Hello Everyone,
Thank
you to everyone who was able to make it to the open house! I had so
much fun seeing students so excited to show their parents around our
learning space.
We
had so much fun with our culminating apple project. I’m sure you have
heard by now that we successfully made our own, “class-made” applesauce.
Students were so pleased with their creation. Many students made
remarks stating, “it tastes so much better than it looks,” and “ I
peeled the apples in this stuff!” Everyone, even the few students who
don’t really care for apples helped out with our peeling production.
Here we are helping out making our very own Crockpot applesauce.
We created our own “apple orchard” as seen below
Ask
your student about the “magic” star inside apples. We read a tale
about the “magic” starts inside apples and why they are there. Here are
some below:)
This
week, we will be starting our fall unit. This theme will take place
for the next two weeks. We will be outside collecting/graphing leaves,
learning a little about leaf identification, and completing a few leaf
rubbing projects to solidify our identifying abilities.
In
math we will be finishing our first unit of the Bridges Math program.
Our focus will continue on recognizing a variety of patterns. Students
will copy, extend and create repeating ABAB, ABCABC and ABBABB patterns
using their hands, feet and other body parts. If you are not familiar
with a ABAB pattern, it’s a pattern that repeats itself and has two
parts. A pattern such as black, white, black, white would be an ABAB
pattern. An ABBABB pattern has two parts but one of the parts repeats
within the pattern. A pattern with colors again that would represent an
ABBABB would be black, white, white, black, white, white. If you would
like to support this type of learning at home, begin one of these
patterns and ask your student to extend it further. You can use coins,
crayons, blocks, Legos, and even letters written on paper.
In
Fundations we will be continuing to master our phonemic awareness. I
made a mistake with last week’s letter, we were actually learning the
letters “i” and “u.” This week our focus will be “c” and “o.” Ask your
student what sounds they hear at the beginning of words that begin with
the letter sounds b-t-f-m-n-i-u-c-o. Words with short letter sounds at
the beginning, such as, bat, top, fun, man, nut, itch, up, cat, and
octopus. Most students really enjoy letter sounds if it’s made into a
game. You can refer to my letter last week if you need any ideas.
The
students in Room 8 are blossoming into amazing little authors. Our
writing club has been a huge success. Some students are beginning to
write “words” while others are still trying to master labeling their
illustrations. Most parents wonder about how writing develops and why.
Soon, I will begin sending their writing home and you will see
temporary misspellings that haven’t been corrected.
Do
you remember when your child first learned how to talk? S/he may have
had many “mistakes” or approximations in his/her speech, but it didn’t
really concern you that much. At times you may have corrected their
speech, but mostly you included your child in your conversations,
encouraged them to talk, and delighted in your interactions with them.
As parents, you know that children learn to talk the same way they
learn to crawl or walk...They learn to talk by talking.
Learning to write works the same way. Here is an example of writing in the early stages of writing.
IFAGDFDA
This
may not look like standard writing but it is an approximation and it is
AMAZING! It actually tells us a lot about the student’s abilities.
This shows that this child knows that written language is supposed to
mean something and the child can explain exactly what it means. When
asked, we are told:
I have a goldfish called Adam.
Just about every letter stands for one word in the story.
I F A GDF D A
I have a goldfish called Adam
Some
additional developmental stages come before this one, and others come
after. From this sample we see that child knows the following:
Print goes in a straight line from left to right.
Print is made up of letters.
Letters stand for sounds in the words s/he wants to write.
Later we might see:
I FNDA LPANDA GENE CAMOT
I found a lamp and a genie came out.
Here is what this WONDERFUL piece of writing tells us about the child’s writing development.
Written language is made up of words and separated by spaces.
Written words are made up of a number of different letters.
Written words have beginning and ending sounds.
Written words have vowels.
When you know a word “AND” you spell it the same way every time.
Teachers
help children learn to write the way parents and families help them
learn to talk. If we put our energy and focus into correcting each and
every approximation, the child will get discouraged and lose a natural
desire to write. What reasearch tells us about heavy correction is that
meaning is less important than spelling the words correctly.
If
we invite them to use their oral language in their writing, even if
they can’t spell all the words correctly, we give them the freedom to
say what they mean. Children learn to write by writing. When we
support and applaud their “best attempts” we see their writing take off.
Do
we have have time to teach spelling, grammar, punctuation, and
handwriting? Absolutely! We do this during our whole group instruction
and individual conferences. We select one or two teaching points that
are within their writing development and support them as they take on
this new skill.
My
goal in sharing my thoughts with you is to encourage you to share in
your child’s joy of writing. Kindergarten is an amazing year of growth
for writers. The skills will come with time. Just remember...We learn
to write by writing!
As
for the other learning adventures in Kindergarten this week, we will be
asking ourselves about the texts we are reading. Questions such as,
“What might characters say on this page?” or “How does this page
connect to the next page in the book?” These questions encourage
student understanding of text and comprehension. When you are reading
at home with your child, you can further this comprehension and text
understanding by asking the same questions.
If
you would like to sign up for a mystery reader spot, please do so on
the Mystery Reader letter I will be sharing with you shortly.
Many
students would like to have water bottles at their desks and I feel
this is a great option to minimize distractions and transitions to and
from the water fountain. If you would like to send in a water bottle
with your student please do so with his/her name on it. A hydrated
brain is a healthy brain!!
Memos: Picture day- October 4th
Field Trip- October 22
Thank you for everything you do!
-Jenn Livingston
