What's new...

Here's the skinny on what's happening in curriculum....
Reading-we are working through the skills of ready readers.  The children are looking at what to do when they encounter tricky words.  They know to use the picture, check the 1st letter, make a guess and check to see if the letters match their guess (cross checking), look to see if the word looks right with the picture and sounds right with the sentence, and re-read for fluency and comprehension.  This past week I finished re-assessing the childrens' growth in reading using the district F&P assessment so I did not meet with reading groups. I will resume sending home leveled books tomorrow when I meet with my first groups again.  Thank you for all the reading you do with your child.  Reading to and with them is the best way to build literacy and love of literature in your kindergartner!
Writing-as indicated in my earlier post, our focus in our creating readable stories.  The children are using rubrics to goal set and are focused on creating books for the kindergarten audience.  Many of the children are beginning to write full sentences and are expanding their books to be longer than 3 page stories!  We continue to talk about clear beginning, middle, and endings but have shifted for more mini lessons on what makes art work and words readable and engaging to audiences.
Math-in math we have been working on simple addition.  The children have been decomposing (breaking apart) numbers using manipulatives, toss the chips, apple boxes, antler ears, and drawings for about two weeks.  Today we began talking about how composing numbers (putting numbers back together) is an essential part of addition.  We talked about how we can talk about joining numbers in number sentences, games, and word problems and spend a great deal of time speaking about the various tools we use when decomposing/composing numbers.  This weeks challenge is examining the most efficient ways to combine numbers (using fingers, math racks, number lines, manipulatives, drawings, etc.).  Subtraction will be the next step for my budding mathematicians!
Social Studies-we are learning about symbols for our country, specifically our flag, and the meaning behind the colors of the American flag.  The children are done symbol hunts and have created books to illustrate what America means to them.  We will be looking specifically at flags (past and present) and the pledge of allegiance in the coming week.