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Moms and Dads, we had an international friend visit us from Germany today. Helin Yilmazturk is a second grader who lives in Germany. The kids met Helin (her nickname is Melin) on facetime 3 weeks ago and were surprised that she came to see them in person. They asked such interesting questions… “Were you, like, where were you born?” Stella “In America” Helin Melin “When have you been in this class before?” Tehya “Last year.” Helin Melin “What grade are you in?” Sam “Second” Melin “How old are you?” Elin “7” Melin “What do you like?” “Animals” Melin “Where’d you live at first, when you were about to get born?” “In America” Melin “Um, what kind of food do you like?” “Soup” Melin “Um, um, where did you get your hair braided?” “My mom” Melin “Um, what kind of hotel do you live in?” “I live in an apartment” Melin “Do you know if someone from another country, like, lived in Turkey a long long time ago?” “Yes” Melin “Where is your apartment?” “I forgot” Melin “Do you have a bunch of animals in Germany?” Hudson “Yes” Melin “Is there a lake at your home?” “No” Melin “Um, do you have a pool next to your house?” Elin “No” Melin “Do you have any baby brothers or baby sisters?” Davis “Uh, do you drive to Georgia sometimes?” Jack “Yes” Melin “Um, what kind of animals are there?” Hayden “I don’t really know but a deer, a rabbit.” Melin “How many animals are there?” Cole “Um, a lot.” Melin “Um, it’s really not for her, but I see deers out in Atlanta.” Stella “One time I was driving in a car and we saw some deers walking across the road.” Elin **My apologies for erasing some of the names of the speaker. 
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We are writer-rific! The kids are writing and doing all of the good things that good writers do. If you look at our ice cream cone writer’s rubric you can see the concepts of print that we are targeting: 1. I sound tapped. 2. I began sentences with a capital letter. 3. I used meatball spaces between words. 4. I ended sentences with correct punctuation. They work hard for a ‘4 scooper’ ! I conference with them so that they can proofread and edit using the ice cream cone. They love this center!      Mr. Tonneson came to visit the class today. He talked with the kids about how their problem solving skills has lead to Fiskars establishing a better quality control method for their kid's scissors. He presented each child with specially stamped scissors and a goody bag. His team also created a book to share with the class. After our letter to Fiskars Mr. Tonneson, CEO of Fiskars scissors will be visiting our class on oct 25. I told the kids today and they are excited!
 OUR SHOVELS DISCUSSION
We had a discussion about shovels (see photo). We discussed the difference btw the 2 shovels, identified which shovel would be best used for shoveling snow and WHY. I then asked which shovel would be best used for dirt and WHY… Addie Gray said,”Shovel 2 because dirt is more heavier.” I then asked,”Which shovel would be best used for leaves and WHY?” Marvel at their ability to make connections by using higher level thinking… “Um, cause the opposite of heavy is light. ‘Cause, cause leaves are not as hard as, um, as heavy as dirt.” Davis “This one can pick up leaves because it’s bigger, more stronger. Because it’s more pointier so it can chop it up, chop up the dirt. “ Hayden. If you use shovel 2 and you dig with it for leaves then it will only pick up dirt. Shovel 2 is less heavier. Because shovel 1 is better to pick up leaves than shovel 1 is wider.” Maggie “Uh, well, shovel 1 has wide parts. The wide parts, shovel 1 is more, more lighter than shovel 2 so shovel 1 can pick up the leaves.” Jack “This shovel and this shovel, they’re not alike because this one is really heavy when there’s like a bunch of rocks or dirt in it. This one is light because it , it has a big old shovel part right here, and the bigger shovel part it is the lighter the stuff that’s in it. It is.”Hudson “You can use that one to pick up snow because if you picked up snow with it then it would be easier than to use this one. Because it would be easier with this one because it’s lighter. “ Olivia “You could use, um, shovel 1 to dig up leaves because it’s lighter, the leaves are bigger and the shovel is bigger to use.” Tait “This one is curbed right here on the side and this part is like really flat and it’s longer. This one is shorter. Shovel 1 can pick up leafs because the bigger it is the lighter.” Cole “So, the snow shovel , the snow shovel is like, it can pick up leaves because it’s fat.” Grayson “This one is much skinnier because this one is fat you can pick up leaves. Because it’s fatter. When it’s fat it can get a little bit more leafs on it.” Tehya “So, so, the shovel is bigger and the gardening shovel is lighter. This one, the opposite of big is lighter.” Addyson “This one is lighter so it can pick up the leaves. And this one is heavier so it can pick up the dirt.”Olivia KID QUOTES AND WRITING The kids were super excited about today’s writing activity. They had to assemble a robot puzzle and then LABEL the body parts! Parents, I want you to close your eyes, imagine you’re in a plane at 13,000 feet and I tell you to JUMP. Imagine your fear…Believe it or not, that is how kindergartners feel when first asked to write by themselves, sound tapping and writing the sounds they know and hear! They are SOOOOO concerned with comparison to grownup spelling. However, when given the tools of sound tapping and writing the sounds they know/hear,(and trusting their brain and not their neighbors) their confidence grows. We practice saying, “If I can say it, I can write it.” Look at the photos of some of our labeling! I wrote the ‘read’ words beside some to help you understanding their writing. Practice labeling or writing at home. Kids can help make a grocery list or label a picture they illustrate. Remind them to tap the sounds they hear and to