February Newsletter

February Newsletter

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it certainly is busy.  We will celebrate the 100^th day of school and Valentine’s Day the week before February vacation.  We are learning more about how to write a quality journal entry and we are also going to be working with writing number sentences in math.

The 100^th day of school is Tuesday, February 12^th.  I will be sending home baggies for each student to fill with 100 objects.  These 100 objects should fit into the baggie.  You can fill the baggie with toothpicks, q-tips, pennies, etc. 

Valentine’s Day will be Thursday, February 14. On the back of this newsletter is a class list if your child would like to make valentines.  I would love to have a small Valentine’s celebration in the classroom and welcome healthy red and white snacks.  See if you and your child can think of a healthy treat that is red or white.

I am attaching a copy of our new journal rubric.  The kids are challenging themselves to improve the number of stars they earn for each journal entry.  The purpose of this rubric is to get the kids to give their work their best effort.

Our sight words for February are:  all, an, not, up, and so.  You could practice these words by forming them with cooked spaghetti, writing them in shaving cream, finding the words in magazine, or sticking on of the words under each plate at dinner time to read as you clear the table.

Here’s to a healthy and happy February!

                                                                                

PS: Don’t forget the Early Release Day on Wednesday, February 6.

Playing to Learn

It's another inside recess day.  But at least this indoor recess is due to rain instead of bitterly cold weather.  As the students decided what to play I was thrilled to see the majority of the kids head toward our giant floor map trying to find Iowa and Kansas.  Then I turned around to see some more little learners pulling out all the math tools.  When I asked what they were doing they responded, "We're playing MATH of course!"  Every moment these kids are here they are learning.  They are learning how to problem solve with their friends, how to read, how to write, how to take care of each other and the classroom and how to be the best kids they can.  I am so proud of this class.

Counting by Fives

Mrs. Keach has been teaching the children about counting by fives.  Yesterday she had the children use a hopscotch game to count by fives, and today the children put jewels and popsicle sticks into groups of five.  They also worked on making tally marks.  You can help reinforce counting by fives at home by counting all the fingers on the hands at your house, or by counting the value of nickels, or by simply counting by fives while waiting at a traffic light.  Have fun with fabulous five!

Map Buddies

Today we met with our fourth grade buddies to create a map of Maine.  We discussed the borders of Maine, places of interest, and major roads.  Then the kids were given a blank map of Maine and were cut loose to create their own Maine maps.  The partners used paper maps and Google Earth to discover Moosehead Lake, Mount Katahdin, and I95.  Studnets used the paper maps to show their partners how their parents traveled to work.  One group loved finding their houses using Google Earth.

Taste of Maine Day

Farm Abby came to visit today with a basket filled with Maine produce.  We have learned that we live in the town of Wiscasset, and now we know that Wiscasset is in the state of Maine.  As we have been reading books from Maine authors we thought it would also be fun to eat some Maine food.

Farm Abby brought in root vegetables for half the class to prepare as I worked with the other half to make ployes (a buckwheat pancake).  We talked about how the root is part of a plant that grows underground.  We also watched a liquid ploye mixture turn solid with heat.  When all was ready the kids had a buffet of carrots, turnips, cabbage, ployes and maple syrup.  The kids made a great text to world connection when they remembered their favorite part of "The Wicked Big Toddlah" (by Kevin Hawkes) was when the baby Toddie squeezed a maple tree to get the syrup.  We also learned that the ployes came from northern Maine and decided that northern Maine is a long way from Wiscasset.

We made a chart of how many people liked each food we sampled.  The results are as follows:
Ployes:  15
Syrup:  15
Carrot:  13
Cabbage:  8
Turnip:  9
Everyone also wrote a sentence to share what their favorite food was.  We took Maine foods and covered social studies, science, math, reading and writing standards today.  It was a tasty way to learn!

Retired Word!

Today everyone was able to read the word "can."  It is the first word on our wall that we can retire.  To celebrate everyone is taking home a water balloon with the word "can" written on it. We wonder which word we will retire next......

