Fall Party Day!

The kids have been SO EXCITED for their very first school party and it did not disappoint! Thanks to everyone who sent yummy snacks, prepared fun activities and helped with set-up, clean-up and during the party!  We couldn't have done it without your help!

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we learned the following lowercase letter names, sounds and formation this week. 

l-down

h-down, up and over

k-down (pick up your pencil and slide over) slant in, slant out

Shared Reading: we read the following books this week to help us with our new spelling word the: It is Fall, Setting the Table and The Birthday Party.  All of these books had the word the on almost every page.  This helps us learn how to monitor on known words when reading books.  They also learned an adorable song from Mrs. Luejten, their substitute teacher, on Monday.  It is called Falling Leaves and is to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  She is a retired music teacher and loves to sing with the kids when she visits.  

Daily 5: Mrs. Fitch, our media specialist, pulled small groups during Daily 5 this week to teach us how to use our Osmos.  The kids loved learning about this new learning tool for our i-Pads.  They learned how to use the "Words" and "Numbers" games. Later we will learn how to use "Tangram."  Osmos are now a new choice during our Daily 5 workstations.  

Click here to learn more about Osmos.  If you have an i-Pad, they would make great, educational Christmas or birthday gifts!

Writing Workshop: now that we have learned a handful of spelling words and almost all of our letters and letter sounds during Fundations I am beginning to the hold the students more accountable for this when writing stories.  (Remember, a sentence at this point in the year IS a story to a Kindergartener and that's more than okay.)

Here is an example of what I mean....they might want their story to say "I am riding my bike with my sister."  Their writing may look like this "I am rideg mi bik wif mi sistr."  

Please know that second sentence is GREAT.  They spelled their spelling words correctly (I, am) and the rest they sounded out (riding, my, bike, with, mi, sister).  
Check out the following examples from kids in our class!

I went on my bike.

I see a fire truck.

Math: check your folder for fun way to help extend math learning from this week at home.  We are also beginning to learn correct number formation.  

This week we learned numbers 1, 2, 3, 4.  

Please use the following prompts when your child is writing these numbers:

1-down

2-over, slant down, across

3-over, around, around

4-down, across (pick up your pencil) down
We read the book Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley and made Shape Monsters today for our Friday Craft to tie in with our learning of shapes during math time.  
Your child should know the following shapes at this point in the year: circle, square, triangle, rectangle.

So proud to finish the puzzle!

A little yoga for a brain break!

PJ Day

We had a nice, cozy day of learning in our PJ's today!

What a fun reward for earning 20 kindness stickers.

Thank you to Sally (Lochlan's mom) for our beautiful Fall door decorations!  We love it!!

October Lunch with the Principal and Friday Update

Yay Connor!

He was chosen to have "Lunch with the Principal" for the month of October!

They enjoyed board games, lunch and suckers for a 

special treat!

                                      

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: this week we learned the lowercase letter name, sound and formation for p and j.  

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing at home:

p-dow...n, up, around

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

I wanted to share this really helpful letter sound video so you could hear how we teach the letter sounds to our students.  Since we are all working with the kids on their sounds, and our kids are so literal, it probably helps everyone if we are all saying the sounds the same way.  I know when I was a kid we pronounced the sounds like "kuh" and "duh", but that is not how it is taught anymore.  We want to get away from adding "uh" to the end of words.  This tends to make children think they should write "lu" instead of just "l" or "du" instead of just "d."  I hope this video is helpful to you.  

Look at all of the letters we've learned so far this year! Your child should know these lowercase letter names, sounds and correct letter formation.

Shared Reading: this week we read several books to help us learn our new spelling word is.  We read Scarecrow Colors, Baby Animals and Opposites.  Each book had the word "is" on every page.  These books were added to their book box for more practice during Read to Self time.  

We cleaned out our book boxes today and your child brought home 5 of these books I mention each week.  These are books we've had awhile and are now for you to keep at home.  I hope you enjoy listening to your little one read them to you!  

I am taking a personal day on Monday.  Due to this, I introduced their new spelling word today.  Their paper to help practice at home is in their "Take Home Folder."  It is the word the.  We learned this is called a "trick word" because it begins with the digraph "th" and ends with an e, even though it sounds like a u.  The English language is a funny one and not all words can be sounded out.  

Writing Workshop: we read the book In My Heart to learn that the best stories to write about are the ones close to our heart.  Little stories about our everyday life, such as going to the grocery store or playing board games with our family, are just as wonderful to write about as vacations or birthdays or holidays.  We charted things close to our heart and still have room to add more ideas as we come up with them.  Each child also received their own small "What can I write about?" chart to keep in their writing folder for when they are stuck on what to write about.

Ask your child what they wrote about this week during writing workshop time. 

Math: check your child's Friday Folder for extra practice on the concepts we worked on this week.  It's hard to believe, but we are only a few weeks away from the end of 1st trimester and parent teacher conferences.  

Here are a few end of 1st trimester math benchmarks we will be checking soon:

*can your child count to 30 and write/recognize numbers 0-10 with correct formation?

*can your child recognize triangles, rectangles, circles and squares?

*can your child count a set of objects, up to 10 items, with one-to-one matching?

These are all things we have worked on over the course of 1st trimester in the classroom.

Art: Mrs. Starbuck chose our class to feature in the glass case outside her classroom.  She was so proud of how hard they worked on this project and wanted to showcase them!  Feel free to stop by and check it out sometime soon!  

Library: every Tuesday, during library check out, Mrs. Fitch will be reading us one of the 2018 Building Block Nominees.  After we've heard all 10 books we will get to vote on our favorite!  This week we heard the fun book Everybunny Dance!  We are so fortunate to be exposed to so many wonderful books!

Fun at school!

October Citizen of the Month

Yay Cade!

He was chosen, by his peers, as 

October's Citizen of the Month!

Way to go!

K-1 Winners

Fun Fall Friday

It was a morning full of paint, glitter, stickers and markers in room 302!

They are excited to bring home their beautiful pumpkins from the pumpkin patch today!

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase letters e and r, 

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing handwriting at home:

e-across, over, around, open

r-down, up and curve

Check your child's Friday Folder for a mid-unit Fundations assessment.  We checked letter name, sounds and correct letter formation for the letters we have learned up to this point in the year.  If there is an "x" by something, that is one they need to practice.  If the box is blank, they got it correct!  It will make sense when you see their paper. These are for you to keep at home and help practice. 

Shared Reading: we read several fun books to help us practice our new spelling word of the week see.  We read Colorful Pumpkins and Fire Truck.  Both had the word see on every page.  They now have these in their book boxes to reread during Read to Self time each day. 

Check your child's folder to see how they did on their 2nd spelling test.  Don't forget that when the word "I" is by itself, it must be uppercase to be counted correctly.  I let it slide on week 1, but am now counting it wrong as it is something we have talked a lot about in class.  

Writing Workshop: we are getting better and better at adding words to our stories!  They have so many fun things to write about lately: fire truck visit, nature walk, field trip, decorating pumpkins, etc!  

Daily 5 & Math: check the Kindergarten team newsletter in your child's Friday Folder for updates in these academic areas.  

Be Positive Week & Fire Safety Week: we had fun learning all about fire safety AND what the word POSITIVE means this week at school.  "Be Positive" is one of our 5 character traits we teach the children at Beulah Ralph.  We learned that being positive can mean you are happy, smiling, have a good attitude, try your best and don't give up!  We celebrated being positive by wearing bright colors today.  In the picture we are also holding fire helmets from Lochlan's grandpa who used to work for the City of Columbia fire department.  How cool!