Clouds, Characters and Counting!

Hello parents! 

This week in reading, we focused on characters.  We read several books with memorable characters, including Froggy Goes to Bed, The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, Kitten's First Full Moon, Betty Bunny Wants Everything, and Olivia.  As we read, we focused on describing the characters, as well as what they did and said in the story.  Then, in writing, we drew pictures of some of our favorite characters.  In handwriting we practiced more letters with straight lines and even letters with diagonal lines.  We also practiced writing our word of the week, can. 

This week, we went ALL the way up to the 3rd floor to Mrs. Carlson's classroom for reading buddies.  We read the story The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Then we drew a silly picture of something else she might swallow!  It was exciting seeing a 3rd grade class and getting to use markers and colored pencils. 

The kids are doing an amazing job during literacy centers while I finish up my reading and Kindergarten readiness assessments.  They rotate through 3 centers each day and independently do all of the following:  work on the computer, listen to a book on CD, use magnetic letters to match and make words, complete alphabet puzzles, sort letters, stamp letters, play alphabet games, highlight sight words, independently read and practice writing!   Wow!   Ask your child which literacy center they like best.  Today we had "ketchup and pickle time" and finished a lot of our work.  Next week, I will finish my assessments and then begin to meet with small groups to begin reading instruction.

Stefanos was a great star of the week.  We enjoyed his toys, pictures and poster.  His mom was the mystery reader on Wednesday.  If you'd like to be a mystery reader, please let me know.  It only takes about 15 minutes and the kids would LOVE to see you. 

In math we continue to build our number sense with counting. Several students brought back the counting jar this week with fun things for us to count.  We counted glass marbles, toys, legos, and marbles this week.  I'll continue to send home the counting jar until everyone has had a turn.  This week at math zones, we explored counting in small groups with tiny counting jars and represented the numbers in different ways.  We used color tiles to create patterns.  We counted and sorted buttons, and made long links to match numerals.  We also used pattern blocks to make geometric pictures.  

We had a lot of fun cloud gazing this week.  What a perfect week to observe the sky!  The kids loved going outside to see if the clouds looked different from day to day.  We read books about what clouds are made of, different types of clouds and what weather they might bring, and even saw some shapes of objects in the sky. Today we painted clouds with q-tips!

Here are some reminders: 

Monday is Library Day and Homework Day.  Please send both to school on Mondays. 

Wednesday is an early release day.  Students will be dismissed at 1:00.  Please make sure your child knows how they will get home on Wednesday.  

There is no school Thursday!  

Please return the front page of the discipline policy that came home in the folder last Thursday. 

Please email me with any questions, comments or concerns.  I'd love to hear how your son or daughter is enjoying Kindergarten. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Colorful Week

It's been a colorful week!  It was so fun to see all of the kids dressed up for color week.  Thanks for participating! 

We read a lot of great color books this week: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Otto's Orange Day, The Yellow Tutu, Emeraldalicious, Pinkalicious, Purplealicious, One Brown Bunny, and The Black Book of Colors.

Monday was our first time meeting our third grade reading buddies from Mrs. Carlson's class.  We listened to a story and worked together to draw a picture of ourselves and wrote something that made us special.  We will read with our buddies most Mondays!   Don't forget that Mondays we also go to the library for lessons and book exchange, so bring back those library books!

 

In writing, we practiced our handwriting of letters with straight lines.  E, L, F, H, i and l are good letters to start with because you pull your pencil down to start. Keep practicing these letters with your child.  It's also important that your child can correctly write his or her name, with an uppercase letter to start and lowercase letters.  Next week we'll work on letters with diagonal lines.  Each day this week, we practiced writing color words and drawing pictures of things that are usually that color. We labeled our picture with beginning sounds. 

In math, we can now draw a picture to match the number of objects in our counting jar.  Be on the lookout for our class counting jar coming home to your family.  You will get the chance to fill it up with something for our class to count!  

Thomas was our first star of the week!  We learned all about his hobbies and interviewed him about favorite things.  He brought in two cool toys and we got to see pictures of his family. Today we made him a book of pictures that he will get to take home next week.  Stefanos is the star of the week next week!  

We are becoming such experts at learning about the weather.  Maybe you'll see one of the kids in our class as the local meteorologist someday!  We can identify weather symbols, and we know all about different kids of weather and how to be prepared for different types of weather conditions. Next up, clouds!  We will also start something new in Social Studies next week.  Now that we know all about classroom rules and responsibilities, we will learn about important United States symbols.   

Scholastic Book orders were due today.  If you were thinking about ordering, let me know as soon as possible, or order this weekend!  I didn't submit the order yet, since the internet was down all day at school today.  A new order form will come home next month.  

Do you ever make play-doh at home? If you are willing to make donate some to our class, it would be greatly appreciated! Let me know if you are interested! 

I'm anxious to have parents come in as classroom volunteers, but I have to finish my primary assessments of the students first.  Be on the lookout for a link for a Sign Up Genius soon if you'd like to be a mystery reader, or come into the classroom to help out!   I'll probably be ready for volunteers in about two weeks.  

5 Senses, Weather, Counting and More!

This week we read informational books about our five senses.

You can have fun exploring the senses at home by having your child try to guess household objects just by using one of the senses! For example, put a few items into a bag or box, and see if your child can guess the object by feeling it! 

