Hello December!

First, I would like to say how nice it was to be able to meet with so many of you at conferences over the past few weeks.  It is so important for parents and schools to work together for students' success.

This has been another terrific week in Room 201.  We tackled our third math test of the year.  What a great opportunity for students to learn test taking skills at an early age.  I am certain that this will help make the transition to future grades easier for them.  The students will be bringing home the Chapter 4 packet for math this week so that you can see what we will be studying in the next few weeks.  We are going to be working on comparing numbers and groups of objects to 10 to determine which ones are greater, less, or equal.

In language arts, we continue to work on blending sounds to read and write words.  We introduced two new sight words: "he" and "for."  The students are so excited to learn new words!  I am so impressed with their enthusiasm and determination.  We read "A Bed For The Winter" and learned about animals and their habitats. 

Thanks to all of the parents and grandparents who came to school to have lunch with the students this week!  The kindergarteners were thrilled to have visitors!  Thanks also to all of you for helping to make our school Book Fair a huge success!

With Thanksgiving only a few days away, our class is collaborating with Mrs. Reynolds' fourth graders to create our own handprint turkeys and write a story about them.  The students created their own characters, setting, and plot--what creative minds they have.  Mrs. Reynolds and I were quite impressed.  These stories/illustrations will be laminated and displayed in the hallways for all to see.  Mrs. Reynolds and I are already planning our next team endeavor!  Great job boys and girls!

We continue to focus on mastering the letter names and sounds.  We have added the skill of connecting the sounds to read unknown words, such as zap, mix, fed, and big.  The students are determined to leave kindergarten ready for first grade.  I am impressed with their drive to succeed!  In math, we are nearing the end of the third chapter, which has focused on counting and writing numbers to 10.  Soon we will begin more work comparing these numbers. 

In honor of Thanksgiving, most of our learning this week is centered around the holiday.  We are creating graphs, listening to stories about the holiday, counting turkeys and more! 

I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones!  Remember, there will be no school on Thursday, 11-22, or Friday, 11-23.

Quarter #2 is here!

The second quarter started with a short week.  This week, we studied animal babies and their parents that live in the grasslands.  The students are really enjoying nonfiction books!  It is wonderful to be able to watch their faces as they learn new things--they get so excited.  We began our discussion of adjectives this week.  This is a tricky topic for kindergarten students, and we will continue to return to them throughout the school year. 

In math, we focused on the numbers 7-9.  We read a counting book about Ohio history to reinforce our counting skills.  Both classes were amazed at some of the things we read about Ohio's rich history.  We also began counting to 50 each day.  This takes a lot of repitition to master.  Please practice at home as often as possible.

I hope you are all able to enjoy the sunshine this weekend!