COMMUNITY HELPERS: I would like to say a very special thank you to all families for taking the time to visit our classroom and share their careers. I was so proud of my students for the questions that they generated. Not only did they learn about a wide variety of jobs, but they also learned that community helpers play such a vital role in our world. As we close our unit on helpers, we have our field trip to the Police Station and Fire Station Monday morning.

This week we extended our understanding on jobs by taking a further look at the job of a librarian and a school bus driver. As we read two very detailed books, we filled in a Venn Diagram. The children are really learning how to compare and contrast two things, such as an occupation.

MORNING MEETING: During our daily morning meeting, the children have really enjoyed our new class job. This is the “teacher” job. The child that picks that job for the day gets to teach morning meeting. They select a person for greeting, and call on the other students to say the pledge of allegiance, weather helper, calendar helper, and attendance helper. It amazes me that so many different children have picked this job in the short amount of time that we have had it. They take pride in running a small, but very important, part of the day.

As part of our morning meeting, one of the jobs is “calendar helper.” To help us learn about money values, I have introduced coins to count out the calendar day. For example, on March 15, students would have had to come up with different ways to make 15 using pennies and dimes. Soon we will introduce nickels into the mix. This gives us daily practice to work with different numbers and creating coin sets.

SYLLABLES: During shared reading, we have been focusing this week on counting syllables in various words. They count out the syllables in a word by clapping it out.

UPCOMING: Next week we are taking a break from the regular themes, and we are going to have a science exploration week! We will be making rockets, play dough, sensory bottles, and even volcanoes. In block area, we set up an overhead projector for the children to manipulate and mix color paddles on the projector. They will also be able to write with markers on transparency film and see the results projected on the wall.

After our science week, we will be beginning our thematic unit on gardening and the water cycle. In our writing, we will focus on “small moment stories” for a week, and then move into poetry.

WRITER’S CELEBRATION: Thank you so much for taking the time to be a part of our writer’s celebration. The children worked very hard with their “how to” ideas, carefully extending and editing their work, creating wonderful books! I am very proud of the entire class! The excitement was palpable as each student read their books out loud before an audience. Their hard work was rewarded by an appreciative audience. Bravo Kindergartners!!

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