Week 22 Highlights and the 100th Day of Kindergarten!

What a fun-filled week! On Wednesday, we celebrated the 100th Day of Kindergarten! 

Our Nora Project focus this week was understanding empathy.  After reading Stand in My Shoes, we discussed what empathy looks, sounds, and feels like.  In Second Step, we continued our emotional management unit.  This week's focus was calming down.  We learned how to calm down using the strategy of saying stop, naming our feelings; and breathe, count, or use positive self talk.

During our Shared Reading, we focused on the poem, Groundhog's Day. We used this poem to explore letters, sounds, blends and digraphs, rhyming words and print concepts.  We reviewed the snap words and, up, you, see, a, it, and for.   We introduced one new snap word this week.  Our new snap word is an.  Please practice identifying, reading, and writing our snap words with your child at home.

We began our Word-Part Power unit in our Phonics curriculum.  During this unit we will be adding, deleting, and manipulating phonemes to make new words. This week we learned about the word families -ap, -ot, and -ip.  Take a peek at our kindergartners activating their word-part power.

In Reader's Workshop, we continued our fourth unit, Becoming Avid Readers.  This week we learned that avid readers reach for just-right words to describe feelings. Using post-it notes, we labeled characters feelings, showed empathy, and shared with our partner how and why a character feels something.  We also reflected on our super powers and set reading goals during private and partner reading times.  Take a peek at our kindergarten avid readers!

We took a break from a book of the week to read a collect of 100s day books during our Read Aloud time.  Please ask your child to share with you their favorite 100th day tale.

During Daily Five word work stations this week, used play-dough to make our names, created name puzzles, made name necklaces, matched letter and picture puzzles, composed letters using wood pieces and practiced phonemic awareness and phonics skills using Lexia.  We practiced labeling pictures at the writing table.  We began our seventh phonics sort in our Words Their Way curriculum this week.  We practiced many of our routines and procedures when cutting, sorting, and gluing pictures into correct categories.  We also played partner sort and minute to win it.  Please ask your child to share their sound sort with you.  Please ask your child what was their favorite daily five station this week.

This week during Writer's Workshop, we continued our how-to writing unit.  We read how-to texts, created our first class how-to book, began readers and asked Can I follow this?", and supported each other as budding how-to writers by answering partner's questions. We are building quite a teaching book collection.

In Whole Group Math, we began our fourth Eureka Math module.  This unit is all about number pairs, addition and subtraction to ten.   This week we reviewed composing and decomposing numbers to five.  Please ask your child to share with you the number pairs that make five.  We have also been practicing subitizing and writing numbers to 10.

We completed our round of Math Tubs which include: one to one correspondence, addition to ten, nonstandard measurement, subitizing, number sequencing, number writing, BUMP, and Zearn.  We also did a few fun 100s themed tubs.  We can count, tally, write, and roll to 100!

Upcoming Dates

• February 11th--DIVINC Meeting- 7pm
• February 14th--Valentine's Day Class Party- 12:30pm and The Loved Ones Dance- 7pm
• February 17th--President's Day- NO SCHOOL
• February 22nd-- Irving Fun Fair- 10am-2pm
• February 23rd-- Everybody Plays! Inclusive Playdate- 1pm
• February 25th-- Opera for the Young
• February 28th-- African American History Month Assembly