Literacy centers are in full swing and I'm working hard to complete my individual reading assessments of each child. Reading groups will begin as soon as testing is complete. 

This week in writing we focused on drawing detailed pictures of our family, our favorite special, and what we like to do at recess. We labeled our pictures with letters to show what was in our picture. We tried to use at least five colors in our work. Today we wrote sentences with the words of the week: I am.  If you'd like to work on writing at home, please practice the words of the week.  Also, your child is expected to write his or her name on all papers, so practicing this will help.  Encourage them to use an uppercase letter for the first letter and lowercase letters for the rest of their name.  

In math we are learning strategies for counting. We have a counting jar that we fill with something each day. Then we use different ways to count. Consider creating your own counting jar at home!!  We continue to explore more math tools in math zones. 

We continued to learn weather vocabulary this week and read two non fiction books about weather. We record the weather forecast and temperature daily in our morning meeting. Show your child how you check the weather forecast at home!  The newspaper, internet, and TV channels are all great ways to see the weather forecast, and it's great for the children to see the differences with the weather symbols and maps.  In Social Studies we discussed the importance of rules and why we have them. We are also learning examples of each of the 6 pillars of character:  respect, responsibility, caring, trustworthiness, citizenship and fairness.  Please incorporate these words into your routines at home whenever possible!   

We went to the computer lab for the first time this week.  It was a lot of fun!  We explored a program called Mighty Math.  The students were able to play games with number order, geometry, coin counting, and lots more.  We will probably try to get to the lab every other week, if not more!

Literacy Centers in Full Swing!

YLiteracy centers are a big part of Kindergarten!! We work in small groups to rotate through different activities while the teacher works with students on reading. Here are some pictures of us hard at work. 

This is the ABC Island center. It will always have magnetic pieces. 

This is Book Browsing Beach. We can read in beach chairs and can read to stuffed friends!! 

This is Games Gulf. Right now it's just play dough letter making but soon there will be four fun activities and games here!!

  At Writers Reef we are practicing our friends names!!

We love Baileys Book House at Computer Cove!! 

What a fun first week!

We had a great first week of school!  Here is some information about our first week of Kindergarten.

We are getting really good at our morning routine!  There's a lot to do when we first come to school, like ordering breakfast and lunch, unpacking our backpacks and turning in our folders, and putting down our chairs.  We also have a morning meeting every morning where we sing songs, dance, complete the calendar, and count how many days we have been in school!

In reading we read First Day Jitters, Curious George Goes to School,  Curious George Goes to the Toy Store, The Monster Who Came to School, Chrysanthemum, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Alphabet Adventure!  After we read Chrysanthemum we counted the letters in our names and we made a puppet.  We also practiced the letters in our names by hiding them in a coconut tree after reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!  We learned all about our literacy centers and we will start our rotations next week!

In writing we drew a self portrait of ourselves on the first day of school.  We will draw self portraits every month and display them in our classroom.  At the end of the year we will get to see how much we have grown and changed!  We also played “The Name Game".  We see mixed up letters on the Promethean Board and have to figure out who's name it is!  Then we reshuffle the letters and do the name cheer.  We even practiced writing our friends names in our best handwriting.  Now all of our friend's names are on the word wall!

We sorted classroom behaviors into groups and decorated our own monster after we listened to the story The Monster Who Came to School.  We talked about how to follow the rules in school every day, and we are getting better and better at raising our hands, walking in the classroom, listening to others when they are speaking, and following directions carefully.  Check out these monsters!

We took a school tour to see all of the important places we would be learning and we met a lot of the staff that works at Flora M. Singer! This week we went to Art, Music and P.E.  We collaborated to make a group art poster. We used our best singing voices and even dance.  In P.E. we got some exercise with Mrs. Mandel.  Next week we will go to the library and the computer lab.  On Wednesdays we don't usually have a special, so we have Starfish of the Week.  This week it was me!  I shared my poster, some photos of my family, and the class got to interview me. Soon it will be your child's turn to be the star!! 

This week in math we have been exploring math manipulatives like pattern blocks, linking cubes, geometric solids, teddy bear counters, and dominoes.  Next week we will explore more math tools!  We also got to know each other by collecting data and and making class graphs on the Promethean Board.  We graphed our favorite seasons, sports, foods, colors, and animals!  Then, we counted to see which choice was the most and least.

It really was a fun week and I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful class. Please stay in touch with me if you have any questions or comments about anything your child is learning this year.  Enjoy the long weekend!   Before I go, here are a few important reminders: 

Please send in an extra pair of clothes for your child if you haven't already. You never know when they might need to change clothes! 

Please sign the behavior calendar with your initials daily. 

Homework starts next week.  It is due the following Monday.  

Scholastic Book Orders are due September 12th. 

Please return any forms that were sent home this week in the folder.  I know there were a lot! :) 

Thank you so much! 

Camping Day!

It's the last week of Kindergarten. Time for some fun!! 

Today was camping day. We read camping books, hung out inside of a tent, made a handprint campfire, and even made s'mores!! 

We had so much fun!! 

A Kindergarten Museum!

We worked on an inquiry project in Media Center where we learned about museums and then created our own museum. We brought in an artifact and made a display of a family tradition. We used the program Clicker 5 to type sentences. Then the whole school could stop by and see our work!!