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 💗