Hi Kindergarten Families,

What a crazy week!  Thank you to all the families that came to help out at the Halloween party!!! It was a huge success! The costumes were amazing and fun was had by all!!! If you have any cute pictures could you please send them to me?  I have a few parents that couldn't attend who would like to see some.  Have a fun and safe Halloween tonight!

Here is what's going on in Kindergarten next week:

Word Wall Words: can, in

Writer’s Workshop: Students have made amazing progress with sounding out words.  Remember, the goal is not for their sounded-out word to be spelled correctly, but for them to begin writing the sounds that they hear in each syllable.   

Art/Science: We will study the life cycle of butterflies and learn facts about butterflies.  

Reading: By now students should know most of their letters and sounds as well as being able to identify the names of the letters. Please be sure to review the alphabet letters and sounds if they are still struggling.  Some students are working on reading simple 3 letter words with “short a” and “short i” middle sounds (ie: cat, ran, bit, pin).  Please help your child practice these skills at home if needed. Students are working on reading with fluency, meaning that if they are slowly decoding (sounding out) each word in a sentence, they should go back to read the sentence smoothly again. Fluency builds confidence, motivation, and is an important step for comprehension. Please help support your child with this skill at home by having them read the paper books over and over again until they are reading them fluently and with confidence.  Please review elements of the story of each book they read.  We have focused on characters, setting, problem and solution.

Math: Students are learning how to solve problems using a variety of strategies which include tally marks, ten frames, number bonds, counting on, and drawings.   Please continue to practice number writing at home if your child is still writing some numbers backwards. 

We have been discussing positive behaviors in class and on the playground.  Please review these guidelines at home.  Students should be keeping their hands and body parts to themselves.  We have had a hard time understanding personal space and students are not liking others in their personal space. In class, we will review the definition of bullying which is when a student repeats the behavior after they have been asked to stop.   Thank you for your support in helping your child understand the importance of personal space!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Hello Families,


Another month is almost gone!  These students are so amazing.  Their growth in academics is incredible.  As I start to assess them for our conferences and report cards, they are blowing me away. 

This week, we have Halloween on Thursday.  We will have centers and party starting at 9:30.  If you are helping, please come around 9:15 to help set up centers and food.  Thank you for the support for the party and thanks to our room moms, Katie, Luzanne, and Erin for getting the Halloween party planned!  Students can not wear scary costumes with blood or weapons.  Please keep those for Trick or Treating at home. Halloween parade is at 10:45.

Conferences are next week Nov. 18-22.  We have our regular schedule.  However, we do not have centers that week. 

Reading: The class has starting reading books with short vowels please practice at home. In RTI, we will be reading the book The Lion and the Mouse.  Students will be asked to talk about characters and setting and cause and effect. 

www:  can, in

Math: We still are using number lines for counting on and back.  We will  introduce the number bond to organize our thinking. We are also working on writing number sentences.

Reminders:
*Halloween Parade 10:45-11:15, Party from 9:30-10:40
*No School on Friday, November 1
*Conferences are Nov. 18-22, please contact me if you don't have a time. I will send home a  reminder to confirm your time.
*No centers conference week and Halloween 
*Picture retake Tuesday , Nov. 5
*No school Monday, Nov.11 in observation of Veterans Day.

Have a great week and a safe Halloween!!

Hello Kindergarten Families,

Time is sure flying! It's hard to believe it's almost Halloween!  We have been having so much fun with our fall projects.  Here is a peek at next week:

Volunteering:  I still have openings for Centers help from 8-9 on Tuesdays.  Even if you can only commit one or two days per month, I would love to have you!

This week, we will be finishing up our "Wild Things theme"as well as our spiders, pumpkins, and bats.  I hope you enjoy playing the games with the pumpkin number line.  There are many other games you can find with a number line on Pinterest and other websites.
The next couple weeks, we will be getting "Career & College" ready theme. This is a school-wide/district wide theme that will be talked about throughout each grade level.  We will be reading Oh the places We'll Go by Dr Suess.  This will open up discuss on what we want to do in the future and what we need to do now to prepare for the future.  We will talk about different careers and paths such as schools that are focused in one area like "engineer" .  This is great time to talk about it at home and what you did to get the job you have too.

word wall words: have


Math: In math, students are coming up with many strategies to solve math word problems.  We have talked about drawing a picture, counting on or back, using a number line or a ten frame and at the end we want the "dessert" which is the number sentence that explains what we did to solve it.  In counting collections, we are starting to group our collection in 2's, 5's, and 10's besides counting by 1's.  You can have them practicing counting collections at home.  If they have a collection have them put them into groups and count them in their groups.


