April 25-29

We had an awesome time learning from our staff developer last week! It was fun to have her visit our classroom and learn so many new tips and tricks.

 On Friday afternoon, I will be administering the PALS assessment to students. As you may remember from the beginning of the year, PALS focuses on literacy concepts/skills such as letter sounds, beginning sounds, word identification, and so on. It will be exciting to document student growth! 


Upcoming events: 

• April 29 and May 3: PALs Testing
• May 12: Family Night
• May 13: KAT Cookie Decorating Celebration
• May 23: Family Event at the Kaukauna Public Library
• May 26: Half Day--Dismissal at 11:30
• May 27 and 30: No School
• June 1: Field Day--Stay tuned for more info, but if you are thinking about volunteering and will need a background check, please let us know ASAP!  Thanks!
• June 2: Last Day of School--Half Day for Students

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: So far, the avid readers have been focusing on fiction texts. This week, we shift to working in nonficiton texts! Students will learn to use precise words while teaching about what they learned from a text and to share their findings with their partners. Readers often begin sharing about a text by using one of the following prompts:

• I notice...
• I think...
• I wonder..
• What do you think? 
• Why do you think that? 

Practice using these prompts while reading at home too! 

Writing: Writers will learn that authors have deadlines and set goals to meet those deadlines. Setting goals will allow students to push themselves to write more and track their progress. Our writing minilessons will also be focused on checking words in their writing to make sure they look right. Writers will search for and edit any incorrect sight words. We will use vowels charts to ensure that each word has a vowel. Finally, we will use blend charts (sh, ch, th, etc.) and alphabet charts to make sure we are getting the right sounds and letters in our writing. 

Math: 
We will rotate through the following centers: 

• Students will sort cards that have equations that are the same as, equal to, or greater than 10. They will need to solve the equations, and then place the card in the correct row.  
• A pair of students will split a deck of cards with different dot patterns on them. Player 1 and Player 2 will both lay a card down.  Then, they will determine which player’s card is greater. The player with the greater card will get both of the cards. If the players lay cards with the same number of dots, they will flip another card to see who has the greater card. 
• Students will find the partners of number 1-5 using different color dot patterns. They will color a certain number of dots and quickly say the equation. This will help internalize the addition and subtraction equations within 5.  
• Mathematicians will play Domino Addition. Each player will have a stack of numeral cards in front of them. They will turn over one numeral card. Then, the mathematician finds dominoes with a sum that matches the number. 

Word Study: Our sight words are:  were, now, made, saw, & our.

We will be working on these endings in our sorts: ug, ig, ag, eg, and og. 

Here are our sight words. 

Science:Now that we have a better understanding of the characteristics of balls, we will start exploring what they can do! On Tuesday, we will explore bounciness on different surfaces, discuss how different balls make different sounds as they bounce, and measure how high they can bounce. Then, at centers, students will test 

• The bounciness of each kind of ball (counting the number of bounces)
• How much effort it takes to move it (using a straw to blow)

We LOVE science!

 

 

 

April 19-22

We are so excited to have our staff developer from Teacher's College here this Thursday and Friday. Ms. Brianna will be working in our classrooms and with all New Directions teachers for training and labsites. We are so fortunate to have this opportunity!

Remember to send back your child's monthly homework calendar each Friday so that we can celebrate the reading and writing they are doing each week! 

Upcoming events: 

• April 18th: No School 
• April 20th: Earth Day--please return permission slips!
• April 21-22: Columbia Staff Developer is here
• April 29 and May 3: PALs Testing

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: As we continue to learn about becoming avid readers, students will have "playdates" during their partner reading time. According to research on cognitive development, children increase focus, stamina, self-regulation abilities, and abstract thinking through play. During the "reading playdates", book clubs will meet and can choose from a variety of fun activities to do with books. These activities could include: acting books out, playing school, having a read aloud, hunting for sight words, etc. Try one of these fun games while reading with your child at home! 

Writing: Writers are beginning to craft true stories for this next unit. We will start to brain storm by making book covers to help us hang onto our ideas. As readers, we know that we can take a picture walk to understand how a story will go. We will use that idea and quickly draw the pages of the book before we write. It's like a writing picture walk. Then as we think about writing the words, we will say them out loud and ask ourselves “does that make sense?” before writing. 

Math: As we push toward the end of Kindergarten, we will be doing many centers and activities to practice adding and subtracting within ten.  

We will rotate through the following centers: 

• Students will create a partners of ten book.  
• Using a Math Expressions activity book page, ink, and stampers, students will create a teen number book. This will help students visualize teen numbers in a ten frames. 
• Mathematicians will play a game called Addition Crossout. Here is a copy:

• Students will tell math stories that match the equations on a Math Expressions Activity book page.  

Word Study: Our sight words are:  were, now, made, saw, & our.

We will be working on these endings in our sorts: ug, ig, ag, eg, and og. 

Here are our sight words.

Science: Students have been LOVING our research on balls and ramps so far. After looking at videos, books, and pictures, we have come up with three questions to guide our inquiry:

• What makes a ball move?
• What is the ball made of? 
• What is inside the ball?

This week, we will begin hands on exploration. Students will explore the characteristics balls and what factors affect movement. 

