Week 9: Oct. 30 - Nov. 2, 2012

Kinderbees

News

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS 

Bryant takes a turn mashing the apples in the sieve to make applesauce.

On Wednesday, we made applesauce from the apples we picked on our field trip earlier in the month.  The children each had an opportunity cut an apple in half and then cut each half again to make quarters.  I helped each child carefully cut each apple.  We talked about safety and that we don’t cut apples at home without an adult.  They were very excited for their first baking project.  After cutting the apples we put them in a pot, added a little water and simmered them on a stove in the Health room.  After lunch we used a sieve and mashed the apples until the apple sauce streamed through the sieve into the mixing bowl. We added two tablespoons of cinnamon and a 1/4 cup of maple syrup.  We enjoyed the applesauce before the end of the day with festive cookies from Keira.

Phonics & Journal Writing:  This week’s letter sounds were /c/ and /k/ and /e/.  The /c/ and

Isaac writes about bats.

/k/ action is related to castanets. The children pretend to click castanets in the air.  The /e/ sound is the action of cracking an egg on the side of a bowl.   Continue to encourage your child to complete the workbook pages on a weekly basis. With two to three sounds being introduced each week, they don’t have to do a page every night, just about a page every other day.   They all seem eager to learn the new sounds and actions. 

At Home Activity: Now that we have 3 different vowels, you can begin to play guessing games.  For instance, choose a consonant-vowel-consonant word like map.  Do the actions and see if they can guess the word.  If you don’t feel comfortable doing the actions, give them a c-v-c word and have them translate it silently into the actions. 

Language Arts (and Science ! ):  November calls for another two ELA assessments.  November’s assessment which we worked on this week is related to informational text.  We read the non-fictional book, Bats, by Gail Gibbons. This book was packed full of information about different kinds of bats. The children thought about one new fact they may have learned and then drew a picture and wrote a sentence.  As we read about bats we focused on the /m/ share theme too. They are mammals, they eat moths, mosquitos and even mice.

The past several weeks of school have been spent exploring our kindergarten room with activities and lessons.  We read Mrs. Bindergarten has a Wild Day in Kindergarten and thought about all the different areas and learning spaces in our room.  We are beginning to be introduced to some sight words, so the children completed this sentence, “I like...” and completed the sentence with something they like about our room.  I learned they like the blocks, the dollhouse, housekeeping, show and tell (share) and me!

Teamwork in the blocks center.

Explorations:  The children have been enjoying engineering buildings and other structures in blocks and role-playing in housekeeping. Several have rediscovered the art station with stamps, coloring and cutting.  The doll house is also enjoyed by both boys and girls. Aside from exploring a variety of genres and exercising their growing brains, they are learning important lessons about sharing, solving problems, and getting along.  They are fast becoming a tight group of buddies.

Paige tastes the soup. 

Share:  We enjoyed some fun /m/ shares: marbles, a magnet, a variety of Lego men, a toy motorcycle, a monster puppet, and even a mohawk hairstyle!  Next Week Share theme is the sound /n/. Please brainstorm with your child some things that begin with the sound /n/ and help them choose a share that fits our theme.  It can be a challenging but fun family activity, thank you!

CALENDAR:

❖   1^st Quarter Conferences: Please contact me if you did not receive a confirmation. I tried to accommodate everyone. I look forward to seeing everyone.

❖  PTSF Fundraiser: A School-wide fundraiser called SchoolMall is being sent home today. Please return by Next Thursday, November 8th. Directions are included inside the envelopes. Thank you!

❖  November Book Club:  Book Club magazines are included in this week’s Friday Folder.  If you would like to place an order, feel free to do it online or send a check before November 16.

HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS:

Mr. Wright enjoys snack with the Kinderbees. 

❖   Group Snack: Thank you to Keira’s family for contributing this week’s healthy snack! We enjoyed wonderful choices throughout the week: homemade oatmeal cookies and homemade muffins, grapes, carrots and ranch dip,.  Next week’s snack will be provided by:  Tylor’s family.  Thanks to all for making our group snack possible the children are really enjoying it as well as benefiting from the opportunity to eat a shared healthy snack.

❖  Outerwear:  Colder weather is headed east. Please send your child to school with warm coats, mittens and hats.   

Sincerely,

Mrs. Bodnar