A Look at Nov 30- Dec 4

Hello Huard Huddle Families!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I enjoyed the long weekend with my family! I am looking forward to seeing all my little, smiling, kinders though!  I can't believe we will be moving into DECEMBER already!!!

What a magical time of the year- especially when you are surrounded by children!!

 If you have a special holiday that your family celebrates this season, please let me know,
we'd LOVE for you to come in and teach us about it. Thank YOU!

 

Our Turkey Trot was a huge success! Thank you to all the families who donated items! I tried loading pictures last week but I was unsuccessful. Let's see if it works this time...

A big thank you to Corinne's mom, Nicholas's mom and Chance's mom for walking with us!

Readers Workshop:
This week we will continue reading personal narratives and other stories that help us understand illustrations more.

BOOKS WE WILL READ AND SKILLS TO DISCUSS:

Knuffle Bunny: We will use this story to help us see movement in illustrations, facial expression, character and setting, beginning, middle and end of stories)
Knuffle Bunny Too: boxed off pictures, examples of how the pictures give us more information than the words)
Knuffle Bunny Free
The Paperboy: boxed off pictures, passage of time, clothing, character, setting

These are great stories and the Knuffle Bunny is available in our monthly book orders!
                       


Letters this week:  E, Ed, /e/ and U, up, /u/
Sight Words: you, all, of
Sight Word Reader: Can You See?



Writing:
Lesson 1: Personal Narrative
Lesson 2: Telling stories in illustrations (we will apply the skills we learned during readers workshop into our own personal narratives)
Lesson 3: Drawing even hard to make ideas
Lesson 4: Carrying on as Independent Writers

MATH: This week we will focus on comparing numbers with Rekenreks and hands on games as well as review number writing. We will continue with our estimation and weekly graphing question.

Rekenreks
Monster squeeze
Top It!

 
The rekenrek, or arithmetic rack, was designed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland, to support the natural development of number sense in children.
Smaller versions consist of two rows of 10 beads. Larger versions with ten rows of ten beads are also available. Each row is made of five red beads and five white beads. This allows students to make mental images of numbers. Using 5 and 10 as anchors for counting, adding and subtracting is obviously more efficient than one-by-one counting. This tool provides learners with the visual models they need to discover number relationships and develop a variety of addition and subtraction strategies, including doubles plus or minus one, making tens, and compensation, thereby leading to automaticity of basic facts.

We loved our play our few weeks ago! Here are some pictures from that wonderful field trip!

A BIG thank you to all the families who donated items for our FIFTIES party! The boys and girls had such a fun time celebrating this special day! These fun activities wouldn't be possible with your support. So the kids and I thank you!

 Do you like root beer floats?? Thumbs up if you do! Thumbs down if not!

 

Nicholas is our star student this week. Your friends in the Huard Huddle are proud of you!

 

A Peek at 11/16-11/20

Good Morning Huard Huddle Families!

Reminders:

• Field Trip Monday! We will enjoy the musical performance of Click Clack Moo!
• If you have Tiny Owl gift card fundraisers please send them in!

                                                    

• Our FIFTIES celebration is Friday! This is such an exciting time. I love to see how they all come in dressed for our 50th day celebration! Please see the notice that was sent home on Friday!  We have cups, spoons and gum! (THANK YOU OLIVIA'S FAMILY)
• Our Thanksgiving Play will be Wednesday November 25th at 2:00 in our classroom. It is very short and the children may be dismissed afterwards. 
• Turkey Trot is Wednesday! Dress appropriately! Kindergarten students are asked to bring in NONPERISHABLE dinner rolls, bread or muffin mix

                

MATH: This week we will continue our exploration of numbers 0-10 using games like SHAKE AND SPILL as well as an important math tool the REKENREK!

The rekenrek, or arithmetic rack, was designed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland, to support the natural development of number sense in children.
Smaller versions consist of two rows of 10 beads. Larger versions with ten rows of ten beads are also available. Each row is made of five red beads and five white beads. This allows students to make mental images of numbers. Using 5 and 10 as anchors for counting, adding and subtracting is obviously more efficient than one-by-one counting. This tool provides learners with the visual models they need to discover number relationships and develop a variety of addition and subtraction strategies, including doubles plus or minus one, making tens, and compensation, thereby leading to automaticity of basic facts. 

 

Reading: This week we will be enjoying many Thanksgiving themed picture books as well as some non-fiction literature. 

Letters; D, dog, /d/, S, snake, /s/

Sight Words: on

Sight Word Reader: They Are On  (we were not able to introduce the story on Monday but it did go home. So your child may need some help with it if you read it MONDAY night. )

Writing: 

Lesson 25 Sharing your writing with a friend

Lesson 26 Responding to Writing

Lesson 27 Publishing your writing

 

Our star of the week this week is Bidhyan! Your friends in the Huard Huddle are so proud of you!

We will not have a star next week due to the short week! 

A Peek at 11/9/15

 

Good morning Huard Huddle families!

I hope this beautiful fall morning finds you all well.  Yesterday's weather was beautiful! I spend the day raking all the leaves! Today it is 2 flag football games, a birthday party and basketball!

Reminders: Mrs. Mac has allowed the Yankee Candle fundraiser to run until Monday. If you haven't turned in your fundraiser please do on MONDAY!

BOX TOPS: Our monthly collection will be picked up this week. If you or any other family members have box tops please send them in!

 

Field Trip: Our field trip to Capitol Center of the Arts is next Monday. We will be enjoying a presentation about the children's story Click Clack Moo!

 

WEDNESDAY NO SCHOOL

 

Thank you for sending in the stars to honor veterans that are special to you! If you have any others please send them in. We will be having an assembly to honor them on Tuesday!

