Kinder-Whale Tales! Dear Kinder-Whale Families, I hope you are enjoying the start to your winter break so far! We have had such a busy week--the month of December always seems to fly by! I will definitely miss our dear Kinder-Whales over the next two weeks! One of the featured items shown above in this week's news is a video of the students practicing their song to sing to their fifth grade buddies class: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! The students did a wonderful job performing it in front of our fifth grade buddies, before presenting them with their gifts! Please read on in the weekly news to see what we made for our buddies! The other item that is featured above in this week's news are the holiday cookies math activity, that reads, "Holiday cookies on my tray, how many will I eat today?" The students then wrote a number sentence to show how many cookies are on their tray. They also used this activity to review which kind of cookie had more vs. fewer. Check out the pictures above! They all did such a wonderful job, and their "cookie trays" are proudly displayed in our classroom! Holidays Around the World Last week, we started learning about different holidays around the world. More specifically, the students learned about Hanukkah, how it is celebrated by Jewish people, and what some of their customs and traditions are, including lighting the candles of the menorah, playing with a dreidel to win Hanukkah gelt (or chocolate coins), and eating latkes (potato cake with applesauce). Because of all of the activities that we had planned, we did not have time to learn about the other holidays. However, we did glue on all of the pieces in our "Holidays Around the World" circle booklet. All of these booklets were sent home with students on Thursday. I strongly encourage you to read this booklet with your child so that they can learn about the different holidays that are celebrated around the world! We were able to introduce some of the concepts in class, but we barely scratched the surface. Some of the interesting information that we covered was how in Italy, La Befana, an old lady with a broom, comes to clean children's rooms and brings them presents. The students were surprised to hear that La Befana would come to them instead of Santa Claus. In the Netherlands, the children leave one show outside of their homes. Over night, Sinterklaas fills their shoe with goodies, treats, and presents. Sinterklaas kind of sounds like Santa Claus! I wish we had had more time in class to go over each of the holidays. If we had had more time, I would have set up each area of the classroom so that it stands for a different country and has the items that they use to celebrate their holiday. Please click below to hear how the holidays are celebrated in England! The Holidays Celebrated in Mexico Las Posadas & the Miracle of the Poinsettia The students learned a brief lesson on how holidays are celebrated in Mexico. They learned that posadas are little parties that they have nine days before Christmas. On each of those nine days, a posada is celebrated at a different house. During a posada, it is tradition to have a pinata. We did a book walk of a story called Nine Days to Chrismas: A Story of Mexico. We also read a story called The Miracle of the Poinsettia, a story about a little girl named Maria, who does not have anything to offer to baby Jesus on Christmas. As everyone else is presenting their gifts to baby Jesus on the altar, Maria hides outside of the church and peeks in. She hears a voice from up above that tells her that whatever gift she offers will be special because it will come from her heart. Maria then grabs some weeds from outside of the church. When it is her turn to present her gift, she closes her eyes in embarrassment and says a silent prayer. When she opens her eyes, in place of the weeds are red stars (poinsettias), and outside of the church where all the weeds had been, there were poinsettias. It was a beautiful Christmas miracle! Afterwards, we made our own poinsettias to hang up at home to remind us that it is the thought that counts and that anything that comes from the heart is always special. The Holidays Celebrated in the Muslim Culture Eid Mubarak - Eid-al-Fitr In a previous weekly news post, all families were encouraged to share about their holiday traditions with the class. I would like to thank Ahmed and his family for bringing in a wonderful book to share about how his family celebrates the holidays. The class read a story called Ilyas & Duck and the Fantastic Festival of Eid-al-Fitr by Omar S. Khawaja, a story about a young boy named Ilyas and a Duck who learn about the similarities and differences among holidays that are celebrated around the world, including Christmas, Hanukkah, and Eid-al-Fitr. Eid-al-Fitr, also known as Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the breaking of the fast or the end of Ramadan. Eid begins on a night of a crescent moon and is celebrated by visiting and gathering with friends and family, eating special foods, wearing new clothes, and giving and receiving gifts. The students were amazed to hear that one of the things that they do when celebrating Eid is to visit amusement parks! Additionally, during Eid, it is a time to be grateful for what they have and to be charitable by donating to the poor or less fortunate. The class discussed similarities and differences between Eid-al-Fitr, and their own holiday traditions, including Christmas, Las Posadas, and Diwali. