Learning Can Take You Anywhere!: January 2015

100th Day of Kindergarten

The "Hundredth Day of School" is coming!

We are planning a big celebration and this homework celebration is in preparation for the giant event!

Here's what to do with your family:

PROJECT

1. Brainstorm things you and your family could easily collect in quantities of 100.

2. Choose something from your list and gather 100 of that item. It may be a collection you already have or a new collection. Examples include: toothpicks, stickers, Cheerios, pennies, legos, marshmallows, puzzle pieces, etc.

3. Design a unique way to display your collection! GET CREATIVE! :) If you need any ideas, please Google "100 Day Projects."

4. Be sure you have exactly 100 of your item in your display.

5. Bring your collection to school by TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10th.

SNACK

In addition to the 100 collection for display in our "100 Day Museum," we would also like for your child to count and bring in 100 small, edible items for a 100 snack mix! For example, your child could bring in 100 cheerios, 100 M & M's, 100 craisins, 100 mini marshmallows, 100 rice check, etc.

Each child will be asked to lay out the 100 items on a 100 chart, counting each piece as they go. When this is finished, we will put all the items together into a huge bowl and divide it up for our class snack of the day.

We are so excited to see your collection and snack choice!

Thank you for your participation! :)

The Kindergarten Team

Arctic Animal Study

Look at what we will be studying in our nonfiction unit
on Reindeer, Penguins, and Polar Bears!

Readers Workshop

· Generating questions about arctic animals using the words who, what, where, when, why, and how and then using non-fiction texts, magazines, and videos to find answers to our questions

· Identifying unknown vocabulary in our non-fiction books, learning the vocabulary by turning to the glossary, then using the vocabulary in our partnership conversations

· Describing what reindeer, polar bears, and penguins CAN, HAVE, and ARE

· Learning words with multiple meanings (buck & buck, heard & herd, pray & prey) and thinking about other multiple meaning words we already know

·Talking about what these word endings mean (-s, -ed, -less, -ful)

· Using KWL charts to decide what we already KNOW about the animal, what we WANT to know about the animal, and then what we LEARNED

· Identifying the main topic and key details of a nonfiction text

· Describing the features of a fiction vs. non-fiction text

· Comparing two non-fiction texts in a T-chart

· Identifying major events in a story

· Retelling stories with key details using the words beginning, middle, and end

· Summarizing a story

·Thinking aloud about characters, setting, and major events

· Recognizing and producing rhyming words
· Making text to self, text to text, and text to world connections from our books as well as telling why a part in the book is our favorite part

· Increasing our stamina to read independently for 40+ minutes

· Using our strategies to decode tricky words in our leveled books (Ask your kids what these strategies mean! :)   )
   - Eagle Eyes
     - Lips the Fish
     - Stretchy the Snake
      - Skippy Frog/Kangaroo
     - Peekin' Poodle
     - Flippy the Dolphin

Writers Workshop

We will be writing "How To" papers that teach our reader something we have expertise in! Each of our papers includes specific steps that teach, numbered steps, a picture for each step, and labels that teach. We have been including teaching diagrams in our writing and have also been practicing using the words you, first, next, then, finally, etc. in our papers. With partners, we will be revising our steps so that they are both clear and specific, and also in sequential order.

Here are items that we are continually working on to improve! :)

· Re-reading our pages to add more sounds or vowels in each of our words

· Using finger spaces between words

· Using "juicy words" that make details in our papers more exciting

· Writing in complete sentences

· Increasing our stamina to write for 40+ minutes independently

· Including a vowel in each word we write

· Including correctly spelled snap words in our writing

· Including motion, emotion, and speech bubbles across our pages to make our writing more exciting for others to read

· Giving our writing partners helpful feedback by providing them with ideas to make their writing more readable
· Telling "Who, What, & Where" in our words
· Showing "Who, What, & Where" in our illustrations

· Using ending punctuation

· Using only capital letters for the beginning letter of a sentence and names

· Using a checklist to evaluate our writing

Snap Words!

Keep practicing the list of 37 kindergarten snap words!

These snap words are found regularly in our leveled reading books.

We write these words frequently in our papers! :)

Math

· Addition problems

· Naming shapes

· Telling about shapes and comparing them

· Counting and making sets