Category: Blogs

Today the children were able to participate in skeleton centers. I will be posting pictures of the activities soon! The centers were a success and will help the children understand party rules for future parties!

Upcoming Events

10/25 Pumpkin Patch — to volunteer with PTA for this event, click here

10/25 Bingo for Books – 6 pm (check PTA blog for more information

10/26 No School – Y5 and Kindergarten only

10/31 Costume Parade and PBIS celebration

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters F and U and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children practiced stretching letters and listening for the sounds within the word. The children are becoming more confident in their phonics abilities and writing words. I always tell them to simply write the sounds they hear and that they do not need to worry about writing the word correctly.

This is the video we use in class to help the children understand nouns and adjectives:

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

Math: We continue to work through the math curriculum and the concept of addition by talking about groups of numbers and counting how many we have all together. We reached number 10 today and practiced writing it as well as different ways to make 10. The children are really getting good at talking about numbers and how they see and count numbers.

The children continued practicing graphing and tally marks this week!

For the tally marks we say, ” 1, 2, 3, 4, number 5 shuts the door. 6, 7, 8, 9, number 10 draws the line.” This helps the children to remember when to make the diagonal line.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

Below are great videos on subitizing that we use in class:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we began discussing the concept of positional words. These are words such as in, out, on, off, below, above, etc.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Winter Apparel: Please work with your child at home on how to independently put on and take off their own fall and winter clothing items. Thank you!

Name Practice OR Letter Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

Upcoming Events

10/17 Late Start – School starts at 9:35 am

10/18 Scholastic Book Order Due (online)

10/25 Pumpkin Patch — to volunteer with PTA for this event, click here

10/25 Bingo for Books – 6 pm (check PTA blog for more information

10/26 No School – Y5 and Kindergarten only

10/31 Costume Parade and PBIS celebration

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters E and V and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children practiced writer’s workshop and reviewed how to use an imaginary rubber band to help stretch out words, in order to listen to the sounds within each word.  This week the children wrote about a monster. The monster was our noun and the children had to use an adjective to describe the monster. An example is “The monster is purple.” When your child write this sentence it may look like this “m p.” This is telling me that they are hearing the beginning sound of the words. The sentence could look like this “Vu Mnstr is prpl.” This sentence is telling me they are hearing sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of the word.  As you can see, the children knowing their letters and letters sounds is a key component to them being successful writers.  If your child does not know their letters or letter sounds, it is important that you spend an extra 10 minutes per night working on this with them.

This is the video we use in class to help the children understand nouns and adjectives:

We continue to review the parts of a sentence. The children learned about our writer’s checklist during writers workshop and learned that they can edit their own paper to check to make sure they began their sentence with an uppercase letter, they have finger spaces between their words, and they ended their sentence with a period.

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

We continued practicing the procedures of Daily 5. The children worked hard at building stamina during our Daily 5 rotations. The children were able to do Read to Self for 15 minutes this week! This was very helpful in providing me time to work in small groups. We also learned how to do our work on writing rotation. Each week the children are gaining more independence in our routines and procedures!

Math: We began our math workshop this week. The children learned the four rotations of math workshop which are M – mathseeds, A – at your seat paper pencil work, T- Teacher’s choice, and H-Hands-on math game. The children loved learning math workshop! We will continue to work through our Eureka math lessons and utilize our math workshop model in conjunction with our new math curriculum to promote number sense.

We have also been counting the days of the school year and have been learning about place value. The children know that the ones place can only go up to 9 before we have to “regroup” into a bunch of ten. We are learning how to count by 10’s when we count our days and then continue counting on by ones from there. For example, “10, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25.”

The children also practiced graphing and tally marks this week!

For the tally marks we say, ” 1, 2, 3, 4, number 5 shuts the door. 6, 7, 8, 9, number 10 draws the line.” This helps the children to remember when to make the diagonal line.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

Below are great videos on subitizing that we use in class:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we began discussing the concept of positional words. These are words such as in, out, on, off, below, above, etc.

Social Studies: The children love using our Let’s Find Out Scholastic magazines. We continue to learn about concepts presented in the monthly magazines, as well as continuing to learn about being a good citizen. The children are practicing being a good friend and still working on learning the routines and procedures of the school.

There is a link and code under the “educational websites” tab on our home page to our Let’s Find Out page where you can complete additional activities at home with your child to follow up our learning at school.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Winter Apparel: The weather is beginning to turn cold and this means the children will begin needing to wear a coat to school. Sooner, than we would like, the weather will get even colder and the children will need coats, hats, mittens, scarves, boots, etc.

