Today we had a fun Disney day! We began the day with a pancake breakfast in the gym. We sang our song "Fill My Cup" and we are reminded that God not only fills us up with food for our bodies, but especially food for our soul. Our Shepherd Lutheran School is such a special place because every school day the kids are filled with God's love and then the kids can go and share His love with others. What a blessing!
Later we learned how to carefully discriminate words that look very close to one another. If only one letter is different, that can change the whole word. Good readers look for those differences. Examples are: bag, bug bog, dog cap, cab We continued with another rotation of literacy centers. Following literacy centers we had a new set of thematic centers. The kids are learning how to cut paper snowflakes which will be glued on paper squares and arranged into a paper quilt design. At another table the students are using pattern blocks to design quilt patterns. Once the design is planned the students use pattern block stamps to copy the block design. These will be arranged into a paper quilt pattern as well. The green table is working on a sight word book on patterns. Quilters often look at nature to come up with their designs. Finally at the red table students are practicing the formation of Qq, its sound, and are writing stories about such things as queens, quilts, quarters, etc. In the afternoon the students practiced jumping. We tried to launch off in different ways and land in a variety of ways as well. We tried to take off from two feet and land on just one and then do the opposite. We tried to do a pencil jump. We tried to do a star jump. We measured our length and then tried to jump our length to see our distance. We tried to jump for height as well. In Math we are learning that numbers in the teens are a set of ten and so many extra ones. It is important to count the group of ten. Look for more papers to come. Many did quite well at this abstract concept which is a standard for kindergarten in Indiana. I read a story to the kids about the nickel. We learned that Jefferson is on the nickel and we compared his picture to Washington which is on the quarter. We learned that if something costs five cents in the store, you can pay with one nickel or five pennies. Then we made an example of a nickel to save in our money bag. Finally we learned a bit more about the country of Germany. Tomorrow kindergarten should dress in the flag colors of Germany: black, red, and gold. Then the kids made German flags which we will wave in a parade tomorrow. It was fun to end the day learning some German words and seeing some photos of Germany. This week we will begin every day with devotions in the sanctuary with our whole student body. We are doing this to celebrate National Lutheran Schools' Week. Following devotions this morning our chapel buddies came into our room and they read Bible stories to us. We enjoyed the time learning about Jesus with them.
After our chapel buddies left we reviewed the time that Jesus blessed the little children and how He wanted them to come to Him. He is never too busy for us either. We began a new rotation of literacy centers. We continue to work on both initial and final sounds of words. The kids are taking a survey to determine who likes candy or cards. At the Reading table the students are learning to look for chunks or little words in bigger words to help them decode longer words. They made a fun "chunky monkey" craft to go with it. The word work table also provides the students with a spinner game to practice onsets and rimes. We will be practicing letter Qq this week and focusing on its /kw/ sound along with its formation. It is important to discriminate q in its different fonts and know the difference between p and q. Later in the afternoon the students learned how our number system is based upon 10. We are beginning a unit on place value and will focus on how the numbers in the teens are made up of a set of ten and so many ones. We are also beginning a money unit. I read a book about the penny to the students and then they cut out a heads side and a tails side and glued them together. We will be using a set of coins to help us learn to recognize the coins and their values. Later we also had fun learning about the growth of penguins. We learned about a rookery, molting, down, etc. It was fun to watch a movie to learn more about these cute animals. Finally we listened to a classic story called The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. The students sequenced some of the events in the story. We said goodbye to Liam today. The kids have been blessed to have Liam with us this year. He shows Christ's love and genuine care and empathy for others. We pray that he will have a wonderful experience in the remaining days of kindergarten as he transitions to a school much closer to his home. May God bless and keep Liam! Don't forget that the kindergarten will sing in church this Sunday at the 10:30 a.m. service. Please bring your child to the kindergarten classroom by 10:15 a.m.
Our 98th day of school was unusual in the fact that we had an eLearning day where activities were done at home on the Seesaw Class app and then submitted. There were 13 activities which ranged from 100th day activites to Martin Luther King Jr activities to Snowy day activities to prayer for example. If your child has not completed all 13 activities yet, please have him/her do so by Friday. Today we spent the majority of time getting ready for our 100th day of school tomorrow. We made books, hats, glasses, flags, etc. We also had 2 rotations of literacy centers. They worked with beginning sound puzzles, a syllable game, a Valentine's Day poem, a little heart sight word book, and a flip book to help organize steps for good writing. In the morning we also practiced our song which we will sing for NLSW this Sunday at the 10:30 a.m. service. Please bring your child to the kindergarten room by 10:15 a.m. After our practice the students learned about the miracle that Jesus performed when He was at the wedding in Cana. He has the power to do all things and these miracles showed that He is our Savior.
We began the day praising God as we sang "Fill My Cup" with the early childhood classes. They sound great! We can't wait for you to hear it on Jan. 27 at the 10:30 a.m. service. Please mark your calendar. We also practiced our song "God Loves Me Dearly" which we will sing at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow. Don't forget to send your child in church appropriate clothing tomorrow. We learned about the story of Lazarus today and how God showed His power over death. God gives us a taste of heaven now as we share His love with one another and we can't wait to get the whole thing some day and share His love eternally. The kids enjoyed a taste of some German candy today and were reminded that heaven is even better than that. May God keep us strong and guide us as we continue on our trip to eternal life in heaven. We aren't there yet, but some day we will see all our loved ones in heaven. What joy awaits us there!
We completed another rotation of literacy centers and thematic centers. Students have been doing a great job choosing a topic, reading/listening to a book on the chosen topic, and writing sentences to go with the topic. You can see these in the hall between Mrs. Helmkamp's classroom and the kindergarten classroom. Students are getting better at throwing and catching and had fun using scoops today. They are also becoming a bit more conscientious to only use one hand to throw and to step and throw. We continue to work on part-to-whole relationships and number bonds. Later we learned about animal tracks in the snow. This weekend may be a great opportunity for your child to play animal detective and think about what animal made tracks in the snow around your house. The kids made little books called "Guess Who?" On one side of a page is an animal track with the question "Guess who?" On the other side is the answer of what animal made the track. Have fun discovering with these books this weekend. |
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