Week of Aug. 27th-31st

The kids are doing a great job getting into their routines at school.  Thanks for helping with this by early bedtimes and good healthy food!  We had our first chocolate milk day and as expected quite a few of them enjoyed it!  By the end of next week, please give them the independence to walk themselves to the room.  Most of them are already anyway!

This week, we were still working on color words and will finish next week with black and then white.  Each time you see a book come home with words highlighted, that means it’s a book to hang on to because it’s a sight word book.  Their bags and reading wands will come home soon, I promise!  These are great books for them to practice reading at home.  This week, we added the sight word “a” and the color words.  We have also learned the letters and sounds and actions of A-J.  We will do a letter a day and then go back and hit them up harder with 2 letters a week.

We started exploration boxes this week for morning work.  Sometimes we do paper/pencil practice and sometimes we do the boxes.  The boxes have activities like letter recognition, beginning sound practice, and at the beginning, lots of fine motor practice!

I sent alphabet packets home already.  I just got the sight word packets and will send them next week.  There are 55 kindergarten sight words that we work on all year long.  Some kids may NOT be ready for these yet, so if they’re not, just work on the color words for now since that’s what we’ve done.  Each week, I will let you know what words we add, so you can add those to practice at home.

In math, we finished up shapes.  Next week, we will talk about positional words and attributes of “exactly the same” and then move to ways things are the same and yet different.  For example, if I have a yellow triangle and a yellow square, they are the same because they are both shapes and yellow, but they are different in that they’re different shapes.

A couple of reminders:

• If they need to leave early during the day, you have to go to the office with your id and check them out.  It’s helpful if you give me a heads up so I can have them ready.
• Book orders were due today.  I won’t order until after the weekend though, so please get them in by Monday if you want to order.
• The ASQ survey is due by Sept. 20th.  Please refer to the paper in your parent packet from parent night for the details.  So far, no one in kindergarten has done this.  This is a state requirement, so we appreciate your help in filling this out.
• Please make sure water bottles are non-spillable.  The kind with the screw on lid don’t work so well as they tend to not get them back on tight and then it makes for a watery backpack.

We had our first Royal Reader today.  Thanks to Drew’s grandparents for coming in.  The kids loved having them come in and surprise them and share a book.  I still have lots of spots open, so let me know if you’d like to sign up!  It’s lots of fun!!

Thanks to all of you who picked up apples from parent night and sent them in with requested items.  I know sometimes the kids forget, so I try and ask if they have anything different in their backpack to give me.  I appreciate your generosity in providing those “extras” for our classroom!

I hope you have a great long weekend.  We’re headed to the KU football game on Sat.  Our daughter, Hannah, works for KU football recruiting and does photography at the games, so my husband, Andrew, goes to watch the game, and I go to watch Hannah!  Then both kids will be home for the weekend so I will be one happy Momma.  I’ve got great kids and I sure do miss them!

Enjoy your weekend and safe travels to those who are headed out of town!

Week of Aug. 20th-24th

Welcome to the Bentwood kindergarten blog!  This will be your weekly information of what we’ve done in class and what’s coming up in kindergarten.  You can subscribe to posts or click the link that I try and remember and send in the email.

This week, we have learned the letters, sounds, and actions for the letters A-E.  We have also learned the sight words red, orange, and yellow!  Keep wearing those colors and sending in items for the posters.  They are looking great!

We are working really hard now to write names with a capital letter and the rest lower case.  Today we talked about different kinds of letters, tall letters, short letters, and hang down letters.

In math, we’ve been working on shapes.  We are required to do square, rectangle, circle, triangle, and hexagon.  Yesterday we practiced drawing those shapes as well with our dice game.

We have done a couple of class books which will start coming home next week.  When you see a class book envelope in their backpack, please read it that night, comment if you wish, and return it the next day.  Books will come home Mon.-Thurs.  I don’t send them on the weekends.  I just rotate them through until all the kids have had a chance to share them at home.

I have lots of Royal Reader spots open, so if you’d like to come and read on a Friday, please let me know.  I will ask that you check in the office about 3:15 and come and wait outside the room.  I will come and get you after we get settled in from recess.  Remember, it’s much more fun if you don’t tell them you’re coming.  You’ll need to bring 2-3 books to share.

In their folders today, is the packet of upper and lower case letters.  Sight words and numbers will come home soon.  Remember to practice them out of order (I’d cut them apart) and work on the letter, action and sound.  They can also practice writing them, (always start at the top), put them in order etc.

There is also a form for Highlights 5 magazine.  It is the kindergarten form of Highlights magazine.  This is optional.  Please sign and mark yes or no and return either way.  If I turn the forms in even if they’re all no’s, I can get some fun stuff for the room.

There is also a form and a QR code for you to sign into your child’s account on SeeSaw.  It’s a spot that I can post pictures and videos of your child so that you can see what goes on in the classroom during the day.  You can also comment on pictures, but all comments have to be approved by me first.  You could also share with grandparents if they wanted to see what is going on as well.  You will not have access to it unless you sign in with the code assigned to you that’s on the paper.

Please make sure snack has their name on it and that it’s in a baggie (as opposed to a plastic container…fridge isn’t very big!)  Thanks for sending in healthy snacks and remembering the no nut policy!

Towards the end of labor day week, I’d like to see the kids walking down the hall to the room by themselves.  If you want to walk to the corner and say your goodbyes, that’s fine.  They are doing a great job with their morning jobs and are ready to get themselves to the room.  Most kids are doing that already anyway!

The kids need to be in the room ready to go at 8:20 when the last bell rings.  If they’re standing in the door, I don’t count them tardy, but after the bell rings, if they’re not in sight, then they will be.  It’s really hard on them to walk in late as everyone else already has their jobs done and has started their morning work.

Please make sure you’re sending a water bottle with a lid that they can get off independently and does not leak.  It’s been pretty hot after recess, so a water bottle is a good idea.  It should stay in their backpack, which is why we need the no leak kind.

This is a great class and I’m looking forward to a great year!