Weekly News (Sept. 18-22)

Wow! It sure feels like the middle of summer this week with these warm temps and sunny skies, but the first day of fall has officially arrived and we are excited!

Math
This week in math we continued to explore the concepts of same and different and introduced the numbers 4 and 5. We practiced counting collections of objects up to 5 and practiced writing these numbers as well! We even designed our own pretend animals and practiced counting while we used numbers to label our pictures.

Designing a pretend animal

The afternoon class sharing their design and finding similarities and differences!

Jolly Phonics
We learned the sounds and motions for the following letters this week. Check out the videos below to help remember these sounds!

/c/ as in "clock"
/k/ as in "kite"
/e/ as in "egg"
/h/ as in "hot"

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter C

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter K

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter E

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter H

Literacy
This week during reading workshop, the children continued to practice our workshop routines so that we can grow and develop as readers. During our interactive read aloud lesson, we read But Excuse Me That is My Book by Lauren Child, which is a story about a girl named Lola who goes to the library to check out her favorite book only to find out that someone else has already checked it out. Her brother Charlie tries to help her see that there are other books at the library she might enjoy. As we read through the story and Charlie showed Lola different kinds of books, the students gave a thumbs up or a thumbs down to show their interest in a particular genre. They had some time to pick a book from our classroom library and practice thinking about whether or not it was a book that would interest them. Then they shared their book choices with their partners.

This was one of our first steps to help the children begin to reflect on themselves as readers and to help them begin to answer the question, "Who Am I as a Reader?" Thank you SO much for working with your child to complete our two reading interest surveys. The information from these surveys will be very helpful in the coming weeks as the children learn how to shop for books for their individual book bins.

We also revisited a lesson from last week where we learned the difference between letters, words, and sentences. After rereading the poem The Itsy Bitsy Spider and finding examples of letters and words, the students picked a book from our class library and found examples of letters, words, and sentences.

Zones of Regulation
The children were introduced to the Zones of Regulation this week. Students learned that our feelings and emotions can fall into four zones, which can be compared to traffic signs like the ones below. Our goal is to be in the green zone when we're feeling happy, so that we're "Good to go!" and ready to learn. We read the book The Way I Feel and then sorted different emotions into the four zones. Throughout the course of the year, we will practice how to identify our emotions, and then we will learn strategies to help us get back to the green zone when needed.

We also spent some time talking about feeling safe and happy at school. We learned that when we see or experience hurtful behavior, we should say "STOP" in a firm voice and walk away. The students also learned that if the behavior continues, they should find the nearest adult right away.

Name Centers
This week the students rotated through several centers that focused on upper and lowercase letters as well as activities related to our names.

ABC Puzzle

Sorting upper and lowercase letters

Name puzzles

Spelling the names of our friends

Using magnetic letters to spell our names

All About Me
This week both classes enjoyed our first "Me Bag" presentations of the school year! In the morning, Eva did a great job sharing some of her favorite things. We learned that Eva loves pizza and ice cream, and she is a big fan of Super Heroes. She also enjoys playing with Legos and spending time with her family and her dog Rocco! We also learned about a special visit Eva and her family took to the Walnut Room downtown when she received a special gift from a fairy. So exciting!

Thank you to Eva's mom for sharing one of her favorite books!

The afternoon class was excited to learn all about Mohaimn and some of his favorite things. We learned that Mohaimn is a big fan of superheroes, and his favorite color is blue. He enjoys coloring and playing with his collection of toy cars. Mohaimn is also a big fan of How to Train Your Dragon, and he enjoys spending time with his family!

For more photos from the week click HERE.

Weekly News (Sept. 11-15)

I cannot believe we are already through are first three weeks of kindergarten! It's great to see the children adjusting to our classroom routines, making new friends, and getting excited about what we are learning. Take a peek below to see what we have been up to this week!

Math
This week we continued to explore the numbers 1 and 2 and began learning about the number 3. We practiced counting groups of 3 and writing the number 3. We also continued to explore the concept of same and different while we worked to make "matches" and identify attributes that were not the same when comparing objects. We also worked to sort objects using a single attribute such as size, shape, or color.

Jolly Phonics
The children are doing a great job learning our new letter sounds, including the three new sounds we learned this week:

/i/ as in "igloo"
/p/ as in "pig"
/n/ as in "noise"

They have been doing a great job learning our new sounds and coloring their Jolly Phonics pictures. We have been using these coloring opportunities as the students' first self-reflection experience using our coloring rubric. It's amazing to see how much pride the children take in their work when they are able to reflect on their progress and feel good about their work!

