Week of Aug. 23-27th

We had another busy week in kindergarten. Here’s a look at a few things we did:

Reading: We are working on putting two words together to make a new word and also taking them apart. We heard lots of great stories and did activities with them. Give your child a compound word and ask them to show you how we do it! We also started on our color words and are working on our color posters and color sight word books. We learned to read the room and practiced environmental print. Reading wands came home along with a baggie to keep the highlighted books in that come home. These will be great for them to practice reading with their reading wands. We learned the high frequency words, “I, A, the”.

Math: We are working on numbers to 5 and different ways to make those numbers. We also worked on sorting and classifying different objects. Daily, we work on calendar, days of the week, months of the year, counting by 10’s to 100, counting the days we’ve been in school and adding those to ten frames.

Leader in Me/Social Emotional: Daily we are working on social emotional skills. This week, we practiced how to work with a partner and how to handle it if we don’t get the partner we want. We also heard our first Leader in Me story on Being proactive and how that means “I am in charge of ME!” We talked about ways to be proactive at school. We also started Potato Heads at tables this week. Anytime the entire table is on task and following directions, they earn a piece for their potato head. Once it has 10 pieces, the entire table will earn two stickers on their chart. Almost everyone is close to filling their sticker chart. If it comes home and isn’t full, please send it back. If it IS full, then they can keep it at home as they got a new one.

I-pads are coming home today. IN their folder is a sheet that allows parents/grandparents to gain access to THEIR child’s journal in Seesaw. Please sign up today if you haven’t already. The log in sheets are in the back of their daily folder. Please leave those in there so they don’t get lost. I showed them some basics today and how to use Seesaw. I will put n an activity for this weekend if they’d like to try it. I’m going to put in the same one we already did today for practice. I also put in an alphabet one they can work on. I haven’t download a lot of apps yet, we will do that as we go. Epic is a site for reading books and we will explore that next week. The class code is on their log in. PLEASE make sure I-pads come to school charged each day! We don’t necessarily work on them daily, but I would like them available. I do not have extras, so it’s important they have them and they are charged. You may keep the cord and charger at home.

Sumdog is a great math game that we will also learn. The log in is on the sheet. When they first play Sumdog, it gives them a diagnostic test to determine their skill level. Please do NOT help them with this or it will put them at too high a level for them to play. The school is entered in contests once in awhile that they can participate in as well as long as 10 kids from the class play. You can explore this at home if you’d like, just let them do the test first independently.

I put a yellow half sheet in folders which will allow you to order High Five magazine if you want. It’s the old Highlights magazine but they have a newer version geared towards kindergarten. This is totally optional. However, please sign and return the form even if you don’t want it. I can get some classroom items if all forms are signed and returned even if no one orders.

Scholastic book orders are due Friday Sept. 3 by 4:00 pm if you want to order. I sent the forms home at parent night. If you don’t still have them and want to order you can go to Scholastic.com and enter our class code: HWML6

I have attached the Sept. lunch menu to the email. It is always available on the district website.

Next Friday the 3rd, we will have a half day and dismissal will be at NOON. We will NOT have lunch that day, so we will have a morning snack, so please send in a snack that day. I will also be keeping I-pads that weekend, as I need to get them prepared for some testing we will be doing.

Thank you SO much to those of you who have sent in supplies and gift cards to buy supplies for the classroom. I truly appreciate it!

I may have to be gone a day next week. We thought my Dad would be going to rehab, but I heard today insurance doesn’t like to pay for it, so not sure what our next steps will be. I may need to day to help move him/figure that out. I’m trying my best not to be gone, but I don’t want my Mom to have to do all this on her own. Thanks for understanding. I’ve never needed this much grace in a year, much less the first few weeks of school!

I hope you have a great weekend. The kids are making great progress and settling into the routine of school. One even told me today, “every time I get home, I ask if we have kindergarten the next day. I can’t wait to come back.” That’s what I love to hear! 🙂

Week of August 16-20th

Hello! Welcome to the Kindergarten blog. This will be in place of a newsletter so you know all that’s going on in kindergarten. This has been a crazy week, but we’ve gotten lots done and done some good practicing of our rules and routines. Today most kids came in and did their morning jobs (folder, lunch, milk, backpack, chair pocket) without reminders!! I’m proud of the way they handled my being gone (of course they don’t know differently) and now when I have a sub, it shouldn’t be a big deal.

We heard lots of good stories about feelings and emotions this week and how we are all different and how wonderful that is! We talked about what we do to get ready for school and what we like to do. We worked on drawing pictures of ourselves. The kindergarten coloring rules are, we try our best, we color ourselves the colors we are (no blue hair 🙂 and we use 5 colors in our pictures. We also did a directed drawing of The Color Monster which was a book we read. I hung those in the hall, so you’ll see them later.

I am going to attach the high frequency word lists that we will cover this year on the email. It will not be tested though as it has been in the past. If you feel your child is ready, you can certainly start working on them. We will also be doing some practice with the words. When books come home with a word highlighted, you’ll know it’s one we practiced and that can be kept in their baggie with their reading wand. Those will come home next week after we have worked with them.

In math, we are working on numbers to 5. We haven’t started writing them, but we will soon. We’re playing lots of games and doing hands on activities to practice number recognition and understanding.

At centers, we are learning that we don’t always get to choose what we want to do and we have to be okay with that. We are also learning to be with a partner, use kind words, share, and clean up. We heard the story of Chrysanthemum this week and learned how mean words and actions can crumple someone’s heart. We are trying to learn to work together and not crumple anyone’s heart. If we do, we’re working on what apologies look and sound like.

Just a couple of reminder items:

1. They MUST have 3-4 clean masks DAILY. Many didn’t have any extras today. We change them at least once a day and sometimes more if they’re sneezing or get gross.
2. Please shoot me an email if your child is going to be gone as well as letting the attendance line know. Just easier if I know ahead of time and then I don’t bug the office.
3. Ipads are still being set up and will come home when they’re done. Please be sure they come to school daily and are fully charged. You should keep the cube and cord at home in a safe place.

Thanks for coming to parent night. As always, if you have questions or concerns or happy thoughts 🙂 let me know. I always try and answer email within 24 hours if I’m at school.

I’m not sure what next week will hold for me as far as bringing my Dad home from the hospital. He is making progress, just slower than we all had expected/hoped for. So I’m playing it day by day and we’ll see. Thanks for being understanding. I literally did not miss ONE day of school last year…sigh. I hate to miss, I know they’re fine, but I hate to be gone.

Have a great weekend!