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!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

I am SO excited for the new school year, and I cannot wait to meet all of you! Take a peek at the photos below to learn all about Mrs. Riesing. See you soon!

Weekly News (June 5-9)

Wow! I cannot believe how quickly these last few weeks have flown by. It has been a true pleasure working with you and your children this year, and I am so proud of all of the progress they have made. Can't wait to see them in the fall as first graders! I hope you all have a fun and relaxing summer vacation! Thank you for a TERRIFIC year!

End of Year from Kathy Riesing on Vimeo.

Weekly News (May 22-June2)

We've been busy in kindergarten! Take a peek to see what we have been up to!

Math
We have been learning more about time and the parts of a clock. We practiced telling time to the hour and discussed the difference between analog and digital clocks. We also learned how to solve addition and subtraction problems using an in-and-out function machine like the one below.

We also took a closer look at the dollar bill and learned some interesting facts about some of the symbols and numbers that are found on each $1.00 bill. We also practiced counting out dollar bills and learned how to record these amounts using a $ sign. We even figured out how many pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters equal a dollar.

Literacy
Reading Workshop
We spent some building our "reading stamina" this week. The class did a great job reading the books they selected for their book bins and remaining engaged throughout independent reading time.

Writing Workshop
The students spent time writing about their weekends during writing workshop time, and they finished their animal research reports too. The students are looking forward to sharing their reports with our 5th grade buddies later this week!

Science
We also started the last portion of our "Plants and Animals" unit that focuses on how the needs of people are similar to those of plants and animals. We learned how important it is for our bodies to get oxygen. We also learned about the different natural resources we use to get the things we need. We talked about the positive things we can do to use our resources wisely, and we also talked about the different ways people have changed the environment. We even took a walk around the school to look for ways in which people have altered our school environment!

Field Day
The kids had a blast at field day too! Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to help.

Click here to see more photos from the last few weeks!

Weekly News (May 15-19)

Math
This week we practiced solving addition problems as we worked to solve our latest "mystery picture." We also spent some time reviewing patterns and learning about Name Collection Boxes like the one below. We also made number bracelets for the number 10 to help us learn which number pairs add to 10!

Literacy
Reading Workshop
This week we revisited the genre of literary nonfiction--books that look like fiction but really teach us facts about a topic. Using the book Whose House is This? by Elizabeth Gregoire, we learned how authors of literary nonfiction books use descriptive words and colorful illustrations to help us learn new facts about a topic.

I have also been working with students one-on-one to complete some end-of-year assessments including one final guided reading benchmark assessment. The growth the children have made as readers this year is amazing! They have become so engaged during independent reading time and continue to build their reading stamina each day!

Writing Workshop
The students have been diligently working on their animal research reports as they added information about what their animals eat as well as a few fun facts. They can't wait to share their reports with our 5th grade buddy class!

Science
This week we began to explore the world of plants. We talked about what we think we know about plants as well as what we want to learn. We also met our class plant--a philodendron that has been growing in our classroom all year. Click here to see how our plant has changed over the course of the year! We learned that plants need both light and water in order to grow. We also learned that plants soak up water and nutrients from the soil, and a plant's roots keep it from falling over. We even planted our own zinnia seeds in our classroom greenhouse, which have already started to bloom! This upcoming week we will spend some time investigating some of the plants in our courtyard!

Fall

Spring

Watching our seeds grow!

Getting Ready for First Grade!
What a great way to practice getting ready for first grade---eating lunch in the lunchroom! The class was thrilled to be able to eat lunch at school. We went over the hot lunch routine as well as some of the lunchroom rules. They did an outstanding job with the lunch routine, and they enjoyed every minute of it!

Click here to see more photos from the week!

Thanks for reading!

Weekly News (May 8-12)

The highlight of our week was definitely our Kindergarten Musical. I pasted a few photos below, but click the following links to see more photos and videos from the program! I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful Mother's Day!

Kindergarten Musical Photos

Kindergarten Musical Videos

It was great seeing all of you!

Hope you enjoy the rest of this beautiful weekend!