Friday, November 18, 2016

Turkey Time!

Owl-Ways Learning. . . 

In preparation for Thanksgiving, we've been researching facts about Turkeys.
Check out our Schema Map:




We learned a lot about the parts of a turkey too! Ask your child about some turkey facts and what a strut is. The male turkeys do this to impress the female turkeys! 



Emergent Reader & Poem
This week's emergent reader focused on reading with expression.  Students practiced reading sentences with a question mark and with an exclamation point. When reading a question, students will say, "hmmmm" at the end.  Signaling a need for an answer.  When students read a sentence with an exclamation point at the end, they understand their voice needs to change to show excitement. Encourage your child during their reading to add expression when reading a story/book when necessary. 

Check out our brave volunteers below!











Fundations
  
Students were introduced to two new letters this week: A & G. These are tricky letters to form and we will require a lot of practice. Please see the handouts sent home on how to form these letters correctly. 

Comparing Groups
Topic 4: Comparing groups to ten. 

Students are using phrases: "greater than" or "less than" to compare groups to ten.  Students are also practicing the skill of carefully counting objects and recounting to confirm their answers.  

We've also added a new math center called: See, Count, Graph.


It is a very popular center in which students look at a picture, count the objects, write and tally the sum, then graph. The themed pictures are a big hit! After Thanksgiving we will begin to add our winter themed See, Count, Graph!

Decomposing Turkeys
To go along with our math program we made made turkeys to show different ways to make ten! 

Check out our ways to make ten turkeys:


Turkey, Turkey in a pen
___ and ___ 
make the number 10! 



Teacher Talk. . . 

Classroom Reward
In conjunction with our individual behavior systems, Room 5 is working hard to earn compliments from others in our school.  When a teacher or adult in the building recognizes our class as being safe, kind, responsible, or respectful in the hallways and classroom; the class earns a piece of on our Owl thermometer.  Once we reach the top and earn all 6 pieces we will participate in a classroom reward.  These rewards could be a Pajama day, extra recess, an extra art project, or even bring in your favorite toy! We've earned 5 pieces so far! I have a feeling we will earn our reward next week! 






Size of Problem

Mrs. Greene, our school guidance counselor, will be coming to our room on Tuesday mornings.  Her first focus is to teach lessons on Size of Problem. 
She talked about the difference between a glitch, a very small problem that you can usually solve on your own and an emergency, which are large problems that only happen a small amount of times.  The students and teachers are putting into practice these terms in our everyday conversations. For example, If you break your pencil. This is a glitch. It is a small problem that can be fixed on your own. Ask your child for some examples of other glitches they might encounter in their everyday lives. 


Community Circle
Mrs. Johnson read the book The One to Kindergarten as a way to introduce the concept of being kind to one another and standing up for others. The students are working towards earning Be the One stickers as a Kindergarten grade level to earn a school reward.  I hope we can earn some next week! 



Upcoming Events. . .

November 22nd is the day students' vests for our vocabulary parade are due.  If you need any materials, art supplies, clipart please let me know. We are happy to help! 

November 23rd is our half day. Students will be dismissed starting at 11:30. Please send in your early dismissal plans ASAP! Parent pick up will be around the building in your car unless otherwise specified. 


November 24th & November 25th. . .  No School 
December 1st- NO School for Students.



Thanksgiving Surprises!
Can you guess what we're making our families for Thanksgiving gifts? 











Friday, November 11, 2016

American Symbols

Owl-Ways Learning. . .

Election Day!
On Monday, we started our unit on American symbols with a mock election! 

Students voted on their favorite food and Favorite pet. Check out our polling booth and results below:





Donuts & Dog are our big winners!


Emergent Reader & Poem

We may have only had 2 days of school this week but we worked extra hard to practice our emergent reader and poem. Monday we will ask a brave volunteer to read the poem or reader to the class. I love seeing how far they've come in just a short period of time. Thank you for your support at home! 



