Clubhouse News...

Morning Exploring: Egg addition, counting on, rhyming words and word families and magic words!  So many rich skills packed into fun hands on learning.
Reading: As Avid Readers this week we learned to visualize and think about the story to comprehend better and then moved into non-fiction and learned how to talk like an expert and teach people through our books: fancy new words, facts, etc. instead of just reacting "wow" or "that's cute".  Next week we'll get to do a reading workshop in the library and pick topics of choice!
Math: In math workshop we are working hard at subtraction.  This is a tricky switch from addition so we'll be focusing on subtraction again next week.  I encourage you to naturally add in word problems as you go about your day with your kinder!  
Writing: We are starting a new unit next week, this week we wrote in our ABC countdown book each day reflecting on our fun, wrote an opinion piece on Peeps vs. jelly beans and did some word detective work with digraphs (sh, ch, th, ph, wh, ck)!
STEAM: We continued learning about animals and plants and how animals, plants and humans make changes to their environment to make it the best for their survival.
Social: We're using our lessons from our NCADA lessons to focus on teddy bear words and actions instead of porcupine words and actions.  We are also working hard to continue being our best with quick transitions, following directions the first time and letting our Jaguar PRIDE shine!  
Tips For Home: Book talk!  Who's the characters, the sequence, setting, problem/solution?... Also, addition/subtraction naturally in conversation.  (Example: "You had eight green beans and ate 3 how many more do you have left to eat?"...
Upcoming: 
Mon-Green Day!
Tues-Hat Day!

In "Otter" News...(title help from Berit)

Morning Exploring: "School", color by word family, puppets/oral storytelling, literacy fine motor (linking letter matches, trace pictures and match letters, build and spell CVCe words and ABC uppercase/lowercase puzzle, iPAD free choice.
Reading:  In workshop this week we talked about using 'just right' words for characters feelings, reflected on our reading strategies and set goals to help us grow as readers and learned about 'reading playdates'!  We had so much fun playing school with our partners, doing read alouds and playing games with our books. As we do read alouds in whole group we've been incorporating a lot more book talk: characters, setting, problem/solution, sequencing...
Math: Addition! We used lots of strategies to solve addition problems: rekenraks or math counters, cubes, tallies, pictures, our fingers... We know that addition problems have to have a plus and equals sign and that we need to double check our work with a different strategy!  We are also working on HOW to show our thinking instead of just saying 'because we know'.  Strategy groups are meeting with me a few times a week to practice a specific skill within addition.
Writing: We did some sentence building paying attention to sentence structures.  We also used writing in science to label our work.  
STEAM: Living/non-living items and plants!  We'll jump into animals next week! 
Social Skills: We are continuing to use specific words to explain and communicate our feelings and thoughts to our peers and adults.  They have been SO great coming back from break, I've been so proud of their Jaguar PRIDE!
Tips for Home: Add as your doing things around the house, playing or in the car.  Giving little story problems for your kinder to figure out naturally through conversations.  Book talk with books you're reading at home!
Upcoming Events: 

• All kindergarten teachers are attending a phonics professional development next Tues./Wed./Thurs.  We will have a fabulous sub I requested who will be in here all 3 days that we had when I was out sick.  I will still have daily access to emails.
• Please turn in EXACT field trip money or a check asap!  The quicker we get a head count on chaperones, the better!  We do not keep cash that we're able to give change, sorry!
• 4/9: Special Olympics @ WGHS...GO Sam R.!!!
• Thurs. 4/11: KDG Musical @ 2:00 in the gym and also 6:00PM (students should arrive 15 min prior to classroom) --I will be at both performances!
• Next Friday we'll start our ABC countdown!  Keep an eye out for handouts coming home soon with more information!

Creative Clubhouse Adventures!

