Non-Fiction Unit

Kindergarten readers have been busy deepening their non-fiction reading skills with their “Strawberry & Bananas” reading partners. This week, as we approached the close of our non-fiction unit, reading partners took turns sharing facts and new information they learned from their nonfiction texts. Partners were very excited to read and share information that they found to be interesting and then hear what their partner found to be interesting. Reading partners practiced asking questions about what their partner read. Our non-fiction experts closed the unit by finding ways to connect information found on different pages of a non-fiction text. They learned to ask themselves, “What is the author trying to teach me?”

Wrapping Up Our Study of Buildings

Kindergarteners have thoroughly enjoyed becoming experts on buildings during our study of buildings. We have investigated what local buildings look like, the different people who build buildings, what buildings are made of, flimsy and sturdy building materials, and what is special about our building at The Cooper School. Kindergarteners have enjoyed having guest speakers come teach about the process of building a home. We have explored many books about different kinds of buildings and occupations involved with buildings through class read alouds. Students enjoyed hands-on experiences with tools that builders use and examined tools designers use when designing buildings.

Building experts used all this knowledge to create a building design on special architectural paper and then used that design to construct their very own building. On Friday, Kindergarteners were thrilled to have their families come to a Buildings Museum that showcased all of their hard work.   

Growing Our Writing

Our young authors have been busy writing small moments from their lives. Kindergartners wrote who, where, and what happened on each page. Our brave writers practiced telling a story across several pages, stretched out words to record all of their sounds, and made their characters talk by adding speech bubbles. Then students learned to switch to the role of the illustrator as they practiced drawing pictures that matched the words on the page. Illustrators used real life colors to bring their story to life.

Important Dates:

• Thursday, January 25^th Art Walk 8:00-9:00
• Monday, February 5^th 100^th Day Project Due
• Wednesday, February 7^th 100^th Day Celebration