Week of Oct. 26th-Oct. 30th

I thought I’d update the blog a day early with tomorrow being the Halloween party. I’ll just say thanks in advance for all who donated items for the party and the day. I appreciate all your help. I hate that we can’t have the usual parade, but I’ll be sure to send pics of the kids and the party! I know they’ll love it!

This week, we added the letters Dd and Hh and practiced telling the difference between Dd and Bb. We also learned the sight word “and.”

We worked on lots of fun Halloween activities this week including comparing our name to Frankenstein’s and making a Frankenstein, learning all about how pumpkins grow and the pumpkin life cycle and learning to sequence and retell a story with Room on the Broom.

In math, we explored 3D shapes and compared them to 2D shapes. We looked at the flat surfaces of 3D shapes to find 2D shapes. We also spent a little time on the apps: Geoboard and Pattern Shapes.

Next week, we will learn about measurement and will start our Push, Pull, Force, and Motion unit. We will be learning about design and engineering and will become engineers ourselves.

Next Tuesday the 3rd, is election day. We will be talking about elections (in kindergarten terms of course) and will be doing some voting of our own (on books, not people). Please have your child wear red white and blue or a flag shirt if they have one.

Just a reminder that pirate day will be Nov. 13th. We will come dressed as pirates for the day and will be learning the letter Rr, the sight word “are” and the “ar” chunk sound. We will talk more about what they can wear if they don’t have a costume closer to that date. We will also learn more about coding that week with some pirate coding and then will do some ipad coding as well on code.org.

Book orders will come home next Monday and will be due on the 13th at noon. I will send one more early Dec. Books make great gifts!

Thanks for continuing to check the masks and making sure they have several clean ones daily. Please make sure they fit as well.

Hope you have a great weekend! See everyone tomorrow in costume!

Happy Halloween!

Week of October 19th-23rd

We had a fun week learning to read, learning about shapes, and learning all about bats.

We made a fact book about bats that your child should’ve brought home yesterday. We talked about fact vs. opinion. Ask your child to share some bat facts with you. We worked on listening for details in expository books.

We added the sight words “I” and “can” and the letters Gg and Ll.

In math we talked about 2D shapes and will talk about 3D shapes next week.

On Seesaw, I added abeginning sound BUMP game this afternoon that I would like everyone to play at home in the next few days. They can also finish up any activities that are not finished. They started a math cookie jar game this morning, so that can be finished if it’s not and there’s a new rhyming game as well.

Halloween will be celebrated next Friday. We will have our party in our room. Thanks to all who donated and sent in items. I will be sure to post pictures. They can wear their costume to school, but no gory stuff or blood. They need to be able to get in and out of it to use the restroom and they should wear tennis shoes for recess. If they have a mask, they can bring it for pictures, but we won’t wear them during the day (costume masks of course).

PLEASE be sure your child has extra and CLEAN masks daily. I have been giving out disposable ones because they don’t have clean ones. They should not be wearing the same mask two days in a row. Please also check that they fit. Some of them are too big and won’t stay up. You can ask your child if I tell them a lot to pull it up. I know it’s hard to find ones that fit well, but it’s super important so we can all stay healthy.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Be sure to enjoy a good book!

Week of Oct. 12th-14th

Good to see you all at conferences. If you have questions after we talked, please let me know. I thought of a few things I didn’t tell the first night of conferences, so here’s a few reminders:

We added the words am and in this week and the letters Bb and Nn. Have the kids show you the actions and sounds for the letters we’ve done so far: I, A, M, S, T, P, F, B, N, C. We also learned about long and short vowels this week.

Sight words: We will be adding quite a few sight words 2nd quarter so be sure to be practicing those at home!!

Reading Buddy Dog adoption was a ton of fun today! I will be sending out pictures in the next few days on Seesaw. They seemed to really like it and all promised to take good care of their reading buddies and to read to them each night. Reading might be retelling a story, or looking for sight words or letters they know or listening to you read.

