Dear 111 Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I have enjoyed more family time and of course two more soccer games with Benjamin! Thank you to all the families who came last week to our back to school carnival it was so much fun and great to see you there. Here is what you need to know for this upcoming week:

Monday: Gym (wear gym shoes and appropriate attire!) Your child did a great job last week sending in their “Alphabet Homework”! way to go mom and dad! Please continue to work on your child’s letter/sound recognition with the flash cards each night at home. This will dramatically help your child grasp the written word. Tonight your child will bring home their letter “Rr” homework page that will be due on Friday (or before we LOVE to share them as the week goes on). Please return with THREE pictures that begin with the letter Rr and have your child attempt to phonetically write the word. What do they hear?

Tuesday: Music and Art Today we will enjoy a long day of learning and also two great specials.

Wednesday: Computers

Thursday: Music

Friday: Gym (wear gym shoes and appropriate attire!)

*Important Notes/Reminders:

Homework: Reading for fun from family personal library, letter/sound cards in reading pack, alphabet letter Rr

*Arrival must be at door 10. Please sign students in late at the office and let them walk down alone to promote independence. Parents need to say goodbye at the door! If a parent is to volunteer/chaperone at McCollough Elementary they need to have a “background check” completed and okayed through the state of Michigan. I will be sending these home this week.

*Lunch: Lunch has been going SO well! Please make sure that you are going over the lunch menu every night with your child so they know what if for lunch each day. If you have a lunch you need to drop off you can take it to the office and they will call us. Please help us promote independence. Thank you 🙂

*Dismissal has been really crazy lately. In order to keep things safe for your child please make sure that you are here on time and stand to one side of the door. I would like to keep my parents on the grass and just let the students exit to the right. I have an idea, If you show up at 2:55pm I will start dismissing the students early. I think this helps to avoid the mad rush of the second grade families and older siblings. So let’s try this starting tomorrow? Hopefully it will me more smooth for all it is so hard to make sure that each one of my precious babies are safely in their loved ones arms and I am very responsible for each and every one. Thank you so much for your help!

*If you have NOT signed up for parent teachers conferences please come and see the teacher after school this week to sign up. I do need to pick up Benjamin after school still because of my husband’s injured hip so I can only stay until 3:10pm. If you come at 2:55pm it will help in this matter as well 🙂

Book Bags: This week your children will begin bringing home a book bag. Be patient the teacher will begin meeting individually with each child during our Daily Five stamina practice and will get All reading packs home by Friday afternoon! This bag will contain materials that will help your child reach their literacy goal. Since each child in the class has DIFFERENT needs and goals and is learning to read at their own pace the materials in each child’s bag will be different. Please don’t worry or compare your child to another child we are all unique and at different developmental levels. However, this is where you and I MUST partner to help your child PROGRESS  and move forward. Please have your child practice the items in their bags each night for about 20-30 minutes TOPS and return it each school day. The yellow and green flash cards belong in here now. In addition, your child may be ready for the “sight word” program and will also have their “green card” in the bag as well. This much LIVE in here and never be left at home. Thank you so much in advance for your help this year it’s going to be a GREAT one!!! Directions will be on the Learning Log inside. The learning Log will need to be signed each night by you. Good luck and have fun!

Dear families of 111,

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather over the weekend! We are still excited over at the Ross house for the start of soccer season. Our son Benjamin is on the Dearborn “Little Kickers” team and it is so adorable. Well we have been working SO hard last week to build up our stamina and expectations for Daily 5 Read-to-Self, Poetry and Math workshop. I am so proud to announce that our class was able to work independently for 10 MINUTES on day 1 and 15 MINUTES on day two of practice! We enjoyed a cookie treat Friday to celebrate our hard work. In the first month of kindergarten it is important to remember that your child is working so hard and tired when getting home. I am going to begin sending home small things for you to work on at home with your child, but we will slowly build up homework expectations. As something new comes home, I will post new blog directions.

Here is what you can expect this week in kindergarten…

Letter Focus: M m

Word(s) of the week: to

Reading: Practicing Daily 5 stamina for Read-to-Self and working with the book “Rainbow Fish”

Math: Continuing working on numbers from 0-5 and number sense talks and math workshop expectations and work stations

Poetry: Little Miss Muffett looking for the letter M, S, and the words the and to and rhyming words

Writer’s Workshop: What is a writer? Expectations and working on “Rainbow Fish” connections how to be a good friend.