trust their brain. They are not expected to spell like a grownup. Rather we want to see if they are tapping to identify sounds they know and hear and going from left to right. Please have your child teach you to sound tap. If your child writes a word backwards then say,” We start on the left and go to the right. Sometimes I’ll put a star or dot on the left side as a point of reference. Following are the sounds we’ve covered: All shorts vowel sounds (NO LONG VOWEL SOUNDS, YET) /a/ as in bag ; /e/ as in egg; /i/ as in igloo ; /o/ as in lot ; /u/ as in up. Consonants: b,c,d,f,g,m,n,s,t,r Mrs. Laurent asked ,”What was it like to write words by sound tapping and remembering letters?” Hayden “Writing the words out, um doing thinking in your head.” Nariyah “Um, we were writing the words to spell it. Looking at that and trying to learn how to do it.” Scott “We did our best coloring and staying in the lines. It was AWESOME!” Tait “Um, I used 3 star coloring. The writing was good.” Hudson “It felt good that I was sounding out all of those words.” Hasiet “We wrote like a big girl and a big boy.” Miles “Uh, We did our kindergarten best and I feel special and, for writing all the letters by tapping them out.” Addyson “Um, it makes you really tired and proud.” Sam “It feeled good writing all those letters.” Maggie “It felt good.” Elin “I was working hard.”      We will be sending home forms to have you pay for your child's field trips online. This amount will cover the cost of the field trips and transportation for the year. Please submit your child's payment and return SIGNED permission forms as we send them to you.
Please note that Jackson Field Trip payments will be handled a bit differently this year. Information regarding these changes are detailed in the blurb below from “This Week at Warren T. Jackson.” There is a link to the online registration site included in the blurb and it does not take long to go through the process. You will need to have your child’s Student Identification number in order to complete the payment. This is a 7 digit number that most likely starts with the number 2. It would have been included with your registration information or on old report cards for those that are repeating. The front office can provide the number for you, but you have to stop by in person and provide identification. WE HAVE AN IN HOUSE FIELD TRIP THIS FRIDAY (September 30th) SO YOU MUST COMPLETE THIS PROCESS PRIOR TO FRIDAY IF YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR CHILD TO PARTICIPATE! You will still need to sign and return permission forms when they are sent home in your child’s backpack. Field Trip Payments We also have a new online payment portal for Field Trips. The PTA has elected to enroll Jackson into the Atlanta Public Schools Online School Payments (OSP) portal. The OSP is provided to facilitate payment for school fees for a variety of products and services - including Field Trips and other pass through expenses. The system is currently offered to a select number of schools, including Jackson and Morris Brandon. We believe this system will be a convenience and benefit to parents, teachers and administrators. The system will be available starting tomorrow, Monday, September 26th. Access the portal at http://osp.osmsinc.com/atlanta/. The deadline to pay your Field Trip fees is October 18, 2016. Instructions can be found on www.wtjackson.org or here. If you have any questions, please contact the Main Office or email Astrid Moyer at amoyer@atlanta.k12.ga.us. Thank you and please feel free to contact me should you have any questions. My apologies for the annoying highlights – just trying to make sure everyone puts this on the priority list. Thank you! We had our apple taste test and had observations to share about the results… We’ve been discussing odd and even numbers. Addyson “I notice that, that, that, they was . So like, there’s 10 right here, 2 right here and 5 right here. So ten has, has a lot and this one has less and this one has a little bit.” Cole “The green has 7.” Elin “2 people voted for yellow.” Hud “10 people voted for red.” Tehya “There’s more , there’s a lot more than the 2 from the yellow, and there’s a lot , medium to the yellow. Red has more than green, and yellow. Green has a little bit more than yellow. Yellow just has 2 and this has a lot of, ten (pointed to the red) . There’s a lot of names on red. There’s just 2 names on yellow and there’s 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, 7 names on green.” Hayden. “So, this one has 10 and this one has 2. The green and the red have more than the yellow. So this one has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. (green) . This one has 1,2,3,4,4,6,7,8,9,1. (Red). This one has 1,2. They have the same groups, red group, green group, yellow group. Tait “This one is a even number. This one is a odd number and this one is an okay number, it’s just medium size.” Jack “So the red apples, it has the most. It has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. And the yellow apples have 1,2. And the green apples have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. And I think the red apples have the most because a lot of people like the red apples. Yellow apples has the least because maybe 2 people liked them. And I think, well the green has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, I think that 7 people liked it. “ Nariyah “These are the only 2 that liked the yellow apples because they taste like peach or pears. But that only has 2, and this has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. And this has 1,2,3,4, wait 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. The people like the red because they like the red. Only 2 like the yellow, and these like the green.” Scott “So, so there is 7 people like the green. 