Calculators

We worked with calculators today. The students explored the + and =  keys and learned what each key does.  We made some adding sentences and tried doing a "big number" sentence as well.

We worked on the conclusion to our snowman story and also listened for the long vowel sounds in words.  You can do this with your child in the car by saying the following words and figuring out what the vowel sound in the middle is:
lake, snake, like, bike, soap, rope, goat, sheep, comb, pine, tune, rude, mule, seal, heel, feet, boat, sign, pike, hike, road, toad, gate.........
Picking out sounds from the middle of words will help develop both reading and writing skills.  It takes just a few minutes, and no supplies other than your brain.  Give it a go!

We have been enjoying stories by Maine authors this week.  The kids have looked at Maine on several different maps.  We have discovered our state is bordered by New Hampshire, Canada and the Atlantic Ocean.  The kids noticed that Wiscasset is very close to the coast.  We found roads and routes.  It's been fun to see where we are in space.  Next week we will take a look at our country and compare our climate to climates around the country.

Retiring Words

This has been a fast week.  We had Mrs. Colby come in and talk to us about what it is like to be a selectman in Wiscasset.  Farmer Abby came and spoke to us about how farms change with the seasons.  Mrs. Keach has been continuing to teach us math and we have started NWEAs.  

I have been amazed at the great writing and reading the class is accomplishing.  As I looked at the sight words the children are learning I realized there are some words that everyone needs to work on.  To help the kids master sight words we have placed them on our wall where we line up.  Once a child can read a word, their initials are put on the word.  When everyone's initials are on the words we can "retire" that word and select a new word for everyone to learn.  Now when we line up the kids are pointing out the words they can read.  We are also having games of "Whack a Word" to help the kids remember the tough words.  I can't wait to tell you which word we will retire first.

Have a wonderful Martin Luther King weekend.  The kids discussed how they are all important, no matter the color of their skin, eyes or hair.  We know that we all have gifts to offer the class and everyone has the responsibility to help each other.  It is touching to watch how these kids work together each day.

Snow Experiments

We have had an amazing week so far in kindergarten.  The kids are writing in their journals each morning now.  Everyone is writing a sentence.  Some kiddos represent their words with the first letter sound they hear.  Others are using vowels in the middle of their sentences, and some are spelling sight words correctly.  Everyone is matching their illustrations to what they are writing.

Mrs. Keach is taking over math and doing a great job.  The kids worked on making two digit numbers yesterday and they made two digit numbers with playing cards.  You can do this at home as well.  Have your child draw two cards and see how big a number she can make.

The kids were very excited to do a snow experiment.  On Monday we asked the question, "How can you keep snow from melting?"  Everyone created their own hypothesis and wrote/illustrated their idea. Then we gathered snow in cups and put the snow where the kids suggested.  We had snow in the dollhouse, math tool shelf, under a blanket, under the roof outside, in the refrigerator and in the freezer. The next day we checked our experiments and found that the freezer was the best place to keep the snow from melting. A side benefit of seeing the melted snow was that the kids saw all the dirt in the snow they gathered.  Hopefully that will keep some snow out of their mouths =).

As the snow starts today we might turn the experiment around to see what can make the snow melt FASTEST.

Sliding, Reading, and Farming

It was a wonderful day in kindergarten. The pictures tell the story of children sliding, reading together, and drawing the pictures created in their minds as they listened to farmer Abby tell us a story of a family growing up 150 years ago.  We made -at words after a fire drill and observed snow to come up with a list of snow words.  We measure our feet with unifix cubes and then compared our feet to Ms. Roper's feet.  After great work in a fire drill they also earned their extra recess.  Great work class!

Maps and Compasses

In keeping with covering our social studies standards of using maps and understanding the concepts of north, south, east and west we explored our school today using maps and compasses.  I asked the children to tell me how to get to the office.  We looked at the path we would take on the map from our room to the office.  Then we lined up at the door to go to the office. With compasses in hand the students told me we had to head south.  At the top of the ramp we went west.  Every time we changed directions the students checked their compasses.  Our next job will be to find the most northern, southern, western, and eastern parts of the building.

