Searching the Savanna

This week we had a lot of fun in our four days together.  We researched the Savanna.  We even had some volunteers from Windsor High School come help us!

We focused on Asking Questions this week.  Good readers ask questions before, during, and after they read.

 

We read books about the Savanna and about the animals that live there.  We drew pictures and wrote what we learned about them.

 We created Elephants, Lions, and Zebra's with the help of some our High School Volunteers.

Diving into Ecology!!

Measurement- Key vocabulary to use at home:

Length, Height, Width - longer /shorter

Your kids added their own picture definitions for our new word measurement!

Here is how long we are!

Here the kids went around the room to find things longer than their stick and shorter than their stick then they wrote about it in their journals!

The kids drew worms and we organized our worms from shortest to longest!

Then I challenged them to get in order from shortest to tallest without talking to each other.  Here we are!

Readers Workshop

During Reader's Workshop this week kids got partners to support their practice of power goals.  Please don't forget to practice reading each night and practice their power words or power letters.

Writers Workshop- Author's Chair

After researching arctic animals this week your students wrote about what they learned!  I am so proud of their growth!  They did this prompt without any teacher assistance!!

Then kids got to sit in the Author's Chair to share their writing with the class!!

We started our Unit on Ecology and will be studying various habitats and the animals and plants that thrive there.  So we started with the Arctic Region.  So we had an expert on Snow and Ice get us started! :)  And we had an Entire Arctic Day!!

We will be updating this chart each week, watch how it grows! 

WE are waiting for our special visitor we don't know who it is!

 

OH   Queen ELSA! 

They really loved this!  Even our little guys :)

Then we ended the day with a special rotation!!

We tried to match animals to various habitats.

We threw arctic snowballs.

We read books on Arctic Animals.

We noticed the special text features non-fiction books have.

And we created Polar Bear headbands... it was a great Arctic Day.

 

Almost half Way done with Kindergarten!

So here we go in 9 school days your little one will be half way done with kindergarten!  I am so proud of the growth they have made thus far!!

These two did a fantastic job representing our class and our Mirror Mirror project at the School Board Meeting this past Thursday!

We started show and tell this week... be on the lookout in your child's agenda so you know when to send in their item.

In Reading we are continuing to look at fiction and non-fiction text.  We have ended our Zoology Unit and this week we will begin our Ecology Unit!  At the end of our Zoology Unit we talked about what different animals do in the winter, and also discussed the season of winter.

 Ask your child to tell you about Non-Fiction text features.  They know a lot of them. 

 I wanted to share this chart, everyday during our reading rotation kids have an opportunity to catch up on what they need.  Those that need additional math do JiJi Math, if they haven't been reading at home for homework they can read steps, and if they are good on both of those they can go on STARFALL and practice what they need to learn for reading.

 The last thing I want to bring to your attention this week are the power words.  We will really be taking time to learn these as your child becomes ready. :)

 

 

Happy New Year!!

We started off the New Year with a bang!  The kids didn't skip a beat and went right back into their routines!  I missed them soooo much, it was GREAT to have them back!
We have been working on some Math and Reading Assessment to start the New Year with firming up any objectives that may not have been mastered and to help us decide on new goals for the next couple of months.  
A bulk of our week centered around Fish!  We are entering the last week of our Zoology Unit this week so we will finish discussing fish and move into a review of all our animals.
 

 We also reviewed the differences between Fiction and Non-Fiction.

In Math every child was given the SEAL assessment for numeracy to see where we might still have gaps and where we are ready to move for our small group math instruction.  I was very excited about the growth they have made.