Weekly News (Sept. 2-5)

Well, it was another great week in Kindergarten! The children continue to do a terrific job learning our classroom routines and expectations. They are making new friends and becoming familiar with our school and staff. Here is what we have been learning this week!

Math
This week we explored our pattern blocks. We talked about the different attributes of each block including color, size, and shape. We sorted the shapes by the number of sides and took a closer look at all of the shapes with four sides--so many differences! 

The children have also been doing a great job with our calendar and weather routine in the morning. Each day our "Hello Helper" gives a weather report and adds the next number to our calendar. Our "Hello Helper" also counts the number of days we have been in school. We use a place value pocket chart like the one below to help us keep track of our days!

Jolly Phonics

We introduced the first three Jolly Phonics sounds this week! 

/s/ as in "snake"

/a/ as in "apple"

/t/ as in "tennis"

Learning the Jolly Phonics sounds is not only important in helping the children learn how to read, it is just as important in helping the children as they learn to express their ideas in writing. We will continue to add new sounds to our Jolly Phonics Sounds Books each week. Please practice these sounds nightly with your child!

Please use this mini sound book to practice sounds at home and keep it in your child's blue book bag so we can add to it at school!

Literacy

The children enjoyed listening to several stories this week including Only One You read by Mrs. Beane, our assistant principal. This simple story about a young fish ready to begin his own life reminds us that, "There's only one you in this great big world, and we should make it a better place!" After listening to the story, the children designed their own unique fish that we displayed in the hallway for all to see!

The children also listened to several other stories this week including: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, and a new class favorite Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes. Click on the link below to hear the audio version of this story and be sure to stay tuned next week for two more Pete the Cat books!!

Click here to listen to this story!

The children also learned the first of our kindergarten sight words this week and brought home their first sight word book. This sight word book came home in your child's blue book bag. We will continue to add sight word books throughout the year for you and your child to practice reading at home!

Assessments

This week I began meeting with students one-on-one to gather information using our Fountas and Pinnell guided reading assessment, which will help inform my instruction as I work to meet the individual literacy needs of each student. I learn so much about my students when I am able to meet with them one-on-one! While I was assessing students, the rest of the class was busy working at centers. Take a peek at this week's centers below!

Puzzles

Legos

Play-Doh Shapes

Geoboards

Pattern Block Creations

Clean Up Time

Happy Helpers!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (Aug. 25-29)

WOW! What an amazing first week of school! The children have been doing a great job learning our kindergarten routines and getting to know each other. Here is a peek at what we have been up to during our first week.

We began our week with a sweet story called The Kissing Hand. It is a story 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 this 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! After reading the Kissing Hand, we read another Chester story later in the week 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. We even used our handprints to make a Chester craft with a poem!

Tracking Chester's footprints

Reading a message from Chester

The children also worked on a "My First Week in Kindergarten" book where they practiced some of their writing and drawing skills.  They 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!

We 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 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. 

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!

Matching upper and lowercase letters

Letter naming practice

Identifying quantity 

Missing letter game

Dice rolling game
Looking forward to another great week!
Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Hello Kindergarten friends! I am SO excited to meet you. We are going to have an AMAZING year! I can't wait to hear all about your summer adventures. I hope to see you at the Ice Cream Social this Thursday, August 21 from 5:00-6:30. You can come peek inside your new classroom from 5:00-5:45 and then enjoy a sweet treat in the gym from 5:45-6:30. Looking forward to our very first day together!

Love,

Mrs. Riesing :)

P.S.--I included some pictures below so you can see what my family and I have been up to this summer!

Mr. Riesing, Kate, and James running in the Arlington Stampede Race.

Camping out in our backyard!

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

Enjoying the Wisconsin State Fair

Getting ready for the fireworks!

Weekly News (May 27-30)

It's been another productive week in kindergarten! The children have been busy practicing their math facts, working on their number writing skills, and completing more name collection boxes in math. They have also been busy learning about all different kinds of animals, and they even used our National Geographic magazines to complete a mini-research project. We have been talking all year about how an author's words and pictures or photographs can help us better understand what we are reading or learning about, and this week the children had an opportunity to use their reading skills and their observation skills to learn about an animal from our National Geographic magazines. They did an amazing job with their research and had an opportunity to present their posters to the class. The highlight of the week though was definitely Field Day. The children had a blast playing a variety of games on Friday. I bet they all slept well! 

Weekly News (May 12-23)

Where is May going? The days just seem to be flying by! I cannot believe the school year is coming to an end. I have been busy doing some year end assessing with the students, and I am blown away by how much the children have grown this year! I cannot thank you all enough for the support and encouragement you provide at home. It truly makes a difference!

Math
In math, the children have been practicing their number writing skills. They have also been working on name collection boxes for the numbers 0-8. For the number 5, for example, the children wrote down other names for 5 such as: 3 + 2, 6 - 1, 5 + 0, 5 tallies, a nickel, etc. This is an activity that the children will become very familiar with next year in first grade. We have also been busy learning our addition math facts and reviewing how to tell time to the hour. The students have been doing a GREAT job with the math problem solving homework too. They love when we share all the different responses, and we are always amazed at how many different answers there can be!

