Mrs. Reddy's Kindergarten Class: November 18

What a busy week we have had! It was wonderful to see so many of you for our American Education Day. I hope that you enjoyed visiting our classroom! We do so many fun and interesting things!

Today we finished our first unit in our writing series in Writer's Workshop! To celebrate we had a celebration . We began our celebration by 'Reading into the Circle'. We each chose a booklet that we had written and chose our favorite part to tell about and then told it to the group. When we were finished we broke off into partners and read our stories to each other, sitting 'shoulder to shoulder' so that we could share the book. We sat in all different places around our classroom to share our stories. When we were finished reading to each other we 'toasted' our success with a cup of juice. We will be cleaning out their writing folders soon and bringing home all of the pieces that they have been working on. Enjoy looking through them - the children are very proud of their accomplishments! Enjoy looking at the pictures at the end of the blog!

CHEERS!

In the area of Math we have continued working on tally marks, and counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's. We have been using the 10's frames and unifix cubes to differentiate between numbers that are 'greater than' and 'less than'. We also continue to practice correct number formation - writing in the air and on our white boards. The children love using them! Sometimes the children have 'backwards alerts' and need to be reminded to start their number from the top. 1:1 correspondence is also a skill that we have been reviewing. A fun thing to do at home during dinner to practice this concept is to have the children count the food on their plate. Corn and peas are especially beneficial since there are so many of them! While counting, encourage your child to move the food from one place to another on their plate. Moving the food tells them that they have already counted that particular piece!

We have been busy getting ready for Thanksgiving. We made awesome turkeys to hang in our classroom with our parents (for those of you that were able to come in on Thursday - thank you for your help in helping with this project!), wampum, Native American headdresses, Pilgrim hats, and today we wove placemats. We discussed the Native Americans and Pilgrims and the concept of wants and needs. We had some very interesting ideas on this topic, as you can well imagine!

Mrs. Palaygi visited our classroom today and discussed how to deal with the different feelings that we might feel at one time or another (self-regulation). The children practiced the skill of 'counting it down' - counting down from 10 to 1 to help them feel better. Another way Mrs. Palaygi talked about was to 'take a breath' as a way to make them feel better. Exercising was another way to relax your emotions. She also spoke about the fact that it is alright to feel sad, mad, etc. She finished the lesson by reading and discussing the story When I Feel Angry.

Congratulations to Tate for winning a prize for the Turkey Shoot last night! Good job, Tate!

Conversations Starters:

What was wampum? (the Wampanoag's form of 'money' which they traded for different things)
Who were the Wampanoag's? (the Native American tribe that befriended the Pilgrims when they landed in the New World)
Would a Pilgrim child have been able to bring much with them on the Mayflower? (no, just a toy or two)
Did the Pilgrim children take many baths on the Mayflower? (no, there was limited water - many of the children in our class loved this idea!)
What was one of the ways that the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims? (they taught them how to plant their crops so that they would reap a better harvest)
Have your child demonstrate 'taking a breath'. (take a deep breath - take air in through your nose and blow out through their mouth)

How You Can Help:

Continue practicing correct number formation at home
Continue practicing addresses and phone #'s - many of the children need help in these areas!
PLEASE label your child's coat, boots (when we begin using them), hats, mittens, etc. Thank you very much!

Looking Ahead: