It's Been Awhile

My apologies for not posting at all last week! Can you tell I am approaching finals week at PSU? I don't have final exams, but have spent quite a bit of time writing papers and preparing presentations these last few weeks and weekends. I am very much looking forward to spring break and a week without class/homework! I have some pictures from a few fun activities we did last week that I will post soon.

Here is a quick look at what we are working on this week:

Reading:

We are focusing on the letter "k" and the sight word "was." We are also working on the /ay/ sound like in play. I haven't done sight word songs in the past few weeks because I was not really thrilled with the lyrics. A teacher wrote them, yet I didn't really feel they were entirely appropriate, so I decided not to teach those songs to the class. This week our song goes like this:

I spell was w-a-s
I spell was w-a-s
I spell was w-a-s
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, I guess!

Writing:

 Last week the children received their very own journals that we will use from now on for writing time. Now that we have the hang of our weekly writing routine, they will be able to do all of their writing in their journal, which is wonderful because then we can have a great compilation of their writing and we will be able to see the gains they are making. I am continuing to ask a question each week that the children respond to verbally with a partner and then in writing in their journal. Last week's question was, "What do you like to do in Kindergarten?" This week they will write using the prompt, "If I see a wishing star, I will wish for _________________. We will also work on finishing up our Bear Books this week.

Math:

Today we worked on ordinal numbers (first through fifth) and the rest of the week consists of some new math activities. Tomorrow the kids will show a teen number using some of the pasta and cereals that were brought in for the 100's collections. We will also do a science connection this week using some bug images for addition expressions. The children will work on problem solving by figuring out how to divide 12 crackers among 4 people and also being able to communicate a reason for giving a particular answer to a math problem. I am planning our unit 4 math assessment for next week.

Fun Stuff:

It was great to see so many of my girls at the Father Daughter Dance. I think the PSO did an amazing job turning our cafeteria into Candyland and I was happy to see that the event was very well attended.

It seems like a lot of kiddos are also going to OMSI tonight and I hope it's a lot of fun.

Our Teddy Bear Parades will take place next week on Wednesday. The AM parade will be at 9:30 and the PM parade will be at 1:00. We will march through some other classrooms and every student who made a teddy bear in Kindergarten at Durham can bring their bear on that day. I am also thinking of doing a little "Teddy Bear Picnic" (inside) with some Teddy Grahams and/or Gummy Bears for a small snack. If you would like to help out with providing snacks, please let me know.

Conferences:

I will be having conferences on Tuesday March 15th and Thursday March 17th, which is next week already! Many of you have already scheduled your times, but if you have not, please email me or call me to do so. Otherwise, I will assign you a time and send home the information on Friday. This time, the conferences will be student led, so please bring your child! He/She will lead you around to a variety of different stations and demonstrate some of the activities we do in the classroom. You and I will also have a chance to talk.

There is no school on Thursday or Friday of next week due to conferences and teacher training.