Weekly Wrap Up

We learned about bats this week. We read some informational books on Epic and students did some writing with simple sentences to teach their reader about bats. I sent home a page to access Epic at home if your child is interested. There are books they can listen to about all sorts of topics! Students use Epic during centers a couple times a week. 

We learned that bats come in different sizes, and measured the wingspans using cubes. The largest one we measured was the Giant Flying Fox with a 5 foot wingspan, or 80 cubes!

We read Stellaluna and then compared bats and birds. Students drew a picture of a bat and a picture of a bird. 

We are working to be careful readers who think deeply. We read the words from the book Go Away Big Green Monster and students drew what they visualized (pictured) in their heads while listening. After the first read, we read the book with the illustrations, then students compared their original visualization with the illustrator's ideas. 

Next week, we are going to learn about voting and the election. In Math, we are starting 2-dimensional (flat) shapes and our reading activities will go along with shapes as well! 

Have a great weekend!

:) Mrs. Steinman

Pumpkin Week

 We focused on pumpkins this week. We are so thankful for the donation of pumpkins for each student! 

We learned about the parts of a pumpkin and made a simple diagram of the inside and outside. We counted seeds and ended up with 464 (at least) that we counted using 100s charts. 

Scientists use tools to measure, so we measured the height of the pumpkin using cubes and the circumference of the pumpkin using links. We also counted the lines on the outside of the pumpkin.

We watched some videos from my garden this summer about how a pumpkin grows, then drew the steps of a pumpkin life cycle. 

Next week, we are going to learn about bats. In Math, we finished numbers 6-10 and are taking a bit of a break from numbers. We are going to be sorting objects in different ways! In reading, we will be learning about tools and continuing to use our super reader powers! 

Thank you for signing up for Parent Teacher Conferences! On November 4th, I will send home a page to help guide our video or phone conference. I will also send home the directions for attending/logging on with your packet. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

:) Mrs. Steinman

Falling for Science

 We had a lot of opportunity for hands on learning this week! 

One of our standards in kindergarten is knowing that weather changes are long term and short term. We spent the week learning about weather changes for the season fall! 

On Monday, we went on a short walk around the school looking for signs of fall. Students noticed leaves on the ground, leaves changing colors, and trees that have lost a lot of leaves. Students choose a couple leaves for observations. 

Another standard in kindergarten is that scientists can sort objects by their properties. Properties include things like size, shape, color, and texture. Students came up with different ways to sort our leaves in the pavilion on the playground. 

We've been learning that scientists record what they learn through drawing or writing, so students drew detailed pictures of their leaf when we returned to the classroom. 

To continue with the same focus, I brought gourds I had grown in my garden on Wednesday. 

We were able to head back outside where students looked closely at the gourds. We sorted again using properties the students suggested. They came up with size, texture, color, and stem length. 

Next week, we will do some similar activities with pumpkins! 

In Math, we are continuing to focus on numbers 6-10. Students have been very successful with counting and show groups on tens frames. We used 10 sided dice to build fluency with recognizing numbers and counting. 

We took a quiz on Friday and grades have been put in the online parent portal. Graded quizzes will come home early next week. We will finish up our focus on numbers 6-10 next week. 

The end of the quarter is just a few weeks away and I am going to be starting assessments for grade cards soon. Most of the assessments are one on one with me where they are asked to do a specific task so I know what they know. I'm very proud of how far we've come already and I hope your child is feeling comfortable and confident! 

Have a great weekend. 

:) Mrs. Steinman

Fire Safety Week

 We spent time this week learning about how to be safe around fire. We watched a video from the Kenton Fire Department showing the behind the scenes of their fire station and wrote to describe firefighters. We talked about ways to prevent fires and different ways firefighters fight fires. We learned about Stop, Drop, and Roll and sequenced the steps using pictures on a hat. 

The highlight of fire safety week was the fire truck parade from the Upper Sandusky Fire Department. Every student colored a letter for our We Love Firefighters banner that was sent to the fire station! 

Fire safety even showed up in math. We made hats with different numbers from 0-9 to practice comparing numbers. Students got to move and groove until the music stopped, then had to find a partner to compare to determine greater, less, or equal. 

In Math this week, we worked on numbers 6-9. Students can show the numbers with objects, drawing pictures, and coloring tens frames. We are also working on handwriting for each number. Next week, we will dive deeper with comparing with numbers 6-10. 

In Science next week, we will be learning about signs of fall next week and working to organize some fall objects based on their properties - like shape, size, and color. 

Enjoy the weekend!

:) Mrs. Steinman