Weekly News! (Aug. 26-30)

It's official!  We have successfully completed our first full week of kindergarten, and it's been a super week!  The children have done a great job learning our daily routines, and we are off to a great start.  Take a peek below to see what we have been learning this week.

Math
This week in math, we spent some time exploring and sorting our pattern blocks.  We talked about the different colors of our blocks as well as the number of sides each block had.  Then we named each shape.

We also worked together to create a class pictograph using our interactive whiteboard to show the different ways we get to school each day.  Then we counted up the total number of children for each type of transportation.  Check out our results below!

 K-2 How Do We Get to School?

We began reviewing some of our shapes this week including the circle, square, and triangle.  We completed a sorting activity with our dinosaur friend "Circle-osaurus!" Circle-osaurus was a very hungry dinosaur, but he was very picky.  He would only eat circles!  The children did a great job completing this shape sorting activity that also reinforced following directions and fine motor skills!

Literacy

The children absolutely LOVED our Pete the Cat read aloud stories this week.  They were still singing Pete's songs come Friday!  In all the books we read this week, Pete helped us learn that even when things don't go our way, we should keep a positive attitude and keep moving on because as Pete says, "It's all good!"  Below are the three Pete the Cat books we read this week.  I included a link to the song for each book.  I know the children will love hearing the stories again and again, and I am sure they would be thrilled to check them out at the library too!

Click here for link to this story.

Click here for the link to this story.

Click here for the link to this story.

We also reviewed our ABC's this week while reading a big book titled Animals in the Park during shared reading and during read aloud when we read Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten.  We completed several ABC activities that reviewed both upper and lowercase letters, and we reviewed the sequence of the alphabet while singing the ABC song!  We finished in our "First Week in Kindergarten Books" as well, which we will keep in our classroom writing portfolios.

Assessment

This week I began meeting with students individually to assess their literacy skills.  I have been using the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking Assessment to determine students' reading levels.  This information will help me to organize our guided reading groups.  I love meeting with the students one-on-one.  It really helps me get to know each of my students!  While I was assessing, the rest of the students were working in centers throughout the room, and they did an AWESOME job using whisper voices as they worked!

Gym and Music

Take a peek below to get a glimpse of music and gym class!

Morning Kindergarten in Music Class

Afternoon Kindergarten in Gym Class

Thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend!

Weekly News! (Aug. 21-23)

We did it!  We made it through the first three days of school, and it's been a great start!  I love getting to know my new students, and they have been doing a great job learning all of our daily routines.  Here are some of the activities we worked on this past week.

Math
As a class, we created a graph titled "How many letters are in your name?" Each student added their name to our graph, and we figured out which students had the shortest and longest names in our class.  We also counted the total number of letters in our names.  Check out the graph from the afternoon class below!

K-4's Name Graph

Literacy
The children have enjoyed listening to some Chester stories this week during read aloud.  After reading the Kissing Hand on Wednesday, we read another Chester story on Thursday titled A Pocketful of Kisses.  In this story, Chester becomes sad and a little jealous when he sees his mother giving his little brother a Kissing Hand too.  Chester feels better after his mother helps him realize that she has plenty of love and Kissing Hands to give.

The children also practiced writing their name and the letters of the alphabet in a "My First Week in Kindergarten" book.  We will also complete a "My Last Week in Kindergarten" book at the end of the year, which will be a great way to see the children's growth.

Hard at work!

Centers
This week the children had time to explore some of the centers in our classroom.  Our centers change regularly and reinforce many of the skills and concepts we are working on in class.  Our centers include activities with an academic focus as well as centers that reinforce creative play and social skills.  Take a peek at our morning class exploring some of our centers!

Thanks for reading!  Have a great weekend!

Our First Day in Kindergarten!

What a great way to start the school year!  The children had a wonderful day.  They were so excited to unpack all of their supplies and get their materials organized.  We played a getting to know you game, and we read a sweet story called The Kissing Hand.  It was about a little raccoon named Chester who was nervous about going to school until his mother shares a family secret called "The Kissing Hand."  By placing a kiss in the palm of Chester's hand, she tells him that he will always have his mother in his heart no matter where he goes.  The children loved the story, and they loved the scavenger hunt Chester sent us on throughout the school.  Chester left hearts for us to find, and along the way we met many new and friendly faces!  I cannot wait for another great day tomorrow!

Morning Kindergarten

Afternoon Kindergarten

Afternoon Kindergarten spotted a heart by the gym doors!

Morning Kindergarten spotted a heart near the library!

Ice Cream Social Night!

Thank you so much to all of the families who attended Ice Cream Social Night!  I had such a great time meeting all of my new kindergarten students, and I cannot wait to see them again on Wednesday!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 School Year!

Hello Kindergarten Families! 

I am so excited for the upcoming school year.  We are going to have a great year!  I hope you will be able to come to the Ice Cream Social next Monday, August 19 from 5:00-6:30.  You will be able to visit in our room from 5:00-5:45, and then you can head to the gym for an ice cream treat!  Both my morning and afternoon classes will be visiting our room at the same time, so you may have to weave your way through the crowd!  Can't wait to see you!