Fall Has Arrived!

Autumn is definitely in the air, and we are taking full advantage of the new season! Take a look at some of our fun fall activities!

We have also concluded our unit on shapes.  Here's a look at some 3-D marshmallow fun!

Be on the look out for some upcoming apple fun!!

We have spent a lot of time talking about self control and what it means to be a good listener this week.  Ms. Elliott, our school counselor, came earlier this week and told us all about a little bunny named Howard B. Wigglebottom and his adventures learning to listen, 

You will find the following activity in your child's homework folder this weekend.  

Take this opportunity to talk with your child about what good listening looks and sounds like.  You do not have to return your work to school.  Try keeping this resource in a special place at home for a  quick reference for home and school.  

Lips the Fish

We have a new reading strategy--Lips the Fish!

Using your Eagle Eyes is great, but sometimes it's not enough to accurately determine an unknown word.  

Use your Eagle Eyes to check out this picture.

Is the boy building, or is he playing?  We will have to use Lips the Fish to be sure.

He likes to play.

I can see that word begins with the letter p.  I will get my lips ready and make that sound.  Now I know that word must be play!

You can watch a quick video explaining this strategy here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LWDdOa3ie0

Reading Buddies

We met our Fourth Grade reading buddies on Friday!  Kindergarten students were matched with a Fourth Grade buddy for a half hour of reading fun!  Fourth Grade students brought a book to share with their Kindergarten buddy, and Kindergarten students had an opportunity to share some of their newly acquired reading skills with an old pro!  We are looking forward to lots of new learning opportunities with our Fourth Grade friends!  

Ms. Rachel had a Farm E-I-E-I-O!

Things have been farm-tastic in Kindergarten the past few weeks!  We have read, sung, and wrote about animals and farmers both real and make believe!

We have read about Joy Cowley's Mrs. Wishy Washy and all her muddy farm friends.  We even made and ate some mud of our own!  (Don't worry it was just chocolate pudding!)  We made some muddy little pigs of our own using 2-D shapes, built some really cool barns for our farm friends, and created some wishy-washy tubs for our favorite characters!



We have spent the past week learning and writing about cows!  We read Click, Clack, Moo! Cows That Type and several other silly farmyard tales by Doreen Cronin and The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons exploring the differences between make believe and informational texts. We decided to follow in the path of Gail Gibbons and create our own teaching books about cows. We also began exploring the states of matter by using heavy cream, a liquid, to make butter, a solid.  It was even better that we used the "milk" from our very own classroom cow!

Your child will have two pieces of work in their "Homework" pocket this afternoon.  This is work that we started in class that you can use for extra word work practice at home.  

Discuss the object of the drawing lesson.  Practice "stretching out" the word to see how many sounds you can hear in the word.  Then practice "sounding out" the word.  Read the sentence at the bottom of the page with your child, and then let them try to put all the words in order to re-create the sentence.

You will be receiving one or more of these pages each week.  Try keeping them in a special basket or tub for your children to practice over and over again. 

Mid-Week Check In

It has been a busy week already!  We have been busy reading, writing, and counting!

When you are reading at home, continue to encourage your child to use their "Eagle Eyes" to help you determine unknown words.  Have your child "read" the pictures in books.  Make sure your child is able to tell you who is in the story, where they are, and what is happening.  Remind your reader that the characters and events they love so much began in the mind of the author.  Authors are always thinking about who will be in their stories and what those characters will do, and you should too! 

Readers write, and writers read!  The reading-writing connection is an important one that should be established early on.  The more children understand the books and authors that they read, the easier it will be for them to become authors themselves!

 

Keep counting!  Everyday we work to count objects and show what we know about numbers in our classroom.  You can support this math work by having your child help you count and organize household objects.  Have them create drawings to show how many plates, cups, forks, etc. you will need for dinner.  Encourage children to think about what will happen if more people come for dinner.  What if someone is missing tonight?  Begin using the words more and less intentionally at home, and have your child make predictions and estimate.