Kindergarten Update 9/20/19

Hello everyone! We have a very busy and productive week. I feel like the children are beginning to learn the routines and our days are going more smoothly. 

Highlights from the week:

• Letters introduced: a & d Letters reviewed: c & o

• Muscle words introduced: me & we Muscle words reviewed: I, a, yes, no
• Reader's Workshop: This week we have been doing a lot of shared reading. Shared reading is when we read books with predictable text and familiar words (such as our muscle words) so the students can help me read. We talked about where readers start reading on the page and where they end. 
• Writer's Workshop: During Writer's Workshop the children have been learning the routine and expectations so everyone can be a writer. We have been learning that stories can be told with pictures and words. We have also been practicing using our quiet voices during work time, not just writing time. Below is a video of the students during on of their writing times this week. They were telling me a story by drawing a picture about an adventure that they have been on. I have been play music in the background and they seem to be enjoying it!

Here are some of the pictures that students drew of their adventures. On Thursday, we worked on adding "words" to tell our story. Many students label themselves in the picture by writing the word "me". Others began to label parts of their picture by writing the sounds that they heard. An example would be writing "cd" for cloud because those are 2 of the letters and sounds that we have learned. 

• Proper pencil grip! We are working very hard on teaching proper pencil grip right now. Here a video that explains the way we teach it. Please note, we use the term "Pinch and flip"!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZ2LP3cOHmQ 
• Math: The children have been working away at building their understanding of numbers 0-10. Each day they have been doing station to practice these skills. I realized that I was so busy working with the students that I never took any pictures of them in action but I documented some of their stations! They have also been working very hard at learning to write these numbers. One station is simply them rolling a dice and writing the number.  
  
  
  
  

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

• FOUR WINDS NATURE PROGRAM
  
  
  Do you enjoy the outdoors and teaching kids about the natural world?
  Can you spare a couple of hours a month to help bring a nature workshop to your child’s/children’s class(es)? No experience needed.
  Training and materials are provided.
  If interested, please contact: Sara Lourie
  (sara.lourie@mail.mcgill.ca or tel: (802) 585 0223)
  See www.fwni.org for more info about the program.
  
  
  If your child has already ‘graduated’ from the program (i.e. in 5^th or 6^th grade)
• 
  
• A Friendly Reminder! Please remember that dismissal for all CES students in grades K-6 is 2:20pm. Also, if you need to change your child's after school plan, please write a note and put it in your child's folders to avoid end of the day confusion. Thank you!