Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

To get the children excited about the Opera, we have been discussing it in class. We discussed how the performance would be a play put on with singing, instead of talking. We discussed they way Opera sounds (the class got a chance to hear me and Ms.Godbold pretend we were Opera singers. haha). Then we watched a Youtube video that gave us a sneak peak into the play: It is a recording of Seymour Barab's play. (This was all scheduled by our music teacher Mrs. Biernacki. Her husband is the head of the Voice Department at UNF~ Krzysztof Biernacki.)
                             



Reading: We will be reading the book Owen and Mzee by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff and Dr.Paula Kahumbu. We will be discussing the vocabulary we can find in the book, the characters and setting, similarities and differences between the two characters. Then we will end with the books main topic and a retelling of the story with a B, M and E. We will continue practicing rhyming, segmenting words for sounds and for syllables, phoneme deletion/ substitution and ending sounds of words. (They will each be reviewed a few times a week instead of doing them all daily.) Our Word Family is the -ig family and our new Sight Words are an, big, many, now. 
Here is a photo montage of the book for you to view. The students will all get to see it at the end of our lesson on Monday. 
                      
When choosing books to read at home this week, find books where your child can compare the main characters in the text. An example would be~ in Cinderella your child could compare Cinderella with her evil step mother.  After reading the book a few times, ask your child what the main topic of the story is and have them explain their reasoning to you.


Writing: We are continuing Report Writing. We will begin to collect facts on Zoo animals. This week we will focus on Elephants. Please remember, although the writing genre has changed... we are continuing to focus on stretching words for sounds, punctuation at the end of the sentences and only using uppercase letters when necessary. To get the students excited about Zoo Animals, we will watch this Interesting Facts Youtube Video. :)
          
At home, discuss the different Zoo animals with your child. Talk about how the animal looks, what it eats/drinks and where it lives. Then bring up any interesting facts you know about Zoo animals and share them with your child.  Finally, have your child practice writing sentence facts about their animal.

Science/Social Studies: We are beginning a new Topic on objects~ Big and Small objects being near and far. We will be discussing how distance tricks us into thinking the size of objects are something that they aren't. We will be watching various Youtube video's and going outside to apply the knowledge that we are learning. :) Here is one of the video's we will watch. It's very simple, but it shows how the characters are the same height, they just appear small because they are far away.    
                             
At home, discuss the vocabulary with your child. Go outside and point out how the house down the street looks small compared to your house, but that it's only because of distance. When they get closer they will see that the house is a normal size house. Apply this concept to other items that are far and near to your house.


Math: We are beginning a new Topic on Position and Location of objects. This week we will focus on the following vocabulary~ inside, outside, above, below, on, in front of, behind and next to. It seems like a lot of vocabulary, but we began discussing the words last week and your children already have a good understanding of the words. Here is a video to review the vocabulary with your child.
          
At home, review the vocabulary with your child. Then ask them where certain items are in the room you are sitting in. For example: if you are in the bathroom. Ask where the towel is, where the toothbrush is, etc. Continue this process in other rooms of the house or until your child has a good understanding of the vocabulary.