Classroom Update!

We are in the home stretch of kindergarten! As of today, there are only 24 more school days left! We are at a really fun time in kindergarten right now. Kids know the routines and expectations, they are all readers and writers and we are diving into more science content.

Here’s what we’ve been up to the last few weeks!

Reading: We have finished our Making Meaning curriculum which focuses on comprehension strategies but that doesn’t mean we’re done looking closely at text. We have been reading informational text about insects and gather facts to use in writing. 

Last week the students worked in pairs to read informational text on an insect of their choice. Then they created three sentences on sentence strips. Next they put those strips into a pocket chart and decided on sentence order and correct wording. Finally, they wrote their sentence in their insect books. This is called a Cooperative Strip Paragraph.. The kindergarteners did fantastic! I can tell they are ready for first grade! :)

I am also beginning our final Fountas and Pinnell reading testing. This is SO exciting for me! All the kids are doing fantastic! It’s so fun to see the measurable growth at the end of the year. Students need to be at an “instructional level D” to meet standard. On the final report card, I will list their reading level.

Writing: We are at the beginning of our last unit in our writing curriculum. The students are working on persuasive writing. They are busy writing books and signs trying to convince people to make the world a better place!

Science: Our study of plant and animal parts continues this week. We are focusing on the question, “How do plants and animals meet their needs?”

Math: We are nearly finished with our math curriculum. Currently we are working in cooperative groups to solve math word problems. The kids are so adept at solving problems! It’s really inspiring! We are also focusing on number sense with some “math gymnastics” and place value, through dice games.

Enjoy the sunshine!