Mrs. Grogan's Kindergarten: Week 2 Highlights!

Week two and our kindergartners are already full-fledged Irving Eagles. The kiddos are doing a wonderful job transitioning into kindergarten. We continue to review rules and routines while working hard to follow the Eagle Essentials (Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe) and earn Eagle Slips. We are learning to work together, take turns, and share in our classroom. We had our first Second Step group this week. Our first lesson was all about listening at school. Please ask your child to share with you how we listen at Irving School.

Our shared reading poem of the week was "Name Chant". Using our poem we identified the first letter in our names, an object that starts the same, and shared a word we could read to the group. Please ask your child to sing our name chant to you at home.

In phonics, we meet our classroom mascot, Mabel. Mabel helps us identify, read, count, and sequence our names. We also began sorting picture cards by beginning sounds.

Our read aloud this week was Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Using our story of the week, we identified characters, setting, and sequenced the events of our story. Please ask your child to retell you our story of the week.

In reading workshop this week, we introduced partner reading. When reading with a partner, we sit side by side, put one book in the middle, see-saw read, read from cover to cover, and share wow pages. Take a peek at our kindergarten readers!

This week, we introduced Daily Five reading stations. Our first two Daily Five stations are word work and read to self. We practiced choosing one station and working hard the whole time. Take a peek at our word workers and private readers!

In writer's workshop, we reviewed how to write a story (think, draw, write). We introduced writing folders! Please ask your child what writing goes on the red circle side and green circle side. We also discussed how to work through our problems and found strategies to help us to continue to write, "when we think we're done, we've only just begun". Please ask your child to share with you what we can do when we think we are done with our writing (add pictures, add words, or start a new piece).

In math, we continue to focus on sorting by color, size, and shape. We are also practicing writing numbers, identifying shapes, creating patterns, and counting on the five frame during calendar book. We continue to explore number sense, shape identification, and one-to-one correspondence during math tubs. Take a peek at our kindergarten mathematicians hard at work!