We've Been Busy!

The last several weeks have kept us busy in kindergarten.  Recently, we've worked on two writing projects. The first project was brushing up our narrative writing skills focusing on writing a beginning, a middle, and an end.  We picked a person or a character that we thought we knew well and wrote "A Day in the Life of  . . ."  Some of us wrote about Elsa and Anna from Frozen, our new baby brother, or David from one of our favorite books, No, David!

After writing our narratives, we turned our attention to revising.  We learned that revising is when we change or add to our story to make it better.  Several students added exciting words like "oh, no!" or "yes!" to show how our characters felt.  We all got to share our stories in the share chair.  Students were so proud to share what they had written.  They all worked so hard!

Now we're working on making non-fiction writing, or informational writing, more exciting.  We've read many stories authored by Steve Jenkins.  Ask you child how Steve Jenkins has inspired his or her writing lately. Students may say that writers can write sentences in the shapes of their pictures, or they may talk about how writers can make important words bold and big.  Sorry--since Spring Break, I've been out of practice taking pictures during the day.  We've been busy!

In reading, we've been working hard on putting our reading strategies all together to help us understand the text better.  Earlier in the year, we would just practice making connections or just practice making inferences. Now, we 're making connections and making inferences (for example) during the same read aloud.  We're wondering which reading strategy we can use to help us understand the book better.  We're getting so good at sharing our thinking and being encouraging when others share as well.  

Before Spring Break, we talked about how it's important to think of what you already know when reading a non-fiction book so we can connect that information to what we're learning in the text.  Here is an example of some of our thinking about penguins:

Now while reading non-fiction, we're paying attention to the titles and heading throughout the book so that we can know what the author wants us to know.  

We're working very hard to learn our sight words before the end of the year.  Making caterpillars is one way that helps keep us motivated to learn them.  Ask your child if he or she has completed the caterpillar.  Many have!

We have grown so much as a class in our understanding of rhyming.  While we studying Dr. Seuss, we came up with lots of different rhyming words--as a class and as a small group.  Check out one group's work:

In math, learning the names and values of the coins have been keeping us busy, too.  We've discussed, sorted, compared . . .  all in the name of learning!  Take a look:

Now we're working on linear measurement and time in addition to addition and subtraction.  Whew!

I meant to share our amazing leprechaun traps earlier.  I was so impressed with the thinking that went on with the designs.  All of the students were able to share.  Here are a few examples: