October is here!

October is here and our learning is full steam ahead!  August and September were spent learning routines and expectations, as well as building community.  Our time spent on those things set the tone for a year full of learning.  We are now really diving into the academics and I love seeing all the learning that is taking place!  I can see a big difference from the first week of school until now and I hope you can too!  The exciting thing is, it will keep getting better!

We are looking forward to our field trip to Peach Tree Farms on Thursday! Please remember to send a lunch from home that day if that is what you marked on the form last week.  If you plan on attending, please remember that you will be in charge of a group of students from our class and we ask that siblings do not attend. 

Morning Work-this is the work we do as the kids come into school between 8:00-8:20.  We rotate what we do on a daily basis.  Some mornings they work from morning activity tubs at their table that focus on a variety of things.  This might include building letters out of legos (fine motor), filling in puzzles with pattern blocks (math), puzzles (memory/problem solving), etc.  The other mornings we work on handwriting sheets practicing the letters we are focusing on during Fundations.  You see these come home in their folders.  

Fundations-our letters this week were lowercase d and s.  The letter d is especially tricky as it is similar to the letter b.  I encourage you to practice these letters at home, using the prompts found in your child's Friday Folder.

Shared Reading-our new word wall word this week was is.  We read the Big Book Opposites and the poem Fall is Here to help us learn this word.  Both the book and poem featured the word is many times. On Friday your child added a small copy of the book to their book boxes and the poem to their poetry folder.  Your child should be able to read, write and verbally spell the following word wall words we have learned this year: a, I, am, at, is.  Next Friday I plan on giving them their first spelling test over these words, as well as see, which we will learn next week.  I recommend practicing these words every night at home.  Ask your child to verbally spell them AND write them down on paper.  

Math-We continued our work on numbers and counting. We are working on counting to 30, which is the expected Kindergarten benchmark by the time parent teacher conferences roll around in November.  Our end of year counting goal is 100.  We are also working on writing our numbers in order to 10, which is our November goal.  Our end of year number writing goal is 31 (based on the calendar).  
On Wednesday, Mrs, Fitch came to our classroom during Math and Daily 5 to teach us how to use our Osmo's.  These are a fun learning tool that attach to our iPad's.  Feel free to Google Osmo's to learn more about them.  You can see pictures of the Osmo's below.  We have 8 iPad's, 6 Osmo's and 4 laptops in our classroom for daily use.

 We also started ST Math in our classroom this week.  Check your child's Friday Folder for more information on ST Math and how you can use it at home.  Pictures below are from our ST Math time.  We will do ST Math every Tuesday in our classroom during our regular math time. 

Writing-we continue to work on adding labels and words to our stories, as well as "saying words slowly and writing the sounds we hear" to spell unknown words.  Please continue to use this prompt at home when your child is trying to spell something.  Check out some of our friends writing from this week.  I love all the labels and phonetic spelling!

Fire Safety Week-Fire Safety week is October 9-15.  To kick it off, K-2 had an assembly on Thursday with the Columbia Fire Department and TRYPS to teach us more about fire safety.  Next week we will do an activity each day to learn more about fire safety.  We are also trying to arrange a visit by a fire truck for the Kindergartners!  

Today we celebrated Custodian's Day at Beulah Ralph.  The teachers provided treats and gifts for our wonderful custodians (Jay, Bill, Datrae, Zach and Antonio) and the children made cards, posters, etc.  This is from our class.  We appreciate their hard work!