Welcome to school!!

 Wow!  What a great first week of in-seat learning!!  It feels SO good to be back!

I have to say that I am VERY impressed by our class so far! It is amazing how quickly they have adjusted to school and new routines and expectations.  This week we spent most of our time going over school routines and expectations.  It is always important to focus on these things and build relationships before we do anything else.  When expectations are taught and learned, then our academics and everything else will be successful.  We were able to do Fundations and Heggerty every day, but beyond that it was mainly the things mentioned above.

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we learned the letter name, sound and correct letter formation for the following letters: c and o.  

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

c-over, around, open

o-over, around, close

When we learn how to write these lowercase letters, your child is expected to then write them correctly "for the rest of their life" (as I tell them).  So far this year we have learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for the following letters: b, c, f, i, m, n, o, t, u.  Please hold your child accountable for forming these letters correctly, especially if they have this letter in their name.  

Community Building: below are some of the things we did this week to build a strong sense of community and teach routines and expectations.

We read the book David Goes to School and discussed good choices and poor choices at school.

We read the book If you can't bear hug, air hug and learned ways we can greet our friends and teachers every morning and every afternoon before we leave school. 

We read the book We are all alike, We are all different and discussed how it's great that not everyone is the same and that's what makes the world a better place!  Then we made self portraits that will hang in our classroom all year!

We are so lucky that we have such a diverse classroom this year!

We read the book My name is NOT Isabella and discussed how special our names are  Then we made a torn paper craft to proudly display our beautiful names.  Torn paper crafts are great fine motor activities.  In Kindergarten, fine motor skills are so important.  We work on building up the muscles in our hands to help us be better writers.  

The weather on Thursday was absolutely gorgeous and we took full advantage!  We had a picnic lunch and went on a Fall Scavenger Hunt all around school!

Of course we played!  Play is so very important in Kindergarten.  It helps our social skills, vocabulary, turn-taking, etc. 

Lunch: Lunch in the classroom is going much better than expected.  They are great about cleaning up after themselves.  I also don't mind them eating lunch in here because I make sure they eat!  They aren't allowed to put their food away if I don't think they ate enough....that didn't always happen when eating in the cafeteria haha!  So I can promise you, they are getting their bellies full so they can have energy and brain power for the rest of our day!  

One thing I do need your help with is teaching your child/practicing with your child on how to open the containers, bags, etc. that you send for lunch.  It is important they are independent with this for a few reasons: health concerns with COVID (I shouldn't be touching all of the children's things) and it gives them more time to eat because they aren't waiting on me to help.  There is 1 of me and 15 of them so that takes time. Please, please practice with your child at home.  Before you put something in their lunch box, try having them open it to see if they can do it independently.  Also, please send any utensils your child might need in their lunch box.  

Username and student ID: in your child's take home folder is their student username and password.  They will have this username and password until they graduate from CPS.  If something is ever asking for a login and password, this is it.  Please practice this username and password with your child.  We have this same paper at school and practice, but extra practice at home is needed and appreciated.  Now that they have their own devices, they shouldn't be prompted to enter this too much since the device typically remembers their login after the first time, if you choose this option.  However, sometimes it will ask them to verify.  I won't be entering this for the children, as I shouldn't be touching their iPad (and again, one of me and 15 of them lol).  The more they practice, the better and quicker they will get.  If you are ever prompted for this at home, please do not enter it for them or they won't learn.  Please get out the sheet I'm sending home and have your child enter the information. 

Library Check-out: Library time is starting next week.  This year students will have library check out every other week, rather than weekly.  Our library day is Tuesday from 12:00-12:30.  Mrs. Fitch or Mrs. Canepa, our media specialists, will Zoom into our classroom via our SMARTboard.  They will read stories to the children and teach them basic library skills and information.  They will then bring a roll cart of books outside our classroom doors for children to browse and check out.  They can then keep these books for 2 weeks until our next library day.  You may also reserve books on destiny in the CPS Portal if you wish.  They will bring those books to the students on our library day.  

If you participated in the drive through library days while school was virtual, please return those books to school by Tuesday so your child can check out new books.  We ask that books always be kept in your child's backpack unless they are reading them.  This way they don't get lost, a pet doesn't get them, spills, etc.