Leader in Me
Inspired by The Leader in Me by Stephen Covey we began the week talking about what it means to be a leader. We discussed how leadership is a daily choice and whether or not we're a leader is determined by our actions. It's one of my goals to help the Kindergarten kids unlock their leadership potential and start to understand the language of "The 7 Habits" and what they mean.
Habit #1 Be Proactive
I want the children to understand that they are in charge of themselves and that they choose their actions and attitudes. During our brainstorming session, we talked about what we have control over and what we do not. We cannot control other people, but we CAN control our mindset, work ethic, and how we treat other people. As an extension of this conversation, the children worked on their first journal entry. The journal prompt was: "How can you be proactive at school?" The kids worked so hard on this! As the year progresses you will see your child's writing improve as they learn proper letter formation/placement and sentence structure.
Calm Classroom
This week we introduced Calm Classroom. Calm Classroom promotes mindfulness in the classroom and provides skills to students and teachers to create a healthier and more empowered learning environment. The 3-minute scripted techniques focus on breathing, stretching, focusing, and relaxation techniques. We begin our morning meeting with Calm Classroom as well as when we get back inside from recess and PE. Calm Classroom helps us relax our bodies and get ready for the next activity.
Fundations
Fundations is a comprehensive reading, spelling, and handwriting program. This week the children participated in letter-keyword-sound, skywriting, and practiced writing on their writing tablets. The kids learned the names of the writing lines - sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. The kindergarten kids are learning correct letter formation (top-down, left to right) with very specific lessons. Letter formation is very important as it is needed in order to become an efficient writer. This week we started to learn how to write "sky line letters."
Reader's Workshop: Readers Read the World
This week we began Reader's Workshop! During Reader's Workshop, each session begins with a mini-lesson followed by independent work. As students work, the teachers confer with the students while delivering a mid-workshop teaching point. The workshop ends with a share. This week the children learned that readers walk through the world in a special way - they don't just see things, they READ them! They read them by looking at things like signs, directions, books, and think, "I wonder what this says." They think about the words. During the mini-lesson, I showed the kiddos pictures that I took of signs around the school. We tried our best to read the signs. If we weren't sure what they said, we looked at the pictures to figure out what the sign was telling us.
Math: Explore Connecting Cubes
This week the K kids began our math curriculum. Unit 1 focuses on "Math in Our World." The goal of the unit is for students to recognize numbers and quantities in their world. In Unit 1 the children will explore and use various math tools that they will use in math activities throughout the year. These math tools include connecting cubes, pattern blocks, 5-frames/two-color counters, and geoblocks. This week the children explored connecting cubes. They shared their thoughts and ideas about connecting cubes during the Notice and Wonder routine and then tried their ideas during free exploration. During the first few lessons, the students get the opportunity to explore the math tools before they are asked to use them to represent mathematical situations in later lessons. The students are learning the structure and routines of our math lessons.
STEM Challenge: Index Card Tower
The Index Card STEM Activity gave the K students such a fantastic engineering opportunity to think through problems and solve them. To begin the activity, I asked the students to think about ways they could change the shape of the card to make it stronger. They had a few ideas and then I showed them some ways to make different columns (circular, triangular, square), and how to make an accordion shape with the card. We got to work making our index card STEM towers!
Centers:
PE: Scooter Races
Art: Scented Markers
Please see the message below from Ms. Lorenz:
Hello Roycemore families!
I am happy to be teaching Art to your children PreK-4th grade, and I have been reviewing different ways to give you a sneak peek into what they are working on (and why). For now, I think Google Classroom is best, and I have created a Classroom for Art where I will post a few pictures & descriptions as we finish each project. Please join with the link below.
https://classroom.google.com/c/Mzg5MTExMTQ2NDI4?cjc=lrpike4 password is rlpike4
Also, please send in a smock that your children can keep in their cubbies. A t-shirt is fine - one or two sizes larger than their own, not too large, please. Please write their names on their smocks. Thank you!
Please feel free to email me anytime - I love talking about Art!
Gina Lorenz
Recess:
French: Colors - Red
Free Choice:
Field Trip:
Early Childhood (Pre-K, JK, and K) will be taking a field trip on October 22nd to The Grove for their fall program! The kids will enjoy a hayride, take a guided walk on a trail, and see animals in the interpretive center. We will be taking a bus to The Grove that morning and returning after a picnic lunch. More information to come!
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