Hello Families!
Hope you got to enjoy an extra hour of sleep falling back with the clocks! Thank you to the grown ups who were able to come with us on our trip on Friday to the Farmers Market. It was really chilly but fun! When we got back to school we were inspired to make paintings of the fruits and vegetables we saw and then we had an apple taste test. We had 5 different color apples to try: red, green, yellow, green/red and yellow/red. Come see the graph we created from the outcome of the test, hanging up inside the classroom. This week we will continue using some of the data they (and you) collected from interviewing the farmers to answer the question of when produce was planted and harvested to determine what is seasonal. Science is yummy! Here is what else is happening...
TUESDAY, NOV. 5th: NO SCHOOL FOR KIDS.
MONDAY, NOV. 11th: NO SCHOOL FOR EVERYONE.
THURSDAY, NOV. 14th: 1/2 DAY AND CONFERENCES. HERE IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Dismissal will be at 12:00 in the auditorium for all kids.You can decide to have your child eat lunch at school or after pick up.These conferences are called "Goal Setting" conferences. In kindergarten we ask that no kids attend, only parent(s) and teacher. There will be conferences in the spring where your child will not only attend but run the conference!Please be on time for your conference. You can see from the sign up that there is no buffer between conferences. If you are late we will use the remaining time you have to keep on schedule. Thanks! STAR REPORTS: These are progress reports that we give out quarterly. The categories you will see on the report are reading, writing, math, social studies, science, social/emotional, dance, and physical education. The level number your child gets next to each category is a number based on benchmarks for all of kindergarten. You will be receiving your child's first Star Report next week.
WHAT WE ARE UP TO:
In phonics we are being Word Scientists! We are going to be learning some new snap words, looking at what we notice, and using alphabet charts and alphabet books to focus on initial sounds using pictures.
In our "Show and Tell" writing, we are going to start writing about important places. We will be writing in booklets for this and trying to add many labels to our drawings. We are also going to practice using writing partners at our work tables and learn about giving compliments about each others' writing. We are also going to introduce some different ways to decide how we'd like to make our books including a choice of "lift the flap!"
In reading we are going to continue discovering and then unleashing our Reading Superpowers!!! Last week we activated our Pointer Power and this week we will activate a couple more powers that I will have your children share with you. Didn't know you had a superhero in your midst this whole time did you?
In math we are going to be learning about one more and one less. We will be playing partner games to practice these concepts. We will also work on these concepts through word problems. We are going to focus on math partnership behaviors too - how can we be great math partners? What does that look like, sounds like, feel like?
In science, as I wrote above, we will be using the data we collected from our trip to dig into what seasonal means. And on Wednesday kids will be coming into the room in the morning to work on their next Weather Wednesday Journal page. By the way - our class won a contest created by older students in the Greenhouse! We won the recycling our garbage contest because we are using our paper/plastic/garbage bins correctly! So proud...
Stacie won't be coming this week because kids have no school on Tuesday. We are wrapping up our Self and Others unit by starting a culminating project about the "others" portion of this unit. We will be assigned a partner and will be creating a pattern "All About" book about our friend.
We have started the sequel to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing called Superfudge, by Judy Blume. More Fudge adventures! I just want to remind you though - I do censor the book! I know some people like to read the book at home while we are reading it in school (although I would prefer you wait until we finish so you don't get ahead of us - makes it more fun for the kids) and there are words I take out, parts I take out and even may skip a chapter here and there to make it perfectly appropriate for kindergarten.
Have a great week! Love, Lynn