Hello Families!
Thank you for coming together last Friday for our family breakfast! I hope you had a chance to chat up some other parents. We had a great week last week - our class is forming a sweet community and we've been having a lot of fun getting to know how kindergarten works and getting to know one another. Here is the news for this week...
NO SCHOOL: On September 30th and October 1st (next Monday and Tuesday) for Rosh Hashanah.
FOUND STUFF: I am collecting the following reusable items:wine corksapple sauce/yogurt topsold keysold ribbonsorigami paperany small/clean items you think would be cool to make art withFEELINGS ATTENDANCE CHART: Please remind your child to use the feelings attendance chart every morning. Thank you!
OUR CLASS PROMISE (Rules): After a lot of ideas, working to change negatives to positives (instead of don't, do), sorting and combining we have come up with our final promises!I will choose kindness.I will be safe.I will always say "I can try."I will care for the things in our classroom.I will help to create a happy class.WHAT WE ARE UP TO:
This week, as part of our social studies unit "Myself and Others," we are going to be learning a Shel Silverstein poem called Me Stew. We will be discussing it and then thinking about what "ingredients" we would put in a recipe for our own stew. This is not a food recipe but a recipe that teaches people what the most important/favorite things are in each of our lives. Hard to describe but stay tuned to see the finished products!
We have started using folders in our writers workshop and are learning how to write until the workshop is over. The saying is "When you are done you have just begun." So when a child thinks they have finished a piece of writing, they are learning to read it over, read it to a friend, add more to a picture, maybe add some sounds or words and if they have done all of those things they are to get a new piece of paper and start a new piece of writing. Right now our workshop time is a bit shorter so that all of that doesn't feel overwhelming. We will also be learning how to use our writing folders and how to use the alphabet chart that is on the back.
In our reading workshop we are looking at non fiction books to learn things. We know that reading is something we are all already doing because it means reading pictures, and it can also mean reading words. This week we are going to learn how to read both independently and with a partner and to reread books to learn even more from the pages.
We are continuing with our Star Name work and besides comparing names that start with the same letter, we are also going to learn about special letters - vowels. Phonics is fun!
In math we are going to learn about matching a total to a number. We will be playing a game called Number Path Towers, and will be making numbers out of playdoh. Last week we will learned that totals don't change based on the configuration of arrangements and we created an art work with 5 cotton balls to see how that fact actually looks as we compared how we each placed our 5 cotton balls. You can see this work hanging up in the classroom.
We are going to be having a rich discussion about what nature (science) is to help us discover that we are already scientists - we know so much! We are also going to start a study of trees.
This week during Worktime we are going to be focusing on the meaning/action of the word compromise. So juicy!! All of the words/concepts we learn are based on learning that happens naturally during play but by focusing on one at a time and giving each skill a great deal of attention we are helping the kids become even more aware during their interactions with one another.
Last week we learned about what to do when we are "bombaloo." This is based on a book called Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail. Bombaloo means angry. We need to know how to handle ourselves when we feel like we want to yell or hurt somebody because of anger. We now know there are at least 4 strategies to use when we feel bombaloo: Take a deep breath.Walk away.Use your words.Ask for help.This week we will continue with an exploration of types of conflict and when to know we are dealing with something we can handle ourselves or when we may need to ask an adult for guidance. We will be learning about bummers, problems, and disasters!
Have a wonderful week!Love,Lynn