Fall Party

Here are the highlights from our Fall Party after Literary Parade. The kids had a great day filled with fun Fall activities.

Fall Party on PhotoPeach

Math Centers

Last week we began our Math Centers. This is a time that students work on previous lessons that reinforce what they have already learned. Students work individually but complete the same game as their friends at their table. The best part about centers is that the kids don't even realize they are learning! Here are some highlights from our centers.

A Special Guest

Last week Mr. Dygan, our Speech Pathologist, brought a special guest to our room. Tiger, a Kenyan Sand Boa, was actually familiar to Mrs. Harbour. This Kenyan Sand Boa was actually her son Matt's snake for many years. As Matt became older he realized he would not be able to take care of Tiger and would be leaving for college so he asked Mr. Dygan, a well known snake lover, to adopt her. The kids were able to learn a little bit about this type of snake, come up to touch her, as well as how to be safe if they come across a snake. Thank you Mr. Dygan for a great teachable moment!

Reading Strategies

Although many kindergarteners are not ready to read at this point of the year, we are learning new reading strategies that support even our beginning readers. This last week we focused very hard at looking at the pictures as our first strategy. Students are learning that whenever they are reading a book, simple or hard, that the pictures are important. Pictures support our text. In early emergent books the pictures directly tie to the words on the page. As students grow as readers, the pictures don't tell what is on the page, they support what text is on the page. When they begin reading chapter books they will know how to create those mental images of what the illustration would look life if there was one since they have grown to associate the pictures with text over time. Students will learn to describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear. Make sure that when you are reading with your child you take a picture walk prior to reading. What a great way to engage in conversation about what will happen in the story.

Blending sounds

One of favorite activities in skills block is blending words. Last week we played "Guess that Word". Kids listen to a set of individual sounds and blend them together to make a word. Then they find the picture that matches. You can play this game even without pictures. Here are some examples of words you can use:

p-a-t
r-o-d
t-i-p
s-u-n
g-r-a-ss
s-t-o-p
b-i-k-er
t-a-b-le

Science All Around

Last week we started our new unit in Science - Our 5 Senses. This is an exciting unit as kids learn how to make observations all around them. We began our unit with a simple piece of popcorn. The kids were able to see, smell, and touch their popcorn. Then the best part of all came when they were able to taste it! That's when they could finally hear the popcorn too. As a group we discussed all the ways we could describe one simple piece. This is a fun activity that you can do at home with your child! Now that we have learned about all our senses, ask your child what their senses are and what part of our body we use with them.

Open House

Thank you to all the families that joined us last night for Open House. It was so nice to see many moms and dads (and grandma's too). We hope that it was informative yet fun. The kids were very excited about showing your their work and around our room. We look forward to a great year!