Dear Parents, I can hardly believe Winter Break is right around the corner. This year has flown by and I am truly honored and blessed to be your child's kindergarten teacher. It is so much fun taking a step back and watching your children eagerly look for Jingle the Elf as they rush into the classroom with huge smilies on their faces. I have to say, they are really good at finding her (or maybe I'm just running out of tricky hiding spots). This week I even recorded a high pitched Miss Visicaro also known as Jingle so the children could hear her talk!Check out some pictures below! This week we began Unit 2 in Fundations. The students were introduced to tapping out/ reading CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. To begin, I used my Standard Sound Card display to make the word mat. I said each sound separately and then blended the sounds together. I then modeled how to tap fingers and then blend words together. Other words we practiced were: map, mad, sad, sat, and sap. They did so well with this! I am so proud of how far along they are coming! In Math, the children practiced to count on from a number other than 0 or 1. First, we reviewed the different types of counting (counting forward and backward by 1s and counting by 10s). Then, I explained that today they are going to practice counting by 1s from a number other than 0 or 1 and that I am going to interrupt their counting. We sat in a circle and I called out a number and pointed to one child to begin counting from that number. After a few numbers were counted, I used a stop sign to stop counting. Then, I pointed to another child to continue the count from wherever the previous counter left off, or from a new number. The next day, the children learned how to use a calculator. I asked them some simple questions and they pressed the correct number key and then on/c to clear the display. Take a look at the powerpoint presentation I created to go along with this lesson :) On Wednesday, the children were given a Dice-Throw Grid and their own pair of dice. The children worked independently to roll and record the sums of dice throws on their graph. The graphs were complete when one column was filled. Once every child finished, I recorded each child's winning number on the class grid. The children noticed that the middle numbers were more likely outcomes because there are more than one way to make those numbers. The next day, the children used their bodies to make different shapes. Check out our adorable pics below :) During Guided Reading/Literacy centers, the children rotated through 5 new centers. They are described/pictured below.
In Literacy, the children made reindeer hats, learned about Kwanzaa, created paper stockings, and completed a Christmas tree graphing activity. I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!
Warm Regards, Miss Visicaro Dear Parents, First and foremost I want to congratulate your adorable children on a job well done at their music concert this past Tuesday. I was so proud standing in the wings watching them all sing their little hearts out! They all worked so hard to make it so special! Thank you all so much for coming! Jingle the Elf was very sneaky this week. The children could not hold back the giggles as they searched and searched for her whereabouts. Check out some of her hiding spots this week down below :) In Fundations, the children learned the last two letters: z-zebra/z/ and qu-queen-/kw/! Hooray! I explained to the children that we call q the "buddy letter" because it will never ever go anywhere without its best buddy u. Also, u does not count as a vowel when it is with u, it just sits there to keep q company. To make it fun, I called on a student to come up to the front of the room. I then whispered a letter name to him/her and had the student form the letter with their finger on the large writing grid. The other students decided which letter was formed and said the letter-keyword-sound. In addition, the children practiced identifying rhyming words. I read a rhyming story that I projected on the whiteboard titled "Colors." I then read the same book again but had the students find the rhyming words. I called on a student to come up to the board and circle the rhyming word on each page. I was so proud of them! They did AWESOME with this! Next, we played a game! Each child was given a whiteboard and their job was to either draw a picture, write the beginning sound, or write the word that rhymed with the picture projected on the board. Take a look below! In Math, I introduced the number line to the children and showed them how to add and subtract using a number line. To make it more fun we played a game of course! One child rolled a die and stood on the number. Then another child rolled the other die to determine if the other child should add steps or subtract steps. The next day, we played Top-It. We picked two cards from a deck. The children read the numbers and told me which number was more and which was less. The child that selected the larger number got to keep both cards. On Wednesday, I introduced the Pattern-Block Template. To begin, we reviewed the shapes that were introduced thus far. Then, I modeled how to draw each shape on the board. After distributing the templates to the children, I instructed them to create a picture/design with their pattern-block templates in their journals. They even added labels and wrote about what they created! On Thursday, I introduced the addition symbol and how to write an addition number model. The children were given addition mats and drew pictures to help solve the addition number stories. On Friday, the children extended my shape patterns. They used whiteboards to draw a picture of the shape that came next in my pattern. In Guided Reading/Literacy Centers, the children rotated through 5 new centers. They are pictured below :)
Unfortunately, I can't reveal everything we did in Literacy but I can tell you that the children have worked super hard to create extra special gifts for each of you! To close the week, we created a class book all about the month of December. We brainstormed what we see, hear, and smell in December first. Then, the children were given one of the senses mentioned above to write about. Some examples are pictured below :) Well, that does it for now! I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!!!
Warm Regards, Miss Visicaro Meet Jingle the Elf! She surprised the children this week with her appearance and all her challenges! I had so much fun writing secret letters from Jingle, surprising the children with little gifts, and hiding her in silly places around the room! It was so cute to see the children spot her when they walked into the room every morning! Check out the pictures below :) In Fundations, the children learned two new letters: y-yellow-/y/ and x-fox-/x/. There are only two more letters to go! Once again, the students helped me get the sentence frames I needed so I could write the sentence I dictated . After I wrote the sentence correctly, the students helped me read the sentence as I pointed to each word. In Math, we played the "Train Game." I gave each child 12 unifix cubes. I then called on a student to roll a die. The children took the rolled number of cubes and added or subtracted them to/from the train. The game ended when the train had 12 cubes/cars. They loved this! The next day I asked the children to share what their favorite color was. We took our data and created a bar graph to display our information. After the bar graph was made, we analyzed our data and concluded that red and blue had the most votes, and yellow and purple had no votes. On Wednesday, we practiced counting by tens. To further practice counting the children sang and counted along to the "Snowflake Song" and a Penguin Counting Powerpoint presentation I displayed on the whiteboard. Check them out below! Also in Math, we practiced identifying and making teen numbers using a double tens frame and played tic-tac-toe with partners! During Guided Reading, the children rotated through 4 new centers while I read with my reading groups. Check them out below :)
In Literacy, the children learned all about the different holiday traditions and made some very special gifts for all of you! We also spent some time reading stories about Hanukkah and making a cute little mosaic Menorah out of teared pieces of construction paper. During Independent Reading, the children used Toobaloos and pointer fingers to read the books in their reading folders quietly in their special reading spots. They also were challenged to write all the sight words they could find in the books they read. Well, that does it for me! I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your weekend. I look forward to seeing you all at our music concert on Tuesday night!
Warm Regards, Miss Visicaro |
Mrs. NorkArchives
June 2018
Categories |