December 3-7

We hope you have been enjoying the chance to have your child read to you at home each night.  They have been so excited to bring books home.  Just a reminder to help your child remember to bring their book bag back to school each day so they can choose new books to bring home.  

Important Dates and Reminders:

December 11: No School

December 13: Family Night and PJ Day

December 17: Walking Field to Kindred Hearts (more info to come)

December 21:  Wear Red and Green or PJs

December 24-January 2: No School

Math: This will be our last week working in Unit 2.  We will be working in math centers this week to better finalize and consolidate the concepts we have learned while working in this unit.  Our math centers will be:

• Nearby Numbers: using forward and backward number sequence to fill in a series of missing numbers. This will help us to count on from a given number which is an early addition strategy. 
• Break Apart Sticks and Chips: representing a quantity using math chips and then placing a break apart stick to create 2 groups and recognizing how they work together as partners to make a number and then writing an equation to match
• +1/-1 dice game: using a dice, game piece and 1-10 number parade to practice automaticity with +1 and -1 equations and to better understand the connection these equations have to forward and backward counting.
• 5 frame subtraction:  filling a 5 frame with 5 dots/circles. rolling a die and then crossing out to show subtraction and writing an equation to match.  This will help us with our subtraction fluency within 5. 

If you are looking for some great at home activities to support the Kindergarten math standards we will focus on all year.  Here is a fantastic resource.  As always, let us know if you have questions or need specific feedback

Reading: This week we will kick off a new unit called: Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles.  This unit builds perfectly off of Super Powers unit!  This week we will learn to use a reading mat to organize our books from easy to more challenging and will then make a plan for the reading powers we will need to use to tackle our more challenging books.  We will rely on using patterns that books give us, snap words, beginning sounds and picture support to continue growing as readers

Writing: We have been working SO hard to make sure we are getting one WHOLE story written each day in writer's workshop!  Here is a chart we created to help us make our writing more readable:

This week we will reread our books as we write to make sure we are writing everything we can to tell WHO is in our story, WHERE they are and WHAT happened.  We will also learn to add more vowel sounds to our writing to make it easier to read and will also challenge ourselves to write snap words correctly every time.

Social Studies: We are sad to see our weather unit come to an end, but we will begin a new inquiry unit into holidays.  This week we will use a calendar to notice the many holidays that are celebrated across a year and will then identify holidays we already know about and those we'd like to learn more about.  Overall, we will be choosing 8 total holidays to study from now until winter break.  Stay tuned to hear the holidays we choose!

November 26-30

We have so much to be thankful for in Kindergarten!  Students took time to share and reflect on what they were most thankful for!  We are certainly thankful for the wonderful students and families we have the chance to work with!  We hope you enjoyed this time with your families!

Important Dates and Reminders:

December 11: No School
December 13: Family Night-more info to come!
December 24-January 2: No School 

NDLC Service Group December Project   

The NDLC Service Group will be tying fleece blankets during the December 13th family night.  Blankets are prepped and will be ready to be tied in various rooms through the school.  There will be a specific way to tie the blankets based on how they have been prepped.  We are asking that families stop by one of the rooms and help tie a blanket. A volunteer will be stationed in each room to help teach you how to tie.   We will have 34 blankets to be tied.  Blankets will be donated to Children’s Hospital in Neenah. 

What's happening in K this week?

Reading: Beginning this week, students will be bringing home a book bag each night. These book bags will have 2 books your child is interested in reading. One of our main goals is to have the students fall in love with reading. Feel free to read the book to your child! If your child is wanting to do some of the reading, here are a few ways you could support your reader with the books they bring home:

•  Have your child hunt for snap words they know
• Give your child the pattern on the first page of the book, then let them read the rest 
• Encourage your reader to point one time under every word as they read 
• Remind them to check the picture if they get stuck!

Please send the book bag back to school every day so we can exchange the books!

Writing: The writers will begin to work on true stories this week. In Kindergarten, we work on oral storytelling and transferring those stories to paper.  We will think about writing stories that people are excited to read. Then, we will make sure they can read them by adding drawing and making our sentences easy to read by using spaces and many letter sounds.

