What a busy month! I am honestly not sure if it went by fast or slow! :)
So many things to share and celebrate about Kindergarten this month.
In literacy we are through many of the letters in the alphabet, and have a great routine going with lots of sorting by sounds, handwriting practice, and word play (phonemic awareness). These routines have become seamless and are such a lovely time in the classroom. We have added a new routine of ending the day with a chapter book, and we just finished our first book "Ivy and Bean". It was a big hit!
We are beginning to learn kindergarten sight words during this time (so far the words me, and the) and putting them right into application in our nursery rhyme books (our first this week was Itsy Bitsy Spider). Students are learning to find sight words in real print, while learning to point to each word and make our words match what's on the page. In writing we have kicked off an official "writer's workshop" and students have been practicing telling stories through pictures. Many students have begun labeling their pictures with words, and this group is SO excited to be writer's. In the coming weeks, we will use the sight words we are learning to read, in our writing. This will be a fun pattern book unit where we read AND write pattern books!
In math we are continuing building number sense, with more focus on numbers 6-10. We are learning to recognize these numerals, subitize and build them on ten frames, order, and build our fluency with more and less. Students have learned many new games, and we have been fortunate to have Kathy Schaw, or math interventionist, come in to teach some new games (that she created!) over the last couple weeks. Students have also really enjoyed learning about 2D and 3D shapes during calendar time, trying to figure out the calendar pattern, and counting by 10s and 1s to count the days in school.
During our social emotional learning time, we have spent the last couple weeks focused on "thinking thoughts and feeling feelings" and "the group plan". This is part of a social thinking curriculum that helps students think about themselves and others in the context of social scenarios. We read a book and learn new vocabulary, and then put it into practice! Students have had the opportunity to think about other people's thought bubbles and try to build a block city together, and try to be part of a group plan to get through an obstacle course together.
As always we are continuing to enjoy the beautiful outdoor space our school provides. Our forest classroom is alive with the most wonderful imaginative play around, and we have been able to enjoy the weather despite all the rain! A big thank you to the Smith family for the donation of several saplings that have been put to good use building walls and shelters, and most importantly, helping students learn to problem solve and solve conflicts together! :)
Some other things that happened this past month were some fun pumpkin painting projects, meeting "Salty" the plow (named by students at ABS), having our second Four Winds science lesson about worms, and learning about two fun apps on the ipads (pattern shapes and RazKids)!
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