 

Readers Workshop:

What an amazing week we have had with our author study about Donald Crews! The students are making wonderful connections and noticings about who he is as an author and illustrator. They are becoming "literary scholars" with a true appreciation for children's literature! Keep up the good work. This week we will be reading about Veteran's Day, continuing with Donald Crews and reading Click Clack Moo to prepare for our field trip!

I will be introducing IPADS as our next workboard activity! They sure do love these!

Sight Words: for, they

Sight Word Reader: They Look

Letters: O, octopus, /o/ and G, game, /g/

Writers Workshop:

Lesson 21: Using the Magic Line when stuck on a sound

Lesson 22: Stretching out Sounds

Lesson 23: How To Help Yourself

Lesson 24: What To Do When You Are Done

The children made a wonderful family book last week. We will finish it this week with a cover and publish and share it with our friends!

Math:

Shake and Spill with the number 5 (2 days)

Make our own book about 10 Black Dots!

Working with a number line

 

Our STAR STUDENT this week is OLIVIA! 

Your friends in the Huard Huddle are very PROUD OF YOU!

A Peek at November 2-6

Happy Sunday Evening Huard Huddle Families!

It has been a busy weekend here at the Huard Home as I'm sure it has been at your home as well.  I am sad to see this event filled weekend come to an end but I am excited to see my other little loves tomorrow morning!




Reminders:

PLEASE NO CANDY!    Please explain to your child that the candy is for home. We don't need the extra sugar (times 18 kids) and I am trying to emphasize healthy choices! Thank you for your understanding!


NO SCHOOL Tuesday, November 3.


October Reading Log: please remember to send in your October reading logs. (color in the pumpkin for each book you read) It was sent home the beginning of October in their book bag. The BOOK BAGS should be coming to school each day so I can monitor the reading log and put new books in. Thank you!

Fundraiser: On Friday a new fundraiser went home. It is to help cover the cost of our Scholastic Magazine we get each week. Please consider purchasing one item! The class with the most in sales in K-2 will win a pizza party and the student with the most sales will win a $50 gift card to Toys R Us! Good luck!!



At the end of the month, our last day of school before Thanksgiving, the HUARD HUDDLE  will be presenting a SHORT, yet entertaining presentation about the First Thanksgiving. They don't know yet! I plan on telling them this week and begin "rehearsals" soon! Just wanted parents and family to know so you can plan. I'm not sure of the time. I usually do it at 2 but now that we have special then I need to speak with our specials teacher to see if we can still do it at 2.  An invitation will go home once we get the date and times set. THANK YOU!

 

Parents! I can't thank you enough for your donations of pumpkins and apples this past week! Our applesauce was delish! Our pumpkins....they were PUMPTASTIC! We got down and dirty on Friday. Some of my loves were not keen on the "mushy, gross stuff" but I loved it! We are going to be doing some great little experiments over the next few weeks with them. All of this would not be possible without your donations so THANK YOU!

 

Starting this week we will have a Student of the Week!

(each child will have the opportunity!)

Congratulation CORINNE! You're friends in the Huard Huddle are very proud of you!

Here is what the week will entail for the STAR!

Monday: Bring in their Star Student poster. They will get it the Friday before their week. They decorate it over the weekend and with your help answer the questions. They will share it with their friends Monday. 

Tuesday: Favorite Book! They can bring in a short book from home. If they want to have a guest reader come in and read to the class they can! It would be at 8:30 or they can read to us! I have books in class your child can choose from. 

Wednesday: Favorite toy. Please no toy guns or weapons!

Thursday: Bring in a special item that relates to a hobby, trip, sport or anything special to them.

Friday: MYSTERY BAG! Get creative! They can bring in a secret item that we will put in a special MYSTERY BAG when they get to school. The class will practice asking 20 questions to figure out what is hidden in the bag. It can be anything!

The focus of student of the week is for my loves to practice speaking in front of a group, sharing information about themselves and letting us learn a little bit more about each special friend. We practice listening, asking questions, giving comments and keeping the focus on the STAR and not ourselves. There are so many important skills to be taught throughout this experiences. Little do they know how important they are!  

Readers Workshop:

This week we will enjoy a mini author study! DONALD CREWS! 

Photo by Ann Jonas

Biography

Donald Crews is the renowned creator of many celebrated children's books, including the Caldecott Honor Books Freight Train and Truck. He and his wife, Ann Jonas, live in New York's Hudson River Valley.

       I know we will all enjoy these wonderful books written and illustrated by him! I'm sure we can make some connections to our own small moments and write some wonderful personal narratives just like DONALD CREWS!

This week I will be working on introducing our poetry journals! The purpose of the poetry journal is to practice reading poems and chants we are familiar with. They help improve phonemic awareness skills, phonics skills, and fluency. We will be looking for word wall words in them, highlighting punctuation and illustrating them!


Sight Words: am, are, in
Sight Word Reader: We Are
Letters: I and R    (i, itch, /i/, r, rat, /r/

Writers Workshop: 
Monday we are going to be reading ISH.  

 Ish is a story about "A creative spirit learns that thinking "ish-ly" is far more wonderful than "getting it right" in this gentle new fable from the creator of the award-winning picture book THE DOT."   Look for this wonderful book in your child's book order!  Scholastic does offer it! 

This week we will talk about the Writing Environment, our Writing Tools and start creating our family web!

Math:

Monday: Directional words (above, beside, under, between, below)
Wednesday: counting and sorting
Thursday: Creating number lines from numbers other than 1. (this will be whole group modeling)
Friday:  Working independently to create number lines!

Here are some pics of our FUN FILLED week! Making applesauce, exploring pumpkins, painting with apples and other fun activities!