Hello Families!
Our Relatives and Special Friends Day was very lovely. You can see a project we did all together hanging in the hallway above the fish tank. Here is everything you need to know for this week...
FIELD TRIP FRIDAY AND FAMILY SING: We've had a small change in plan. Here is what we are doing (still no chaperones are needed):
8:35 - 9:00ish - FAMILY SING.
Instead of watching Mary Poppins we have changed to Lucky Duck which is a very sweet short animated movie about a toy duck who doesn't squeak and therefore has trouble fitting in with the other toys. It is about his journey to discovering how being unique is wonderful.
After watching we are going to have a "Found Things Imagination Factory" where we will be putting out all kinds of recycled goodies for the kids to create something truly unique and therefore special. It can be a toy, a sculpture, a structure - anything.
WE NEED ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING CLEAN AND DRY ITEMS FROM YOU BY FRIDAY: toilet paper/paper towel rolls, plastic or cardboard boxes, tissue paper, wrapping paper, ribbons, empty bottles, bottle tops, old socks, corks, yarn, really anything you think we could use to work with that is laying around your home! Thank you so much!
After we create these works we are going to go outside as a whole kindergarten to have a gallery walk and show and share with each other what unique thing we have made.
NO SCHOOL DEC. 21 - JAN 1: We come back on Jan. 2nd. Yay!
WHAT WE ARE UP TO:
This week we will be working on snap words and lowercase letters. One of the new tools each child has is a "Snap Word Box" which is hanging on velcro on the bookcase in the back of the room in old reused crayon boxes. Inside are a bunch of the snap words we have on the word wall and kids will be using them to sort and practice.
We are writing true stories/small moments. Our focus right now is to make our writing easy to read. We are learning many strategies to help such as: drawing our uncolored pictures on all pages after we get an idea so that we don't forget it and then go back to write labels and words, write a little then read a little (write a sentence, go back and read it), tell our stories over our fingers and then touching each page, and then rereading our whole story to table mates when we feel we are finished.
We are going to spend this week revisiting all of our superpowers and focusing on specific strategies while meeting in small reading groups. We will also practice our book talking by doing some shared reading of a text as a class and then also during partner reading.
In math we are going to keep learning ECAM games and getting used to the routines of ECAM. To remind you, ECAM is used as an assessment tool and to strengthen particular math concepts for kids. The games are played in partnerships and are often done independently. This week besides ECAM we will be learning how to use a math journal in which we will be recording our math thinking. We are also continuing to learn about less than, greater than, equivalency, heavier, lighter though different types of informal measurements.
Stacie is coming on Tuesday to continue her teaching of Harmonize. Here are some lyrics from the chorus to help you understand what the song is teaching: Harmonize, come together, sound the call! Harmonize, come together one and all. Dr. Martin Luther King said it best, and put our nation to the test, "I have a dream!" Harmonize, harmonize. And while we play, we are focusing on the very difficult concept of sharing. Often kids say "He/she isn't sharing!" when somebody else has gotten to a toy/piece/item first and is using it and another child wants it. We are working on developing the understanding that "sharing" may mean, in this instance, that it will require some patience, but when that child is finished using this item, then they can share it OR maybe both kids can use it at the same time OR maybe one child uses it for a short bit and then the other does - back and forth. It requires both communication and acceptance. Heavy stuff!
We have finished Superfudge and now have moved on to our last Judy Blume "Fudge" book (there is one after but I usually don't read it) Fudge-a-mania.
Well, that's the news! Have a terrific week!
Love,
Lynn