New this week...

Worcester County Food Bank Project

If you are able to, please support the Community Service Learning Project organized by Mrs. Joanne MacLaughlin. She is challenging every Kindergarten class at Beal to collect 100 cans of nonperishable food, in celebration of the 100th day of school on Feb. 8th.  We have done an awesome job in our first week.  The Zakar's have collected close to 60 cans so far.  Let's try to beat our goal of 100 cans by the 100th day of school on February 8th. I think we can do it!  The kids seem really excited about being able to help those who are less fortunate.

PE Family Adventure: Yoga Night 

This is for Parents and Children and will be held TONIGHT, Friday evening,  Jan. 25th. Thanks to Beal parent (and founder of FitStudio28 in Westborough) Cindy Evangelous for volunteering to help our PE Teacher Chris D’Aniello with this sure to be fun-filled evening. Families with last names A to M are asked to attend the 6 pm session, and N-Z the 7 pm session. Please bring along a yoga mat or thick beach towel if you can. We often do Yoga in our classroom, so I am sure the children would love to show you all they know!


In math this week, we have been concentrating on Addition and Subtraction number stories.  We have used the strategy of drawing a picture to help us solve the problem.  We have also talked about the difference between addition and subtraction.  We noticed that addition number stories use the language; "How many altogether", and subtraction number stories use the language; "How many are left".  We have made "Room 8's Addition Number Stories" and "Room 8's Subtraction Number Stories".  I will be posting pictures next week to show you their hard work.  Here is a picture of the pages we completed.  
















We also have really enjoyed watching the Harry Kindergarten Song from Youtube.  Here is the video for you to watch with your child. 

During reading groups this week, the children got to use a fun new reading tool.  They each were able to use finger lasers (lights) to help highlight their words as they were reading.  They loved these and it proved to be a great tool for keeping their place while they are reading.  This week we really concentrated on "getting our mouths ready" when we come to a word we do not know.  

We have also started to talk about using questions to help us better understand a story.  The children are working on using and answering questions about a text.  We started to read "Brave Irene", and the children had many questions including, "Why is she so brave?", "I wonder if she will get the dress to the ball?"  We also talked about what some of the vocabulary meant in the book.  When you are reading with your children, be sure to stop and ask questions to help guide their understanding.  Also, let the children know it is great if they have questions about the story.  This is what helps them to better understand the story.

I will end this post with some pictures of the kids doing their very best work during Daily 5 and Morning Meeting.  You will see the kids reading the morning message and participating in yoga.  Finally, I posted some pictures that show you how I organize the RazKids and EDMonline passwords. The kids have become so independent using this structure.

 

Have a wonderful weekend and check my Freebies Page for some great at home math practice.  I will also start to put up some word work practice you could print out.  Take Care!