Mrs.

Swales Love-Bug Weekly Learnings

January 17th, 2014

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/rive

.amilies of /ed 0edar, thank (12 for supporting the kindergarteners in the 3ids 0 ) food dri!e benefiting the 4a!en 4ouse of East +ansing. Together, the children at /ed 0edar contributed 567 food items for donation' That is ama-ing' Each week, food was collected and recorded on our school graph. 1n #onday it was re!ealed that the 83, first grade, and #rs. 1lance"s class team won the contest by collecting the most food items, a total of 9:6' Way to go' They will be recei!ing a popcorn party as a gift from the /0$ in the near future. ll classes did a fantastic job and it was truly a school team effort that concluded in the grand total' Thank you for helping those in need and for helping our kindergarteners learn that kids 0 ) help others, kids 0 ) make a difference, and kids 0 ) share'

Math " # ition an Su$tra%tion

This week in math, we stared looking at how a number can be looked at as a whole that can be broken down into two parts. We call these number bonds. The children also practiced with taking the same number and separating it into two parts on a domino. We introduced the addition and subtraction symbols explicitly, also discussing other words we think of or say when adding (more, and, plus). Two days a week the children are engaged in independent practice with number sense, number patterns, addition, subtraction, and graphing. Each week we also work in our math journals looking at different ways we can get to an answer and different ways (picture, words, numbers, graphs) we can show our thinking.

+hank you
Wonderful families, & thank you' (our notes, cards, and thoughtful, practical, and meaningful gifts were so kind' (our children were gift enough (ok you can laugh at me) but & mean that, well, along with all the support and help you pro!ide our classroom family. Thank you for thinking of me. & hope you liked your kindergarten crayon heart made by your !ery own kindergarten lo!e with the !ery crayons they use to create e!ery day'

'a((y )ew *ear

&t is my )ew (ear*s resolution to read more. The East +ansing ,ublic +ibrary has so many ama-ing free and paid programs for children and a great children*s area of the library. While the weather is cold and we are all looking for fun things to do, & encourage you to check it out'

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!ea ing

This week we read Making a Snow&an and the poem 'a((y )ew *ear The focus was looking at chunks in words, finding little words in big words, talking about and practicing the mechanics of a sentence (starts with an upper case and the rest lower case, spaces, and ends with punctuation). little book !ersion of this poem will be in your child"s pack and read bag. The book, #aking a $nowman tied in nicely with our new non% fiction (how%to) writing unit.

Classroom Newsletter

Love Bug Learnings

January 17, 2014

Writers Worksho(0 )on-.i%tion 1'ow to2 Writing

To introduce how to writing, the children worked together to create a class (paper) snowman. We wrote directions (first, next, then, last). Each child then wrote their own story of how to make a snowman. )ext week we will create a list of different how to stories we could write and gi!e some a try. & ha!e a fun surprise for the class for next .un .riday;.hint, we will be making something together to inspire our how to writing. long with different genres of writing, & am expecting children to write with spaces between their words and punctuation at the end of their sentences. & am also encouraging the use of lower case letters.

Word Work and $ight Words

We are continuing with our making words lessons. The children are working on manipulating different letters, adding to and taking away, to make different words. We built words with the short a and short i sounds. We created lists of words that start with $4 and 04. )ext week we will create lists for words that contain T4, and the &)@ ending. 1ur new sight words this week were +113 and (12.

Behavior !eview
This week the children did a great job remembering all of the ways to be kind, safe, and responsible in the classroom, hallway, lunchroom, playground, and the bathroom. Together we re!iewed and then made posters to remind us in case we forget. #rs. Ware also recei!ed a letter from the 3ing of the @olden Aoots. The letter said that he will ha!e #rs. Ware check each day to see which classrooms are keeping their boots tidy. &n kindergarten, we ha!e a lot to keep tidy in our hallway and the children ha!e been doing a great job' While we didn*t earn a golden boot ticket the first day, we did recei!e one for all of the other days of the week. This incenti!e has helped the children to learn how to be better responsible for their belongings.

Weekly S%he ule

#onday 96> )1 $0411+ Tuesday 97> ,E Wednesday 99> #usic Thursday 9:> rt .riday 9?> ,E

Enjoy your family, #elissa $wales $wales<mr=elps.us