th – End of Quarter – Students are Dismissed @ 12:30 *Wednesday, October 25th – Picture Day *Tuesday, October 31st - Book It lists are due Did you know Willard South has a Facebook page? Willard South Elementary
Like our site to keep up with the most current events and news! Sign-Up Genius is the link to use for securing a time slot for Parent-Teacher Conferences: Conferences dates are Thursday, October 26th and Monday, October 30th. Please sign up using the link if you have not already done so. I enjoyed visiting with families at Open House! Thank you for coming to learn about the Leader in Me program, to share your child's Leadership Binder, and to learn about Willard South with our scavenger hunt. Ten out of eighteen of my families attended. I truly appreciate your interest in our learning environment. Tuesday evening is McTeacher night at the W. Chestnut McDonalds. Teachers who volunteer their time share a percentage of sales from this evening. I will be working from 5 pm to 6 pm. Visit any time between 4-8 pm for your order to count. Turn in the coloring page I will put in your child's folder Tuesday! The class with the most coloring pages turned in will win a Happy Meal party at school. Fall Party: Our fall party is October 20th from 10:15-10:45. Please send $2 to help with the party expenses by Friday, October 6th. Mark the money with "Fall Party" using a sticky note or an envelope. At this time we do not have a homeroom parent. A couple of treats and a game are all we really need to have a party. You only get as elaborate as you want to. If you are willing to plan three classroom parties, please let me know as soon as possible. I will send the homeroom parent information envelope home with your child. Two or three parents can work together to plan as well. If you are willing to help with a team of parents, I will link you with others who are also willing. Last week in Reading we read the focus story Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, Smell. We introduced two reading strategies: "Lips the Fish" and "Eagle Eye". Lips the Fish teaches kids to get their mouths ready for the first sound in a word, and Eagle Eye teaches using picture clues to read unknown words, and to also make sure that the word being said matches the letters in the word we are pointing to. Kids learned how to answer text-dependent questions, reread a book to help us understand, and track print one-to-one as reading. This week we will activate schema about firefighters and community helpers, identify non-fiction text features, and introduce cause and effect. Sight Words learned through reading and poetry: we, my, can . You can help by making flash cards and practice four to five words from list A until they become too easy, then add three new words into the rotation. I will be sending a sight word list home this week with the words marked that your child already knows. During Enrichment last week kids learned about our five senses. Our senses are the ways we learn about the world around us. Kids learned about the vision test doctors use and tried it themselves, smelled mystery smells to identify them, touched objects in our mystery bag to use the sense of touch to name, and had a taste test for sweet and bitter tastes. In Phonics and Handwriting kids learned the path of motion for letters: Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, and Ww. They learned the letter name and the sounds they say. Please help your child practice correct formation and always begin letters at the top and move downward. Extra practice with letters and sounds can be done as well by having your child say the letter when writing and tracing again for the sound. In writing kids wrote predictable color and number books using sight words to begin sentences. These will be sent home once books are completed and covers are added. This week we will begin narrative writing. Kids will be generating ideas for stories and learning how to plan stories across pages. Wednesday we will be taking our Formative Narrative Assessment. This assessment will provide me for a baseline of needs before beginning our next unit. In math we started Topic 3: Counting and writing numbers 6 – 10. Kids counted and learned how to write 6-9 last week. This week will focus on reading, writing, and counting numbers 8-10 and creating combinations of 10. Reversals are common throughout first grade. We need to catch kids as they make reversals to help them correct immediately. This will interrupt the habit so kids think about numbers/letters more carefully when beginning to write them. Leader In Me learning: Habit 5 - Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Listening to others is important for many reasons. There are times when it is to learn, such as when a teacher or parent is talking. There are also times when a friend needs to share, and we need to listen so we know what we need to say. "Attentive listening" is the type of listening we all need to practice. Important Dates to Remember
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AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
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May 2019
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