Kindergarten learners

 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 lost or mis-placed.  This way, you can access the information at any time and any place.  You can also pull up the pictures in this blog to help with conversations with your child about their week.  Twice a month we will send home a Kindergarten team newsletter that will be in paper form inside the Friday Folder.  You will see the first one today!

A look at our learning...

Routines & Expectations: we continue to work on learning routines and expectations at school and in our classroom.  Using this time to practice, reinforce and build a community of learners will set us up for success throughout the school year.  We are learning what it looks and sounds like to be a learner, how to listen with your whole body and not just your ears, how to take turns in conversation and listen to others who are speaking, how to raise our hand if we want to speak and not interrupt others, sharing, turn-taking, the list is endless!  Kindergarten is hard work! 

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 lowercase letter t, b and f.  We also learned what sound they make and the correct letter formation.  Correct letter formation/handwriting is SO important.  

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

They are taught these verbal prompts in the classroom and should be familiar to them.

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.  The more you reinforce at home what we do at school, the more successful your child will be. 

Math: every week math worksheets will come home in the Friday Folder with ideas and activities for you to extend the learning beyond the classroom based on lessons your child did that week.  I hope you will utilize these each week as well.

This week we worked discussed length, worked on counting and explored shapes.  You will see that Mrs. Nickens, our assistant principal, even came in and participated in a math lesson on length this week!

Self-Portraits: we read the books We are all alike, we are all different and All Are Welcome. 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 more fun!  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 thought best 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 new books. 

If they do not return their books on Tuesday, they will not be able to check out a new one until they are returned. 

Counselor Lessons: this week we had our first counselor lesson with Mrs. Alls.  She will visit our classroom every other week.  The counselors teach a 30 minute lesson and focus on important skills such as feelings and how to manage them, friendship skills, social skills and safety.  We have two wonderful counselors at our school, Mrs. Alls and Mrs. Bergeson.  Mrs. Alls is the primary counselor for Kindergarten this year. 

Alphabet Fun: today we had a yummy treat to help us practice identifying our letters! Each child was given a bag of alphabet cookies and a "cookie sheet" with the letters printed on it.  They were to take a cookie out of the bag, say it's name, color it on the "cookie sheet" and then they could eat it!  Learning is fun and yummy!

Classroom Celebrations

This week we started an end of day celebration, The Secret Walker

Secret Walker: this "award" recognizes someone who exhibited excellent hallway behavior.  Every morning I pull a name stick out of a bucket at random.  The students don't know whose name is on the stick.  I watch that child all day to see if they are walking quietly in the hallway with "bubbles, tails and eyes forward." At the end of the day, if that child was successful, I announce who the Secret Walker was, we cheer for them and they earn a certificate to take home!  If the Secret Walker struggled with doing their job in the hallway that day, I never announce who it was, but rather put their name stick back in the bucket and let the class know we'd try for a winner the next day.  

Monday Morning Meeting: we had so much fun at our first Monday Morning Meeting of the year!  This is a Beulah tradition!  It begins promptly at 8:20 and we hear the week's announcements from Dr. Woods and Mrs. Nickens, say the Pledge of Allegiance, the Beulah Ralph School Pledge, sing our school song, hear a joke and learn who won the Golden Broom Award and the Fast Pass Award.  The Golden Broom award is chosen by our custodians.  They pick the classroom that did the best job of keeping their classroom clean the week before.  There is a K-2 winner and a 3-5 winner. The winners get to keep a stuffed animal timberwolf in their classroom all week and earn a special treat from their teacher (usually in the form of an extra recess). The Fast Pass Award is chosen by lunch and recess supervisors and is given to the class that does the best job in the lunchroom and at lunch recess.  There is a K-2 winner and a 3-5 winner.  The winning classes get to go into lunch from recess first that entire week and receive a certificate to display in their classroom.  

Since K-2 had the Monday Morning Meeting in the gym this past week, it will be grades 3-5 turn next week.  Due to our size, we are alternating weeks.  This means your Kindergarten student will go to their classroom on Monday.  Our next time in the gym will be Monday, September 19th.  We encourage all students to wear their BEU spirit wear every Monday, regardless if it is our turn in the gym or not.  If they don't own BEU spirit wear, they can wear blue and green, our school colors.  

The best part about Kindergarten? Playing with your new friends!

Don't forget...

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