Little Writers

I am super happy with the progress our class is making in writing!  They have come so far in just a Quarter!  Now that they have letter formation and some letter sounds down, we begin the Six Traits of Writing in earnest.  The Six Traits are the District's Writing Curriculum, and include the traits of Voice, Organization, Conventions, Ideas, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency.  I love teaching writing, because there are so many FUN and CREATIVE ways for Kindergarteners to work on the Six Traits!  This week we worked on characters and the trait of "voice" - the art of giving writing a personal flair.  The kids created thumbprint characters, wove a story around them, and made sure that they talked to each other in the story.  What we ended up with were adorable thumbprint books!

After we put our books all together, we had a writers read-aloud party and enjoyed each others work!

What is 16-21 feet long and inside your body?  No, not a giant tape worm.  At least I hope not!  It is your small intestine!  Here the kids are measuring what 21 feet looks like as we learned about the parts of the digestive system.

We learned about how digestion is a process that actually starts with chewing and saliva, and breaks food down into smaller and smaller pieces that can be used by your body.  So we "digested" some breakfast cereal and fruit in our pretend stomachs by squeezing and mushing and adding liquid to the food, just like our stomach does.   Kind of makes you lose your appetite.

Do you have "Yankee Doodle" stuck in your head?  Has your kinder been singing it for days?  If so, it is because we sang Yankee Doodle and a few other songs at our Veteran's Day Assembly on Thursday.  Tok School honored the Veterans in our community with a concert of patriotic songs, speeches and poems.  I was so proud of our Kinders, they did a GREAT job!

Winter has come to the playground!

  

And with it, a new found sport on the hill... belly sliding!  Wheeeeee!!!!!  Thank you for making sure that your kindergartener has the Big 5 every day from now until...the snow is gone, which could be almost the end of the school year!  The Big 5 are: a hat, mittens or gloves, snowpants, boots, and a warm coat.  This will help the kids have fun outside all winter long on the playground!  We go outside everyday with a cold weather cut off of -20 degrees.