Goodbye September, Hello October

A look at our learning...

September Reading Logs: September is coming to an end and reading logs are due on Tuesday, October 1st.  You still have 3 days left to post September's "Sneaky Reading Challenge" in our class Facebook Page.  September's challenge was to read in the car.  October Reading Logs are in your child's Friday Folder, along with a new "Sneaky Reading Challenge." I'd love to see more participation in this next month! You post the photo anytime you catch your child doing the challenge!  You don't need to wait for me to make a post. Beginning in October, students who complete their required monthly reading log will earn a free pizza coupon to Pizza Hut. 

Reading is required homework at BEU.  In K-1, the expectation is at least 4 days as 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. Your child should be saying these prompts to themselves every time they write a letter on their homework to ensure they are doing it correctly.  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

At school, we have learned that the "over" motion should look like a "hill" or a "rainbow." Watch for this when forming these letters. Please make sure that your child is going over to the left when forming these letters. 

On the handwriting homework, please make sure their pencil begins at the dot and goes over to the left. 

Handwriting Homework: please make sure your child's name is on their optional handwriting homework.  Many students are turning it in without a name and it takes up class time to figure out whose it is.  This is also a great opportunity for them to practice writing their name and forming letters learned correctly.  Please make sure the student is writing their name, not an adult or older sibling. 

Shared Reading & Word Wall Word: our new Word Wall Word this week was a.  Just like I, we learned that a can be a letter or a word. We read poems and books about Autumn that featured our Word Wall Word a. 

Writing: we continue to work on telling stories through pictures.  We are getting better at drawing people using shapes and have moved onto learning about settings.  A setting is where the story takes place.  We have been singing this song every day this week to help us with this learning. They were able to choose a character card to glue in their writing notebooks and draw a setting that matched that character. As you can see below, one child chose an alien character card, so drew a rocket ship in space.  Another child chose a farmer so they drew a farm and barn setting.  Next, we will transfer this knowledge over to writing about ourselves and including a setting based on what WE did.

Math:  this week we worked on counting in a variety of ways and representing numbers to 10 in various ways.

Craft: check out the cute bulletin board that all 5 kindergarten classrooms worked on.  Our class made the fall trees and butterflies.  It fits in nicely with our school theme of "Great Minds Grow Here."  If you attend the circus tonight, check it out!  It is the first bulletin board in the kindergarten hallway!

Today we also made these beautiful leaf sun catchers in our classroom! 

Science: we went on a nature walk on Wednesday to celebrate the beginning of Fall and to kick off our living organisms science unit.  It was a beautiful day!

Learning next week: I hate that we are missing 3 days of school together next week!  We are just getting into a good school routine with academics! While teachers are attending Professional Development, I hope you can enjoy a little family time together.  To help keep the students in routine I encourage you to read with your child daily and record on their October reading log, practice writing all the letters we have learned so far in Fundations (t, b, f, n, m, i, u, o, c), practice reading and writing our new Word Wall Words (to, me, I, a) and tie in math skills from the past few weeks.  The weather is going to be beautiful!  So many of these things can be done outside!  Reading, writing letters and words with chalk, etc.!  I hope they are outside daily! 

Packmate of the Month: Congratulations to Emery!  She was chosen, by her peers, as our September Packmate of the Month and honored at an assembly on Thursday.  Students will vote every month for one of their classmates that they believe follow our BEU expectation of the month.  It is a private vote and the winner is kept a secret until their name is announced during the assembly.  Be Safe was our character trait for September.  Be Respectful is our character trait in October.  It is a private vote and the winner is kept a secret until their name is announced during the assembly. 

Our class also won the attendance award for the month of September! We get to display this flag and banner outside our classroom for the entire month.  Every grade level will have a winner announced at the monthly Packmate of the Award assemblies.  Our goal at BEU is to have 90% of students at school 90% of the time.  How can you help with this? Ensure your child is at school unless sick.  Please try to make appointments after school or on days off.  Please take trips on scheduled breaks and days off, etc.  Please arrive to school on time.  I'm so proud of our class and YOU.  Kindergarteners can't drive, so you helping them get to school is key and definitely showed this month!  Let's have a repeat and win again next month!  

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 (integrity).  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) Recovery Room/Principal's Office: when none of the above work, the child will be sent with an office referral to talk with administration and a phone call home may 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, admin will assign a consequence.

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 people and I'm here to help!

More fun at school below... 

