The End of September?

Our Garden of Change

This week we used our Key Concept, Change, to unlock learning in so much! Ask you child about the characters in the books we've read (The Mixed-Up Chameleon, Our Brave Year of Firsts, Bob and Otto, Kindergarten in the USA and China...)  It is fun to see ourselves in the characters we read about.  They have gone through changes just like us!  Key Concepts: Change and Connection

A big changed happened for the Caterpillars in Mrs. Humphrey and Mrs. Taylor's class too.  Butterflies!

The students recorded their wonders in their special Wonder Journals and released the butterflies.  We sure wonder where they went!

We started working with the fantastic pictures each Explorer brought in too. Our Explorers were asked to show how they have changed by sequencing their pictures on a flower (Timeline).  

Math

In math we are working hard to compare numbers.  We have made vertical and horizontal towers as we investigate which tower has the greatest amount, the least and even if they are equal.  We have also been organizing our numbers  from least to greatest. Busy times!

Reading and Revelations

As we investigate our letters we are working hard to find the beginning sounds of the words around us.  We have even been using these beginning sounds in our writing (labeling parts of our illustrations) and writing sentences.

Here students are playing a beginning sound game with their letter tiles.

 Ahniya wrote in her wonder journal about

an addition to the aquarium, "I wonder if he comes out."

The Power of Reading Partnerships

Part of what we are like (Key Concept-Form) is the type of books we enjoy reading. Here students work on sharing their favorite types of books

 Groups of students presented their projects to their class.  Such Communicators (Attribute of the Learner Profile)

More Kindergarten Fun

We wonder what that green ball is in the aquarium?  Is is alive?  Is it a rock?

 

We are making all kinds of connections to our friends!

We love, love, love our Mystery Readers!!

 

Form, Connections and Change...We See our Key Concepts Everywhere!

Our Unit of Inquiry has led us to take a close look at the concepts; Form, Change and Connection.  Sure we are studying ourselves in our Who We Are Unit, but we discovered that these concepts are found everywhere and really help us to understand what we are learning even more!

FORM

What is it like? When we describe something we are examining what something is like.  Sometimes they are things we see, but not always! This can be tricky, but we are Thinkers (attribute)!

We continue to work hard on our letters (name, sound, formation).  We are trying to find as many words as we can that begin with the letters we have learned (b, f, i, m, n, y, t, u)

 In math we have studied the form of numbers (formation, quantity, counting) and shapes.  We are practicing in Mandarin as well.  Has your child counted to 10 yet (y, er, san...)?

 We have even gotten into adding and subtracting and low and behold that showed CHANGE!  

We have continued to look at our own Form and even made Me Puppets to use for role play.  We shared lots of giggles with these.  

Books have a form too! The cover, title page, page numbers, writing, illustrations, etc. are all part of its form.  Everywhere we look we love to find and describe something's Form!

CHANGE

How something changes is exciting to uncover!  Here are some of the places we found CHANGE just this week:

-Math-adding and subtracting, shapes

-Reading-characters in stories, our responsibilities when we Read- to-Self and Read-to-Someone.  Has your Explorer shared what sitting EEKK Style is? 

-Writing-Punctuation changes the way we read something, letter formations change the letter names and the use (capital letters have special uses).

-Mrs. Taylor and Mrs. Humphrey's class is the home for  the caterpillars who are going through a great big change of their own.

THANK YOU for sending in the 3 pictures for your child. Next week we will explore the many ways we have changed over the years!

Speaking of Change, have you seen the changes to our playground?  Here is a little peak...

CONNECTIONS

Having been in school now for 21 days, we have made lots of friends and have learned so much about the other Explorers at Campus International.  We are all very unique but it is fun to find how many similarities we share too!  

Here Mrs. Snyder's class made Connections with their 2nd Grade Buddies as they practiced Reading-to-Someone:

Mystery Readers

Thank you for those of you who have already signed up to be a Mystery Reader in your child's classroom.  This is always such a special treat!  

Upcoming Events:

Love and Logic Parenting Classes begin Tuesday, October 1.  If you would like to attend, please register as soon as possible.  

Check out the website here: Love and Logic Homepage

16 Days Already?

We must first say a HUGE, "Thank you!" for coming to our Curriculum Night this week.  It was tremendous seeing all of you, getting a chance to share the curriculum and getting an opportunity to chat. Thank you also for being patient with the heat.  It sure was a hot one!  

We enjoyed a week full of wonders, problem solving, reading, and exploring Who We Are (our current Unit of Inquiry).  Has your child discussd their Form (Key Concept) with you?  

Looking at the Form of something involves looking at what something is like. We are finding out there are MANY, MANY parts to our Form!

Our Me Bag presentations are so much fun.  It is always exciting to see who will get to share each day.  Wonderful Communicators! *An attribute of the Learner Profile

We are making a lot of connections to our friends through our bags. It is very thrilling to find another friend who might like our favorites too. Connection is another Key Concept we are investigating.  

Wonderful Wonders!

Mrs. Humphrey and Mrs. Taylor introduced a new class pet this week.  Caterpillars!  Oh our Thinkers were filled with wonders about what the caterpillars were doing, what would happen next, how the butterfly would be formed, how long it would take...(truly endless).  

We love to record our questions in our Wonder Journals.  Wonder Journals are used anytime we have a wonder about something. Kindergarteners are filled with exciting wonders!  

Reading Workshop Investigations

 Fishbowl Modeling of  Reading Expectations 

We have been investigating what makes a good reader.  Here are some pictures of the work uncovered by our Explorers:

Math

Our Math investigations have involved a lot of problem solving, counting, making sets and writing our numbers.  We have even learned how to count 1-10 in Mandarin!  Our Knowledgeable Explorers realized that this is Form too!

We learn in so many ways!

Letter Sounds and Formation

We continue to work hard on knowing our letter names, sounds and correct formation.  So far, we have worked on lowercase letters b, f, m, n and t.  We are exploring words with the beginning sounds of the letters we have introduced.  How many can you come up with this weekend? Have your child share in their Morning Meeting. 

Reading with Second Grade Buddies 

Ms. Mori's class met up with their 2nd Grade Buddies to read together.  It was so much fun!  

Mandarin 

This week's lessons were on greetings, counting, naming parts of our face as well as simple commands (look, listen).  

BUSY, FUN DAYS!

Upcoming Events:

Love and Logic Parenting Classes begin Tuesday, Oct. 1