Nonsense Words...What's the Point?

Through our work in reading we have spent a good deal of time on sounding out nonsense words.  As this work comes home, do you ever wonder what in the world we are doing?

 

The ability to blend random sounds to form a word is an important skill for our children to have.  It encourages our readers to rely on their phonics skills to read correctly, rather than simply guessing the word based on the content of “clues” they have encountered on their page.  As our readers become more advanced, they will be exposed to muli-syllabic words.  Their strong phonics skills will help them progress nicely through these words as most will have to be sounded out and not guessed.

100 Days Already?

The past two weeks have been wonderfully busy in the world of kindergarten!  We have been continuing our study of coins and time and that has led perfectly into our 100 days of school. It was thrilling to see so many of our students make the connection independently that 100 pennies made $1!

 "Look what I can do with 100..."  (base 10 blocks)

 Getting our opportunity to finally use that ambiguous 100's place on our place value chart!

        

Observing similarities and differences among the coins

Spinning the coin wheel and matching the amount shown with the correct coin

                                       Using coins to represent a purchase amount

The 100 day collections that arrived at our school this week were spectacular!!  We will be posting pictures for all to see, but if you happen to be up at the school, please tour the kindergarten floor to see the creativity in all the displays.  Talk about being Thinkers!!  All our families really thought of creative ways to express their child's interest and reflect our 100 days.  Fantastic!!!

We have begun our new Unit of Inquiry-How the World works as well. We will spend the next 8 weeks marveling at our amazing world.  As a portion of this unity we introduced an aquarium, and of course are continuing to observe Lily, Hope and the cubs at Bear.org.  We will also be starting a growing unit, complete with grow lights, video cameras, a greenhouse (once the weather improves) and a composter.  Exciting times!  Look for a new blog posting for that alone in the next few days. 

In Mandarin we are continuing to learn about customs.  Ask your child about how the Chinese celebrate birthdays (1^st month and 100 day celebrations).  I bet they would even like to sing Happy Birthday for you in Mandarin.

Did you happen to see CIS on the news on Friday?  Here is a link in case you missed it:

Channel 19-CIS

Great job Exporers!!!!!

First in Math

I know it is unusual to see a mid-week blog post, but I wanted to remind everyone to keep playing First in Math.  As the year has progressed, not only can our lovely learners work in the PRACTICE mode of K2World, but their new found skills have opened more doors.  If you haven't done so already, please have your child work in the GYMS section for addition practice.  They may also like to work in MEASUREMENT WORLD in the area of Equal Time.  Note-as the children earn more points, other sections will open (money, etc.).  

Here is the link if you need it:

http://www.firstinmath.com/

*REMEMBER there is no school Friday or Monday.  Enjoy the long weekend!  

A Month of Excitement!

Reflecting on the learning this month has been absolutely exciting.  It is wonderful to scroll through the pictures we’ve taken and see all that we have done together!  I thought for this blog I would tell our story through pictures with a simple description explaining each.  Are you ready for a tour? J

We enjoyed reading two versions of The Mitten. At the end of the exploration, we compared the two books.  The kids did a fantastic job!

Our students have been continuing to show their number values in a variety of ways.  Here a student is matching the group, number and number word.

We also started our measurement unit with money and time.

After reading Snowflake Bentley a few times (boy, do we enjoy his story!), Mrs. Snyder’s class decided to grow their own crystals. Amazing results!

Lily and Hope (black bears in Ely, Minnesota) have been “adopted” as our class pets.   We follow them each day on bear.org.  With the help of a den cam, we are able to see what the mommy bear is up to and now her THREE cubs! 

This past week we had an outstanding celebration for our Chinese New Year.  The children made cards, decorations, food and performances.  The day was truly magical!

Winter has been a lot of fun, but we are also remembering that spring is around the corner.  Our Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) and our friend the groundhog shared this great news this week.