A Week in Review: January 22nd

This week flew right by.  We were so busy that I did not take many pictures this week.

During morning work time, I often put out math manipulatives for the children to explore!  I am often surprised by their thinking!  One group of kids took all of the "bears" and tried to make a pattern creation.  Patterning is such an important skill.  It is a precursor skill for reading and mathematics.  So whenever I see this happening, I make a BIG deal about it and have the kids explain their thinking.  Another group was using the stacking cubes to begin thinking about height.  They were trying to make the cubes as tall as Mrs. McDonald, which was fun to see them working together to decide if it was the right height or not.  AND THEN...they laid the cubes out on the floor and counted.  I love to see mathematicians HARD at WORK!  Every day, I am surprised by their thinking!

POPCORN WORDS:  A new list will go home with your child.  We will have a couple more weeks of new words and then we will start again - but this time with a focus on READING and and using the words in their WRITING correctly!  

Reading Workshop

We have been learning strategies for reading pattern books during reader's workshop.  This week we will continue learning strategies, but the emphasis will be on what do you do when you come to a word that you don't know.  Book Bags will be coming home this week at least twice!  I am so excited to get back to our normal reading groups!  The assessments are complete and we are ready to roll!

WLE Talent Show:  The highlight of the week was the WLE Talent Show on Friday.  The kids were amazed by the older kids and their talents.  I am pretty sure they left thinking that Harrison and Brennan are in fact MAGICAL.  I have included a link to the Talent Show acts in case you want to check them out:

TALENT SHOW ACTS

100's Day Shirts are DUE TOMORROW!!!  I LOVE the ones that have been turned in already!  I can't wait to make mine!  My daughters are going to help me:)

Walled Lake Elementary's Talent Show

Friday, February 27, 2017

So many talented kids at WLE.  You can click on the name of the performer that you want to see and it will take you to a YouTube video.  Feel free to share with family and friends!

Alayna Salama - Gymnastics
Teresa De Anda - "How Far I'll Go"
Ashesh Dhakal - Taekwondo
Aleksa Zoga - Gymnastics
Angelina Hami - "Scars to Your Beautiful"
Lily Ivenzaj - Honeydew Version 3
Addison Bean - Gymnastics
Abdulla Basheer - Puppet Show
Cailin McCue - "Pete the Repeat Bird"
Aankit Thapa - Wan Su Kata
Rithul Dhar - "Pop and Lock"
Maggie Lamb - Gymnastics
Neha Wagley and Ayusma Poudel - "Party in the USA"
Michael Garlinghouse - "Sonatina in C Major"
George Rumija - Shodan Godan
Findley Henderhan - Conga
Aiden Zemblaku - "Knights of the Castle"
Luz Sofia Hernandez Feliz - "Happy Blues"
Matthew Mares - "Jericho"
Harrison Kern and Brennan Lynch - Magicians
Kelly Burkel - "Count Me In"
Armani Williams - Jokes
Jonny Gentile - "Undertale"
Alycia Fernandes, Dema Bataq, Jaquelyn Lopez - Skit
Kodai Okano -  Variation of "Le Corsaire pas d'esclave"
Katria Bagdasarian and Sam Reisinger - Magic
Karlee Sanor and Peyton DesJardin - Jokes
Erin Zemblaku - Fur Elise 

A Week in Pictures: January 20

Writing Buddies

Writing Buddies

WRITING BUDDIES

Writing Buddies

In Writing, we have been working on telling a story across three pages with a beginning, middle and an end.  After they have drawn a detailed picture, they write a sentence about what is happening in the picture.  I am so proud of all of their hard work and the time that they put into writing the story.  On Friday ,we were able to share our work with 3rd grade buddies.  They had just finished writing realistic fiction stories.  All kids had such pride in sharing their work with others.  Mrs. Nickel even stopped by to listen in.  The pictures along the left side show our time with the buddies.

Adding to 10!

 Independence is a beautiful thing!  As the year has gone on, your children have learned the routines and know how to sustain their thinking for longer periods of time.  They are learning to have longer conversations about a given topic.  Every day, the kids surprise me.  Each day during math and word study time, I am able to assign familiar tasks so that I can work with small groups.  They are so good at following directions and completing the task at hand.  I have included some pictures to show them hard at work!  

Learning About Capacity - RICE

Puzzle Work

Letter Search

Learning about Capacity - Water

Science Chalk Talk - Pull Ideas

  

  LEARNING IS SO

MUCH FUN!!!

