We are off and running into the new year and busy as ever here in Kindergarten. The second half of kindergarten brings new skills and independence as children come back from vacation knowing what to expect and feeling more confident than ever before!
We are jumping into many new units of study including writing "How-To" books (rather than the narrative focus we had for much of the beginning of the year) where children get to be experts and teach the steps of something they are very good at. It is quite funny to hear all of the things the kindergartners think they are good at, and there are many books going on "How-To Give a Pet a Bath". :) Students are beginning to hear and record many more sounds and explore leaving spaces between their words, making it much easier to reread their own writing!
Students have spent a great deal of time getting used to our independent stations in both literacy and math which provides more time to differentiate and do more small group work. In literacy we begin our guided reading where children use the letter sound knowledge they have worked so hard on to begin reading short CVC words, read familiar words by sight (currently our quickly growing list includes I, a, is, the and we) and begin reading short books right at their level! Keep an eye out for a reading pocket to come home where they can read to you and practice their new skills!
In math we are focusing on writing numbers, putting them in order, some simple addition and subtraction word problems and will soon be exploring more into the teen numbers. Today's math game was "Read My Mind" where children wrote numbers 0-10 on a white board and guessed which number I was thinking of. I would tell them if the number was greater than or less than the number they guessed and they erase anything that could NOT be my number. A great game to play at home and highly motivating for practicing number wriitng!
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