January 30-February 2

February is here! We have so many fun events to celebrate: the 100th day of being Kindergarteners, Valentine's Day,  Family Night! We are so excited! We will exchange valentine cards with the class. Here is a list of student names if you'd like to get started early! More information about the 100th day celebration coming soon!

Here is a link to our February lunch calendar.

If you have any newspapers that you could part with, our STEAM classes could use it for an upcoming project. Thanks in advance!

Upcoming Events: 
January 30: Report cards go home. Check your child's folder!
February 12: 100th Day of School Celebration
February 14: Valentine's Day-wear red and pink
Feb 16th: Funky Friday
February 22nd  and 23rd: NO SCHOOL

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: Reading nonfiction is so much fun! The kindergarteners have been adding post its to mark interesting pages and to ask questions. On Monday, we will sort our books to find collections on certain topics and work to read all we can about our favorite topics. Later in the week, readers will explore poetry! Reading familiar poems and songs helps students to build fluency and expression while reading. We will talk about the rhythm and phrasing while reading familiar poems. Students will also add more poems to their poem binders to prepare for our celebration at the end of the week.

Writing: Writers will learn that they can write a collection of books about a topic so that readers can learn even more about one topic. For instance, students might write books about dogs: how to train a dog to sit, how to feed a dog, etc. We will work on adding introductions and conclusions to our books. We will also learn to use comparisons in our writing to give more specific directions.  Finally, writers will be reminded to use all the strategies they know to make their how to books easy to read.

Math: Students will be working with teen numbers in a variety of ways. Exploring teen numbers helps build a foundation for place value. Students will explore teen numbers by using math tools, showing it on their fingers, drawing, and writing the equations.
As always, we will work on fluency. Here is a new way we have been working on adding:
In pairs, students will take turns to roll 2 dice and quickly cover one up with a cup. The challenge is for the second child to give the total. They can remove the cup to check and record. 
We discussed starting with the larger number and counting on if students did not know the total automatically. This is one efficient strategy to use for adding.

Fundations:  Here is a peek at the kind of work we have been doing in phonics. Students are using this tapping technique in their reading and writing as well!

Science: We now have 3 fish named Lyla, Zoey, and Sparkles swimming around in our tank and a large number of lady beetles happily crawling in the habitats we built for them. Students have been SO interested in observing and predicting what will happen with our plants and animals. This week, we will be looking closely at the lima bean and alfalfa we planted last week. We will compare and contrast these plants using a Venn diagram.

Don't forget...January is a big month for our school!  There are many informational events taking place to help others learn more about New Directions.  Please share these dates with anyone you think may be interested in learning more about what a great place New Directions is for students to learn and grow!

Thursday, February 1st-6:00-7:00 PM-Info Session at New Directions
Families can also call Mrs. Frischmann at 766-6116 to set up individual tours.