Kindergarten Happenings

Wow, it's been a while! Kindergarten has been a busy place. We are in the full swing of our curriculum and there is so much filling each of our days.
We continue to work on the important social learning in kindergarten but the routines and expectations are very clear for students at this point. We are spending lots of time talking about solving small problems using words and trying some of kelso's choices. This week students can earn large green "booster" buzzies for having a safe body (identified school wide as something that needs a little more support!).  We are also talking about and expecting kids to do what's expected at different times in our day and follow directions the first time they are asked.
We are learning new letters each week and identifying the sounds those letters make. In small groups we are pulling items (toys) out of a "mystery bag", saying out loud what it is and identifying the sounds we hear at the beginning of the word. We sort the objects into piles and talk about things that start the same. We also have the letters we are learning on magnet boards and play games like "find the letter that makes the sound ___". We write the letters on white boards and read books full of words that begin with that letter.
All of this work ties in to our work in Writer's Workshop. Students are learning that if we can say it, we can write it! They are practicing labeling pictures with words: listening for the sounds they hear when they say the word out loud, trying to identify the letters that match the sounds they hear and record that letter. We are seeing lots of progress both with their drawings, words, and interest in telling stories!
In Reader's Workshop we are shifting our focus from "Learn About the World" books to "Old Favorite Storybooks". These are stories that we read again and again and have heard so many times we can read them ourselves (although this seems like memorizing, it really is the first stage of reading and how we begin to feel like readers and build confidence and oral language).  We are reading stories like Three Billy Goats Gruff, The THree Little Pigs, Runaway Bunny, Knuffle Bunny, Caps for Sale, etc.  We are encouraging children to bring some of their family favorites (from now or their toddler years) to share with the class.
In math we are practicing writing numbers 1-10, have started talking about patterns and making them with unifix cubes, working with numbers that go together to make five, and playing "hide and seek" with our numbers on our number line.
Students are loving this weather and we are able to spend time outside without any time to get ready and put on gear for warmer weather! Forest Fridays have been super fun and the kids really look forward to that time. We have been exploring the area on the hill and playing, noticing nature in our "sit spots", walking to the Allen Brook, drawing kale and pumpkins growing in the garden, etc. This time outside in nature is so wonderful! Here's a great article I came across this week!

Outdoor Play Boosts Children's Performance in CLass