Feast preparation!

Our Pilgrim and Native American hats and macaroni necklaces. Will we have more Pilgrims or Native Americans at our Feast today?? Stay tuned to find out! 

October learning!

This week we are practicing the skill 'Compare and Contrast'. We have learned that 'Compare' means to think about what is the same and 'Contrast' means to think about what is different. Here are some pictures from when we compared and contrasted two different apples.  

Every two weeks we get a new set of sight words to learn. These are 'tricky' words because they do not always make the letter sounds with which we are familiar. We practice reading and spelling these words because they are common words that we come across often. In the pictures below, we are playing a game where each student has a different letter and must find the other letters needed to build a word. The students loved this game and did very well!

 Skills Group: We practice letter sounds, bumpy and smooth blending, and reading sentences. When we bumpy blend, we make each sound individually. When we smooth blend, we slowly make the sounds but we do not stop in between each sound. When we read, we try to make it sound fluent; just like we are talking. 

We have learned about the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance several times this year. We read the story We Are So Proud, we celebrated Constitution Day, and we celebrated Veteran's Day. We are thankful for our country! 

We read a story about different animals and what their babies are called. Students chose an animal and it's baby to draw and write about. 

Meerkat and Pup; Lion and Cub

Zebra and Foal; Lion and Cub

Giraffe and Calf; Zebra and Foal

Students love working in the math and literacy centers! They cooperate to put an ABC puzzle together, they work on different ways to make a number, and they match uppercase letters and lowercase letters.

Addition Math Strategies

Last week, we started learning about addition in math class. We have learned that addition means "putting things together". We now know that the symbol '+' means 'plus' and tells us to add, and that the symbol '=' means "is equal to' and tells us that what is on one side is the same as what is on the other side. We also learned some different strategies to help us solve addition problems. Some of these are below!

We can use objects to help us solve math problems...

We can 'act it out' to solve math problems...

and we can use drawings to help us solve math problems!

Mrs. Nicodemus’ Kindergarten Newsletter 

November 17, 2014

Reading: Little Panda is a nonfiction story about a panda that was born at the San Diego Zoo in 1999. Children will see how the panda grows and that will help them answer the question “How does a panda change in its first year of life?” They will understand that as a panda gets older it changes in size, can do new things, and has new experiences.

Target Comprehension Skill: Compare and Contrast – When we compare, we think about the ways things are alike. When we contrast, we think about the way things are different. Answering compare and contrast questions helps children comprehend and make logical inferences about the text. We will use the language: “I can…compare and contrast”.

Amazing Words: measure, weigh, healthy, bamboo, curious, explore

This week, ask your child to come up with a sentence using one of these words. We will use the language “I can…use new vocabulary”.  

Phonemic Awareness (hearing sounds): Initial and final /n/ and /b/ – Ex: nap, fin, bat, cab. This week, have your child try to find items around the house or outside that have the /n/ or /b/ sound. You can also tell your child 2 words and ask him to identify which word has the /n/ or /b/ sound. Students should also be able to identify if /n/ or /b/ is in the beginning or end of the word. We will use the language “I can…hear beginning/ending sounds”.

Phonics (matching sounds and letters): Students will learn to say the /n/ and /b/ sounds when they read the letters Nn, and Bb and will learn to write the letters Nn and Bb when they hear those sounds. This week, we will also begin to practice spelling consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) words. Students have previously learned the letters and sounds for Cc, Pp, Ss, Mm, Tt, Ii and Aa so you can challenge your child to spell words using any combination of these letters. Remind them to use lower case letters unless it is a proper noun (name). We will use the language “I can…spell words”.

Sight Words: me, with, she (past words: I, am, the, little, to, a, have, is, we, my, like, for, he)       

Please practice these words at home! Students can write, search for, or use flash cards to read the words. We will use the language “I can…read words”.  

Math: Last week, we began Ch. 5 and learned that adding means to combine things together. Students will be using the language “I can… add numbers”.

Thanksgiving Feast – Our Thanksgiving Feast will be Tuesday, November 25^th. The morning feast will be at 9:30 and the afternoon feast will be at 1:15. Please let me know if you are interested in helping out.

Feel free to contact me with any questions @ 943-6924 ornicodemus_a@westcler.org.