Week of Nov. 11-15th

Have you heard the story of the Pilgrims and their journey to America?  We’ve read lots of wonderful stories this week about their journey and have retold it many times.  They brought home bracelets and a book yesterday to help them retell the story.  If you haven’t had time yet, I’d encourage you to find time to sit down and have your child tell you what they’ve learned!  Also if you look on youtube and type in They were the pilgrims by Harry Kindergarten, it’s one of our new favorite songs!  A turkey named Bert is another!  This week we also read a fun story called Turkey Trouble and wrote about our turkeys disguising themselves so they wouldn’t get eaten!  We also contrasted pilgrim children and children today.  We also read The Old Lady who swallowed a Pie!  We’ve done lots of interesting reading and writing this week!

We added the words: moon, barn, goose, look, foot, book, and is.  We also learned the two different “oo” sounds as in tooth, and look, and letter Ii.

In math, we’ve worked on counting to 100 and will continue to practice.  I’m testing a few kids at a time.  As I test them, if they are able to count without prompts, they will bring home a bubblegum certificate that says I can count to 100!  Don’t panic if they don’t have one today.  I only got 5 done today and 3 got certificates.  Keep practicing at home!  If they don’t get it the first time, I will get back around to them!  We also worked on estimating (which is HARD for kindergarteners!), and 100’s charts.

Midterms are in folders today.  I also attached the sight word list that I tested them on which includes 1st and 2nd quarter sight words.

After everyone has completed their About Me posters, we will start show and tell.  One person is bringing it home today with Daisy.  The book has changed as well.  You may still add a picture, but I’m encouraging the kids to help with the writing.  They will need to be able to read it though on Monday, so feel free to write underneath if you need to.  For show and tell, they may bring one item that has to fit in the backpack zipped and cannot be alive.  Speaking and listening is an important skill on our grade card.  This is an excellent chance for them to practice.  They will write 3 clues to read to the class about their item and then 3 people can guess what their item is.  Then they will need to share about their item.  We talked about what would be good to bring and what wouldn’t.  It needs to be something they care about and can share about.

We’re headed to hopefully watch Olathe East win tonight and enjoy the band show one more time.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Week of Nov. 4-8th

Have you learned this week that spiders have two body parts called the cephalothorax and abdomen, that spiders have blue blood, or that spiders sometimes eat their old webs before making new ones???  Be sure to ask your child all about spiders and have them sing you the song!  This week, we learned lots of new information, used that information to write, graph, add, and create projects.  I love taking a subject and and then exploring it in so many ways!  The kids did a great job with all their learning about spiders this week and should be able to share many facts with you.  Their spider facts book came home today too!

We started writing workshop this week!  We are making deliberate color choices when drawing pictures and thinking about adding details.  We learned that good writers put a title at the top, capital letter at the beginning, spaces between the words, and a period at the end.  We got the spacemen out to use as well. (Clothespins dressed like spacemen to help us remember our spaces.)  We will continue to work on our writing each day.  Each day I also draw sticks with names on it so the kids can share their writing outloud as well.

In math, we continued working on teen numbers and more/less with teen numbers.  Today, we numbered our candy, sequenced it, practiced picking up the correct numbers called, and did more/less as well.  Then they got to eat their favorite number.  You can practice more at home, you’ll just have to add a piece in.

We also started Read to Self this week.  We are working on reading books by reading the picture, reading the words, or retelling the story.  We are working on increasing our reading stamina each day as well.  This week we got to 4 minutes 30 seconds of total sustained reading time!

Next week, we will start talking about families, being thankful, and learn all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and their journey to America.  We are also talking about Fall and all things to do with Fall.  I asked the kids to bring in a leaf on Monday.  You can press it at home this weekend, or I will press it here.  We are going to do some science leaf observations next week.

Now that it’s getting chilly, please make sure your child is dressed warm enough to go outside.  We go out everyday unless it’s rainy or the wind chill is too cold.  If they could practice zipping those coats up too, that would be great.  Zipping is a tricky skill that just takes practice.

Library is on Monday as well, so be sure to stick those books in backpacks now so you don’t forget!

All kids have new books in their reading folders.  Sorry I was behind on getting those switched out this week.  We are meeting daily in reading groups as well.  Continue to have the strategy sheet out at home as they’re reading.  Don’t forget to read aloud too as it’s great for them to hear that fluency and expression in your voice.

