Mrs. LaBlanc's Kinderblog: Week of Oct. 31st-Nov. 4

What an action packed week we had! We started off Monday morning with Dublin's annual Halloween assembly with a magician and ended the day with our party. it was wonderful to see so many parents helping/participating in our party. Thank you for all of your donations, preparations and time spent on our party. At the end of this blog you can view the Smilebox slide show. I hope you enjoy it.

On Wednesday morning the district's transportation department visited us for a bus safety assembly and practice with bus evacuation.

Friday we met our 5th grade reading buddies. Mrs. Maxwell and I had talked about finding times/activities with which to match students for mentoring work. Our hope is to instill leadership roles among 5th graders while giving kindergartners connections to students outside our classroom. Of course we will also be taking advantage of help these 5th graders can lend. This week they assisted students to sound spell what it is they are thankful for this year at Thanksgiving. They also read stories to each other.

Sad news...For those of you who have had older children in Dublin's kindergarten you likely remember the Kindergarten Pow-Wow...We are sad to report that our Pow-Wow tub of materials was lost over the summer. There were room switches and the box has been lost or misplaced. Mrs. Eklov and I have searched repeatedly without success. Therefore, we are unable to host the Pow-Wow this year

Writer's Workshop:
I was amazed this week to see such progress with many of our writers. We have been learning to write stories across pages. Several students wrote 3-5 page stories (a sentence or more on each page). We've also been more purposeful in sharing writing in our author's chair. This helps give writers an authentic purpose for their writing and encourages fellow writers as well.

Reader's Workshop:
This week I explained how to do a "picture walk". When students pick up an unfamiliar book, it is standard that they walk their eyes through the pictures in the book. This helps prepare readers for content of the story. it also may open a door to some prior knowledge s/he may have on the topic. Also, students practiced using the strategies taught last week (using pictures, getting mouths ready & thinking about what makes sense). All students now have learned to book shop from leveled reader baskets. This gives students opportunities to use strategies in a "just right" leveled book.

Guided reading groups:
During work station time is when I meet with like-ability reading groups. Students are learning specific skills in a small group which allows for better focus and direct teaching. This week many groups work on certain sight words found in the texts used. others worked on tracking print with fingers. All groups worked on getting their mouths ready by having the beginning letter sound on their lips. I have 6 groups and have been meeting with 3-4 groups each day. Your child should be bringing home a "bag book" twice a week and sometimes more. S/he should reread this book 3 times. As they become longer and more difficult we will decrease the number. Students are getting reminders to pull "bag books" from hallway cubbies, but several forgot this week. It will take a few weeks to form this habit. In the meantime I'm trying to send the books again the next time if I recognize it hasn't gone home. This week I will be using some of our reading time to meet with individuals for assessments.

Work Stations:
Students practiced sequencing plastic pumpkins in numerical order and then counted spiders to match pumpkin numbers, strengthened small motor skills with lacing Halloween pictures, stamped/matched alphabet letters (a large part of this lesson is the work of locating the letter stamp in our stamp caddy), stamping with a number chart, practicing handwriting with letter Nn, listening to a story, matching pictures/words in a pocket chart, cutting magazine pictures and using our sounds to spell the object in photo and more!!

Math:
We worked with coin dice to practice coin matching/recognition. Students are not yet expected to name them. Patterns continue to be a focus in class. Many students are catching on to these. I introduced shape templates and they were a hit. We practiced naming the shapes (including diamonds, trapezoids, squares, triangles etc.). Students used the templates to create a shape picture and patterns too.

Students enjoyed meeting Mrs. Wishy-Washy this week. She is the main character in a series of big books we will read this year.

We learned a bit about quotation marks through this text. We also refer to them as "talking marks" to help them remember the meaning of these punctuation marks.

We also enjoyed retelling the story through role play and will continue to do so into this coming week. In fact many of our work stations will have Wishy-Washy related learning activities.

We painted plates and created Mrs. Wishy-Washy look alikes. They're presently displayed in our hallway. I love how different each face is!

A big thank you to Evan's family for our new lunch box carrier. His grandparents put this tub onto wheels and a family friend added the artwork for us. Our lunch boxes now fit comfortably into one large tub.

Upcoming Events:

If you are interested in ordering Dublin spirit wear, please send orders by Nov. 11th

Nov. 8- NO SCHOOL for students (teachers in-service day)

Nov. 11- Dublin movie night...Mr. Popper's Penguins

Nov. 14-PICTURE RE-TAKE DAY

Nov. 17-NO SCHOOL for students (parent/teacher conferences)

Nov.23- Pajama Day to kick off pajama drive we hold for families in need

Dec. 3- Dublin holiday craft show

Dec.3-9- Dublin Book Fair (will be open during holiday craft show)

Dublin now has a Facebook page. If you're on Facebook you can choose to LIKE it.

On Friday afternoon we met our 5th grade reading buddies for the first time. Mrs. Maxwell's class was excited to have the opportunity to read with our students. We will try to meet once a month with our buddies. Click below to see us with our buddies.