PBIS: This week we will continue to work on learning about the PBIS behavior system for great behavior and positive rewards. Monday, your child will bring home their folder with the PBIS calendar in the back. PLEASE KEEP IT in the folder in the back all year and I will collect it and switch it each month. As a parent, I need your help to partner with me and discuss all the wonderful and challenging days your child has each day/week/month this year. Also, at the end of the week please initial the column for parents and I will know you are communicating with your child about their school manners. Remember, your child is NOT a perfect person and we do not expect them to be! But, this PBIS system is meant to stop bullying in school and reward your child when they are actively behaving well and being “respectful, responsible and safe.” Please help me “teach” your child how to correct and maintain the desired behaviors of McCollough Students. In addition, this month is practice and the colors they bring home will NOT count officially until October!

Homework:

This week we will ease into homework by working on the letter ‘M m’ assigned for phonics. This homework assignment is due on Friday and will be added to your child’s spelling and phonics folder in school.

#1. Cut or print 3 pictures from the internet, magazines, grocery store flyers etc. to place on the back of the paper (pictures must be small enough to paste on this single page). In addition, you and your child will work hard on all the letters and sounds in the alphabet, your child’s name reading and writing, and any of the suggested activities you wish to do on the front of the paper!

#2 Your child needs to practice writing their name at the top of the page on the back.

#3Underneath each picture you cut and paste please have your child attempt to phonetically spell the word. For example under the picture of a milk jug they would write milk the best they can. Have them stretch it our slowly and write what they hear. You do not need to fix it unless it is completely unreadable lol (I’d like to see what they hear!)

#4 Write the capital and lowercase letter 5 times each in the correct square.

*Each Friday, I will collect these and the idea is to create a folder to help your child practice letters and sounds during “word work” in Daily5! Thank you in advance for all your help!

                                                                                            ex.)    Mieelk

*Dates to Remember:

September 22, back to school carnival!

NWEA: testing has begun and this month your child will be pulled out individually to see how well they do in math and language arts. This is just the first/baseline test. Please make sure your child is getting a good night sleep!

Greetings families of room 111!

We did it! We survived our first week of kindergarten. Whew, it was a hot one. Well let me officially welcome you to my blog and ask that you reply “hello Mrs. Ross” if you have gotten this post today at your nearest convenience. I just want to make sure that you are getting the up to date important information each week. As we head into our first whole week here is what you need to know! Please make sure you child brings their blue homework folder from Mrs. Ross every day and also a backpack/lunch every day! School begins at 8:00am and ends at 3:00pm each day at door 10. If you ever need to pick up your child early please remember to go to the office and have them CALL down to have your child meet you there. Also, make sure your child wears the proper gym clothes on Friday this week!

In addition, I would like to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to families that have sent in supplies for their child and/or dry erase markers, pencils, wipes for the class etc. If you would still like to donate supplies we’d greatly appreciate it 🙂

Week ahead at a glance: We will begin to slowly introduce the expectations and daily routines for Writer’s Workshop, Daily 5 Literacy program (Read to Self) and Math Workshop. Be sure to ask your child about these content areas and how it is going. We will be tracking our “stamina” for Daily 5 Read-to-Self so make sure to ask how many minutes we have! We will also begin building our word wall immediately with our names and a few sight words this week. We will be on the lookout for the letter “s” everywhere so help your child find it at home and discuss what it sounds like! We will enjoy the poem the “Itsy Bitsy Spider”!

It is going to be a VERY busy week! Thank you very much for meeting with me last week during soft start. You have helped give me great insight about where to begin with your child and I thank you for your time!

Monday: No school (I hope you had a wonderful long weekend and holiday) We usually go to gym class on Mondays. Remember gym shoes for Friday!
Tuesday: First full day! Remember to get a great sleep and pack a lunch/bring your money. Today we will go to music and art class. Please make sure your child brings their homework folder every day. We are also going to introduce our PBIS school expectations this week and will place the paper in the back of the homework folders. Please discuss your child’s behavior every night and make sure to initial it at the close of each week.

Wednesday: Enrichment (computer class) Also, please join us Wednesday, September 14th from 4:00pm to 5:30pm!

Thursday: Today we will go to music

Friday: Today we will have gym again so please remember to dress accordingly and wear the proper gym shoes!

Looking forward to another wonderful week in kindergarten!

Mrs. Ross