Week of Sept. 25th-28th

This week and next will be all about apples.  We’ll learn the story of Johnny Appleseed, learn about the life cycle of an apple tree, learn about labeling parts of the fruit, count with apples, compare apples and much more.  Today we sequenced the story of Johnny Appleseed.  We have also done several emergent reader books to add to your book bag at home.  Today,  I Like Apples is coming home.  Whenever you see words highlighted, it means they are a sight word, we’ve worked on.  This book has, “I, like, the”, and color words in it.  We worked on the letters, actions, and sounds of N and P, and added the sight word and.  Next week, we’ll do Bb, Ff, and the word see.

We are also talking about the four seasons of the year and yesterday we painted an apple tree in the four different seasons.  We’ve learned some fun songs about the seasons as well.

In math, we continue to work on the numbers 0-5, more, less, and equal to and are learning some fun domino, dice, and card games to reinforce those skills.  Keep practicing writing those numbers!!  2, 3, and 5 take lots of practice!!

Today was picture day and it was a little crazy when the camera broke and they were down to one which changed up our whole morning.  The kids were great about being flexible though!  Even if you didn’t order pictures, a packet will be sent home.  You’ll be asked to purchase the packet or individual pics and pay for it, or return it if you chose not to pay for them.

We had a leadership assembly this morning.  This week, we talked about being assertive and how to tell a friend, “Please stop.  I don’t like it when…”  I have heard a few kids use those words this week!  Now we need to work on the listening part and actually stopping the behavior!  🙂  That part takes a little longer to figure out!  Being proactive is the habit we’ve been working on.

We will have apple day with our 5th grade buddies on Wed. Oct. 11th.  I sent a note home today asking for donations of items.  Please check anything you would be willing to purchase and send the note back.  I will then send another note home with whatever I need you to buy!  Thanks for your help with this!

Conference notes went home today as well.  I took the preference sheets you filled out at parent night and tried my best to find one of your preferred times.  We do schedule siblings back to back time wise, so it makes it very difficult to switch people around.  If you absolutely cannot make your time, let me know and I’ll see what I can do, however, we may have to have a phone conference if I can’t move people around.  Please sign the notes, cut the bottom off and send that back.  Keep the top part so you have the time and date as a reference.

I will also send the Oct. book order home on Monday and those orders will be due Oct. 13th.  That way, you’ll have Halloween books back earlier if you want to order them.  Anytime you order books, we get free books for the classroom so it’s a win/win!

Fall Festival will be next Friday!  If you still have craft basket items to send in, please be sure they’re here by Monday, or even better, bring to pick up today.  Thanks to all who have already donated!

Reminder that K-1 Literacy night is tonight at 6:30.  Hope you all can make it for some fun games, a snack, and a book walk.  It’s a great time for parents to also get a sneak peek into what guided reading will look like in kindergarten!  You will get sight word and alphabet games made and ready to take home!  I hope you all can make it.  If you can’t, we will send the packets home next week.  Come in pj’s at 6:30!  Please come in the front of the building on the Bond side.  Quivira side doors will not be open.

Thanks for all the prayers and concern for my family.  David, my father in law, should be released here shortly.  Then this weekend and the next few days, we’ll work on settling him back into his new home which I’m sure won’t be easy.  He’s been through an awful lot of change and the dementia makes it a LOT worse.  It’s like trying to explain and reason with a 2 year old…you just can’t.

Tonight, we get to go to the East homecoming game and watch Jack on the homecoming court.  The dance is Sat., so after our professional day on Friday, I’ll be making corsages and boutonnieres for that!  And Sunday….I may sleep all day! 🙂

Hope you have a great weekend!  Thank you all for your support.  You really have no idea how much it’s helped me manage all that’s going on!  Enjoy this beautiful weather this weekend!

Week of Sept. 18th-22nd

This week we reviewed our color sight words (and will continue to do so) by using the story Brown Bear Brown Bear.  We started our own Brown Bear book where we are using all different media to “paint” the animals.  So far, we’ve used tissue paper, marshmallows and food coloring, and orange koolaid.  We’ll finish up next week and each page will be different.  We also practiced retelling skills and each child brought home a brown bear sack and the characters so they could retell the story to you.

Through the book The Little Red Hen, we have worked on the terms:characters, setting, problem and solution.  We acted out and retold The Little Red Hen as well.  They really enjoyed this!  If we don’t run out of time today, we are going to make our own butter and enjoy some homemade butter and bread like the Little Red Hen. If we do run out of time, we’ll do it next week.

We learned about perserverance this week, which is our word of the week from our second step lessons.  We worked on some puzzles and had to preservere to get them finished.  We also heard The Little Engine that Could story and practiced telling ourselves, “I think I can…” when things get frustrating or hard.

We added the sight word “the” this week and learned about long and short vowels, and consonants and the letter Aa.

In math, we’re continuing to work on more/fewer/less and learning to subitize when we see a number on a ten frame or dice.  That means we can just look at it and know what the number is without having to count the dots.  We are learning that numbers can be in different forms and be made different ways.

Today during careers on wheels, we got to talk to and hear from many different people in our community and learn about all kinds of interesting jobs.  Then we talked about what kind of job they’d like to have and what they will need to do to get there.  This goes along with the Begin with the End in Mind from our Learning Habits.

Next week:

Items for fall festival baskets are being collected now.  Kindergarten is asked to bring items that are “crafty” to go in a craft basket.  That could mean a craft kit, paints, playdough, scented markers etc.  The baskets will be raffled off at the Fall Festival on Friday Oct. 6th.  This is PTA’s main fundraiser for the year. You can send your item/s to school and I will show the kids where they go.