Please work with your child at home on how to independently put on and take off their own fall and winter clothing items. If I have to zip and unzip coats, take off boots and put on sneakers, help children bundle up, etc… it takes away from our learning time. It is not just one child, this task is multiplied by 24 children and multiplied again by arrival, 3 recess times, and dismissal. That is 124 coats, boots, hats, mittens, etc that need to be put on and off each day. I cannot possibly help all of the children with these tasks and still get to all of the objectives we need to accomplish in a day. Please help me by building independence in your child and showing them how to complete these tasks on their own at home. Thank you!

Name Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

Please remember that tomorrow October 12th, is a half day. The children will still need a snack, but do not need a lunch.

Dismissal is at 11:40am. See you then!

We have had a slight disruption in our mathseeds subscription. We are hoping that this will be corrected within a day or two. Mr. Short is working with the company to fix the issue. Thank you for your patience and we are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

**** Please see the note in Housekeeping about headphones****

Upcoming Events

10/12 Half Day – 11:45 am dismissal

10/17 Late Start – School starts at 9:35 am

10/18 Scholastic Book Order Due (online)

10/25 Pumpkin Patch — to volunteer with PTA for this event, click here

10/25 Bingo for Books – 6 pm (check PTA blog for more information

10/26 No School – Y5 and Kindergarten only

10/31 Costume Parade and PBIS celebration

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters D and W and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children practiced writer’s workshop and reviewed how to use an imaginary rubber band to help stretch out words, in order to listen to the sounds within each word.  We reviewed about nouns and completed activities to help us know that a noun is a person, place, thing, or animal.

This is the video we use in class to help the children understand nouns:

The children learned about adjectives and how they can describe nouns.  We completed a few activities  working with adjectives and will continue learning about adjectives next week. The children really enjoyed our adjective video!

We continue to review the parts of a sentence.

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

We continued practicing the procedures of Daily 5. The children reviewed that there are three ways to read a book 1) read the words 2) read the pictures 3) retell the story. The children used these strategies during our Daily 5 – Read to Self rotation to read books quietly and build stamina. We continued practicing how to complete our Word Work rotation.  This week we were unable to learn any more rotations of daily 5, but we are hopeful that we will learn the rest of the rounds very soon. Working independently during Daily 5 is the only way for my small group instruction to take place. Once the children are able to work more independently, I will begin working with the children in small group instruction.

Math: We are still learning about number quantities 1-5, and that the orientation of a group of objects (whether in a row or column) does not change the number of objects represented. The children are already being exposed to addition concepts. This week we learned more about addition concepts and we began taking our first math assessment. This assessment is done one-on-one and we will continue assessing on Monday.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

Below is a great video on subitizing that we will be using in class next week:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we continued discussing our 5 senses. We completed activities to solidify this concept for the children. The children completed a small assessment to see if they understood their five senses. This was our first science quiz!

Social Studies: The children love using our Let’s Find Out Scholastic magazines. These magazines are a great resource and help to promote concepts we are already working on in class.

There is a link and code under the “educational websites” tab on our home page to our Let’s Find Out page where you can complete additional activities at home with your child to follow up our learning at school.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Winter Apparel: The weather is beginning to turn cold and this means the children will begin needing to wear a coat to school. Sooner, than we would like, the weather will get even colder and the children will need coats, hats, mittens, scarves, boots, etc.

Please work with your child at home on how to independently put on and take off their own fall and winter clothing items. If I have to zip and unzip coats, take off boots and put on sneakers, help children bundle up, etc… it takes away from our learning time. It is not just one child, this task is multiplied by 24 children and multiplied again by arrival, 3 recess times, and dismissal. That is 124 coats, boots, hats, mittens, etc that need to be put on and off each day. I cannot possibly help all of the children with these tasks and still get to all of the objectives we need to accomplish in a day. Please help me by building independence in your child and showing them how to complete these tasks on their own at home. Thank you!

Name Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

Today the children will bring home the new magazines for the month of October. Our Scholastic book order will be due on Thursday, October, 18th. This will allow time for the order to be delivered well before Halloween!

There are lots of great deals and resources in the magazines for this month. Not only are there Halloween books, but there are also phonics book sets and beginning readers that can help build your child’s reading skills.

Below is an example of some of these items:

Thank you for helping to grow a love for reading in your child and within our classroom!

Wow! I cannot believe that September is over and that October begins on Monday!

The weather is beginning to turn cold and this means the children will begin needing to wear a coat to school. Sooner, than we would like, the weather will get even colder and the children will need coats, hats, mittens, scarves, boots, etc.

