Hello Families,
Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I hope you've all had a great weekend. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there on Friday - I had to bring my dad to the hospital on Thursday afternoon but he's doing much better and will be home soon. Here is what's happening ...
TRIP TO THE JEWISH MUSEUM: Is on Wednesday, January 29th from 9:30 - 11:30. We will be taking a school bus and have room for 8 or 9 chaperones. The sign up sheet is up outside of the room.
WHAT WE ARE UP TO:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Dr. MLK Jr. It is so fitting that we are studying Persuasive Writing right around Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. Like he did, we are learning to make change through our ideas and with our words. At this age, kids in kindergarten live in a very small world, however, they understand in a truly profound way what is right and what is wrong in the world. I dare say they could teach some grown ups a thing or two!! Anyway, we have learned to write about change on a sign - focusing on what you are asking people to do rather than what not to do - and we just started to use letter writing in that same way. We are going to continue with both of those mediums this week, but will also introduce writing songs and writing lists.
In reading we are really getting into the nitty gritty of things. We are taking all of our superpowers and putting them to work to move our reading skills. We are meeting in reading groups and working on reading many books at a sitting using a special reading mat to remind ourselves to read through our pile of leveled books twice. We are encouraging kids to use all they have learned, every time they read a book. Hopefully your kids are enjoying using their book baggies at home. They can exchange their books tomorrow. If you feel like they need more books than are on the menu, it would be fine to take a few more of either dot color that is on the menu.
In phonics we are focusing on rhyming words/word families. This is called word/part power! It's also fun. So there.
In math we are still studying geometry and will be learning about 3D shapes, as well as shapes within shapes. We will be learning a really great game called "Fill the Hexagons" where kids roll a dice with different pattern block shapes and have to figure out what shapes work together to make a hexagon. We are also going to be doing some journal tasks that are helping the kids to learn to record and represent their mathematical thinking.
Stacie will be coming this week to start teaching us a new song about fairy tales! She wrote the song Don't Judge a Book by It's Cover when her older daughter was in my class years ago, based on a fairy tale the class wrote. The work she will be doing around this song ties directly into the work that Susan from the Lincoln Center Institute is doing. Susan has been focusing on the idea of transformation. So far the kids have used sticks to transform into something else, paper, and last week costumes. She will be coming to us Wednesday and Thursday to teach us more.
We have started to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Again, I want to remind you that I do censor some things in the book.
I'd like to leave you with one of my favorite Dr. MLK Jr. quotes: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
Have a wonderful week,
Love,
Lynn