Teacher Talk. . .

Conference schedule is being finalized. If you have not returned your sign-up slip, please return it ASAP. I would like to send out confirmation slips this week. If you need a phone conference or another date/time please feel free to email or call me. 

We did not go to the library on Monday.  The short week made for a different type of week.  I apologize for the conflict and we will be back to our regularly schedule day next week, Monday, November 14th. 

Early Release Dismissal:

-Wednesday, November 23rd is a 1/2 day of school. Students will start to be dismissed around 11:30am.  Your child's bus home will be the same bus your child takes to school in the morning.  There will be NO  Bus A, B, or C. Kindergarteners will ride the bus with the rest of the Fox Hill students. Also, parent pick up will ask for parents to drive their cars around the building to be picked up outside the recess/gym doors.  Older siblings and/or neighbors are very helpful for this day! There will also be a specific bus taking all students to the after school program and YMCA at Francis Wyman too. More information will be sent home next week to help better assist you and your child in preparation for this special day! 

Upcoming Events. . .

November 23rd. . .1/2 Day of school Vocabulary Parade

Fox Hill is hosting a Vocabulary Parade for the whole student body. Kindergarten is participating in the event too! Each kindergarten student will be assigned a letter of the alphabet and given a paper bag vest to decorate. The vest can be decorated in many ways.  Students create drawings or cut and paste pictures from magazines to display words and/or pictures related to your child's letter.  Another way to decorate your child's vest is to highlight one specific thing your child wishes to represent.  For example, if your child receives the letter F; they could decorate their vest with pictures of things that begin with the letter f or transform your vest into a flamingo costume. Put your thinking caps on and be creative!! 

 Students will receive their vest, assigned letter, and directions on Monday. This is a creative way to make our learning come alive! Vests are to be returned to school on Monday, November 21st

Below are some examples of ideas:

 If you are looking for more information or in need of supplies, please let me know. 

Have a Great Weekend! 

Friday, November 4, 2016

Kindergarten is UnbeLEAFable!

Owl-Ways Learning. . .


Shared Reading
This week we started to practice our reading skills through our shared readings.  We use shared reading to read our poem and emergent reader for the week.  I hope you got a chance to hear your child read The Leaves are Falling. We had some brave volunteers read the whole book to the class!! 
Way to go!










Math Centers
Similar to our daily Literacy Centers, or "OWLS", we have begun Math Centers. Check out our rotation:



We begin our lesson as a whole group, followed by breaking up into small leveled groups to complete our guided practice. Students who are not in a guided math group are completing activities such as math games, math around the room, or math apps on the ipad. 

The students love how active their learning is in Room 5! 


Fall Leaves
Our week's read alouds have been centered upon the changing of the leaves and fall weather. 

Here's one of our favorites:


Check out our painted fall trees:












Teacher Talk. . .

Sign ups for conferences were sent home this week.  Please return your requests by Tuesday.  If you are looking for a specific time or day that is not listed, please let me know and I will try to accommodate your requests. 

Once all slips have been returned I will send out a confirmation slip for you to keep handy as a reminder. 


If you have not already signed up for Remind; I highly recommend it! It's fast and easy to send a quick message to keep you updated about the classroom happenings or to communicate pertinent information.  


You can even send me messages privately to keep me updated or ask a quick question. 

Here is a link to sign up 


or simply:

text @ckchf to the number 81010



Upcoming Events. . .

Thanksgiving Break
The month of November has quite a few holidays and days off from school.  Please check our class calendar for upcoming days off. Wednesday, November 23rd is a HALF DAY.  Notices for dismissal will be sent home soon.  It can be a busy day so having a clear dismissal plan helps make for a smoother dismissal. There is NO school on Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th. 

November 11th----Scholastic Book Orders are due

No School---December 1st for conferences



Happy Birthday Khloe!!




Room 5's Class Photo