Inspired by Eric Carle

Kindergartners have been enjoying time in Readers Workshop with Eric Carle books. Young readers explored Eric Carle’s diverse book structures and storytelling by identifying word patterns and making connections between his texts. Kindergarten is learning more than just writing and illustrating from this author!

Pardon me, Do You Have the Time?

Kindergarten mathematicians have been learning to tell time to the nearest hour! We have investigated minutes to see what kind of things we can do in a minute. Students also investigated the hour by recording all of the things they do with-in an hour. Students know that the short hand on a clock is used to tell the hour and the long hand tells us the minutes. We practiced moving hands on a clock to show o’clock times, a little before and a little after each hour. Our young time-tellers practiced making their clocks match various times. We compared digital and analog clocks and small groups played a time matching game. Learning Centers offered students additional time to practice this skill with a time matching activity in our math center. Ask your youngster what they learned about telling time this week.

Preparing to Publish

Brave writers have been quite busy preparing their best piece of writing for a very special audience! Students sorted through their writing folders to find their most interesting and detailed piece to take through the publishing process. Writers met with their “Strawberries and Bananas” writing partners to share their best piece, and to give and receive feedback about how they could make their writing even stronger. Partners helped support each other in deciding what kind of details would strengthen and add to their stories. Students learned techniques for revising their writing and ways to add more details using “flaps” or post-it notes.

We explored mentor texts and familiar books to see what real authors do to get their readers interested. Students discovered that writing an amazing story beginning that includes details including who, when, where, and what happened, leads to an interesting and catchy beginning to a story.

Young writers learned that using transition words help to move the story along and guide the reader. Finally, our brave writers explored ways to end their stories in strong ways. They learned that ending a story with feelings is one great way to leave an impression on their reader or audience. I are so proud of all of the hard work kindergarteners have put into their third published piece of writing!

Important Dates:

• Wednesday, April 20th – Picture Day
• Friday, May 6th – Grandparents Day/Pass It On (11:30 Dismissal)
• Sunday, May 15th – TCS Picnic @ Magnolia Plantation
• Monday, May 30th – Memorial Day (No School)
• Friday, June 3rd – Last Day of School (11:30 Dismissal)