Welcome to February. This month we will be learning all about amphibians & their life cycles & the environment.
We have added the use of a 3-ring binder specifically for worksheets to practice daily skills. The daily skills are broken into 4 sections: Language, Math, STEM & Calendar. These are broken down in the paragraphs below along with descriptions of our lessons for the month.
Our study of letter sounds, word families & sight words will continue to progress with reading skills practice. We will integrate new books like “Frog & Toad Together” & read a short non-fiction story about “Frogs, Toads & Their Relatives” as we to continue to practice of reading skills. For additional practice in language skills, we add sheets to the 3-ring binder that relate to the sight words we study, body parts of amphibians & letter sounds.
In our math skills, we will continue practicing, addition & subtraction through games & activities that also practice attention, focus & memory, gross motor skills & cooperative play. The 3-ring binder practice of math skills we continue counting past 30 up to 100. We use number placement & place values, we continue single digit addition and subtraction. Our goal is to get all students able to count to 100 & see patterns in numbers as they increase.
We will integrate STEM projects into our curriculum with an exploration of habitats & the life cycle of amphibians. We will find out why some species are endangered, ways to protect the species from extinction & how to protect the habitats. Toward the end of the month, we will start a unit on the environment. At this point, we will honor Black History Month using inspirational stories & videos in recognition of the people & events that have helped shape our world. Specifically, black environmentalists & how they shape the way we care about our world. The 3-ring binder will have worksheets to practice order of the life cycle, the habitats & how environments are affected.
Our daily calendar skills include days of the week, the date, month, year & weather. In the 3-ring binder the students practice writing the month, day & year following this example: February 1, 2018, & 2/1/18. We add emphasis to neatness & accuracy. The students did very well with the introduction of this new activity last month. We look forward to seeing them improve through this month.
February is full of celebrations like Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day & Dr. Suess day. We will join the Before & After School program for their projects around these celebrations. For example, our class will make a Valentine mailbox with the after-school program. However, to prepare for Valentine’s Day, we will send home a class list of students & teachers to help families prepare valentines. The list will include the students in the before & after school program & the private kindergarteners. This way, as a family, you can choose to make them for kindergarteners only or all students in the Grizzly Classroom.
There is so much to learn & explore this month. We look forward to watching your kindergartener dive into our lessons.
Ms. Steph & Ms. Leewitt