Reading and Retelling

Retelling

Since day one of kindergarten I have been reminding you how important it is to not just read with your child but practice retelling. This is a difficult skill since the children need to learn how to do it. They must really concentrate, be fluent readers and then remember all of the information. We practice this skill daily in our classroom but it is still a skill they struggle with!

Below I have uploaded a video of Emilee. She reads a story to me, then I ask her to "tell me what happened in this story." Emilee does a wonderful job with her retelling! She explains what happened on each page, tells me about each character and then gives detail in the ending. She even infers about what the main character is thinking.

This video (other than the noise in the background, and that Emilee is a bit of a fast talker)  is a perfect example of what retelling is and how you can practice it at home.

Keep up the great work and thank you Emilee!!

Flying By!

 things are just flying by in kindergarten now, that always seems to happen at this time of the year! Our third report cards are coming home and the LAST ones will be  before you know it! We are currently working on our end of the year, "get ready for first grade skills!!"

So please practice your math facts each night. Hopefully your child can add any number 1 through 5 automatically by the start of first grade. Keep working!

Here is the list of math skills that your child will be expected to know for their first grade teacher:

• Identifies, copies, extends, and creates patterns
• Can count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's
• Identifies numerals (0-100)
• Labels sets (0-10) with correct numeral
• Compares sets of objects and uses the terms equal, more than, or less than correctly
• Identifies coins (penny, nickel, dime, quarter)
• Joins and separates sets of objects
• Tells time to the hour
• Identifies half versus whole
• Divides sets of objects into equal groups
• Measures length with a variety of non standard measurements
• Compares measurements and uses the terms shorter, longer, taller, heavier, warmer, cooler, holds more, etc. correctly
• Uses positional words to explain location  (left, right, on, off, inside, between, above, below, etc.)
• Interprets graphs
• Counts with 1:1 correspondence
• Sorts by attributes (shape, size, color)

Writing "How To" Stories

Easter Egg Word Hunt!