Friday, November 8, 2024

Heroes Day 2024

 I can't believe that November is already here and it's the end of 1st trimester!

The students have grown so much since the beginning of the year and I look forward to meeting with you next week at parent-teacher conferences to share about their progress.  Parent-teacher conferences are only 15 minutes long and we must stay on schedule or else it affects the scheduling of every teacher and every classroom.  I will use this time to chat about what I see in the classroom, their strengths and any areas they are still growing.  It is important that we meet with all families.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for their report card and the sign-up genius to remind yourself of the day/time you chose.  

A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned THREE new letters: l, h, k.  Lowercase k can be super tricky for kids, but they are doing a great job! Since it was a short week, we will continue to work on the same letters next week as well.  Due to this, there will not be a Fundations parent packet or optional handwriting homework in the Friday Folder today.  These will come home next week. 

Please use the following verbal prompts when your child is forming their letters:

l-down

h-down, up, over

k-down, slant in, slant out

Spelling: due to the short week, we did not have a spelling check today.  Our new word this past week was like and we will continue to practice that word next week.  Our spelling check will be next Thursday. 

Writing: As part of our ongoing writing journey, we are focusing on helping students understand where writers get their ideas. We are encouraging them to think creatively and draw inspiration from their own experiences, observations, and imagination. By brainstorming and discussing possible ideas, students will strengthen their ability to generate unique and personal stories.

In addition, we are working on labeling with beginning and ending sounds in their writing. This practice helps students develop phonemic awareness and supports their spelling and writing skills. By focusing on these sounds, they are learning to connect letters to the sounds they make, which is an essential part of early literacy development.


Literacy Workstations:
 this week we learned several new workstation activities that will help us practice our spelling words.  Check them out in the pictures below. 

One of our new activities is Search & Tally.  Students search through books for specific word wall words.  When they find one, they tally on their paper.  A great way to practice words at home as well!

Another one is Roll a Sight Word. Students roll a dice and read the sight word on their paper that correlates with the number rolled.  They also write the word on the paper.  









Lunch with the principal: yay Timmy! He was chosen to have Lunch with the Principal for the month of October!   He enjoyed lunch with Mrs. Isenogle and 4 lucky winners from the other Kindergarten classes. 

**This was postponed last week due to Mrs. Isenogle having sick kiddos. 



Math: this week we discussed positional words with a fun turkey activity, learned a new math game called "spin a number" and continued to work on learning how to correctly write numbers 0-10.  If you can write those numbers, you can write any number!  




Scholastic Book Fair: the students loved checking out the Scholastic Book Fair this week!  Book Fair hours are listed in the Kindergarten Newsletter in your child's Friday Folder.  We still need volunteers to work a quick and easy one-hour shift next week.  Click here to sign up.  We appreciate you helping out! 




Heroes Day: thank you to all of the grandparents, everyday heroes and past and present members of our military for joining us for our annual BEU Heroes Day. This is such a special Beulah Ralph tradition.  We enjoyed listening to the John Warner Middle School band and choir perform, Rock Bridge cheerleaders perform and local author, businesswoman and Honor Flight volunteer Michele Spry speak. We also had a surprise appearance from Truman the Tiger! We also recognized all active and former members of the military in the audience, as well as listen to BEU students share about their hero.  We especially enjoyed our classmate, Kimball, speaking about his hero.  Way to go, Kimball! 

Did your child miss out on having a visitor this year?  No worries, this is a yearly tradition and we hope they can visit next year! Enjoy a few pictures below.  MANY more are posted on our class Facebook page. 












Disguise a turkey family project: in your child's Friday Folder is a super fun family activity that I hope all families will participate in!  Work as a family to disguise the turkey so he doesn't get eaten for Thanksgiving dinner!  Get as creative as you'd like!  This is a tradition in my classroom and we love seeing all of the projects come in.  They are due no later than Friday, November 22nd, but feel free to turn them in as soon as you complete it!  We will share them and add to our bulletin board as they come in! 

Need some inspiration? Go to Google and type in "disguise a turkey project ideas" and so many will pop up!  I just did it and saw so many cute ideas!  Please reach out if you have questions.  


Friday, November 1, 2024

Happy Halloween

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we learned the name, sound and correct formation for lowercase p and j.  

Please use the verbal prompts below:

p-dow...n, up, around

j-dow...n, curve up, dot

We had so much fun celebrating these letters with a grade level pj day on Thursday!

By the end of 1st trimester, which is now, your child should be able to:

*identify 40+ letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase combined)

*name at least 10 letter sounds correctly



Writing Workshop: we are learning about where writers get ideas and how to put those ideas down on paper.  Right now "writing" is in the form of drawings and we are writing about everyday things that we do (riding our bikes, going to Level Up, going to the park, etc.)  This is why we have spent so much time learning how to draw people (not stick people), backgrounds/settings and 3 start coloring.  The students tell a story through their drawings and labels at this point in the year. 

Shared Reading and Spelling: this week we read the books I see Halloween and Who do you see?  Both are Halloween books that feature our new spelling word, the.  We worked on pointing to words when we read, monitoring on known words (being able to locate and read spelling words quickly that are in text, even if we don't know all the words in the text) and making connections to what we read, specifically sharing about our own Halloween costumes and plans. 

In the photos below, students are highlighting known words (word wall words) in the books mentioned above to help them when reading. 

Next week's spelling word:

like

Due to multiple short weeks in a row, we will introduce the new word, like, on Wednesday, November 6th.  We will have our next spelling check on Thursday, November 14th. I encourage you to begin practicing the word like over the next 5 days off of school, as it is our first 4 letter word.  I also encourage you to practice any words your child has missed on their spelling checks over the past couple of weeks. 





Read to Self: check out your students being readers, yes readers!  From learning letters to letter sounds to word wall words....putting all these skills together to be able to read familiar texts!  Every day we have a "read to self" time, which is a quiet 15-20 minute time after lunch where we independently read to ourselves.  We dim the lights and turn on lamps and it's a wonderful way to calm down after lunch and recess. 





Math: we worked on showing numbers in multiple ways, learning how to write numbers 0-10 with correct handwriting formation and measurement with non-standard objects (a popsicle stick).









Craft & Science: this week we made bats!  A fun way to incorporate Halloween and our living vs. non-living science unit! We also watched a cool Mystery Science video about bats!

Fall Parties: we had at a blast at our Fall Party today! The kids have been looking forward to their first school party of the year! Thank you to our room parents for organizing and to all the parents who sent in supplies or volunteered to help at the party!  We enjoyed yummy snacks, decorated pumpkins and had fun with our classmates!  We were so excited to wear our costumes and show them off during a school-wide parade.  Grades K-2 walked through the halls in our costumes while grades 3-5 cheered us on.  This was a student and staff only event that we hope becomes a new tradition! Here are a few photos.  Check our class Facebook page for more!

Also, check out the amazing door decoration that two of our wonderful class parents, Heidi Clements and Amanda Alexander, created!  The kiddos love it and we have received so many compliments!  How lucky we are to have so many amazing families at BEU! 










Library Check-out: due to no school on Tuesday, our next library check out time will be on Tuesday, November 12th.  Please remember to have your child keep their library books in their backpack at all times, unless reading.  

More fun at school, including a friendly game of arm wrestling with Mr. Foulk at lunchtime...