Another week down

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase b and f this week.  When making these sounds please make sure your child is not adding "uh" to the end of the sound.  It should be a quick sound rather than "fuh" or "buh."   The same goes for the letter t.  It should be a quick t sound and not "tuh."  We don't want to add the u/"uh" sound to the end of any letters, unless there is an actual u with it.  

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing at home:

b-down, up, around

f-over, down, across

If your child has t, b or f in their name, please hold them accountable for forming it correctly at all times. 

Heggerty: you may hear your child talking about Heggerty time and thinking "what in the world is Heggerty?" Heggerty is a phonemic awareness program that works on rhyme, beginning/ending sounds, blending and segmenting words, adding and deleting phonemes and substituting phonemes.  Daily Heggerty lessons will help your child learn how to read, write and spell as they hear sounds in words.

Writing: we are working on "3 Star Coloring."  This means we 1) stay in the lines 2) use colors that make sense 3) fill in the white space.  In Kindergarten we take our time, do our best and don't scribble. 

Math: 

This week we worked on counting by playing fun games called "Gotcha" and "Count and Sit", learned numbers are everywhere and went on a number walk around our school, worked on putting numbers in order 0-10 and representing those numbers with objects and discussed birthdays and months of the year.  

Does your child know when their birthday is?  Ask them! If they don't, this is an important thing for you to work on at home. 

We also learned a 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. 

Social Studies: our current unit of study is citizenship.  This ties in nicely with learning rules, routines and expectations of school.  We are also working on learning the Pledge of Allegiance and the Beulah Ralph School Pledge.  They are getting better every day!  

Crafts: we will do a craft every Friday and sometimes more!  Craft activities help children develop many important life skills including: creativity and imagination, self expression, confidence and independence, fine motor skills, problem solving, hand eye coordination, social skills and critical thinking.  

This week we did a torn paper craft with our names.  Tearing paper into small pieces is a great fine motor activity that strengthens their hand muscles, therefore helping them hold a pencil and build stamina for writing.  

Monday Morning Meeting: we had so much fun at our first Monday Morning Meeting of the year (on a Tuesday)!  This is a Beulah tradition!  It begins promptly at 8:20 and we hear the week's announcements from Mr. Foulk 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.  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). 

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 18th.  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. 

Walking Tickets: now that we have been in school for a few weeks, expectations 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 behavior choice continues we must follow through on consequences.

In CPS 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/or sit depending on the situation 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 (more on this next week).  Thank you for understanding and supporting your child and their teachers.  It's a hard job raising little people and I'm here to help! 

"Play gives children the chance to practice what they are learning" 

-Fred Rogers