Food & Needs/Wants

We had a really fun week learning about the food groups and nutrition. We tied it into needs vs. wants and made a T-Chart of things we need and things we want we found in magazines! One little guy had a margarita the size of my hand on his chart and when I asked him about it he told me that "he WANTS lemonade!" :) They sure are cuties. I told him I was going to take it off his chart because even though it looks like lemonade, it's actually a grown up drink, but lemonade is indeed something that we want! Ha! :)

The kids are loving having the kindness elves in our classroom. They look for them first thing every morning and have really enjoyed doing our acts of kindness so far. The favorite was making notes and pictures for the office staff!

Sorting our piles for Ms. Kate, Ms. Kim, and Ms. Becky!

"Thank you for taking care of the kids and taking care of ____. (He was sick the other day)"

"Thank you for passing out paw cards. I Love you Ms. Becky"

They're such sweet kiddos, so teaching kindness is so easy. I mean, I got this note one morning:

If only everybody was appreciated and loved as much as kindergarten teachers! <3

We started formally doing reading comprehension using text evidence this week as you saw in your child's homework folder! We are incorporating more and more reading strategies and higher level thinking skills now that the kids are reading much more fluently!

Lastly, when we had to go with the flow and leave our classroom one afternoon, we went to the learning commons and learned a new game: "Don't Break the Ice!" Of course, I had to turn it into an academic game so each ice cube has CVC words or words with digraphs on it. The kids must tap out and read the word before they can break the ice. This is by far a FAVORITE and the kids beg to go to this center now!

Ask Your Child About:

-Phonics: I, J, K, L and the "et" word family- Can you read all of the "et" words on your watch? Can you read nonsense words? ***Please have them say the sounds in their head and then blend!

-Phonological awareness: Can you blend together /p/ /i/ /g/? (pig) Can you tap out fix? (/f/ /i/ /x/ )

-Reading: What are the stars for on the top of reading passages? (You get to color in a star each time you read- GOOD readers read things over and over again!) How do you find the answers/evidence in the reading?

-Social Studies: Needs vs. Wants- What is the thing you want most on your T chart?

-Math: Subtraction- What does the minus sign look like? What does Ms. Ham like you to do when you're taking away? (X the circles!)

-Writing: How do you plan before you write? (circle maps or tree maps)

***Holiday Party: Our party is for kids only (Mountain View policy, not mine!) and it is on Thursday, 12/15. Here is the link for the sign up genius.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham