Mrs. Grogan's Kindergarten: Week Five Highlights

What a great week! Take a peek at our kindergartners busy at play!

Our stories of the week were How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills and Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. Using our blueprints as a guide, we identified the characters, setting, and main event of both stories. We completed our first summative blueprint assessment this week! I cannot wait to share with you your child’s impressive work at conferences.

We added a new word to the word wall this week. Our new word wall word is the. Please practice identifying our word wall word while reading and writing at home. Don’t forget to practice our word wall list with your kindergartner at home.

During reader’s workshop, we reviewed the three ways to read a book: tell a story you already know, look at the pictures and tell the story, and read the words. We introduced and practiced reading from left to right and from top of the page to the bottom. We are building reading stamina and are at eight minutes of independent reading. Next week, we will complete our first reader’s workshop unit with a reading celebration!

In reading stations, we reviewed name writing with wiki sticks, play-dough letters, and reading stamina with book bins. We introduced the game, Roll, Say, Keep with the letters of the alphabet. Please ask your child to share with you their favorite reading station.

During writer’s workshop, we introduced writing partners and writing conferences. Our writing partners, like elbow partners, will help us become better writers by sharing things they are “noticing” and “questioning” our writing. During our writing conferences we practice adding details to our pictures, labeling our pictures, and writing a sentence that corresponds with our story. Take a peek at our kindergarten writers hard at work!

In math, we introduced new math vocabulary: curves, sides, and corners. We reviewed naming and describing the basic shapes. We completed our first calendar book! The kiddos were so excited to see the changes and additions to our new October calendar book. During math stations, we played Bump, roll and trace, assembled number puzzles, and reviewed one to one correspondence. Please ask your child to share with you their favorite math station.

During science, we reviewed naming our five senses. We created a class anchor chart of the things we can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch during the month of October. I can’t wait to see what exciting things our kindergartners discover on their nature walk this week!

Thank you Claire Rasmussen for joining us for Cooking Friday. We created apple smiles made with apple slices, caramel dip, and marshmallows. Take a peek at our kindergarten chefs!