Popcorn words

I found this great online game to help your children better learn their high frequency words.  We call those words "popcorn" words because they "pop" up all the time in reading.  Most of the time we cannot sound out popcorn words.  We just have to know or memorize them.  The less time we devote to recalling popcorn words, the better our fluency gets which results in improved comprehension.  As your children go on to higher grades, words get added to the list.  

So far we have formally introduced these "popcorn" words to the students:  a  and  are  can  do  go  he  I  like my  see  the  to  we  with  and you. We also call color words and number words popcorn words. Many more will be coming as the year progresses. 

This would be great for a rainy or snowy day! 
http://www.fun4thebrain.com/English/popcornWords.html
 

The Zoo

Danielle from the Cincinnati Zoo came for a visit today.  She brought with her an owl named Goblin and a lizard named Thor.  We learned about the marvelous parts that each of these animals has to help them survive, such as big eyes, an armoured tail and much more.  This was the first of three visits over the next couple of months the Zoo will come.  Here are some photos of today.  

What's Happening This Week?

This will be our first full week back!  We had a very busy day and will have a very busy week ahead.  In Language Arts, we will be learning the vowel Ee,  the sounds as well as  blending words with the short sound of Ee.  We will also be learning what pronouns are.  In Writer's Workshop we are starting my favorite project of the year. We are becoming authors by writing, illustrating, and publishing Alphabet books.  This will take several weeks to complete, but the finished products are amazing!

In Math, we will continue to work on larger numbers through 19.  We learn about teen numbers as groups of a 10 and ones.  For instance, 12 is 10 and 2 ones or 16 is 10 and 6 ones.  It is fairly sophisticated work for kindergarteners, but they are up to the challenge.

For our thematic unit and Science, we will be learning all about Penguins and reading many penguin non-fiction and fiction books. 

In Religion, we will be discussing ways we can follow Jesus. We will also be going to the k-3 grade level Mass on Thursday morning.

Here are some photos of our completed shape penguins we made today.

Back to business

I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and New Year, as well as the extra off days.  I know how hard they can be, especially if you work.  We had "ketchup" (catch up) days the last couple of days.  The kindergarteners have been so glad to get back and have been great!  This week we are back to business and back on schedule with nothing to practice or plan for that is extra.  It is always nice to get back to "normal" whatever that means in kindergarten!  

Just looking ahead, we have Catholic Schools Week coming up the last week in January.  There will be many details about this in the Wednesday Herald. Penny Fair will be held on Friday that week.  Penny Fair is basically an indoor carnival.  Information is in the Wednesday Herald about his as well. Kindergarteners are required to have a parent or for the parents to make arrangements to have someone with them during this time if they cannot be there.