WEEK OF NOVEMBER 6

This week in:
Reading we--

• Talked about what good buddy reading looks like
• Read Dex, The Heart of the Hero, and discussed that, as readers, we have reading superpowers just like real superheros.  To build our reading muscles and stamina, we need to use our reading superpowers.
  
  
  
  
  
• New popcorn words: like, to 

Writing we--

• Wrapped up our Looking Closely unit
• Practiced counting words in sentences
• Continued learning about syllables and how it helps us write words 

Math we --

• Introduced the 10 frame
• Made 10 frame turkeys
• Gareth taught us a domino game that he invented!  It reminded me of Qwirkle.  We all played and loved it!  Thanks Gareth!

Practice at home:
As I hand out the popcorn words at conferences, I wanted to share with you ideas I have pinned on my sight word board on pinterest.  Obviously there are many more ideas to choose from, but I thought I'd get you started with these, if you're interested. 
https://www.pinterest.com/bmelevsky/sight-words/

WEEK OF OCTOBER 23 AND 30

This week in...

Reading we: 

• Retelling is one of the skills we work on throughout the year in kindergarten.  I hope everyone was able to hear their child retell the Big Pumpkin Story.  They all did a nice job in school.
• We started "shopping" for leveled books this week.  
• Introduced syllables and did an activity about how many syllables are in our names
• Tried to figure out the main idea of some of our books 
• New popcorn word: the  
• Have your kids sing you--"You can say the and you can say the (long e), but you always spell it t-h-e"
• New letters: d, s, g, a

Writing we:

• Learned how to zoom in really close on one part of an object. 
• Tapping out words
• Went for a nature walk to find items to look closely at.  Thank you to everyone who sent in objects

Math we:

• Learned about the tricky teens.  All teens start with the number 1....

and why are 11, 12 and 13 not called oneteen, twoteen, and threeteen?!?!  It really makes my job more challenging. :)

• Played a guess my number on the class number grid.  Played like twenty questions.  Children asked questions about numbers such as, "Does it have a 2 in it?" or "Is it less than 50?" and I eliminated numbers until the number was revealed.
• What comes next? counting activity
• Counting by 10s

Practice at home:

• Counting by 10s.  Count by random numbers for a challenge
• Clap out syllables in words.  Words with only one syllable are the trickiest