Week of November 15 - 19

This week was packed with lots of learning and energizing activities!  To begin the week, we completed our center activities from last week.

This week's math center focused on patterning with a different attribute. Instead of making a pattern using color this time the children were to focus making a pattern with shapes.  Some children worked on extending an AB (triangle, square) pattern , others created their own pattern using two parts, and others created their own pattern using three parts.  The focus was the same for each child but they worked at their own pace and the lesson was differentiated to focus on their skills.  With these manipulatives, the children are able to continue to work on counting objects as well as simple addition and subtraction problems. 

In the language arts center, the children played an alphabet matching game on a Thanksgiving turkey board!  The objective of the game was to identify the matching Capital letter with the lower case letter written on the turkey feathers.  Each child had a turn to draw a feather from the pile and make a match.  If that feather was not on their game board they put it back and the next player took his/her turn.  Once a child had matched three feathers in a row they said, "gobble, gobble!" and the game boards were cleared and the game started over.  Not only did the children work on upper and lower case identification but they were asked to review the letter sounds as well.  This game is a wonderful opportunity to continue to support beginning phonics skills and review letter sounds.

The independent center focused on the new light table in the classroom.  The children were able to freely explore the legos and build creative designs using their own imagination.

The art center was designed to help the children get in the spirit of Thanksgiving!  The created turkeys with their hand prints.  They painted their hand and thumb with brown paint and then the fingers with red, orange, or yellow for the feathers.  The children enjoyed this sensory rich project and had fun creating their turkeys.  Gobble, Gobble!

We created for centers for the children to rotate this week and they will finish them on Monday.  Tuesday is our Grandparents Day celebration.  We will be making a special center piece for each student and grandparent to take home.  We hope that they will be enjoyed and treasured! 

Our Social Studies theme has focused around Thanksgiving and Grandparents.  We read a story about the first thanksgiving and discussed the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.  After the book, we talked about why the Pilgrims and Native Americans were grateful for each others help.  We read another story this week called, The Littlest Pilgrim and how she wanted to help the people in her village but everyone told her she was too little to help until she met a Native American girl and together the two of them were able to help each other.  The class discussed ways that they help around their house!  We also read the story, The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey  and then turned into a float for the Thanksgiving Day parade.  Everyone made their own favorite food for the old lady to swallow that they might bring to a holiday dinner like Thanksgiving!  Everyone learned a game that involved using oral language, listening skills, and memory recall called, "On Thanksgiving Day..."  Each child started by saying on Thanksgiving Day I will bring... and then they listed their favorite food.  The next person said, "On Thanksgiving Day I will bring..." and then they listed the person before them choice and then added their choice.  For example, "On Thanksgiving Day I will bring a turkey."  The next child says, "On Thanksgiving Day I will bring a turkey and a pie."  We rotated every three or four children so as not to make the list too long:)  Everyone also was able to fill out a booklet about the things they were grateful for.  We played a rhyming game about hunting animals like you would a turkey and then letting the animals go.  The children have been doing a super job in all of our rhyming activities which help build phonemic awareness and with their literacy skills.  To practice shape identification, the children played a game to hide a turkey under a haystack with a shape on the outside like circle, rectangle, hexagon, etc.  The children called out Turkey, turkey in the hay, Hiding on Thanksgiving Day!  Then they guessed, "I think the turkey is under the purple circle haystack."  We would peek under and then try again until the turkey was found. 

Next week on Monday we will finish the four centers from this week with the final rotation.  We will complete our books on being thankful and share those with each other.  We will focus on the grandparents day visit for Tuesday.  On Tuesday, the class will perform three songs with the Kindergarten class.  When the grandparents come to visit in the classroom, we have a special project to complete with our guests.

There is no school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of next week. 

December will take us into our Gingerbread Man and Fairy Tale Theme Study!  We will be reading and comparing a variety of fairy tale stories and enjoying plenty of hands on projects. 

Week of November 8 - 11









What a beautiful Fall week we all enjoyed!  The students were so happy to be back from the very long weekend away from school and we spent most of out time outside.  We read a story called Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf during circle time that showed the life cycle of a maple tree.  When we went outside, we went on a hunt for more beautiful Fall leaves to display in the classroom!

