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. The first one went home last week.
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, friends names, the list is endless! Kindergarten is hard work!
We read several No David! books (he's pretty ornery) and completed a sort throughout the week of good choices and poor choices.
Fundations: this is a 30-minute time of daily instruction where we learn our letters, letter sounds, correct letter formation and eventually spelling. This week we learned lowercase letter t. We also learned what sound the letter t makes and the correct letter formation. Ask your child to make the t sound for you. If it sounds more like "tuh" with the "uh" sound at the end, we want to correct that. It should be a short t sound, like in the word "top."
Correct letter formation/handwriting is SO important.
Please use the following verbal prompts to help your child form their letters correctly:
t: down, across
Your child SHOULD NOT be going up first when forming this, or any, letters.
They are taught these verbal prompts in the classroom and should be familiar to them.
Handwriting homework will be coming home in the Friday Folder every week on the "return to school" side. It will correspond with the letter(s) we learned that week. This week you will see a worksheet for the letter t. While this is optional, I highly encourage you to have your child do it. The more they practice, the better they will get. Any student who returns the worksheet on Monday will earn a small prize from me. If they return it later in the week that's amazing as well, but they will only get a prize if it is returned on Monday's (or Tuesday this week due to Labor Day.) Please make sure they use a pencil (not a crayon or marker). I will post a video on our class Facebook page of what this should look like.
Math: This week in math, we launched Unit 1 with a fun and engaging module called “Sorting Shoes.” Students explored important early math concepts by sorting a variety of shoes based on attributes like size, color, and type. Through hands-on activities and class discussions, they practiced identifying similarities and differences, grouping items, and comparing quantities. These foundational skills support number sense development and help children begin to understand how to organize and make sense of the world around them—essential building blocks for future math learning.
Self-Portraits: we read the books We are all alike, we are all different, I like myself 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. What a beautiful class we have!
Kindergarten Goals: this week we talked about what students hope to learn in kindergarten and recorded their answers. Check out this cute poster, hanging outside our classroom, the next time you are at school.
Library Check-out: Thursday is our library check out day. They were SO excited to go and had been asking every day when we could visit! 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 Thursday when it is time to get new books.
If they do not return their books on Thursdays, they will not be able to check out a new one until they are returned.
Click here to see the video they watched in class about how to take care of their books at home. I encourage you to watch it again with your child as a reminder.
Counselor Lesson: this week we also had our first counselor lesson with Miss Otto. 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, Miss Otto and Mrs. Eagle.
Safety Drills: we have had two fire drills and one severe weather drill since school started. They have done a wonderful job! Ask your child to tell you where they go and what they do in case of these emergencies.
Daily Take Home Folders: please make sure you are looking through your child's Daily Take Home Folder, emptying the contents and returning to school in their backpack every day. When their folders are full they become difficult to manage. They end up dropping it and papers go everywhere. Plus, you might end up missing something important. Thank you for helping with this.
Friday Folders: your child's Friday Folder is VERY full this week. Please take time during this 3 day weekend to look through everything carefully. Several things are time sensitive and there are several forms you need to fill out and return.
Mizzou Spirit & College Colors Day: our class showed up for Mizzou Spirit & College Colors Day! What a cute group of lil' Tigers we have!
Morning drop-off: thank you to all the parents who read our note last week and have supported our transition to having kindergarten students walk into the building and classroom independently. We know this can be emotional, especially if your child is crying or hesitant, but please know that this is completely normal. It doesn’t mean they don’t like school or that something is wrong. Kindergarten is a big change from preschool or daycare, and it can be exhausting at first as they adjust to a new routine. The tears usually fade quickly once they’re inside, and having a parent linger often makes it harder. We have many caring adults stationed throughout the building to guide and support our youngest learners—they will never get lost. If your child is struggling with the separation, the best thing you can do is use the car drop-off line and allow a staff member to help them out of the car while you drive away. This simple shift can make the goodbye smoother and the transition easier. Thank you again to all who have trusted the process and helped make this milestone a success!
More fun from our week...
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| We've read so many good books! |
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