February 13, 2012
Words of Wisdom: “Learning without thought is useless. Thought without learning is dangerous.” - Confucius
Language Arts In Action: I spent time with each child to determine individual guided reading levels and skill growth since September. Your children are blooming and I’m excited to share news of their progress in reading and writing at our parent-teacher conferences this week. We’ve met Larry the Lion and Harry the Hound Dog, who help us practice the sounds for Ll and Hh. We learned to read the sight words “you” and “one.”
Mathematics: We spent time assessing in math to determine progress achieved with numbers and number concepts, shapes, and patterns. Again, data gathered will be shared at conferences. We also began a unit on shapes and reviewed two dimensional shapes such as circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, and rhombus (diamond). We created a poster by finding these different shapes in common classroom objects. We made paper shapes into pictures and labeled them. We made shapes from play doh and sorted them by like attributes.
Social Studies Scene: We’ve continued to explore position words and used them as we’ve introduced maps. We read Mapping Penny’s World and worked cooperatively in small groups to create our own maps of the classroom. We learned about map tools such as a key and a compass rose.
Happy Happenings: Happy Birthday to Sawyer last week and to Faith this week! Thanks to all families for providing Valentines and treats for our classroom Valentine’s Day celebration. Please remember to send in the Valentines your child made for each of his/her classrooms for sharing tomorrow, Feb. 14th. We will also be collecting canned goods for less fortunate families and any child making a donation on Valentine’s Day will earn an “I Gave” heart sticker from the Avoca West student council.
Nuts and Bolts: All kindergartners will be dismissed at 11:15 a.m. on Wed. and Thurs., Feb. 15th and 16th due to the parent-teacher conferences held later that afternoon and evening. See you then!