It's Fall Ya'll!

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). 

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 going straight back down on the last part of the u.  It should be flush with the other part of the letter and not have a space between or "look like a mountain" between the curved part and down part)

Spelling and Shared Reading:  our new Word Wall Word of the week was the word I.  We learned how I can be a letter or a word.  We learned that when I is by itself it must always be uppercase.  

To help us with our new Word Wall Word we learned the poems I am me & The Colors of Fall.  Both poems featured the word I. 

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 or spider people (a circle for a head with sticks/lines coming out of it for arms and legs....we don't have arms and legs coming out of our heads in real life, so neither should our drawings).  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.  

Ask your child to draw a person for you using shapes, not sticks.  A great thing for them to work on when they are off of school next week! 

Literacy Workstations:  this week we began literacy workstations. Students work at a station with a partner.  Stations mostly include literacy and fine motor skills tasks, but we will also mix in some math stations from time to time.  During this time, I pull students to work one on one or in small groups at my teacher table on more individualized instruction.  

Math: we have begun Unit 2 in math.  This week we learned more about shapes, made and extended patterns, played our fun counting card games Top It and Match It and worked with a 100's chart. The card games came home in last week's Friday Folder with directions.  I encourage you to cut out the playing cards (let your child, this is good practice for them), put each game in a Ziploc bag and play often.  If your child has a desk or special area where they work on school things, keep it there!  These are great games to save and play throughout the year! If you mis-placed yours and need a new set, let me know! 

Health/Hand-washing: learning proper hand-washing in Kindergarten is a big deal.  We want to keep ourselves and 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 the water turned 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 Emily came in for a hand-washing lesson on Tuesday. This is part of our Disease Prevention/Health Unit.  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.  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. 

Another thing I have noticed is we have quite a few friends who put their hands in their mouth/nose.  We are really working on keeping our hands away from our face, using tissues if needed and nothing should be in our mouth except food or water.  This is a hard habit to break and many don't even realize they are doing it.  We share so many things in the room and we really can't have pencils, crayons, hands, anything up near our lips.  

I know it seems silly, but it takes a lot of practice.  I appreciate your help at home. Making sure they flush the toilet after using the bathroom is another big skill we are working on.  😀

Crafts: we celebrated the end of summer and beginning of fall with these beautiful projects and poems coming home today.  The students came up with things we are saying goodbye to in the summer and hello to in the fall.  I wrote the words for them, but the ideas were all theirs on their own!  

Counselor: this week's lesson with Mrs. Alls was about kindness.  She read the book A Wrinkled Heart by Tracy Hoexter.  Find it here if you'd like to listen at home. Students then colored their own, small paper heart.  They discussed unkind things they heard in the book and folded their heart for each unkind thing.  Upon hearing kind things, they tried to unfold their heart, but learned that it still left wrinkles. This is a powerful visual for little ones that shows the effect hurtful words or behaviors have on someone.  This activity is simple and a great reminder to be kind to others. 

"Before you speak, think and be smart. It's hard to fix a wrinkled heart."

This activity came home in their folders on Tuesday. 

Flash's Big Top Circus:  We need MANY more volunteers to help work a quick and easy 30-minute shift at the circus on September 27th. Have your student work the shift with you if needed! Have a high school age student? You can sign them up to work as well! The circus is our schools largest fundraiser and we need all hands on deck! Please sign up here.

Thanks to all of the families who donated an item to our Lego Class Basket for the raffle.  It turned out awesome and one lucky kiddo will be going home with SO many Legos! I can't wait to see who wins! 

Kindergarten Family Picnic: what a  wonderful turnout we had at our Kindergarten Family Picnic!  Thanks to all who attended this yearly BEU tradition!  I saw several phone numbers being exchanged for playdates, etc., which is what this night is all about; building community at your child's school!  I love it!  A special thanks to The Patty Wagon food truck and Kona Ice! Here are a few pictures, but all of them are on our class Facebook Page!  Please join if you haven't!

Fire Drills: these kiddos are becoming experts at fire drills!  We had another one this month.  We have at least one fire drill per month.  

Kindergarten Playground:  we are lucky to have a playground especially for kindergarten and district special education classrooms.  Since it is a smaller playground, we take turns using it.  Our class uses it every Tuesday.  We wrote a grant a couple of years ago for fun toys and yard games to use in the grassy area of this playground and it was funded by our amazing PTA!  Check out the fun below! 

More fun from our week