I would like to share with you our "Math Calendar Wall".  Each day your child will participate in learning about a special number.  Tomorrow our number will be the number 4.  Our activities for the day will focus around the number 4.  These activities hopefully will help your child build number sense and help with number fluency, as well as, emphasizing the Math Common Core Standards for Kindergarten.  

Below I will share with you each of our activities and what your child will do with each.

Here is what the page in your child's Math Notebook looks like for August!  Please keep in mind it will change some over the course of the year reflecting new skills and Standards being introduced and taught during our Calendar Math time! 

Each day we add the date to our calendar on the chalkboard and write the date in our Calendar Math books.  The students highlight the day of the week using a crayon, what day tomorrow will be and write in the triangle how many days we've been in school while I'm modeling how to do this own the board, as well as in a notebook like theirs. These 2 activities will help the children learn the sequence of numbers which is Math Common Core Standard K.CC.3. 

Learning to count on from a given number is part of the Math Standard K.CC. 2).  So, this next activity will helps us with this concept during the year.   "What comes next?" is also Standard K.CC.4c. By using the "Shape Pattern" we are working on Standard K.G 5, which asks children to build and draw shapes. I felt it was important for them to understand patterns, so I chose to include this along with shapes.

Using our "Tally Marks" box we will add the correct number of tallies daily to reflect the number of days we've been in school.  As our number climbs we will be counting our tallies by 5's and 10's and ones emphasizing Common Core Math Standard K.CC. 1).

Number Bonds and Dominoes will help the children understand different combinations can be added together to make the same number.  Math Standard K.OA 3 asks the children to decompose numbers into pairs in more than one way. For example: 5 = 2 + 3  and 5 = 4 + 1). Standard K.OA 5 asks children to fluently add and subtract number combinations to 5. And, Standard K.NBT 1 asks children to compose and decompose numbers from 11-19 into tens and ones using objects or drawings or equations.  Wow!  Look what all we'll accomplish with our dominoes and number bond activities!!

At the end of each month your child will bring home his/her pages from their Calendar Math notebooks for the month we are just finishing up with.  We will begin a new month of Calendar Math, sometimes with some new activities to introduce and reinforce the Math Common Core Standards.  Feel free to reinforce these concepts at home as well!! 

*Sidenote:  Each month we will go back and review the numbers, but our "We've Been in School ? Days" and our "Tally Marks" will continue to grow!!

Hi!  I would like to welcome you to our classroom blog!!  I am super excited about having the opportunity this year to share all of the wonderful things we will be learning in kindergarten.  Our theme for our classroom this year is a "Hawaiin Luau".

To help with our student school to home organization we will be using Luau Binders.  Everything we need to communicate between home and school can be found inside our binders.  I will check your child's binder each morning and I ask that you check their binders each evening.

Behind the heading "Important Info" you will find our classroom schedule.  On our schedule you will see Reading/Writing Workshop three different times throughout the day.  During Reading/Writing Workshop your child will participate in literacy activities at his/her independent and instructional reading levels.  Below you will find an explanation for both.

A child's independent reading level is usually determined from books in which he/she can read with no more than one error in word recognition in each 100 words and has a comprehension score of at least 90 percent. Their independent level is the level at which your child can read easily and with pleasure.

A child's instructional reading level is usually determined from books (or other material) which the child can read with no more than one word-recognition error in approximately 20 words with 75 percent or higher on comprehension. At this level, children are able to use word-recognition clues and techniques and they read with teacher help and guidance. This is the "stretch" level. With the right materials and purposeful reading, your child will make maximum progress.  Most children are actually taught at their instructional levels.

Each day your child will participate in 3 different areas of Reading/Writing Workshop.  These areas include:  Read to Self, Read to Someone, Working with Words, Writing, and working with the teacher.  If your child works on Read to Self, Read to Someone and Working with Words on Monday, they will start with Writing on Tuesday.  So, during the week your child will participate in all areas of the workshop several different times.

Our schedule will also let you know when we will have Math.  Our Math this year will focus on Calendar Math, Number Fluency, and Problem Solving.   We are already on Day 2 of our Calendar Math!  Yeah!!

On the schedule you will find our special classes such as P.E., Art, Music, Library and Computer.  Daily your child will also participate in Developmental Centers for 30-40 minutes in the afternoons.  

Weekly or bi-weekly, I will update you on what we've been working on or learning in our classroom through our "Luau News".  You will find the new popcorn words which have been introduced, the comprehension strategy we have been working on during our Reading/Writing Workshop and Success, special books to share with your child, among other classroom news.  Please check in the binder for our news. I will also post our newsletter right here on our classroom blog.

Please use the section: "Parents: Important Notes" to send notes to me that need immediate attention, such as transportation changes, doctor's appointments, urgent concerns, etc. I will also use this section of the binder to send you notes that require your immediate attention.

*  From time to time, you may need to send money to school for lunch, book club orders, field trips, etc. Please use the pouch at the back of the binder to send money to school.  

You may also leave notes to me in the section titled:  "Home School Communication".  You will find communication logs where you can send me a message.  I have also included both my email address, as well as, phone number.

The last section of our binder I would like to share with you is the page called "Popcorn Words".  On this page you will find a list of all of the words we will introduce to your child this year.  However, if your child learns all of these words we won't stop there.  We will continue introducing sight words to your child.  We will practice our words together in many different ways!  At home you could reinforce these words by having your child roll their words out of playdough, write them in shaving cream or they could even practice on a dry erase board.  There are so many fun and exciting ways to work with words.  

Well, that's a lot of information for now!  So, I will sign off!  Please check back often for updates and pictures of your children participating in classroom activities!!  Have a great night!