Monday at 2:00 is our Veteran’s Day Assembly.  Please be sure to invite any veterans you may know to come so we can honor them.  They don’t have to be family members, they can be neighbors or anyone you know that’s a veteran.  It’s a really neat assembly!  You might want to dress the kids in red, white, and blue that day as well!  (On a side note, my daughter is playing Taps on her trumpet at the CT flag raising ceremony on Monday 🙂

Congrats to the Beckner family.  Lincoln now has a baby sister named Isla.  As a class, we thought it’d be fun if his Mom had a baby bat instead, but guess it wasn’t meant to be! 🙂

I think that’s it for now.  This weekend, my daughter, Hannah, is finishing up her Girl Scout Gold Award paperwork so we can call that project, “DONE!”  Jack is now done with football and is right back to basketball with a tournament this weekend!  Busy, busy times, but cherished ones as well!  Hope you enjoy this beautiful Fall weekend with your family!

Week of Oct. 28-Nov. 1st

Happy day after Halloween, my favorite day of the year…(said no teacher ever :)) It was a bit of a rough day today.  We talked about how on Monday we’re going to come in ready to listen, ready to work, and ready to learn.  It’s hard being gone so much and then throwing in a holiday and wowza!  So, next week, we’ll be back to our regular routine and ready to go I’m sure!

Thanks to all the Room Moms and parents that helped make the party lots of fun!  I know the kids really enjoyed it and I appreciate your efforts and time!

Here are a few items coming due:

Nov. 6th:  Please return the family paper that came home in folders today.  We will be sharing them as we talk about families and being thankful this month.  They will then go in a class book.

On Monday (by Wed. at the latest), please send in 10 individual pieces of WRAPPED candy that your child likes.  Please send hard wrapped candy, not candy bars or unwrapped items like M & M’s.  We will be numbering them and working on our teen numbers with them.

Book orders are due Nov. 8th.  I would like to order The Old Lady who Swallowed Some Snow for the kids for the holidays.  If you’ve already ordered and ordered that, I’m happy to replace it with something else.  We’ve read lots of the Old Lady books so I think they’ll enjoy it.  So, please don’t let them talk you into getting that one. 🙂

Library books are due MONDAY!

This week, we read some fun Halloween stories and did some comparing/contrasting, glyph making, and learned all about pumpkins and the life cycle of a pumpkin.  We also did quite a few sight word books and emergent readers that should’ve come home and been put in your star bags to read.

In math, we’ve worked on the teen numbers.  Have them sing you the song about the teen numbers..”Come on everybody, let’s get this done, numbers in the teens they start with 1!”  Today we did Skittles math and also 1 and 2 more and 1 and 2 fewer.  This was very hard for a lot of the kids with the teen numbers.  Much harder than I anticipated, so we will be doing lots more practice with this with the teen numbers.  This would be great to work on at home too!  You could use the number cards I sent home to practice with as well!

Next week, we will learn all about Spiders!  We will also be starting Writer’s Workshop which I’m VERY excited about!

Bookworms were due Thursday.  I stuck post it notes in kids folders that I didn’t get them.  They need to be in on Monday to get credit for them.

Just a reminder, that pick up is at 3:40.  There have been a few times lately that I’ve needed to leave as soon as the kids do to get to district meetings and have been late myself.  There is no supervision after 4:00, so it’s really important that if you’re going to be late, that you find someone to pick up your kids.  Thanks for being here at 3:40 so we can all be on time.

Keep reading!  We started reading groups and I have several kids that told me they were bored with the books I gave them to read.  I’m not a fan of kids complaining that they’re bored, but I decided to investigate a little further and yes!  they were several levels beyond those books!  That’s awesome!!  I’d prefer “this book is too easy…” but at least they let me know so I can move them up.  I am trying to be good about doing reading folders on Wed., so please be sure they are reading their books every night and have them here on Wednesdays.

I got a letter today saying I had been granted my wish from the Olathe Public Schools Foundation and their Annual Autumn Breakfast!  I am going to be able to purchase more non-fiction animal books so that we can do our reports in the Spring.  I was very excited about this and it will be a huge benefit to your kiddos!

I’m headed home now and hoping the grocery fairy and house cleaning fairy has visited my house today.  She never has before, but I can always dream, right?! 🙂 Have a great weekend!