Friday, September 26, 2014

September 29-October 10

Picture day is on Thursday, October 2!


Important News
  • Remember to send your picture envelopes to school on Thursday!
  • Mrs. Gallucci's class only--Book orders are due on October 1.
  • Thank you to the parent who volunteered to attend the Farm field trip with us! Our helpers are:  Mrs. Haughey's class: Kendall Exline, Sandra Kecken, Patti Valencic
           Mrs. Gallucci's class:  Mrs. Rodenhauser, Mrs. Zamary and Mrs. Spinelli

Language Arts

We will begin a unit on apples that will last two weeks.  We will be reading several stories, fiction and non-fiction, about animals and the seasons.  This works perfectly with our Lake Farmpark field trip.  During the field trip, the children will learn how to make apple cider from the apples at the farm.  They will even have an opportunity to taste apple cider!  We will continue practicing fluency with the Apple, Apple on the Tree poem in our poetry folder.

Phonemic Awareness skills:  letter names, letter sounds, ending sounds, syllables

Practice sight words!  We would like the children to be able to read and spell 4 sight words by the end of the first quarter (October 24).  The words are: a, it, in, on

Math

We will continue our unit on counting.  We have learned some strategies for careful counting.  Ask your child to share these strategies with you.  Also, we are practicing counting from any given number.  We have been practicing counting by 10s to 100.  We are also working hard to learn what number comes next when crossing over a decade.  What number comes after 29, 39, 49...

Friday, September 19, 2014

September 22-26

Important news:
  • Please send an extra set of clothes to school.  We will keep them in our classroom in case of an accident like a lunch spill, muddy clothes, etc.
  • We will be starting lessons with our guidance counselor, Tami Mazzella this week.  She will be working with our classes for the next six weeks.
We will continue with our Language Arts theme and Math skills for one more week.  

We hope you have a great week!

Word Study

Word Study

Word study provides students with opportunities to investigate and understand the patterns in words. Knowledge of these patterns means that students do not need learn to spell one word at a time.
Students learn that spelling patterns exist and that these patterns help to explain how to spell, read, and write words.
Word study is also designed to build word knowledge that can be applied to both reading and spelling. Because it is closely tied to reading instruction, it also develops students' abilities in phonics, word recognition, and vocabulary.
During word study, we do some of the following activities:
Word sorts:  You will see a ziploc bag come home with small picture cards.  These are used for our word sorts.  The students do several activities with the cards including sorting them according to the feature.  The feature will be beginning sounds for the first 5 weeks.  When you see the sort come home on Fridays, ask your child to sort the words at home.  They should be experts! 

Word hunt:  In this activity, students are looking for pictures around the room that follow the feature we are learning.  For example, we were learning about the beginning sound "b".  The students were looking for a picture that began with a b.  When they found the balloons, they wrote/drew the word under the b.  

Writing sort:  The writing sort is our assessment of whether the students understand and have mastered the skill.  We will say a word, and the students are expected to write the word under the correct column.  At this time, some students are writing just the beginning letter, some are writing beginning and ending letters.  Some students may also be stretching out the word and writing all of the letters in the word.  All of these methods are acceptable and correct.  We are only looking for beginning sounds at this time.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Read to Self

In our September 8th post, we discussed our activity "Read to Self".  Have your children told you about it?  We have been working hard on increasing our stamina (how long we can work on a task).  Building stamina makes us better readers!

This is what Read to Self looks like.  Great job kindergarteners!



Friday, September 12, 2014

September 15-19

Writing Workshop

We began writing workshop last week with the goal that our students begin to see themselves as writers!  Did they share that they are in a writing club?  Mrs. Gallucci's class' club is called "Awesome Writers".  Mrs. Haughey's class named their club "World Writers".  We will be writing several times a week.  Last week we learned that "When we think we are done, we have only just begun!"  That means we can go back, reread our writing and add more details to our pictures or add more words.  We could also start a new paper.  The students chose their own topic.  We suggest they choose something they know a lot about.  What does your child know a lot about?  Talk with him/her about some possible writing topics.  Do they know a lot about animals, baseball, ballet, fishing, the beach, bike riding?  Any topic will work!  If you would like, you could create a list (with pictures) of ideas for writing and send it to school.  Your child can keep the list in his/her writing folder in case they get stuck and need an idea.

Next week we will learn about stretching out words to write them and how to write about things that the students might think are too hard to write about.

