Weeks 6 & 7

Happy Fall everyone!  The weather is turning colder and all children need to make sure they have appropriate outdoor clothes for recess.  I also strongly suggest labeling all your child's clothing.  Many kids have the same mittens, hats, etc. so it is easy for items to get mixed up.

I also am asking that you practice putting on all outdoor gear with your child.  Zipping those jackets can be very tricky for little hands.  I am always helping as much as I can, but that more your child is able to do independently the quicker we can get outside!

Also, it is extremely helpful that your child wears shoes to school that he/she can manage taking on and off independently.  

Here is a peek at what we have been up to in Kindergarten!

Math Workshop

We are continuing to recognize and represent numbers to 10.  Using the ten frames (picture below) help us to develop our number sense. We are able to mentally see numbers in different ways.  In the example below, we may see the number 8 as 5 and 3 more.  We can also see it as 2 less than 10.  Seeing the 'parts' of numbers is an essential foundational skill for adding and subtracting.  

We also began exploring Rekenreks (also called Number Racks) this week!  A Rekenrek is a math tool made up of 2 strings of 10 beads.  5 red beads followed by 5 white beads. Like a ten frame, rekenreks help us see numbers in relation to 5 and 10.  We call these 'friendly numbers'.

Writing Workshop
We are continuing to write about things we know or things we care about.  This week we began writing teaching books.  We thought about all we know about a topic and worked to stretch our writing over multiple pages- just like authors of nonfiction books!  We are also continuing to label our writing by stretching the sounds we hear.  At this point in the year it is expected that children can label just the beginning sound.  Many are also including the ending sound, and some are starting to include middle sounds!

Phonics Workshop

We took all our names and put them on the name wall!  We are starting to relate the sounds we hear to the sounds in our friends' names! I love watching the kids use this wall during reading, writing and even choice time!

This week we also added the names Wishy-Washy and Golidlocks! We are adding characters names to our name wall when we don't have a name to fill that letter.  We are continuing to stretch out sounds we hear and use our name wall to help us write the letter.  

Balance

Head

We also learned the new word wall word my.  We also call these 'snap words' because they are words we want to be able to read and write in a 'snap'. On Friday we used some snap words to write sentences! Check it out!

Other important information:

-Turkey projects were sent home last week!  Please be sure to check your child's folder.  Let me know if you child's project didn't make it home!  If you need any ideas type this project into Google or Pinterest and TONS of ideas will pop up :)  

-Spooktacular is this Friday evening.  It is going to be TONS of fun!  

-Thursday Folder information
-If you are interested in volunteering in the classroom, please send me an email.  I'd love to start having some volunteers in the next couple of weeks. (We have to make sure background checks are cleared first!)  We will find a day/time that works best for your schedule (one time or on a regular basis).   If you are unable to volunteer in the classroom but would still like to help I always have things that can be prepped/cut out at home.  Let me know if you are interested in that too!