Hello!
We're having a great time in Kindergarten and the children are learning so much! They are such good readers and helpers throughout the day! They are very proud of their ability to read some of the stories, calendar words, etc!
Last week we ended our Reading theme on Colors. We are now into the theme of Families! Last week we also finished up our Patterns and Movement section of Math. We're moving right along and doing well!
This week:
Reading ~ We will introduce a new theme and a new Alphafriend: Tiggy Tiger! We are learning lots of new words. So far we've focused on I & see; this week we will add 'my'. Not only are the children excited about reading these words, but also incorporating them into their writing. In writing, we're also working on letter sounds and trying to 'sound out' words to figure out how they are spelled. If a child uses inventive spelling to figure out a word, at this level...it's FINE! =) 'Sound spelling' is completely appropriate for the Kindergarten age level. For instance, if a child spells 'city' with 'sity', they have used the knowledge that they know that the first sound in 'city' can be produced by the letter s. Later, as they get older, they will work on remembering the 'correct' way of spelling the word. If a child asks me if they spelled that word ('sity' or others with sound spelling) correctly, I simply tell them 'I like the way you sounded out the word!' I never want to hinder a child's desire to write, so I hesitate to correct them with their inventive spelling.
All sight words, however, should be spelling correctly...in their writing I will correct them on the sight words simply by calling their attention to it and having them write it over correctly. We have a wonderful word wall in our classroom, and the students know that they are free to go up and use it at any time during their writing. It is color coded, so if a child asks me "How do I spell 'see'" I can easily tell them, "It's under the letter 'S', it's the train track that is red." All of the letters are on train cars, so the words below them are on different colored train tracks.
Math ~ We are on to Counting and Matching. One to one counting can be challenging for a child, so this Chapter is very important. At times children may count too fast or miss a number. This Chapter will focus on the one to one counting; on which number shows 'more' or 'less'; and on rote counting (1,2,3,4...). We've been adding a number to our line every day that we've been in school and have been practicing counting to 100! The children do a great job and are excited for the 100th day of school, which will come sometime in February! =)
Religion ~ We're working on learning about God as our Father in Heaven. The children have enjoyed talking about special people in their lives. We learn about God's love for us through the many gifts that He gives us. The special people in our lives are one of those gifts...and our families are very special people! (This ties in SUPER with our Reading Chapter!)
Science ~ We continue to learn about living things. This week we'll learn about Sea Otters with our National Geographic Young Explorers. Our interactive whiteboard is not quite ready yet, so we'll travel to the 1st Grade room to view the interactive lesson there.
Social Studies ~ We're learning about life 'way back when' in Colonial Times and how it compares to life now. If the children have a chance, visiting with Grandma or Grandpa or another older person and asking about what life was like for them would be a great activity to tie into this!
This week we celebrate being Drug Free! All week the children will wear red wrist bands to remind them of this and Mr. Bell will call off names each day...if the names that he calls off are wearing their bands, they get to come to the office for a prize!
Also...Friday, Nov. 9th we will celebrate Veteran's Day. The Veteran's Program will start at 2 PM, please join us if you can!!
That's all for now!
Thanks for stopping by!!!
~Mrs. Westlund
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