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Sunday, April 29, 2018

Classroom News

We ended the week on a fun note with our pajama day and short movie party to celebrate filling our class behavior board! I love how cozy and relaxed they all look!


You may have noticed the 100s chart with a list of suggestions for practicing with the chart that came home in your child's folder last week. This would be a great way to get in a few minutes of math practice every day over the summer to keep our number sense strong as we transition into first grade. As we finished Chapter 8, we continued to practice building two digit numbers with cubes, using towers to represent the tens place in the number and individual cubes to represent the ones place.



Next, we dove into Chapter 12, where the focus has been on counting up to 10 and back from 10.  We are using our fingers to talk through number stories, and learning how combinations of numbers make 10. For example, students are learning to connect these pairs of numbers by understanding that if we start at 6, we count up 4 to get to 10. If we start at 10, and count back 6, we arrive at 4. This understanding is instrumental in learning why addition and subtraction work the way they do, and being able to verbalize and explain relationships between numbers. Here we are, using our fingers to explain these number relationships to our table partners!




During Reading Workshop, we continued our study of poetry by taking a closer look at literary devices. We read various poems and had such fun identifying examples of repetition, alliteration, and onomatopoeia! 


We also used our five senses to help us create a movie in our minds to connect to what we are reading and make it more memorable or concrete in our minds. We loved building upon one another's ideas. One particular poem led to vivid mental pictures of Fourth of July celebrations, including the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings of this summer holiday.




Finally, we listened to the poem "Kids Rule!" and recorded what we visualized with our own pictures and labels.





As we studied poetry in Reading Workshop, we also carried this over to our Writing Workshop time, as we learned about acrostic poems and wrote our own Spring acrostic poems! This tied in perfectly with Earth Day as well, and we spent time brainstorming and writing about ways we can take care of the earth. We had a great time making a special craft to go with our writing, and practice our tracing and cutting skills! They are proudly displayed in the hallway for you to see when joining us for the Kindergarten Musical!





Speaking of the Kindergarten Musical, it is quickly approaching this Friday! Please remember that ALL kindergarten students will attend in the MORNING this Friday, May 4th, and there will be NO PM CLASSES. Students are to arrive at 8:55 a.m., and line up at the front doors where we normally do. They will not need to bring backpacks this day, just their smiles for the stage! All kindergarten classes will have a dress rehearsal together, and the musical will begin at 10:25 a.m. Parents and loved ones are welcome to arrive anytime after 10 a.m. After the show, there will be light refreshments served in the gym, and families are welcome to return to the classroom. The morning will conclude at 11:50 a.m., but we typically finish up around 11:30. You are welcome to take your child home early, just make sure to sign them out on the sign-out sheets we have available so that everyone is accounted for. We look forward to celebrating the growth of our kindergarten friends this year with you! See you Friday!





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