Literacy
Last week we read different versions of the familiar fairytale The Three Little Pigs and made some comparisons between the stories. In the story The Three Little Javelinas, the hairy javelinas built their homes out of tumbleweed, cactus ribs, and adobe bricks, and instead of a wolf huffing and puffing, there was a coyote knocking down their houses. The children have also been learning about different animals this week as we have been reading both fiction and nonfiction books about different kinds of animals. They also researched an animal in the computer lab using Pebble Go and recorded some of the facts they learned. The children also met in guided reading groups this week and brought home a new book. It's amazing how far they have come as readers this year! The children also enjoyed writing "stick stories" this week. Students chose several stickers and used them to make a scene in their picture box. They filled in the extra space with crayons and markers and wrote a story to match their picture. What creative stories!

Working on a sticker story!

Loving her new book!

Centers
The children have been doing a great job in centers while I have been meeting with students one-on-one to do some assessing. Take a peek at our centers below! 

Weekly News (May 5-9)

All About Me

The morning class loved Nell's Me Box and learning about all of her favorite things. We learned that Nell loves Hello Kitty and My Little Pony. She is is a big fan of Despicable Me, and she enjoys swimming. She loves spending time with her family and she is very creative!

Our afternoon class welcomed a new student this week.
We are SO happy to have you in our class Paige!

Math

This week we played a game called "Number Gymnastics" that helped the children develop their mental math skills and strengthen their number sense. For example, I would ask a series of questions such as:

What number has a 3 as the first digit and a 1 as the second digit?--31

What number do you get if you flip these two digits around?--13

What number comes after 13?--14

What number do you get if you reverse those two digits?--41

It's another great game to play at home or in the car! This  children also learned how to apply basic addition and subtraction rules this week as they learning how to use "In and Out Machines." (see sample below) This type of exercise helps children see the relationship between adding and subtraction.

This is a sample of an "In and Out Machine." Our addition problems were more simple than this, but it gives you an idea of how this function machine works. You will be seeing a lot of these in first grade and beyond!

Literacy

We learned two new sight words this week--my and with--and the children also brought home a new sight word book. This week our theme of amazing creatures continued as we ventured into the land of dinosaurs. The children spent much of their week working on a special writing project for Mother's Day. I hope you enjoyed their gift--such sweet and thoughtful ideas! I also met with students in their guided reading groups this week. Next week I will begin doing some end of year assessments with the students one-on-one. It's amazing to think about how far they have come since August! I am so proud of these kiddos!

Music Program

Thank you all so much for coming out Friday to see our "Spring Sing!" The children did such a lovely job, and it was great seeing all of you. Here is a group photo from the show. What a wonderful group of children!

Weekly News (April 28-May 2)

All About Me

This week the morning class learned all about Jonas' favorite things! It was easy to see how much Jonas enjoys building with Legos! He also loves swimming and Star Wars. Jonas loves spending time with his family, especially when they go on vacation, and he did a great job sharing the photos he used to decorate his Me Box! 

Math
The students were excited to use their ladybug clocks this week to practice telling time to the hour. Thank you SO much for your help preparing them at home! They have come in handy during our math lessons this week! Please continue to use the ladybug clocks at home for practice telling time and even keep it handy for first grade when the children learn how to tell time to 5-minute intervals. Continued practice counting by 5's will help them be ready for this skill as well as counting nickels. The children learned a new game this week called High Roller. This game can be played by 2 players or in small groups.  Players take turns.  One player rolls 2 dice.  The player keeps the die with the larger number (the High Roller) and throws the other die again.  The player then counts on from the number rolled on the first die to get the sum of the two dice. For example, the player rolls a 4 and a 6. They keep the 6 and re-roll the 4 and get a 3. The player counts on to get a total and says, "6, 7, 8, 9." The goal of this game is to encourage the children to use the "counting on" strategy for addition, which requires them to name the number of dots on the first die and then count on using the second die. The children LOVED this game, and one student in the morning class even said, "This is the best game ever!" It's a fun an easy game to play at home!  The children also brought home their May calendars this week. I love hearing about all of the ways the children are using their calendars at home! The highlight of the week in math was our Math Centers on Friday. A HUGE thank you to all of the parents who came to help with our centers. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to help the children practice their math skills!

Learning with our ladybug clocks

Math Centers

Literacy

This week our read aloud stories and some of our writing focused on amazing creatures of the deep ocean. The children enjoyed listening to the stories Rainbow Fish, Big Al, and A House for Hermit Crab this week and learning about unique fish in the nonfiction book Fish Faces. The children in the morning class also enjoyed two stories read by Jonas's mom this week. Thank you! We also made mini-books about an octopus living in the ocean to add to our book bags along with a new sight word book to reinforce our new words--look and has. The children continue to add sight words to their word rings in their book bags. Please continue to practice these words at home. We want the children to recognize these words automatically when reading so they can use their energy to tackle more challenging words and to help them read more fluently. The children also worked on sorting words by word family and completed a sequencing and writing activity. A copy of our April song also came home this week. Here is the afternoon class singing it one more time!