Key Measure: Winter in Oklahoma brings snow and ice. The weather is different in each season and this affects what I wear and what I do.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND PHONICS: We will be focusing on phoneme /f/ in the beginning position this week. We changed the words to a fun song called, “Wibbledy
Wobbledy Woo” and made every word begin with letter F instead - it was funny!
SPEAKING: We’ll practice reciting the poem called, “Funny Fox” which helps us distinguish the /f/ sound at the beginning of words. Ask your child what the fox did to make his family think he was funny (he told a joke).
WRITING: We are really going to kick into gear with writing this semester. Thanks for taking time at home to reinforce what we’ve worked on at school. We continue to practice correct capitalization in our names and at the beginning of sentences, putting a “finger space” between words when writing, and independently sounding out words. Please don’t diminish the valuable skill of your child decoding a word on his/her own by spelling the more challenging words for your child. If your child is the one who spells it by sounding it out to his/her best ability, then s/he will be able to read it back much easier, therefore reinforcing the success of reading. It’s OK to spell out a person’s name for the kids, but in labeling and sentence writing, the student should be attempting to sound out the words.
It’s another good practice to have the kids copy what they are spelling - for instance, if your child wants to know how to spell Tulsa, Oklahoma, give him or her something with your address on it to copy instead of spelling it for them.
When we make a mistake in writing, we cross it out or erase it and we move on. I want to minimize the significance of mistakes. Focusing on them tends to lessen the work effort.
I tell the kids, “It’s Kindergarten! We’re practicing and practicing until we get it right!”
LISTENING: At the Listening center, we will hear the book on tape, Fantastic Funny Feet about letter friend, Mr. F, working in a shoe store.
READING: We’ve read these books: Mr. Funny, Little Miss Fickle, Mr. Forgetful, and Mr.
Fussy as well as several great books about the winter season, like The Mitten, The Hat,
Beady Bear and The Mitten Tree.
The students are beginning to acquire competence attending to personal tasks such as tying shoes, getting gloves on and zipping up coats before we go outside. Work on this at home by letting your child do it!

The students matched bears to the correct caves for hibernation by solving math equations. They rolled dice to know which part of a numbered snowman they could color.
They matched snowmen to addition hats by counting the number of buttons on the snowmen.
Every morning this week we will record the outside temperature on a thermometer paper to visually see the difference between one day and the next. It has been a good week to talk about the wind chill factor as the students are noticing that some days it’s cold and some days it’s bitterly cold (here in OKLA, it can also be pretty warm!)
VISUAL: The students are working towards making their illustrations more authentic.
They have improved in their drawing and coloring by being aware of the text clues. If the text reads, ‘the dog is brown’ the kids know that there are lots of ways to make the dog brown and that other colors are not needed if we are following what the text says.
MUSICAL & MOVEMENT: We learned a new song called “Five Little Snowmen Fat.” Ask your child to sing it to you.
Jigzone.com has a “cool” puzzle of a snowy scene that we did on the classroom computer and smart board. We use a timer to see how long it takes to do the puzzle. Coordination in using the mouse is improving.
*Thursday reader – Erin Rowan - 8:30-8:55 - Bring 3-4 books
*No school on Monday, 1/18/16 - Martin Luther King Day – Enjoy!
*Collaboration Day – 1/28/15 - School starts at 10:40 a.m.
*Dynamic Dads – 2/5/16 – Meet in cafeteria at 8:15 to hear a speaker. Come to your child’s classroom next. You’ll be done by 9 am. Only 3 more opportunities – Feb 5, April 1, and May 6.