Our story for the week is about a stuffed platypus. We will begin the week with an introduction to each student's favorite stuffed toy! Please remember to send your child's stuffed bear, cat, pig or whatever with them to school on Monday! We will have a brief show and tell and later, we will use them in our math lesson.
We will also begin our reading intervention program on Monday. Depending on how your child scored on the kindergarten screening tests, he or she may receive thirty minutes of additional reading instruction. Usually, in kindergarten, we have the majority of our students in the reading intervention program at the beginning of the year. If your child is not receiving the additonal reading lessons, he or she will be actively involved in literacy centers. The centers will be things like listening to books on tape, reading games on the computer, writing center, alphabet games, making words games and other fun learning activities. This extra reading time is scheduled from 2:05-2:40.
After mentioning the time for reading intervention, I realized that I haven't told you our daily schedule! Here it is:
8:00-8:30--We arrive, listen to announcements and do our morning work.
8:30-9:00--First reading group (2 groups reading and 2 groups in centers)
9:00-9:30--Second reading group (the groups change places)
9:30-10:30--Whole Group Reading
10:30-10:50--Writing
10:50-11:05--Restroom break and wash hands for lunch
11:05-11:35--Lunch
11:35-11:45--Restroom break
11:45-12:15--Computer Lab (We do a program called Successmaker)
12:15-1:00--Math
1:00-2:00--Specials (Library, P.E., or Music)
2:05-2:40--Reading Intervention/centers
2:40-3:05--Outside or Arts/Crafts
3:05-3:15--Prepare for dismissal
You may be wondering where the Science and Social Studies times are. We will be integrating these subjects into our reading groups and whole group reading on a very regular basis.
In math, we have finished our unit on sorting. I tested everyone on Thursday and Friday and am very pleased with the results. All of my class can sort by color and shape and almost all of them can sort by size and kind. I had a few children get a little bit confused, but I will continue to review this skill and will re-test before the report cards are issued. We will begin our unit on shapes on Monday. Many of the children already know the four basic shapes, circle, square, triangle and rectangle. We will begin with circle on Monday. Tuesday, we will be studying squares. On Wednesday, we will learn about triangles. Thursday, our focus will be rectangles and on Friday, we will learn about trapezoids. The unit will continue into the beginning of the following week when we study hexagons on Tuesday.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
What's Happening!
Wow! This week has flown by so quickly! I had every good intention to post what we would be studying this week but lost track of time! I guess I will share what we have DONE this week!
We have been working on sorting all different kinds of ways! Your child should know how to sort items by color, size, shape and by kind! The kids have had a great time sorting the different things we have in our classroom. It has been a fun unit of study for most of them!
In reading, our story was "Fix-It Duck." The kids have illustrated the setting for that story. They have identified their favorite character and today, we will be making a "cut and paste" duck. We have been looking briefly at each letter with a focus on two or three per day. In a couple of weeks, it will be a more intensive letter study beginning with letter Mm. At that time, we will be really stressing correct letter formation, sound and letter identification. Many of the children know the letters and sounds already which is great! They should be able to begin putting sounds together to read simple words.
During our calendar time, we have been talking about what a calendar is used for. I hope that all of my students will be able to say that it measures time. We also take that time to count and do some fun songs. Ask your child about "The Tooty Ta!" They really seem to like that soung. Also, this week, we have been singing about the color red. See if your child remembers how that song goes.
Kindergarten is a place where children say some of the funniest things! I have to share this one cute story with you all! On Monday, our snack for the afternoon was a banana. I told the class that when I hand them the banana, all I wanted them to say was "Thank you" and not "I don't like this." Right after my little speech, I had one of my little girls raise her hand. I called her name and she said in the cutest, sweetest voice you have ever heard "My nana's name is Nana." Kindergarten kids are precious and adorable!
Thank you for letting me teach your precious angels! They are all wonderful and unique little people!
We have been working on sorting all different kinds of ways! Your child should know how to sort items by color, size, shape and by kind! The kids have had a great time sorting the different things we have in our classroom. It has been a fun unit of study for most of them!
In reading, our story was "Fix-It Duck." The kids have illustrated the setting for that story. They have identified their favorite character and today, we will be making a "cut and paste" duck. We have been looking briefly at each letter with a focus on two or three per day. In a couple of weeks, it will be a more intensive letter study beginning with letter Mm. At that time, we will be really stressing correct letter formation, sound and letter identification. Many of the children know the letters and sounds already which is great! They should be able to begin putting sounds together to read simple words.
During our calendar time, we have been talking about what a calendar is used for. I hope that all of my students will be able to say that it measures time. We also take that time to count and do some fun songs. Ask your child about "The Tooty Ta!" They really seem to like that soung. Also, this week, we have been singing about the color red. See if your child remembers how that song goes.
Kindergarten is a place where children say some of the funniest things! I have to share this one cute story with you all! On Monday, our snack for the afternoon was a banana. I told the class that when I hand them the banana, all I wanted them to say was "Thank you" and not "I don't like this." Right after my little speech, I had one of my little girls raise her hand. I called her name and she said in the cutest, sweetest voice you have ever heard "My nana's name is Nana." Kindergarten kids are precious and adorable!
Thank you for letting me teach your precious angels! They are all wonderful and unique little people!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Things I am Learning
I am having the best time getting to know your children! They say some of the cutest, funniest things! Today, I learned that cooking playdough smells like rainbows. I was amazed because I personally have never smelled a rainbow before. I had to ask what rainbows smell like and was quckly told that they smell like cookies. I am looking forward to a great year with your children and smelling many, many more rainbows!
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