Week of December 16, 2019

Ready for our Runaway Cookie play!

A Special Week

   As you probably know, it is very difficult to compete with Santa Claus. For that reason, this was a very “unusual” week. We did not do any of our usual activities. Instead we did special activities each day. I think the children didn’t even realize they were learning at the same time!

Here is a short list of things you could ask your child to do if they say they are "bored"over the vacation.
1. Write your numbers from 0 to 20 or beyond
2. Write all of your muscle words.
3. Write a story for Mrs. E (if you bring it to school we can read it to the class)
4. Read, read, read!!!!
5. Play a card or board game
6. Draw a picture and label 5 things in the picture
7. Write some Super Muscle Word family words (see examples below)
8. Write some addition equations
9. Make some patterns out of objects around the house (coins, cereal, stickers...)
10. Write a letter to Mrs. E about your vacation and mail it to school...we will read it to the whole class when we get back

Cambridge Elementary School

Mrs. Edgerton

186 School Street

Jeffersonville, VT 05464

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday and I will see you in 2020!

Our Muscle Word list as of December 20, 2019

*Please check the Writer's Workshop page in this blog for an updated list every week.

* an	I	yes	me
is	see	to	the
can	a	no	be
do	and	he	she
big	you	*it	little
your	we	my	* am
*at	*in

* Super Muscle Words = muscle words used to make word families

Examples:

an - pan, tan, man, can, and, hand…

am - Pam, bam, ham, Sam, ram…

at - cat, hat, rat, that
it - pit, fit, bit
in - thin, pin, bin

The children are starting to make connections to other words by using the muscle words they know.

Example:

If you can spell my, you can spell by because they end the same and all you have to do is change the beginning sound.

If you can spell no, you can spell go because they end the same and all you have to do is change the beginning sound.

Week of December 13, 2019

Our new class book from Ms. Anderson

Key-Words in Our Kindergarten Class
STOP...LOOK...Think

Tis' the season to struggle with impulse control but let's be honest, when you are five or six years old, impulse control is a difficult thing all year long. For that reason the class and I have come up with three key-words to help ourselves and friends manage impulsivity. Our words are

STOP...LOOK...THINK

When we are given a direction or when someone is talking to us we...

STOP: stop our bodies from moving and our mouths from talking

LOOK: look at the person who is talking

THINK: think about what is being said and what you will need to do once the directions are finished.

This would be great to practice at home. Practice giving a direction and make sure your child stops their bodies, looks at you and thinks about what you are asking and then send them off to complete the task independently.

Thank you!

   A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Horton and the big kids for helping us Code this week. The kindergartners had a great time using and creating code with them. Check out this cool video of the Bee-Bots the kids used during our Coding time.

Reader’s Workshop

   We continued our lessons on what good readers do. This week our focus was on decoding words and making sure our reading sounded right and matched the letters we saw in words. When young children are just learning to read they are so focused on decoding those tough words that they don’t really listen to themselves read to make sure that what they are saying sounds right and makes sense. This is something we will continue to work on all year long.

Writer’s Workshop

  I am so proud of all the progress the children have made in their writing in such a short amount of time. Writing is a great thing to practice at home. If your child is looking for something to do over vacation, ask them to write me a Small Moment story about their vacation. I would love to read them if they bring them into school in January.

Math Lessons

    We continued our work with teen numbers this week. Ask your child to flash some Tricky Teens for you. They are learning that the teen numbers are made up of a group of ten and then some more. They are all working on showing these numbers with their fingers. It would be great for them to practice writing numbers to 20 over the vacation.

Independence

    At this point of the kindergarten year, all of the children are expected to be working on skills to build independence. Thank you to all the parents that have been having their child take care of their own belongings in the morning. That means the children are carrying their own belongings into school, getting themselves organized for the day (i.e. dressing and undressing from their outdoor clothing, unpacking their backpacks,  carrying their folder and other items into the classroom…) Thank you for your help in building some strong, independent kindergartners.

Gingerbread Houses

Our gingerbread houses were a huge success today. They were all sent home today for families to enjoy. Thank you to all the families that donated items to help make this event a success. Also, a big thank you goes out to Mrs. Lotto and Mrs. Leonard for taking time out of their day to come in and help us build our wonderful gingerbread creations.

Nutmeg and Holly

You may have heard about Nutmeg and Holly the Kindness Elves that came to visit kindergarten this week. They are keeping an eye out for acts of kindness and writing letters to the children. They have been finding new lookout spots throughout the school this week to keep an eye on everyone and reporting back about all of the acts of kindness they are seeing.

Theme Time

      Thank you for all of the bells that came back with wonderful family traditions written on them. If you haven't sent your bell back to school, please do so on Monday. The children will share their traditions at Morning Meeting next week.

Next Week
Next week will be a busy one. Here is a quick snapshot of what the week looks like just to give you a heads up.

Monday: Working on our parent gifts (shhhh, it's a surprise)

Tuesday: The children have a guest teacher while I am at an all day meeting

Wednesday: Pajama Day & Craft Day (see below for more details about pajama day)

Thursday: Finishing up our parent gifts (shhhh, it's a surprise)

Friday: COL - The kindergartners are performing the annual Runaway Cookie play. COL starts at 8:10. Later that day, they will learn some holiday ASL signs in the classroom. In the afternoon, the kindergartners will watch Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas.

Morning Meeting

GREETING: The Mitten Match

ACTIVITY: Sign Language (I went to my grandmother's house...)

We filled our jar with marbles and now we get to have Pajama Day!

We Did It!!

    We have been showing acts of kindness and have earned Pajama Day! The children may wear their pajamas and slippers (or comfy cozy clothes) to school on Wednesday, December 18th. They may bring a stuffed animal that fits in their backpack. We will read The Polar Express story, drink hot cocoa and do special arts and crafts. Please make sure your child has outdoor footwear on to get to and from school as well as for recess. It should be an exciting day!

Week of December 3, 2019

All ready for our concert!

Reader’s Workshop

This week we continued to talk about what good readers do. We talked about matching our voices to the words that we are pointing to and looking for words we already know so that we aren’t trying to sound out every word. The children are moving right along with their reading and I can’t wait to start on our formal reading assessments next month to see how the children have improved.

Writer’s Workshop

       This week we have really focused on remembering to put spaces in between our words. This is a really tough concept for kindergartners and it is a great skill to practice at home.

Theme Time

       We used this time of our day for more Winter Concert preparation. The children worked very hard on learning all of the words to their songs and were so excited to share the songs with all of you on Thursday evening.

HOLIDAY GIFTS

     Many children and families enjoy giving their teacher a gift. As much as we love “teacher gifts” we are asking families who would like to give a gift to consider getting something for the classroom that all of us can enjoy instead of getting a “teacher gift”. In the past, families have sent in a new or gently used book for the class, a puzzle, game, craft supply…. Please do not feel that you have to send in anything. Homemade cards are great and I love to decorate the room with the beautiful cards that the children bring in during this Season of Giving.

Morning Meeting

GREETING: I Have, Who Has Letter sounds

ACTIVITY: Sparkle and Four Corners

Traditions & Celebrations Bells

    Next week, you will find a paper bell in your child's folder. We will be talking about special family traditions next week. Please take a moment to write about a special family tradition you have and return the bell to school. Please write in black ink or black marker. The children will be decorating the bell at school. Thank you for your help with this project.

Math Lessons

      The children have worked really hard on the teen family for the past few weeks. They have written the numbers, talked about place value, made equations both addition and subtraction as well as worked on counting forward and backward.