November

Wow, the weeks are really flying by! I wanted to update you on some of the many things we are doing here in Kindergarten!
Ms. Naomi has been teaching Morning Meeting and teaching the kids how to greet each other in other languages. We have continued to work on being kind to friends, solving problems using our words, and listening when others say "no" or "stop". We are continuing our Changing Perspectives lessons, thinking about  and sharing our own strengths and things we're working on. In the coming weeks we will spend some time learning about speech/language challenges, more specifically how it's not always easy for all students to communicate what they're thinking with words.
In math we are working hard on numeral recognition, subitizing through dice patterns and ten frame dots, thinking about different ways to make the same number (5=2+3 or 1+4=5). We are also practicing counting objects and writing numbers.

In reader's workshop we have built up stamina with independent "reading" and are spending time at independent stations (working with magnet letters, buddy reading, Raz Kids on the iPads) and working at the table with the teacher. In small groups we are practicing hearing beginning sounds in words and sorting by beginning sounds. We are also practicing writing lowercase letters (we were focusing on b,m,r and s and are now looking at t, g, n, and p.

All of this work is really helping during writer's workshop as children learn to use phonetic spelling to write words the best they can. This is a new learning experience for many and they are doing great!  We are learning how to label things in our pictures (like who people are) and add words by listening for the sounds we hear and writing the letter that matches that sound. A big part of this is having the confidence to try, and thinking of themselves as writers.
At Wilderness Wednesday we finally got a nice day without (much) rain! We did get a small shower and saw the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen! During station time we spent time trying to solve a problem with buckets, ropes, and a pulley. Other students went to stations up on the big hill doing some math activities, and working with Ms. Gordon on "the group plan" social thinking.