Week 7

Happy Week 7! This week our second steps lesson was focusing on reading body language and understanding how someone is feeling. We looked at pictures of a student feeling happy and a student feeling sad or frustrated. We talked about what we can do to help a person who has uncomfortable feelings.

In reading this week, we learned about the importance of picture power when we are reading. The pictures can help us solve the words. I read the class a book about insects but I covered up the pictures. It was trickier to solve the words without having the picture to help us. As early readers, students use the pictures as clues to solve tricky words and understand the story. We also practiced writing our sight words this week on whiteboards. We used this strategy below on our sight word lists where students can practice their words with whiteboard markers. The students are picking up on these words in their reading and writing which is great to see.

We are also continuing to practice our letter sounds by reviewing them multiple times a day in different ways. We have a letter chant with hand motions to help us learn each sound.

In science this week, we explored our senses.  First, we observed rocks with our sense of sight and used magnifying glasses to see more closely. Students sketched in their science journals what they saw. We went on a listening walk outside to see what we could hear, we smelled scratch and sniff stickers to try and figure out the smell using our sense of smell, and passed around a bag of items trying to solve what they were by using our sense of touch. It was great fun for the kids to be scientist this week and using their senses!

In math this week, our focus was one-to-one correspondence and beginning to talk about one more, one less and the term fewer. 

KG students are becoming writers! Students are working on their narrative stories which have stayed at school in their writing folders. I will send all their work home with you at conferences for you to see. We continue to work on stretching out words out like a rubber band, hearing as many sounds as possible. Some students are more focused on labeling while others are working on forming sentences. It is amazing to watch their writing emerge!

We earned another SOAR reward this week and enjoyed the beautiful weather playing together outside!

Reminders:

Our school has raised $15,119 so far for the school's largest fundraiser of the year. This Friday is the Dance-A-Thon. There is a big dance party after school from 5-7 on Friday for all OB families and you can also attend during PE class to see your child dance it out from 9:30-10:00 on the blacktop. 

Any child who donates even $1 will get a visit from the PRIZE PATROL and get an OB pencil or bracelet. We are $5000 away from our goal so all donations add up. Thank you to the families who have donated as we greatly appreciate your donations to purchase amazing resources for our students here at Old Bonhomme.

Donate here at  http://www.99pledges.com/fund/2019DAT. 

Parent Teacher Conferences are Oct. 22nd and 24th. Thank you for signing up. I look forward to sitting down with you and sharing your child's progress kindergarten. 

We have planned our first field trip for January. It will be great fun! More information coming later. 

Have a great weekend!

Week 6

Please read the OB Newsletter.


Important Dance-A-Thon information:

The Dance-A-Thon is well underway! We are working our way towards our goal of $20,000. Our Prize Patrol was busy, busy, busy on Thursday visiting classrooms and handing out fundraising prizes throughout our school. This is the largest fundraiser of the year for the Old Bonhomme PTO and the funds raised support events and activities like teacher mini grants, arts assemblies and field trips, classroom parties, Passport Night, Science Night and so much more. Please donate today!

Donations are accepted through http://www.99pledges.com/fund/2019DAT. If you haven’t received an email from 99Pledges, please contact Jennifer Soshnik at Jennifer.Growe@gmail.com to get set up! Donations by check (preferred) or cash are also welcome! Please make checks payable to OBPTO, and don’t forget to include your student’s name on the envelope.   

Join your student(s) for their PE class dance party on October 4, and then come celebrate with us at the Dance-A-Thon “After Party” celebration on Friday, October 4, 5-7 p.m. on the OB blacktop. The evening will include a DJ, special performances, food trucks, and great OB family fun. Let’s DANCE IT OUT!

Dancing to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams 

Our kindergarten theme song for DanceaThon

Second Steps: This week we talked about being assertive and speaking up for yourself if you need help. We also talked about speaking in a calm and respectful tone. I said the same things but in different tones and students realized how different the message can sound.

We also read The Case of the Tattle Tongue. We talked about reporting vs. tattling and the differences. We are all working on worrying just about ourselves and staying out of situations that don't involve us.

In phonics, we continue to practice our letters and letter sounds. We have practiced writing our names with uppercase first letter and lowercase for the rest. Today, we practiced putting different letters in front of our names to rhyme our names. 

In reading, we started our reading super powers unit. We learned all about pointer power and the power behind pointing with our finger or our new pointer sticks that Mabel (our Phonics mascot) left us. We looked at familiar songs and practiced pointing to each word as we sang. We also learned that if we see a sight word we recognize, we should be reading that word when we point to it!

In literacy centers, we continued to learn what the expectations are at each center and how to do it independently. Next week, I will start to pull small groups and work on specific strategies to meet each reader where they are at based on all the data I have collected. 

In math this week, we worked on more counting strategies and worked specifically on numbers 7 and 8. The year starts off making sure students have a strong number foundation. We also practice number formation making sure we are forming our numbers properly.

This week we started science. We read What is a Scientist and talked about what scientist do. We watched different video clips of different kinds of scientist including engineers, marine biologist, and a robotics scientist. The students loved seeing these different scientist in action. We looked at the scientific method and talked about this process. Today, we examined rocks with our eyes and used our observation skills to describe what we saw. The students are very excited to start our science unit on our senses.

In writing, we continue to work on writing narrative stories. Students are illustrating and trying to label their pictures using their letter sound knowledge. We learned how important it is to include who is in the story, where it takes place, and what happened in order. I model writing a story and practicing stretching my words out for the students. This week we added speech bubbles in our writing to bring our story to life. We also looked at a checklist as a tool to make sure we have done everything we are supposed to do in our writing.