Grandpa Pete visited from New Hampshire on Friday to read three wonderful books to our class. He graciously donated one of them - and I was ecstatic to be able to add a new Kevin Henkes book to our collection. Thanks for joining us, Grandpa Pete. There are still spots open for Friday Guest Reader, so nows your chance! 
of course are losing 3 teeth in 12 hours! This morning, a classmate couldn't wait to tell her story of lying in bed last night when all of a sudden she felt her tooth sitting on her tongue...but even better, an hour later after sharing, she lost another! Who would have guessed, 45 minutes after this, another pops out! Don't be surprised if your child doesn't take their hands out of their mouths....I was noticing a lot of our friends this afternoon, trying to wiggle some pretty not so wiggly teeth!
We had a wonderful opportunity today to be an audience for the 3rd graders while Mrs. Slesar's and Mr. McClane's classes each put on a spectacular puppet show. Each child made their own puppet through this three week residency, recorded their voices, and acted out their characters part. The stories that were performed were, "The Gift of the Crocodile" and, "The Impudent Rooster." Over this past week, we read both stories in class and talked about important vocabulary, characters, setting and plot to help the students prepare for the show. .jpeg)
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Your children love extending their learning. As the new word family was introduced and reviewed this week, students began searching for new words that would fit into this family. While singing songs, completing word searches, reading books, and doing a variety of word work activities, students began to think of additional words. The words that are in word families are endless and the students are proud of the challenge they are giving themselves to extend their learning. The new word family this week was -ug. INQUIRE with your child how to spell the words on the attached word house!
After reflecting on the conferences and after receiving feedback from the students on what could be better in kindergarten, I shared with your children that I plan to work on ReSPONSIBILITY. Specifically, I was going to work on doing my job of getting the children up and moving - "getting our wiggles out" so they can be ready for learning. We often do movement breaks during morning meeting, but I will be honest - I haven't been implementing them at other points in the day. Today, as I shared with the kids - I was going to work on this. And, I did. We did a number of breaks throughout the day and students enjoyed playing a part in helping to make decisions about making this change happen.
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You may have read the letter or seen the envelope that came home in your child's green folder last week. These letters from Mrs. Kane tell about the Peace Project that all of UES will be taking part in. Before the art project that will be done during our scheduled Art class on Monday, students began brainstorming what peace is. Using their five senses, students explored what peace feels like, looks like, tastes like, smells like, and sounds like. After a whole class brainstorming session, we read the book, What Peace Feels Like that explores the five senses and peace from the perspective of children. The book was actually written by a group of elementary school aged children. Following this reading, students wrote their own poems using their five senses to describe peace. Students can't wait to begin their peace tile. If there are materials they would like to bring in from home for this project please see the envelope for ideas and have materials in by Monday.
Math focus this week is number writing, counting, estimating, and working cooperatively together at work places. Work places is not only a time to practice number sense skills, but also a time for practicing sportsmanship, patience, and kind words. If you ask any one of our Kinders, playing cooperative games can be quite challenging. As we reflected together about what makes work places hard, most friends agreed, that not always winning is hard. Students are working on playing fairly - and are also learning the effects of intentional cheating - nobody wants to play with you. As students talk about their feelings as a class, problem solve solutions, and work together each day, students are becoming more at ease when playing these sometimes difficult games. 
This week, a new game called Frog Handfuls has been added and children are practicing making mathematical estimates of a handful of frogs. Students are also recording this information on a record sheet and comparing their "estimate" to the actual amount counted.
Each afternoon during our closing circle, children take the time to reflect on the day. Over this last week, we have been complimenting and honoring those friends who have helped us out, and were overly kind to us. Whether it's thanking a friend who accidently bumped into them and then waited to see if they were okay, honoring a friend for helping them on a tricky word, or the lunch lady who allowed them to exchange their milk, students are being thoughtful in their reflections. Here is an example to the right of a friend who was acknowledged for helping them to write a number and count during a math lesson today. Students go 'above and beyond' to show empathy to their peers without being asked! Congrats to all of your children!
Students had fun this past week thinking like the characters in the story. After looking at beginning, middle, and end of the story, students imagined themselves as either Thing 1 or Thing 2 and did some writing in response. Students have been having having fun being creative along with Dr. Seuss as we read his books. INQUIRE with your child which book is their favorite so far? 
