Parents,
This will be your go to place for info. and will replace a typical “newsletter.” I will email you every time I update and then you can always go back here for info. I try and update on Fridays.
We’re off to a great start in kindergarten even with all the weird changes. Here’s your need to know:
We started working on letters, actions, and sounds. If I sent alphabet cards home in your child’s folder, please be reviewing those at home. They’re just going to have to have some at home practice due to our late start. They need to be able to recognize upper and lowercase letters and produce their sounds. We are working hard on this in class. We have already added the letters Ii, Ss, Mm, and Ff. We also added the sight word is. The sheet that was in their star words bag would be a good thing to start practicing reading. And they have reading wands now to use too!
Math binders: I haven’t found the perfect way to handle this, so for right now, they will stay in backpacks and come back and forth. You can just assume we have done them and don’t have to worry about looking at them at night. If I do pull a paper out and it is in their shark folder on the return to school side, then it’s homework. I’ll let you know if I come up with a better plan.
Shark folders: please clean them out nightly
Mon. Sept. 28th will be an E day (computer). I sent everyone home with an A-E calendar in the parent packet. This will let you know what specials they have. A PE B Library C Art D Music E Computer. This is especially important for library days. They will not be allowed to check out books if they don’t bring them back on library day. You can go to Ms. Foster’s website to check out library books. You can get to this through the Bentwood website and the site is listed on the tech sheet I sent home.
Book orders are due at noon on Sept. 30th. This is so I can place the order during my plan time at 2. Book orders are optional. You can order from the form I sent home and also access other grades while there. If books are a gift, let me know and I’ll get them to you in a paper bag.
If you collect Box Tops, please return those by Oct. 8th. After that, we are asking that you download the app. You can scan your receipt and it automatically finds the box top items. This is an easy way to earn $ for our school for things you already buy.
Picture Day has been moved to Oct. 12th.
The Oct. READO will come home on Monday along with some more gross/fine motor activities. You can return the READO’s completed at the end of the month and the kids earn stickers on their sticker charts. There’s not a certain number of READO’s you have to complete. They’re just good, simple activities for practice at home.
Speaking of sticker charts, we have started them and kids are earning stickers for having above the line behavior. It has been very motivating! And it will be more motivating, once they see the treasure box! Speaking of…if you have new McDonald’s toys or trinkets you don’t want, you can sneak them to me and I’ll put them in the treasure box. Because of our situation this year, I’m asking that they only be new unopened toys. Walmart usually has some fun party treats (like slime, sticky animals etc.). Just needs to be the small items you can buy a package of 6 or more. If anyone would like to grab and donate some of those, I would appreciate it!
Halloween will look differently for those with older kids. No parade this year….bummer! However, kids will be able to wear costumes to school! We just ask that they don’t wear masks, gloves, or things that prohibit them from working. I will be doing our “party” in class. I will be asking for some help/donations for the party, I honestly am just not quite there yet to plan. We’ll make it fun and most kindergarteners won’t know any differently!
Masks: PLEASE make sure they have a couple of extra clean masks. Several have started sticking them in their mouths and chewing on them….yuck! I am letting them control if they want to change them unless they look gross from the outside. Sometimes I have them change them if they’re not staying up. The crayola brand that has the adjustable bead seem to fit really well. Keeping them up on their nose is the biggest issue we’ve had.
I saved technology for the last because I like it the best……not so much. So, we are still required to put our learning statements into the LMS page (which shows up on synergy as the class website). So each week I will be posting the learning objectives there. The idea is that if (fingers crossed that we don’t) we all go remote or our class has to go remote, then you are still familiar with where to go to get assignments. We put assignments on the content page because there were so many issues. Supposedly these have been fixed, but we saw what happened with math this week. Seesaw will be our go to for activities. All of the kids are signed on, parents be sure to sign on if you haven’t so you can see their pictures! We have worked through the activities and they’re doing a great job! Please be sure they don’t submit an activity until it’s completed. The activities will only show up on your own child’s page.
I sent a new tech page home with a link to boomcards as well. I think there’s a way I can put those on seesaw. That’s my plan, but I haven’t figure it out yet. They can scan the qr code and work on the 2 activities I’ve assigned on there. I also added Epic books and the class code. Epic is a great site to access books that the kids can listen to and read themselves.
Next week we will be learning about weather, seasons, and the moon!
Have a great weekend! I really am glad to be back with the kids, it’s my happy place!
bentwoodkindergarten 