Language Arts
We are nearing the end of the ABC books we are writing.
This week we began our new unit: Persevera/ Perseverance. Perseverance is a quality that adults associate with success. For kindergarten students, however, the value of sticking to an activity is not
always evident, especially if the reward is not immediately apparent. Helping students persist in situations in which the reward is not immediately apparent or forthcoming is one of the major tasks that kindergarten teachers and parents face.
Story characters who “stick to it” are usually rewarded, while those who give up easily often suffer grave consequences. One aim of this unit is to give students the opportunity to experience persistence vicariously.
Our first story in this unit was El sancocho del sábado, which describes how Maria Lili and her grandparents make a chicken sancocho every Saturday.
We used our high frequency words in our journals.
Our words of the day were:
libro – book
pero – but
igual – equal
cada – each
enfrente – in front
Math
This week the students showed mastery in their decomposing and composing of numbers 1-10. They did a fantastic job!!
We also solved addition and subtraction word problems within 10 by using objects and drawings to represent the problem.
Social Studies & Science
This week we continued our “Five Senses” unit we reviewed seeing, hearing and smelling and learned about taste and touch. The students had fun tasting different foods, including coffee (it was decaf), and then identifying if it was sweet, sour, bitter, or salty. We are also working on our own book of senses which will be coming home next week.
Next week is our “Senses Surprise” week. Each day your student will bring something that pertains to our senses for their classmates to guess or observe. The schedule is as follows:
Monday- something interesting to see.
Thursday- something to smell hidden in a paper lunch bag for the students to guess.
Fri- something to feel in a lunch bag or pillowcase to guess what it is by feeling.
This is designed to be fun but also simple. Please do not spend too much time or money on any of these activities. Also, please do not send in anything of extreme importance or value. While we teach respect and care for other’s property, this is kindergarten and things happen. I would not want someone’s great grandfathers violin to be ruined :).
We have our second field trip coming up on Monday, February 8th. This will be a trip to the Aladdin Theater in Southeast Portland to watch a show called “Bodyology”. We will meet directly at the theater at 9:45 allowing us time to find our seats and use the bathroom before the show starts at 9:55. Transportation to the theater and back to the school is to be arranged by the families. After the show we will head back to school for lunch and recess and then finish our day as usual with the usual 3:15 dismissal time.
The address is 3116 SE 11th Avenue Portland, OR 97202.
Also, Friday, February 12th, we will celebrate Valentine’s Day. Students are encouraged to bring in a Valentine mailbox of their own creation along with a Valentine for each student. Students are encouraged to write their classmates names and their own name on each card. This is a great way to practice handwriting and also gives the cards a personal touch. We are usually asked if treats are ok and the answer is yes but not necessary.
Art
In Kindergarten art we looked at another Ezra Jack Keats book called “A Letter to Amy.” The story takes place on a rainy day, and we looked at the pictures of the rainy, stormy skies, and the little boy Peter wearing a yellow raincoat and rain boots. The students learned how to use watercolors to paint a rainy day background. We set these aside to dry while the students drew pictures of a child with a yellow raincoat. They also had time to draw an umbrella. Next week we’ll put all these pieces together. Everyone did a great job listening, painting, and drawing! Many thanks to Alora and her mom Stacie for helping out every week!