2 people like the yellow and uh 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 people like the red. We voted for the red to get more and so the, so, if we don’t write our names we don’t know which is theirs. We always have to let other people vote for their own color. And we know this is red, this is yellow and we know this is green. Hasiet “This one have 10. This one have 2. This one have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. This one have 7.” Grayson “So this one has less. This one has medium, which is the second most. And this one has the most. So, that’s why because this one has 10, this one has 2 and this one has 7. 7 people liked the green color. 2 people liked the yellow color. 10 people like the red color that is regular.” Addie Gray “This one has more than this one ‘cause it has less. And that one has 10 and that one has 7 and that one has 2.” Olivia “This one is the red apples and this one is the yellow apples and this one is the green apples. Most people voted for red apples and less people voted for yellow apples. 7 people voted for green apples.” Miles “The red has most and the green has less and the yellow has uh the least. And uh, the, the green has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. The yellow has 1,2 and the red has 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. The red has more.” Stella “This one has the most and this one has the least and that one has the medium. So people voted for red most and the least is yellow and medium is green.” Davis “This one has 1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5, 2 groups of 5 for the red one. Yellow just has 1 row of 2. These ones have 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. There’s 1 row of 4 and then there’s 1 row of 1,2,3, for the greens.” Sam “This has um, the most. This has um the less and this has like the medium. And more people voted for this one and less people voted for this one and a little people voted for this 1.” Maggie “This one has more than these 2. This one has more and these 2 have less.”  We have been.... Math -Touch counting to ensure one to one correspondence. - working with numbers to 5 in different configurations, math drawings and expressions. -Sorting by count in vertical columns and horizontal rows -Answer how many questions to 5 in linear and circular configurations, with 4 in an array configurations. -finding hidden partners within linear and array dot configurations of numbers 3, 4, and 5, In other words the number 3 has these hidden partners that when put together make 3 1+2 , 2+1 , 3+0 , 0+3 -Modeling decompositions of 3, and 4 with materials, drawings, and expressions. Represent the decomposition of 3 as 1+2 and 2+1. -Writing numbers 0-3 using proper formation. -Breaking up numbers less than or equal to 5 in more than one way. -Writing numerals 1-3. Represent decompositions with materials, drawings and equation, 3=2+1 and 3=1+2 and Pls notice that we first put the numeral that we are decomposing, followed by the equal sign and then the hidden partners. -Order and write numerals 4 and 5 to answer how many questions in categories and then sort by count. -Write numerals 1-5 in order. Answer and make drawings of decompositions with totals of 4 and 5 without equations. -Skip count to 100 by tens -Count in ascending and descending order. -Count up from a number other 0 or 1. For example, start counting at 4 and stop at 9. Writing -Use proper pencil grip -Write our name making only the first letter capital followed by lowercase letters. -Start on the left and go to the right. Reading and Language Arts -Sentences are made of words that are separated by a meatball space, begin with a capital letter and end with punctuation mark at the end. (We have concentrated on the period, but have identified and discussed the question mark and exclamation point) -Recognize and produce rhyming words. Both skills are critical. -Drill sounds we have covered up until now. /t/, /b/, /f/, /c/, /m/, /n/, /i/, /o/, /u/ -Identify vowels and consonants -Tap out number of sounds in words. Students learn how to blend words by finger tapping. -Parts of a book -Roles of author and illustrator. How and why author and illustrator must work together. -Reading comprehension: main character; setting; dilemma; solution; sequence events. -Staying on topic of a subject. -Listening -Speaking with conviction -Dictation of individual sounds, and consonant vowel consonant words (ie. cat, mab, fim, tob, etc.) using only sounds we have learned so far. The use of nonsense words is an excellent indicator of whether or not students can identify and write sounds we have studied vs. anchoring onto a word they already know and using that as a substitute. We want kids to see the letter and identify the sounds and also hear the sound and identify the corresponding letter. Currently we all do our dictation together, with me modeling. It will progress to students relying on their knowledge of sounds and words and will be done independently. -Vowel trains. Vowels can be tricky because their sounds are silimar and difficult to differentiate, so we practice them extensively. I will say /i/ /i/ /o/ . The students echo what I said and then write the letters that make those sounds. We are currently doing 3 sounds per train. /o/ /i/ /o/ This week we will… -Study the letter name, formation and sound of /a/ and /g/. -Practice blending 3 sound, short vowel words -Prosidy- Echo-read a passage with correct phrasing and expression -Practice identifying and clapping number of syllables in words -Recognize and produce rhyming words (2 different skills that are both critical to learning to read.) Vocabulary we use throughout our day… Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, integrity, linear, before and after (kindergartners confuse these 2 concepts) , group, sort, organize, equal, more , less, digit, independent, sportsmanship, perimeter, hidden partners, beside, above, below, between.   |
Mrs. LaurentKindergarten Teacher Archives
December 2016
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