Reminders:
Wednesday (December 17th) is pajama day! Students can wear pajamas to school but should bring shoes and all necessary outdoor wear--boots, hat, mittens, snow pants, coat, etc. as they will go outdoors for recess.
Friday (December 19th) is our class party! This will start at 10:30 and go until about 11:45. If you can donate materials or your time, we still need a few items and we will definitely need help with running the four activity stations. Thank you! The sign up sheet can be found here.
We will also be attending a concert at West High School on 12/19. We will leave school at 12:55 and return by 3:00. A permission slip will be sent home tomorrow (12/15). We will see a musical performance at the high school. It should be amazing!
A bit about our week...
Wednesday (December 17th) is pajama day! Students can wear pajamas to school but should bring shoes and all necessary outdoor wear--boots, hat, mittens, snow pants, coat, etc. as they will go outdoors for recess.
Friday (December 19th) is our class party! This will start at 10:30 and go until about 11:45. If you can donate materials or your time, we still need a few items and we will definitely need help with running the four activity stations. Thank you! The sign up sheet can be found here.
We will also be attending a concert at West High School on 12/19. We will leave school at 12:55 and return by 3:00. A permission slip will be sent home tomorrow (12/15). We will see a musical performance at the high school. It should be amazing!
A bit about our week...
It was another busy week of learning in kindergarten! If your child is anything like mine, he/she has a hard time recalling details about his/her day. I hope everyone is reading our blog regularly to stay up to date. Keeping families informed is the main purpose of this blog!
As expected, the anticipation of the holidays and the vacation is affecting the behavior of many students. I know how this goes, as I have two children of my own at home--excitement is running high! Please talk to your child about the importance of maintaining appropriate behavior at school. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly word from someone at home to make a huge difference at school. Thank you!
As expected, the anticipation of the holidays and the vacation is affecting the behavior of many students. I know how this goes, as I have two children of my own at home--excitement is running high! Please talk to your child about the importance of maintaining appropriate behavior at school. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly word from someone at home to make a huge difference at school. Thank you!
Math
Students seem quite comfortable with making, extending, and recording patterns of many types, especially when we focus on the attributes of color and/or shape. This week we will focus on different types of patterns, such as number patterns and arrow patterns. We continue to work on students' sense of time through our calendar routine. Talking with your child about the day of the week and the days before and after is an important concept. Many students have difficulty using the words "yesterday" and "tomorrow" correctly. It takes practice, which we do at school, and any help at home is greatly beneficial too! Developing a sense of time takes...time! :-) Check out some of the patterns students created last week. Some are quite impressive!
Students seem quite comfortable with making, extending, and recording patterns of many types, especially when we focus on the attributes of color and/or shape. This week we will focus on different types of patterns, such as number patterns and arrow patterns. We continue to work on students' sense of time through our calendar routine. Talking with your child about the day of the week and the days before and after is an important concept. Many students have difficulty using the words "yesterday" and "tomorrow" correctly. It takes practice, which we do at school, and any help at home is greatly beneficial too! Developing a sense of time takes...time! :-) Check out some of the patterns students created last week. Some are quite impressive!
Hour of Code
Last week was the internationally recognized "Hour of Code." Though we didn't officially recognize this day in kindergarten last week, learning about coding is something I believe is strongly in and plan to integrate into our learning regularly. By chance, we had the perfect opportunity to pique students' interest in this topic when we visited Mr. Walter's 4th grade classroom. On Wednesday, the teaching staff was introduced to the Maker Space in Mr. Walter's room, a resource that is traveling throughout TCAPS. He is one of the first classes to have the opportunity to use this equipment and supplies--including a 3-D printer!
I was so inspired by the possibilities of a Maker Space, so I asked if we could visit as a class--that very day! Luckily, Mr. Walter is very obliging, and we did! We visited his classroom for 40 minutes on Wednesday, and students were absolutely enthralled with the learning activities taking place. Last Wednesday was purely exploratory, our K students watched and, if they wanted to, joined in on activities such as coding using the Chromebooks, creating a helicopter, watching the 3-D printer in action, creating a variety of actions using circuits, trying out a Makey Makey, and more! We plan to make this a weekly activity with the 4th graders after vacation, so there will be much more action and information to come!
Last week was the internationally recognized "Hour of Code." Though we didn't officially recognize this day in kindergarten last week, learning about coding is something I believe is strongly in and plan to integrate into our learning regularly. By chance, we had the perfect opportunity to pique students' interest in this topic when we visited Mr. Walter's 4th grade classroom. On Wednesday, the teaching staff was introduced to the Maker Space in Mr. Walter's room, a resource that is traveling throughout TCAPS. He is one of the first classes to have the opportunity to use this equipment and supplies--including a 3-D printer!
I was so inspired by the possibilities of a Maker Space, so I asked if we could visit as a class--that very day! Luckily, Mr. Walter is very obliging, and we did! We visited his classroom for 40 minutes on Wednesday, and students were absolutely enthralled with the learning activities taking place. Last Wednesday was purely exploratory, our K students watched and, if they wanted to, joined in on activities such as coding using the Chromebooks, creating a helicopter, watching the 3-D printer in action, creating a variety of actions using circuits, trying out a Makey Makey, and more! We plan to make this a weekly activity with the 4th graders after vacation, so there will be much more action and information to come!
Reading Buddies
This was week two of working on literature-based art projects with our 2nd/3rd grade learning buddies. The first week was a project based on The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett, and the second week's project was based on Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin. Students created some fantastic artwork, and I promised to take pictures of it very soon! For now, here's a sneak peak of the Pete the Cat Santa project. Students did SO well! We will get together with our 2nd/3rd grade buddies sometime this week to do partner reading together, which is back to the usual. I think that will feel really good!
As always, there is much more to report, but that's a glimpse into our week in Kindergarten. Have a great week, everyone!
This was week two of working on literature-based art projects with our 2nd/3rd grade learning buddies. The first week was a project based on The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett, and the second week's project was based on Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by Eric Litwin. Students created some fantastic artwork, and I promised to take pictures of it very soon! For now, here's a sneak peak of the Pete the Cat Santa project. Students did SO well! We will get together with our 2nd/3rd grade buddies sometime this week to do partner reading together, which is back to the usual. I think that will feel really good!
As always, there is much more to report, but that's a glimpse into our week in Kindergarten. Have a great week, everyone!