December 19, 2011

• In Math we will be learning how to count to 20.  A new Workplace begins this week called, "Beat You to 20".  Students will play a game using unifix cubes, which will help them understand how to count to 20.
• In Language Arts we will be reading books about Christmas.  We'll also look at poetry and focus on "rhyming words". 
• In Social Studies we will focus on Christmas celebrations from Mexico, Germany, and the United States.
• Keep reading for "December Book-It".  The "January Book-It" calendar will be placed in their folder this week so your child can continue to read over the holiday break.
• Heart Words of the Week:  Review all the words they have learned so far.
• Special Theme This Week: "Christmas Celebrations Around The World"
• Gift Exchange:  There won't be a gift exchange between students in Kindergarten for the upcoming Holiday Party.
• My final day to teach in Kindergarten is December 23.  Mrs. Matulis returns on January 9.  Thank you for the opportunity to teach your child since September.  I have many fond memories and will miss the students and staff at Hollywood.  Thank you to everyone who has assisted in some way these past months. You are so appreciated!  Much joy to you throughout the holidays!               Miss Koehneke

December 12, 2011

• In Math we will be learning more about "counting and comparing".  The students will get to count, and then decide if their number is more, less, or the same.  We are reviewing counting to 50 by ones and counting by tens to 50 and beyond!
• In Language Arts we will be reading books about reindeers and Christmas.  We will focus on "sequence of events" as they read this week.  You can use words like " first", "next", and "last" to understand this skill. 
• The "December Book-It" calendar is in the green jungle folder.  Have a "jolly good time" reading!
• Heart Word of the Week:  "to"
• Special Themes This Week:  "Reindeer" and "Christmas"
• Gift Exchange: There won't be a gift exchange between students in Kindergarten for the upcoming holiday party.
• The Giving Tree:  Thank you to all who participated with this special project.  Your generosity is much appreciated!
• Box Tops:  Keep saving these for school!
• Check out the Lakeshore Schools' website for additional information about menus, newsletters, and much more!

December 5, 2011

• In Math we will be learning about "growing patterns".  The students will learn how to count by two's.  A new Workplace will begin this week where they will be able to "count and compare pennies". 
• In Language Arts we will be reading more "Gingerbread" books.  Last week we compared a couple of the books by reviewing details from the "beginning, middle, and end" of the stories.  This week the class will learn about "characters and plot" in a story.  "Adjectives" or describing words will also be introduced in stories and with their writing. 
• The "December Book-It" calendar was sent home last week.  Enjoy reading some holiday books as you work towards your monthly goal. 
• Heart Words of the Week: Review "see" and "go".
• Special Theme of the Week:  "Gingerbread"
• Gift Exchange:  There won't be a gift exchange between students in Kindergarten for the upcoming holiday party.  Instead I encourage your family to participate with the Giving Tree in the school lobby. 

November 28, 2011

• In Math we are working with Ten-Frame cards and matching them to a number card.  The students will be figuring out pattern block puzzles and enjoying Workplaces that relate to these lessons.
• In Language Arts we will be reading many "Gingerbread" books.  We will brainstorm some words that tie into this theme.  The class will be introduced to "verbs" in their reading and writing.  These words show "action" in a sentence.
• November Book-It:  Only a few days left to complete the November calendar.
• Heart Word of the Week:  "go"
• Special Theme of the Week: "Gingerbread"
• Gift Exchange:  There won't be a gift exchange between students in Kindergarten for the upcoming holiday party.  Instead, I encourage your family to participate with the Giving Tree in the school lobby.
• Thanksgiving Food Baskets:  Thank you to all who donated food for this special Hollywood project.  Many families were in need this year and appreciated our help!

November 21, 2011

• In Math we made another paper quilt with blocks of squares and blocks with trees.  This will be on display in the hallway soon, where you can check out the students' observations about the quilt they made.
• In Language Arts we are reading many Thanksgiving books.  Some are fiction and others are non-fiction.  The rebus stories are great because they have part words and part pictures.
• In Social Studies this week the three Kindergarten classes will switch and learn something about the Pilgrims and Native Americans.  Make sure you ask your child what they learned.
• November Book-It:  Take time to "gobble up a good book" and read over Thanksgiving break.
• Heart Words of the Week:  Review words from previous weeks.
• Special Theme of the Week: " Thanksgiving"
• Thank you to Mrs. Rydzinski and her third graders for inviting us to their play last Friday.  We loved talking afterwards about the setting and characters from that play.
• Gift Exchange:  There won't be a gift exchange between students in Kindergarten for the upcoming holiday party.  Instead, I encourage your family to participate with the Giving Tree in the school lobby. 