Seesaw: I assigned 4 new projects you can work on over the next few days as they have time and want. Projects are not required but just extra practice.

Book orders are due Friday at noon. I’ll place the order after noon.

Please work on shoe tying. It’s a skill that just has to be practiced over and over. There are several good videos on youtube that show some different ways to tie so you can see what works best for your kid. I really don’t want to have to have my hands on their shoes anymore than needed. Please also make sure they are able to zip and get on their coats. Some need to practice how to get the sleeve fixed when it’s inside out.

Library will be on Tuesday. I know the slip said Tues. but we only go to library on B days, not necessarily Tues of each week. Be sure to check the A-E calendar. It’s on the district website if you need it again.

When we come back, it will be kindness week. On Monday, wear red, white or blue, Tues. wear a BE shirt or a blue shirt, Wed. is rainbow day and we were assigned purple (for a KU fan, this kills me….), on Thursday wear a kindness shirt if you have one, and Friday is wear red or a Chiefs shirt.

Thank you in advance for the donations. I have received a few and am very appreciative. The only thing I could really use more of is liquid soap in a pump dispenser. We have the foam soap, but it washes off super quickly and I worry their hands aren’t getting clean enough that way. If anyone finds some and wants to donate, that’d be great. We’ve already almost been all the way through the 2 bottles I bought at the beginning of school.

Thank you all for sharing your kids with me. They’re sweet and polite and eager to learn. I had several of them thank me for today and tell me how much fun it was! That made my heart happy!

Have a great weekend!

Week of Oct. 5th-9th

This week we continued talking about the weather and what meterologists do. We also learned about the moon and that the moon does not change shape even though it looks like it. We learned that the sun reflects on the moon and that’s what we see. Moon journals came home to track the moon phases, those can be turned in for stickers in a few weeks when completed. We learned about daytime/nighttime and labeling on our moon picture.

On Thursday we learned about fire safety and took a virtual video tour to a fire station. We learned that we practice in school and at home so we will know what to do. We also learned it’s important to check smoke detectors and to have a plan where to meet up. We also talked about when it’s okay to call 911 and when it isn’t.

In math, we worked on the numbers to 10 and did lots of practice recognizing and writing the numbers correctly. All letters and numbers need to start at the top.

We added the letters Cc and Aa and the sight words as and at. We also learned a poem about the vowels and learned the long and short vowel sounds. We are working hard on putting the letter sounds we’ve learned together and how to stretch out those sounds to read them. We continue to work on rhyming. When the kids have to give me a word that rhymes, it does not have to be a real word, just has to rhyme.

We talked about making mistakes and how to apologize and accept an apology. I tell the kids when accepting an apology to say, I forgive you or I accept your apology.

Snack: Please be sure you’re sending a healthy snack. Also, we have a nut allergy in the classroom, so you may not send anything with nuts for snack. Thanks for helping keep all of us safe!

Here’s what’s coming up for the rest of October:

Mon. Oct. 12th picture day, return the form if you want to order. We take ours early in the day which is always good!

Wed. Oct. 14th We dismiss at 11:00. I haven’t told the kids yet, so please don’t share with them, we’re having a puppy reading buddy adoption day that morning. If they have a shirt with a dog on it, have them wear it but don’t tell them why!

Thursday and Friday the 15th and 16th NO SCHOOL

Friday the 16th Book orders are due at noon

Friday Oct. 30th will be our Halloween party. Thanks to all who signed up on the sign up genius. More info. to come on costumes etc.

Typically at parent night and conferences we have a wish list posted of things that we need for the classroom. It’s totally optional, but much appreciated. Next week, I will have a wish list sheet posted outside my room on the window at pick up. If you would like to get any of the items and donate to the classroom, that’d be great. If you can’t at this time, that’s totally fine too! I also put Michaels and Walmart gift cards for a small amount on there as I hang on to them and just go get things as we need them or I think of a project. Thanks in advance!

