Kinder-Whale Tales Dear Kinder-Whale Families, I hope you are having a fantastic weekend so far! This past week was an exciting one for the Kinder-Whales as we began our first SEAL unit! A letter was sent home with information about our first unit, which is all about COMMUNITY HELPERS! We have already started learning about what a community is and who makes up a community. For the next 6-7 weeks, from now until the first week of January, the students will be introduced to different community helpers. For the first week, we learned all about doctors! Featured above in this week's news are two projects that the students completed: a medical kit that doctors use and a kid-sized skeleton craft to help us learn about bones. Please read below for more information about the SEAL strategies that we used in our community helpers unit! To start the week off, we learned a community helpers song and came up with movements/gestures to go along with the words. Please enjoy the video below: SEAL: Community Helpers At the beginning of the week, the students were asked if they had heard of the word "community" before. At the time, 9 students said they had heard of the word and 11 students said they had not (1 student was absent and another was tardy that day). Next, we read aloud a sentence that had the word community in it to see if we could figure out what community means using context clues. The sentence was: "I live and go to different places in my community." The Kinder-Whales turned and had a collaborative conversation with a partner about what they think community means and which part of the sentence helped them. After discussing it with a partner, the students shared their thoughts with the class. A few students said that the word "live" helped them to think that a community means homes because that is where people live. Other students said the words "different places" made them think of places such as Safeway, Walmart, Target, and school. Students also came up with a community being a neighborhood, city, or town, which are synonyms. After identifying a few places that make up a community, we started talking about all the people that are also found in a community. Students were introduced to our Community Helpers song (shown above). All of the activities contributed to our final meaning of the word: A community is a group of people who live and work together in the same area/place. The first community helper we learned about is a doctor! The students were very excited because many of them want to be a doctor when they grow up. We completed a circle map with statements: doctors can, doctors have, doctors are. Then we read a few doctor books, including Let's Meet a Doctor by Bridget Heos and A Visit to the Doctor Liza Charlesworth. In the books, we focused on a second vocabulary word: patient. Again, students were asked who has heard of the word and who has never heard of the word. We applied the same strategies of using context clues from the sentence: "A doctor helps a patient feel better" to help us figure out the meaning of the word. After some more collaborative conversations, we came up with: A patient is a person who is sick, hurt, or needs a check up. We also learned that there are different kinds of doctors, including pediatrician (doctor for kids), X-ray specialists, bone doctors (orthopedist), and animal doctors (veterinarians)! In addition to our letter of the week centers, and sight words centers, we also had community helpers centers, with activities to help us learn more about what doctors do. Community Helpers Centers The students had so much fun sharing stories about all the times when they went to the doctor. They especially loved to share stories about how they went to the doctor to get multiple shots and they didn't even cry! :) A few students also shared about a time when they broke a bone and had to get a cast. We talked about how doctors have to use an X-ray to see pictures of our bones. Then we read a few stories about skeletons and learned the main parts of our skeleton, including our skull (a helmet that you can never take off), our spine, our rib cage, our collar bones, the joints in our knees and elbows, etc. Afterwards, the Kinder-Whales made their own skeletons! The other community helpers stations included making a bracelet using skulls and black beads, labeling the parts of a skeleton, coloring and reading a Community Helpers booklet while also reviewing the sight word "see", and making the doctor's medical kits (featured above in this week's news!). Throughout the week, as we thought of more community places and helpers, we added them to our Community circle map with pink for the places and green for the helpers. We will continue to add to the circle map throughout our 6-7 week unit. Letter Nn & Sight Words Centers Our letter of the week was Nn! The Kinder-Whales worked collaboratively to come up with as many words as they could think of that started with the letter Nn. Then they shared out what their group came up with, with the class. Every time someone came across a word that begins with the letter Nn, we added it to our Chit Chat circle map. Throughout the week, the Kinder-Whales completed letter Nn centers, which included coloring and reading a letter Nn booklet, completing