November 14, 2011

• Math: We heard the story, Butterfly Countdown, and also learned about number words.  This week we will make pattern block designs.
• Language Arts: We are learning how to make and confirm predictions of stories we read.  We also take time to point out "rhyming words" in poems and books we read.
• November Book-It sheet: It's in the green jungle folder.  Happy Reading!
• Heart Word of the Week":  "see"
• Theme of the Week:  "Thanksgiving"
• Kindergarten Progress Reports:  They will be given to the parents at the November Parent Teacher conferences this week.  A formal report card will be sent home at the semester break in January.
• Conferences: They have been scheduled.  If you are unable to make the conference, please notify the school.  These will last only 15 min.  It is very important to arrive on time so that we keep on schedule for all the conferences.  Thank you!

November 8, 2011

• In Math we are learning about tally marks and how they are used for counting.  A new Workplace called, "Bucket of Frogs", was recently introduced.  Here the students are sorting them by color, size, or other markings.  They are using the counting mats to count them in groups of ten.
• In Language Arts we are learning how to identify the "character" in a story.  The students will learn about the "beginning", "middle", and "end" of a story. 
• The November Book-It sheet was sent home last week.  Happy Reading!
• Heart Words of the Week Review:  "a" and "like"
• Special Theme of the Week:  "Seasons"
• Kindergarten Progress Reports will be given to the parents at the November Parent Teacher Conferences.  A formal Report Card will be sent home at the semester break in January.  Any questions or concerns for the conference may be given to me ahead of time. 
• The Halloween Parade and Class Party were a huge success and lots of fun!  Thank you to all the adults who helped make it a wonderful time for everyone!

October 31, 2011

• In Math we wrap up this first marking period with review of counting, making patterns, understanding shapes, and enjoying Math Workplaces.
• In Language Arts we continue to review beginning sounds in words,.  This week we will practice "p", "s", and "a" as we read and write.  We will focus on "compare and contrast" in our stories.  This will allow us to tell how things/people are alike or different.
• The "October Book-It" calendar may be turned in by November 1.  The November calendar will be sent home this week. 
• Heart Word of the Week:  "a"
• Special Theme of the Week: "Basic Needs of Living Things"
• Kindergarten Progress Reports will be given to the parents at the November Parent Teacher Conferences.  A formal Report Card will be sent home at the end of the semester in January. 

October 24, 2011

• In Math we worked on counting and sorting with Ten-Frames.  Students used Unifix Cubes to create patterns.  Ask them how to make an ABAB, AABB, ABC, ABBA, or an ABCD pattern.
• In Language Arts we "Word Sweep" down our arm.  We first sound out the beginning, middle, and final consonant sounds of the word, and then we "sweep" the whole word down our arm.  "Characters" in a story tell us who does what in the story.  We will learn more about that and review the "Setting" of a story. 
• This is the final week to complete your "October Book-It" calendar! Return it back to me for a free personal pan pizza coupon from Pizza Hut.
• Heart Word of the Week:  "like"
• Special Themes This Week:  "Bats" and "Spiders"
• The Pumpkin Centers last week were so much fun!  We took a survey of which one was the best one.  Most liked Scooping Out the Pumpkin.  Others enjoyed Pumpkin Poetry, Pumpkin Sequencing (how the pumpkin grows), Pumpkin Glyph (designing the pumpkin face in a personal way), Pumpkin Stories, and Pumpkin Labels (what parts of the pumpkin are called).

October 17, 2011

• In Math this week we will continue practicing patterns, sorting, counting, and using graphs.
• In Language Arts we continue to write every day.  Students are making progress with adding more details to their writing and illustrations.  We also talked about the "setting" of a story, where it took place.
• October Book-It:  Keep reading!  There are only a couple more weeks in the month to complete your calendar and return it to school.
• Heart Words for the Week:  Review  "we"  and   "the"
• Theme for this Week:  "Pumpkins"
• Our room parents, Mrs. Iliff or Mrs. Petzke, will be contacting some of you soon to donate items for the Halloween party, give you the opportunity to assist in the classroom prior to the parade, or work at the class party. 

October 10, 2011

• This week is "Fire Prevention Week".  Grades K-2 will learn more about this from the firefighters on Tuesday.  Take time as a family to practice a fire drill at home.  Don't forget to check your smoke alarms! 
• Congratulations to Ella whose ticket was drawn at the Harvest Fest last week for the scarecrow our class made!
• "October Book-It" calendar is clipped inside your child's green jungle folder.  Happy Reading!
• Heart Word of the Week:  "the"
• Special Theme of the Week:  "Leaves/Fall"
• Kindergarten Room Parents:  Mrs. Iliff and Mrs. Petzke  They will work with the teacher to plan the upcoming class parties.  They will also notify parents to donate items or to volunteer on the day of the party.

    

June 3, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-The reading strategies we practiced this week included rereading and identifying cause and effect.

-During writing, we finished up our pirate books.

-We also worked on a memory book this week.  We drew pictures and wrote about some of our kindergarten memories.

