V Week

Hi parents! We have been busy so far this week. Here's a little bit about what we have been doing...

Reading & Writing

So far this week, we have read Stone Soup and two other versions of that story called Kallaloo (which takes place in the West Indies) and Cactus Soup (which takes place in Mexico). We have been making comparisons between the different versions and noticing parts that are similar and parts that are different. Yesterday students did some critical thinking and wrote about whether or not they would share food with hungry strangers coming through town. Today they started writing lists of ingredients for the different soups in the stories. We are continuing to practice sounding out words in order to write down what we are thinking. We also read Tops and Bottoms which is a funny book about a sneaky Hare and a Bear planting vegetables. I borrowed a few other stories and non-fiction books about vegetables from the library for our V week, so we can learn all about them before our vegetable "party" on Friday. Speaking of vegetables, don't forget to send in your secret vegetable Wednesday or Thursday! If you are interested in helping on Friday for our vegetable tasting, please let me know. Or, if you want to come and watch in awe as your child actually eats vegetables you are more than welcome! In addition to the letter V, we are focusing on the sight word from this week.

I have also been snatching up every book by Mo Willems I can find because the kids are loving them! Our latest was Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog as well as several Elephant and Piggie books. We could read those stories over and over and never tire of them.

Math

Yesterday and today we worked with ten sticks and one cubes to show two digit numbers. We practiced counting by tens and forming numbers with the tens and ones manipulatives. This activity builds a foundation for learning place value, which is a math skill that continues to pop up through upper elementary and middle school. For the rest of the week, we are going to continue using pattern blocks to make more complex patterns and we will focus on learning the words hexagon and trapezoid.

Fun Stuff

Next Wednesday both classes will have Art Literacy with Miss Katie. Wednesday is also the last opportunity to turn in cans for the can drive. After the first drop off date, Kindergarten was in fifth place, so please save all of your cans and plastic bottles. If you want to send them in early (if you are sending a smaller amount) please feel free. I will collect them in the classroom and drop them off at the drive next week.