Cold Winter Days!

What a crazy week with a "cold" day and a late start day! I hope you all stayed warm and are looking forward to the 60s tomorrow. I know I am and plan to be outside ALL day long. Many students and myself have been sick these past two weeks. We are doing everything we can to keep our classroom clean and wash our hands. It's almost Spring... right?!?

Please read the details for our upcoming Valentine's Day festivities in the OB newsletter. Kindergarten also runs a OB Valentine's Mailbox which is different from our class Valentines. Your child can make Valentine's for anyone in the school and place it in the box in the front hallway. Please make sure it is marked with student name and class.

Read the OB Newsletter to see what else is going on at school and see any upcoming events.

Social Skills: Today during our class meeting, we discussed our current class goals and decided if we need to keep or modify them. We decided to keep our hallway goal of staying quiet and in control of our bodies. However, we added these new goals.  The first two are very similar which obviously the students feel there is a concern. Now that we are all so comfortable with one another, it is easy to express how we really feel. Therefore, we are working on thinking about our feelings, letting our friends know with our words and trying to solve the problem peacefully.

Therefore, I decided to read this book today. It is about a boy named RJ who says many hurtful comments to his friends and family. Therefore, he learns about his thinking bubble and his speaking bubble. He learns about his "social filter" and how we have to sometimes filter what we think and say it in a kinder way. It was a great lesson and a good book for me to reference when these issues arise. 

Literacy Centers: Students rotated through literacy centers this week. The centers are shown below. Students go to two centers each day. I try and meet with three reading groups each day as well which are the animals at the top. I meet with two during centers and one at rest time. 

1. Sight word: various activities on our two focus words each week

2. Theme center: 100th day activity, writing 100 words

3. Independent reading out of class library or book box

4. Writing: Working on How To stories this week

5. iPad: Reading books on Raz Kids then Epic!

6. ABC: Work work activities differentiated per group 

7. Listening to book on CD: Book changes each week, students follow along 

8. OSMO: Students play word building activities with word tiles 

Snack Time: During snack we watch a book or video on the SmartBoard that pertains to the theme of the week. Before snack time is read aloud and rest (independent reading.)

Portfolios: This year I am trying to keep a small Kindergarten portfolio for each student. Today we worked on filling out a few pages so students can see their progress throughout the year.