This week we read the story, Flower Garden.  We practiced, "turn to your partner".  To use this strategy, students have to look and listen to their partner and take turns discussing. The vocabulary words we practiced from this story were pedestrian, passenger, eager, and assortment.  The centers the students worked at this week were read to self, listen to reading, and word work.  In Jolly Phonics we learned the sounds for the letters e & h and used all of the letter sounds we learned so far to make words.  Our new popcorn word was, in.  In our Michael Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program, students are reviewing letter names and sounds.  They are also listening to words and deciding if they rhyme or not, as well as beginning sounds of words.  The letters we focused on for handwriting were the "frog jump capitals" D & P.  Our math activities this week have focused on counting, number recognition and number order. 

Last week we learned a new strategy in reading called, "turn to your partner".  The students were able to practice this strategy through the story, Cat's Colors.  The new vocabulary words we learned from this story were: soar, tangled, snooze, and drowsy.  The popcorn word we focused on this week was, it.  In Jolly Phonics we learned the sounds/actions for the letters n, and c,k.  We also made words with letter sounds we have learned already (s,a,t,i,p,n,c,k).  The upper case letters we worked on in handwriting were: F, E.  These are two of the "frog jump" capitals because when we make these letters, we start at the top, make a big line down, and then frog jump back to the starting point to finish the letter.  The students worked in centers during reading time.  They listened to a story at the listening center, worked on The Imagination Station computer reading program, and read to themselves.  They are doing so well learning the daily 5 routines and working at them independently!  In math we are working on counting and number recognition.  Students are counting forward (from 1 and random numbers) and backward to one.  We are putting numbers in order and counting objects.  We are also matching numbers to sets of objects.  The students have enjoyed working in partners and small groups to complete math activities.

We've had another great week in kindergarten!  We read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and other fun stories by Laura Numeroff.  The vocabulary words that we introduced through these stories were generous, nuisance, energetic, and exhausted.  If you hear these words at home, it's because we talked about them a lot this week and tried using them in our conversations.  In Jolly Phonics we learned the sounds of i & p.  We made words with the letters that we have learned so far (s, a, t, i, p, n).  Our new popcorn word was, I.  We heard it popping up in our reading all week.  We introduced and practiced the next daily 5 activity: Listen to Reading.  The kids were able to practice listening to a story on our listening center and on the computers.  In math we did counting activities.  The kids are counting objects, matching the amount to the number, putting numbers and number words 0-20 in order.  We are also learning place value with the number of days we are in school (12= 1 stick of ten and 2 ones).  We've been counting forward each day from 1 and also backwards to 1. The students seem to enjoy having class jobs and we will start the student of the week program next Friday.  Thank you for getting those posters in on time :)  Have a great weekend!   

We have accomplished so much in our first 7 days of kindergarten!  The students are doing a wonderful job adjusting to school!  We have been learning and practicing the behavioral expectations around our school and in the classroom.  We have started our reading program, Making Meaning, and our Jolly Phonics program.  This week we have learned the sounds for s, a & t.  We will be doing the Daily 5 during our literacy time, so we practiced the first center, Read to Self.  We also began our popcorn word program. The first word we learned was, a.  The class went to music, library, gym, recess, and practiced our first fire drill of the year. Next week we will be taking Maps test (see below at "A Peek At Next Week") and we will go to art class.  Have a great weekend!