October/November

 Wow, the weeks are really flying by! Kindergarten is a busy place, buzzing with fun and excitement all day long! Students are really independent this time of year, and we are working on doing what's expected when you know the rules and expectations! ;) The friendships are really strengthening and that is so fun to watch. This class really is the sweetest. We have done so many things in the past several weeks! 

In literacy we are plugging away with our letters each week. We are segmenting and blending sounds and syllables, rhyming, and learning the letter names and sounds. We are sorting objects and pictures by beginning sounds and working especially hard on handwriting. Soon we will put it all together to begin blending sounds while looking at the written letters, and learning some simple beginning sight words. We have begun doing some independent literacy stations, giving students time to practice writing their names and working in a small group with me, while others participate in independent activities at tables and on the ipads.  We have also been practicing telling and drawing stories, and this week we learned how to draw people! Students are learning how to tell a story across several pages of a book.

In math we are working more on numbers 6-10, beginning to work with ten frame dots, writing numerals, and looking at 2D and 3D shapes. A few new games we have are "Flash and Dash to the Castle" (practicing showing numbers on our fingers in different ways), Penny Candy (practicing building ten frames through a fun game), At the Zoo (practicing reading numerals) and Number Bingo, working on number ID and ten frames!). 

Outside we are really enjoying this beautiful and sunny warm weather! We used our trail camera to see what is happening in our forest space (bunnies and raccoons!), have transplanted and watered maple trees around our forest area with Chapin, are participating in weekly forest stations with other teachers on the Starlings team, and more! Clayton's family made some amazing things for our forest classroom, including a tic tac toe table and painted rocks, alphabet tree cookies, and more! The mud kitchen from Parker's family also continues to be a huge hit! 

Last but certainly not least, we had Four Winds with our parent volunteers, and Recycle Rhonda from CSWD came to visit and teach us more about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.