Singing and Learning.

We do so much learning in kindergarten! Our brains are like little sponges that soak it all up. We do a lot of learning through song for many reasons but the most important is that it is fun! Not only is it fun, but singing helps us learn so many important skills. It helps to improve vocabulary, fluency, phonics skills, phonemic awareness skills and retention. Some of us are musical and auditory learners, so signing is a great way to learn for us. We have started getting into the letters and the sounds and soon we started blending sounds to read words with the short sound of Aa. Here is a song we use to help us learn the letters and their sounds. It is by Dr. Jean. We love Dr Jean and have many of her CD to sing and move to in the classroom.

What's Happening This Week?

We are starting a new Theme in Language Arts called Silly Business.  This week we will learn the letters Dd and Nn.  We will also learn the popcorn words go and we.  We will continue to talk about and practice writing sentences in Writer's Workshop. We will also discuss the times to use an uppercase letter when we are writing.   In Math, we will take our test on Chapter 4 comparing numbers to 10.   We will also start our Halloween Unit.  We will be attending our grade level mass on Thursday. 

7th grade buddies

We met our 7th grade buddies yesterday and had a great time making ghosts with them.  We will meet with them throughout the year to read books, play games and make crafts.   Here are some photos of them together.  We can't wait until the next time we meet!

What's Happening This Week?

We have a lot going on this week in Kindergarten.  On Friday, we will be going to the Living Rosary in church.  We will also be going to the Scholastic book fair during our normal library time at 9:45.  If you would like to have a child purchase a book, please send in money in an envelope  with your child's name.  $5  is enough to purchase a book.

In Language Arts we will be sequencing stories and discussing the difference between fiction and non-fiction stories.  We have also started blending the letter sounds we have learned to read simple CVC words.   In Math, we will be showing ways to make 10, comparing sets up to 10, and couting backward and forward to 10.  In Religion, we will be discussing ways to care for God's world.  In our thematic unit we will be talking about pumpkins and completing a science experiment in the Science Lab:  Does a pumpkin sink or float. 

Today we met our 7th grade buddies and had a great time.  I will post pictures of them later this week.

Math Stations

What are math stations?

Math Stations are a "fun" way to learn math concepts.  We usually do them at the end of a math lesson to use concrete, manipulative objects to help us learn math concepts. We are doing math stations to help us learn sorting, patterning, numeration and more. As we are introduced to new math concepts, we will have new math stations to do! Math stations are fun and improve not only our math skills, but also work on cooperative learning, verbal, problem solving, fine motor and memory skills. Here are some photos of us participating in math stations.    We love math stations!

Popcorn Words

We have been learning some new words we call popcorn words. What are popcorn words? Popcorn words are words that "pop" up all the time in reading. They are also known as sight words and dolche words. They are most often words that can't be sounded out and need to be memorized.

Here is a link you can go to print out your own popcorn words: http://teachers.net/gazette/AUG03/images/popcornwords1.pdf

So far we have learned the popcorn words I, my, the, like and a. If you have time I found this fun game on the internet for the students to play to help them learn more popcorn words. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCoQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fun4thebrain.com%2FEnglish%2FpopcornFinal.swf&ei=X0mPTvC3HOaIsgLaydDIAQ&usg=AFQjCNGb09cHaRcs0_LcpWfKs6MVy4I00w

It is important that children learn to read these words quickly and accurately to help with fluency and comprehension when reading. Sometimes they can be hard to learn because we can't sound them out or use picture or context clues to help us. Basically, we just need to know them. The more we practice them, the more we learn them. Have fun with those "popcorn" words

What's Happening This Week?

In Language Arts this week we will continue to progress with Read to Self and Writer's Workshop.  We will also learn how to correctly form the letters Pp and Cc and learn their sounds.  We teach the hard sound of Cc in kindergarten.  We will also learn how to read and spell the popcorn words like and I. We will finish our Apple Unit this week as well.  In math, we will continue with numbers focusing on 8 and 9.  In Religion we will be discussing what respect looks like and sounds like.  In science we will learn about the parts of the tree and what their function is.  As always it is another busy week in kindergarten.