Week of Dec. 12-15

It was a wonderful week in the Monkey classroom and the students were full of cheer!  They really enjoyed creating crafts this week such as their Santa bags to take items home in, the gift for their parents and the gift bag.  

We finished up our unit in science about rocks, soil and water.  We will begin to focus on patterns and changes in weather and the seasons when we return.  We will also begin our PBL (project based learning) project after the winter break.  We will use our language arts time for this exciting project and it will combine fairy tales and engineering.  We can't wait for you all to see our work on STEAM Night on January 12th from 6:00-7:30 p.m.  We are going to continue our focus on addition in math and we will learn some fun addition games.

The Monkeys had an awesome time at their winter party!  

Thank you very much to all of the parents that volunteered and helped plan and run the winter party.  I know all of the Monkeys and I really appreciate your time and support!  It was a really fun time!

Have an amazing holiday break!

Week of Dec. 5-9

How are there only 4 days left of this semester?  It is unbelievable how time has flown by since the first day of school!  We really enjoyed looking at all of our friends shoe box lids that were decorated this past week.  Each unique work of art contributed to a beautiful class tree!

In language arts this past week we focused on fiction.  We read holiday stories and created art with each one and added a writing piece to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

We also read Snowmen at Night, as well as The Wild Christmas Reindeer.

In science we focused on uses of rocks and water and the properties of water.  We will finish up our unit in science next week by discussing the uses of soil and reviewing all we have learned.

In math we began to take a look at addition.  We were able to act out addition stories and the Monkeys had a fun time with that lesson!

The highlight of our week was our field trip to the Zach Scott Theater to watch a performance of Holiday Heroes.  The students had a great time!  A favorite part of the trip for the Monkeys was riding on the big yellow school bus!

It was also exciting to get to learn all about our superstar student this past week, Kingsley!

 We will announce our next superstar student after the holiday break!  Stay warm this weekend!

Week of Nov. 14-18

Happy Thanksgiving break!  I hope you will all have a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends!

This past week we focused on expository text about bats in language arts.  The students now know many facts about bats.  I hope you enjoyed their bat video that they made with the Chatter Kid app on their iPads.  As we learned about these nocturnal creatures, we discussed the various features of expository text.  During writing, we continued to work on writing captions.  The students chose a topic that they are experts at and wrote captions for pictures they illustrated.  

In science, we learned all about patterns of movement.  We used vocabulary words such as above, below, in front of, behind, beside, zigzag and between.  We made our own marble movement art and it is displayed in the hallway.  Ask your child how we created this art!  

During math we focused on numbers that were more or less than a given numeral.  The students identified how many items were in a given set and then decided if another set was more or less.

For social studies we continued to learn about culture and traditions.  We focused on Thanksgiving and the traditions and celebrations surrounding this holiday.  The Monkeys had a great time discussing what they are thankful for and made some super cute turkey hats!

We enjoyed learning about our superstar student Sophia D.'s life and interests this past week!  

Week of November 7-11

It was another great week in Kindergarten!  We were super excited about our class turkey!  It looks fabulous and it is always great to see the wonderful diversity in all of the feathers.  

It is SO hard to believe that we only have one more week until our Thanksgiving break!  The students are ready for a nice break and so are the teachers.  We are looking forward to spending quality time with our family and friends.  

Our class got a wonderful surprise on Friday during the morning announcements.  We won the Golden Spork award!  It is a weekly award given to the class with the best behavior at lunch in the cafeteria!!  Yay Monkeys!  Great job!

During language arts this week, we really focused on nonfiction text vs. fiction text.  We read a lot of nonfiction text about turkeys and learned many facts about them.  Ask your child facts that they now know about wild turkeys.  We then made some awesome turkeys that are displayed in the Kindergarten hallway.  Make sure to come and see them!

We also worked on making lists during writing.  We thought about things that we are good at doing and could teach someone else to do.  We began writing facts about a topic from our lists.  We are going to work on drawing and coloring pictures about our topic and writing captions.

During science the students worked on learning all about relative position.  We focused on many position words such as above, below, in front of, behind, between and beside.  Make sure to watch your child's video on Seesaw that they made with the Show Me app on their iPads.  They had a lot of fun showing what different position words mean.

In math, we focused on measurement.  The students learned about capacity and weight.  In kindergarten, we focus on comparing capacity and weight.  For example, a bathtub holds more water or has a greater capacity than a kitchen sink.  Also, a truck is heavier than a table.  Work with your child to compare various objects at home.  Use the terms "holds more", "holds less", "greater capacity", "less capacity", "heavier than" and "lighter than". 

The Monkeys really enjoyed comparing the capacity of various containers and measuring tools in class.

During social studies, we worked on learning about voting and elections.  We learned what a ballot was and we got to vote!  The students voted on their favorite fruit on Tuesday.  They were about to choose between watermelon, apples, bananas and grapes.  They marked their ballot and put it in the ballot box.  Apples won!

It was so much fun learning all about our superstar Alice this past week!

The Monkeys look forward to learning about our next superstar, Sophia D.!