This Week in Kindergarten Dear Kinder-Whale Families, This week, we said GOOD-BYE to August, and HELLO to September! The students enjoyed singing our August song all throughout the month of August (all of 13 days). We took turns having different leaders and now we can use the song to help us remember how to spell AUGUST! If you haven't done so already, please ask your child to teach you the song :). You may also watch the video below, with one of our very own Kinder-Whales leading the class in singing the song! Our Kinder-Whales have already started learning our September song and will have it memorized before the end of the month. We have lots of fun things planned for September, beginning with our APPLES GALORE unit, which will begin next week. A letter will be sent home next Friday with more information. I am already counting the days until the Fall season, which starts on September 23rd this year! We had a very busy week, and I tried to take as many pictures as possible. However, not all activities are pictured because some of the activities required my undivided attention :). Please enjoy the pictures and short video clips! Reading/Language Arts Our theme for this week was all about FRIENDSHIP! The Kinder-Whales discussed what it means to be a good friend and shared ways that we can all be good friends to each other. We read Huggapotamus, a story about a friendly hippopotamus who loves to give hugs to his friends to show them how much he cares about them. But when Huggapotamus hugs his friends, his hugs are too strong and the other animals don't like it. As a result, they all don't want to play with him. Later on, Huggapotamus is about to give Benny Lion a hug when he remembers what all of his friends said about his hugs. He stops himself and remembers to ask his friends if they would like a hug. His friends are proud of him and they all play together. After reading the story, the Kinder-Whales did a wonderful job of making connections to the story. We shared examples of times when our friends did something that we did not like and discussed what to do when we are upset with a friend. We also came up with a list of ways that we can be a good friend to each other, such as helping others, being kind, using kind words, sharing, taking turns, listening to each other, playing nicely, playing with someone who might be lonely, and cheering up a friend who is sad. All throughout the week, the Kinder-Whales were challenged with the task of being a good friend as well as catching other students being good friends. We Are the Same! We Are Unique! This week, we also read The Crayon Box That Talked, a story about a little girl at a toy store who overhears crayons arguing about not liking each other. The little girl decides to buy the crayon box, takes it home, and begins to color with the crayons. All of the crayons were amazed and admired blue being the sky, green being the grass, yellow being the sun, etc. At the end of the story, the crayons all realize that they actually do like each other. Just because they are different, it doesn't mean that they can't get along. Even though the crayons are all different colors, they are better together because together, they created a beautiful masterpiece. Afterwards, we created our own "crayon box." The Kinder-Whales each received a crayon to color using their favorite color. Check out our class crayon box, which will be displayed in our classroom! Writing/Handwriting + Phonics We are continuing to review the letters of the alphabet. This week, the students identified words that begin with the letters Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, and Nn. We had fun adding things to the list as well as finding the letters and letter sounds in the names of our classmates, especially when we got to the letter Nn. The Kinder-Whales have also been practicing the user of "uppercase" versus "lowercase" letters, instead of just saying "big" versus "little" letters. We are trying our best to use academic language in the classroom that will prepare us for first grade and beyond! The students are also using this time to work on their fine motor skills by doing their best cutting with scissors and coloring within the lines. Math Numbers 1-5 Last week, we started using our new math program and we reviewed numbers 1-3. This week, we worked on counting, sorting, and identifying groups of objects from 1-5. The Kinder-Whales are also working on neatly writing numbers 1-5 using the proper formation. We are also continuing to look at how things are the same and how things are different. Another concept that the students worked on is spotting small differences between two pictures. We practiced being MATH DETECTIVES and looked closely and carefully to find all of the hidden differences--the students did an amazing job! They were all so proud of themselves! Calendar Today's Date As of Friday, September 4th, we have been in school for 17 days! To help us learn how to write the date in month/day/year format, the students have been saying the "Today Is..." song on a daily basis. This week, we started having some of the students be tiny teachers in the classroom by leading everyone in our daily calendar routine. Days of the Week To help us learn the order of the days of the week, the students have been singing the song as seen in the video below. If you have a calendar at home or if you are able to get one, I encourage you to go over the daily calendar with your child each day. Show them the month, day, of the week, year, and how to write the date. Then the students can receive extra practice by also singing the songs with you at home! We will begin to sing songs about the weather soon! | Reminders & Updates Next Week:
