KG students listen to a presentation with Kenn Nesbitt
Dear Kindergarten parents,
This month we are focusing on the value of compassion as a whole school. Students will be having conversations about what being compassionate is by reflecting on these statements:
I am compassionate when…
- I invite someone to play
- I help people
- I am gentle
- I try to make people happy
- I use kind words
Kids’ Day! - Parent Volunteers Needed
This year's Kids' Day will be held on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 from 8:00am to 11:30am. Students will then be dismissed at 11:30am for a long Thanksgiving weekend. This is a half day for CAC and Pre K-5 will be participating at the same time. For new parents to the school Kids’ Day is a fun-filled day in which they can show off their house spirit, participate in a wide variety of physical activities, and enjoy each other! The Elementary PE Department needs parent volunteers to help with the games and activities. You will be partnered up with an Elementary Teacher and teacher aide to help run an activity. If you could volunteer on that day, please fill in the (google form) by Thursday, November 16th at the latest. Mr. Greene will contact you via e-mail with your assignment by Monday, November 20th. Please mark your calendars for the date and time NOW!
Thank you,
Learning In KG!
Reading Workshop:
Super Readers continue to activate their powers on a daily basis. Superheroes never give up!
This week we will revisit the “Snap word power” to remind students about those words and how they can help with fluency. Just like they use snap words in their writing, they’re encouraged to find them and read them in a snap! Readers use those too, they find snap words in their books and read them quickly. As we coach young readers, we use the following prompts:
- Use your picture powers
- Remember what’s happening in the story
- That’s a snap word! Read it!
- Could that word be in other pages of your book, let’s find out!
Another way to improve fluency is to reread books that we feel comfortable with and use punctuation to read it with expression. Punctuation is like a secret code readers use to read like a storyteller or a teacher, and they use their “Partner Power” to practice. Kindergarteners will learn that…
? makes your voice go up and pause
! makes your voice go to sound like a feeling
. makes your voice go down and stop
Writing Workshop:
Another exciting week for writers in Kindergarten as they publish their true stories! We will have a lesson on how to make their pieces ready for publication. We will remind students of all the work they’ve done, and how writers take time to celebrate by ending it and sharing it with the world. They’re learning that publishing is about being done and being proud of their piece instead of making it perfect.
To make this experience even more meaningful, we will talk about stories as gifts… “Imagine the person you want to give this story too and make it the best it can be!”. Our Grade 3 buddies will come and celebrate our publications with us.
As one unit ends another begins because writers are never done! Our next unit is called “Writing How-To Books, Step by Step!”. We will start with a lesson on the kind of writing “how-to” is and how different it is from true stories. Looking forward to another awesome writing unit in Kindergarten!
Phonics and differentiated sort:
We dedicated time in Trimester 1 to teach/review consonants as beginning sounds. All students, even those who already knew all letter sounds, also learned about sorts and different activities we do with phonics sorts.
In Trimester 2, students will be grouped according to the spelling stage in which they are in to enhance their practice. Each sort will be especially made for the spelling needs of each group of students. As usual, students will bring their sorts home at the end of each week. Parents can use this opportunity to review the sounds covered that week, here are some suggested activities:
- Remake the sort at home and ask your child to show you how they read and sort his/her words.
- Ask your child to read each word aloud as they sort them. “Say it as you lay it!”
- Ask your child to explain to you why the words are sorted in a particular way.
- Ask your child to sort the words a second time as fast as possible. You may want to time him/her.
- Play memory with the sort.
Math:
We continue to learn about attributes for comparison in our Module 3. Last week students compared objects using the terms “longer than / shorter than” as well as “taller than / shorter than”. This week our math students will compare the weights of objects in the classroom by using the words “heavier than”, “lighter than”, or” the same as”. They will be using a balance scale as a tool to compare weights of objects.
Social Studies:
This week social scientists had the pleasure of being visited by Mystery Guests! These are people work at CAC who gave of their time to join our class and tell about what they do to make CAC great. A big part of our Little Me in a Big School unit is getting to know more about the workers at CAC and what they do!
Our classes were visited by a high school and middle school teacher, CAC’s International Baccalaureate Coordinator, our Speech Pathologist, and a popular Drama teacher! After these visits, students wrote reflections on what they learned about these important workers at CAC.
We can’t wait to meet more Mystery Guests next week! Who will come to KG? You’ll have to wait and see!
Thank you all for your continuous support!
Ms. Ana, Ms. Paola, and Mr. Balazs
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