Our First Five-Day Week!

What a great week we had in Room 111!  Thank you again for all those that have brought a snack to share.  We still haven't received the final word on if PPS will provide a fruit/vegetable snack this year so your donations are helpful.  If you'd like to donate, please visit SignUpGenius to sign up.

Learning Routines:  This week we practiced and learned new routines in our classroom and at Grout.  On Monday we met our School Counselor's (Ms. Staples) friend, Sammy and friends (a kind Sasquatch stuffy) to help us learn about Lock-Down Drills in case someone comes into our school that is not supposed to be there.  This curriculum explains in very developmentally appropriate terms why and how we practice "locks-lights-out of sight".

In other routines we're practicing how to "turn-and-talk" with a neighbor, walk quietly in the hallway, use the bathroom responsibly ("Go, Flush, Wash, Leave"), and how to line up when the whistle blows at recess.  Students are getting better at eating during lunch time and cleaning up their space when we are done.  It is great to see them take more and more pride in THEIR school and feel a real sense of belonging.

Literacy: We started our first book study with Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten.  We are learning how to look and listen closely to books we hear, noticing, wondering, and learning as we go.  We have already noticed a lot about how the story is told with both the words and illustrations and that when we learn new vocabulary we understand the story even more.  Students acted out various parts of the story to better understand and remember what happens and we'll continue this work into next week too.

Foundational Skills for Reading:  Most students were able to have a turn taking the MAP Reading Fluency test on a chromebook this week.  We like to have students do this in small groups with plenty of adult support as it is the first time using computers.  Students must name items they see on the screen, look at words, letters, sentences, and see how much they already know.  This is something we'll do two more times in the year to see their progress.  

In class we introduced the first 3 letters: t, b, and f.  Students practiced their names, their sounds, and their picture cues (t, top, /t/; b, bat, /b/; f, fun, /f/).  We practiced writing these lowercase letters in the air with our fingers, tracing on paper, on whiteboards, and identifying them on letter magnets we'll practice putting in alphabetical order.  This learning also introduces students to how letter may look differently in books (font) than how we write them on paper.

      

These three letters all start on the "Sky line" and go down to the grass line.  Please take out the papers in your child's "Take Home Folder" to see more about the Fundations curriculum and how phonics and letter formations are taught.  Some students didn't have a folder so look for a stapled set of pages in their backpack.  

We also had our first chance to do some writing this week.  We are learning about ourselves; our identities, both externally and internally.  Students drew a self portrait using mirrors and various colors to match their skin, eyes, hair, and clothes.  Afterwards many students worked on writing something about themselves that you might not know just by looking at them.  Students were invited to use symbols, letters, and colors to tell about themselves.  They dictated their "writing" to me and I wrote it on the bottom of their page, but I know I didn't get to all of them so be sure to ask what they wrote about on their portrait. 

Math:  We continue to build our Math Mindset as we explore various math manipulatives we'll use this year.  This week we played with and explored pattern blocks, unifix cubes, counters, transparent discs and colored tiles.  We'll use these for counting, sorting, patterns, and building shapes.  Ask your child what they did with them this week.

          

   

During our calendar time we are learning how to say the date, the names of the days, the names and numbers of the month, and we are counting each day we come to school to fill 10 frames and notice base-10 counting works.  We are also learning the names and attributes of four basic shapes: circle, square, triangle, and rectangle as we notice a pattern repeating each day on our calendar. 

          

Garden Class:  Teacher Abby came to our class on Wednesday to introduce us to the Grout Garden.  She had several activities for students to do when we went outside: planting radishes, sorting seeds, touching and smelling various plants, finding small insects that make the Garden their home, making petal bracelets with tape and fallen flower petals and leaves, and we learned about the safety rules in the Garden (top 2: no running and no standing/jumping on the rock seats).  When we came back to class we enjoyed a short story called How to Say Hello to a Worm.

Here's a few more stories we read this week: