Mrs. Davenport's Kinder-Kids: Happy Holidays!

Social Studies

Happy Holidays from Kindergarten! The kids are so excited this time of year. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn about different celebrations, customs and to respect others and their beliefs. So we have been “traveling” around the world and learning about different holidays that are celebrated in various countries.

One way we learned about Hanukkah was assembling menorah puzzles and playing with dreidels. We also spent time learning about Los Posadas by reading books and making pinatas. For Christmas we made a reindeer and candy canes.

This week we also read more versions of the Gingerbread Man. We are fabulous at making connections between the stories! Ask your kindergartner about…

· Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers

· Bad Boys Get Cookie

· Gingerbread Friends

· The Musubi Man

· The Gingerbread Super Hero

· The Gingerbread Man Goes to School

Writing Workshop

Since reading and writing go hand in hand… we have been continuing to write pattern books just like the ones we have been reading during Reading Workshop. We have been focusing on “stretching out” (sounding out) our words when we write. We call it Kid Writing. I am encouraging the kids to record the sounds they hear.

Reading Workshop

We continue to work on the comprehension skill of Making Predictions. Making predictions activates students' prior knowledge about the text. By making predictions about the text before, during, and after reading, students use what they already know—as well as what they suppose might happen—to make connections to the text.

To help your kindergartner make predictions use the following language…

“By looking at the cover I am guessing or predicting the story will be about…”

"Hmmm… my prediction that the story would be about ____ was right, but I did not think that ____ would happen. I'll make a new prediction that _____ will happen based on what we read."

Math

In math we continue to focus on those tricky teen numbers and tally marks. Tally marks help us count efficiently. Tally marks are also a helpful tool for organizing and showing information.

YIKES! The cold weather is here! When it is time to go home, we have 24 kindergartners that have to get ready. It is very important the kids can dress and undress themselves in their winter apparel (putting on boots, gloves, snow pants, zipping coats, etc.). Please practice these skills at home and don’t forget to label everything. We have a poster in our room that shows the best and quickest way to get dressed. It works great here in the classroom. I attached a copy again so you can reinforce it at home. Thanks so much!

Thank you for all the donations for our gingerbread houses. It is greatly appreciated! We had a blast making our houses with our 3^rd grade buddies from Ms. Mulligan’s class.