Griffin Gazette {sub for Monday and possibly Tuesday}

Kindergartners are having some mature conversations around reading. It's been neat to be a part of it. I am so proud of how far these little guys have come in just 50 days!

This week in our classroom...
We are reading Armadillo's Orange. Our letter of the week is /Ss/. Our snap words are review this week: have, is
Our comprehension skill this week is VISUALIZATION. We are going to be working hard to make pictures in our minds while we read stories...while Mrs. Griffin reads to us and when people talk to us. You can practice this at home too. Read to your child a poem...or a book without showing pictures. Have them make a movie in their mind. Have them share with you what they saw. Then read again and show the pictures to them.
Review comprehension skill: Setting
For more information see the FAMILY times.
Essential questions:
What is visualizing? How do you visualize? How does visualization help readers understand a story? What is setting? What clues and/or details are in the picture that show what the setting is? How does knowing the setting help you understand the story....ahhh the things we will discover over the next few weeks.

In math we will...
Review number stories
Begin Symmetry (by painting) look for them hanging later in the hallway.
Finding symmetry in nature (leaves...butterflies...ladybugs...etc)
This Wraps un Unit 2 this week. I may spend some extra time with NUMBER stories since the kids are WAY eager to begin adding and subtracting...and then toward the end of the week we are going to being some of MRS. GRIFFIN's favorite THANKSGIVING projects...:)

or the one I do every year...Apple turkey...

In Writing we are focused on our "ALL about book" We have begun brainstorming for our book. We had to choose an animal (since Kindergarten studies animals) and we had to write down 3 facts about it. This week we will work to draft a practice page about our animal. Kids will watch as I model this practice. Thursday we have a visiting writing teacher (Mrs. Hultman) from Wilson. She is a writing expert. She is likely to jump right in and teach. She will be meeting with all the teachers to see if they need help...and/or resources. I am excited to pick her brain because she has done the WRITING institute at Columbia University a BUNCH of times.

In Science...we will continue to compare and contrast Goldfish and Guppies...feed our animals...learn to care for them and observe and talk about them

Other news:
Please try and have any items for our Soldier here by Friday. I plan to mail boxes after school or Saturday morning. Thanks for helping with this one. It's dear to my heart.

Spirit day is FRIDAY. Wear your RED shirts.

Remember to keep classroom shoes at school. Wet boots make our carpet soggy and smelly AND the kids are supposed to have on shoes throughout the day.

Hope this finds you all doing well and healthy...I hope to return Wednesday...as I am still having a hard time talking.
Until then...Happy Almost THANKSGIVING!!!!