Personal Connections

We read another version of The Mitten By Jan Brett and learned about more animals. After comparing and contrasting Brett's version with Aylesworth's, we talked about how to make personal connections to our own life. Students reflected on their own lives while reading the book and began to make connections. For example, "the grandma in the book reminds me of my grandmother who also knits." and "the bear in the book reminds me of the bear I saw when I went camping with my family in Banff." We encourage parents to also make connections while reading stories at home. Students used their thinking journals to make connections to the story by drawing and writing about, "This book makes me think of..."

We used a deck of cards for the first time in Kindergarten and learned a new math game called "War" which helps us recognize numerals, subitize, and compare quantities with our partners. If you have a deck of cards at home, invite your child to teach you how to play.

We looked closely at the Animals from Jan Brett's The Mitten. There is the mole, a rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, a bear, and a mouse. We made a KWL chart.

K stands for "what we think we KNOW"
W stands for "what we WONDER"
L stands for "what we Learned"

Students added to the first two sections and will continue adding to them as we continue to learn more about these animals. We have been talking about migration, hibernation, and adaptation as well especially with these animals. Ask your child to tell you what each of these animals does. Which of these animals hibernate, adapt, or migrate?

We visited the learning commons again. Please don't forget to send the book back as soon as you are done reading it at home. We will visit the Learning commons every Thursday and unfortunately your child is unable to participate if they have not returned their book. Thank you!

We are continuing to look closely at uppercase and lowercase letters and letter sounds! We have also been working on figuring out the mystery morning message and learning more about our unique selves through our "Star Student" sharing.

We encourage parents to help their child "read the world"! This means having discussions about letters and words they see in their everyday life. For example, when going for a walk in the community, stop and notice what words you see? A STOP sign? Take a moment and help your child notice each letter and sound it out. What letters do they notice in the playground? Does the slide look like a letter they can think of? Does the tree in your backyard remind them of a letter? Do they recognize environmental prints such as "McDonalds" "Walmart" and "ToysRUs"? What letters are in each of those words? Try sounding them out together! Please feel free to take pictures of your own personal letter experiences and email them to us so we can share our words with each other.