Friday, April 4, 2014
Opening Day!
Monday is a Cardinals spirit day! Please allow your child to wear red. Happy St. Louis holiday...Go CARDS!
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Curriculum Updates
Here's what's happening in our learning...
Reading-this week we are continuing working on fluency through readers theaters (end of the year F&P assessments have also begun). Next week we will be revisiting retelling, inferring, and predicting during whole group instruction.
Writing-we continue to work on the non-fiction text features in both words and pictures in our non-fiction books. The emphasis in the next two weeks is to prepare to publish. The children continue to hear about the importance of connected facts on each page and topical themes across the book.
Math-this week the children were given an addition and subtraction pre-assessment. We will be working on solving more difficult word problems and addition and subtraction problems. The focus will be on recording our thinking with pictures and an equation to match.
Science-we are wrapping up our seasons unit (hooray Spring!) and will be preparing for our final science unit "living things". In a few weeks our lady bugs will be arriving and we will dive into animal life cycles, habits, needs, and categories. This is a great unit with TONS of hands on learning--and a field trip!
Reading-this week we are continuing working on fluency through readers theaters (end of the year F&P assessments have also begun). Next week we will be revisiting retelling, inferring, and predicting during whole group instruction.
Writing-we continue to work on the non-fiction text features in both words and pictures in our non-fiction books. The emphasis in the next two weeks is to prepare to publish. The children continue to hear about the importance of connected facts on each page and topical themes across the book.
Math-this week the children were given an addition and subtraction pre-assessment. We will be working on solving more difficult word problems and addition and subtraction problems. The focus will be on recording our thinking with pictures and an equation to match.
Science-we are wrapping up our seasons unit (hooray Spring!) and will be preparing for our final science unit "living things". In a few weeks our lady bugs will be arriving and we will dive into animal life cycles, habits, needs, and categories. This is a great unit with TONS of hands on learning--and a field trip!
Knock-out Non-Fiction
The kindergarten heroes have taken off with their non-fiction writing. Today we spent time learning how to "research" facts using books. The children worked with partners to read animal topic books and then use facts from the book in their own non-fiction books. This structure helps the children pull out important ideas and gives them true facts to include as they frame their books. The children are doing an amazing job adding actual facts to their own thoughts with this practice and choosing illustrations to add to the facts. Many of the children even began publishing their first books in pixie today. Over the next two weeks every child will publish a non-fiction book digitally...we can't wait to share our wonderful writing with you!
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Pixie progress
In preparation for the weeks of publishing ahead of us for our non-fiction writing unit we began exploring pixie with laptops today. The students learned how to log-in, form text boxes, alter sizes and fonts, and create stickers to illustrate their work. They did a very good job navigating this new technology even with the frustrations of not always having one on one help. I am so excited to see the writing the begin this week and next in pixie and even more eager to share their work with you. Be sure to ask your child about this new challenge today...they were very proud that they were able to use "big kid" computers to start drafting digital books.
Fabulous Forty!
Today the Heroes celebrated two special birthday bobcats. Happy Birthday to Mrs. Dieken (and Bob the Bobcat) who are celebrating their 40th birthday today. 40 looks so good on this terrific duo. We celebrated today with handwritten birthday notes and a serenade. We are so lucky to have such a sweet and hardworking assistant principal.
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