Week Eleven: October 23rd-27th

Hello kindergarten families! I am excited that it is finally feeling like fall! We had a fun week that included Pumpkin Carving with Dad/Mom/Grandpa!  Thank you to all who took the time to come and have fun with your child.  We have two more field trips coming up (Charlotte Children's Theatre and the Raptor Center) that will be a lot of fun!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:45 AM: Please have your child come dressed in their costume to school.  Their costume should be a fictional book character and they need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  They can bring a change of clothes for after the parade. Kindergarten parents have been asked to stand in the elementary gym to watch us parade through.  Please stay for the entire duration of the parade to see all grades come through. 
November 7th 9:30 AM Children's Theatre Field Trip: We will be seeing the play "Snowy Day."  A sign up genius was sent out this morning for chaperones.  We only have 8 tickets and I will pull names from a hat if we have more than 8 parents interested.  Parents will need to drive themselves and their child to meet us at the theatre uptown Charlotte at 9:30 AM.  You can take your child home with you after the play.  Chaperones tickets cost $8 and money will need to be turned into me ahead of the field trip. No siblings please.  We are excited to have you! :) 
November 10th: No school...Happy Veteran's Day!
November 15th Raptor Center Field Trip 8:45 AM: We *think* we can have as many chaperones attend as wanted.  I will let you know ASAP as we get more information.  Once again, if you chaperone you will need to drive yourself and your child to meet us there.  Mark this on your calendar if you will want to go! It will be a full day field trip.

Math

This week in math we learned a new game called Ten Frame War!  Two students play together and divide a stack of ten frame cards.  Some students played with ten frames up to 10 and some played with two ten frames with numbers up to 20.  The students would say "1, 2, 3, WAR!" and they would each flip over one card.  They had count how many dots were on the card (we want them moving away from counting dots 1 by 1 and move to counting in groups and counting on) and then whoever had more dots got to take both cards.  Students had to say their number out loud so we knew they had correctly counted the dots.  This is a fun game that you can easily make and play at home! A few of the concept that this game works on is quickly being able to count the number of dots in a ten frame, counting on, and addition.

 

Literacy

In literacy this week we rotated through centers that practiced letters, sounds, sight words, and reading.  Some centers remain the same every week and we change out the letters/words and then we also add in some new centers each week.  Most all are games and activities that are practicing skills that are the foundation for reading.  I also pulled my first guided reading group for students that are already reading.  This allows me to begin teaching reading strategies to help with decoding.   Continue practicing the sound song at home with your child so that they become 100% confident with all of their sounds! 

Thematic

In thematic centers this week, we finished studying spiders and moved onto bats!  We have learned many neat facts about bats!  Students have rotated through two bat centers so far and our Sci-Fri today also involves bats!
1. Students created their own bat out of paper that they can fly through the air!  Students had to cut, glue, and follow specific directions to make the bat correctly.  These were really fun!
2. Students created a torn paper bat! They first had to trace a bat and then tear black paper into little pieces to glue on.  Tearing paper into small pieces is really good for their fine motor skills!  We love to do "torn paper" activities in kindergarten.

Science

We learned that in a dark cave, bats cannot see to find their babies.  They use their sense of smell to locate their babies.  We will place 5 paper bats around the room with a cotton ball attached to it.  Each cotton ball has a different scent to it (peppermint, vanilla, lavender, lemon, and tea tree oil).  Each student has a cotton ball of their own that has a scent in it.  They will walk around the room and smell each bat cotton ball to determine which matches their own.  Once they find it, they will stay there because that is their "bat family" they belong to.   

Love,
Mrs. James 💗

Week Ten: October 16th-20th

Happy Friday! It was so great to see many of you last night at the CSD Kickball Festival!  It's always fun seeing students outside of the classroom and school setting. :) We had a great week including our first field trip to the farm!

REMINDERS:

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: This is a great opportunity to get dad's involved in our classroom!  If Dad cannot come, we would love for a grandfather, uncle, or mom to come! Please bring your own pumpkin for your child and carving tools (safely wrapped up).  You can send in the pumpkin Monday or bring it with you Tuesday.  This will be held in our classroom.

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  They will parade through the hallways so you can see them! More details to come on the parade route.
November 7th 9:30 AM Children's Theatre Field Trip: We will be seeing the play "Snowy Day."  More information to come on chaperones.  We have limited spots for this field trip and I will know an exact number as we get closer.  If you would like to attend, mark it on your calendar just in case and I will send out a sign up in the next few weeks.
*Tentative* November 15th Raptor Center Field Trip 8:45 AM: We are still waiting to see if they can take us this day.  More info to come! 

