Crew News January 13th, 2023

 Announcements

School Newsletter: Check out all the updates and announcements in this week's school newsletter. School Newsletter Link.Thanks for staying updated!

Scholastic News:

Class Order Due Date: 1/22
Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/YCRBR
Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/kindergarten

Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends. 

***All orders also earn FREE Books for our class. I love that our crew library grows from every order that is placed! Thank you for your support!
Class Code: YCRBR

Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:
-I did not get a chance to update my volunteer sign up yet, but if you would like to help out with letter formation, parents are welcome at 8:30-9am. I hope to have it updated next week. Thanks! :) -Another odd volunteer opportunity: I would like for our crew to start a marker recycle inniative for our school. Ms. Bethany does crayon recycling, and I think it would be perfect for our crew to head this up. Can I ask for someone to research (make sure you count for time for volunteer hours!) to find out what our best options are to make this happen? I already have two full boxes of dried out markers. Thanks!

Calendar

Mon 1/16: No School; Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Friday 1/20: Community Reading 8:30-9am

Crew Highlights

Learning Update:

-In writing, we added a kid friendly writing rubric to our wall. It has been incredible to see the change in how students are pushing themselves to write more and add more details. I emphasized that this is all kindergarten writing, but it shows how to take writing to the next level. It has increased student awareness about how to evaluate their writing, set goals, and then reflect on new growth. We did a "January" sample of writing, that I will add it their progress folders, and I was blown away! Hooray for our writers!

-In reading, we have switched up things a bit, so that our readers have a longer amount of time for independent reading. They sit on their own on a green rug and pile all of their "book bag" books on one side, and slowly read through each of their books, moving it from one side to the other. Wow! Already, I am seeing growth in sustained independent reading. We began our next unit in reading, titled Technology at Home and School. 

Today we talked about synthesizing our reading using the prompt "at first" and "after reading." Our crew did amazing and several shared examples. One example was "At first I didn't know spiders lived in the desert, and after read I learned that there are tarantulas that live in the desert." WOW! Bravo to kindies for learning how to synthesize. 

-In phonics, we finished "h" as our letter of the week, and began "b." Our new sight words are and & you. Students began using their phonics workmats to sound out words such as bin, bat, and cab. Next week, we will do another phonic assessment to see how it is going with mastering our sight words, letter of the week, and writing "decodable words" that can be sounded out for correct spelling. 

*In Take Home Folders, I included flashcards for our sights words, as a tool to practice reading and writing these words. (Please note that for little, I only want them to be able to read it. Also I included big and with that we will be learning next week).

-In math, we have been practicing counting. To avoid skipping numbers and to increase number knowledge, we spent some time writing numbers up to 50, noticing number chart patterns, and practing oral counting. 
*In Take Home Folders, please notice the counting assessment which indicates if I request your assistance at home to practice counting from 0-50. 

-In expedition, we are about to launch a NEW expedition subject. The crew received clues that they will be working as scientists. We read Ada Twist Scientist and noticed that scientists will asks lots of questions and do experiments. Next, we practiced working as a scientist to conduct an experiment about whether objects will sink or float. On Thursday, they gathered three objects from the room and recorded their predictions. Then on Friday, we were able to put their thinking to the test and record observations & results. We will reveal the topic of this expedition at the end of next week. 

Our crew had LOTS to say about what they already knew about scientists! We added the words in brown after reading Ada Twist.

Will it float or will it sink? Whisper gently what you think!

Students got to test out their objects and record their results.

They shared these results on Seesaw!

Thank you Mr. Doug for a bonus week of bike riding!

Check out our parade down the hallway. :)

-In addition, we read books and talked about Martin Luther King Jr. Students loved a hilarious song called "My Name is Joe (Button Factory)." In library, our crew was ecstatic that they now get to check out TWO books. During our time with 4th grade buddies, they decorated rocket ships and wrote reasons they were excited to blast off into 2023.

Ms. Erin, the librarian, read the book Empty Pot which has a lesson about the importance of showing integrity by telling the truth. You might have see this sheet come home on Wednesday. 

Today, we got to do some teambuilding with Mr. Cody, our adventure education coordinator. We started with a silly name game called "Duck and Cover."

Then students walked and ran through an obstacle course. At the end, they had to share whether they accidently touched any of the items.

Happy 2023! 

We talked about setting resolutions, and each shared a goal that they have:

-being kinder to siblings

-cleaning rooms without being asked

-eating more healthy food (fruits & vegetables)

-riding a bike without training wheels

-climbing to the top of the rock wall

-being kind

How sweet!

Have a great weekend, and see you Tuesday!

~Ms. Lauren