Mrs. Bixby's Weekly Newsletter
KINDERGARTEN ROOM 116
Eisenhower Elementary School S e p te m b e r 3 0 , 2 0 1 6
Mrs. Bixby’s Weekly Newsletter Kindergarten Literacy Below are some books we enjoyed together: •
Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems
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Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert
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Autumn is Here! by Heidi Pross Gray
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Fright Train by Donald Crews
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Pete the Cat Five Little Pumpkins by James Dean
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A Tree for All Seasons by Robin Bernard
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We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger
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The Shape of Things by Dayle Ann Dodds
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Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
Readers’ Workshop We learned some new Readers’ Workshop stations this week. The focus is still on rhyming, as well as recognizing beginning sounds of words. We also began to talk about syllables in words. Words are made up of strings of smaller sounds. We determine how many syllables are in a word by counting how many times our mouths open and close when we say a word or by clapping those groups of sounds. We clapped and counted how many syllables were in each of our names and made a graph. We will be playing lots of syllable games next week too! Below are our Readers’ Workshop stations from this week: •
Rhyming Word Families
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Rhyming Memory
Letter of the Week—F We learned a new letter this week: F, fan, /f/. We found this sound in many things we read and said!
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Trace and Write F, fun, /f/
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F is For… Class Book
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Sight Word Book: Write it Stamp it
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A/F Beginning Sound Word Sort
SNAP WORDS Our two new snap words are you and me. Students are beginning to see snap words everywhere—in the books we read, in our poems and even in our morning message!
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Hidden Word: Write the sight word in white crayon and color over with marker to see the hidden word.
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Match Kindergarten Pictures to the correct Beginning Letter/Sound
Poetry Our class learned three new poems: The “My 5 Senses” poem, “3D Shapes” poem, “You can see” poem. We have become experts at being word detectives and finding words we know in a snap (sight words) in our poems. Students are also working hard to point to each word with pointing fingers when we read poems. Reading skills are growing in kindergarten!
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Listening Center: How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?
Puzzles
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Rhyming
Our kindergarten students are very excited about their increased reading ability!
Mrs. Bixby’s Weekly Newsletter Writing Strategies This week in our Super Hero Writers Club we explored strategies that writers use when writing narrative teaching stories. Students continued to practice saying, “I think I can, I think I can!” just like The Little Engine that Could. After reading Freight Train, by Donald Crews, we noticed that he used many pages in his writing and we decided to try that too. We came to realize that writing a book with many pages is hard work and we really need to stick with it and say, “I think I can, I think I can!” Writers thought of something they knew a lot about, and planned their story with a title, what happened first, next and last. Writers then sketched a plan of their book. Once their plan was completed they began writing their 4 page book! Ask your child to tell you a true narrative story by creating a title and what happened first, next and last! Science: The 5 Senses and Fall Scientists continued to explore their 5 senses and read a variety of books centered on the five senses. Students shared things they like to do with their five senses, and recorded them in our 5 Senses Science Journal. We love using our five senses to explore the world around us! This week we also began to learn about the cycle of 4 seasons. It is now the season of fall. We have read several books about fall, and we made a list of the signs of fall. Learning Centers Learning Centers were very busy again! We explored the Marble Run in the Block Area this week. Engineers created elaborate structures to race with their marbles! Animal enthusiasts created a jungle with animals on the big rug and kindergartners loved using their hands to feel and shape Floam! The sand table was bustling as usual with many interesting sand creations. Zoob and Magna Builders created everything from robots to airplanes to telephones. During our Star Project time we used paint to make fall trees. We use corks to dip in fall colors and make fall-colored leaves on the trees. Our class will watch for the leaves to begin to change color in the upcoming weeks.
Mathematics— Shape and Number Exploration Continues! Mathematicians have become 2D and 3D experts this week. First we read The Shape of Things, we were inspired by the illustrator who used one shape to transform into something else. We used 2 dimensional shapes and turned them into something different, and made these creations into a class book. Then we learned about 3D shapes (they are fat not flat). We sorted 3D and 2D shapes and we learned the name of many 3D shapes: cone, cylinder, prism, sphere, and cube. We sorted different 3D shapes and danced and sang to a fun 3D shape rap. Ask your children to find 3D shapes in your house—they are everywhere! We have also been working on counting to 100 and writing our numbers 1-20. We learned a new partner game called: Compare: each partner picks a number card, the person with the larger number keeps both cards. During this game mathematicians are working with a partner to recognize numbers that are greater, less or equal. Art: Larry the Line Meets Paul Klee
Today we continued our study of line. Larry the Line visited us again and showed us two more lines: Diagonal and spiral. Larry is very good at making the spiral! We viewed some works of the Swiss painter, Paul Klee. Since our kindergarten artists are becoming experts on lines, we found all of our different lines in the slides of his paintings. We noticed that when lines come together, the spaces between them become shapes. It was exciting to discover all the elements of our beginning art lessons in these famous artworks. In Klee’s paintings the shapes made by the lines were painted different colors, so we tried making some line and shape masterpieces of our own!
Reminders • Library Check Out is on Tuesdays • Kindergarten leads Rise and Shine Monday Oct. 10 7:50-8:20 • October Break No School Oct. 20-21 • Picture Day Oct. 14
