We had such a fun HIBERNATION day!  We learned about other animals that hibernate, did some great bear measuring and made a hibernating bear craft.  All in all it was a success.  See the pictures linked on the left.

Reading:  We got new books this week in guided reading groups.  Students are learning how to do picture walks and use the first letter of a word to help them figure out unknown words.  I finished trimester 1 assessments this week, too.

Writing:  We are doing a lot of non-fiction writing during Writers Workshop.  Students chose new writing goals during writing conferences.

Math:  We worked on shapes a lot this week during math stations.  We also did some number stories.

Bears:  We learned about polar bears and finished up our panda bear writing.

Field Trip:  We will go rain or shine.  If the weather is too cold we will adjust times to make sure there is plenty of time in the indoor exhibits.

•  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather.  
• Please make sure your child has a disposable lunch!  (No lunchboxes, tupperware, no thermoses, etc.)  The chaperones will have their hands full of hats and mittens and other gear.  Carrying heavy lunches is too much to ask!  
• Make sure your child is on time Tuesday morning.
• Finally, there is no limit on chaperones.  If you would like to join us you are more than welcome!  

Upcoming Dates:
November 25th:  Zoo Field Trip
December 17th:  Winter Concerts-These are always in the morning.  There will be two times.  There will be a reception after the second concert.
December 12th:  Report Cards go homefff
December 19th:  Last Day of School before Winter Break
January 5th:  School Resumes

November 16th

We had a great week in Kindergarten finishing up some of our Reading Literature Standards and beginning to learn about how to read Informational Texts.

Reading:  We worked with our Book Buddies twice this week to begin our bear research projects.  The students had to answer four questions about bears and then present it using an app called  Explain Everything.  When these are completed you will see a digital copy of them.  They are very impressive!

Writing: We continue to work on informational writing.  This week our focus has been on bears.

Math:  We are working on naming shapes and on number stories within five.  Please practice identifying these shapes at home:  square, rectangle, triangle, circle, hexagon, rhombus.  In general the students know the shapes, but right now only one student knows all 6 shapes consistently.  Keep practicing!

Bears:  We are gearing up for our trip to the zoo!  We have learned a lot about bears and will continue to learn about them this week.  One thing we are very excited about is our HIBERNATION DAY on Friday!  Students can wear pajamas to get ready to hibernate.  They can also bring a special book from home to read (under our tables...I mean...in our dens).  Students can bring a bear snack- such as fish..or goldfish, teddy grahams, honeycomb cereal, berries, gummy bears, etc.  We will also have a teddy bear picnic...so a TEDDY BEAR is a must!  We will all eat in the Kindergarten pod on towels with our bears.  Parents are welcome to join us for our picnic, but there will be nothing formal.  If your child plans on getting hot lunch on Friday, we will make sure they get their milk or hot lunch. 

50th day of School and Bears...Oh My!

We had a great 50th day of school.  Your kids looked great!  They had a lot of fun learning about the number 50 and about life in the 1950s.  The dance party was great.  The pictures, taken from the ipad, were all pretty out of focus.  As you can imagine...it's hard to get kids to stop moving when at a sock hop!



Dates:
Monday, November 10th:  No School in honor of Veterans Day
Friday, November 14th:  Permission slip due
Tuesday, November 25th: Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo

 Reading: We took our summative assessment on characters, settings and main events this week.  The students have made so much progress on this standard and I expect they will continue to show great things.  As we discussed at conferences, we most expect to see an AP (approaching proficiency) at this time of year.  We will be looking at these assessments as a grade level and scoring them together. As soon as that is done I will copy the assessments and send them home.

Writing:  We started nonfiction writing this week!  We started by writing about things we know a lot about.  Soon we will look at text features, like captions, labels and diagrams and add that to our writing.   This will all come in handy when we do our BEAR RESEARCH project!

Math:  We continue to work on writing numbers correctly.  We used the "wet, dry, try" method of practicing during math stations.  Mr. Degman came in again to help us learn the names of all the pattern block shapes.  Look for an assignment to be emailed to you.  Of course we also spent some time counting to 50!  (Look for the rest of the pictures linked to the left!)

Bears:  We will begin a study of bears for the next few weeks.  We will learn about bears while applying our nonfiction writing, reading nonfiction books, using technology to publish writing and to address the science standards of animal habitats.  Be sure to send in the permission slip by next Friday to the Brookfield Zoo!

Stand up to Cancer:Has your child come home talking about funny pictures of the teachers standing in funny places?  This is part of a "Stand up to Cancer" campaign that the student council is sponsoring.  Your child can "vote" for their favorite picture by putting some money in the their favorite picture's envelope.  All the money goes to Cancer Research.  Money accepted until next week!