What a busy week!

Every Friday I will update you, via this blog, as to what we have been learning that week.  This is my digital newsletter, rather than sending home paper copies that typically get mis-placed or lost. This way, you can access the information at any time and any place.  Occasionally, we will send home a Kindergarten team newsletter that will be in paper form.  

Fundations: this is a 30 minute time of daily instruction where we learn our letters, letter sounds, correct letter formation and eventually spelling.  Please see the handout in your child's Friday Folder to read more about this and how you can help reinforce this learning at home. This week we learned the lowercase letter t, b and f.  We also learned what sound they make and the correct letter formation.

Please use the following verbal prompts to help your child form their letters correctly:

t: down, across

b: down, up, around

f: over, down, across

 Fundations handouts (extra practice) will come home weekly in the Friday Folder.  These do not need to be returned.  The hope is you will use them at home to support their classroom learning.   

Math: please check your child's Friday Folder for a letter about our math program and worksheets to extend learning at home. Every week math worksheets will come home in the Friday Folder with ideas and activities for you to extend the learning beyond the classroom.  I hope you will utilize these as well each week. 

This week we explored shapes, worked on counting, talked about length and measurement and took a walk around the school looking for numbers!  The kids especially liked the number walk.

Crafts: every Friday is a craft day to make something beautiful for our classroom or to bring home. We usually spend about 30 minutes to an hour on this. Crafts provide many learning opportunities: creativity, following directions, listening skills, perseverance, fine motor skills, cooperation, etc. This week we made timberwolves to hang up in our classroom. We also watched a National Geographic Kids video to learn about timberwolves since it was rainy and we couldn't go out for recess.  

Self-Portraits: we read the books We are all alike, we are all different and I Like Myself.  These books discuss things we all have in common and things that make us unique and special.  We decided it would be a very boring world to live in if we were all the same and our differences make it a much more fun place to live! After listening to the stories, the children thought about features that make them special: their curly hair, freckles on their noses, glasses to help them see, etc.  They chose a color of construction paper that they best thought matched their skin color and made a self-portrait.  The self-portraits will hang in our classroom until the end of the year.  

Library Check-out: Tuesday is our library check out day.  We ask that when your child isn't looking at their library book, they keep it in their backpack rather than a nightstand or some other place at home.  This ensures nothing happens to it and they will have it every Tuesday when it is time to get a new book.  

3rd grade buddies: Today our 3rd grade buddies from Mrs. Freese's classroom came back to visit.  They joined us at choice time at the end of the day.  They were good examples on how to share toys, use kind words, problem-solve, compromise, etc.  They were SO excited to get to come back to Kindergarten and play with toys.....something you don't get to do in school the older you get! 

                      




























National College Colors Day

Me, Ms. Brown and Ms. Patton all went to Missouri State! Go Bears!

Brooklyn said her mom went to Missouri State, too!

Fans from all over! 

Go Tigers!

Don't forget...

to send in a family picture in a frame for your child's cubby.  No bigger than 4x6 and the width of the frame can't exceed 8 inches or it won't fit.  The picture can be vertical or horizontal.  It is so nice to see our families pictures throughout the day.

We thought of ways we could be a good friend after reading this great book!

Our class loves books!