Happy October!

September Reading Logs: September has come to an end and reading logs are due.  Many turned them in today, but if you forgot, please return on Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who shared a "Sneaky Reading Challenge" photo on our class Facebook page during September. October reading logs are in your child's Friday Folder, along with a new "Sneaky Reading Challenge."   Reading is required homework at BEU.  In K-1, the expectation is at least 4 days a 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.  Please check the Friday Folder for weekly Fundations practice that is coming home.  This is something new, in addition to the weekly parent packet.

c: over, around, open

o: over, around, close

Shared Reading: this weeks topic was Plants and Animals have needs, which ties in perfectly with our living and non-living science unit.  We also learned about the parts of a book, question words and the difference between a "tell something" and asking a question.  Knowing the difference is quite tricky for this age lol!

Science: we continue to learn about living and non-living and what living things need.  

Writing: we are working hard on "3 star coloring," taking our time and doing our best work. 

Math: this week we learned two new math games: "Memory Match Up" and "Top it" with dot cards.  Check your child's Friday Folder for copies of these games to keep and play at home.  We also learned about triangles and patterns. 

Friday Craft: we read the book Chrysanthemum and talked about how special our names are.  We made name rockets for our craft. 

Custodians Day: tomorrow is National Custodians Day.  We are fortunate to have Mr. Jay and Ms. Kimberly at BEU.  We made cards for them today. 

Walking Tickets: now that we have been in school for over a month and expectations have been 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 olds after all), however if the poor choice behavior continues we must follow through on consequences.

In CPS schools 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 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 definitely see those tickets and hear from me.  Thank you for understanding and supporting your child and their teachers.  It's a hard job raising little humans and I'm here to help! 

Fun with friends!

Happy Fall!

 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 doing the final "down" part, as many forget it.  There should be a "stick" at the end of the letter if they are following these verbal prompts.)

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 Workshop: 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. 

We continue to work on drawing people using shapes, not sticks, adding detail to our people and a background/setting to our pictures.  Pictures ARE stories at this point in the year.  Before a child can WRITE a story with words, they must be able to DRAW and tell a story VERBALLY.  Soon we will move to labeling our pictures with beginning sounds or words.

Math: this week we continued to work on counting/numbers to 10, learned what a 5 frame is and how it can help us count and show numbers in a variety of ways, explored shapes and described attributes of shapes.  Check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning from this week at home. 

Science: we began our living and non-living science unit.  We are learning that living things need air, sun, food, water and space.  We had fun celebrating the first few days of Fall by going on a Fall Nature Walk and making a Friday Fall Craft that connected science and writing. We also read several Fall related books this week.

Handwashing: learning proper handwashing in Kindergarten is a big deal.  We want to keep 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 handwashing at home.

1) wet hands (soap "doesn't work" unless hands are wet first)

2) ONE squirt of soap.  Scrub hands, with water 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

I know it seems silly, but it takes a lot of practice.  I appreciate your help at home.  Check out these expert handwashers!

Recess: we are phasing out our extra morning recess.  K-5 has two recesses a day, but for the first 4-6 weeks of Kindergarten we take an extra recess as they ease into the school routine.  This third recess was 20 minutes long in the morning, but it went down to 10 minutes this week and will be 10 minutes next week during our final week.  Beginning October 4th we will just have two recesses like grades 1-5 (lunch and afternoon).  This will allow us to spend more time on academics.  We will still take wiggle breaks in the classroom, as needed, by dancing, exercising, GoNoodle or Cosmic Kids Yoga.