Sunday, January 28, 2018

Week 22. Jan 28 - Feb 1

Welcome to a new week of school!

In Kindergarten, we continue to include our core values in everything we do! Circles is a wonderful time for students to listen and talk about the different ways we can show respect, responsibility, compassion and integrity. Our read aloud books have also given us an opportunity to make connections between people’s actions and CAC's core values.

We have gotten lots of feedback from students on how much they enjoy taking the core value books home. This week, we will be sending the book for Integrity. We'd like to thank all parents for supporting this initiative and returning the books back the next day for other families to enjoy.

We also enjoy older siblings coming to read!

Guest readers! We can’t thank you enough! Children really enjoy having their parents come in to read a book to the class. If you haven’t done so, we encourage you to sign up and be part of this fun experience. We are more than happy to support if you would like to read a favorite book from the class. Just send us an email!
   
Family Math Night

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Mark your calendars for February 7th, 4:15 to 5:15pm! Elementary will be hosting its annual Family Math Night at school. Each grade level will have a collection of games for students to play with their parents. Games develop fluency with math skills and problem solving. Bond with your child as you experience the joy of learning through games!

All Kindergarten classes will be located in the Drama Room. You’ll find the rules and instructions for a wide range of math games using a variety of resources, each game will include the manipulatives needed to play it. This will be a dynamic and flexible event, feel free to visit more than one grade level to play as many games as you can!

Learning This Week

Reading Workshop


Our Super Readers will be starting to explore the main idea of a text this week. They will start by learning to notice what repeats in a given nonfiction text. If information repeats, it can give us clues about the main idea! Readers will also work with partners to discuss nonfiction texts by comparing what they already knew to what they learned. When readers first look at a book, they should think, “What do I already know about this topic?” in order to activate prior knowledge. Sharing this information with partners help students articulate their learning. 

Writing Workshop


Writers are having a wonderful time with this opinion writing unit! They have started to understand the difference between facts and opinions, and how expressing likes or dislikes must come with reasoning. One of our lessons for this week will be on “Power words” (adjectives) as an elaboration strategy. We will demonstrate how to use words like “tasty”, “sweet”, “fun”, “interesting” to elaborate in their pieces. Partners will support each other by talking about their opinions to come up with power words to add to their books.

During our conferring and mid-workshop interruptions, we continue to encourage students to reread their writing and revise! “Look at your writing, is it easy to read?” “what can you do to make your writing better?” “What else can you add?”

Math

Students continue to explore number bonds to decompose numbers through number stories. This week’s lessons cover different strategies to understand the concept of a whole and two parts. Strategies such as drawings, manipulatives and number bonds. Topic C introduces formal addition concepts including writing and solving expressions and equations. Mathematicians will also represent composition and decomposition addition stories by writing equations or “number sentences”. They will be exploring patterns in additions to 8: One number gets smaller as the other gets bigger:7 + 1 = 8,   6 + 2 = 8,5 + 3 = 8,  4 + 4 = 8





Science


We continue to explore and learn about animals! This week, scientists will be learning about the incubation process for our chicken eggs. We will read books about the life cycle of a chicken and explore photographs that illustrate each stage. Students are showing lots of responsibility when gently turning the eggs several times a day!

We will also be discussing animal characteristics, doing some interactive writing together, and working with venn diagrams to compare animals. We will use our “scientist eyes” to notice similarities and differences between creatures.

Circles

Circles support our goal of student relationships and wellness. Circle Solutions is a philosophy for healthy relationships and a pedagogy for teaching them. It is based in the principles of agency, safety, positivity, inclusion, respect and equality. Our weekly Circles activities explore the CAC core values of respect, compassion, responsibility, perseverance, courage, creativity, and integrity. This month, we continue working on integrity and what it means to be honest and truthful.

Thanks for your ongoing support,

Mis. Ana, Ms. Paola, and Mr. Balazs

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Library Note

Good Morning KG Families,

Due to this short week, we won't be able to visit the library as usual. However, if you would like to return library books tomorrow on our half-day, we will make sure they are returned.

Thank you very much!
Mr. Balazs, Ms. Ana, and Ms. Paola

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Week 21. January 21-25

Welcome to a new week in Kindergarten!



Last week we had a successful Reading and Writing celebration! We appreciate you coming to see all the progress in reading and writing. Thank you as well for all the compliments you gave our students. They will treasure those little sheets of paper! Click here to see some photos.

This week we will have a half day on Wednesday, January 24th and there will be no school on Thursday, January 25th. Please make sure your child is picked up at 11:30 am on Wednesday.

We will need to reschedule our Library times, once we do we will email you and let you know which day to send the library bags.

Learning This Week!

Reading Workshop


Our young readers continue to work hard to learn about nonfiction texts! After a week of exploring the differences between fiction and nonfiction, this week they will dive deeper to examine text features that can be found in nonfiction books. They will notice bold words, captions, fact boxes, and diagrams and look at what more can be learned from them.

Students will also have a chance to look at nonfiction books in a wide variety of topics and reading levels in order to record their “wonders.” These “wonders,” or questions they have about a given text, will be added to a KG Wonder Wall bulletin board. Once completed, the entire CAC community will be able to see what kindergarten readers are wondering about! Stay tuned!

Writing Workshop


Writers are eagerly expressing their opinions through writing! It is important for young writers to learn about leads and how to state their topic on the first page. This week we will provide sentence starters to write opinions and will learn about giving reasons to support an opinion. Students will learn what reasons are and what words to consider when giving a reason. 

The purpose of this unit is to set the tone for a future persuasive writing unit, in which students will be writing to make a change. Learning about opinions and the best way to express them is the main learning target of our current unit. This week we'll encourage writers to move from "I like..." to sentences such as:
I think...
I feel...
I believe...
In my opinion...

Partners continue to support each other by asking each other questions. Writers may use their partners to generate ideas by asking them about their own likes or dislikes: "What do you like to do at recess? why?" This last question will support all writers in elaboration by expanding the number of words used when giving reasons.

Math

Our students are loving number bonds! They have started to create their own number stories and their creativity is rising!

This week we will be wrapping up Topic B and starting Topic C. Topic B advances the work of Topic A, building students’ skill with number pairs for 6, 7, and 8, which goes on throughout Topics B and C during Fluency Practice. In this topic, students will using 5-groups to represent the 5 + n pattern to decompose 6, 7, and 8. These decompositions are modeled as put together situations and represented as addition expressions (C = ___ + ___), as opposed to the take from decomposition type (C – B = ___), which is taught in Topic D.




Science



Thank you, Noah and Ramsay, for sharing your animal photo with the class! All kindergarten students are thrilled to begin having conversations about animals and they are eager to share their own experiences with the animals they have seen! Please help us by sending photos of kindergarteners with pets, zoo animals, or any other animals your children may have encountered. Our color printer is currently not working, we ask that you please print these at home and send them to school. We're sorry for the inconvenience!

This week our scientists will be exploring outside to observe and photograph things that are living and things that are nonliving. What sorts of living things will we be able to find on CAC’s campus? What sorts of nonliving things will be found?


We highly appreciate the time you take to read our newsletters. Have a great short week!
Ms. Ana, Ms. Paola, and Mr. Balazs

Sunday, January 14, 2018

Week 20. January 14 - 18

Dear Parents,

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Thank you!