Yesterday we received an invitation for today to a Science Demonstratigon in our cafeteria.  Boy, were we surprised to find Trent’s mom and his Grandma there!  We had a great time watching Mrs. Wright show us some amazing science experiments. They looked like magic.  We heard her use a lot of our math and science vocabulary words too, like cube and sphere and 3 dementional.. We use those words too to describe things. She made a square bubble….have you ever seen a square bubble?  We did!  She also talked about using our senses.  We just learned about our 5 senses.  Thank you Mrs. wright and your lovely assistant, Grandma!

Parents,

If you have an extra (or 2) all white T-shirt that you wouldn’t mind donating, I would like to turn them into “Lab Coats” to wear when we are being “Scientists.”  I will label their coats.  They seem VERY excited about this.  It always helps to have “uniforms” or “props”!  They were terrific Scientists today when we gathered leaves and examined them.  Good connections to previous lessons too.- Several commented,  “We’ll be using our senses of seeing and touch.”

This weekend I’ll post next week’s lessons and events.

Mrs. Smith

lots of writing and good predicting!  

Homework is coming home tonight.  Patterns…they know what to do.

Due tomorrow.

We finish up our unit on Families.  We will continue talking and writing about our families, what we do with our family, how our  families are the same/different, how families can change.  We’ll be comparing texts that we’ll read this week.  We’ll look for clues in our stories to help us with predictions.  Using predicting skills makes reading more accurate and helps with comprehension.  When you read with your child at home, stop occasionally and predict what might come next in the story.  Why might that happen?  What were the clues that lead you to that prediction?

In finishing our Unit on Families, we will review:

M  m    A  a

I  Can  can  We  we  The  the

Review these words and letters (and sounds) with your child.  Have them write them, creating mastery of the words.  Make a game of finding words that start with m and a.

FYI…Each reading unit is divided into 3 weeks.

Week 1-introduce a letter/sound                                M  m

-introduce a new word (or two)                   We   we

-introduce a writing focus                             labels

Week 2-introduce a different letter/sound            A   a

-introduce a different word (or two)          The   the

-introduce a different writing focus            lists

Week 3-review letters/sounds and words  and writing from Weeks 1 & 2

I also add my own writing focus each week.  🙂

We will continue with READ TO SELF and READ TO SOMEONE.  They are really doing very well with these ways to read.  Through these reading opportunities they are developing reading stamina.  Last Friday they read for 15 minutes all by themselves!  Excellent stamina for such young readers and so early in the school year.  Good job Kindergarteners!

Science-We continue to focus on Our Earth, Our Home. Last week we gathered rocks for a “Rock Museum.”  They enjoyed examining the rocks with magnifying glasses.  We are being Scientists!   Isabella brought in an excellent book about ways that we can help keep our Earth safe.  Thanks for sharing your book Isabella!

Social Studies-I am connecting our reading unit about Families with our Social Studies Unit about ourselves and our families.  It’s a “good fit,” just like books that we choose to read.

Math-We will continue with patterns, both in the classroom and outside!  Look for patterns in your house too.  We also will be practicing the correct ways to form numbers and play some counting games.   They always enjoy the games-they are a fun way to learn.

Mrs. Balestrieri (Madilyn’s mom) will be my head Homeroom Parent.  Mrs. Bronson (Natalia’s mom) is counting our boxtops.  Thanks to all of my parents who have spoken to me about helping.  I’ve got ALL of your names and will contact you as needs arise.

Another busy week in Kindergarten and we are having so much fun!

Mrs. Smith

We had Wayne County hearing screening today.  If further screening is needed, parents will get a notice in the mail from the County.

We also made a Rock Museum today.  We’ll be checking out rocks with our senses of touch, sight, and smell.  We’ll use magnifying glasses too.

We also made ANTS…to go along with this week’s letter “A.”  WE labeled (last week’s writing focus) the 3 parts of an ANT.  Just an enrichment activity for today!  Wait till you see tomorrow’s project!

Keep working on “M m  A a” and “The the We we I Can can.”  We put together this week’s letter a, with last week’s letter, m, and made the word “am.”  Add that word to our reading and writing word list.

Time to get the kids from ART.

Thanks to all who volunteered to be a Homeroom Parent.  I will keep your  information and contact you as needed.  Nothing is needed right now.

Halloween details will be posted in a few weeks.

Homework is coming home tonight!  Due tomorrow ( Wednesday)

I told them to put their homework in their backpack as soon as they finish it.  That way they will be all ready in the morning.  It’s good to get in the habit now of using good organizational skills.  Have your child (not you 🙂 ) put things in their own backpack at night.  It teaches them responsibility and they will know if they have their homework or not.

Parents,

Yesterday your child brought home their Login Card for our Everyday Mathematics Curriculum.  I glued it on a red piece of paper so it should be easy to find.  Today I am sending home a Parent Note explaining the steps for using the site.  Login and enjoy!

Mrs. Smith

Can you believe that we are already at the end of September!  Wow!

Here is what’s coming up this week…

We will continue with week 2 of Unit 1 called Families Get Together.  Our letter this week is “A a” and our word is “The  the.”

(Last week’s letter was “M  m” and the word was “We  we.”)  Putting last week’s letter of M with this week’s letter of “A,” we have

a new word “am.”  Look for writing to come home with these words on it.

Last week we had a district writing prompt.  The students had to write to a prompt and I graded it according to our 6 + 1 rubric.

The students will have more of these writing prompts as we progress through the year.  Last week’s writing gave a baseline for each student’s writing level.

READING-I have accessed all students reading levels and each are in a reading group.  I will be teaching different reading strategies to each group.  The strategies are part of our

CAFE Menu.  CAFE stands for:

Comprehension                         Accuracy                      Fluency                Expanding Vocabulary

We also will be discussing NON-FICTION writing.  They already know about FICTION 🙂

Our WORK TIME will include sentences with our words I  Can  We  The.   Have your child spell and write these words by themselves.  Have them give you a sentence using each word.  Make sure they give you a complete sentence…we’re practicing speaking in complete sentences.  🙂

WRITING-Our writing focus will be on writing lists.  Last week’s writing focused on labels.    Mini-lesson will be writing the letters correctly.  Remember, NO letter starts at the bottom of the line.  All letters begin at either the top line or the middle line.

MATH-Number Awareness  Where do we find numbers?  We also will discuss same/different, position words, we’ll make patterns with blocks & bears, and we’ll play a game.

I sent home a Scholastic Book Order form.  Although we just had the Book Fair, I saw some Good Fit Books in the order choices and I wanted to make them available to you.

I will send home an order form each month.  Ordering is optional!  If you choose to order, please return the completed order form with a check for the total.  NO CASH, please.  Make out checks to Scholastic Books.

A special thanks to Trent’s mom for some really fun, hands-on science things that she shared with us!  The items went along with our Science and Reading Unit about our 5 Senses.

Thanks Trent and Mom!!

We also celebrated Zahraa’s birthday last Friday!  Happy Birthday Zahraa.  We’ve had 3 birthdays already this year…Natalie, Fatimah, and Zahraa.  3 new 5 year-olds 🙂

Mrs. Smith

Thanks for the egg cartons, buttons and beans donations!  We are using all of them.  I think we are all set for now.  I’ll let you know if I need anything else.

Thanks again!