Update for the Last Days of the School Year

We are finalizing research and presentation materials for the Dinosaur Museum this week and getting ready for kids to present to you at Student-led Conferences and at the museum!

Weekly Update 5/20/2019

This week in Literacy, we will be continuing our research about our dinosaurs. We have learned to do "close reading" to find the important words in what seems like an ocean of words when you're five and six. Now we've started working on our final research papers, and we are excited to share them with you at our Dinosaur museum on May 30th from 5:30-6:30!

Thank you to those of you who have started trying to gather some resources for us and send them in. I realize some of these dinosaurs are not very famous and there are not many children's books about them, if any. If you type in the dinosaur name online, you can find information about pretty much every dinosaur discovered. Here is a bullet point list of what your child is looking for in their research.

Type of Dinosaur: Ornithischia "bird-hipped" or Saurischia or "lizard-hipped"
Lots of pictures are fun! And, they need to know what it looked like
Where did it live?
What did it eat?
How did it move?
And then, just four other cool facts about it. There must be a reason the child picked that dinosaur! What was their reason?

For some it may be that they liked something about the way it looked, and that's ok. Maybe what feature attracted them to it? The head, the tail, the spikes?

If you decide to take some of this on at home, to make it easiest, you can just copy and paste that little bullet list into a document or even an email. Then type in the answers you and your child find together and email it to me. Since this is not your research project, please do have your kiddo go through the process with you. You'll be doing most of the reading, and they can be helping you find the important words that answer their questions.

Update 5/13/2019

These are the dinosaurs my literacy students selected for research and reasoning work. You can help us out by finding books at your local library or other creditable sources and send them to school with your child. We will learn more about going through resources to get the information we need.

Update 5/6/2019

This week in Literacy we are working on our end of the year final cumulative project. Each student will spend the week learning about Dinosaurs, and by the end of the week, each student will be picking a dinosaur to study and write a research project about.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS! May 30th from 5:30-6:30pm will be our Dinosaur Museum. Please come to check out the hard work we will be completing for the remainder of the year!

Update 4/29/2019

Tomorrow, I will be introducing the children to our problem based learning project all about Dinosaurs. This is expected to be a very fun, engaging and exciting way to bring together many literacy skills. For this project we are specifically targeting skills with research and reasoning. You can provide support at home by getting out dinosaur books or materials and letting your child explore what interests them most about the age of the dinosaurs.

I will also be reviewing the data from the assessments children took last week, and kids will work in small groups to bolster skills where necessary. If necessary, I will email you for specific support at home requests toward those goals.

Update 4/22/2019

This week in literacy we are finishing our last unit of the year for Superkids. We will be learning the letter z and taking our final assessment with Superkids. Toward the end of the week we will be working on long vowel sounds and mastering those sounds and how we can add an e to the end of words to make those long vowels. You can support at home using the Superkids Online Fun app, and/or talking about it when you find Zz in books and all around you.

Weekly Update 4/15/2019

This week in Literacy we are starting our LAST SUPERKIDS BOOK OF THE YEAR!!! This book will take us thorugh the end of April. Starting in May we will begin working on our End of the Year Summative project as a Kindergarten pod.

In this unit:

Children will learn to name and write uppercase X and Y and lowercase x and y. They’ll learn the sound x stands for in words like box and mixer, and the sound y makes in words like yes and yellow. We’ll discover what compound words are, such as sandbox.

We’ll read about the Superkids making new things out of cardboard boxes. When the class listens to the read-aloud Trash or Treasure?, children will learn about ways we can reuse materials instead of throwing them away.

The class will write a catalog poem together. Then children will write their own alphabet poems and five senses poems.

You can support at home by reading poetry, and looking for x and y when you read together.

Update 4/8/2019

In literacy, we are working on J this week. We are also learning the memory word said and how to recognize and use dialogue sentences. Kids will be writing book reviews this week, and that will connect to previous work they've done on learning to write their opinions. You can help at home by doing book reviews with your child after you read together. What did they like, or not like, and why?

Update 3/18/19

This week in Literacy, we will be wrapping up our instructions on How to Catch a Leprechaun. The children may almost be experts on this subject by now. If only they could catch him, they really would be experts! The blizzard put a snag in the plans they've been making, so you could support at home by helping them include finger spaces, periods, and capital letters in any sentences they write while trying to capture a leprechaun at your house this weekend.

If you didn't get a chance to sign up for conferences on Thursday and Friday, email me at [email protected]

Weekly Update 3/11/2019

This week in literacy we are learning phonemic awareness, phonics and handwriting skills with Jj. When you are working with your child at home, emphasize the blending and decoding games whenever possible. I am asking them to read more and at ever greater skill levels. They love the Superkids songs, and they are great as something to enjoy after they finish some of these more challenging games.

Weekly Update 3/4/19

We will do our Seuss celebrating this week; last week was too busy. This week we are working on K,Q and J. I will really be focusing on building comprehension skills and confidence in independent reading skills, primarily blending.

Please support your child at home by letting them play Superkids Online Fun!

Weekly Update 2/25/19

Kids are learning all about the letter Vv this week in Superkids. They will start recognizing when words are synonyms and work on writing instructions for doing something. You can support them at home by talking through the steps you take to complete tasks, and listing the materials you need to carry out the task. You could also have them use sounds to spell out the materials in a list. Remember we aren't looking for perfect spelling, but rather sounds that represent what they hear when they say or someone else says the words.

Weekly Update 2/19/19

This week in literacy, we are learning about Pp and the sound it makes. We will begin learning to write the steps to do something. For example, the step-by-step instructions for washing your hands. You could support at home by talking about the steps you go through to do a routine. When kids brush their teeth, you could say: "First, we get out the toothbrush. Then, we open the toothpaste lid. Next, we squeeze the toothpaste on the bristles." etc. And, of course, continue to let your child play with the Superkids Online fun app.

Update 2/11/2019

This week in literacy we are continuing our unit on N and M. We will take an assessment on what we've learned this week! Please support your child at home by giving them time to work in Superkids Online Fun!

Update February 4th, 2019

This week, we are working on our new unit on N.

You can support your child by asking them what a sentence needs.

1. Capital at beginning

2. Finger spaces

3. and a period, we are just now starting to learn about question marks

4. Complete sentences know who it is about and what they are doing.

Language Arts - Mrs. Bratt

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