Math:  This week the mathematicians will be starting to review many of the concepts we have learned in unit 2. We will practice writing numbers using wikki sticks, paint in a bag, salt writing and more! We will learn about the characteristics of a hexagon and continue to review the characteristics of the other shapes we have learned. Students will apply their knowledge of the +1 and -1 patterns by playing different dice games.

Science: The scientists spent the last week gathering information by looking at photographs, reading books, and listening to iPads to learn more about weather. They took notes about their learning and will compile all of this information together to share in the form of a poster or presentation. We will be sharing our learning on Thursday and checking our learning with a weather assessment on Friday. 

November 12-16

It has been a pleasure meeting with you during conferences this past week. We are excited to continue sharing the awesome Kindergarten work on Tuesday night!

Just a quick reminder:

...we hope to see you there! 

Important Dates and Reminders:
November 13: Portfolio Conferences
November 15: Packer Wear
November 16: Bookstore Celebration
November 16: Half Day
November 19: Veteran's Day Concert
November 21-25: No School

Our Veterans Day program is coming up on Monday, November 19.  We are looking for volunteers to bring treats for the end of the program.  If you are willing, please click on the link below to sign up to bring something.

http://signup.com/go/NoWVZmT

Here are the links to sign up to help with PSC related events:

Fall 2018 Teacher Conference Meals

Fall 2018 Book Fair

What's happening in our room this week? 

Reading: Last week, Reader Man left a note and special witch finger pointers for our readers! They have been working hard to amp up their pointer power. Readers will learn that every word, no matter how long, gets just one point! We will also use our snap words to make sure we are pointing correctly in our books. So far, the super readers have learned about four powers: pointer power, picture power, partner and sound power!

Writing: The writers will be busy getting ready for the bookstore on Friday! We will spend the first few days of the week focusing on writing stamina to get as many books ready for the bookstore as possible. Then we will "fancy up" or illustrate and edit our writing to be ready for publishing. We hope to see you on Friday!

Math: This week, mathematicians will continue to work on the +1 and -1 patterns. We will create poems that help us to remember the pattern and equations. We will also continue our work with story problems. The mathematicians made the connection between our writing chart and writing a math equation. We use this chart to check that we have completed each step:

The mathematicians have loved playing “Garbage” This is a card game that focuses on number order. Grab a deck of cards and ask your child to teach you how to play at home!

Science:  After building knowledge about different kinds of weather, students will be rotating through the following centers: 

• Reading Center--Students will look through books on weather to learn even more! 
• Writing Center--This center will have supplies ready for students to write about what they have learned about weather
• Photo Center--Scientists will sort, uncover, label, and title weather photos
• Technology Center--scientists will explore weather using the Pebble Go app

November 5-9

Hello K Families! 
We are in need of flashlights for a science experiment. If you can lend us some please send them to school by Thursday! Thanks in advance!

Also, in case you didn't see it in your child's folder...

Important Dates and Reminders:
November 8 & 13: Portfolio Conferences
November 15: Packer Wear
November 16: Bookstore Celebration
November 16: Half Day
November 19: Veteran's Day Concert
November 21-25: No School

Here are the links to sign up to help with PSC related events:

Fall 2018 Teacher Conference Meals

Fall 2018 Book Fair

Here is a peek at the week:

Reading: This week is the beginning of our most EXCITING reading unit yet: Super Readers! Students will learn that readers are like super heroes because they can use super reader powers. After getting their very own book bins, they will learn about their super powers! For example, Super Readers can use pointer power to point at each word while reading a book.

Writing: Writers will learn to focus on the conventions of a sentence. They will learn that sentences start with an uppercase letter, contain mostly lowercase letters, and have words separated by spaces and end with a punctuation mark. They will use this knowledge to add more sentences and endings to their books to start to prepare for our writing celebration on November 16!

Science: This week we will study the sun and the impact it can have on temperature as well as the way it provides light.  We will learn about a city in Norway that is situated in a way where it can receive no light and will hypothesize and experiment with ways we could create light.  We are in need of flashlights for this experiment!  If you can lend us some, please send them to school by Thursday!!!

Math: Mathematicians will be introduced to the +1 pattern this week. Finding patterns in numbers is a foundational skill needed in mathematics. To study this pattern, students will use a counting mat to build numbers 1-10. We will discuss how to move from one number to the next and will write equations to  match.

1+1=2        2+1=3           3+1=4          4+1=5   and so on!