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
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
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