Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

                            Below is what we will be focusing on in class:
Reading: We will be doing a close reading on the book Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles . We will make predictions about the book, make connections with the book and discuss the vocabulary the Author uses to inform us of the events happening. Finally on Friday we will sequence the events of the story for a Retelling Grade. :) We will continue practicing rhyming, segmenting, phoneme deletion/ substitution and beginning sounds of words. Our Word Family is the -et family and our new Sight Words are come, time, for, we.
When choosing books to read with your child this week, try out close reading. Read half the story and make a prediction of what will happen next. The next time read the whole book and discuss connections they had with it. Then pick a page and discuss the unknown words and use the text to figure out the Author's Message. Finally, read the whole book again and then discuss the events that happened and retell the story in order. :)

Writing:Response to Literature- We are continuing our Author Study on Eric Carle. The two books we will be discussing this week are The Grouchy Ladybug and A House for Hermit Crab. The class is working very hard on stretching their words and writing the sounds they hear. Not to mention their characters are the cutest ever. :)

At home, discuss the Day Time Sky with your child and the different things they can see. 



Math: We are finishing up the Topic on Measurement. We will compare capacities and weights of containers.The vocabulary used will be: holds more, holds less, empty, full, light, heavy, same. We will also review the ordering of objects from shortest to longest. On Friday we will be taking our Measurement Test.
At home review all the vocabulary with your child. Focus on ordering the length of four items.Then compare items by capacity and weight.
              

This is what the grid will look like on the Cinch Sports Bag.

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. This is only my second year doing the Boosterthon, so I may need to ask the "Boosterthon Guys" the question... but I will get you an answer as soon as possible. :)  

Check out the blog every day next week to see what our Daily Character Trait was. :)

                            Below is what we will be focusing on in class:  
Reading: We will be doing a close reading on the book Heat Wave by Helen Ketteman. We will make predictions about the book, make connections with the book, discuss the vocabulary and analogies the Author used to inform us of the events happening. Finally on Friday we will sequence the events of the story for a Retelling Grade. :) (I tried to find a Youtube Video that would showcase the book or Kansas and the extreme temperatures... but I was not successful. So the pictures will have to do.) We will continue practicing rhyming, segmenting, phoneme deletion/ substitution and beginning sounds of words. Our Word Family is the -ot family and our new Sight Words are some, was, not, has.
When choosing books to read with your child this week, try out close reading. Read half the story and make a prediction of what will happen next. The next time read the whole book and discuss connections they had with it. Then pick a page and discuss the unknown words and use the text to figure out the Author's Message. Finally, read the whole book again and then discuss the events that happened and retell the story in order. :)





Writing:Response to Literature- We are continuing our Author Study on Eric Carle. The two books we will be discussing this week are Does A Kangaroo Have A Mother Too? and From Head to Toe. The class is working very hard on stretching their words and writing the sounds they hear. I've been really proud! Every day gets better than the day before. :)
At home read your child a book, it may be best to read the same book two nights in a row and then have them write about the characters, the setting, what they liked, did not like, etc.
             

                             


Science/Social Studies: We are continuing to discuss Gravity. However we will be discussing what it would be like to live without gravity helping us... Here are three video's I chose off of Youtube from the International Space Station. (They are too funny!! Washing the hair is my favorite.)
After watching the video's, discuss with your child what else might be difficult to do without gravity.
              
              

                

Math: We are continuing the Topic on Measurement. This week we will be completing worksheets from the Curriculum. Our papers will deal with length and height. The vocabulary used will be: long, short, as long as, tall & as tall as. We will also be looking at 4 different lengths of string and we will need to put them in order from the shortest to the tallest.
At home review all the vocabulary with your child. Focus on ordering the length of four items. Practice using real items and then transition to drawing the lines on a paper and ordering that way. (This is how it will be done on the test.)
                                   
