What an amazing first week of kindergarten! I have truly enjoyed meeting each new kindergarten family, and I have LOVED getting to know each of my students. They have been doing a TERRIFIC job learning our class routines, and they are already making new friends. Take a peek below to see what we have been learning this week!
We began our week with a sweet story titled The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. It was a familiar story for many students about a little raccoon named Chester who was nervous about going to school until his mother told him a story about a special "kissing hand." After 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. After reading the story, we made our own "kissing hands," and then Chester sent us on scavenger hunt around the school. He lefts hearts for us to find all over the school, and along the way we met many new and friendly faces!
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| Our first clue...a Chester pawprint! |
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| This clue led us to the library to meet Mrs. O'Kelly and Mrs. Kenney. |
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| Another clue....time to meet Mrs. Fuglestad! |
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| Where did that Chester go? Mrs. Sessler tries to help us find him! |
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| The heart that Chester left behind for us as a reminder of the Kissing Hand! |
The children loved listening to several other Chester stories throughout the week as well and talking about the important message in each story. In A Pocketful of Kisses, 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 Chester realize that she has plenty of love and kissing hands to give. In Chester and the Bully, the children learned all about how to be a good friend, and in Chester the Brave, we learned that sometimes we have to try new things even if they seem challenging.
The children also worked on a "My First Week in Kindergarten" book where they practiced some of their writing and coloring skills. This book came home in the students' backpacks today!
We also began our calendar routine this week which provides time for us to practice many math concepts including: counting and identifying numbers; recognizing numbers that come before and after a given number; identifying the days of the week and the months of the year; and beginning to understand the concept of place value as we keep track of the number of days we have been in school. We also introduced our "Hello Helper" routine. Each day we will have a new helper who will guide us through our calendar routine and act as our line leader. Always an exciting part of our day!
The children also had several opportunities to practice working cooperatively in a group during center time. Take a peek at some of our Chester-themed centers below!
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| Memory Matching Game |
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| Upper and Lowercase Letter Matching |
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| Roll and Cover |
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| Number Matching |
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| Upper and Lowercase Letter Matching |
We also learned a new game this week called "The Letter Bag Game" that reinforced our lettering naming and sorting skills as we named different letters of the alphabet and then sorted them into two categories--upper and lowercase letters.
The children were thrilled to spend some time in our interactive play centers as well. It was a great opportunity for them to practice cooperative learning skills such as turn-taking, teamwork, and sharing!
Hope you enjoyed our first kindergarten blog post!
Have a TERRIFIC weekend!
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