Kindergarten
September 1st
Math
We have continued working through our Counting 0-10 unit. This unit integrates many skills such as sorting and classifying; basic addition; identifying numbers; rote counting; and one to one correspondence skills. This week, we have spent some time discussing ‘hidden partners’. This concept allows students to see the numbers in smaller groups which will help when we begin to teach addition and subtraction. They are able to see that 5 can be represented by 1 and 4 or by 2 and 3. Developing this understanding will build our fluency when we begin to assess basic addition and subtraction skills. Another skill we worked to develop is the concept that despite the orientation of the objects the number of objects does not change. Objects were lined up horizontally and vertically as well as in a circle and scattered. Students developed strategies to count these objects using one to one correspondence.
Reading
This week in reading we focused on the story Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon. We started out by reading the story without showing the pictures and asked the kids to visualize the story in their minds. It was really hard for them to not see the pictures as we read but it was fun to see what they envisioned in their minds. This time when we retold the story we focused on details that were or were not in the story. The students sorted the events by what happened in the story and what did not. We introduced the idea of making inferences by asking them to think about whether or not Ronald and Molly Lou would end up being friends at the end. We talked about the details in the story that led us to believe those inferences. We also made connections to the story and talked about times that we have been teased. Today we talked about our opinions of the story by drawing our favorite part. We are trying to get the students to write more about their reading by giving them sentence starters.
Writing
In writing, we are focusing on our writer’s workshop model. We have continued our mini lessons that introduce the skill for the day. This week we have taught the various components of a writer’s workshop during our mini lessons. We explained what a mini lesson is for and what the students are expected to do during that time. We also modeled how to share our stories with our groups which is part of the workshop model. Our other main focuses are introducing writing goals. Each student has an individual writing goal that we focus on during their independent writing time. Some of these goals are: writing the entire time, thinking of their own ideas, and writing with pictures and words. As we achieve these goals we will continue to introduce new goals to develop their individual writing skills.
Reminders
- Lunch money can be turned in any day of the week through Skyward or by sending money in an envelope labeled lunch money (with the child's name and teacher's name) to school with your child.
- PLEASE continue to notify your child whether they will have hot or cold lunch each day. We often have students that tell us cold lunch, but then have no lunch when they get to the lunchroom. So far, we have been able to provide a lunch for these students, however they have to wait until all students have a lunch to ensure there are enough lunches for all students that ordered a lunch.
Daily Practice
On Monday, we will send home the September practice packet. Feel free to complete at your own pace and return at the end of the month. Also, we have introduced 6 of our high-frequency words. We will continue to add three words a week. Please review the following high frequency words at home:
I
can
you
are
we
am