On Monday, we celebrated Ally's birthday!  Happy Birthday Ally and thank you so much for the yummy cupcakes and juice. 

We had a special visitor help us in the math center and read, There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie during circle time!  Thank you to Luke's Grandma for coming in and being a part of our morning!
 







We shared a new story this week during the morning meeting titled JK Star Rules. This book helps us all to remember what the rules of the classroom are and why we need them in order to learn in the room.  We have a new job on the helper board, leader.  This job is given to many students in the room when I need help showing others what a star student looks like.  I can call on one of the leaders and they will show me and the class a safe body, quiet lips, and respectful choices.

The morning meeting helper has an added responsibility to help with the morning letter.  Not only will he/she track the words to help the class read the letter, he/she will write his/her name on the board, and he/she will help fill in the missing beginning letter sound to words in the letter.  For instance, one sentence on the board usually reads: We have music today.  But each day a new beginning letter sound will be missing so the board might read: We have _usic today.  The JK kids think this is hysterical that I would forget to write some letters on the board!  They are having a good time helping me remember what letter comes at the beginning of different words.

We began four centers this week: fine motor, listening, math, and language arts.  We did not get to all four centers this week and we will be finishing them up on Monday and Tuesday of this coming week.  In the fine motor center, students were able to work with the Handwriting Without Tears wooden pieces to make letters.  Ms. Becker talked them through the creation of the letters using the HWT language, for example saying, big line down, little curve at the top makes a Capital P.

In the listening center, the JK kids had a choice of the computer, listening to a story on tape, or working with the Leap Pad activity books.  This is an independent center where the children are able to navigate these activities on their own.

In the math center, the JK kids explored shapes such as diamonds, squares, and triangles.  The students freely explored the shapes and built objects such as trains while learning or reviewing the names of the shapes as they created.  They also continued to practice their counting skills by telling how many shapes they used to build their object.  Next week the children will build on their knowledge of these shapes and create patterns with shapes, tell simple addition and subtraction stories, and continue to count the number of objects used in the patterns.

In the language arts center, the JK children worked on the -ack family words.  We built a rhyming list of words that they would find in the story Jack.  Some students practiced beginning sounds, rhyming sounds, sight word recognition, and tracking words on a page.  Each group lesson is differentiated to meet the needs of the individual child.  When everyone has completed this center, the Jack books will go home.


Free Choice is a great time for the students to choose activities that they enjoy the most.  They build social skills, independence, and creativity every morning! 




Thank you so much to the Bach family for donating this new light table!  The children are exploring with Lego blocks during free choice.  We will be introducing a variety of color wands too so they can explore mixing colors in a different way!




The writing center is set up for the children to use a variety of tools to write and explore with with such as chalk, dry erase markers, crayons, play-doh, scissors, and all kinds of materials.


Third Grade Reading Buddies!  Every other Thursday!!!

 




We were busy preparing for Grandparents Day this week as well!  The JK kids practiced three songs that they will perform on Tuesday morning.  We encourage you to turn in your form indicating who will be here for Grandparents day as soon as you can so we can be prepared for the Grandparents to join us for the performance and in our classroom!  Grandparents Day is November 23 beginning in the gym at  9:00a.m.

Thank you for meeting with me during Parent Teacher conferences.  I hope meeting has provided you useful information on your child's academic skills.  I thank you for your insight in getting to know each of your children better too.

October's Scholastic Book Orders came in last week and were placed in your child's mailbox.  The November orders will be due on November 23.  December orders will be available beginning the week of November 29 and due on December 10 for those of you that will not be able to make it in for Roycemore's Book Fair December 6 -10.



There is no school Wednesday, November 24 - Friday, November 26 for Thanksgiving Vacation.  Classes resume on Monday, November 29.

Centers for the week of November 15-19 are language arts, math, and art.  The students will be creating turkey hand prints, playing turkey bingo (matching upper case letters and lower case letters), and making patterns with shapes.

The students will be focusing on the Thanksgiving Holiday through stories, poems, games, and art.  They will be preparing for the Grandparents Day visit as well.