A peek at our week

Kindergarten Family Picnic

We had a wonderful turnout at our annual Kindergarten families picnic last Friday.  It was so nice to be able to have this again after having to take a pause last year due to COVID.  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!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for lowercase n and m. 

Please use the following verbal prompts when practicing at home:

n: down, up and over

m: down, up and over, up and over

So far this year we have learned the following letters: t, b, f, n, m.  Now that they have learned how to form these letters, they should be forming them correctly at all times, not just during Fundations.  If your child has one of these letters in their name, please hold them accountable for forming it correctly. 

Writing Workshop: we are getting better at learning how to draw people.  Check out the charts below to see the different shapes, skin colors, hairstyles and faces/feelings we can use when drawing people.  The kiddos are getting better at not drawing stick or "spider" people and making their work look more realistic.  

This week we also learned that stories/writings have a background or a setting where a story takes place.  We used special "character cards" and had to create a setting in our writing journals to go with the character card we chose.  Check out these amazing drawings!

Friday Craft: today we watched a Pebble Go video (online reading resource we have at school) to learn all about wolves/Timberwolves since they are our school mascot.  Then we made a Timberwolf craft to hang in our classroom!  

Math: this week we continued to work on counting, 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. 

Dot Day: on Wednesday we celebrated Dot Day.  To learn more about this fun day, click here 

We read the book and created our own masterpieces!  They came home in your child's Take Home Folder this week.  

Counselor: every other Thursday, from 10:00-10:30, we have a counselor lesson with Mrs. Bergeson.  This week they discussed bullying.  They discussed the difference between bullying and being unkind, as well as what to do if this is happening. 

Severe Weather Drill: this week we had our first severe weather drill.  We discussed severe weather and learned what to do to keep ourselves safe.  We practiced in our classroom and learned where our safe place is in the school during severe weather.  We have also had 2 fire drills this year.  The kiddos do a great job during these drills and we stress they are just practice and that while it's unlikely for these things to happen, we practice so that we know what to do just in case. 

Lunch Bunch: this week I was able to enjoy lunch with some of my friends in the classroom!  They earn "Table Points" by following directions, staying on task and working quietly at their table during different parts of our day.  Once their table earns 10 "points" (stickers on a 10 frame), they get a special reward!  The current reward is lunch in the classroom with their teacher and a special treat!  I love getting to chat with the kiddos during this time and learn more about them.  

Library day and reading books in our classroom are some of our favorite times!  Here's a few (but not all) of the books we read this week!

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

-Fred Rogers

 

Happy September!

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. 

A look at our learning...

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 on counting, learned numbers are everywhere and went on a number walk around our school and outside and discussed birthdays and months of the year.  The kids especially liked the number walk and getting outdoors! 

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. 

Crafts: every Friday is a craft day to make something beautiful for our classroom or to bring home. We usually spend about 30 minutes to an hour on this.  Crafts provide many learning opportunities: creativity, following directions, listening skills, perseverance, fine motor skills, cooperation, etc. This week we read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and made our own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees to celebrate how special our names are.  This craft also helped me see which children could spell/write their names independently (an important Kindergarten skill.) 

Can your child independently write/verbally spell/recognize their name? If not, it is important to practice at home. 

Self-Portraits: we read the books We are all alike, we are all different, I like myself and Skin I'm in. 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. 

Classroom Celebrations

This week we started some end of day celebrations, The Secret Walker and Positive Note.

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.  

Positive Note: one of our school characteristics is "positive." At the end of each day I will read a Positive Note (aka Happy Note) out loud to the class.  I choose someone to receive this note that had an excellent day!  The note is always on a fun notepad.  This month it is on an emoji notepad.  Once every child has earned an emoji Positive Note, I will switch to another themed notepad and start again.  It is my goal that every child earns a Positive Note at least once a month. 

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!