Mrs. McGee's Kindergarten Blog

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Botanical Gardens

Today we read this book. It was a great story about when you are feeling sad YOU have to be the one to Start Acting Differently. It was a great story about a boy who was trying to fit in with kids who were popular, but treating him poorly. He learned to speak up for himself, walk away and explore new friends, and talk to an adult. He spoke with the counselor and his parents which helped to bring happy feelings to him again. I explained to KG when they have sad feelings that I am here for them to listen and encouraged them to talk to you at home.

Students headed to their OB Families on Wednesday. Students had a paper on their back and students went around and wrote words to lift up the person on their back. Ask your child about it!

We had a great time at the Missouri Botanical Gardens on Thursday.

Choice Time!

Reading: This week, we learned about becoming avid readers of poetry. We learned it is important to read the words, think about the meaning of the poem, and match the beat of the poem when reciting it. We practiced reading several poems.

Example of vowel pattern work done in small reading group

In writing, we wrapped up working on our persuasive letters on world problems.

This week we worked on planning a speech. We talked about what it looks like when giving a speech. We watched a video of a child giving a speech. WE learned that it is important to stand tall, use body language, show feelings, and speak loud so your audience can hear.

Students delivered their speech on Friday.

Saturday, March 30, 2019

Parts of Plants

Social Skills: This week's lesson was about name calling. We talked about how name calling can hurt people's feelings and make people feel sad or frustrated. We looked at the picture and looked at the boy's expression. Then we talked about how to problem solve the situation. We discussed how to ignore the girl or how to assertively tell her that he wanted to be called just by his name. If either of those do not work, then you report to an adult.

On Friday, we read Too Shy For Show and Tell. The book was all about how Sam the giraffe was very shy and no one knew his very well. Once he warmed up and saw his friends sharing their toys for show and tell, he was able to them share and felt much better.

In reading, we continued learning about becoming avid non-fiction readers. We practiced comparing books looking at their similarities and differences. We also got into book clubs with students picking what topic they wanted to become experts in. Students also had to read our books looking for information. Then students had to each write two facts they learned from their books on to post-it notes and share so students could input into a bubble map.

In guided reading groups, students continue to get books that are a good fit for them. Their reading continues to progress and the are using strategies we've learned all year to solve tricky words and work on fluency and comprehension. All groups are working on different skills. Some groups are stretching out words hearing blends, some are working on contractions, some are working on vowel patterns in words, and some are working on homonyms, antonyms and synonyms.

We focused on subtraction at the beginning of the week, focusing on subtraction facts and increasing our automaticity. Then, we moved into measurement unit. We review the vocabulary words short, shorter, shortest, and long, longer, longest. Students moved around the room doing a measuring activity with paperclips and cubes.

In writing this week, we continued working on persuasive letters. However, this week we talked about world issues. This is the list they came up with. We later added sugar consumption, cutting down trees, and screen time. Students are writing about these problems, why they are problems and trying to think of a fix it idea.