Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I promised the students a picture of Millie at Thanksgiving😆

November 24-26th 2025: Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Hello Families,

This week will be a short one...but very busy! Mrs. Mondal will be with us for the week and will be leading the class/instruction through most of the days.💖

**Shaker Lane is still taking food donations!

Theme: Thanksgiving

K Word: a

Song: Albuquerque the Turkey

Since this is a short week (only 2  1/2 days), our format will be a little different. Rather than math groups, we will spend each day learning about various aspects of the first Thanksgiving in America. We will learn several facts about Thanksgiving and write about them. A turkey theme will be integrated into our math centers. We will also learn about Native Americans and how they helped the Pilgrims survive. We will continue our Wit and Wisdom lessons, however.

• Monday: The children will listen to the story The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern. The story describes what role the children played in the early years in this country. They worked as hard as the adults and had to overcome great adversity. Did you know that a sign of good manners was for the children to eat their meals standing up! They had to wear their hats and could not speak unless an adult spoke to them first. We will try this for our snack time! We will also do some “turkey math”. 

• Tuesday: The children will learn a bit about the Wampanoag Indians who were living in the area near Plymouth when the pilgrims first settled. Squanto, one of the Native Americans, lived with the pilgrims and taught them how to hunt, plant and fish in the new country. He even introduced the new settlers to popcorn. Did you know that popcorn was served at the first Thanksgiving? We will explore some Native American pictographs, which were an early form of writing. The children will use some of these pictographs to “write a story”. I will attempt “Native American Storytelling” by telling the children a story about my name and will demonstrate my Native American flute.

• Wednesday: On Wednesday, we will complete any writing/art projects that we started earlier in the week. I will read a story about being thankful and then the students will brainstorm the things for which we are thankful. The Children will then complete a writing/art project that will demonstrate those things. It will be a 12:20 dismissal for the whole school.

We would like to wish you and

your family a very Happy

Thanksgiving- Enjoy!

~💖Michelle and Jen

Here are some pictures from last week's fun and learning!

GLOW DANCE PARTY!

A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Artis for being our 
Mystery Reader! What a special day for Alexander!

We had a visit from nursing students who taught us the "proper" way to wash our hands and demonstrated the power of soap!

practicing fine motor skills while making a volcano during choice time

Using the Felt Board app, the students created a farm scene with 10 farm related items/animals and then counted them on the TV for me:).

LANGUAGE ARTS!

listening to first sounds and tracing the correct letter, reading a predictable sight word reader, coloring trick words, making a sentence with words from our Mrs. Wishy Washy story, identifying the /w/ sound 

math games with a partner and practicing number writing

We set up a veterinarian office, complete with a receptionist  and patients- SO CUTE!💕

November 17-21st

 

Hello,

It was SO nice to meet with you during our conference! I love having the chance to tell parents how amazing their child is during our kindergarten day- I see SO much magic happen each and every day with your son/daughter!💖

One of the reaccuring topics during conferences seemed to be how you as a parent can help your child determine if a problem is small/big and how to react appropriately (and change the channel in their brain after!). I found this poster which is an easy, concrete way to explain size of problem to a child:

Here is a list of books to read with your child to help differentiate big/small problems (or you can do a read aloud video with many of these on you tube)

Book titles

• Don't Squeal Unless It's a Big Deal by Jeanie Franz Ransom
• Big Problems Little Problems by Ben Feller
• Solutions For Cold Feet And Other Little Problems by Carey Sookocheff
• Bumps, Hills and Mountains: A Book About Identifying the Size of a Problem
• The Problem-Reaction Meter: Choosing the Size of Your Reactions
• Gloria's Big Problem
• Barnie's Little Big Problem
• A Very Big Problem
• What Do You Do With a Problem?
• My Day is Ruined! 

I hope this helps!!💖

The children have been practicing sequencing a story as well as how to think deeper about a text. We are doing  A LOT of "noticing" and "wondering" during our Wit and Wisdom block! The children are using text evidence to answer prompts. They will be learning how to include finger spaces in their writing-It is so exciting to see them begin to write with so many letters/sounds!

This is the text with which we are working for the week!

We will be learning letters v, w this week. 

This is how to write these letters with the Fundations lines:

Here is a video of how we pronounce the letters and the pictures associated with the letters/sounds

v van /v/

In math, we will be counting and writing numbers 6-10. The children will also be counting on from a number to 10. They are practicing matching quantity to numbers and using a 10 frame to have that concrete visual. They are also practicing counting with 1:1 correspondence!

In science, we are learning about the changing seasons and how people and animals have to adapt. 

Our second step lesson will be about how we feel feelings in our bodies; sometimes they are comfortable and sometimes uncomfortable feelings. HERE is the home link if you want to discuss the topic with your child!

Here are some pictures from our very short week!

We earned our "digital citizenship" award by completing
all the necessary lessons on appropriate use of devices

Kindergarten Kings!

A second step lesson with Mrs. Mondal!

Choice Time Creations

FARM PLAY!

Reading Sentences (and practicing trick words)!

A BIG thank you to Mrs. Rustan for being 
our Mystery Reader!