Halloween:  We will have Halloween parade on Thursday, Oct. 31.  It will begin  at 10:45am and end around 11:15 on our upper quad.  Costumes should not have blood and please keep the weapons at home.  Our centers and party will be from 9:30-10:40.  Our room moms sent out a sign up genius for the supplies they need. 

Conferences Nov. 18-21. We will not have centers that week.  Also, we will have the same schedule as normal.  School will start at 7:52 and end at 11:25 on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday.  On Wednesday we will have a restructured day and get out at 12:20.    If you don't have a conference time, please be sure to stop by the classroom for a time or send me an email.

Wish List/Donations:

Crayola twistable crayons
clean up wipes for desks
baby wipes
paper towels
paper plates
gummie bears or sour patch kids
Amazon gift cards
Prize box items
Leveled books for our classroom library

Have a fantastic week!

October 14-17

October 14-17

Hi Kindergarten Families,    

Help Wanted!  I am in need of a Room Parent/Parents.  The  job of Room Parent is to help plan and coordinate and plan class parties and activities, and collect donations for our classroom fund.  Please let me know if you might be interested. Last year, I had two Room Parents so it is a job that can be shared. Halloween is quickly approaching and I would love some help!

Hope to see you at the  Harvest Festival tonight from 5-9!

The new "Star of the Day", this round is about "bring a stuffed animal".    You can put it in a bag with your child's name and 3 clues and return to school.

Reading:  In centers,  we have one more book with sight words and then we will be starting short vowel sounds.  The first book is "Nat at Bat".  Again, please read at home.  Also, when you read at home find books that are at your child's comfort level (Meaning that they can read it with only making a few errors). If not reading yet, have them use a book and tell their own story using the pictures.  Many scholastic books have books that are easy readers and you can find them on their website. As you read together at home, students can locate sight words in books that you read together and talk about characters and settings.  

New Theme: “Monsters and Wild Things”! Our book we will be reading is “Where the Wild Things Are”.  This theme is a great way to discuss the concepts of “Fiction” vs. “Non-Fiction” which we will be comparing through a variety of books and charting the differences between each genre. We will also talk about the “characters”, “setting”, “problem” and “solution” in each book that we read. While reading with your child at home, please ask them to identify these story elements in their favorite stories. 

Art/Music/Science:  We will be finishing up our facts on bats and spiders.  Last, we will be making our own bat. We also have an art teacher that will be coming weekly to our classroom on Thursdays.

Word wall words of the week:  "you", "for"

Math: Students will practice counting forward and backward within 20 using the number line and “counting collections”. They will continue to practice a variety of math strategies with partner collaboration to solve word problems and number sentences.  They are using a number line to tell addition/subtraction stories in class.  

Upcoming Events:

October 16 Spirit Day-Matching Day-Find a friend or two to match outfits!

October 16-Piggie Pie Play

October 31-Halloween Parade for Kinder only will be at 10:45 in the upper quad. Families welcome to come and watch! Halloween Party-9:30-10:30 in our classroom.

Have a great week!

  

Here is what’s going on in Kindergarten this week:

    

Thank you to all of the parents for driving on the field trip.  What a fun day! 

Art/Music/Science: Students will learn songs and create art projects that is focus on classic Halloween animals such as, bats and spiders! 

Reading: We will begin a new series of take-home readers that focus on sounding out simple 3-letter words. The first book is called “Nat at Bat” and it teaches the "-at" word family which includes words such as cat, hat, bat, and sat. Listen to your child read these books each night until they can read them fluently. If you feel that your child needs additional practice, ask them to write a list of as many words as they can that rhyme with "cat" (or whatever the “word family” focus is that week).  In Readers' Workshop we have been working on reading with partners by sitting side-by-side and holding a book in the middle while taking turns reading.  

Math: Our math centers will focus on number sense to 10. Math games will include number lines, ten-frames and a “Which bug will win"game.  We will start word problems next week in which students will use different strategies to solve addition problems.  They will explain their reasoning with the class.  Please continue to practice writing numbers 1-10 correctly at home.  

Sight Words of the Week:  "look"  review: I, like, see, a, the, to, my, go, at, is, and, up, down

Our school's Harvest Festival is this Friday, October 11^th from 5:00-9:00. This is SUCH a fun event! I hope to see you there!  We could still use volunteers to make this night a success!  Please sign up to bring a baked good for our cake walk.  It is the most popular booth.

We still need toilet paper rolls for our bat project in a week!