Mrs. Silverstein's Kindergarten Class: November 2013

GOBBLE, GOBBLE

Thanksgiving is almost here and I have been thinking about all the wonderful things and people in my life that I am truly thankful for. 16 of which would be your children; they make me smile quite often. We have spent a good portion of the last two weeks discussing what it is to be thankful and why it is important to express our gratitude. It's amazing to hear who and what is most important to them and why. Their reasoning is quite simple but poignant!
Ms. Morris and the children have spent a lot of time discussing the events of the very First Thanksgiving and everyone involved. The children made a beaded retelling bracelet that they brought home so they could share with you the story of Thanksgiving. Through reading many books and watching videos, we realized that we are more similar to the Pilgrims than we thought. The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty helped us make many text to self connections and by using a Venn diagram we were able to see the many ways in which we are quite similar. I'm glad to hear that most of the children have challenging chores to do, like chopping wood for the fireplace during the winter months. :)
Ms. Morris created many fun thanksgiving themed centers for the children to complete these last two weeks. The children wrote letters of gratitude to their friends, they listened to and read several stories that involved turkeys, and dictated to me the steps involved in cooking a turkey. Their "recipes" are appetizing in a different kind of way. However, the most exciting part of November is ALWAYS when your children first notice that they are reading...this continues to be my favorite part of kindergarten. I call it the "light bulb" moment and it is quite magical & exhilarating for all of us. Please continue to read with your children and allow them to shine at home, as they realize more and more that they are indeed reading.
Also, I want to thank you for "transporting" your children back to the 1950's era as we celebrated our 50th day of school. They were absolutely adorable to look at and watch as they learned how to do the hand-jive, the twist and the swim.
Ms. Peg, Ms. Morris and I would like to wish all of you a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Enjoy your quality time spent together.

Creepy Crawly Spiders

What better time to learn about these creepy crawlers than during the week of Halloween. We had a blast learning all about spiders. Ms. Morris and the children started the week by creating a chart of all the things we knew about spiders, and as our week progressed, we read many non-fiction books about spiders and added to our chart. We even learned if our class mostly liked or disliked spiders by taking a class survey and graphing our results. Needless to say I was on the DISLIKE side. The children worked together to help label the parts of a spider and then were able to complete their own labeled diagram. They loved singing and filling in the missing words to the Itsy Bitsy Spider, as part of their poetry journals and listening to The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle at our listening center. They worked on their beginning, middle, and end writing prompt after enjoying the book. To end our journey into the world of spiders, Ms. Morris guided the children as they created their very own cute and adorable hand print spider. And the best part of the entire week was our Halloween parade and classroom celebration. The children all looked fantastic and what better way to "show them off" than as the leaders of the school parade. YAY!! It's always an enormous treat to have our parents up at school with us, so thank you to all our parents who helped make Halloween a memorable event. In between having all this "spooktacular" fun, we continued to review our letters and their sounds, rhyming words, syllables, and the sight words we have learned so far. Please continue to practice with your children at home in order to help them master these skills.