Hello October

 September Reading Logs: September has come to an end and reading logs are due.  Thanks to everyone who shared a "Sneaky Reading Challenge" photo on our class Facebook page during September. October reading logs are in your child's Friday Folder, along with a new "Sneaky Reading Challenge."   Reading is required homework at BEU.  In K-1, the expectation is at least 4 days a week for 15 minutes at a time.  Reading TO your child is what is appropriate right now.  We DO NOT expect Kindergarteners to be readers at this point in the year. 

  

Fundations: this week we learned the letter name, sound and correct formation for lowercase c and o.  Please use the verbal prompts below to practice at home.  Don’t forget about the weekly handwriting “homework” in the Friday Folder. The extra practice at home really does help your child in the classroom.

c: over, around, open

o: over, around, close

Check out the class Facebook page for a video of the class participating in part of our Fundations lesson. Still haven't joined our class page?  Search "Concannon's Kindergarten 2022-2023" and request to join.  Videos' and photos upload easier there so I will often post things that aren't on this blog.  If your Facebook name is different than your actual name, please send me an email letting me know that you are requesting to join.  I will not accept unknown people as only parents are allowed in the group for safety and confidentiality purposes. 

Writing Workshop: we are learning that writers can tell stories through their pictures.  In Kindergarten we write stories about the things we do in our everyday life.  This means we need to get really good at drawing people.  In Kindergarten we DO NOT draw stick people.  We are learning to draw people using shapes.  They are doing so well!  The precursor to writing is being able to draw a picture and verbally tell what is happening.  Check out our class Facebook page for a great video of the students working on this. 

Math: we are ready to begin unit 2.  Check your child's Friday Folder for a note explaining what we will be learning over the next few weeks and how to support their learning at home. 

Mrs. Johnson, BEU's instructional coach, has visited our classroom a few times over the past couple of weeks during math time to see the great math thinking going on in our room!  We have worked on manipulating numbers and seeing numbers in different ways.  This week we discovered there are many ways to make the number 5.

Friday Craft: we have been reading books about Fall, discussing the changing and falling leaves and seasons changed.  Today we did a torn paper craft, which is good for fine motor skills, to make beautiful fall trees.  The students came up with their own words for the poem attached to it.  

Class Celebration: we are trying to earn a Pajama Day in our classroom! Every time we receive a compliment (from someone that isn’t me) we earn a sticker on our 10 frame.  When we earn 10 compliments we will celebrate by wearing PJ’s to school! We are getting close!

Guest Reader: Mr. Jay, our custodian, was so kind and bought our class the newest Pigeon book called Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster. He knows how much our class loves these books by Mo Willems and was so very thoughtful!  We enjoyed him reading it to us! 

Packmate of the Month board: the Packmate of the Month board is now up!  You can see it in the main hallway across from the library!

Walking Tickets: now that we have been in school for over a month and expectations have been taught and the students have had time to adjust, we are really focusing on the importance of making good choices and doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.  We use this phrase a lot.  I will always give the children many chances and reminders to do the right thing (they are 5-6 year old after all), however if the poor choice behavior continues we must follow through on consequences.

In CPS schools we follow these procedures for discipline:

1) Verbal reminder (in Kindergarten it is several reminders)

2) Safe Seat: a spot in our room away from others where they can sit and calm down and think about how to make better choices

3) Buddy Room: the safe seat in a teachers classroom across the hall.  We utilize this when the verbal reminders and classroom safe seat haven't seemed to work.  At times, the children may fill out a "think sheet" while here that explains their behavior and why they are there.  If they receive one of these, it will come home to you in their take home folder.  If their behavior is disruptive, we skip this step and call the office, as we don't want to disrupt another classroom while they are trying to learn.

4) Principal's Office: when none of the above work, the child will be sent with an office referral to talk with the principals and a phone call home will be made.

We also use walking tickets and it varies how these are used.  In my classroom, if a child is sent to the safe seat by a teacher, they will have an automatic 5 minute walking ticket.  This means at recess they will have to walk back and forth on our line up zipper spot for 5 minutes before they can play.  They are still getting exercise during this time and movement is being allowed, but their free play time is taken away as a consequence.  If they go to the buddy room, it is a 10 minute walking ticket consequence.  If they visit the office, their entire recess is spent walking.

Sometimes we also give walking tickets even if they don't go to the safe seat.  Not all behaviors warrant the use of the safe seat.  Sometimes walking tickets can be given for a minute or two if they are having a hard time making good choices and have needed an excessive amount of reminders. 

Please know we do our best to avoid the above and if they receive one of the consequences it is because we have exhausted other options and they are taking away from the learning of their peers.  I am sure at home when they don't listen, follow directions or make good choices you have to take things away or have a consequence and this is how we handle it at school to be fair and consistent with every child. 