Ongoing Reminders:
RECAP Shape Town! Featured above in this week's news is the shape project that the students completed after hearing the story of Shape Town. To give the students a brief review or introduction to shapes, we listened to a story about the following shapes: Circles, Squares, Triangles, and Rectangles. In the story, the circles do not like the squares, the squares do not like the triangles, the triangles do not like the rectangles, etc. The shapes don't like anyone else but themselves. They all live in separate parts of the town (as shown in the corners of the picture below). One day, the circles are outside playing and they accidentally roll into where the rectangles were playing. One of the rectangles gets so angry that it jumps on top of the circles. Then everyone gets quiet as they all look at what the shapes formed: the rectangle and two circles formed a wagon. All of the shapes got excited! They all wanted to make something new together... and they did! The students were able to realize that the Shape Town story reminds us of The Crayon Box That Talked. At first the characters in the story didn't like each other because they were different. At the end of the story, the characters realized that different isn't bad; we are all different and better together :). After having a lively discussion, the Kinder-Whales were super excited to use the shapes to create their own objects! Check out their cute creations featured above! iReady Testing We are almost done with our i-Ready diagnostic tests! All students have completed their Reading tests, and we have just a few more students who need to complete the Math test. Once all students have completed the i-Ready assessments, I will send home their username and password, so that students can use i-Ready as a learning tool both at school and at home. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please let me know if you have any questions about using i-Ready. Thank You! Thank you again for all of your support! As a reminder, this upcoming week, all of the Kindergarten teachers will be out on Wednesday, September 9th, and Thursday, September 10th, to attend the professional development training for SEAL, which means our class will have a substitute for both days. I will be sure to remind the students on Tuesday so that they are prepared! Because I will be out on both of those days, we will begin our Star of the Week program on the week of September 14th. A letter will be sent home with your child with more information. Also, please leave a quick comment on this week's news post to indicate that you have received the information and to tell me more about your child! For this week, please leave a quick comment letting me know your child's favorite animal AND why! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Have a marvelous three-day weekend! Best wishes, Mrs. Lorenzana |
13 Comments
jayne tang
9/5/2015 11:44:43 pm
Brody loves dogs and sea animals. He's always enjoyed playing with dog since he was little. He's an animal lover overall.
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Ira McGee
9/6/2015 08:28:36 am
Brookie's favorite animal is the polor bear. Because they are soft,fluffy and cuddly .
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Jeremy Coriell
9/6/2015 09:34:40 am
Maya loves camels and elephants, because they are fun to ride on.
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Stephanie Guthrie
9/6/2015 09:50:04 am
Marissa's favorite animal is a cat. She says she'd like to have one because they're so soft and nice to look at. She also likes that they have "fun" names.
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Mohamud Warsame
9/6/2015 05:12:55 pm
"Ahmed loves elephants, because they are strong and fast"
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Rebecca Brackett
9/7/2015 03:50:10 pm
Mia's favorite animal is a Unicorn. She likes them because of their horn and they're magical.
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David Knick
9/7/2015 08:46:34 pm
Austin's favorite animal is the Elephant due to their interesting long trunk, big ears, big feet, and strength. He also likes sea creatures.
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Leon Li
9/7/2015 10:39:44 pm
Annie like dogs. She loves to play with them.
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Monique Johnson
9/8/2015 10:20:17 am
Bruce loves dogs and cats, he thinks they are adorable and loves to pet them.
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Juda Gafurova
9/8/2015 07:31:27 pm
Munisa really like bunnes. She thinks they are sweet, soft and loving...
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Jennifer Yeoh
9/9/2015 01:20:36 pm
Shannon loves kitty cat so much because they're soft, cute and fun to play with.
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Sandra Urena
9/11/2015 11:54:31 am
Anthony's favorite animals are extinct, Dinosaurs! He loves the movie Jurrasic Park and he loves to play with Dinosaur toys!
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Russell Bonifacio
9/13/2015 08:44:21 am
When I asked Norah what her favorite animal I knew exactly what she would say. She loves unicorns because they are magical and pretty :)
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Mrs. LorenzanaKindergarten Teacher at Spangler Elementary Archives
June 2016
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