-In math, we finished up by practicing some addition problems.  We had a picture and needed to figure out how the addition problems fit with the picture.

-Our community centers this week included some of our favorite centers that we have had throughout the year.

-This is the last post of the year!  I have loved working with you all!  It's been great having such supportive parents!  I have also really enjoyed teaching your child.  It is amazing how much growth they have made over the year.  Watching all the growth your child has made is one of my favorite parts of teaching kindergarten!  Have a great summer!! 

May 27, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Continue reviewing heart words so your child can read and spell them correctly.

-The reading strategies we worked on this week included rereading and using the illustrations when we do not understand something.

-In writing, we started creating a fiction book about pirates looking for treasure.

-During our math time, we practiced solving addition and subtraction problems.

-A few of our community centers this week had a pirate theme to them.  At our art center, we made telescopes out of paper towel tubes.  In dramatic play, we reenacted a pirate song about someone looking for treasure.  We also made our own treasure maps.

May 20, 2011

 

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-We are all finished with heart words.  Review old heart words!

-We read some dinosaur books this week and practiced asking questions to ourselves to help us better understand the story.  We also worked on distinguishing between fantasy and reality while we read the dinosaur books.

-As a class this week, we wrote a fiction story about a lost caterpillar!  We practiced brainstorming, using transitional words, and creating a story that has a beginning, middle, and end.

-In math, we were introduced to two new math centers.  One math center gives us "blue prints".  From these "blue prints", we have to build a 3-D creation.  The other math center works with pattern blocks.  We have to manipulate the pattern blocks so they all fit together and fill one large shape.

-Our science time focused on learning about some of the body parts of butterflies.  We also learned about some of the functions of those body parts.  One of our favorite activities was acting out the life cycle of a butterfly.  While we were a butterfly, we were able to apply some of the information we learned about butterfly body parts.

-Many of our community centers continued to follow our butterfly theme.  We really enjoyed our art center!  We cut out a butterfly, painted one side of it, folded it in half and discovered that it made the exact same design on the other side!

-On Thursday, we played a little game to learn that Mrs. Matulis is having a boy!  Afterward, we enjoyed a special blue treat!

May 13, 2011

Wild Week of Learning in Kindergarten

-Last heart word of the week: where

-The reading strategy that we focused on this week was categorizing.  We practiced thinking about how to group things together.

-During our writing time, we did a variety of activities.  As a class, we practiced using the words "first", "next", "then", "last", to write about the life cycle of a butterfly.  Also, we added some writing to our butterfly garden.  We made labels and speech bubbles to teach people what is in the garden.

-For math, we added a new center called, Frog Jump Measuring.  We jump like a frog and measure how far we were able to jump.

-In science, our focus this week was learning more about caterpillars.

-Our community centers were once again full of butterfly activities.  One of our favorite activities was making a caterpillar out of grass seed, dirt, nylons, and pipe cleaners.

-This week, we also had the opportunity to work in the garden!

May 6, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: me

-The reading strategy we focused on this week was asking ourselves questions while we are reading.

-In math, we finished up making and solving our frog and toad story problems.

-For science, we began our unit on butterflies.  This week, we focused on the life cycle of a butterfly.  We also created a butterfly garden within our classroom.  We constructed plants and flowers.  We also made all the different stages of a butterfly and hung them in our garden.

-Our community centers were full of butterfly activities.  In our butterfly garden, we acted out the life cycle of a butterfly.  We also practiced retelling some butterfly books in our butterfly garden.  Another highlight from our centers this week was observing our caterpillars.  We enjoyed checking them out with magnifying glasses and writing about them in our butterfly journals. 

April 29, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: my

-The reading strategies we practiced this week were making conclusions and figuring out the story structure.

-We finished our nonfiction book about plants this week.  We put it together, shared it with friends in our classroom, and shared it with Mrs. Ashley's class!

-In math, we created and solved frog story problems this week.  Some of them practiced addition and subtraction skills.  Others really made us think hard by having us comparing quantities and putting frogs into groups.

-Our theme focus for the week was on recycling.  We read some books about the importance of recycling and some ways we can recycle.  We were also visited by Princess Wasteful.  We were able to teach her some different ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

-Our creation station was a highlight of our community centers this week.  Many of us spent most of the week at this center.  Another highlight is our recycle center in our dramatic play area.  At this center, we practiced sorting recyclable materials.

April 21, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: with

-We read a variety of stories this week and practiced the reading strategy of retelling.

-We have enjoyed two different writing projects this week.  One project focused on writing a nonfiction book about plants.  Our other focus was on writing poetry.  We learned about writing poems that describe something, poems that have onomatopoeias (sound words), and pattern poems.  On Friday, we were able to publish our favorite poem!

-In math, we started solving a new batch of story problems.  For these story problems, we used pictures and numbers to help us solve them.

