Beth's Kindergarten: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

It was great to have everyone back today. Lots of stories told about there time off. Great to see all these smiling, friendly faces.

In Language Arts we will continue to teach kids how to blend and read words. When making words or reading we are "tapping" them out. That means the kids will tap the first letter using their pointer finger to their thumb, second letter with their middle finger to their thumb and third letter with their ring finger to their thumb. So when we say the word "map," kids will tap out each letter with their fingers and thumb. We are continuing with "read to self." We have organized books for kids so that they choose from the non-fiction, fiction, favorites box or author study boxes. We read Good Night Moon and made connections to the book. Kids will make connections because they have read the book before with a parent, looked at it because it was in the classroom, etc. These connections make us better readers! Good Night Moon has many connections in it to other stories the kids have seen before. Such as the picture of the cow jumping over the moon. That is a connection to the riddle, Hey Diddle Diddle. This book opened up communication about how they do things similar things when they go to bed, like saying good night to their stuffed animals, etc.

Today was our writers workshop. We have been working on making our own short story books. We are really working on writing about a real, true life story. As well as illustrating our own book to match our writing, making sure to add detail and color. There are a lot of good writers in this classroom.

In math we have learned about measuring the length and weight of objects and comparing objects. Is this longer or shorter? Is this heavier or lighter? Now we are moving on to capacity as another way to measure things. Does this cup hold more or less than this pitcher? We have a bin full of rice with measuring cups to practice comparing amounts!