End of January

The last couple of weeks we have been working hard in Kindergarten!

In math we have played games unscrambling numbers, talking more about the teen numbers especially, playing a game called "Read My Mind", and adding numbers together on dice.

In writing we have been doing some prompts like "If I were a snowman", "My favorite thing at recess", "In winter I like to" to help kids have less to think about (keeping a full story over several pages in our mind while we also try to write words is pretty challenging!). Today we started a pattern book about someone we care about. We are doing these in small groups at my table to really emphasize listening for sounds in words. We have been playing a "hot potato" game to practice, ask your kids how we play!

In reading we are continuing to practice those kindergarten sight words and revisiting some of the concepts from the beginning of the year about reading storybooks. We are trying to sound like readers, read with partners, look for words we know, etc. We are rereading familiar stories (Caps for Sale, Corduroy, and The Snowy Day).

In guidance we continue to discover tools in our "toolbox" for times when we are in different zones. Kids are getting really good at figuring out which feelings and experiences might lead to us feeling in different zones. Identifying these feelings and finding ways to regulate our bodies through them in one of the most important parts of kindergarten!

Last week we had a school wide celebration, doing jazzercise as a whole school, and also had Four Winds! Ask your children what they learned about squirrels! They were all very engaged and interested in the topic!

Today we celebrated Global School Play Day. It is a day across the world to recognize and bring awareness to the importance of unstructured play for kids and all the important things children learn and gain from that experience.  We had a wonderful (and very calming!) day and many children were quite pleased to play quietly so much and also spend some time at my table working on their pattern books.
You can read more about Global School Play Day HERE!