              

The class was adorable today!!! They LOVED having their stuffed animals at school with them. The students took their animals every where... Reading Stations, Reading Centers and Math Centers. The cutest was the stuffed animals at the computers, they sat on the kids laps. :) (A few students asked to bring them to lunch, unfortunately I had to say no... I was scared of spaghetti sauce getting them dirty.)

Enjoy the pictures in the slideshow!!

This picture slideshow made with Smilebox

Our T-Charts from Reading Block are great! The class has done a wonderful job listening to stories and then pulling out information that pertains to our charts. Here are pictures to prove it. :)

The class loved the video off of the Blog! It kept their attention better than I do when I'm reading the books... haha

Everyone loved drawing animals and telling their sounds!!

This chart made the class giggle nonstop!! Not to mention their responses made me and Ms. Godbold chuckle too. :)

Our Attribute Chart from Writing Block is looking great too!! It's a little long and was a bit difficult to photograph... but I wanted all of you to see how great the Chart looks. :) (My favorite part is becoming the Connection Time. The kids are adorable with their Text-to-Self Connections. )


Also, during Math Block today we measured the different parts of a students body with Math Tools. Check out the picture to see the length of her head, arm, hand and leg. :)

Here are the items we used to measure. :)

                            Below is what we will be focusing on in class:  
Reading: We will be comparing and contrasting the items in various books, that includes activities, animals, events, etc. Here are the different book titles: Mice Squeak, We Speak, Lets Play, Country Mouse City Mouse and Now I'm Big. When we compare the items, we will use a T Chart or a Venn Diagram. We will continue to discuss the different types of Connections~ Text- Self, Text-Text, Text-World. We will continue practicing rhyming, segmenting, phoneme deletion/ substitution and beginning sounds of words. Our Word Family is the -it family and our new Sight Words are that, but, they, long.
When choosing books to read with your child this week make sure there are items to compare. Examples: animal books that showcase different animals and where they live, family books that showcase the different jobs/chores of each family member. After the discussion, ask them if they were able to make a connection with the book and to tell you about it. :)

                                        

Writing:Response to Literature- For the next few weeks we will be reading different Eric Carle books and filling out a banner size Attribute Chart. The categories on the chart will be: characters, setting, problem, solution, Math Link and Connections. (Quite a few of the books deal with Math :) and I love Math so... we need to document it.)  Students will be filling out two Book Report Papers a week inside of their Reader Response Journal. (When we complete the Journal it will be a Writing Grade for the quarter.) We will continue to focus on spaces between words, capitalizing the beginning word of a sentence and putting punctuation at the end of each sentence. I will be stressing stretching words for all the sounds you hear and writing all of them down.
At home read your child a book, it may be best to read the same book two nights in a row and then have them write about the characters, the setting, what they liked, did not like, etc. Here is a video for you to get to know Eric Carle and love him as much as I do. :)

            
(We will be using the Reader Response Sheets I found off of TeachersPayTeachers from Rachaelle Smith. I checked out a few different ones offered, but I loved her papers the most. :)  Here are a few of the pages that will be in the Reader Response Journal.)


Science/Social Studies: We are continuing to discuss Gravity. The students are very interested in the concept and are great at explaining it!! They loved last weeks video's, so we may even watch them again.  :) We will be making an entry in our NEW Interactive Science Journals about the force of gravity and what happens when another force tries to intercept... I can't wait to see their faces!! We will have a fan turned on it's side and observe what it does to coffee filters, muffin cups and sheets of paper in their normal state and what happens when we crumble them up into wads. 
            

Math: We are beginning a new unit on Measurement using Informal Units or Non-Standard. We are starting out the week by measuring the length of our shoe with different math tools and recording it on the white board. Then we will be measuring the length of heads, arms and legs. (I will try to take a few pictures of the class working on this activity, it is adorable!!) Below are two video's we will be watching in class. :)
At home ask your child to measure the length of their shoe. They could measure it using: lego's, matchbox cars, barbie shoes, army men, etc. As the week progresses, move on to measuring longer items (bed, coffee table) and use objects to measure that have longer lengths: spoons, barbie dolls, etc.