Please work with your child at home on how to independently put on and take off their own fall and winter clothing items. If I have to zip and unzip coats, take off boots and put on sneakers, help children bundle up, etc… it takes away from our learning time. It is not just one child, this task is multiplied by 24 children and multiplied again by arrival, 3 recess times, and dismissal. That is 124 coats, boots, hats, mittens, etc that need to be put on and off each day. I cannot possibly help all of the children with these tasks and still get to all of the objectives we need to accomplish in a day. Please help me by building independence in your child and showing them how to complete these tasks on their own at home. Thank you!

**** Please see the note in Housekeeping about headphones****

Upcoming Events

10/1 Picture Day

10/12 Half Day – 11:45 am dismissal

10/17 Late Start – School starts at 9:35 am

10/18 Scholastic Book Order Due (online)

10/25 Pumpkin Patch — to volunteer with PTA for this event, click here

10/25 Bingo for Books – 6 pm (check PTA blog for more information

10/26 No School – Y5 and Kindergarten only

10/31 Costume Parade and PBIS celebration

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters C and X and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children practiced writer’s workshop and reviewed how to use an imaginary rubber band to help stretch out words, in order to listen to the sounds within each word.  We learned about nouns and completed activities to help us know that a noun is a person, place, thing, or animal.

This is the video we use in class to help the children understand nouns:

We also went over the parts of a sentence. We reviewed that sentences begin with an uppercase letter, have spaces in between words, and end with a period. The children enjoyed watching this video in class which helped to teach these concepts:

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

We continued practicing the procedures of Daily 5. The children reviewed that there are three ways to read a book 1) read the words 2) read the pictures 3) retell the story. The children used these strategies during our Daily 5 – Read to Self rotation to read books quietly and build stamina. We also learned how to complete our Word Work rotation.  The children worked independently sitting in different spots all over the room to complete letter work and phonics worksheets. Next week the children will learn our Work on Writing rotation and soon will be choosing which rotation they want to complete first, second, and third each day. Once the children are able to work more independently, I will begin working with the children in small group instruction.

Math: We are still learning about number quantities 1-5, and that the orientation of a group of objects (whether in a row or column) does not change the number of objects represented. The children are already being exposed to addition concepts. This week we focused on finding hidden partners. For example when we looked at the number 4, we discussed different ways we can make for such at 4 and 0, 2 and 2, and 3 and 1.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

We also practiced subitizing. This is the ability to look at a quantity and tell immediately how many are there. We did this with fingers, counters, and a rekenrek. Below is a great video on subitizing that we will be using in class next week:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we continued discussing our 5 senses. We talked about what we use our nose, eyes, hands, ears, and tongue for and which sense they match. Next week, we will continue learning about our 5 senses and complete activities to solidify this concept for the children. The children will complete a small assessment to see if they understand their five senses and complete a craft too.

Social Studies: We continued focusing on learning the rules of the classroom and school. We are working hard at being good listeners. The children are having difficulty at lunch. Please help them be more successful at lunch by showing them at home how to clean up after they are done eating.

We began using our Let’s Find Out Scholastic magazines this week. These magazines are a great resource and help to promote concepts we are already working on in class.

There is a link and code under the “educational websites” tab on our home page to our Let’s Find Out page where you can complete additional activities at home with your child to follow up our learning at school.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Name Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

Many of the children in class are loving the resurgence of the Avengers, Spiderman, and other superheroes. Although these movies are fun, the children are becoming too aggressive with each other when playing make believe during the day. This is becoming a distraction during the lessons, as well as, promoting unsafe behavior and causing injury at recess times. Please speak with your children about appropriate behavior at school.

I hope you all enjoy the weekend. I am looking forward to the cooler temperatures next week and am looking forward to a lot of learning next week!

**** Please see the note in Housekeeping about headphones****

Upcoming Events

9/28 No school for Kindergarten students ONLY!!!

9/28 Haigh Movie Night

Agenda for the Week

Reading and Writing: We learned the letters B and Y and focused on the sound of each letter. The children brainstormed items that begin with each letter and completed activities which helped them find, identify, and write these letters.

The children participated in writer’s workshop and learned how to use an imaginary rubber band to help stretch out words, in order to listen to the sounds within each word. We discussed how important knowing letters sounds are because they help us to be better writers and better readers.

We also discussed the parts of a sentence. We learned that sentences begin with an uppercase letter, have spaces in between words, and end with a period. The children enjoyed watching this video in class which helped to teach these concepts:

Here is a video which promotes letter recognition of uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as, letter sounds.