April 11-15

New Directions 3rd and 4th graders are working hard to prepare for the state tests. In order to help them get pumped up, we will be having a parade through the halls on Friday to celebrate their hard work! Your child can wear workout clothes to get pumped up! 

We are running low on extra snack! We would appreciate any extras you would be able to send our way. Those snacks keep our brains going in the afternoon:)

Upcoming events: 

• April 12th: Family Night
• April 15th: Wear workout clothes to get pumped up for test prep!
• April 18th: No School 
• April 20th: Earth Day--please return permission slips! 

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: To kick off our next unit, we will discuss what being an avid reader means. This unit encourages the students to figure out what it means to REALLY love books; to laugh at the funny parts or cry at the sad parts. We will talk about using post its to mark parts that are especially important or parts they want to share with a partner. Students will reflect on character feelings and set goals for themselves as readers. Talk with your child about what being a reader means to you. Seeing adult readers is very important for developing readers! 

Writing: Writers will wrap up our All About unit this week. We will dedicate a lot of our writing minilessons to editing. Writers will add introductions and blurbs to their books to catch a reader's attention. They will reread to make sure everything is clear and fix it up when it is not. Writers will use the word wall to check their spelling, look for upper and lowercase letters to be in the right spots, and add in any missing punctuation. We will celebrate our writing on Friday by adding covers and presenting our books! 

Math: We will rotate through the following centers:

• Students will use playing cards to play Memory. They will pick a card with a number 1-10. Then they will need to find the partner to ten. 
• We will play a game with a partner at our table. Partner 1 will place 6, 7, 8, or 9 chips on the table.  Then, they will hide some under a cup while partner 2 closes his/her eyes. Partner 2 then needs to determine how many are under the cup. 
• Students will roll a dice. Then, they show that number with chips. Finally, the students will draw a math mountain that shows the number they rolled and the number that makes a partner of ten. 
• Each child with pick a card with 6, 7, 8, or 9. They will use cubes and a break apart stick to practice the numbers. Finally, they can draw a picture to match the cubes and the break apart stick.

Word Study: Our sight words are: of, what, some, how, & your.

 Search for words with words with -ad, -ed, and -ab endings in books! 

Here are our sight words.

Science: Science is back in Kindergarten and we are beginning our Balls and Ramps unit! We will begin our inquiry with knowledge building this week. We will study pictures and videos of balls in motion. We will think about what needs to happen for a ball to move and discuss vocabulary such as gravity, motion, push, pull, etc. 

These Egyptian collars make us look pretty great! Thanks for the fun project Mrs. Seigel!

April 4-8

It's April! 

Instead of sending home a homework calendar this month, our entire school will be using the same calendar for the 4th quarter. On Monday, check your child's folder for the new calendar. On the back of the calendar is a menu of options for students to complete at home. Mark what your child chose to do on the calendar and send it back to school each Friday to celebrate all the reading and writing they have done! Feel free to leave the calendar in the plastic insert in your child's folder to help keep track of it :) 

Upcoming events: 

• Dress-up days April 4th-8th for KAT Week (See above)
• April 8th: Knowledge-A-Thon
• April 12th: Family Night
• April 18th: No School 
• April 20th: Earth Day

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: Readers will celebrate the end of our unit by choosing a book about a topic they love. Then, each student will write something they learned about the topic on a sentence strip. The readers will present their book to the class and teach the class what they learned. It might sound something like this, "This book is called Owls, and it taught me that owls can't turn their eyes so they have to turn their whole head!" Ask your child to tell you some things they are learning or still wondering about a topic while you read at home! 

Writing: As our All About unit continues, writers are challenged to write longer books by revising and elaborating.  They will work with partners to ask questions like who? what? when? where? how? and why? to add even more to the page. Writers also learn that they can make their writing even more interesting by adding how they feel about the topic! 

Math: 

We will rotate through the following centers: 

• Students will use cards to play Busted! They will pick a card with a number 1-10. Then they will name the partner that will add up to ten. If the student picks a card that says Busted! All cards need to go back in the bucket.
• We will create a Partners of 7, 8, and 9 book. Students are encouraged to make the picture match the equation.
• Students will work to create teen numbers and put them in order. They will work with addition problems using 10+extras. 
• Students will hear math story problems, after listening to the stories, students will need to hold up a plus or minus sign. They will have to explain their thinking and write the equation. Then students can create their own story problems using the same equation. 

Word Study: Our new sight words are: of, what, some, how, & your.

 Students have been working in short vowel sorts. This week, students are sorting words with -ad, -ed, and -ab endings. 

Here are our sight words.

Social Studies: As a culminating activity for our self study, students will create a page to put in our classroom "yellow book". This page tells about what each student can do and likes, much like how the yellow pages in a phone book help you find experts on certain things. We will finish up the following centers this week: 

• Books—Students will read All About Me books. Then they will write their own!
• Photographs—We will sort pictures on a timeline. Then students will create their own timelines. 
• Collage—Kindergarteners will look through magazines and cut out things that represent them. They will glue these onto a poster. We will share these at closing circle.
• Starfall.com—Students will work with partners on Ipads to “write” about themselves.