February 6-10

Hello K families! I wanted to let you know that there will be a guest teacher in our room on Thursday. Our math staff developer, Ryan Flessner of Bulter University, will be providing professional development for teachers that afternoon. I look forward to bringing the knowledge he shares into our classroom.

Upcoming events:
February 7: Half Day
February 9-10: Math Staff Developer visits!
February 23: Half Day
February 24: No School
February 27: Family Night: Music, Masterpieces and Munchies

Reading:  Our focus in reading switches to nonfiction books this week! We will get our library ready by sorting the books into fiction and nonfiction bins. Students will also find topic bins that hold books on animals, places, etc. When your child brings his/her book bag home this week, you will find books from their dot level as well as topic books that may or may not be at their individualized reading level. As you read any of these with your child, encourage him/her to  look closely at the pages, point to pictures to find even more, ask questions, and talk about books to become experts on their topics. These are high interest books for the kids--I am so excited to see how they work with them!

Writing:   This week we are starting to write All About books. The goal is for students to write an entire book that teaches about one topic. Students will begin to keep a ‘tiny topics’ notebook where they can jot down ideas about topics they want to write about. We will discuss thinking about and planning out how we can teach our readers the important facts about our topics. Writers will learn that they can plan out books using their fingers to keep track of their ideas. Help your writer think of different things he/she could teach others about! What is your child an expert on?

Math: The big ideas in math continue to be teen numbers, adding/subtracting, and shapes.
Here are the centers we will rotate through this week:

• Students will use a Math Expressions activity page to practice shape recognition and position words.  
• We will build teen numbers with real objects. 
• Students will play go fish with teen number cards (14 and 10+4 would be a match). 
• Students will challenge each other’s’ adding and subtracting skills by showing a partner a number of chips. Then, they will cover some of the chips with a cup. The partner will need to look at the pieces remaining to determine the number of chips under the cup. This is a great way to practice number sequencing and number sense!  

Word Study:  Our sight words are with, new, away, down, & do.

Science: Back to science this week and the students are so excited! We are going to be studying wood and paper. Students will explore different types of wood and study how it feels, looks, smells, etc. Then, we will test whether wood will float or sink. These hands on activities are great for working in teams, making hypotheses, conducting experiments, and discussing ideas. Stay tuned for more information in upcoming field trip to the Paper Discovery center in Appleton.

We had a blast making peanut butter and jelly for our writing celebration! Writing how to books was hard work, these Kindergarteners deserved a treat!