A Week In Review: January 16th

Dear Families,
     It's hard to believe that January is nearly 1/2 over.  The kids really have seemed to mature over this last month.  Each day, I am so impressed by how much they have learned and how excited they are to learn something new.

Reading and Writing

Your children are learning how to read shorter patterned books.  They are learning what to do when they come across a word that they do not know.  Each day, they are so excited to learn something new and try it out in their reading.  Readers' Workshop is by far my most favorite time of the day!

One strategy that they have learned is to look at the cover and pictures to predict what words they may find in the book.  Then they look for the predicted words in the text.  We used Mrs. Wishy-Washy to try out this strategy.  They predicted that mud, cow, duck, and pig would be in the story.  And...they were right!  

They are always so excited to share what they have learned with each other.  AT the end of EVERY lesson, we meet in a share circle to share something about our learning.  In this share circle, they brought a book to show us when they noticed the pattern change in the book.

Science

In science, we are beginning our next unit of study.  We will be learning about push and pull.  We

began the unit by thinking about what scientists use to figure things out: eyes, ears, noses, hands, mouths, and tools.  We then explored how some familiar objects move.  We introduced the terms: push and pull.  The "Kindergarten Scientists" then recorded their ideas in their science notebooks.

Take Home Book Bags

When we returned from break, I began doing the January reading assessments with your children to see what areas I would need to focus on.  Much of this testing is done one on one and in a way that they think is fun:)  As a result, book bags did not go home last week.  They will go home this week on ONE day and then back to the normal 2-3 days per weeks next week.  Please remember to read the book with your child and return it to school the very next day.  

100th Day of School

Please see the attached letter (it's attached in the email) for further explanation.  I am looking

forward to seeing what shirt your child designs.  Remember, all shirts are due on January 31st.