We did get a new student this week so we are now up to 21. Please keep that in mind when getting stuff for the Halloween party. Might not hurt to get a few more in case. With this large class size, we are having snack outside as much as we possible can and keeping masks on at all times. We wash hands and use sanitizer frequently. You might want to start putting lotion on the kids hands at night. I worry about how dry and cracked hands will be with all the sanitizer. Trying our best to keep everyone safe.

PLEASE be sure your child has a CLEAN new mask on daily. I’m seeing lots of kids wearing the same ones as I know they like that design better. They also need to have several clean ones in their backpacks. This is REALLY important. I have a few disposable ones, I’ve given out when they don’t have a clean one, but I won’t have them forever. Thank you for your help on this!

I think that’s it for today. I hope the kids had fun building their shelters and my fingers are crossed that technology works! They have a number activity on Seesaw that they can do this weekend and a rhyming practice as well. Have a great weekend!

Week of Sept. 28-Oct. 2nd

We survived a whole week of school! And a full moon to end the week. I always tell people that if you don’t believe a full moon changes behavior then you’re welcome to come observe kindergarten. Several times today I said okay, let’s take a breath and get control…. 🙂

This week we learned about the weather and heard some great expository (non-fiction) books about the weather. We learned a meteorologist is a scientist who studies the weather. We also learned about the 4 seasons.

We added the letters, sounds, and actions for the letters: Pp and Tt and added the sight words is and it. The it book coming home today should be kept in their star words bag! Have them read it to you!

In math, we are working on subitizing which means to see a set of dots and know what the number is without counting. For example seeing six dots on a die and knowing it’s 6 without counting. We worked hard on writing numbers. Please practice these at home. We’ve done 0-6. All numbers start at the top. We also started simple addition. I ask them to show me 5 fingers and then show me the different ways to make 5, 5 +0, 2 +3, 4 +1.

We learned about being proactive which is the first Leader in Me habit. In Kindergarten, that looks like “taking care of ourselves”, following the rules, and being respectful.

Lunch: Just a heads up, when kids choose lunch, I always ask if they’ll eat the yogurt especially when it’s pancakes. Otherwise they have no protein for lunch. We eat so early and have a lot of the day left to only have carbs for lunch. I also do not offer dutch waffle as a choice and still don’t get why the district offers this. A dutch waffle is actually a funnel cake. No one can think or learn with a funnel cake for lunch.

Just a reminder that my plan time is at 2:00. Sometimes I have time to answer emails throughout the day, but not always. Also if pick up plans change and you can’t email me before 2:45, please call the office, otherwise I might not see them.

On Monday, you’ll be getting a picture form to order school pictures. They will be taken on the 12th. I always say, if you want to send a change of clothes you can. Sometimes the girls don’t want to wear a cute dress all day and you probably don’t want them ruined on the playground.

You will also get a conference questionnaire. Please return those by Thursday next week. You’ll also get your conference packet which we will go over together on zoom. Please have that with you for our call. I will send a separate email on Monday with the conference schedule and the zoom link. It will be an open zoom link. You will wait in the waiting room and I will let you in. We will have to stick to our 20 min. to get everyone in and so we don’t get backed up. That’s why the questionnaire gives me a good heads up if you have concerns. I was able to get everyone scheduled at their preferred time.

We do have a remote day next Friday on the 9th. It will be the same as last time. I will send a zoom link for an 8:30-9 call on the 9th. On Monday, you will get the packet of work for Friday. We’ve included a fun STEM project and the supplies you will need.

Remember to check Seesaw every few days and if there are activities listed, you child can be working on them at home. I am trying to assign things in the morning if we are working on them at school.

We did not get to the letter T Nearpod today as planned. You may do it together at home. The code is LDWRY.

I hope you have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful weather!