First Day!

We had a good first day to the new school year!  I hope your child felt the same way!

Line Order

At Arnold School every class has a line order.  We do this to help keep things orderly and decrease arguing and fighting.  Each child has a specific spot in line that they always stand in.  In my classroom, we will eventually rotate this line, with a new line leader each day.  That may start next week!  In order to learn our line order spots we played a game in which the kids had to get in line in their spot by the time our song was over.  They were really good at it!

Recess

We learned today that there are five recess zones:

1. chalk
2. pavement
3. equipment
4. walk and talk
5. field

In order to learn the rules of each zone, this week and next week we will be rotating through the zones as a class.  Today we played at field and chalk.  I know it's hard not playing in the area they want these first days of school, but the kindergarten teachers feel it is best for the safety of all students!  We assure you and the kids that they will soon be able to play where they choose!

The Kissing Hand

I hope you all got your gift from your child...a Kissing Hand!  We read a story about a little raccoon who was unsure about going to school, so his mother gave him a kiss on his hand to keep with him to know that she always loves him!  Now you have your own kissing hand from your child!

Dismissal

I apologize for the craziness of dismissal!  It will get better as the school year goes on!  Just so you know, your child will get a  good-bye stick when we leave our classroom.  They need to give it back to me and give me a high-five or a hug when they leave so I know they have left.  Thanks for you support on this in advance!

PICTURES

And now, the part you've been waiting for.....first day pictures!

Zahraa

 Brooklyn

Jackson

Rylan

Kandi

Andrew

Aniya

Rowan

Peter

 Katie

Caleb

Ali

Simiyah

 Audrey

 Chuobath

Michael 

Emma

Alaya

Matti

Libby

Inara

Cole

WELCOME!!

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2012-2013 school year!  Thank you to all who were able to come to Back to School Night last night!  I had a great time meeting you all and look forward to a great school year!

My goal is to update our blog page once a week to let you know what we've been doing in the classroom.  I try to add pictures as much as possible to make it more fun! :-)

Meet the Teachers!

At Arnold Elementary we work together as a team of teachers to best meet the needs of your child.  Check out the Arnold website HERE to check out who the other kindergarten teachers are!  We, as a team, have shared goal, priorities, and expectation for all the students and work together to make sure each child is learning to his or her potential!

Miss Boltz

This year, first semester, we will have a student teacher in our classroom.  Miss Boltz is a student as the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.  She has already been in our classroom helping get it ready and will be with us until the beginning of December.  Miss Boltz has lived in Lincoln her whole life and has seven brothers and sisters!  She is very excited to learn with your children throughout this semester!

April 16-20

In writers' workshop we have been working on adding voice to our stories. We've learned that to do this we can add people talking, different size font, and punctuation. This week we also learned that we can add the "inside" story. We want to tell what we were: thinking, feeling, remembering, or wishing. Here is a story written by Jace that has some awesome voice!

I was going to my grandpa's. I said, "Yipee" I said to my family.

I got there. I was running to the door. My grandpa, he was happy.

I finally went to swim. I felt happy. I got my swim suit on. Then I jumped in the water. Then I went home.

We also had a new word wall word this week as shown here by Garrette.

We also talked about the letter Jj and the -ug word family.

***Math Bags***

Please remember that if you would like a math bag to work on unit 5 math skills with your child, please let me know! I have given out 3 so far and have several others the kids can be using! Just send me an email or talk to me before or after school!

This Week AND Last Week!

I just somehow can't seem to be able to catch up this year! So here's what we've been working on last week and this week!

First up is Aidan and Zachary doing math routines. First we circle the number we are working on that day on our 120 poster.

Then we write an equation to show what the number means. For example:

115=110+15.

Then we do finger flashes to show that number counting by tens and then ones.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred, one hundred ten, one hundred eleven, one hundred twelve, one hundred thirteen, one hundred fourteen, one hundred fifteen. (Whew!)

The words we have been working on for these two weeks are:

I'm sure many of your children came home last Friday talking about the rodeo! The UNL Rodeo Club came out to school and put on a show for the kids and then let them pet some of the animals they brought. They had a couple horses and a couple calves!

The big book we read this week was called, Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash. It was about a woman who not only hangs up her clothes, but everything else she can find! The kids really enjoyed it. You'll have to ask your child what all she hung up on her clothesline!

Remember: THERE IS NO SCHOOL FRIDAY, APRIL 6 AND MONDAY, APRIL 9!

Have a great Easter!

March 19-23

Last week we did a lot of reviewing in literacy. We worked on reading all of the word wall words we've learned so far!

We were finishing up our unit on the Farm. This was one of the kids' favorite big books! You'll have to ask your child what it was about!

In math we worked on comparing the numbers 1-10 to 11-20. The kids noticed that 1 and 11 both had only one cube, and that 2 and 12 both had two cubes, and so on! T

hey also discussed how 1-9 didn't have a ten stick. It took a while, but they realized that they didn't have a ten stick...because they didn't have ten! :-)

March 5-9

This week we are talking about the letter Xx. The alphafriend is Mr. X-ray. We talked about how not many words start with the letter x, but that it is usually at the end!

The words we are working on this week are:

and.....

We will also be taking our Unit 4 math test this week! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD IS AT SCHOOL ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7!!

Homework Sheets!

Just a reminder to finish up your homework sheets over spring break!

They are due on Wednesday, March 21st!

Stealing

One last serious note. We have had some problems with stealing in our classroom over the last week. On two different incidents students were caught taking things of other peoples and intentionally hiding the fact that they did so. We will be talking about this in our classroom throughout the week, but if you could talk to your child about it at home also, I would appreciate it. Stealing is a non-negotiable at Arnold school. If a student is caught stealing they automatically have to go to the office. It may be small, harmless things they are taking, but it is a serious offense. Thank you for you cooperation. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

Literacy

Each week we have a new poem. It usually corresponds with the word wall words we are working on. This week we have been working on the words:

The poem we have been working on is called: What Goes Together? as pictured here by Caiti.

The poem goes like this:

An apple for a teacher.

a bone for a dog,

a nut for a squirrel,

a fly for a frog,

a math for a cat,

a flower for a bee,

a worm for a bird,

a friend for me!

We read the poem each day and then have some of the students read it to the class by themselves. Then on Fridays we write the missing word in (for this week) and color the pictures and put it in our poem folders. To finish off the week, we read through all the poems in our poem folders together on the rug!