We also learned a sight word game called BANG!  Every child pulls a sight word from a box.  If the child can read the word, he keeps it.  If now she puts it back in the box.  The box is passed around and around and the children gather more cards, UNTIL they pull the word BANG, in which case all the words are put back in the box.  Everyone shows the cards they draw and reads the letters out loud.  I've watched several kids pick up a few new sight words from just one time playing this game.

After reading a book written by fifth graders we decided to write our own book.  The class is writing a story about snowmen that come to life.  We worked on the introduction today.  Once we publish the book everyone will have a copy to take home.

Remember, tomorrow is an early release day!  Have fun in the snow.
Becky Roper

Shapes

Today we explored different ways to make shapes!  We also started talking about long vowel sounds and sorted all the a, e, i, o, and u pictures.  Our student teacher, Mrs. Keach is having a great time with us.  We are so glad to have her in class.  Please remember to label all your child's clothing.
Have a great day!

Dice Toss

Today we rolled two dice, counted the dots and then recorded the sum of dots on a graph.  This activity gave us practice with counting, beginning addition, number formation and probability.  The dice toss sheets went home and there should be another graph on the other side of the paper.  Try this game at home with your child.  It is GREAT practice for several math concepts.

Remember to send all your LABELED snow gear in a reusable Hannaford bag next week to help me get all the clothes back to the right homes.  Have a super weekend!

Cartographers and Calendars

Welcome to a new year!  We all had a wonderful first day of the 2013 school year.  To recognize the changing of years the class each created a journal entry highlighting some of the fun events we did in 2012.  Tomorrow we will create a list of what we would like to learn and accomplish in 2013.

We also enjoyed perusing some calendars today.  Everyone found their birthday using the 2013 calendars.  We also learned that some of us have birthdays on full moons.  We read a book about a wild toboggan ride and created a new poster in the classroom for "Words We Love."  Our first word is "swerve."  Then we acted out the word swerve.

In the afternoon I was assessing how many letter sounds the kids could identify.  I couldn't believe the growth these kids have made since early December.  Some of the sounds still giving our class trouble are the vowels, w, y, q and x.  You could practice these sounds in the car or at the dinner table.

Then to end the day we made a map of our classroom.  After I showed the class how I would make a mp of our classroom, several children decided to be CARTOGRAPHERS (map makers) and try their hand at mapping our room.

The next two months will be spent learning about our place in space, from the classroom, to the school, to the town, to the state, to the country, to the world, and then to the solar system.  As we go on this adventure we will also be talking about the weather and how it is different in different places.

We have the benefit of a student teacher in our class for the next 8 weeks.  Mrs. Keach will be working with our class.  She has already won over the kids.

Our January words of the month are:  at, do, no, on, am, and yes.  You can practice these at home by writing them in shaving cream, hiding the words around the house, or finding them in the books you read at home.

Now that snow is here, everyone should be coming to school with snow-pants, boots, hats, and mittens. I find the best way to handle all that gear is to get a REUSABLE Hannaford bag (the Hannaford bags are big enough to store all the gear).  Write your child's name on the Hannaford bag and then all the gear  can simply go in the bag back and forth to school, rather than trying to cram it all into a backpack.
There are about a million black snow-pants and boots kicking around the school.  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, write your child's name in all their boots, snow-pants, coats, hats and mittens.  This gear can be expensive to replace.  Labeled clothing has a better chance of making it to the correct child's home.

Remember, our classroom has a blog.  This newsletter and all the others go on our blog, as well as frequent updates about our days.  This can be a very useful resource for you and your child when it comes to talking about school.  The blog's address is: http://msroperskindergarten.blogspot.com/
You can sign up for the blog or choose to follow it by e-mail.  The e-mail option sends you a message whenever a new entry is posted.

We are off to a great start in this new year.  If you want to come visit or volunteer, let me know.  My number is 882-7585 or broper@svrsu.org.  Here's to a wonderful month of learning and fun!