Reminder! All Bedroom Maps Are Due Tomorrow

We are very  excited about seeing your child's map! Some maps have already made their way to Hammond and look fabulous with lots of details and labels! We can't wait to showcase them in the hallway.
As a reminder, these maps should be drawn on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, that was supplied in last Tuesday envelope, then colored to reflect various items in your child's room. Please help your child label the larger items such as a bed, dresser, table, toy box, etc.

Thanks again for helping our students gain a better understanding of map making.

Blog News!



The kindergarten teachers are very excited about our new blog! We just want to make sure our Parents  receive our news each week. You can do this one of two ways. You can continue to get the Tuesday e-Note E-Blast from Kelly Augenstein each Tuesday in which you just need to scroll down and click on our link. Or, while you are visiting our blog you can take the time to join the blog. As soon as any news is posted you will get an email instantly. Thanks so much for staying connected!



Math Update

Be sure to ask your child about reading Grandma's Button Box at school. After reading this book, we learned four ways to sort objects: by color, size, shape, and number of button holes. We also played sorting games on the SMART Board, sorting buttons into categories.

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Whether we are participating in calendar, lining up during transitions to and from activities, or busy in classroom stations, we are reinforcing the following skills:

• Counting by 1's, 2's, 5's, & 10's to 100
• Number Recognition
• Correct formation of writing numerals
• Exploring Even and Odd
• Ordinal Numbers
• Grouping & Sorting
• Graphing
• Patterns
• Tallying

Sight Word Study

Below are the sight words we will be covering the week of September 30th- October 6th.

For a list of suggested activities to practice the sight words please see last week's blog post.

go, to, here, are


 

The Tiger Cubs

Spirit Week Fun! 

 We are Skyhawk Nation!

The Friendly Frogs

The Bear Cubs

The Ducklings



Me on the Map

Maps

The kindergartners are busy learning about maps. We have enjoyed reading Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney which gives us an overview of our foundational unit. We have also read As the Crow Flies by Gail Hartman which gives a bird's-eye view of the world around us to help the children understand this perspective. Additionally, we read Mapping Penny's World by Loreen Leedy which led us into making a map of our classroom. We then challenged each child to draw a map of their own.

To Be Done at Home

Now that the children have created  their classroom map, we invite them to create a map of their own bedroom to share with the class. These maps should be drawn on a sheet of 8.5x11 inch copier paper, that is supplied in today's Tuesday Envelope. Then the maps should be colored to reflect various items in your child's room. Please help your child label the larger items such as a bed, dresser, table, toy box, etc. We would love for all maps to be completed by next Wednesday, October 1st. You may also return the maps in next week's Tuesday envelope.

Thanks so much for helping our students gain a better understanding of map making. We hope that you enjoy working together on this activity!

Sight Word Study

The sight words we will be practicing this week:

in, is, it

Below you will find a list of suggested sight word activities and games.

• Place sight words in a container. Invite your child to shake the container, spill out the words, and read the ones that fall face up. Give your child a score that is equal to the number of letters in the words he/she reads. Record the total, then place the remaining words back in the container, shake and spill again. Add the total to the first score. Continue until all words have been read.
• Choose a newspaper article and see if your child can spot one or two sight words at a time. Use a highlighter and count how many times the word appeared.
• Turn the sight words into rainbows. Ask your child to write a sight word on paper in big letters. Using different crayons, have your child trace around the word again and again, reading the word each time.
• Have your child write the sight words on the driveway using sidewalk chalk.
• "Write" a sight word on your child's back with your finger. Can he or she guess the word? Trade places and let your child "write" on your back.
• While riding in the car, have your child look for familiar sight words on billboards and signs. If you keep a Magna Doodle or a small writing pad in the car, have them write the word when they see it.
• See if your child can find the words on items around the house (cereal boxes, packaged goods, newspaper headlines, magazines, etc).
• Make your sight words yummy! Use pretzels, carrot or celery sticks, Twizzlers, gummy worms, or other long skinny candies or snacks to spell out the sight words.

Science Update

The kindergartners received a treasure map that we enjoyed following. It led us to a fabulous treasure...Mr. Mancke! He was standing high above us on his watch tower, and after he climbed down, we were invited into his cabin. Mr. Mancke showed us a variety of maps as he shared great stories of his many adventures. He then told us about the compass he always wears. Each class watched as Mr. Mancke guided us step by step through the process of making our own compass. We then floated it in water and watched it turn in the direction of North.