With all of that being said, if your child is consistently receiving walking tickets or any of the above, I will put their walking tickets in their Friday Folder each week for you to see.  I don't want to send them home daily because some children may "lose them" knowing they don't want you to see them.  If they are in the Friday Folder, which they know is for parents, they are less likely to be mis-placed before making it home.  However, if it is just a one time thing (or even two or three times...we all make mistakes) I probably won't communicate that with you.  I want the children to know that we all make mistakes and it is ok and they can trust me.  I don't need to run to mom and dad telling them about every mistake they make.  It is not necessary and causes unnecessary stress on the child.  Some problems are just school problems that we can work out here ourselves.  If it is something that is repetitive, you will see those tickets and it will be reflected on their Success Ready scores.  Thank you for understanding and supporting your child and their teachers.  It's a hard job raising little humans and I'm here to help! 

Awards: Our class won BOTH awards given out each week at the Monday Morning Meeting this week.

Golden Broom Award-keeping our classroom the cleanest for grades K-2. This is chosen by the custodians.

Fast Pass Award-doing the best job at lunch and lunch recess for grades K-2. This is chosen by the classroom aides and principals. All week we get the “fast pass” to lunch. This means when lunch recess is over our class goes inside the cafeteria first, which means more time to eat! We also get to keep the stuffed animal Timberwolf you see in the pictures in our classroom all week.

I brought popsicles to celebrate their achievements.

Class picture day and fun throughout the week!

Fall is here!

September Packmate of the Month

Yay Claire!  She was chosen, by her classmates, as our September Packmate of the Month.  She was honored in an assembly today.  Students will vote every month for one of their classmates that they believe are kind, respectful, responsible, positive and do their best...our 5 school character traits.  It is a private vote and the winner is kept a secret until their name is announced during the assembly.  Their Kindergarten and First Grade friends are at the assembly, as well as the Packmate of the Month's families.

A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase i and u.  We learned that these two letters are vowels and the other letters we've learned so far are consonants (t, b, f, n, m). 

Beginning this week, your child will have optional Fundations handwriting homework in their Friday Folder on the "return to school" side.  While this is optional, I highly encourage you to have your child sit down and complete it to reinforce their learning at school.  You will see dots on the handwriting paper.  The dots are where your child should start each letter/place their pencil to begin the formation.  However many dots there are, that's how many letters they should write.  Anyone who completes this optional homework and returns it on MONDAY will receive a small prize from me.  If they return it after Monday, I will give them a sticker rather than a prize.  This routine will continue every Friday as we learn all the letters of the alphabet.

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing letter formation at home, especially if your child has these letters in their name:

i-down, dot (the dot should be just that, a dot.  Not a circle or scribble)

u-down, curve up, down (make sure they are doing the final "down" part, as many forget it.  There should be a "stick" at the end of the letter if they are following these verbal prompts.)

Math: this week we continued to work on counting,showing numbers in different ways, our birthday, we made a graph of our ages and we will update this graph as students have their birthdays and turn a new age and learned a new program on the iPad called "ST Math." ST Math is a PreK-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's innate spatial-temporal reasoning ability to solve mathematical problems.  ST Math games include challenging puzzles that help your child deepen their mathematics understanding.  They guide "JiJi" the penguin through a variety of self paced math activities.  Every Tuesday we do ST Math instead of our traditional math lesson.  We also integrate it into morning work time throughout the week. 

Science: we continued our unit on living vs. non-living.  We are learning that living things grow, breathe, eat, reproduce and need space.  Check out a cute video we watched this week.  

We also took another nature walk to celebrate the first day of fall.  They had fun finding items for their collections. 

Friday Craft: today we read the silly book Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! and made a craft to go along with it!  If you ever need suggestions on books to get for your kiddos, the pigeon books are great ones!  Simple and so silly!  The pigeon books are by Mo Willems. 

Handwashing: learning proper hand-washing in Kindergarten is a big deal.  We want to keep our friends healthy and at school.  Kids this age often wash too quickly, without scrubbing.  To help everyone stay healthy at school, I encourage you to reinforce proper hand-washing at home.

1) wet hands (soap "doesn't work" unless hands are wet first)

2) ONE squirt of soap.  Scrub hands, with water off so they aren't tempted to wash it off, while singing the ABC song.  Make sure to get all sides of the hands, between fingers and around the wrists

3) wash off with warm water

4) dry

Nurse Bridget came in for a hand-washing lesson on Monday.  She brought a bottle of "germs" (lotion) that she had the children rub on their hands.  Next, she used a special tool to shine on their hands so they could see the germs on their hands.  After that, she had each child wash their hands.  Then they came back and she shone the light on their hands again to see how well they did at washing their hands.  We learned that we often miss our wrists, in between our fingers and around our nails.  She also taught us the proper steps of hand-washing mentioned above. 

I know it seems silly, but it takes a lot of practice.  I appreciate your help at home.  

Kindergarten Family Picnic: We had a wonderful turnout at our annual Kindergarten families picnic last Friday.  I love this tradition that brings us all together and I hope you did too.  It is so nice to meet new people and see your children interact at their home away from home!  Thanks to everyone who came!

Recess Time!

Monday Morning Meeting Grades K-2