worksheets to practice correctly forming the letter Nn (both uppercase and lowercase), drawing pictures of items that begin with the letter Nn, finding and circling letter Nn, and sorting pictures of items that begin with the letters Bb, Nn, and Tt. The students also reviewed the sight words "like" and "my" in our sight word centers, where they had to search and find the word, color in the letters of each word, unscramble mixed up spellings of the word, and write the words using tall and short letter boxes. They did a wonderful job! Math Counting and Numbers 0-10 In math, the students reviewed numbers 0-10, and were introduced to how to compose and decompose numbers from 0-5. First, we looked at how to make the number 1 using our hands and fingers: if the left hand had one, then the right hand would have to have zero to make 1. Then we discussed ways to make 2. If the left hand had one, then the right hand must also have one to make 2 OR if the left hand had two, then the right hand must have zero to make 2. We continued doing this individually up until 4, and we found that the higher the numbers got, the more ways there were to make that number. Next, we worked with a partner to show all the different ways to make 5 using our fingers and using linking cubes. The students came up with the following:
November Calendar This week, the Kinder-Whales also started their November calendar! We learned a new November song (video will be posted next week). We are continuing to work on developing our number sense using tally marks, ten frames, domino dots, etc. We are also practicing counting forward beginning from any number. The Kinder-Whales have also been practicing place value by counting by ones and tens and will continue to do so to count the number of days that we have been in school. So far, we have been in school for 60 days! We are also continuing to graph the daily weather (rainy day this past Monday!) and the monthly birthdays using bar graphs and tally marks. We also discussed how October is the 10th month, which makes November the 11th month. As a result, when we are writing our digital date, instead of a 10, we now write an 11 first, followed by the number of the day, and then the year 2015. By now, the Kinder-Whales have learned the August song, September song, October song, and now the November song! There will be a new song for every month. | Reminders & Updates Next Week:
UPDATE: Fall Conferences: Confirmation Emails: Thank you so much to everyone for signing up for a Parent Teacher Conference! Confirmation emails will be sent out on Monday, November 9th along with a brief survey. Please keep an eye out for that email! IMPORTANT Info About Report Cards: During Parent Teacher Conferences, we will be conveying current progress on Common Core standards. Our district will be using a Standards Based Report Card, which will be measuring end of the year standards using the following scale: 4: Exceeds, 3 Met, 2 Approaching/Nearly Met, 1: Not Met/Area of Concern. As a result, because we are still teaching many of the standards, please do not be alarmed if you see mostly 1's or 2's on your child's report card. I will go over this more in depth during conferences. I will be using as much data as possible to provide you with a thorough understanding of where your child is at this time of the school year. Upcoming Events in November
RECAP i-Ready Testing The Kinder-Whales did a wonderful job taking their i-Ready assessments throughout the week! They all learned how to log in to their i-Ready accounts on their own (slowly but surely)! We took tests in both reading and math. i-Ready test results will be shared with parents and families at Parent Teacher Conferences. Please keep in mind that this is just one data point in your child's academic performance. Happy Birthday, Annie! On Thursday, November 5th, we celebrated Annie's 6th birthday! The Kinder-Whales were all very eager to say and share all of the nice things that make Annie such a wonderful student and friend! For instance, students shared how Annie is a great peacebuilder, Annie makes everyone around her happy, Annie is helpful and plays with everyone, etc. Annie certainly does a fabulous job of making sure that everyone is involved! Thank you to Annie and her family for bringing awesome foam toys to share with the class! The students enjoyed making the projects! We hope Annie had a lovely 6th birthday! READ! READ! READ! Next week is National Young Readers Week! For more information, click here to get access to a FREE online book for each day of Young Readers Week! Monday: What Ever Happened to the Dinosaurs? Tuesday: Crow Boy Wednesday: I Love You, Blue Kangaroo! Thursday: The Snowy Day Friday: The Wedding A "Readers Assemble and Find a Book for Every Mood!" double sided poster was sent home to encourage all students to read, read, read as much as they can! Starfish of the Week: Marissa! Marissa did a marvelous job as our Starfish of the Week! She was especially helpful in making sure that all of the Kinder-Whales stayed focused by saying, "Waterfall!" and having the rest of the class respond with, "Shhh!" She helped us to remember that we do our best thinking when it is quiet. Earlier in the week, Marissa read aloud her favorite