Feb 21st-24th

Today we celebrated the 100th day of Kindergarten! The kids enjoyed a special 100th Day Snack which included:

10 skittles
10 jelly beans
10 pieces of popcorn
10 corn nuts
10 oyster crackers
10 goldfish
10 marshmallows
10 chocolate chips
10 fruit loops
10 cheerios

They collected the different items for their snack mix 1 at a time in an egg carton that had 10 compartments. Then they laid each type of snack out on a 100 board until they had a total of 100 pieces. We also counted to 100, clapped 100 times, jumped 100 times, stayed silent for 100 seconds, and read some 100th day stories.

Reading & Writing

This week we worked on the i_e sound (another super e spelling pattern) and the kids are getting better and better at reading super e words. I have incorporated some new picture/word matching games with our new sounds and they are really enjoying playing those games and reading the words with our tricky sounds. We did not have a letter of the week this week so that means there will not be a blue letter sheet coming home on Friday. Our word of the week is "do."

The children are continuing to write in their journals about twice a week and they are doing a great job sounding out the words they want to write. The more they begin to read, the more they will start to recognize and remember the conventional spellings for words. Some examples of words they have seen and know how to spell despite the tricky spellings are baby and day. Much of their writing will contain words that have missing letters, but students at this age are sounding out words and writing the sounds that they hear. They often don't hear all the sounds, but that is very developmentally appropriate for writers at this stage.

Math

We are continuing to practice teen numbers and focusing on how teen numbers contain a group of ten. We will also start working on number partners, which builds the foundation for addition. We will start using a "break apart stick" to show how any number of items can be broken into two different groups by separating the objects with the stick. We will focus on remembering the different number partners that can be formed by the numbers 2-10. For example, the number 3 has the number partners 1&2. The number 5 has the number partners 2&3 as well as 4&1.

Coming Up

Spring conferences are coming up in March. Our designated day for conferences is Friday March 16th, but I may add some time slots on Thursday the 15th so that parents who need to come in the evening have slots more convenient to their schedules. Spring conferences are different than they were in the fall and are student-led. This means that several different stations are set up in the classroom and your child will demonstrate skills and activities for you. I will be sending more information about conferences home so that you are aware of how to sign up for a time slot. I have several families sign up for each time slot.