Math

This week we focused on "counting on" and ten frames!  Counting on is a very important skill learned in kindergarten that is a foundational skill for addition and subtraction.  We are also doing more work with ten frames because this is also a foundational skill and tool that we use for addition and subtraction.  The students did so well with the ten frames yesterday! They got to practice the by painting with Q-tips and filling in the ten frames. 

Literacy

This week we studied Daxx's name and learned how to form each letter.  We learned how many letters, vowels, consonants, and syllables are in his name.  We have had lots of practice with our lowercase "a" which we make using "Magic C."  Ask your child to show you "Magic C" and how we use it to make the letter "a" and many other letters!  We did different activities each day to practice Daxx's name.  Students also rotated through our literacy stations practicing letters, sounds, multiple levels of sight words, and reading!  

Thematic

We began our unit on "Creepy Crawlies" this week!  We will study spiders, bats, snakes, and insects! We began with spiders.  We created a "KWL" chart as a class on spiders.  The "K" stands for what we know, the "W" stands for what we want to know, and the "L" stands for what we learned.  Every child has completed two centers for spiders so far.
1. Spaghetti spider web: students used cooked spaghetti, glue, and glitter to make their own spider web!
2. Spider cookies: students learned about the body parts of a spider and made their own spider cookie using glutino oreo cookies, pretzel sticks, and candy eye balls.  This one was a hit for sure!  We try to incorporate baking and food creations often! 

Science

Michael Colvard, Joshua's dad, is coming in today for our Sci-Fri!  He is doing a lesson on crickets since we are studying creepy crawlies.  Thank you Michael! 

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James

Week Eight: October 2nd-6th

Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we are in the month of October already!  The kids are loving the Halloween and fall themed books that we have available around the classroom. :) We are excited to see you all next Wednesday for our Fairy Tale Play!

October 11th 10:00 AM Fairy Tale Play: Come and see our fairy tale play about the 3 Little Pigs, the 3 Bears, and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff!  This will be in our classroom with refreshments to follow.
October 12th and 13th: No school....Optional Parent Conferences
October 18th Field Trip to Aw Shucks Farm: Children need to be at school by 8:00 AM.  We are loading the bus and leaving the school at 8:15 AM to head to the farm.  They need to have a lunch packed and water bottle because we will eat lunch there.  Normal lunch boxes are fine.  Comfortable clothes and tennis shoes!  Chaperones please meet us there with your child at 9:30.  The program starts at 10:00 AM.  Chaperones will need to pay $8.50 for their ticket upon arrival.
October 19th: CSD Festival and Kickball Tournament 4:00-8:00 PM

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: This is a great opportunity to get dad's involved in our classroom!  If Dad cannot come, we would love for a grandfather or uncle to come! Please bring your own pumpkin for your child and carving tools (safely wrapped up).

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30/8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  

Math Workshop:

We had a great week in math workshop!  We keep the same math tubs/games open for the students to go and play for about 2-3 weeks at a time.  The purpose of this is that they become "pro's" at the game and in turn master the skill that is involved.  I have all of the games on a rotation so usually there is one or two new games introduced per week since there at 8 centers total.  The skills that we are working on include counting to 100 by ones and tens, one-to-one correspondence, and counting on.

Literacy (reading and writing)

During literacy this week, all students learned how to write the letter "R" properly using a big line, little line, and little curve.  We continued working on learning our sounds and how to blend them together when trying to read a word.  I teach them to say each little sound that they see and them then put all of the sounds back together to see if they can decode the word.  We teach them the same thing for writing.  When attempting to write a word, I tell them to say the word and put down each letter sound that they hear.  For example the word "apple" may look like this when they attempt to write it: "apl" because that is how it is written phonetically.  They have not learned about doubling the "p" or adding a "silent e" on the end yet.  We just want them writing down what they hear and their writing will progress over time as they learn the grammar rules of the English language.  We wrote short stories this week during writer's workshop!

Thematic:

This week we practiced our play during thematic center time.  The students are doing great and are excited to share it with you!  We also did an activity using kidney beans, black beans, and great northern beans and they got to create their own bear!  They used glue and beans to create their own "fur" on the bear.  

Science:

Today we are doing an experiment about the blending of colors!  We have 5 different sets of colors (red+white, green+yellow, purple+blue, black+white, and blue+green) and the students predicted what each one would turn to when mixed together.   We recorded our observations and findings onto a chart.  A major component of science is them understanding how to record information on a chart/graph so we try to do this with every experiment!

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James