Dear KC Families,
Ms. Simons and I certainly have much to be thankful for this year! Thank YOU for a wonderful start to our school year. It has been fantastic getting to know you and your children, and we are in such a great place heading towards December (and 2020, eek!).
In math we will continue to focus on counting throughout the year. Children are becoming more comfortable with associating certain quantities with number symbols and the concept of “counting on” from a particular number, rather than always starting at 1. Children are fascinated by number combinations and have been using various materials to help internalize these relationships. KC has also been very interested in conducting surveys with yes or no questions during math choice time. Children decide what their question will be, and use the word wall and our pictorial alphabet to sound out their words. After asking friends in the class to respond to the question, children have been working on interpreting the collected data. This means we total each column and sometimes write an equation to match! Looking ahead, we will be shifting gears to patterns and the properties of shapes. Stay tuned!
Over the past month we have fully implemented our Reading Workshop during literacy. Children follow a different schedule of activities each day, however, they are given the opportunity to make many choices about how they will access the curriculum during this time. For example, at our Pocket Chart station, some children are matching, reading, and writing rhyming sounds, while others are building, reading, and writing sentences. As we talked about at Open House, these choices are very motivating for all learners. By giving students choices, they are still practicing important concepts and learning key skills, but also feel as though they have some control over their learning. Please continue to check our twitter page to see what is happening in math, literacy, and all other areas of the curriculum!
During read alouds, we have been making many “text-to-self” connections to the stories such as, “Does this story remind you of anything?” or “Has something like this ever happened to you or a friend?” These comprehension questions go beyond the general plot of a story and encourage children to think more deeply about the characters, the author’s meaning, or perhaps an important lesson that the author is trying to teach the reader. Try using some of these questions at home when you are reading to your child. We also read many books in a series or by one author. Our favorites so far have been Elephant and Piggie, Doreen Cronin’s Click Clack Moo series, and the I Want My Hat Back series by Jon Klassen. Looking ahead, we will be reading and comparing many Gingerbread stories, as well as books by author/illustrator, Lois Ehlert.
Important dates/reminders
Thank you so much!
Sarah
Ms. Simons and I certainly have much to be thankful for this year! Thank YOU for a wonderful start to our school year. It has been fantastic getting to know you and your children, and we are in such a great place heading towards December (and 2020, eek!).
In math we will continue to focus on counting throughout the year. Children are becoming more comfortable with associating certain quantities with number symbols and the concept of “counting on” from a particular number, rather than always starting at 1. Children are fascinated by number combinations and have been using various materials to help internalize these relationships. KC has also been very interested in conducting surveys with yes or no questions during math choice time. Children decide what their question will be, and use the word wall and our pictorial alphabet to sound out their words. After asking friends in the class to respond to the question, children have been working on interpreting the collected data. This means we total each column and sometimes write an equation to match! Looking ahead, we will be shifting gears to patterns and the properties of shapes. Stay tuned!
Over the past month we have fully implemented our Reading Workshop during literacy. Children follow a different schedule of activities each day, however, they are given the opportunity to make many choices about how they will access the curriculum during this time. For example, at our Pocket Chart station, some children are matching, reading, and writing rhyming sounds, while others are building, reading, and writing sentences. As we talked about at Open House, these choices are very motivating for all learners. By giving students choices, they are still practicing important concepts and learning key skills, but also feel as though they have some control over their learning. Please continue to check our twitter page to see what is happening in math, literacy, and all other areas of the curriculum!
During read alouds, we have been making many “text-to-self” connections to the stories such as, “Does this story remind you of anything?” or “Has something like this ever happened to you or a friend?” These comprehension questions go beyond the general plot of a story and encourage children to think more deeply about the characters, the author’s meaning, or perhaps an important lesson that the author is trying to teach the reader. Try using some of these questions at home when you are reading to your child. We also read many books in a series or by one author. Our favorites so far have been Elephant and Piggie, Doreen Cronin’s Click Clack Moo series, and the I Want My Hat Back series by Jon Klassen. Looking ahead, we will be reading and comparing many Gingerbread stories, as well as books by author/illustrator, Lois Ehlert.
Important dates/reminders
- Winter Party: Thursday, December 19th from 8:15 - 9:00. Please let me know if you would like to help at an activity! The more the merrier!
- PJ Day: Friday, December 20th. Children may wear PJs on this day and bring in one stuffed animal for snuggling!
- Our final early release days will be Thursday, 12/5 and Wednesday, 12/11. Children will be released at 12:40 on these days and lunch will be served.
Thank you so much!
Sarah