Quarter 2 Recap

It's hard to believe it's JANUARY and the start of a brand new quarter. We had many fun and memorable learning experiences this past quarter. Here are a few…

Isaac and London practice 

"Read to Someone" on the iPad. 

   

Jacob and Amya "Listen to Reading."

Hooray! Cooler weather has arrived… 

and it's recess time!

Parker having fun at recess!

We learned step-by-step how to draw a turkey

and responded with a sentence about our turkey.

Adrianna's turkey is yummy!

We reached our "Read to Self" goal of 15 minutes!!!

So of course we had to celebrate with a reading stamina party!

We read in the dark with finger lights and glow stick pointers!

Gavin and Susie practice "Read to Someone"

at our reading stamina party!

Just before the holiday break we read 

Olive, The Other Reindeer. At the end of the story, 

Olive (the dog) received her very own set of 

reindeer antlers from Santa for doing 

such a great job guiding his sleigh. 

My little friends and I 

made our own reindeer antlers! :)

:)

And we had "Reindeer Floats" for snack!

With the arrival of quarter 3 we have had to say good-bye to some of our friends, but hello to new ones as well! I am looking forward to a great second half of the school year! Keep checking back for class news and updates. 

Mrs. Barinas

 

In Kindergarten News...

Last week in writing we learned how to label our pictures. 

Here is a picture of the anchor chart we used to practice labeling a cat.

They also had a blast labeling... me!

...and each other!

In other kindergarten news...

We've been learning how to compare numbers 0-5 using words such as: greater, more, less, fewer, same, and equal. I am so proud of the strong vocabulary my kiddos have learned and use in their daily conversations with peers. It is sweet music to my ears and makes me so happy! 

We have also been learning about our 5 senses. They did a great job labeling the sense to the correct body part! 

A picture update!

We've been super busy learners these past couple of weeks! Take a look at what we've been up to :)

We can sort objects by shape, size, color, and texture.

Table 5 working together to count to 20.

                                             

Practicing our power word "like" and using finger spaces.

We also use marshmallow spaces... these are more tasty :)

One of our math tub activities!

Each student received the letter l, i, k, or e.
Then I let them loose as they found other students in the room
that could help them make our power word "like."
These guys were the winners! :)

Online Reading Resources

Dear Families,

Wherever your child may be as a reader, American Reading at Home is a wonderful tool to meet your child's needs and help them grow as a reader. This is a very user friendly website that I would like to encourage you to use with your child nightly. There are various levels of books (1Y, 2Y, 3Y, 1G, 2G) that are available for your child to read, as well as coaching tips for you to use as your little learner begins their reading journey.

For more information on coaching and what each reading level represents, visit American Reading at Home, click on coaching on the red navigation bar (as shown below), and then select the reading level you'd like to learn more about. We will be focusing on 1Y-2G this year in kindergarten. 

In the weeks to come, I will be meeting with each student to have a reading conference. During this time we will identify their independent reading level and choose a power goal. A power goal is a short term goal that helps each student know what skill they need to work on to master their current reading level. 

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask!

Mrs. Barinas

First Week Recap!

What a fantastic (and busy) first week of school we had! 

I'm sure my little owls slept very well on Friday night... I know I did! 

Here are a few snapshots of our week:

Gavin sharing his *All About Me* bag with the class. 

Some of our favorite foods include:
chocolate chip cookies, macaroni & cheese, pancakes, and even steak!

Name Activity: Build your name with play dough!

We didn't waste any time jumping into the Daily 5.
This is the structure we will be using during reading.
Justin is building his reading stamina and practicing
the first way to read a book: Read the pictures! :)

Table 3 is working hard during a whole group listening activity!

I hope everyone had a very restful weekend. 

I am looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow!

[ Mrs. Barinas