Week of January 14, 2013

Cologne Academy’s Extraordinary Expo

 Note from Senora Marshall:
Hola!
Can you believe that the 2013 Cologne Academy’s Extraordinary Expo is almost here!!!  This year’s expo will be on 
January 31, 2013  5:30- 7pm.
The kindergarten through 4th grade Spanish performances will be in the music room. This is not a sit down/view all event like concerts. Families can cycle in and out of the music room for viewing of selected performances. Students are asked to report to the art room 5 min prior to performance times and the 5th through 8th grade Spanish projects will also be displayed in the science room. 
Families are asked to enjoy this event together.
Spanish Performance times:
Kindergarten- 5:30
1st Grade- 5:50
2nd Grade- 6:10
3rd grade- 6:30
4th Grade 6:50
Costume for the program is:
Kindergarten- nice outfit.  We  will make a mask for the song they will sing.

SHARED INQUIRY STORIES
Our Kindergarteners will be listening to stories and sharing answers to interpretive questions.  During our shared inquiry discussions we will be learning to listen carefully, share our ideas, accept our classmates' ideas respectfully, and support our ideas with textual evidence. 

This week's story: The Frog Prince

MATH
This week our mini-lessons focus will be all about patterns. In workstations students will try to fill a shape mat with pattern blocks, count and write  numbers back from 20, identify and extend patterns, compose and decompose the number 10, and work with geoboards to make shapes. In the upcoming weeks we will be working on the following concepts:
  • Number Facts: composing and decomposing numbers, combining sets, counting on
  • Length and Height: comparing length and height using nonstandard units
  • Classifying and Sorting based on attributes
  • Weight & Capacity
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays students will be in math workstations. Our math work stations are planned to reinforce our daily objectives, build a strong foundation in number sense, and discover number relationships.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays students work in their Math Journals. Our Math Journal work begins with an open ended question that provides an opportunity for students to use multiple strategies for problem solving. Students are then asked to record their work and discuss how they solved the problem. Finally, a few students each week share their problem solving strategies with the class.

WRITING
Some students are still wrapping-up their book entitled Things I like. We will be making a class book after reading the book The Shape of Things. Students will choose a shape and turn it into something else such as a house or a bicycle by drawing and adding details. We will finish off the week focusing on writing using both pictures and words. We will begin stretching and writing our words out. 
Our goal is to convey  our ideas through drawing and writing including a lot of details, colors, labels and sentences. The conventions of writing are practiced every day by our little kindergarten authors!

CORE KNOWLEDGE UNIT
Native Americans with MRS. MAKELA

SHOW AND SHARE
Friday - show and share

HOMEWORK
  • Read 20 Minutes every night
  • Practice writing numbers and letters
  • Count forward and backward
  • Play LEXIA or IXL