This week in kindergarten, we talked about the letter H. Students thought of many spooky things beginning with this letter and found it much easier to print than M. Although we focus on one letter per week, we are constantly talking about all of the alphabet letters and learning how to use them to sound out simple words. I find that emphasizing one particular letter each week allows students who are not yet familiar with all of their letters, to feel successful and confident.
I would highly encourage you to talk about letters and words with your child at home. Finding random times in the day for word play is a fantastic way to practice and master beginning reading and writing skills. Play games and ask questions while driving around in the car, "What is the first letter you hear in the word HHHOUSE?" When they can confidently name the first letters of these words, try asking them, "What is the last sound you hear in the word TOP?" "Can you think of a word that rhymes with CAT?"
We learned that pictures, as well as words, are powerful ways of telling a story. We looked through many of our classroom books and discovered that the pictures tell a great deal. We analyzed a variety of work samples to see if we could read the main idea from the pictures students had drawn. Students decided that organization and detail were important for our pictures to be understood. With this knowledge fresh in our minds, students drew about a special family memory and included as many details as possible to give the readers clues about what was happening in their own personal stories. On the following day, we created a small checklist of what was important when colouring a picture. The children came up with 3 important rules to be followed in order for our colouring to look "right." Students reflected on their work after colouring to self-assess whether they remembered to do these 3 things.
Our kindergarteners worked hard to label their drawings with letters and many students took a big leap in their writing skills this week. All students made an attempt at adding letters to their work. Some students are writing random letters, some are matching initial letter sounds with what they have drawn, some are beginning to listen for beginning and ending sounds, and some are sounding out entire words. ALL of these are developmentally appropriate for this age. Each student learns at different times and in different ways and all are challenged to take the next step in their learning, however big or small that may be. Check out these writing superstars!
We've been practicing a new math game called, Lucky Number. This game helps students to practice printing numbers to 6 on a simple bar graph. Dice games are a great way for students to develop their mental math skills. Subitizing, or learning to recognize small quantities without counting them, is an important step in developing number sense. Try some dice games with your child at home. Do they count the dot patterns each time they roll or are they beginning to recognize and associate dot patterns with numbers?
1. Students are asked not to wear thier Halloween Costume to school on Monday.
2. Please label mittens, gloves and toques with your child's name or initals.
As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read about and engage in your child's learning. These early skills are fundamental and so very important for your child's success later on.
Miss Roberts
