Miss Murray’s Class News 2/8/24
We had a fun week in kindergarten, including church with the primary grades! Take a peek at what we have been up to this week!
Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: can and your. Next week we will learn said and there. Can you use these words in sentences or spot them in books with your child?
Phonics: Word families -ug, -ut, -un. Students cut out their sort picture and word cards, and then read the words to match each word to a picture. They sorted the pairs into word family categories. Students played partner memory match – trying to match words and picture cards with another in the same word family. Students glued the sort cards into categories, and finally spelled our spelling words and thought of new -ug, -ut, and -un words to add to their list.
Writer’s Workshop: This week, we revisited the “All Write Club!” We remembered our four characters that will help us learn how to write complete sentences. They are: B.Z. Beaver (organization), Neema Gecko (ideas), Finn Puffin (style/”the word bird”) and Jenny Ant (CUPS: Capitalization, Usage, Punctuation, Spelling). These four friends continue to assist us this year as well as in first and second grade! This week, Finn Puffin helped us build sentences that were not complete. Students learned they need a Who and What plus an Action to create a sentence!
We continued to work on our how-to stories! We learned the transition words first, next, then, and last! We continue to write our own real or make-believe stories and adding details using our five senses to help give us ideas for details.
We continue to focus on including 4 things in our sentences, using our “Fab 4 checklist.”
1. Capital letters at the beginning of a sentence.
2. Spaces between words.
3. Period at the end of a sentence.
4. Mostly lowercase letters.
Literacy Centers: This week in the phonics center, students worked on creating words and sentences with word families. At the iPad center, students listened to audio books and the stories of the Bible. At the sight word center, students continued with their sequencing stories using the transition words first, next, then and last. At the guided reading center, I read with students one on one and worked on comprehension.
Math: This week we showed addition using beads and drawings. We used two different colors of beads to make a problem equal 9, drew the problem, and then wrote the number sentence to match the beads. We practiced telling addition story problems using these clues and practiced math illustrations as a problem-solving strategy. We also spent time writing our own addition stories in our math journals using the words join and in all. We then wrote the math equations to go along with our stories. We continue to review addition to 10 and practice how to skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
Religion: This week we attended Primary Mass! Students were excited to be in church with Father Crispin, listen, pray, and show reverence.
Kelso’s Choices: Our school counselor, Ms. Shaw, also came into our classroom this week! This week, students discussed the difference between a small problem and a big problem as well as the difference between tattling and reporting. Students listened to a scenario and categorized it as a small problem that they should use a Kelso’s choice to solve, or a big problem where they need an adult’s help. We learned that tattling is when you tell an adult about a small problem that you can solve on your own with a Kelso’s choice. Reporting is when you tell an adult about a big problem! Ask your child to tell you the difference between a big problem and a small problem.
Common Core Standards we’re working on:
- I can read common sight words.
- I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
- I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
- Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
- I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
- With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
- I can spell simple words phonetically.
- I can read CVC words.
- I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
- I can read the words in a book in the right order.
- I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
- I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
- I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
- I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
- I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
- I can write numbers from 0-20.
Important Dates:
- Friday, February 9th – No School, Teacher In-Service
- Tuesday, February 13th– Valentine’s Day Celebration (a day early due to Ash Wednesday Mass)
- Please bring in a covered shoebox (any plain paper will do, do not decorate!); we will be decorating them in class!
- Your child may bring in one Valentine for each student in our class (22 students). No names please!
- Wednesday February 14th – Dress Uniform, Ash Wednesday Mass, 9am
- Friday February 16th – Noon Dismissal – Winter Holiday
- Monday February 19th – Tuesday February 20th – No School, Winter Holiday
- Friday, March 8th – No School, Staff Retreat
- March 29th – Noon Dismissal, Easter Break
- April 1st-April 5th – No School, Easter Break