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Mrs. Frost’s Kindergarten Classroom News
Room 101
(978) 887- 2856, ext. 101 or voicemail ext. 429
Email address: lfrost@boxfordschools.org
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April 3, 2008
Language Arts
Sight words are common words we see in the morning message, use in our writing, and read daily in literature. They are also words that often
do not always follow the English language rules of decoding; they just need to be memorized for both reading and spelling. In our classroom we
have a word wall the children have been accessing to help them when writing. Some of the words we have on our word wall are: a, an, am, and,
can, I, in, is, it, like, my, on, of, play, to, the, then, they, this we, want, will, went, with. To continue to reinforce this at home you could make a
word bank for your children to use at home or write some of these words on index cards and play concentration or go fish.
This week I will start sending home books with the children to share with their families. These books will come home in a yellow folder with
the book on one side and a reading response sheet on the other side. Please take a few minutes to let your child read this book to you! They
have been working very hard and are excited to share with their families. After your child has read their book to you, please help him/her to fill
out the reading response paper to go with their book. Allow the children to write the sentence on the back on their own. These reading folders
should be returned with the child on the next day of school. They will be sent home again every few weeks. It is amazing to see the progress
being made. Please praise them for their hard work in this area, as this is a hard skill for a kindergartener to master.
We have also been working on our phonics program. We have finished our units on short a, short i, and are now working with short o. This
is a systematic approach to teaching the children the vowel sounds. This is an important skill that they need to know in order to help their
development of reading. We have learned that every word has at least one vowel. We have built short a, short i, and short o word families, such
as am, at, ab, ag, an, ad, as, in, ip, it, ig, id, im, & op, ot, og . We have practiced tapping out the sounds, reading and writing these short vowel
words.
Some decoding strategies we are using:
~Looking at the picture to help you figure out the word
~Using sound/symbol relationship to sound out the word (looking at the beginning and ending letters)
~ What makes sense
~ Looking for smaller words in a word (ex. blink, the smaller word is in)
During shared reading times, we have been addressing how children can become a better reading by using one of the following comprehension
strategies:
~Making connections- Readers activate prior knowledge (schema). They use this schema (prior knowledge) to help them make meaningful
connections between their lives and the text, between the text and the world or from one text to another.
~Making Mental Images – Readers make mental pictures in their mind using the five senses and the emotions of the story. They will help use
these images to interpret the text, recall events from the story, make predictions of what might happen and recall a whole story. Children’s
mental image may be different based on their own personal schema.
~Telling- Readers tell the events of the story in sequence (including the characters of the story and the setting of the story).
During writing time, we have also started writing booklets. Your child has the ability to choose whether they want to stick with the single writing
paper or if they want to challenge themselves and work on a booklet. The booklet is three single writing papers and a cover stapled together.
Please practice handwriting at home!!!!! Best handwriting is a big focus correction area for us. I have been noticing many children started their
letters from bottom up. Please let me know if you need another Zaner-Bloser letter formation description for you at home. Encourage children
to practice this developing skill and try to break those bad habits. Letters should be resting on the lines of the paper not floating. When
practicing this skill, it is best that it is supervised to ensure proper formation of letters.
Math
In math, we have been exploring two-dimensional shapes, using language to describe the shapes, and comparing and contrasting different
shapes. Children learned some new vocabulary words rhombus, trapezoid, and hexagon. We looked around our classroom and discussed the
various two-dimensional shapes; such as two trapezoid tables put together make a hexagon table. Another activity we played was who can
guess the mysterious shape by describing the number of sides or corners.
We extended our exploration of shapes by using pattern blocks to create something. Many children created either some form of transportation
or a living thing. Once they made their design with the pattern blocks, the children needed to record in the data table the number of pieces
used for each shape. From there the children used paper pattern blocks to recreate their design. Finally, they needed to write a sentence about
the transportation.
Last week our math lesson focused on the concept of area. Children explored various ways, both standard and non-standard units to measure
area. First we used a non-standard unit, snails, to measure the area of a garden. The snails were 2 sizes. The children easily understood that
when measuring with the snail that was smaller the measurement would be larger. Then we used a standard unit to measure areas with square
inches. The children used square inch tiles to measure the area designated on paper. Please continue to encourage the use of measuring at
home with other standard units such as a ruler
This week in the Math Trailblazer Program, we will be exploring ways to add 3 groups of numbers. In addition to this unit, we have done many
problems of taking the whole and splitting them into 2 groups.
Science
Soon we will start our unit on matter (liquids, solids, and gas). Children can easily understand liquid and solid, however understanding the
concept of gas often challenges them. I have some very good books that will help to explain this difficult concept. We will be doing many
science experiments to help children understand the concept of matter.
Volunteers
I am also looking for some volunteers to make some playdough in some nice spring colors. Please drop me a note stating that you are willing
and I will confirm with the color.
** SPARKLING PLAYDOUGH INGREDIENTS **
1 cup all-purpose flour a spring color (food coloring
1/2 cup salt or frosting coloring)
1 cup water lemon or peppermint extract
1 Tbsp cream of tartar clear glitter
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
Mix the flour, salt, water, cream of tartar, and vegetable oil with the desired amount of food coloring and lemon extract in a pan. Place the pan
over low heat and stir until the mixture forms a ball that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat, and place the
dough on a flat surface. Knead in as much glitter as desired. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and pliable. Store in an airtight
container.
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