Hi room 5 families! Thank you for a lovely conference week. It was a pleasure meeting with each of you and celebrating each student. Below are some highlights from room 5. During the last two week, our class launched our project called Shared Spaces, our 5th grade buddies taught a math game called Top It, we've been discussing what makes a shared space feel good to be in and when it doesn't, we even made a scarecrow to raffle off at our school's Fall Festival and sugar candy skulls in honor of Dia De Los Muertos. Read on below to learn more about these activities and for questions to spark on going discussions about each activity at home. Here we are launching our project called Shared Spaces. For our project, we are thinking about what makes a shared space (an area that we use with other people), how people use shared spaces, what makes a shared space feel good to be in and what is happening when a shared space doesn't feel good to be in. We are also learning that many of the things that we are learning about shared spaces in kindergarten adults even practice outside of school in many places! Below we are doing a chalk talk about different shared spaces outside of school such as a public library, restaurant, grocery store, park, and public bathroom. We worked in groups to come up with ways adults and other people stay safe while using these shared spaces. On of our favorite came from the group of students who were in charge of restaurants norms. One student drew that it is not polite to shout "I don't like pickles! Instead you should tell someone politely that you don't want pickles in your sandwich." This activity was a powerful way for kinders to see that the norms and agreements that we practice at school can be found outside of school and that many adults practice similar norms as well. Parents can ask, "What is a shared space?" "What shared spaces do you like at school? Why?" "What shared spaces at school do you have a hard time in?" "Why?" "What could you do make it less challenging?" In math we are strengthening our number sense through counting, number recognition, and comparing quantities. Our 5th grade buddies taught a math game using cards called Top It. To play the game you need two people and a deck of cards. The deck of cards is split in half and each player is given a half. Then each person puts down their top card. The person who has the with the bigger number wins that round and gets to keep both cards. The game continues until there are no cards left that can be played. The "winner" is the person who collected the most amount of cards. Parents can ask, "How many ______(shape/suit)______ is on this card? How do you know?" "How do you know this number is bigger than this number?" "What if the numbers are the same?" Every year Explorer hosts a Fall Festival for the school. It's a great way for the school community to come together and raise money for the school. One of the ways classrooms raise money is to decorate a scarecrow that is raffled off at the festival. Every year the scarecrows turn out amazing and are transformed into the most wild and amazing characters. Room 5 students voted very carefully (and for a long while) for what we wanted to dress our scarecrow up as. And the winner is...a vampire pikachu! Thank you to Ava, Scarlet's mom, who has roots in the clothing industry, helped make our vision come true. Here were are putting the final touches on our pikachu and stuffing pikachu until it is just the right amount of fluffy for the Fall Festival. Vampire pikachu will be ready for families to win at our school's Fall Festival on Saturday, October 19. Here we are with Ms. Addy learning about the letters a and g. During conferences we talked about the importance of students learning the picture keys that go with each sound as each picture was chosen because it highlights the key sound that each letter makes. The pictures become another way for students to access letter sounds and create letter-sound recognition. Below Ms. Addy is highlighting the fancy a and the fancy g that most likely show up texts. Parents can ask, "what line does the letter a start on?" "what line does the letter g start on?" "What sound does the letter ___ make?" "What are some words that start with ____?" Parents can even add an extra challenge by having students find things around the home that start with certain letters.
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Room 5Our class blog will be place for families to see what we have been exploring in the classroom. It will also contain helpful ways for families to support their child at home through discussion. The teachers will email you to let you know when the blog has been updated. Archives
March 2020
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