Students have been learning a tool to help them decode new words and to help them spell words at a more fluent pace. This strategy - recognizing familiar chunks in words - has been helpful to students who are at all levels of reading and writing. Whether they're working on words that are 1, 2, or 3 syllables, students are learning to look for familiar chunks inside of these words. Over the last few weeks, we have been using word families to help us with this strategy and to begin looking closely at differentiating short vowel sounds. Often the short vowels can sound similar, so students have been practicing tapping out each sound in order to correctly identify what short vowel it is. Word families, often called phonograms or chunks, provide predictable patterns in words and help us to decode a wide range of new words. The english language is unpredictable and confusing to early readers so it is important for us to help them understand the patterns seen across words. After students learn the most common 37 word families, students will have essentially been able to decode 500 words. 
Students have been using books and songs to help them practice reading new word families. Other friends have been working on building these words with magnetic letters, writing them on white boards, making and completing word searches, and solving riddles. It has been fascinating for children to discover new words in their own reading as they learn new word families! Our friend, Juliet was part of the word family, -et, and she even found a new -ig family word in the Danny book she was reading - igloo! Students are enjoying learning new word families and independently going above and beyond to extend their own learning.
...to have such a talented, hard working, and kind teacher helping us learn each day. Renee Hinton, aka "Mrs. Hinton" or "Black Capped-Chickadee", brings laughter, warm smiles, and valuable insight into teaching and learning every day. Renee is a valuable player in our community of learners in Room 5 Kindergarten. I am incredibly grateful for the support she provides us each day. Thank you, Renee for all you do!
Students are exploring with the concept of subtraction this week. A new math workplace, "Bug Catchers" has the children learning that when you take something away from a group, you subtract that much from the total, leaving a smaller amount leftover. Students are using bugs, fingers, and a number line to practice subtracting numbers less than 10. In a fun spin and record game, children learn to understand that concepts of subtraction, without rote memorization tasks. INQUIRE with your children how to play, "Bug Catchers." Can they give you an example of a subtraction problem using words to make a story?
Amy Butler accompanied our team of Kindergarten teachers this afternoon after school for a walk to Harrison Field. Our team is looking at developing a service learning component in connection with ECO and today, we worked in conjunction with North Branch Nature Center to further our knowledge of the site and various community partnerships in the area. Students will be focusing on learning what makes the forest/field a sustainable environment for a variety of plant and animal life, and about how they can care for their natural community. Stay tuned for spring and first grade community service learning projects, generated by the students. 
We even spotted snowshoe hares while traveling in the forest!
INQUIRE with your child if they thought they would like green eggs and ham and what they actually thought after giving it a try! How were they similar or different than the famous character, Sam-I-Am?
This month brings with it a focus on frogs, toads, tricky teens, BIG numbers, and story problems in math. Learn from your child what's new in Number Corner... we are reading non-fiction text about frogs and toads to learn more about these amphibians who have such an interesting life cycle. We learned today that 9-week-old tadpoles do not drop their tails to turn into frog, but rather the tail is absorbed into its body as it grows into an adult frog. We have made frog and toad calendar markers - look how students took turns arranging them into possible patterns for March!! 
Students will also begin reading, solving and explaining their solution to number stories about sea creatures. We will do this learning as a whole group and with white boards. For the first few, students will act out the stories to show the problem, then show solutions. We will focus on how we "got" our solutions by drawing pictures that represent the number story and answer. Number stories are everywhere in our lives - ask your child to solve a number story when they set the table, feed the pets or sort their stuffed animals or collections at home. Math is fun, and imaginative!
Today, we had the opportunity to watch The Snow Maiden, a puppet show put on by the organization, No Strings Marionette Company. This company is here at our school for three weeks to work with all the third grade classes who will create their own show complete with their own puppets. We will have a chance to watch their shows in a few weeks. Today, however the directors of the program entertained us with their own show and answered many questions we had about the puppets and special effects shown. While waiting for the show to begin, students sang along with the directors to various well known songs and also learned a few jokes. Here is a summary of, The Snow Maiden, taken from their website.
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This three-day week has been an ideal time for students to focus on reading more closely the story Tar Beach, and to learn more about the main character Cassie Lousie Lightfoot.