Morning Exploring: 3D creations with toothpicks and marshmallows, Shamrock art, Race to 100, Number practice and +/- learning invitation, rainbow painting
Reading: This week's lessons included: reading like characters (using EXPRESSION), RETELLING (including who/what happened/setting/in sequence order) and FLUENCY (paying attention to punctuation, read like we are talking, and use expression). 
Math: We were all about 3D shapes this week!  We remembered them by using the saying "they're fat not flat."  We looked at attributes like: edges, vertices (they think this is so fancy!) and faces.  We'll be finishing our shape unit next week and head into +/-!
Writing: We focused on our how-to writing making sure it has: numbered steps (with sequence words-first, next, then, last), detailed pictures with labels and words to explain each step.  We had to reread our work and ask ourselves and partners "Can we follow this?"  
STEAM: We worked some more on force and motion focusing on 'work words' like: scrub, grind, lift, scoop, pull, push, wash...  We also had our FUN Friday with the theme of Rainbows.  We learned the science behind rainbows, created collaborative art, built with rainbow materials, had rainbow math and literacy activities, rainbow sensory bin and did some 'color' mixing science! 
Tips For Home: If you use a recipe book to make anything or do something in steps, make a connection to how-to!  We're using words like first, next, then, last.  Retell stories and read like characters--always fun! 
Apps: Bedtime Math: Fun and engaging quick story problems for before bedtime, great for the whole family!  Vooks: (See my Instagram post), bring books to life--amazing!  
If you have Amazon Music: Mindful Moments For Kids is simply the best.  The whole crew loves these!  They are very quick mindful activities that have a deep breathing exercise in a fun and kid friendly way!  This is a wonderful tool for over excitement, getting in the present moment, angry, sad...all the above! I enjoy doing them with the kids also :)
Social/Emotional: Lots of talk about being pals and appreciating each other as friends.  Not as boyfriend/girlfriend/crushes/marriages/best friends...we're all PALS! <3 

What's New with the Crew!

Morning Exploring: Osmo (coding, Monster Studio and Disney Studio), heart art, word work stations (real/nonsense words, CVC word building), Brickyards STEM building, tens frames, double compare with cards
Reading: This week we book shopped for just right books/vacation books/fluency books!  We also started book groups to work on skills specific to each different reader and what their needs are.  They also visited a word work station to practice a phonics skill, listen to reading station and work on writing.  We continued with looking at word chunks/blends and reading fluently.
Math: We did some review and subitizing for our whole group this week and rotated through stations focusing on: teen numbers, toss the coin (intro to decomposing numbers) and shapes (our next unit)!
Writing: This week we talked about the writing cycle and being the boss of our own writing and really taking ownership that WE are authors and illustrators and can do our best!  We started checking in with classmates to help us edit/revise.  After writing a true story with a beginning/middle/ending/feeling sentence they were able to move on to whatever story genre they wanted either independently or with a buddy.
Social Studies: We are in our Black History unit right now.  We are celebrating our differences, talking about the past, recognizing that things are different and that there's laws in place to protect us but also realizing that some people still don't always thing the same and follow those laws.  Next we'll look at some very special people who did fabulous work!
Social Skills: Letting our Jaguar PRIDE shine!  We are really working hard on thinking before we speak and act to make sure it's all love and kindness and what we can do if we're not feeling those things: walk away, shake it off a bit, take breaths and get back to green zone.
We are now participating in health, counselor (same as always-every other week) and gifted push-in with Mrs. Pott.  

Hip..Hip..HOORAY for the 100th Day!

Morning Exploring: Super Why phonics/reading on iPads (FABULOUS app I highly recommend!), Identifying larger numbers out of a pair, fine motor math: making winter items with pattern blocks/making 10 icicles on the house, composing/decomposing numbers 2-10 fine motor with gems, hands on building.
Reading: This week in reader's workshop we discussed the importance of comprehending the books we read (tricky for a lot of them to book talk at this age) and using beginning sounds to decode words.  We use the prompt: "Get your mouth ready for the first sound" if we get to an unknown word and then ask our selves: Does it look right?  Does it sound right?  Does it make sense?
Math Workshop: Learned to play "Build it, Change it"--great game for home!  Talked about dissecting a story problem to find out what a question is asking us to do and worked with math tiles to create arrangements of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 to start leading in to composing/decomposing numbers.
Writing: Our focus right now is making sure our writing is "easy to read."  This means we should be double checking our sentence structures, stretch words out, use our word wall for sight words, adding detailed pictures with speech bubbles and labels and making sure it makes sense.  If we find it isn't readable or doesn't make sense we should go back and fix it!
Phonics: We are working with blends/digraphs and beginning/middle/end sounds making sure we use vowels.  I've also introduced "wacky y" (as i/e), bossy r, "ing" and vowel teams just casually through whole group lessons. 
Social Emotional Skills: Problem solving BEFORE involving an adult (especially using our "I messages") and treating everyone with respect.
Tips for Home: Book talk at home: characters, setting, what happened in the begging/middle/end, what was the book mostly about...

