January Highlights- A Happy Start to 2016!

It's hard to believe the first month of 2016 has come and gone! We rang in the new year and January was once again a month of growth and learning.  After a wonderful New Year's celebration right before we left each other for 12 days of vacation, we came back ready and raring to learn! We began 2016 learning about writing New Year's Resolutions.  I was so impressed with some of the goals that the children set.  Their resolutions ranged from being better readers and writers, to improving their soccer and piano skills, vowing to be better brothers and sisters and helping to clean up at home! Each year I try to revisit my resolutions at the end of the January to see if I'm still working on my goal.  Try having this conversation at home as a reminder that resolutions don't end with the first month of the year!

  

In math we continued our studies of numbers and cardinality.  We continued working on the topics of comparing numbers using the words more and fewer.  We dove deeper into understanding numbers by seeing that numbers can be made up of other numbers.  Gaining an understanding of composing and decomposing numbers in different ways are the early concepts that will one day be applied to our addition skills!  In January we also began learning about the magic of a "ten-frame."  These special math tools are another strategy that the children have learned to understand how numbers are composed.  We have begun our next unit studying numbers 11-20 where soon we will begin comparing these numbers and understanding that they are made up of tens and ones!

As readers we are growing more each and every day! It is amazing how most of the children came in still learning the letters of the alphabet, and now in some form each of them are readers!  Their growth as readers has truly started to take off in the month of January.  We spent a lot of time strengthening the "Reading Powers" that we learned over the past few months, as these are some of the foundational strategies we use as readers.  In addition we began adding more "Powers" to our list! We know that good readers use "Make Sense Power" to think about what word would make sense!

While a lot of the early strategies were about simply decoding the words, we are now working towards understanding and thinking about what we are reading.  You can work on this at home by not only reading books together, but having conversations and thinking deeply about how a book may connect to your own lives, or what it may remind you of!  We call this making a connection.  We are now going to be working on retelling stories using the beginning middle and end.

Another reading power that we have learned is "Snap Word Power."  This power is rooted in the fact that we have words that we are able to read as quickly as a snap.  For most of us these words are the words on our word wall.  These high frequency words are incredibly important and the children should be able to read them quickly and confidently.  Each Thursday when the word study book comes home, don't forget to enjoy one of the activities from the word menu as a practice activity to gain comfort with these words.  The practice does not have to stop there!  Please feel free to put the words on cards, do multiple activities a week, or even see how many you can find in the books you are reading.  We have done some awesome activities in school to practice reading, writing and spelling our word wall words!

In writing we completed our second publication! We chose our best from the many lists we wrote throughout our List and Label unit, and turned that list into a pattern book.  It was awesome to see the "Pattern Power" that the children identify in their just write books come alive in their writing. The children took such pride in sharing their hard work during our writing celebration.

We had an incredibly special day to celebrate the fact that we finished learning the letters and sounds of the entire alphabet.  We spent the day doing fun and exciting activities all relating to the alphabet.

  The highlight for me was the incredible letter transformations that the children made.  They each were assigned a letter or two to turn into something that began with that letter.  All I can say is WOW... we have some talented and creative children in our class!

In January we spent some time learning about an important person in history, Martin Luther King Jr.   We read books and watched videos about his life and accomplishments. We discussed the important ways he changed our country for the better and the unfairness of segregation.

 Most importantly the children understood that it does not matter what we look like, but how we are inside our hearts.   We read the book "Martin's Big Words," where we learned some of the words that MLK Jr. used to communicate peace and togetherness. The children came up with their own "Big Words" which are important words that are powerful and make you feel.

One of the wonderful things that began in the month of December and will continue through the year is our weekly Very Important Person.  It has been so wonderful to spend special time celebrating each student, their interests, and learning even more about them.  

We have also enjoyed some amazing families coming in as Rock Star Readers as part of the VIP week.  Thank you to the families who have rocked and shared their love of reading with our class so far!  We look forward to rocking with more of you in the coming months!

At the culmination of each week, our families have written a blog post on this blog about their child, the VIP.  Please take some time to look through the posts on this blog to learn about your children their classmates and their families.  Feel free to leave posts for the children each week as their post is shared with the class.  I look forward to continuing to learn more about each child as our year continues!

We have so much to look forward to in the month of February and I know it will be another amazing month!  On our final January school day, we hit the 90th day of school! Not only does this mean we have less than 10 days to go until our exciting 100th day celebration, but it means we are past the half way point of our school year!  I know that the second half of the school year will be as wonderful as the first as we get ready to prepare for first grade!

Peace, Love and Kindergarten,
Miss Grossman