Literacy night is Thurs. Sept. 28th.  The kids can wear pj’s and come and play some fun literacy games at school.  K and 1st kids will be separated when you come in.  If you know you can’t come, let me know and I will pull out a game packet to send home when they get back.  Hope you can all make it, it’s a fun night!

School Picture day is next Thurs. as well.  We usually have ours taken in the am.  It is a PE day, so send tennis shoes and you can send shorts to change it to if they want.  Order forms are being sent home in folders today.

Just a reminder that we do not have school next Friday the 29th.  It is a professional day for teachers.

Short and sweet for this HOT Friday!  Tonight we’re headed to the big rivalry game of Olathe East and Olathe South.  For East, it’s toga night.  At 7:30 last night, Jack and I were figuring out how in the world to wrap a toga…turns out it’s pretty easy!  Looking forward to some fun pics tonight of my toga kid! 🙂  Headed to Lawrence Sat. to see Hannah.  Hope you all enjoy a relaxing and fun weekend!  Keep reading! 🙂

Week of Sept. 11th-15th

I was glad to be back this week and we got a lot of things done!

We learned to read around the room and their Star Words bags and wands came home.  This is a great place to keep all the small books that we send home.  Anytime it’s a star word (sight word), the word should be highlighted in the book.  These are great books for the kids to work on reading at home.

We added the letters/actions/sounds of C and T this week.  We are almost done blitzing through all the letters for those that just needed a refresher.  At this point, we’d like your child to be able to recognize 40/52 upper case and lower case letters.  We don’t test on sounds until later.  We will continue to work on 2 letters a week with extra practice and activities.  Please keep working on these at home.  If they know the letters, have them teach you the sound and action.  (So far, we’re at Tt).  We also added the sight word “like.”

In math, we’ve done a lot of practice with the numbers 0-5.  2 and 3 are hard to write and easy to make backwards.  5 can be tricky to as they don’t “walk around” their pencil at the end.  This would also be a good thing to practice at home.  Next week, we’ll start on 1 and 2 more, 1 and 2 fewer, and equal.

Monday, we got to go to a hands on science museum that was at school.  The kids got to do some fun activities led by the 5th graders.

Today we heard Brown Bear and practiced retelling the story.  They are bringing home a bag and cards so that they can retell it to you.  It was also good practice for reading the color sight words.

We are working hard on stretching out words and looking for the beginning sound.  Have your child stretch out the word “dog” on their arm and show you how the beginning sound is at the shoulder, middle at the elbow, and end sound at the wrist.  We’ve stretched out lots of words on our arms and listened to identify the beginning sound and letter.  We will “stretch” words all year, so you should see them doing this later on when reading as well.  We are also working on rhyming words.  Rhyming words sound the same at the end.  Rhyming is one of those things kids just get, or they don’t.  They will need to be able to tell me if words rhyme when given a pair of words and produce a word that rhymes when tested. (in a few weeks)  When given a word to rhyme, if I say, give me a word that rhymes with sun and they say lun, it’s okay.  Doesn’t have to be a real word, just has to rhyme.  For kids that don’t get it, practice and practice and it will click!

Sumdog information was sent home while I was gone.  It’s a fun math computer game that they can play at home.  It can be frustrating at first.  They need to just keep playing even if they’re hard problems.  This helps the computer figure out what their ability is and what level games they should be playing.  Their particular log in was sent home.  I will have them again at conferences if you need it.

K-1 Literacy night is Sept. 28th from 6:30-7:45.  It’s a night for a parent or both and their K or 1st child to come and hear about guided reading and to play some fun literacy games together.  The games will then go home and you’ll be able to keep them and play at home.  It’s also a night to wear your pj’s to school!  It’s a fun night, you won’t want to miss.  It really is easier if you have younger children to leave them at home with a sitter or one parent so you’ll be able to focus on your child and play the games.  I will not be there that night 😦  When we planned the night, I didn’t realize it was Olathe East’s homecoming game.  Jack is up for Homecoming King, so I really don’t want to miss that.  Just wanted you to know why I won’t be there.

Midterms come home today.  Most of the data comes from beginning of the year testing.  Shapes were tested after we did the unit on shapes, so if they have any circled as having missed it, please work on these at home.  Behavior comments are on the back.  We will work on appropriate behavior all year long.  If something is circled, please take some time to talk to your child and help them find a way to change that behavior.  We have all the numbers 0-20 on the form, but keep in mind, we’ve only done 0-5 at this point.

If you buy items at the grocery store that have box tops on them, please cut those out and send them to school.  The school gets money for every single box top saved.

I will include a tying shoes video in my email.  I encourage the kids to start working on this now.  When they can tie and double knot it, they can earn their Pete the Cat license to tie!  Again, just one of those things that takes practice! (There’s a lot to practice in kindergarten! )

I think that’s it for today.  Thanks for all the prayers and concern for my family.  We got Dave (my father in law) moved up here late Wed. and have been spending a lot of time with him helping him to get adjusted to his new home and life.  He has been in pretty good spirits so far.  It really is humorous if you let it be.  Some of the conversations that go on in memory care are amusing!  I just smile and nod my head and agree a lot! 🙂  Any extra prayers for my sweet dog Abby would be appreciated.  She’s having trouble walking now.  She has cancer and we know her time is limited, but it’s so hard when you love an animal like your children!

I look forward to the day when my family update is, “we’re all good!”  It’ll come eventually I’m sure! 🙂  Have a great weekend with your child, buckle up, have them read to you, and give them lots of hugs!