Monday, December 24, 2012

Winter Break Activities


Dear Kindergarten families –

I hope you are enjoying your first few days of Winter Break!  I wanted to share with you a few activities that are available to you and your family over the vacation.  Please know that all of these activities are optional, and were created as a way of practicing the skills we have been learning in school. 

First, I want to remind each family of the programs available online for your child to use at home.  These include IXL (math) and Raz-Kids (reading).  These websites require user names and passwords.  To access the websites, please use the following:

IXL 


User Name: Your child’s first initial and first 4 letters of their last name (ex – skefg)

Password:  The first 3 letters of your child’s last name (ex – kef)

This site allows children to practice skills at their own level.  Math skills are broken down into different categories, and help is offered to explain incorrect answers.  In kindergarten, this is best done with a grown up to help navigate the site.

 
Raz-Kids


User Name:  Click on your child’s first name on our class list

Password:  Your child’s first initial and last name (ex – skefgen)

This is a wonderful site where your child can read books at their own level!  For each book they read or comprehension question they answer correctly, they earn stars!  To read a book, select the icon with an eye and book.  To take the comprehension quiz, choose the icon of the question mark.  You can even record yourself reading the book!  In kindergarten, this is best done with a grown up to help navigate the site.

 
Also, I have created an optional Winter Break Game for your child to play.  Each item is worth a designated number of points.  The directions are as follows:


*Kindergarten Winter Break Homework*

Because winter break can be a busy time, we do not have any official homework.  If you are looking to for things to do to continue practicing, you may choose from the activities below to complete over the break. If you complete enough activities to earn 30 points you may visit the prize box!

Parents, please keep a list of the activities (and the points earned) your child chose so I know which ones they completed. Please bring this and any pages that accompany the activities back to school Monday, January 7 to receive a reward!

o   Read every night for 10 minutes. Keep a log of the books name and each night you read. Log must have at least 10 entries. 5 points


o   Write about 5 special things that happened to you over break. Draw a picture to go with each sentence. 5 points


o   Make a book, at least 5 pages long, with pictures about your break. 6 points


o   Read with at least 5 different people who are older than you. Write down the books you read and the names of the people you read with.  4 points


o   Look for words you know around your home, a family or friend’s home or anywhere you are over break. Play “I Spy Words” with someone. (EX. I spy the word “the.”) 2 points


o   Make up your own ABC sounds song. Think of an action to help you remember the words that begin with each letter. 5 points


o   Write and make 3 holiday cards to give to family members. 6 points


o   Write 3 thank you notes to people who gave you a holiday gift. 6 points


o   While in the car or waiting for something, make a list of words that all begin with the same letter, belong to the same word family (ex. –at, - an, -ap, or th, sh and ch words), or rhyme with each other. 4 points


o   Count to 100 every night by 1’s and 10’s. 5 points

 
o   Count to 20 every night by 2’s.  5 points


o   Look for patterns and shapes in your wrapping paper. 2 points
 

o   With a grown up’s help, write me an email telling me what you are doing on your break at sk14bps@birmingham.k12.mi.us

 

 

 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Hearing Screening

The Oakland County Health Division will be here January 7, 8, and 10th conducting hearing screenings.  If you have a concern regarding your child's hearing, and are interested in having a screening test done, please contact myself or the office for more information.

Math Munching!

In math, we have been working very hard at addition.  This includes joining two groups of things together and then turning that information into a number sentence.  We have been practicing this several different ways.  Since most of these games involve cups, bowls and plates, we have been calling these math munching games!  Here are some of our favorites!

Bears in a Cave


For this activity, each kindergartener has 5 bears and a cave.  They have been practicing using a recording sheet to show different combinations of 5.  For example, if 3 bears are in the cave, how many are outside in the forest?  We then took those combinations and turned them into math problems!

Towers Building


Here, we roll a dice to see how many of one color cubes we will put together.  We then rolled again to see how many of another color cube we should build on top of our tower.  We would then draw the towers we created.  After counting the number of each colored cube, we were able to create number sentences, and then join the two numbers together to find the answer.  For example, 6 red cubes + 3 blue cubes = 9 cubes.

Addition Plate


Using plastic compartment plates, we used a dice to place different number red or yellow circles into the smaller compartments, and began to write our number sentences.  We would then pull both groups of circles into the larger compartment to find out how many we had all together!


2 Weeks of Growing!

Each Friday, we have been measuring our Amaryllis plants to see how tall they are growing!  Here is the picture from last Friday, after we planted them 1 week before:

Henry Squinky is 5 cubes tall


Barbie Petals is also 5 cubes tall


This week, we measured again to see if they had grown.  Here is how they look now:

Henry Squinky is 8 cubes tall

 
Barbie Petals is 9 cubes tall


Stay tuned to see how much bigger they are before we go on Winter Break!


Friendship Feast

A few weeks ago, all of the kindergarteners sat down together to enjoy a kindergarten Friendship Feast!  We put all of the lunch tables together so that we could eat together as a family, and sat next to someone who is not in our class so that we could enjoy the company of our friends that we do not usually get to eat with!  We had so much fun and had a delicious meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and stuffing!  We had so much left over, that we were able to donate all of our extra food to a Detroit shelter to help those in need.  This was a very special experience for us, as we all came together as one, big happy team!
















Thursday, December 13, 2012

Family Feast

To celebrate the end of our family unit, we had a Family Feast, where each kindergartener brought in a food that represented their family's culture and heritage.  We also enjoyed spending time with our families as we practiced math activities, made picture frames and explored the different posters hanging in our walls!  If you would like to put the picture of you and yur child in the frame you made, you may right click on the picture and select "save."  


                                      


 


           
                                    


                                     

                                     



 

Mr. Kefgen Had a Farm...

E - I - E - I - O!

Here are the (belated) farm pictures from our first field trip!  We had such a great time, despite the chilly weather!  We were able to learn about the animals, milk a goat, enjoy a tractor ride while experiencing pushing and pulling as we went up and down the hills, shuck corn cobs, collect eggs and even learn how to stack hay!  Thank you to all the chaperones for joining us for our very first elementary school field trip!