Happy New Year!

Morning Exploring: Sight word fine motor, sensory table: winter ice literacy, math fine motor, New Years cut/glue/trace, ABC uppercase order
Reading: New powers: pattern power and being careful to notice when the author changes the pattern in a story, checking for understanding by asking ourselves: Does it make sense?  Does it sound right?  Does it look right?
Math: Numbers 1-20 what comes before/after, number towers with cubes and dominoes, Moose Math, Racing Bears game (this is an easy and fun game to play and you can find it for free online to print and play at home!--Please let me know if you'd like to borrow ours with supplies and I'd gladly send home), roll 2 dice and record 1-12.  We also did subitizing and some fancy vocabulary and skills with math chats (see Instagram).
Writing: We started new true stories this week and focused on using our resources and tools: word wall, stretching words out, using an ABC chart, making sure we have a vowel in our words, blends/digraphs chart and continuing to be sure our sentence structure is correct and we have detailed pictures that tell who/what/where. 
Social Skills: We were all about Jaguar PRIDE this week!  I really loved the definition of respect that came up in a clip we watched: treating others like they're loved, cared for and important.  We've continued to use that language and make it powerful in our classroom.  We focused on following directions the FIRST time and actually earned some Friday FUN Free time today from our Classroom BINGO chart.  We only earned a square for the whole class showing PRIDE, following directions the first time or me catching kindness!
Coming Up: Next week we'll be NWEA testing and reading level assessing.  Please be sure students are getting a good night's sleep and a healthy breakfasts!  Health will start next week and we'll have 8 sessions (every Tuesday).
Tips For Home: Give your child a number and asks what comes before/after.  Look for sight words, blends, word families...in books you read :)  

From the Hive, 205

Morning Exploring: Winter coloring by letter, light table + counting, Tiggly Shapes on iPad, beginning sounds, math racks + counting invitations
Reading: This week we really practiced our reading super powers and focused on how we can become better readers and help ourselves grow.  We talked a lot about being fluent readers: paying attention to punctuation--stop at periods, pause at commas, voice goes up with exclamation points, voice goes up and down with questions; reading smoothly and using strategies.  I individually met with *almost* everyone to fill their book boxes with at least 6 'just right' books that I have read with them and they can read.  These will come home soon in their clear pouch (in BEE Folders) to practice at home.  I will finish this process next week and give a heads up before sending home and when they should be returned. 
Math: Measuring! We had so much fun kicking off this unit.  We used cubes and Popsicle sticks to measure this week and were introduced to vocabulary words. Next week we'll continue measuring and exploring!
Writing: We are continuing to write for readers, making sure everything can be read by someone else.  Our writing should have detailed pictures that use: lots of colors, pictures tell who/what/where, labels, speech bubbles.  We are focusing on sentence structure: using sight words, capitals at the beginning then lowercase, finger spaces between words, punctuation at the end and a thought that makes sense!
STEAM: We read "Building Up, a Celebration of Building" and created some fun stuff with Mr. Keller's buddies today.  Throughout the week in free choice it's fun to see their creations through the maker space, working through problems, redesigning and their final products.  
Social: We've had some great conversations about being a leader and not a follower.  When someone else isn't doing the right thing, we can lead by example and be empowered!  We talked about how it makes us feel good and spreads positivity to others!
Tips for Home: 
-Book talk: Make predictions about the book, try to figure out tricky words by using our strategies
-Play guess my number: give clues and have them ask questions
-Encourage writing by having your kinder help with lists, menus, etc!