Week 5{Griffin Gazette}

This week in Kindergarten...
Well, First and foremost it's Johnny Appleseed's birthday on Monday. We will work this into our curriculum throughout the week. Some things you might hear about are:
apple patterns, applesauce, graphing apple colors, graphing our favorite apple, apple crafts and let's not forget caramel apples.


During Reading workshop:We begin week 2 of Unit 1. 
Our story this week: Fix it Duck 
Letter recognition: F-N
Comprehension skill: Setting and character review
Your child is part of a workshop structure during reading, writing, math and themework (science and social studies). This is what that looks like:
Teacher teaches (mini lesson)
Students practice (independent time)
Students come back to share (Share time)
Other skills we are working on include:
Beginning to read habits, routines and procedures
Reviewing and practice read to self (we are up to 10 minutes)
Daily 5 skills-
Writing about reading and word work
Stay tuned for more on this.
PLEASE READ and COMPLETE the family times (coming home tonight) with your little one for review. 
Handwriting-Students begin working in their printing books this week. We start will all capital letters. We call them Frog jump capitals. The first letter is F. We will begin tomorrow. Remember when you see your child writing, remind them to ALWAYS start at the top.
WRITING:
More "list" practice
Focus on "CLEAN OUT" of their writing folder
Practicing "share out" at the end of writer's workshop
How to organize our materials
Watch what I do when I write (lots of teaching modeling)
Heart mapping (brainstorming a place to keep all our great ideas)
MATH
Sound and motion patterns (apple patterns too)
Patterns with color 
Getting to know our numbers 0-9 
Coin comparisons
Give the next number game
Learning how to navigate on the computer (math games)
Graphing apple colors and favorite apples
THEMEwork (science and social studies)
Our focus is FALL: apples, Johnny Appleseed, seasons
Wednesday we will be traveling to Jackson, Wyoming to the National museum of wildlife art. Kindergartners will be studying NATIVE AMERICAN decoration and design. Of course I wanted to do this closer to Thanksgiving, but didn't want to risk riding the bus over the pass then. We are so excited to be invited by Amy Goicoechea (Associate curator of Education). 
This is a two part program that provides support for our math curriculum too. During the first 60 minute session at the museum students will view artifacts and paintings depicting Native Americans. The focus is on shapes, colors and patterns found in Native American art. The 2nd session which will be held in our classroom on Friday is focused on making a medicine shield that emphasizes the simple mathematical shapes used by Native Americans in their design. 
I am so excited to be a part of this with your children. Please let me know if you are interested in coming with us. 
FUN FACT:We are coming back from Jackson at 12:45 and guess who will be on our same bus....the ALTA big room (heading home from the science school)....FUN..huh?

OTHER NEWS: 
Monday - Wednesday (5th grade heads to science school)
Wednesday, September 28th is our field trip to the Art Museum.
Friday, September 30th is the ALTA camp out. See the handout for details or email me.
VOLUNTEERS start next week: October 3rd! (Please know that the volunteer schedule will change after November. You won't be locked into that day and time. As our needs change, so does our volunteer schedule.