When I think back on the week I think of tremendous growth in this class! We had many opportunities to learn and practice math and reading skills, but there were significant opportunities to grow socially and emotionally. As always, I am so proud of your children! Thank you for supporting them and me.

Daily 5-We continue to work in reading groups to introduce new books and work on different reading strategies. Thank you for reading these at home on the weekend! A highlight for me Friday was when a student wasn’t thrilled about his Daily 5 choices so I asked him for a new idea to do. He wanted to write on a white board, so I opened up the whiteboards for the class to use to write words they found around the room. The majority of the class decided to do this and they were completely engaged in this activity. They were working quietly, moving around the room to find different things to write and then read it back to me. When it was time to stop, many asked if they could continue this during play! My answer: of course! J

Bible-We listened to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders (and sang the old Sunday School song) and the Parable of Pharisee and the Tax Collector. We learned to build our house on the rock-Jesus and to pray with a humble spirit. It has been so neat to review the parables we have read and listen to your children retell the story and the lesson we learn from them.

Math-We worked on adding with ten and seeing groups of ten plus more. We were able to use manipulatives from the classroom to add to make teens. We reviewed numbers partners and looked at numbers with more than one partner. For example 3 and 3 are partners to make 6 and so are 1 and 5 as well as 2 and 4. We also practiced addition and subtraction. We continue to practice writing teens making sure the 1 is first and numbers are not reversed.

Phonics-We listened for beginning and ending sounds in words and then practiced changing them. It was great to hear the kids make the sounds and they could hear the differences.

Poetry-We continue to add color words to our word wall. Wednesday afternoon we practiced writing them as we made rainbows to show some signs of spring in our classroom.

Handwriting-We practiced lower case y, j and p. My favorite comment was a student who said later in the week, “You know, it really helped me to practice writing y.” J

Exploring God’s World/Science-We are beginning our unit called “Is It Living?” Our field trip to Garden Crossings was a great introduction. I thought the class did a wonderful job learning about seeds and plants. I am especially proud of how they listened to the same book twice in a day! I found “Mortimar’s First Garden” at the library Wednesday and thought it would be perfect to read before our field trip to the library, so I checked it out and read it to them Friday morning. When we got to the field trip our first center was listening to the same book! Thankfully, it is a great book and the kids also enjoyed it…twice.

Wednesday, March 29-Wacky Wednesday!  Dress wacky, mismatched, backwards, etc to celebrate March is Reading Month.

March 31-April 9 Have a great Spring Break!

April 21-ZCS Auction!

It felt so good to have a full week of school this week!  I am feeling healthy again and I think our whole class is also almost there too 🙂  I was able to work with each child individually to do a few assessments to share with you during parent teacher conferences.  It is so nice to have that one on one time with your child.  It is wonderful to see how they have each grown this year and we still have a few more months to go!

Reminders:

No School Monday-Parent Teacher conferences

Tuesday-Parent Teacher Conferences

Thursday, March 23-Author Visit from Amanda Barton @ 9

Friday, March 24-Field Trip to Garden Crossings

*We will leave the school at 10:15 am and return by 11:50 am.  *We are all set for drivers, but because all the kindergarten classes are going on a field trip that morning, we are looking for a few booster seats.  I have all of the drivers using theirs.  If your child does NOT ride the bus and you are NOT driving, please email me if you can leave your child’s booster seat for the field trip.

Wednesday, March 29-Wacky Wednesday!  Dress wacky, mismatched, backwards, etc to celebrate March is Reading Month.

April 21-ZCS Auction!

Please continue to pack snow gear just in case we have 2 inches of snow fall during the day (crazy!).  It is also a good idea to continue to send boots or outside shoes for your child.  The playground is wet much longer than the snow stays.  Thank you!

During Daily 5 this week reading groups received new books as well as kept some of their old ones.  It has been great to see them reading these throughout the week.  I think everyone packed their book bags in back packs for the weekend.  Please send these in Tuesday this week.

In Bible we continue to learn about the parables Jesus told. We read about the Midnight Visitor and how we can talk to God anytime and ask him for anything!  We also read about the Parable of the Great Banquet and how we are inviting people to a heaven when we share the love of God with them.

In handwriting we worked on lower case k.

In Writing we continue to work on sounding out words and also making sure there is a space between our words.

We added two new words to the word wall: green and yellow.

In Math we talked about number partners.  The two numbers that we add together to make another number are partners.  We realized that numbers can have many partners.  We used our fingers to show different partners.  It was a fun way to wiggle our fingers during Math.

In Phonics we practiced stretching out words by saying the initial sound, then the rest of the word and then the whole word.  We practiced this by playing a few different games. I have learned that this class loves games! It has been a fun way to practice skills for reading and writing.

On Friday afternoon we enjoyed a little St Patrick’s Day fun by looking for hidden shamrocks in class and finding the matching word wall words written on the.  We also received a scoop of Lucky Charms and graphed the different marshmallows.  It was fun to the kids to see how each scoop was different.

I’m going to try to condense the last two weeks into this blog post.  During this time, I have challenged your children to control their bodies as they move around the classroom and play with friends.  I have challenged them to control their voices to know when to listen and when to speak.  These are big challenges for Kindergarten!  They are working hard and trying their best.  We pray every day for God to give us the strength to do these big things!

It has been so excited to see the growth in your children as well.  There are moments during Daily 5 that I am able to sit back and watch each child fully engaged in their choice for the round.  There is a gentle hum in the class and they are working hard.  It has been amazing to see growth in this area as well.  Children are trying their best to stretch out words and sound them out as we read.  They continue to be very excited when they recognize word wall words.  It is awesome!

A quick reminder to please send in book bags on Monday.  It is helpful for me to stay organized in switching out books when each member of the group has their books when we meet.   Thank you!

In Bible, we are starting to learn about parables.  It is fun to hear the stories Jesus used to teach a lesson.  As we learn a parable, we will make a small paper craft to help us remember the lesson.  We will save these and they will all go home when we are finished with the unit.

Writing Workshop: The class is beginning to write small moment stories.  They are stretching out their story from the beginning, middle and end.  Each child is working so hard on sounding out words!  I am so proud of them.

Math: We continue to work on teen numbers-writing them, recognizing them and seeing the pattern of 10 + single digit = teen.

Phonics: We made a list of -ay words.  The class is really catching on to these patterns and can spell out the words in word families.

Word Wall Words/Poetry: The last two weeks we have added red and blue to our word wall. We are reading poems about each color and I have encouraged each student to write their own sentence to add to the poem.  I love to read their sentences.

As part of our March is Reading Month activities, this past Wednesday Mr. Joustra (4th Grade teacher) came into our class to read Chicken Little to our class and I went to the 4th grade to read to his class.

March 15: Wear black and bring a flashlight to school!

March 20: Parent Teacher conferences (No School)

March 21: Parent Teacher conferences (full day of school)

March 24: Field Trip to Garden Crossings