Mrs. Williams Kindergarten

The past few weeks have been very busy! Last week, we enjoyed celebrating Read Across America week and Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Now the classroom is buzzing with the excitement of having 12 chick eggs in our incubator!!

Important Person

Our class celebrates an “Important Person” virtually every week. This allows each child the opportunity to share things about him/herself that we may not otherwise learn. These experiences are exciting for the children and seem to have a very positive impact on the children’s self-image and self-confidence.

In January we celebrated McKenna. His Dad and older brother, Jordan, came for his sharing day. In addition to learning about McKenna and his love of music, his Dad taught us about the history of music and introduced us to some very unique and fun instruments!

Allison’s parents came in for her sharing day and read a couple of her favorite books. Allison LOVES Hello Kitty. She enjoys reading, dress ups and arts and crafts. Allison would like to be an artist when she grows up.

Andrew’s Dad came in for his sharing day. He read us a story, as well. Andrew loves to play with cars and trucks. He enjoys building with blocks, Tinker Toys and Legos too. Andrew has a 14-year-old brother, Chris, who we would love to meet someday!

Ella’s Mom came in and taught us all about what she does as a nurse. She cares for brand new babies every day. Ella is fascinated with the human body and would love to be a doctor someday. Her Mom gave our classroom some wonderful doctor tools and materials. We have since transformed our kitchen into a hospital (you should see our baby dolls now!). The children are having so much fun!

Rory’s family came on his sharing day: Mom, Dad, big sister Gabriella, big brother Conor, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, and his nanny Lydia! It was such a pleasure! Since Conor loves to build with Legos so much, he brought a Lego building activity for every child!

Boyon’s Mom, Dad, and older brother Yavor helped him share on his special day. We learned that Boyon speaks Bulgarian fluently and visits his grandparents in Bulgaria. That is where his parents are from. Yavor read a book about airplanes because Boyon and Yavor want to be pilots when they grow up. Boyon also shared a few highlights from his recent trip to Hawaii.

Language Arts

We consistently read and examine trade books, big books and poems that accompany the “letters of the week,” which most recently were: Hh, Rr, Ll, Dd, Gg, Oo.

Guided Reading/Skill Groups

The children have begun working in small groups to focus on pre-reading skills and/or to read books at their instructional level. The children are thriving and love having books that they can read independently.

Our Literacy Stations are more focused on short vowel sounds and middle sounds in words. We have also been emphasizing the importance of learning our “Word Wall words” (aka sight words) and have been doing various activities with these sight words.

Literacy Station Activities:

·      Handwriting: practice writing letters of the week (upper and lower case)

*The children are now signing in with first and last names using proper upper and lower case letters on ruled lines!

·      Literacy games: letters, sounds, rhyming, and breaking words into parts

·      Poetry and Song Books: the children learn, read and/or sing new poems and songs. They add them to their own Poetry and Song Books and then write how it makes them feel and add illustrations.

·      Word-building activities

·      Writing Important Person books

·      Dr. Seuss reading and writing activities

·      Mini-books for the “Book box”

·      Sight Word activities and games

·      Listening Center

Writer’s Workshop

In Writer’s Workshop, we discussed and made a chart “What do good writer’s do?” The children decided that good writers:

ü  Think about their story first

ü  Use thoughtful words

ü  Write neatly

ü  Use spaces between words

ü  Use periods at the end of sentences

ü  Make sure the words match the picture

ü  Reread what he/she has written

ü  Tell what he/she is thinking about

ü  Write about what they know

The children have recently been introduced to the use of punctuation (periods), capital letters, and giving examples in writing.

Last week we introduced a new writing unit: Small Moments. A “small moment” is one small meaningful moment in time. For example, instead of writing a story about an entire vacation or a whole day, we think about one moment that was most significant. Some topics the children have begun writing are:

·      When the doctor looked in my ear

·      Riding my two-wheel bike for the first time

·      Falling down and scraping my knee

·      Waking up after the Tooth Fairy came.

·      Riding the bus

The children are learning how to take one small moment and “stretch it out.”

Math

Our math lessons and centers have become more sophisticated. The children are learning how to manipulate number and number combinations. For example, the children:

·      Change numbers: add or take away to try to end up with a given number.

·      Create number combinations that add up to a given number (number composition).

·      Take away from a pile to make a given number (decomposition).

·      Use “tens frames” to make combinations of “10 and some more”.

