We've had a terrific week in kindergarten! Here is a peek into our week.

In Writer's Workshop many of our mini-lessons have been focusing on writing words by listening to the beginning sounds of words and writing the corresponding letter. During the mini-lessons this week, the children will get more practice writing the beginning sounds of words using whiteboards. We have also learned about title pages and how famous authors use them and how we can easily incorporate them into our own writing.

Just over a week ago, we started our literacy stations, which the children have enjoyed. During literacy stations, the children are exploring different areas of the classroom while focusing on letters, writing, and comprehension. This week (and next week), the children are creating uppercase letters using Bendaroos (waxed yarn).At the pocket chart station, children were matching the pictures of their classmates with their names. The children are working in their ABC Journals at the writing station and have been listening to books on CD at the listening station. At computers, children have been using the Starfall website. This is a fantastic website that your child can use at home as well to practice their literacy skills. I highly recommend you check it out! As we are learning about our community, the children are creating a picture of where they like to play in their community by tearing (a great fine motor activity) construction paper. Then, they will add some writing to their picture to share where they like to play.

This week in math, the children learned about tally marks. They practiced making them using popsicle sticks. This was a difficult concept for many of the children, but it's great exposure for them as they will be used more often in first grade. We've been practicing writing numbers 1-10 using whiteboards, pencil and paper, and in the sky. Another work place was introduced this week: Geoboard Shapes. This work place has the children recognizing and naming shapes and understanding how some of the common shapes are formed using geoboard and rubberbands. The challenging part of this station is recreating the shape on the recording sheet!





As we have been learning about the community we live in, we created a Community Wall in our classroom. The children each illustrated a building or area in our community using paper and markers. Then, the buildings and areas were placed on the wall and labeled for all to see. We'll continue to add things to our community for the next several weeks.

We also saw a video titled What is a Community?. We learned about the difference between a urban, surban, and rural community and the people who work in these communities. The main concept that the children learn was that not all communities may look the same, they are all made up of places where people work, live and play!

We have continued to go to the computer lab once a week and the children have been using the computers in the classroom. We have been using the Paint Program, Quilts and Patterns Program (part of our math curriculum) and have begun using Kidspiration, a program that develops childrens thinking, literacy, and numeracy skills while using visual pictures. We've only begun to explore the program, but I'm hoping to use with connections to what we are learning in the classroom.