Weekly update 9/27/10

This week in kindergarten:
*  Tomorrow we will begin our focus on the letter and sound for Cc /c/.  Our sight words are are & see.  Our vocab words are enjoy, health & need.  We continue with our comprehension strategy: infer. 
*  We are learning that stories have a beginning, middle and end.  We are also talking a lot about characters in the stories we read.
*  Thursday's color word is orange.  Wear orange if you have it!
*  In math we are matching numbers to a set, creating and reading an AB color pattern, and acting out story problems.
*  We will visit with our 4th grade buddies on Friday!
*  Last Friday we watched a short video on the Heifer Project.  This is the community service project that kindergarten will be working on this year.  We will be having a coin drive that will last all year.  They may bring in loose change during the year.  We will learn about pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters as we collect.  We will also work on estimation as we guess the amount in our jar every month or two and graphing as we graph the amount that we collect.  This will tie in nicely at the end of the year as we hatch chicks in our classroom and talk about farm animals and their life cycle.  We will discuss and decide on the animal we will purchase for Heifer to help a family in need!  You can learn more about Heifer Project by following the link on the left side of this blog.  Your children can bring in change anytime! 
*  I would like to collect empty frosting containers for the kiddos to make their own coin collectors.  If you have any or as you are using frosting as home would you save them for me?  Thank you so much!  Also, I am on the look out for farm animal stickers to decorate the containers.
*  The 3rd grade is working hard on their community service project to help fight childhood cancer.  They will be hosting a lemonade and cookie stand during recess on Friday.  If your child is bringing money to purchase one or both please send it in an envelope or baggie with their name on it.  I will pass them out as we  are walking out to recess so they may purchase their items! 
*  We have started practicing the Daily 5 in full!  The children are working on making a center choice each day (from the Daily 5) and sticking with the task they choose for the "whole time."  (15 minutes)  Daily 5 is:  Read to Self, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work and Work on Writing.  My hope is they will be able to do this independently next week and I will begin working with small groups of students during this time!  YEA!  We have come so far!!  :)  Way to go kindergarten!!