First full week.....done!

We officially have the first full week of Kindergarten under our belt!

I am so proud of their hard work and very impressed with their technology skills.

Thanks to everyone who has allowed their child to be independent and work on their iPad and school things on their own.  The more often we give them these chances, the better! It is definitely a good idea to always check their work each day and make sure they properly submitted assignments, but please let them be the one "running" the iPad & doing their work.

Kindergarten teachers before virtual learning.....and after virtual learning!! 😂

                         

A look at our learning this week...

Community Building- this week continued to be focused on community building and using our iPads and Seesaw.  In order to be successful in our academics, we must first be successful in our relationships with our classmates and teachers.  We have done the best we can to get to know one another virtually.  I think the best part of each day this week was the "All About Me" shares.  We enjoyed learning about everyone's favorite toy/stuffed animal, snack and book.  We discovered we have many of the same favorites!  Beef Jerky and Teddy Grahams are for sure the clear winners in the food category.  Dr. Seuss seemed to be popular in the book category.  

Seesaw-this week we learned how to use the pencil, pen, highligher, glow pen, camera and microphone.  Check out your child's assignments that focused on these tools in Seesaw.  They did a great job!  I was especially impressed with today's lessons on the camera and microphone.  I love seeing their cute faces and hearing their sweet voices in the recordings.  

Calendar-we start each day with Calendar Time.  This ties into our math curriculum.  We learn about the months of the year, days of the week, seasons, number of days in school, counting with Base Ten blocks, counting on Ten Frames, etc.  This is also a way to start our morning as a community of learners.  

Books we read-in Kindergarten we read books several times a day.  When children hear stories read aloud it expands their vocabulary, ignites their imagination, models book handling skills and teaches them beginning reader skills.  

Here are some of the books we read this week:  The Crayon Box that Talked, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, The Dot, All Are Welcome, No David!, Bear Sees Colors, Jabari Jumps and Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes.  

Every day during choice time (1:25-3:00), the children can chose to read.  They can read books they have at home or school or they can listen to the books we have read during the school day.  I have them linked on the choice board where it says "Read."  Check it out! It is updated with new books daily. This Choice Board is saved in Schoology and linked on the daily schedule in Schoology, but feel free to bookmark this on your child's iPad, or turn it into an "app" for easy access as well.  I have also linked it here for you. Many children have asked how to access this when our school day is over, so if you could show them how to access it, that would be great!

Crafts- every Friday we do crafts in my classroom and I hope during virtual learning I can continue that, one way or another.  Crafts foster communication, listening skills, following multi-step directions, attention skills, build community, imagination and creativity.  I also try to tie my crafts into a book, so that means crafts also support literacy and reading!  This week we read the book Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes and made our own Pete the Cat!  They also took a picture of their craft and uploaded it to Seesaw with a voice recording.  Check it out!  In the picture below you can see some of the crafts we've made so far this year! 

A peek into next week

Now that we have spent a week and a half community building and learning our online platforms, it is time to start focusing more on academics.  We will begin following the virtual schedule that was sent to you in the Virtual Meet the Teacher presentation. 

A few things to note and for you to do this weekend...

*Please make sure you are checking the daily schedule in Schoology every evening, or morning, before your child starts school. This is where I post the lessons we will be doing for the day, with live links, and also list the materials your child will need for school that day.  I know many of your children are in pods or daycares, so it is important your child has all necessary supplies with them.  Here is an example if you aren't sure what I'm talking about.  This is for Monday and is already posted.  I try to post the following days schedule before I leave work each day. 

To access this on your child's iPad go to the CPS Portal icon, click on the Schoology app, click on courses and then choose my Kindergarten course that has my Bitmoji you see below.  The schedule should be the first thing you see if in the "Materials" tab.  There is a folder where I keep the older schedules as well. 

*Beginning next week, we will be working in small groups during Fundations & Heggerty (12:55-1:25).  During this time I will be working with students based on what group they are a part of if and when we go back to virtual learning.  This means I will be spending part of that time teaching a lesson to half the class (group 1), while the other half of the class (group 2) is in a breakout room on Zoom.  When they are in the breakout room they will be expected to be reading/looking at books quietly.  Please make sure your child has several picture books they can look at during this time.  We call this time "Read to Self" time when we are at school.  I suggest making a "book box" for them just like we do at school.  This is a special box just for their reading books. If they already have a box with school supplies in it, they can just add books to it as well if they will fit.  I'd try to have at least 5-7 books in there and rotate them out often so they don't get bored with their choices.  Boredom leads to behavior and we don't want that! 

Here is an example of a "book box."  

*Please go to the "Self Service" app on your child's iPad and download the app called "Seek by iNaturalist."  We will be using this for some of our science lessons this year. Try it out this weekend, it's so fun!

*Don't forget to read to your child/have them read to you at least 4 times a week for 15 minutes a time and record on their September reading log that was in your bag at the drive thru last week. 

Have a great weekend!  I hope you can get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather!

Please let your child know I am so proud of them and you are too! They have worked hard this week and deserve all the praise!  I can't wait to see them again on Monday!