December
December
Note: Please send your children with snow pants or a second pair of pants and boots every day. We go out in most weather and they are allowed to play in the snow only with winter wear. We are also asking for roll-up sleds only, as storage and safety are issues. If you have extra snow pants or mittens, it would be great to have extras in the classroom. Thank you.
Science
Our classes finished out human body unit. We have sent home all our projects and hope you are enjoying our bodies and our five senses posters. We learned so much about how our bodies worked and how to keep them strong. In March we will revisit some of these concepts as we explore a unit on wellness. Now it is on to construction! Kindergarten students are natural builders and this unit builds on the love of building and the science skills of observation, inquiry, experimentation and sharing results. Some of the activities involved in this study will be free exploration with materials, building a house, and building with many different materials, levers, pulleys and bridges. We hope the weather will cooperate and we will get a warm day to explore the architecture of our neighborhood. It is also our hope to have the children actually construct a small structure such as a bird feeder. This will be a January project. If you can assist in any way, please let us know. We would love to have guest speakers!
Literacy
We continued working in the Phonics and Friends program and have added several more consonants and one vowel to our repertoire. We are using these sounds and others we know daily in our writing and our reading. We have looked intensively at rhyming and most of us have a good command of rhyming words. It was fun to make all the “at” and “an” words. Our handwriting has focused on these new letters and on our first and last names. Many children can now write their last names all on their own. There is so much pride in this accomplishment. We have begun to look at syllables and at stretching out words to hear phonemes. Everyone can hear the first and last sound in short a words and many can hear several medial sounds as well. This skill will be worked on all year long.
Children continue to work in leveled readers. Some of the skills and strategies they are working on include:
- Handling books: front, back, left to right, return sweep
- Noticing and interpreting detail in pictures
- Using a finger to develop one-to-one matching between spoken and written word
- Noticing some features of letters and words
- Locating familiar and new words
- Remembering and using language patterns
- Using knowledge of spoken language to determine if something “sounds” right
- Predicting what makes sense
- Self-monitoring—checking one’s reading by using word-by word matching and suing known words as anchors.
The children are continuing to write in their draft books. They are now “writing:” daily with adult support and all are in their second book. Although writing is still very much a supported activity, the children are responsible for many initial sounds, the sight words I, a, and to, as well as having appropriate details in their illustrations. They are learning the skills of authors and illustrators.
Everyday Mathematics
Everyday Mathematics had us exploring several different national math strands. We spent some time in the geometry area looking at different shapes. We review the “math” names for these shapes, looked at the number and type of sides and then made some beautiful pictures using the shapes. Symmetry was another major focus. The children explored this area using mirrors; single sided and doubled sided, with activity cards. They figured out very soon how to use a double mirror to make a single piece of pizza into an entire round pizza. Daily the children reviewed counting and counting on from a numeral other than one. The children are working in number books. The children were introduced to the cent sign and practiced using it as they counted pennies and recorded their counts. Also new to the daily routine is charting our temperature. After several days of “green” temps, we are now in the “blue”! Our thermometer is color coded. Do you think we will have any “purple” days?
Themes
Our theme for December will be diversity. We will celebrate our sameness while looking at our differences. We briefly look at different celebrations held this month. Our science unit will tie in with this as we look at what homes look like around the world. This is always a busy month.
Thank-you
We wish to extend a very special thank you to Dr. Stockwell, Dr. Burgess and Mrs. Burgess for all their expertise and sharing during our human body unit.
We also offer very special thank yous to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Archer for coordinating our Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast and to all the parents who helped with the delicious food. The day was very special indeed.
Thank you to all our daily volunteers. Our job would be so much harder if you were not here.
Needs
Scrap wood to build bird feeders for both K classes and six wood glue bottles per class (last Wed. in Jan.)
Velcro dots (both K.’s)
Used Lincoln logs (both K.’s)
Legos (both classes)
buttons (Mrs. Cmaylo)
Magnetic tape (Mrs. Mildner)
Baggies of all sizes – 2 gallon also (Mrs. Cmaylo)
Textured paper for book making (Mrs. Cmaylo)
Rubber bands (Mrs. Mildner)
Used sand box toys for outdoor recess (Mrs. Merrill)
One gift wrapped hard back book you know your child will love-slipped into my mailbox (Mrs. Cmaylo only-I will discover these books in my room just before the holiday break.)
Comments from students in Mrs. Cmaylo’s Class;
It will make you smile.
I can’t close my eyes, the night mirrors will come.
That timer is just like an oven!
Mrs. Cmaylo, you can take out my braids ‘cause they’re going down the wrong track!
You have lots of lines on your forehousen.
I am an artist, you know.
I think its time to go home now.
When I was at school tomorrow, my little brother had a fever.
I did that! I’m smart.
My brain hurts…are you going to call my mom now?
Holy cow! Look what I builded!
We are doing a good job – both of us. I know ‘cause I know how grown-ups talk.
Are we going outside for fresh air today?
Do you like school? I do but it is too long.
I thought you saw me crawling under the table, but did you?
I want to go home now and I don’t want to come back.
Do you know Shawn, the stulodian?
Mrs. Hardy, if its all right with you, I don’t think I’ll work with you anymore.
I looked at the letters and now I can read!
Today night I didn’t sleep too good!
Watching TV makes your tummy fat you know.
I’m going to tell Mrs. Wilcox that I’m available now.
I used to have 102 teeth, but I lost 2 so now I only have 20.
Mrs. Cmaylo, why do you have gray hairs next to your ears?
Will you pretend that’s a L…okay?
My grandmother died so I get to see her in her box at the fudernal place.
Why are you so bossy every day?
When is Mrs. Fresh air coming to school?