·      Create and count with tally marks

·      Create and model addition and subtraction number stories

·      Model more/less counting stories

We have also been exploring and sorting shapes and 3-D geoblocks. The children are recognizing that many 3-D shapes have different “faces”. For example, a prism can have both triangular and rectangular faces. The children are sorting these shapes according to the similarities and differences.

Science

We have a new Beta Fish that we have named Sapphire for it’s beautiful blue color. Sapphire seems to be healthy (and we think, happy!). J

We continue to create our monthly weather charts based on the chart we create during our Morning Meetings.

Thank you to our parent volunteers for a fun and enriching Winter Big Backyard Walk. It was different than most winter walks because of this super warm winter. We observed things, like buds, that we would expect to see in the spring!

Magnets, magnets, magnets!

The children have been exploring and making many discoveries about magnets:

·      The children tested various materials to discover what magnets stick to and do not stick to.

·      They tested the power of magnets. They predicted and confirmed whether or not a magnet’s power would work through materials such as paper, cardboard, aluminum foil, wood, plastic, foam, etc.

·      They discovered that some magnets are more powerful than others. They tested the strength of different magnets by seeing how many paper clips different magnets can hold.

·      They learned that every magnet has a North Pole and a South Pole. They learned that opposite poles attract. When the poles are the same they repel!

·      The children also created very wonderful magnet sculptures with whatever materials they could find that could stick to a magnet. They drew a picture of their sculpture and described it in their magnet journal.

We read various magnet books to confirm much of what the children have discovered. They have been recording their discoveries in their Magnet Journals.

Chicks!

The classroom has become an even more exciting place since the arrival of 12 chick eggs that we have in our incubator! The children understand that the incubator is keeping the eggs warm (100º F). They know that the hen typically sits on the eggs to keep them warm for 21 days. Our expected “hatch day” is Tuesday, March 27th. Every day we read books and discuss the development of the chicks. We examine a poster that shows what the chicks should look like each day.

Early next week (probably Tuesday, March 13) we will “candle” the eggs. This means that we will put a flashlight up against the egg in a dark room (the bathroom!) to see the shadow inside the egg. We should be able to see the chick’s shadow, the chick’s movement, the air space inside the egg, and veins! The children may come home very excited! We are counting down the days… with a paper chain!!

Social Studies

Marco’s Mom, Megan Ostuni, came in and taught us about La Befana, an Italian Christmas holiday. She read a book and explained the customs during this holiday. The story explains why a witch named La Befana travels during the night of January 5^th to deliver gifts to all children. Thank you, Mrs. Ostuni and Marco!

We read and discussed various books about Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he contributed to our world. The children have very interesting thoughts and questions related to “people’s rights.”

Last week, we celebrated our annual “Peace Day” in kindergarten. Our former principal, Mrs. Peterson, introduced Peace Day to Fiske School several years ago. We love Peace Day so much in kindergarten, that we continue the tradition each year. During our Peace Day last week the kindergarten classes were placed into three mixed groups so that they could spend some time with friends from the other classes. Each of the three groups participated in the following three different lessons about peace:

1)    Mrs. Maestri read a book titled Can You Say Peace: by Karen Katz. Every child wrote and illustrated a page for a class Peace book. Each class will keep this book in their classroom for the remainder of the school year for the children to share and read.

2)   Mrs. Button read People by Peter Spier. The children learned and sang a song about peace and then created a class handprint wreath. These beautiful class wreaths, with the song, are hanging in each classroom.

3)   Mrs. Williams read a book titled Somewhere Today. Every child created his/her own stained-glass peace dove. These doves are currently hanging in our classroom windows. We will send them home soon to brighten up your homes!

Wish List

As the year marches on, we are beginning to run out of items that we use daily. If you would like to contribute something to our classroom (as you all have done in the past – thank you!), we are in need of Clorox wipes and Baby wipes.

Also, I periodically take home and wash the dress ups and play food/dishes from our “House” play center. I am willing to share this job if someone would like to take a turn!

Thank you very much for your continued support. I am looking forward to seeing you all during our conferences. Always feel free to contact me at any time with your thoughts, questions or concerns.

Lisa  Williams, Classroom Teacher

Chihiro Mukai, Kindergarten Assistant

Jackie Potdevin, Overmax Aide

lwilliams@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us

Fiske (781) 541-5001