Week in Review ~ May 30 - June 2

This was a busy and fast week in K2! In ELA we started our last Unit in our reading series.  The essential question this week was "What can happen when we work together?" We read the stories What's the Big Idea, Molly?, The Elves and the Shoemaker, and The Variety Show. Our vocabulary words were decide, opinion, ragged, marvel, and grateful.  We introduced the sight words who and good and focused in on the long u sound.  In learning centers we read and wrote long u words, sorted sight words, and worked on a compliment book for the Regal Beagle of the day.

In Math we completed Topic 11 ~ Count Numbers to 100 and introduced Topic 12 ~ Identify and Describe Shapes.  If your K2er  would like to do a shape hunt over the weekend ask them to find pictures of 2-D or 3-D shapes in magazines and bring them to school cut out. We will be discussing 2-D and 3-D shapes next week.

Today at JA we had some very special visitors! This is the second year that the graduating seniors from Leominster High School participated in a "Senior Walk". After graduation rehearsal, students boarded buses in their caps and gowns and visited their elementary and middle schools. I  love this for so many reasons...current JA students get to see what they will be able to do someday, the graduating seniors get to visit where they started their education, and teachers can see those students that were in their class long ago. (It also makes the teachers feel just a little bit old, too!) The K2ers made signs to hold as the graduates walked the halls of JA and two of our K2ers were asked to lead the procession to show the full progression from Kindergarten to Grade 12. It was a great experience!

The next few weeks are going to be some very BUSY ones with a lot of fun and special activities. Be sure to check  the "What's Coming Up..." tab regularly.  

Week in Review ~ May 22 - 26

This week we talked about how things in nature can be used to make new things.  Our vocabulary words were natural resources, create, designs, weave, and knowledge.  Ask your child what a natural resource is (something in nature we use to make something else) and then ask what that resource can make.  They thought of some great things.  We listened to the stories Bread Comes to Life, Spider Woman Teaches the Navajos, and Nature Artists. We introduced the sight words look and where and we focused in on the long o sound and listed and wrote words such as hope, note, rope and toe. In learning centers we wrote long o words, sorted pictures by if they had the short o sound or the long o sound,  and practiced our sight words. We only have 4 more sight words to introduce so please continue to practice them at home with your K2er. Our hope is that they will be able to fluently read them all by the end of kindergarten.

In Math we have been working on Topic 11 titled Count Numbers to 100. We have been looking at patterns in counting, discussing what a decade number is (10, 20, 30, 40...) and filling in missing numbers on a hundreds chart.  We will be finishing up this topic early next week and will be moving into our geometry topic where will be focusing in on 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional shapes.

Today we went to an assembly put on by the 2nd graders for Memorial Day.  They did an amazing job.  Here are some pictures and part of their final song. 

Enjoy the LONG weekend...I can't believe when we come back next Tuesday we are on the home stretch to summer vacation!

Week in Review ~ May 8th -12th

This week was another busy week in K2! In ELA we started Unit 9. Our essential question was "How do you help out at home?" We read the stories Peter's Chair, Helping Out at Home, and The Clean Up.  Our vocabulary words were chores, contribute, member, organize, and accomplish.  We introduced the sight words help and too.  Also, this week we started working with "king e" and explained how when he is added to the end of a cvc word such as mad then he tells the a to "say your name" and it turns mad into made.  We worked with our letter boards to build cvc words and then turned them into new words by adding silent -e at the end. We also looked around the room with our "I Spy glasses" for long a words.

This week my son and daughter, Andrew & Anabelle had a day off at school so they spent the day in K2. They loved meeting all the K2ers and especially enjoyed being read to by the K2ers. They were very impressed with how well they read already. 

In Math we are finishing up Topic 10. We worked on decomposing 11-19 and talked about how the teen numbers can be broken into two parts by making a group of 10 with some additional ones.  We played a matching game where you had to match a picture of a double ten-frame with the teen number.  The K2ers loved this game.

We will be moving onto Topic 11 this coming week where we will be counting to 100.

Happy Mother's Day to all the K2 Moms...I hope your day is wonderful!

Week in Review ~ April 24th - 28th

We had a great week back from April vacation. It seems like the K2ers had a nice week off and I did as well.  Now, we are into the home stretch. Hard to believe there are only 39 school days left!

In ELA this week, our essential question was "What do you know about our country?" and our vocabulary words were country, travel, careful, purpose and connect.  We listened to some great stories that taught us all about some famous landmarks. We listened to Ana Goes to Washington, D.C. where the characters visited the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, The White House, the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial, The U.S. Capitol, and the Library of Congress. In the story Best of the West we learned all about Yosemite National Park and Old Faithful, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Space Needle and the Grand Canyon. And in the story See Our Country we learned about the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and The Everglades in Florida. We focused in on the letters Yy and Zz and introduced the sight words this and what. In learning centers we sorted our sight words, practiced writing Yy and Zz, sorted pictures by the initial sound /y/ or /z/, and wrote about places we like to visit.  We also talked about which famous landmarks we would like to visit one day.

In Math we completed Topic 9 where we counted, read and wrote numbers to 20. Today we started Topic 10 where we will be Composing and Decomposing Numbers 11-19. Ask your K2er to tell you what it means to decompose a number! 

This week we also talked about  Earth Day which was on April 22nd. We brainstormed different things we can do to protect the Earth. Some of our ideas were:

• pick up trash
• use both sides of a piece of paper
• plant trees and flowers
• recycle bottles, cans, paper, plastic and newspapers
• use less energy by shutting off the lights and TV
• try not to waste water by taking shorter showers and not running the water while we brush our teeth