book, How Do Dinosaurs Laugh Out Loud?, another amazing story by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. The Kinder-Whales couldn't stop laughing at all of the witty little jokes found in the book, from dino-snores to tricera-bottoms! The Kinder-Whales were very intrigued by all of the interesting special items that Marissa brought in to share. They were surprised to learn that Marissa has lived in many places from Oklahoma to Kentucky to California and many more places in between! Marissa also shared that she has been to Wyoming, but didn't get a keychain from there because it was just for a brief stop during her moves/travels. Everyone listened intently as Marissa read aloud the captions in her special photo album, detailing all of the places taht Marissa has lived in, including her move to California. They all got excited when they saw a picture of Marissa on the first day of Kindergarten. Her photo album is AMAZING and is definitely a keepsake for years to come! The Kinder-Whales also LOVED hearing the stories from letters written by Marissa's parents. Her Dad shared the story of when Marissa first went sledding when Marissa was finally old enough. They rode in a pink sled and went down big hills, small hills, and curvy hills. They still relive those fond memories as a family by looking at pictures and watching videos captured by her mom while Marissa was sledding with her dad. The Kinder-Whales also loved hearing a funny memory from her mom: When Marissa was two years old, she went from sleeping in her crib to sleeping in a toddler's bed. Everyday at nap and bedtime, her mom would check on Marissa and she would find her sleeping in funny positions (please see pictures below!) from being curled up in her rocking chair, sleeping with half her body hanging off the side of the bed, and even on the floor! The Kinder-Whales LOVED seeing all of the pictures to go along with all of the funny positions described, and they kept asking and asking to see the pictures again and again! Her parents also shared how special Marissa is to them. She is such a a happy girl whose joy is infectious -- and we've certainly experienced this in class! Any time Marissa laughs, it makes everyone around her happy as we laugh along with her, too! Her mom also shared that Marissa will ask questions that make them ever thankful for Google (as a teacher, I also agree with this statement--thank goodness for Google!). Marissa is certainly wise beyond her years and asks questions that most people wouldn't think of! She keeps her parents on their toes -- and I love that her mom pointed out that this is an idiomatic expression, an ongoing concept that we are learning about in Kindergarten! Other things that Marissa's mom enjoys doing with her are looking for license plates from new states, comparing leaves, having dance parties, and going on dog walks. On Friday, Marissa had her Starfish Talk Show and she did a wonderful job of presenting her poster. She shared that she would like to be a teacher when she grows up and her students would call her Miss Marissa. She also shared that she is really good at reading, swimming, and baking. When Marissa shared about her favorite things, including water, snow, dancing, and her globe, a few of the students remembered the pink sled from her dad's story of the time when they went sledding. A place that Marissa would like to visit is Disney World because she says she has never been there before. The Kinder-Whales had a BLAST learning all about Marissa this week. She has had so many great adventures, and we look forward to sharing more laughs and memories together with Marissa and the Kinder-Whales!!! Next Week's Starfish: Anthony! Thank You! Thank you again for taking the time to read through the weekly news! As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to meeting with you at Fall Conferences beginning this upcoming week! For this week, please leave a quick comment with your child's favorite joke and punch line! Warm wishes, Mrs. Lorenzana |
6 Comments
Monique Johnson
11/8/2015 05:06:12 pm
Bruce's favorite joke is: " why does a house talk? Because there's a cow inside".
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Stephanie Guthrie
11/8/2015 05:21:39 pm
Marissa's favorite joke is, "How does a dinosaur laugh out loud? With a huge dino roar!"
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Ira McGee
11/8/2015 05:41:40 pm
Brookie's favorite joke from movie - Inside Out, "Thank you ,San Francisco, for ruining pizza!"
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Mohamud
11/8/2015 07:15:53 pm
Ahmed's fav joke is. Knock, knock. Who's there? Cow says. Cow says who? No silly, a cow says moooo!
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Rebecca Brackett
11/10/2015 11:18:14 pm
Mia's eyes lit up and she began laughing hysterically when she heard her Aunt say "Whoever smelt it, dealt it" for the first time.
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Jennifer Yeoh
11/11/2015 02:59:47 pm
Shannon's favorite joke is "Where does pencil go for vacation? To Pennsylvania"
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Mrs. LorenzanaKindergarten Teacher at Spangler Elementary Archives
June 2016
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