New Week!

Good Day to All!
I hope you had a good weekend and didn't get sunburnt like I did! :-) Here's what happening this week in our classroom!

Literacy
We are in our last week of previewing the letters. This week we will focus on the letters Uu-Zz. We are also reading the Aesop Fable of The City Mouse and the Country Mouse. We will read a couple different versions of it and make a class book. We might even make some puppets to act out the story! The kids will learn how to use the listening station and how to read the room with pointers. In writing we will talk about what things we can add to our pictures to tell a story and how to draw simple things and people. Our poem this week is about a Hungry Mouse and the different things it likes to eat. Ask your child about what letter we talked about each day!

Math
We are still working on patterns. I want them to make a pattern beyond just an AB pattern. We have explored AAB and ABB, and a couple kids have come up with ABC and AABBCC! Be practicing these with your buttons from your homework bag or any other items you have at home!

Homework Bags
I will be sending home the homework bags with those childeren who did not make it to curriculum night. I will have a short letter with instructions included. Please make sure you begin to use this regularly!

Have a great week and as always, let me know if you have questions or concerns!

Happy Labor Day!

I hope you all get to have a nice, relaxing Labor Day! Here's what will be going on in our classroom this week.

Literacy
We will continue to focus on previewing the letters of the alphabet. This week we will introduce letters p-t. We will also continue to practice writing our names. We will be practicing doing work stations like pocket chart, ABC, and classroom library. We will also get to go to the media center for the first time and the kids will be able to check out books!

Math
We will be working all this week on patterns. We learned last week about AB patterns, but will be talking also about AAB, ABB, and other kinds of patterns. Any practice seeing or making patterns at home would be appreciated!

Supplies Request!
If you have any paper towel rolls at your house, I would appreciate it if you would send them to school with your child. There's a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activity I would like to do, but it requires the towel rolls! Thanks!

Curriculum Update

We will continue to preview the letters this week focusing on J-Z. Pointing the letters out to your child and talking about what sounds they make would be a great help in the classroom.

In math I will be assessing the kids' sorting skills. They need to be able to sort items in at least 2 ways. Last week we learned how to sort by color and shape. This week we will talk about size and kind. Any practice at home on these skills would also be beneficial for you child!

And just a reminder that Tuesday is an early out day. The kids will be dismissed at 2:18 so we can meet as teams in order to bring your children the best we possibly can!

Kindergarten News

We're still getting used to the schedule, routines, rules and new faces. Here are some concepts we are working on that you could ask about!

Literacy:
Rhyming ~ try to work rhyming words into conversation at home. READ and point out rhyming words in books you have at home. We will test the ability to pick out rhyming pairs soon!
Letters ~ we are introducing capital and lowercase letters. Talk about what letter comes at the beginning of your child's name. In class we have started a name chart!

Math:
We are working on position words like ~ top, middle bottom
in and out
above and below
over and under
left and right
Please try to use these words in daily conversations as well!

Writer's Workshop
We are learning that kindergartners can be authors. We've spent the last few days telling oral stories from our lives. We want to kids to be able to tell/write stories that really happened to them. The rest of this week we'll be working on drawing pictures of our stories.

Procedures
And of course we're still working on what the rules are inside and outside and how the school discipline system works. You should have received a note about the school's BIST program and how the students may have to sit in the safe seat or go to the buddy room.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

First Day!

We had a great first day of school this year! We learned about how to make your lunch choice, hang up our backpacks, sit on the rug, and sit at our tables! We read a couple stories about how we are all different, but we can still work together and get along. I took everyone's picture and while I did that the kids got to play with playdough. This was many of the kids' favorite part of the day. Other favorites were recess, lunch, and making their handprint after we read The Kissing Hand. This is a story about a little raccoon going to his first day of school and his mom kissed his hand so he would know she was with him all the time. I'm looking foward to the rest of the week!

Oct. 5-9

Next week we will be starting chapter 4 in math which deals with graphs and charts. We will also be working with the short u sounds in phonics. Our new word wall words will be:

are, they, he, where, does

And don't forget conferences on Tuesday and Thursday! Your child should have brought home your scheduled time yesterday. If you have a question of problem with your time please contact me!

Field Trip

We had a great field trip yesterday! The kids had fun and saw lots of different plants and animals. Here are some pictures I took!