Mrs. Bixby's Weekly Newsletter

 

KINDERGARTEN ROOM 116

Eisenhower Elementary School M a r c h  3 ,  2 0 1 7    

Mrs. Bixby’s Weekly Newsletter Kindergarten Literacy

Readers’ Workshop—Dr. Seuss Week

Below are some books we enjoyed during Dr. Seuss’s birthday week. He was born March 2, 1904.

This week readers were inspired by Dr. Seuss and created a lot of rhymes, read dozens of rhymes and then practiced stretching out their tongues after reading the rhymes. Kindergarten readers also worked on their stamina during “Read to Self” time. Our reading activities were:

•   The Lorax by Dr. Seuss •   Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Suess •   Oh, The Thinks You Can Think by Dr. Seuss •   Oh, The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss •   Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss •   Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog? by Dr. Seuss •   Go Dog Go by Dr. Seuss

•   Dr. Seuss Writing: Do you want the Cat in the Hat to come to your house? Why or Why not? •  

their own “things” inspired by Thing 1 and Thing 2. •  

•   Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss

•   The Family Book by Todd Parr •   New Tricks I can Do by Robert Lopshire •   Families Are Different by Nina Pellegrini •   Who’s in a Family? by Robert Skutch Letter, Words and Poems of the Week Our snap words this week were or and for, which we found in our “Just Right Books” and in 4 new poems. We learned the new March Chicken Soup with Rice poem, a poem titled “Winds in March,” and two Dr. Seuss poems titled “Quack, Quack!” and “I Will Read!”

Kindergarten Lorax’s: After reading The Lorax and discussing ways we can help the earth, writers drew and wrote about how they would help protect the earth.

•   Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss •   There’s a Wocket in My Pocket! by Dr. Seuss

Kindergarten Things: Readers built

•   Word Family Book: -en •  

Build a Cat in the Hat: Readers wrote “–at” family words on each stripe of Cat in the Hat’s hat and decorated.

•   Word Family Dominoes: Readers worked with a partner to connect dominoes with the same word family (cat/bat, log/dog, fan/pan).

•   Listening Center: Hop on Pop •   Teacher Table: Book Groups

Mrs. Bixby’s Weekly Newsletter Mathematics: Addition

Writers’ Workshop—Family Writing

This week mathematicians continued to practice adding two numbers. We solved addition sentences using adding strategies. Below are our math stations this week:

We began to talk about our families this week. There a lot of things we love to do with our families, so we started sharing them in our writing. Each day we worked on a new page explaining why our families are the best and why we love them. This is a topic that we know a lot about. We will be putting all our pages into a book to make a giant family book that we will publish at the end of our family unit. We also read The Family Book by Todd Parr and created our own class book. Each kindergartner wrote a page about something families do.

Create, Draw and Write an Addition Number Sentence: Mathematicians orally tell an addition number story, draw their number story and write a number sentence to match their story.

Truffala Tree Addition:

Mathematicians solve the addition number sentence in the Truffala tree and use the color key above to figure out what color each number sentence is colored.

Gum Ball Addition: Mathematicians fill two cups with gumballs from the gumball machines and figure out how many there are all together using an addition strategy. They also write a number sentence.

Parking Lot Addition Sentences: Our mathematicians drive number cars into the parking lot and match the number on the car with the correct number sentence in the parking spot.

Roll and Build a Tower:

Mathematicians roll a blue number cube and a yellow number cube, build a tower with that many cubes and place it on the correct number on a number line.

Partner Addition with the Addition Machine: Mathematicians work with a partner to create number sentences with the addition machine.

Art: Family Portraits Kindergartners created detailed pictures of their families. First, they sketched their family, labeled their family, added color with oil pastel and finally used watercolor to paint the background. Artists worked exceptionally hard to add many details to their family portraits. Reminder •   March Vacation 3/13-3/17 No School

Learning Centers Dramatic Play became the Kindergarten Family House over the weekend. We decorated our house with pictures of our real families. Kindergartners worked on taking care of babies, cooking food and dressing up. After reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, we decided to make our own Oobleck in the sensory table with cornstarch, water and green water color. Everyone had a lot of fun exploring the Oobleck with their hands! At Star Project this week we got an important call from the Cat in the Hat who told us he was bored with his plain old red and white striped hat and he wanted a new hat. He told us to design him many new hats, so that is what we did. We have some very creative hat makers. One of the most exciting parts of our week was Wednesday when each student received their very own Kindergarten iPad. We enjoyed exploring our new iPads, learning how to hold them, take care of them, how to charge them and put them in and out of the iPad Home. We will continue to explore our iPads next week and find creative new ways to incorporate them in our weekly curriculum.