November was a quick yet busy month here in Kindergarten! Students were very excited to start learning Heart Words. Heart words are words that we see often when reading and use often when writing. The reason they are called Heart Words is because in many of them, there is one or more parts that we have to learn by heart because they either don't follow the spelling rules or it is a spelling rule we have not yet learned. Heart words are also referred to as sight words.
Writing
Students have made a lot of progress in their storytelling this month. Students started the year by learning how to draw people and places using shapes. Then they learned how to draw a background and practiced telling their story to a classmate. Next the students practiced using their letter/ sound knowledge to add labels to the people and objects in their picture. Then we started using our Heart Words and our letter/sound knowledge to try write a simple sentence to go with our pictures. Here are some examples of their work. They are doing a great job!
Happy Thanksgiving! We ended November with a special Thanksgiving snack.
Happy October! This month flew by as students continued to learn about and practice the rules and procedures for Daily 5, Math Stations, and Center Time! We also had several special events this month!
Students have learned and practiced each part of Daily 5. These include: Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listening to Reading, Word Work, and Work on Writing. Now that students are comfortable and independent (mostly) with each part they will do two each day, during Daily 5/RTI while myself and Mrs. Dellea meet with small groups of students to work on specific skills.
Read to Self
Read to Someone
Listening to Reading
Word Work
Math StationsWe do math stations about 3 times a week. Each station helps to build number sense as students work on reading, writing, and exploring numbers in different ways. During October, math stations included: Station 1-a Happy Fall color code activity. Students had to read the number and color the picture according to the color that matched the number. This activity was great for number reading and color matching. Station 2- Playdough Numbers. At this station, students practiced reading numbers, using playdough to build that number, and making playdough balls to fill in a ten frame. Station 3- Halloween Count and Graph. At this station, students practiced counting objects, graphing how many, writing the number, and then comparing. Station 4- Counting OnDuring October, we learned about pumpkins and had Pumpkin Day! The PTO set up a pumpkin patch near the back circle and each student got to choose a pumpkin. Then during math time we did a pumpkin exploration. The students carefully observed their pumpkins using magnifying glasses; drew a picture of their pumpkin; used cubes to measure the height; used links to measure the circumference; counted the lines; determined if their pumpkin was small, medium, or big compared to our class pumpkins; and finally tested their pumpkin in water to see if it would float or sink.
In October, we also had the Boosterthon which helped raise money for all of the amazing field trips and programs we have during the school year. This year's theme was Grandland Adventure and each day during lunch, the students learned about one of the amazing National Parks in our country. After a week of fundraising and fun daily activities with our Boosterthon reps, all of the students participated in the Fun Run. It was indeed, so much fun!
We ended October with Halloween fun. The students participated in a Halloween parade in the morning and then in the afternoon a classroom party with yummy snacks and fun games.
We've had an amazing start to Kindergarten!
We are having fun exploring classroom materials and learning the rules and routines of Kindergarten.
