Week of April 5-8

I hope you all had a very relaxing and enjoyable Spring Break!

As we proceed with kindergarten, we will continue to work on decoding strategies, fluency, and comprehension in reading. When your child reads at home, please have them try to decode unknown words using the tools we have been teaching them. Such as putting a sound for every letter (aka sound it out), chunk big words (cover up parts into more manageable pieces), use picture cues (what in the picture starts with the letter ___ etc.), say the first sound and slide into the last, and skip the unknown word and read the rest of the sentence then think what makes sense. The goal is for all the kids to become more independent readers. Usually, they will just need to be asked, "What can we do to figure this word out?" And they will try different decoding strategies above.

After they read a story, you can ask them what happened at the first, middle, and end parts. Also ask them what they think is the big idea or author's purpose to writing the story. This last question will be tough for all of the kids, but it's good to get them to start working on these critical thinking questions for first grade.

This week we also wrapped up "How To" writing. They covered many topics in this part of the writing program, such as "how to ride a bike," "how to fly a kite," "how to get ready for school," "how to eat a cupcake," and many other fun topics. Next week we will be returning to descriptive writing.

In math, we learned a more complex version of "Guess My Shape." In this game, I would give clues about a shape then they would have to guess that shape and what in the classroom has that shape. Clues I gave are number of sides or corners, if it's flat or 3D, if all sides are equal or if two are long, two are short, etc. This is a fun game to play in the car or at home! We also discussed the dime in depth then touched upon how many pennies you could exchange for a dime. Soon we will play a new game called Money Exchange, so have your kids practice thinking about exchanging money at home to make this game easier.

A Note About Assessments
On Friday, April 22, and Monday, April  25th, are two days set aside for end of the year assessments. On these days, children will not come to school as normal. They will come to the classroom only for the time slot that you signed up (sign up sheets are posted outside the classroom's door). Assessments being given on these days are DIBELS, DRA2, and Mondo Oral Language. Please come sign up ASAP so that you have the most selection of times to pick from!