Tuesday, September 16

   

Tuesday, September 16
Orange Day: Technology   
Technology class with Mr. Brown will be from 8:20-8:55.  

Read Aloud: A Squiggly Story By: Andrew Larsen
GENRE Fiction 
Introduce Power Words: idea, offer, stuck

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS

Phonological Awareness: Rhyme, Matching Initial Sounds

Phonics Focus Skill: Circles & Curves (To help the kids stronger at writing letters.)

READING AND VOCABULARY

Connect and Teach: Story Elements

Engage and Respond: Build Knowledge and Language

WRITING AND GRAMMAR: Common Nouns: a word that names a

generic person, place, or thing.

 KinderMath: Comparing Numbers 1-5
The kids will be comparing two different amounts of items (up to 5) and use math vocabulary (more/bigger, less/smaller) to tell what they notice. This is a basic introduction lesson for comparing numbers.

Writers Workshop: Using Pattern Blocks to Make People
Using pattern blocks to build a person is a great first step to do before the children draw people. In this unit, we are focusing on the basic shapes to form parts of the body for our story characters.
Bus Safety 
 I stay seated when riding the bus.

  
Phy Ed Today

~Your child's scrapbook page is due this Thursday.  Thank you!

Monday, September 15

  
Monday, September 15
Gold Day: (No library, character education, or technology.)

School Bus Safety Week
To kick off School Bus Safety Week, the kids will see a live puppet show about bus safety from M & M Bus Co. and learn about waiting for the school bus in a safe place.
                   

Read Aloud: A Squiggly Story By: Andrew Larsen
GENRE Fiction 

BUILD KNOWLEDGE AND LANGUAGE

Social Studies Connection: Citizenship/Belonging 

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS

Phonological Awareness: Alliteration, Rhyme

Phonics Focus Skill: Uppercase Letters X, Y, Z

READING AND VOCABULARY

Connect and Teach: What is a fiction story?

Engage and Respond: Build Knowledge and Language

WRITING AND GRAMMAR: Common Nouns 

KinderMath: Count to 5 and Back

Again, it may seem like an easy concept, but children need to accurately count orally, count objects, and identify the missing number when counting forward and back. We are building the foundational skills for counting and cardinality.
What better way to teach this than to work with the story, Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!

                                                           

 Music class today.

Here is the video of passing on the Irish spirit from our senior class to our kindergarten students. It was such a special thing to watch!

~I managed to get about half of our class with individual photos with the time we had...my apologies that I couldn't get everyone!

~All items listed on the "To Do" list from Meet the Teacher day are due this Thursday.  Thank you!

Friday, September 12

  

Friday, September 12
White Day: (No library, technology, or character education.)

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS 

Phonics Focus Skill: Uppercase Letters V, K, W  

Handwriting: Tall Line/Short Line Down Strokes
READING AND VOCABULARY

Read Aloud: Keisha Ann Can! By: Daniel Kirk

Response to Text: Connect Reading to Writing (The kids will draw a picture of one thing they do at school.)

Big Book: School Day! By: Jesus Cervantes

Review Power Words: plan, polite, share 

Review Big Idea Words: discover, dream, partners

WRITING AND GRAMMAR

Identifying Singular & Plural Nouns 

 Handwriting: Learning the "Pinch, Rest, Tuck" Pencil Grip

Kindermath: Read and Write 5
 Read and Write 5

This lesson focuses on recognizing different groups of objects to 5. While it may seem like an easy concept, we are building foundational skills for accuracy in counting while developing number sense at the same time.

Project: Self-Portraits
The kids will create a self-portrait like the photo below. They will be hanging in our hallway for awhile.
  
Phy Ed Today

We are going to the homecoming pep fest in the high school this afternoon. A tradition was started where the seniors give the kindergartners an Irish Hanky as a symbol to carry on their Irish Spirit. It's a pretty cool thing to witness and it's sure to be exciting, loud, and fun!

   ~Yesterday, Officer Coon, Mrs. Marsicek (Social Work Intern), Mrs. Weninger, Mrs. Jerman (Irish Support Teacher) and Mrs. Reedy visited with the kids about being safe at school. 

 
~The scrapbook page is due Thursday, September 18.
~ The kids have been learning so much about kindergarten and it's nice to see them settling into their new routine!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thursday, September 11

  

Thursday, September 11
Black Day (Character Education)

Mrs. Weninger, our school Social Worker, is coming to our classroom this morning. Today, Mrs. Reedy and Officer Coon (School Resource Officer) will join her to talk about being respectful, responsible, and safe at school.

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS

Phonological Awareness: Counting Syllables, Matching Initial Sounds 

Phonics Focus Skill: Uppercase Letters A, N, M 

Handwriting: Introduction to Tall Line Down and Short Line Down Strokes (We did not get to this yesterday.)

READING AND VOCABULARY

Read Aloud: Keisha Ann Can! By: Daniel Kirk

GENRE Fiction 

Connect and Teach: Characters and Setting

Big Book: School Day! By: Jesus Cervantes

GENRE Fiction 

Print Concepts: Book Orientation, Match Pictures to Text

WRITING AND GRAMMAR

Plural Nouns (Day 2)

Kindermath: Read and Write 4

See today's lesson objectives in the picture below:

                                                           

 Music class today

~Picture day is tomorrow. If you plan to order photos, please send the form in with your child. Their picture will be taken around 8:40. 😀

Wednesday, September 10

  

 Wednesday, September 10
Green Day: Library

The kids will spend their library time doing a fun book-themed activity with Mrs. Thomas. Books will be due back on the next Green day but can be sent back earlier when finished.
 Our library time is from 8:20-8:55.

FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS

Phonological Awareness: Alliteration, Counting Syllables 

Phonics Focus Skill: Uppercase Letters T, F, E 

Handwriting: Introduction to Tall Line Down and Short Line Down Strokes

READING AND VOCABULARY

Read Aloud: Keisha Ann Can! By: Daniel Kirk

GENRE Fiction 

Connect and Teach: Characters and Setting

Big Book: School Day! By: Jesus Cervantes

GENRE Fiction 

What words would you use to describe the main character and setting? Why did you choose those words?

What new activities does the girl discover at school?

WRITING AND GRAMMAR

Plural Nouns 

Writers Workshop: Writing with Illustrations

This is a four week illustration unit to help kindergarten writers become confident in their drawing and coloring skills. They will learn how to draw with shapes and people with different facial expressions, hairstyles, and skin tones.

This illustration study sets kindergarten students up for success for the rest of the year during Writers Workshop. Students can reference their directed drawings folder throughout the year if they forget how to draw an object already taught.
**Today, the children will explore with pattern blocks in preparation for purposeful use of these materials for the next lesson on how to create a shape person.

 
 KinderMath: Writing 1, 2, 3
See the photo below to see today's lesson overview. 

**Our math time is scheduled for about an hour each day.
Each lesson contains six components for full, hands-on, purposeful and meaningful engagement.  
1) Whole-Group Number Sense
2) Collaborative Number Sense (partner work)
3) Whole-Group Fluency
4) Whole-Group Skill Focus Lesson
5) Collaborative Lesson Follow-Up (partner work)
6) Independent Practice (The math sheet that comes home.)
  
Phy Ed Today

~The book order is due today by 8pm.
https://orders.scholastic.com/GXWMC
~Tomorrow's dress-up day is Irish Spirit Day.

~Picture day is this Friday.