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about each others' cultures! Countdown to Christmas Bells! The students enjoyed making the rings using a red and green pattern. Each ring signifies a day in the countdown to Christmas! Fun fact: the day after Christmas marks the first day of Kwanzaa! (A holiday that we were supposed to learn about, but ran out of time--I encourage you to look it up and discuss it with your child, to keep their minds engaged over the winter break!). Centers: Letter Gg and Sight Word Go: This week, our letter of the week was Gg. The Kinder-Whales did a wonderful job coming up with as many words as they could think of that begin with the letter Gg, and that make the hard /Gg/ sound, such as in the word, gorilla. The students won't learn about the soft /g/ sound, such as in the word gingerbread, until towards the end of Kindergarten or more so towards the beginning of first grade. Our sight word of the week also happened to begin with our letter of the week: Go. They did a fantastic job of using the word "go" in complete sentences. As mentioned in a previous weekly news post, the students will have their first spelling test on the sight words that we have learned when they return in January! Please help them prepare :). Centers: Holiday Themed Activities! This week, the Kinder-Whales labeled a reindeer and did a word search where they looked for holiday words, such as reindeer, wreath, elves, sleigh, light, etc. For many of them, it was their first word search puzzle, and they enjoyed the challenge of trying to find the hidden words! There will be more word searches for them in the near future! Holiday Booklets: The students created two booklets this week: A Very Merry Mouse and My Little Elf. For the first booklet, the students learned about positional words, including in, on, under, and beside. Then they used their thumbprint to put the mouse in the correct place, after reading the sentence. For instance, "The mouse is under the tree." The students had to stamp a mouse under the tree on page 2. The second booklet was a little more involved. The students attached a bell and drew on a reindeer face, glued some cotton balls for Santa's beard, and decorated the other pages to complete their Little Elf booklet. Please click below to hear Maya read A Very Merry Mouse aloud! Reindeer Hats! The students enjoyed making their reindeer hats in preparation for our little performance for our fifth grade buddies! They loved putting on the red glittered nose to show that they're all Rudolphs! Math: One More: The students are continuing to review how much is one more. Students looked at a word problem and then drew one more, and wrote down the new total. We practiced doing this with smaller numbers (between 1-10) and with numbers in the teens. We also practiced doing this using numbers up to 100. The students are starting to realize that any number plus one more is just the next number when counting. For instance, one more than 71 is just 72 (the next number). Soon, we will start to go over what it means to have one less (subtracting one), which is where the ability to count backwards will come in. More vs. Fewer: Our second math focus this week was looking at more vs. fewer. The students were given a number, and then were asked to find which one has more or which one has fewer. For instance, students were given the number 7, and had to circle the set of objects that had fewer than 7 (6 oranges, 7 oranges, or 8 oranges). December Calendar The students are continuing to learn and apply what we are learning in math in their daily calendar. Our next SEAL unit, which will begin in late February, will be on weather. One of the pictures below shows our weather graph to track the kind of weather we have had in December. We had mostly sunny and cloudy days in December and a couple of rainy days. The students are also continuing to use different forms to showcase numbers, including showing amounts on ten frames, using tally marks, and showing it on domino. In the month of December, we were able to make numbers up to 16, and the students began to write addition sentences! Please see the pictures below! | Reminders and Updates: Upcoming Events: Winter Break: 12/21/15 - 01/01/16 School Resumes on 01/04/16 Week of 01/04/16:
RECAP: Holiday Spirit Week! Thank you to everyone for showing off your holiday spirit and participating in our holiday spirit week! It was so much fun to see the students wearing their holiday sweaters on Monday, holiday socks on Tuesday, holiday hats on Wednesday, holiday pajamas on Thursday, and holiday everything else on Friday! Check out all of the fun photos below! Holiday Tree Project Presentations On Monday, the students all did a fantastic job of presenting their holiday tree project! The students remembered to introduce themselves and to make eye contact with the audience while sharing information about what they used to create their beautiful holiday project. Thank you to all of you for your hard work, dedication, and support at home! Everyone did such a wonderful job! You've Got Mail! The students have been working really hard on their writing skills during our guided writing centers. They were super excited to write letters to all of you to say thank you, share how much they love you, and to wish you all a happy holiday! Earlier in the week, we all put a stamp on our letters, sealed them, and then went to the office and placed our letters in the outgoing mailbox for the mail carrier to come pick up and deliver! On Thursday, students came in to the classroom and were super excited to share that they had received their card in the mail! It is such a great way to apply what we are learning at school to their real life! Please see below for a video of the students dropping off their cards in the mail! Chorus Concert! On Thursday, we all attended an assembly and enjoyed a wonderful performance put on by the chorus assembly. The Kinder-Whales loved singing along to songs that they knew the words to and they had so much fun dancing as well as watching the Spartan Cheer Team perform! Gifts For Our 5th Grade Buddies! To go along with our reindeer theme for the week, the Kinder-Whales decorated and made reindeer lollipops for their fifth grade buddies! They also enjoyed singing their Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song to wish their buddies happy holidays! They loved sharing with their buddies what they had planned for the two week break from school! Reindeer Treats! To continue on with our reindeer theme, the Kinder-Whales made