Kindergarten News
Room 21 October 17, 2014 Monday is an A day
We are very much looking forward to the scarecrow festival, next Friday, October 24th. Every class at Duzine is creating a scarecrow, and our class has been discussing what kind of scarecrow to create. Some ideas the children came up with are a football scarecrow, a horse scarecrow, a snake scarecrow or a cow scarecrow. I will let you know on Monday what we have chosen, and if you have any appropriate clothing or accessories for our scarecrow, please send them in. Please also let me know if you would be able to come and help us create the scarecrow.
We will soon begin creating harvest costumes for the Halloween parade which takes place at Duzine. Ask your child what harvest fruit or vegetable he has chosen to be for the Halloween parade on Friday, October 31st. Parents are more than welcome to attend the parade in the gym, and then come back with us to our classroom for Halloween harvest snacks. If you would like to help with the harvest snacks for the party, please contact one of our room parents, Bill, Lana’s dad, or Suger, Levi’s mom. Please do not send in any candy for our harvest celebration.
We should soon be coming to the end of the first unit of study in the writing workshop. Within the next week or so, each child will choose one piece to fix up and fancy up for publication. We will then have an author’s celebration within the classroom. For this first author’s celebration, I like to keep it low-key, while still celebrating the hard work and learning of all the children. In the future, you will be invited to help us celebrate your child’s work as a writer. I will be saving your child’s work to share with you and give to you at parent-teacher conferences in November. Our next unit of study in the writing workshop will be label books. More about this unit of study will come home as we become immersed in the work.
In math, we have been spending a lot of time counting, and just about all the children know that it is easier to count accurately if you organize the objects you are counting in some way. We are making counting books, after reading a book titled Anno’s Counting Book. This book has a page for each number. On the one page, there is one tree, one house, one person, etc.; on the two page, there are two of each object. The children are drawing sets of objects for each page in their book, to create a similar book. In this way, the children are developing number sense and learning to associate the numeral with an amount of objects. We also learned a game called Grab and Count. The children grab a handful of math tools such as cubes or teddy bear counters. They need to count the handful, and then record using pictures, numbers or words, so that someone can easily tell how many of what object they grabbed. Clearly representing quantities is an important Kindergarten concept. A favorite game is Roll and Record. The children roll a die and write the number they rolled on a grid with the numbers from one to six. You may have seen one of these completed games that your child has brought home. Many of the games we play have different, more challenging versions, which we will learn as the year progresses.
Thanks to all the parents who were able to chaperone our trip to Duck Pond. We had a great time, and the children found a salamander, some tadpoles, some leeches, and dragonfly nymphs. Ask your child to tell you what she found in the pond. We are looking forward to our last trip in the fall on Monday, to Walkill View Farm to observe the pumpkin field and get pumpkins. Please be sure that you have returned the permission slip. For those parents who have indicated that they would like to chaperone, please meet us in our classroom at 9:25. Please bring a backpack or a tote bag to help carry the children’s science journals.
We now have two chrysalises in our caterpillar cage. We are hopeful that the butterflies will emerge. This week, we looked at a video which demonstrates the development of a monarch butterfly from a caterpillar, into a chrysalis and then to a butterfly which flies to Mexico. Ask your child to tell you about the newest resident of Room 21.
We have phased out rest time. I am using that time for more phonological awareness activities, and to extend math time. If you are in the building, please feel free to take your child’s rest time things home. Save the bag for her snow things, in a few months’ time.
Just for Fun
Play Grab and Count at home. Ask a grown up for a number of small objects. You could use pennies, paper clips, packing peanuts, small crackers such as wheat thins, or anything of a similar size that you can find. Grab a handful. Count them. Record how many you grabbed, using pictures, numbers or words.
Talk with your family about the kind of scarecrow that we should make. Draw a picture of how you think the scarecrow should look. Bring the picture to school on Monday.