Next week we will be focusing on the letter W. Where the Wild Things Are, Mrs. Wishy Washy, and Wacky Wednesday will be just some of the great books we will read during the week. Students will work on prediciting and retelling stories as they pick out details from the beginning, middle, and end of our stories. It is important for your child to be able to identify the characters, setting, and details from each story we read. It would be beneficial to ask them about these things while reading to them at home. We want to eventually have the kindergarten students able to write their own stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Having conversations with your child DURING reading will help them to "notice" important details and become better at comprehending what they read. You can ask them if the story reminds them of any experiences they have had, or any other book they have read. Making connections while they read is an important skill.


In writer's workshop we will continue to focus spacing and conventions. I will also talk to them about revisiting stories and adding details to make them longer. When your child brings home books or papers they have written during writer's workshop, please ask them to read them to you. It gives you a great opportunity to celebrate their writing and encourage them to take more writing risks. At this time in the year we expect to see more writing, than drawing. If your child's work seems to be more drawing, try to encourage them to add details to their writing at home.


In math this week we will revisit reading/writing large numbers. By the end of the year we want the students to be able to read and write numbers up to 115. Many of the children can already do this, we just need to practice on not reversing the numbers! We will also revisit graphing and work on the vocabulary of greater than, less than, bigger, smaller, larger, etc. Students have been solving word problems every day at calendar. We are no longer working on just knowing the answer, but on HOW we got the answer, and HOW we knew what to do to solve it. I ask them to explain their thinking and pick out key words that helped them solve the problem. For example, if the problem was...5 birds were in a tree and 3 flew away, how many would be left? I ask them to first draw a picture of their thinking (a tree with 5 birds and an x through the 3 that flew away), then I ask them if they need to add or subtract (subtract). Next I ask them which words in the problem told them to do this (how many left). Finally I ask them to give me the answer in a number sentence. (5-3=2). At the end we label the answer and circle it (2 birds). You can practice problems like this at home.


The book fair will be open next week. We visited the book fair this week and made a "wish list". You can send your child to school with money to purchase books on their own, or you can stop by after school with your child to purchase books. The May Watts Fun Fair is next Saturday, March 17th. This is a GREAT time to visit with families and friends...the book fair will also be open during the Fun Fair. I hope to see you there.


Have a super weekend!