Please remember to watch the How-To videos which I have made to help your child at home with name practice, letter recognition, and letter sound acquisition.

If your child already has mastered these skills, feel free to watch the sight word video or reading comprehension video to help your child continue their academic growth.

We continued practicing one rotation of Daily 5. The children reviewed that there are three ways to read a book 1) read the words 2) read the pictures 3) retell the story. The children used these strategies during our Daily 5 – Read to Self rotation to read books quietly and build stamina. We will continue practicing these strategies next week and begin learning our word work rotation, as well as work on writing.

Math: We are learning about same and different, number quantities 1-5, and that the orientation of a group of objects (whether in a row or column) does not change the number of objects represented. The children learned many vocabulary words such as sort, row, column, and quantity.

At home, please practice writing numbers 1 – 20 with your child. They should be practicing how to recognize these numbers, as well as be able to write them. Counting objects with one-to-one correspondence is another skill you can work on at home. You may do this while you are giving your child a snack. If you give them grapes for a snack, have them count the grapes one at a time, while moving the grapes from one side of the plate to the other side of the plate.

We also practiced subitizing. This is the ability to look at a quantity and tell immediately how many are there. We did this with fingers, counters, and a rekenrek. Below is a great video on subitizing that we will be using in class next week:

Here are a few math videos to promote number sense at home:

Below are 2D and 3D shape videos:

Science: This week we began discussing our 5 senses. We talked about what we use our nose, eyes, hands, ears, and tongue for and which sense they match. Next week, we will continue learning about our 5 senses and complete activities to solidify this concept for the children.

Social Studies: We continued focusing on learning the rules of the classroom and school. We are working hard at being good listeners. The children are having difficulty at lunch. Please help them be more successful at lunch by showing them at home how to clean up after they are done eating.

Housekeeping Items:

Headphones: If you have not yet sent in a pair of headphones for your child, please do so as soon as possible. We will be getting on the computers in our room each day, and I would like to set up some routines and procedures for the children to follow using their own headphones during technology time. We ask that you send in a pair of headphones because it is more sanitary for all the children and helps to decrease the occurrence of things such as lice, as well as other things.

Name Practice

If your child is struggling with writing their name and other letters, it is important that you work with them at home on this skill. We are spending time in class working on these skills, but will be moving on quickly and if your child is struggling to form letters, they will struggle to complete their work. Here is a great resource for handwriting practice: https://www.handwritingworksheets.com/flash/printdots/index.htm

Snack Time

Please be sure to put the snack in a separate place from their lunch. Please show your child where you will put their snack each day in order to foster independence for them. Sometimes, when the snack is packed inside the lunchbox, the children try to eat their whole lunch at snack time. Thank you for your assistance in separating your child’s snack and lunch.

Snacks should be healthy to provide the children with energy for their day. Please send a simple snack such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Please do not send candy as a snack. Juice and milk are not allowed in our classroom. Please do not send any kind of juice box or milk with your child for snack time. The children may have the juice or milk for lunch in the cafeteria.

ALLERGY ALERT: We have nut allergies in our room. Please make sure that you are not sending any snacks which contain any nuts. Our room is NUT FREE!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

Change of clothes

Please send in a change of clothes (pants, shirt, underwear, socks) in a gallon bag with their name clearly written on the baggie. My most frequent call home is to ask for parents to bring a change of clothes to school. Even the most disciplined children have accidents at school sometimes. We have so much fun during the day that sometimes the children do not want to stop to use the bathroom when needed. Not only do bathroom accidents happen, but sometimes the playground equipment is wet or the ground is muddy. Having a change of clothes at school makes it easy for me and for you to help your child feel clean and comfortable in the quickest way possible. We will leave the baggie of clothes in their locker at school.

If you plan on ordering from this month’s scholastic book order, please have your orders in by tomorrow afternoon. I will submit the order at the end of the day.

Ordering is easy, please see the directions on our blog under the scholastic tab.

Remember, all ordering is done online. The order takes about a week to be delivered to the school and then the books come home in your child’s backpack.

Due to my due date being during the district scheduled conference times, I will be holding conferences towards the end of October in order to meet with all of your and discuss your child’s progress towards our kindergarten goals, before taking my leave.

Many of you signed up last night at Open House, however, there are still a few who need to choose a time-slot.

I will have the conference sheets available during arrival and dismissal next week. Please come see me and sign up for a time that will work for you! My goal is to meet with everyone by the end of October.

Thank you for your understanding and flexibility!