Valentine's Day

We will be having a Valentine's Day breakfast on February 14th.  A letter will come home this week with specifics about the party.  I will be sending home a class list with small pictures of each child.  This way when they are filling out their Valentine Cards, they can glue the picture to the back of the card so that the card is "mailed" to the correct classmate.  As it stands right now, our 100's Day celebration will be on the same date.  The only way this would change is if we have a snow day before then.

NEEDED:  If you would be willing to donate Valentine stickers, heart shaped lace doilies, valentine foam pieces, please send them into school with your child before January 31st.  We will be decorating our Valentine "Mailboxes" with these items.

Take Home Bags

We have learned many new games to practice this year.  I will be sending home the Take Home Bags again on Tuesday.  They will be due back on Friday.  Each child will bring home either a math bag or the traveling animal this week.  Now that we have learned so many new things, I want to give the kids more practice with these skills.  Each bag will have all materials needed for the activity.  The kids are super excited to share their learning with you.  All I ask is that you return all materials back in the bag the way that they were sent home to you. 

Student Council Candy Sale - Student Council will be selling Suckers for $1 each on Valentine's Day.  If you would like your child to purchase one, send in money with your child on that day.

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.

January: WLE TV News

January 5:  https://safeshare.tv/x/ss586e512624f66

January 10:  No News Today
January 12:  https://safeshare.tv/x/uvK0WcXXTyc
                    MLK Day Promotional Video:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlV5JU8OkNI

January 17:  Ice Day
January 19:  https://safeshare.tv/x/GJBZmdCC1js

January 24:  https://safeshare.tv/x/WJQsoQtXFUI
January 27:  https://safeshare.tv/x/O4rwTcbQ82E

January 30th:  https://safeshare.tv/x/dPFK_ZWpVnA

A Week in Review: December 12th

Dear Families,

Your Kindergartner worked very hard last week and we have a lot in store for the week ahead.

The coming week, we have a lot of festive activities planned!

Monday:  We will be making cards with 4th Grade Buddies in Mrs. Knapp's room to Thank Troops stationed outside of the US.

Tuesday: We will be having a Stone Circle with other classes in the school.  Each class will be reciting poems that they have learned.  The poem our class will be reciting was sent home to practice last week.

Wednesday: School Wide Sing Along.  Looking forward to this 1st Annual Event!  If your child wants to, they can dress in their holiday best for this event.

Thursday: Holiday Party.  Your child may wear Pajamas to school this day!

Friday:  No School!  Happy Holidays!  See you on 2017!

Position Words:

In Math, we have been working on learning position words.  For example, they played a game where they rolled a dice and had to write the number that came after the number rolled or before the number rolled.  

Holidays Around the World

This week we visited India and Mexico  When we visited Mexico, we talked about celebrations in Mexico and looked at pictures of some of the beautiful places in Mexico.  Your child brought home a pinata.  They had such a great time using watercolor paints to paint the bird on the pinata.

Winter Clothing

The kids are really doing a nice job getting all of their winter gear by themselves.  We have some resident "experts" that have been helping their friends zip coats!  It really is so sweet to watch.  Please know that if the wind chill is ABOVE ZERO, they do go outside.  So even if it's 2 degrees, they go out.  The kids are only allowed off of the black top during the winter months (even if the snow is gone) if they have snow pants and boots.  Otherwise, they would come back inside very cold and wet.

A Week In Review: December 5th

Literacy

Your children have been busy readers and writers this week.  In writing they have been learning to add details to their pictures so that they can better tell their stories to other people.  In reading we have been learning how to gather evidence from the text to prove our thinking.  We have been learning that you can look at a character's face to get evidence about how they are feeling.  

Math

In math we have been working with ordering numbers 1-10.  In one activity (pictured below), each child was given a number in a random order.  They had to work together to get in order from smallest to largest. They really impressed me with their ability to talk to each other and get themselves in the correct order.

Spirit Days

On Friday, we will be having WLE Spirit Days.  If your child ordered spirit wear, they should consider wearing on Friday.   If you did not order Spirit Wear, they can still show school spirit by dressing with black and orange!

Report Cards

Report cards will be available in Family Access on Wednesday at 4pm.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about your child's report card/progress in Kindergarten.

Winter Gear

The kids were so excited to see the fluffy white snow falling on Friday.  Please remember to send your child to school with snow pants, boots, hats, and gloves each day.  It has been working out the best if these items are packed in a SEPARATE bag....not in their backpacks.  Many items are ending up in the lost and found, so if you have your child's name written on each item, you may e more likely to get it back if it becomes lost.

Holiday Party

Our Holiday Party will be on Thursday, December 22nd from 12-1:30pm.  Please let me know if you can help (thank you to those that have already volunteered).  We will be having a pizza lunch, doing a craft, and playing a game.  You will not need to send a lunch that day.