reindeer themed treats, using Oreos, frosting, pretzels, and M&Ms! Check out their adorable reindeer snacks below! All Aboard the Polar Express! To end our week, the students watched the Polar Express and enjoyed hot chocolate with a candy cane to mix their hot cocoa! At the end of the movie, each student went home with a bell, delivered by Sparkle the Elf! Please read below, under the adventures of Sparkle the Elf! Adventures of Sparkle the Elf! Our classroom elf took one of our students by surprise when she discovered him hiding in her pencil box! No worries though! Because she didn't want to risk touching him and making him lose his magic, she chose to use the shared supplies at her table. Sparkle also really loved all of the gifts that students brought in, including a blanket from Namit, a pillow from Bruce, a large blanket from Marissa, and another medium sized blanket from Annie. We found him in the funniest places, including taking a nap with Nemo, listening to the headphones while wrapped in a blanket brought in by Namit, and hiding in one of the students' brag bags with all of the drawings that the students made of Sparkle! On Sparkle's last day with us, he wrote us a letter, thanking all of the Kinder-Whales for teaching him so much, such as how to write the date and how to skip count up to 100. Sparkle also shared how much he loved it when the students sang about his friend, Rudolph, and he told Rudolph all about it! Sparkle heard that we were going to watch the Polar Express, so he asked Santa if he could have some of the bells from his sleigh to give to our class. He shared with Santa that not everyone celebrates Christmas, so Santa gave him bells that ring for everyone! We will miss you, Sparkle, but maybe we will see you next year! Starfish of the Week: Norah! Norah did a fantastic job as our Starfish of the Week! She helped to make sure that the students stayed focused and completed their work--she was such a tremendous help, especially during one of the busiest weeks of the school year, the week before the winter break! On Tuesday, Norah brought in a few of her favorite books to share with the class. One of the books that we read aloud was Frozen, Anna's Birthday Surprise. The students especially loved all of the parts when Elsa sneezed and created all of these tiny snowmen! Norah also shared a second book called Pinkalicious and the Snow Globe by Victoria Kann. On Thursday, which was also the same day that everyone got to come to school in their pajamas, Norah brought in her special item, which is a cute and snuggly teddy bear that she goes to bed with. Norah shared that she has had the special item since she was a little girl and that it is special to her because it was a gift from her family. On Friday, Norah did a wonderful job presenting her All About Me poster during her Starfish Talk Show. She introduced us to her family, including her dad, Russell, her mom, Eileen, and her baby sister, Ellie. When she gets older, she would like to be a baker, which is an important community helper, indeed! Norah shared how she loves to help her mom cook and bake at home. She also shared that she likes to help her dad build things by handing him the tools that he asks for :). Norah is a very talented young girl, and she shared with us a few of the things that she is good at doing, including dancing and being a big sister. Someday, she would like to visit Walt Disney World so that she can meet all of the characters. The Kinder-Whales also loved learning all about Norah's favorite things, and they were excited to make connections when they heard that Norah loves the Golden State Warriors, Rainbow Dash (My Little Pony), Hello Kitty, the movie Frozen (Elsa, Anna, and Olaf), Disney princesses, especially Aurora the Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel from Tangled. Norah's parents wrote her a very sweet and loving letter, sharing how much they love her and how proud they are of Norah and all of her accomplishments! They especially love what a wonderful example and big sister Norah is for her younger sister, Ellie. Norah teaches her little sister everything that she has learned--she is a little teacher! One of their fondest memories is whenever Norah would sit them all down and put on a performance for the family! She would grab her microphone and make up words and sing in her baby talk, making priceless expressions! Norah started performing for her family at one and a half years old and continues to perform for them to do this day! She asks her dad to introduce her to the audience using specific phrases such as, "Now coming to the stage, Norah Bonifacio!" :). Just as Norah continues to bring joy and laughter to her family at home, she also does the same while she is at school! She is a wonderful part of our class! Excellent job as Starfish of the Week, Norah! Next Starfish in January 2016 Norah will randomly select our next starfish of the week when we return in January. She will pick out a number from a basket. Thank You! Thank you for taking the time to read through the weekly news! And thank you all for your wonderful and thoughtful gifts! I am so grateful for all of your generosity and thoughtfulness and I am thankful and blessed beyond words! Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart! I hope you all have a restful and enjoyable winter break! We have been in school for 86 days, and I am already dreading the 180th day! I look forward to another six months with our dear Kinder-Whales when we return in January! I wish you all a wonderful, prosperous, and Happy New Year! Please leave a quick comment with a New Year's Resolution that you, your child and/or your family have for 2016!!! Warm Wishes, Mrs. Lorenzana |
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These Kinder-Whales light up my life with their sweet smiles and precious hugs!
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Mrs. LorenzanaKindergarten Teacher at Spangler Elementary Archives
June 2016
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