News
  • Please put all notes to the teacher or office on a large sheet of paper.  Small notes (like post-its) tend to get lost.  Thank you!
  • Our classes had the opportunity to shop from the Miller Store last Friday.  The students were so excited to "buy" something with their Miller dollars they have been earning.  After spending their money, Mrs. Minrovic stamped it with a "paid" symbol.  This will help us keep track of how much they can spend next time.  Congratulations kindergartners! You earned a lot of fun prizes!
Homework
  • Review letters and sounds with your child daily.  How quickly can your child name the letters? 
  • If your child knows his/her letters and sounds, practice the sight words.  Start with only a few words at a time. 
  • Ask your child to name the characters and/or setting in a story you read together. 
  • Storia--Don't forget to log onto your Storia account and read a book or 2!
Language Arts
We have been learning about the farm.  We are reading several stories about the farm and farm animals.  We will be using these stories to learn about characters, setting, cause and effect and sequencing.

The focus for the next 2 weeks includes:
  • rhyming
  • letters and sounds
  • final sounds
  • syllables
  • Left to right directionality
Sight words--a

Math

In math, we are learning addition and subtraction to five with materials.  Also, we practice counting from any given number to 100 forward and backward.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Storia

Dear Parents,

The Aurora Schools have purchased a great resource to support literacy skills called Storia.  Storia is a website that gives your child access to a digital library of fiction and non-fiction books and can be accessed at home and at school.

Your child’s account is set up and ready to go with many books on his/her virtual bookshelf.  Some of the books in your child’s library were chosen because they relate to curricular topics we are learning at school.  Other books were chosen for your child based on his/her reading level or literacy skills.  All you have to do to access these books is follow the instructions on the attached paper to get started! 

Before you log on, please read the following quick notes that should help
you as you navigate this resource. 

·        **You will need to use one of the following browsers to launch Storia: Chrome 21 or higher, Microsoft 9 or higher, Firefox 13 or higher, or Safari 5 or higher
·       ** Some of the books are not ready to access yet. They will be available at the beginning of October, but there are plenty of other books to read while you wait!
·        **Periodically, new books will be loaded onto your account. Go back and check for new updates!
·        **Please go back and reread stories as that will help your child gain important fluency skills. 
·        **Try the reading challenge questions at the end of the story to check your child's comprehension of the text.
·        **If the book is too difficult for your child, read it to him/her.  Remember, listening to reading is also an important part of early reading skills.

We are excited about this resource as it provides an extensive library of books for your child to read at his/her reading and interest level.  We hope you enjoy it!

                                                                                           
                                                                                            Thank you,
                                                                                            Mrs. Karen Gallucci

                                                                                            Mrs. Cyndi Haughey

Friday, September 5, 2014

September 8-12

Book Baskets
Each student in our classroom has his/her own basket of books.  We use these baskets to do an activity called "Read to Self".  For this activity, each child finds a quiet spot in the classroom with their book basket to read the books inside.  Each child has several books in the basket.  Some of the books are chosen by the student according to his/her interest (princess, baseball, animal, Clifford, etc.)  The other books are on their reading level.  If your child would like to bring a book from home to put in his/her basket, we encourage it!  This is the introduction to one of our Daily 5 literacy centers.

The students were taught that there are 3 ways to read a book.  The first way is to read the pictures.  We modeled for the students how to use the pictures to read the book to themselves.  The second way is to read the words in the story.  The third way is to retell a story that they have heard before.  Some students may have a book in their basket that they have read before such as Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Now, the student can retell the story as he/she reads the pages.

Important Notes:
  • We have been experiencing some problems with our email.  If you have not received a response from us, please let us know.  Some of our emails are not being delivered.  Sorry!
  • Thursday is September 11 so wear red, white and blue!
  • We do not need to wear our bus tags anymore.  Thank you for always remembering to send it to school each day!
  • HOMEWORK--Have you played a rhyming game with your child?  Practice rhyming by asking your child if two words rhyme.  (Do cake and rake rhyme?) Also, try asking your child to think of a word that rhymes with a word you say.  (Can you think of a word that rhymes with sun?)
  • Mrs. Haughey's class has a student teacher!  Miss Tara Czaplicki will be teaching with Mrs. Haughey until December.  She currently attends Kent State University.
  • Please check the Miller Money paper daily to see the good news about your child's behavior!
  • Mrs. Haughey's Class ONLY--Please remember to send in a picture of your child if you have not done so already!  Thank you!
Language Arts
This week our stories will be about our five senses.  We will be reading both fiction and non-fiction books.  We will be experiencing all of the senses, except tasting, during our activities this week.

We will continue our practice of phonemic awareness with our "blue book" activities.  We will focus on rhyming.

Math
Our district math coach, Mr. Lipnos will be working with our classes for the first 9 weeks.  We are working on saying the number before and after any given number from 0-30.  What number comes before 18?  What number comes after 12? 

Science:  5 senses