-We continued our focus on plants this week.  We looked closely at the different parts of plants and what their job is.  We also went over various plants parts that we eat.

-Many of our community centers were the same this week.  Our flower shop has remained open and we are enjoying arranging flowers and delivering them around the classroom.  We also have dirt with lima beans in our science table.  It has been a lot of fun watching the beans in the dirt start to grow roots and a stem.  A new center this week focused on examining and sorting seeds.  We used tweezers to help us pick up the seeds, which also helped us with our fine motor skills (hand and finger muscles).

April 15, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: look

-This week, we focused on some of the common features of non-fiction books.

-During our writing time, we were introduced to how to write poems.  This week we started learning about list poems.

-In math, we were introduced to new pictures for our calendar.  Each of these calendar pictures shows a different device that we can use to measure.  All of the devices either measure length, weight, time, or temperature.

-Our science focus this week was on plants.  We talked about various types of plants.  We then did a nature walk to practice spotting the plants.  We also talked about what plants need in order to grow.  We started an experiment to prove whether or not plants actually need what we came up with.

-Our community centers were full of plant activities.  Our dramatic play turned into a flower shop.  We enjoyed creating bouquets and delivering them to our friends in the classroom.  We also painted a flower this week using our hands, feet, and arms!  At our science center, we are exploring dirt with some lima beans in it.  In addition, we planted some grass seed in individual cups.  We are looking forward to watching it grow!

March 31, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: has

-We worked hard this week on the strategy of making inferences.  We read three great books about Miss Nelson.  These books were full of fun little clues that helped us solve some mysteries of the story.

-During our formal writing time, we wrote another nursery rhyme inspired story.  We wrote about where we might find Little Bo Peep's sheep.  With this story, we worked on positional words.

-We learned a new math center this week.  It's called, Beat You to 30 cents.  With this math center, we are practicing exchanging 10 pennies for a dime.  We are also working on recognizing numerals and comparing quantities.

-Our community centers were mostly the same as last week.  We continued to act out and explore various nursery rhymes.  One of our favorite centers was acting out Humpty Dumpty with our bricks.

March 25, 2011

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: he

-The reading strategies we worked on this week involved identifying characters and identifying the setting.

-In writing, we wrote a story inspired by the nursery rhyme, Hey Diddle Diddle.   We practiced making our stories more interesting by adding adjectives.

-A new measuring center was introduced this week during math.  We are using towers of ten cubes to measure various objects around the classroom.

-A big focus this week was on nursery rhymes.  We practiced identifying rhyming words.  We also practiced acting out the nursery rhymes.  We focused a bit on the verbs and changed them to a different action.  We then acted out the nursery rhyme in a slightly different way.

-Our centers were full of nursery rhyme related activities.  We acted out Humpty Dumpty in our brick area.  We also acted out Hickory, Dickory, Dock on the rug with a gigantic clock.  We were able to move the hands on the clock to practice telling time by the hour.  In our dramatic play area, we acted out Pat-a-cake.  We also did a Jack and Jill inspired experiment at our science center.  We used various sized buckets and we compared which one held the most.

March 18, 2011

Needed

-3 oz. dixie cups (used for snack)

Wild Learning in Kindergarten 

-Heart word of the week: she

-This week in literacy, we practiced making visualizations in our head while we are reading.  We also practiced distinguishing between reality and fantasy.

-We read many different versions of The Three Little Pigs this week.  We compared them to see how they are the same and how they are different.

-In math, we practiced sorting sea creatures and frogs in as many different ways as we could think of.

-During our science time, we continued to talk about weather. We started to connect our current weather with the season.  We talked about Spring and the various things we might see.  We also went on a weather hunt and used our senses to learn more about Spring!

-During our community center time, we had many of the same weather centers.  One of the new centers was our art center.  We painted wind pictures by using a straw to blow wind.  At science, we did an experiment with various materials to see if water would absorb or repel.

March 11, 2011

Needed

-3 oz cups (used for snack)

Wild Learning in Kindergarten

-Heart word of the week: was 

-With our focus book this week, we worked on visualizing while we are reading.  We also talked about the setting of the story. 

-In math, we were introduced to the word "estimation".  We now have a new math center where we take a handful of sea creatures, make an estimation, and then we count them to see if our estimation was right.

-We started learning about weather this week.  We received a DVD from a robot named Glinda.  She comes from outer space and knows nothing about weather.  As we are learning about weather, we are recording this information down, so we can give it to her.  This week, we have been learning about rain, thunderstorm safety, wind, and tornado safety.

-During our centers, we explored what it is like to be a meteorologist.  We also did an experiment to see if object would move when blown.  In addition, we also tried to figure out how to make a toy car move without touching it.  We had a tray, play-doh, and a tooth pick.  It's been neat discovering all the various ways we can move the car.