Good Afternoon!
In K/PREK1, we always journal after our group session. Not only are our drawings becoming more detailed but children’s development of letters and letter sounds is growing quickly! Children are connecting letters to the sounds they make as well as realizing their words and writing are powerful! Connecting words to drawings is quite wonderful and intrinsically motivates children. After they finish their description,, we read it back and the effort they put into their words is very gratifying!
As Franklin was writing his description, he noticed a pattern in his writing: N-I-N (in NINGA OR NINJA) and A-T-A (ATAK OR ATTACK) “are patterns, Miss Mindy!”. Not only is Franklin’s confidence in his kid spelling growing but today, he noticed patterns and properties of his writing that he hasn’t identified until now!
Numbers have been a very hot topic as of late where children inquire about different numbers as well as addition problems. Grady and Penny dove into addition problems that they themselves came up with. They wrote the problems out and then worked together to find the answer. This wasn’t teacher driven: this was completely driven by these two kindergarteners and by working together, they completed several problems. Who knew working with numbers could be so much fun? 
A friend had gotten out the rubber bands + boards and while children worked on placing rubber bands sporadically on the boards (as this is a challenging fine motor activity!), children took this opportunity to try and make letters! One friend created the letters that made up the word ‘EVIE’ while another friend created the first letter of his brothers name!
Our new puzzles continue to challenge us! The 60 piece puzzles take us just a bit longer than the 48 piece puzzles and require more patience and problem solving. These are unique puzzles because on the outside of the puzzle are different items (animals, etc.) that you find once the puzzle is complete!
A few parents have asked: the new puzzles, which are ‘Mudpuppy’, can be found on Amazon!
Breakfast– Whole grain Cheerios and fresh oranges/pineapple.
Lunch– Peanut butter on whole wheat bread/tortilla, block cheese, fresh oranges/banana, and fresh carrots.
PM snack– Whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and string cheese.
Wee Sprout– Fresh carrots.
Have a lovely evening!
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 12/17