Books & Beyond

Books & Beyond is still collecting complete sheets. Please pass in your sheets on Thursday of each week. We now have 13 K2ers that will be receiving a reading medal at the end of the year and many others that are close so READ, READ, READ!

Week in Review ~ March 20th - 24th

This week we welcomed Spring...but I'm not so sure Mother Nature got the memo. This picture was from recess on Friday when the K2ers were busy chasing snowflakes!

This week in ELA, we started Unit 7 which is all about The Animal Kingdom.  We started week 1 with the topic of Baby Animals and the essential question of "How are some animals alike and how are they different?"  We listened to the stories Zoo Borns and Baby Farm Animals. We also listened to Animal Poems.  Our vocabulary words were appearance, behavior, exercise, wander, and plenty.  We focused in on the vowel Uu and it's short vowel sound as in tub. Our new sight words introduced were for and have. Here is the video for the song the K2ers learned for have.

In learning centers we practiced writing the letter Uu, sorted pictures by their vowel sound, randomly chose two animals and then wrote about how they were alike and how they were different, and then sorted sight words.  The K2ers do such a great job with our learning centers routine!

In Math this week we focused on taking a "whole" and breaking it into 2 parts. The math term for this is decompose.  We worked on breaking apart the numbers 6, 7, 8, and 9.  To reiterate this concept the K2ers played a game called "Toss the Chips" where they counted out a certain number of two-colored chips and then tossed them. Next, they recorded the two parts to match the way the chips landed such as 6 chips could have landed with 2 yellow and 4 red or 5 yellow and 1 red. They really enjoyed this game. 

Another game that they are enjoying is "Teddy Bear Picnic" which was sent home on Wednesday.  This is a great way for the K2ers to work on addition and subtraction facts within 5.  By the end of kindergarten it is expected that all students will be able to add and subtract fluently within 5 so playing this game or using the mini flashcards with your K2er will help them master this standard. 

Thank you to everyone that donated tissues and cups...it was greatly appreciated.

Now let's hope that spring makes it's appearance very soon!!

Week in Review ~ March 13th - 17th

I for one am D-O-N-E with all the snow! Let's hope that when spring arrives on Monday it is here to stay and winter doesn't make a comeback.

In ELA this week we worked on Unit 6 Week 3 where we talked about how to stay safe in bad weather...maybe that's why we got this week's storm? Our vocabulary words were safe, prepare, notice, celebration and enough.  We read the stories Waiting Out the Storm, Be Safe in Bad Weather, and Rainbow Crow. We reviewed the letters Hh, Bb, Ff, Kk, and Ee and the sight words are, he, my, with, is, little, she, was.  In learning centers we had a lot of St. Patrick's Day themed centers. The K2ers rainbow wrote their sight words, tapped out the sounds of items that leprechauns were holding to spell the word,  practiced reading nonsense words and sorting cvc words by their ending chunk on leprechaun hats. 

In Math we started Topic 8 titled More Addition and Subtraction.  This week we worked on decomposing numbers to 5. When we decompose numbers we try to find all the partners for the decomposed numbers by using objects and/or drawings. For example, when we decompose the number 4 we take the whole (4) and break it into two parts such as 1 and 3, 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 4 and 0 or 0 and 4.  On Friday we did a special math problem with a St. Patrick's theme. The K2ers worked in pairs to try and find all the possible answers to the problem. The following is the problem they needed to solve:

I caught a leprechaun and I have 5 leprechaun treats in all. Some are shamrocks. Some are gold coins. How many of each could I have? How many shamrocks? How many gold coins? Is there just one answer? 

As you can see that is a challenging problem for kindergartners! They did a great job solving the problem. 

We will continue on with Topic 8 next week. 

On Friday we also had a special visit from some Irish-American Step Dancers.  One of our own K2ers was up on stage performing in front of the JA community.  All the students really seemed to enjoy watching the performance.  

This seemed to be one of their favorite dances! 

A notice went home this weekend explaining how next Tuesday is World Down Syndrome Day. World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on 3/21 to symbolize a 3rd copy of the 21st chromosome in people with Down Syndrome.  On this day "rock your socks" to show support for Down Syndrome.  Students at JA are invited to pay $1.00 and wear their brightest, most colorful, craziest, or even mismatched socks. The money raised will help purchase a new oven for the Developmental Classrooms at Johnny Appleseed. 

This day is also very special to me because my nephew/godson has Down Syndrome. The picture on the left is him rocking his socks last year and the picture on the right is him this year. I can't wait to rock my VERY special socks that he sent me last week for this special day!! #rockyoursocks 

Books and Beyond is still in full swing. We currently have 12 K2ers that will be receiving reading medals at the end of the year and many more that are very close to completing the 8 stations. Please continue to read, read, read. If you need books to read at home, please ask...I have plenty to share. I would LOVE to give a reading medal to ALL of my K2ers at that special assembly. 

Lastly, we are in need of boxes of tissues and Dixie cups. If you are able to donate either of those items, it would be greatly appreciated!

Enjoy your weekend!

Week in Review ~ March 6th - 10th

This week was a busy week in K2! It was nice to settle back into a routine after the fun of Dr. Seuss Week. At the end of last week all of the kindergartners voted on their favorite Dr. Seuss Book that we read during the week. Here are the results...

In ELA we finished up Unit 6 Week 2.  We talked about different types of weather.  Our vocabulary words were predict, temperature, drought, clever and storm.  We read the story Rain, the folktale The Frog and the Locust, and an informational piece of writing titled Cloud Watch. The K2ers discussed and wrote about what types of weather they prefer and they wrote in their journals about whether they like storms or not.  We focused in on the letter Kk and the sound /k/. We also talked about when we hear the sound /k/ at the end of a word it is most often spelled with ck as in pick, truck, tack. Our sight words were she and was and we reviewed all sight words introduced so far with a fun "mystery sight word" activity using a mirror.  

The K2ers also worked on reading cvc words, finding where they heard the sound of /k/, the sight word she and was, and reading independently during learning center time.  I am very impressed with all the "reading" they are doing.  Listening to them read words and then stories for the first time is one of my most favorite things about being a kindergarten teacher!

In Math we finished up Topic 7 on subtraction. I took a little extra time on this topic to be sure everyone had a good understanding. It can begin to confuse some students when they have addition down-pat and then we start subtraction. The switching of operations can be tricky.  We practiced with a lot of hands-on learning centers to try and solidify their understanding.  Next week we will be starting on Topic 8 titled "More Addition and Subtraction."

On Friday afternoon Kylee, from Kylee's Kare Kits for Kids, came to collect all the food that the kindergarten classes collected in connection with our 100th Day of School.  Our goal was 100 food donations and we had over 170 donations...THANK YOU! Here is Kylee with two students from each kindergarten class with some of the food we collected. 

As a reminder you can follow K2 on Instagram. All you need to do is search theworldofk2 to request to follow us. 

Enjoy your weekend and try to stay warm in these frigid temperatures. Only 9 days until Spring is officially here!

Symphony Math

Today your K2er is coming home with a notice about a new web-based program we are using in class called "Symphony Math." On the notice you will find directions on how your child can use this program as well as their username and password. Symphony Math is also a free app in the iTunes store so that it can be used on an iPad as well.  As always, please let me know if you have any difficulties logging onto the program.

Cat in the Hat Day is Thursday

Just as a reminder...Cat in the Hat day is Thursday! Your K2er is invited to wear red and white AND a hat to school. We will also be having a special guest reader for "Read Across America Day" which is on March 2nd each year in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday!