Woahhhh, we're halfway there!!

Sorry, I couldn't resist a Bon Jovi throwback in reference to where we are at this point in the school year.  Did you know that this past Friday marks the halfway point, the 90th day of school!?  We may or may not be livin' on a prayer as well.  Kidding.  (Mostly.) 😁😁  But really, these kids of yours are doing absolutely outstanding things!  We are becoming more independent readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and citizens of Team 111.  Everyday is filled with many moments where Mrs. McGregor and I look at each other and say, "Wow, would you just look how far we've come."  Again, I thank you families for entrusting us with this journey of kindergarten.  Of course, it comes with hurdles and bumps here and there, but the payoff is so remarkable.  I hope you're seeing as much growth at home as we see here each day.  💚

Narrative Growth - We continue to work on narratives and make sure they have 5 star words and illustrations.  (In case you missed that post, read about it here.)  We added the last 2 stars to 5 star words: use ending punctuation and KEEP TRYING!  Our team decided it might be helpful to use our 5 finger retelling tools from reader's workshop to help us make sure our narratives had all the important parts of a story:  WHO are the characters, WHERE does the story take place, what happened FIRST, THEN, and LAST.  Our narrative writing will be coming to a close in the next couple of weeks.  

Spinner the Spider - Our next area of study during reader's workshop has been working on text to self connections to help with our comprehension of a story.  Kinders met Spinner the Spider, a reading helper who reminds us to make connections to a text!  Mrs. Young helped us learn this new skill.

Becoming Shape Experts - You should hear the math vocabulary Team 111 kinders are using to describe the attributes of shapes!  So many students are using terms such as:

• vertex/vertices - a point on a shape
• face - the flat side of a solid shape
• edge - where two faces meet
• equal sides
• curves

Below are a series of photos from recent math explorations.  

• First, students played a mystery bag shape game where one student felt a shape in a mystery bag, described its attributes, another student guessed the shape, and then we all made it with playdough.
• The second activity is called the Barrier Game.  One student hides behind the barrier with a shape mat while others have the same shape mat and a variety of shapes.  The student behind the barrier calls out directions include positional words (above, below, beside, top, bottom, etc.) of where to place each shape.  At the end, the barrier is removed to see if others followed along correctly.  This was a great review of flat shapes: circle, square, triangle, hexagon, rectangle.
• Last, students did a shape experiment with solids to see which solids could roll, slide, or stack.  We recorded our information on recording sheets and shared data with the group!  

Ask your kinder - 

• What are some of your narratives about in writers workshop?  What are some new things you could write about?
• Who is Spinner the Spider?  What does she help with?  What is a text to self connection?
• What are some attributes of: spheres, cones, cylinders, and cubes?
• Which solids could roll, slide, or stack?

Reminders - 

• Solids for our collection - Please send in recycled/clean solids for our collection at school. Examples include paper towel rolls, tissue boxes, yogurt containers, etc. We are looking for things we can build with for a special project we will do in a couple of weeks!
• February 1st - 100th Day Projects Due
• February 8th - Invention Convention
• February 8th - 100th Day of School!
• February 9th - Report cards going home
• February 14th - Friendship Day!
• February 16th - PTO Father Daughter Dance
• February 19th - Teacher Workshop - Early Release
• February 26th - March 2nd - Winter Break
• March 13th - No School - Teacher Workshops
• March 28th - Family Math/Literacy Event - BES Cafeteria
• March 29th - Senior Citizen Luncheon for Bow Residents
• March 29th - Kindergarten Concert - BHS
• May 31 - No School - Kindergarten Screening
• June 1 - No School - Kindergarten Screening