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter I

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter P

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter N

Reading Workshop
The children also did a great job during our first reading workshop lessons of the year. During our first lesson, the children were introduced to all of the mentor texts that we will be using during our Launch Unit. We practiced "turning and talking" with our partners on our rainbow rug as we explored our collection of books. We also learned that good readers look closely at the cover of a book to predict what it might be about. Then we spent some time exploring books from bins at our tables and practiced looking closely at the cover of each book to help us make predictions.

LMC
The children listened to Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom during storytime in the LMC, and then they had their first computer experience in the LMC later in the week as they practiced navigating their way to our LMC homepage using our laptop computers. They also practiced using the track pad to drag and drop letters using an interactive game to go along with the book Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom!

Morning Class

Afternoon Class

Guest Reader

Next week will have our first student bring in their "Me Bag" to share with the class. As part of each student's "Me Week," a parent or family member can come into our classroom to share a story with the class on Friday. Our "Me Bag" schedule was sent home at Curriculum Night with your child's assigned week. If you have any questions or the date your child was assigned doesn't work for you, just let me know! This week it was Mrs. Riesing's week to share her "Me Bag" and her mom even came in to read a story to the class. They loved meeting "Suzy Squirrel!"

September 11th: National Day of Service and Remembrance

A big thank you to Mrs. Sessler and some of our 5th grade students for leading us as we sang "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land" and the Dryden song as we remembered September 11th.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Click HERE to see more photos or use the link at the top of our blog!

Weekly News (Sept. 5-8)

Another great week in kindergarten! Take a peek below to see what we've been up to!

Math
We began our math lessons this week using our new Math in Focus program. Our first unit will focus on learning about the numbers to 5 and identifying similarities and differences between objects. We took a closer look at the numbers 1 and 2 this week and used our interactive white board to find pictures that represent 1 and 2. We also talked about "making a match" as we described how objects are the same and how they are different. Then we played a game where students took turns "making a match" using a collection of math manipulatives such as counters and linking cubes.

Making a match

Jolly Phonics
We introduced our first three Jolly Phonics sounds this week! We learned the sound and motion for each of the following letters.

/s/ as in "snake"
/a/ as in "apple"
/t/ as in "tennis"

Thank you so much for all your support at home helping your children with their Jolly Phonics notebooks. It's exciting to see all of the different ideas the children come up with, and they love sharing their favorite example with the class!

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter S

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter A

Click HERE to listen to the video for the letter T

Literacy
We enjoyed several Pete the Cat books this week that helped us learn all about being flexible and going with the flow. Pete helped us understand that it's okay when things don't go our way or when a challenge arises and that it's helpful to keep a positive attitude and keep moving on. Click on the pictures below to watch and listen to these great stories!

Blue Book Bags
We learned our first two sight words this week-- I and can-- and added these words to our new blue book bags. We added our first sight word book to our bags too! Please carve out some time each day to practice reading the sight words and sight word books in your child's blue bag. We will be adding new words and a sight word book each week, so if you could remember to keep the book bag in your child's backpack, that would be great! Thanks so much for your support at home. It really makes a difference!!

Click HERE or the link at the top of the page to see a few more photos!

Looking forward to another great week!

Weekly News (Aug. 28-Sept. 1)

It has been a fun and busy first week in kindergarten! I absolutely love getting to know each and every one of my students, and I am looking forward to a FANTASTIC year! The children have been doing a nice job learning all of our new kindergarten routines, and they are already making new friends. Take a peek below to see what we have been learning this week!

Morning Kindergarten

Afternoon Kindergarten

We began our week with a sweet story titled The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. In this story, Chester raccoon is nervous about going to school until she tells 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 found a letter from Chester with some clues that sent us on a scavenger hunt around the school. He lefts hearts and clues for us to find all over the school, and along the way we met many new and friendly faces!

Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Sprenger

Mrs. Sessler

Mrs. O'Kelly in the LMC

Art Teacher Mrs. Fuglestad

Music Teacher Mr. Deptula

P.E. Teacher Mr. Gries

The children loved listening to several other Chester stories through the week as well that helped us learn about sharing, being a good friend, and the importance of trying new things even if they seem challenging!

The children were also excited to spend some time playing some Chester-themed games during center time. Check us out in action below!

Upper and Lowercase Letter Match

Roll-and-Cover Number Match

Number Match

Memory

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. Click HERE to watch the "Days of the Week" song we have been singing! 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 for the day. The children LOVE when it is their turn to be the special helper!

The class was thrilled to spend some time in our interactive play centers too. It was a great opportunity for them to practice cooperative learning skills such as turn-taking, teamwork, and sharing!

We also had a chance to attend each of our specials classes this week, which include: music, art, physical education, and time in the LMC to check out new books and engage with technology.

Afternoon Music Teacher Mrs. Tosheva

Mrs. Kenney in the LMC

I hope you all enjoyed our first kindergarten blog post!

Click HERE to see more photos from our first week.

Have a TERRIFIC weekend!