Week of September 18th-22nd

This week was all about apples in kindergarten! We painted apples, heard apple stories, made our own “10 apples up on top”, counted apple seeds and wrote the numbers, sang songs about apples, taste tested red, yellow and green apples, and then made a graph with the information! (This is the ONLY class I’ve ever had where every single kid liked every single apple and ate them all up! ) We also learned about Johnny Chapman aka: Johnny Appleseed. We also learned about the life cycle of an apple tree and how that goes along with the Seasons.

In phonics, we have done the letters Tt, Pp, Nn, and Aa, so they should know those letters and their sounds and actions very well. We added the words who, what and where to our sight word list.

In math, we are still working on addition, number bonds and different ways to make the numbers and lots of practice writing them. It is developmentally appropriate to be writing the numbers backwards, but I always make them correct it so they don’t get into a bad habit.

We talked a lot this week about little problems and how to solve them so they don’t turn into bigger problems. We talked about how to apologize and how to tell someone, “I forgive you, or I accept your apology” instead of saying “it’s okay.”

In writing, we are working on labeling pictures, stretching words and putting down the sounds we hear.

Our field trip to Alldredge Apple Orchard is next week on Friday. We’re hoping for a beautiful day! Kids need to wear tennis shoes and be dressed for the weather expecting to be outside the whole time. Have them bring a jacket with their name on it. They will need a disposable sack lunch in either a lunch sack or a gallon baggie works great. Please be sure their name is on it. They will need a disposable, throw away water bottle as well with their name on it. Please don’t send drinks other than water. Lunches will not be refrigerated and we will not be bringing things home, so please keep that in mind. Parent volunteers will pick up lunches and take them up for us, we will do all the fun orchard stuff, eat lunch and then head back. Don’t worry, I’ll take plenty of pictures. It’s important that they’re here on time, so we can get everyone checked in and a bathroom break before we get on the bus.

Book orders are due next Wed. the 27th. Scholastic has great prices and all books ordered earn books for our classroom. Our class code is HWML6. You can order books from any grade level and they’ll be shipped free to school.

If you plan to eat at the Bluejay diner, would you please shoot me a quick email? Sometimes kids “think” their parents are coming, because they want it to happen. 😊

We will be having a pirate day to learn the “ar” sound along with the “r” sound. I don’t have a date yet, but it will mostly likely be the first or second week in Nov. All the kids come dressed as pirates. I let you know now in case you find a costume on sale, but you also do NOT have to buy a costume. A striped shirt, a pirate hat and some ripped jeans also works great. It’s easy to make a costume. However lots are also on sale this time of year too. We have done it for years, so if you have a neighbor with a BE kid, chances are you could borrow one too! Just want you to have a heads up.

Thanks to all who sent back conference notes. Please send those in as soon as you can. As soon as a schedule is firmed up, I will be sending a reminder note. It’ll be here before we know it!!

Please see the message below from Mrs. Burk, the school nurse:

Times are tough and I know it is difficult keeping your student home, but if they are sick then please consider the remainder of the other healthy students and teachers who are learning/working and playing together. We have had an excessive amount of Kindergarten illnesses already this year. Again, below is the link to district guidance (located on district website) for when to stay home: https://www.olatheschools.org/Page/3529

We are getting our rooms extra sprayed at night and we wash hands and hand sanitize as much as we can, but kindergarteners still have hands in their mouths and are germ spreaders, so please use caution and keep them home if needed. Thanks for helping to keep us all well!

This class is making great progress and really learning how to get along and work together. I’m super proud of them and can’t wait to share all their successes at conferences.

Have a great weekend! I’m headed to Lawrence and hoping for KU win and a dry game! Also enjoying having my son Jack in town. Love love love when my kids are home! Take care!

Week of Sept. 11-15th

A lot of this week was spent on Fastbridge testing which is a screener that we give 3 times a year. It give us good information to know what small groups we need to pull and who needs need extra support in which areas. The kids did a great job and were patient while testing. They also got to learn to use Epic! to listen to stories on their i-pads. Because our testing window was open through today and reports take 24 hours to print, Kindergarten will be sending home the reports on Monday. The reports give you information on where they are in reading and math and there’s some additional information on things you can do at home. As always, if you have questions, please let me know.

We are at midterm of first quarter already! Midterms are coming home today. This is just a snapshot of where they have been the last few weeks. There are some behavior things marked, but please know if it was something big, you would’ve talked to me already. This is just something to have a conversation with your child and remind them what above the line looks like at school. Let me know if you have questions.

This week, we learned about the seasons and made group posters and then presented them to the class. We are working on being good listeners when others speak and making sure to speak loudly and clearly when we’re the speaker.

Constitution day is a requirement to teach in KS. This is what we learned about today and our focus was on the flag. I’ve encouraged them to look around and see where they can find flags in our community.

We have now added the letters Tt Pp Nn and Aa. They should be confident with recognizing these letters, knowing their sounds and actions as we have practiced a LOT. We have also added all of the following sight words: I, a, the, to, see, for, play, like, have and you. I try to let you know what we do each week so you can be practicing at home as well, but I don’t think I’ve been caught up.

In math, we’re working on simple addition sentences to 5 and different ways to make 5, ie: 4 + 1, 2+3 etc. We have done this a lot. Ask your child to show you the different ways to make 5. We’ve also worked a lot on writing the numbers to 9. 8 is especially tricky. We say “make an S and up” to make an 8. Have your child sing the number song to you to tell the ways to write the numbers.

In writing, we’re working on stretching words and putting down the sounds that we hear. Please do NOT spell things for your child or they will not want to try at school if they think it’s not right. Encourage them to put down the sounds they hear and to try their best.

Just a reminder that library days are C and E days. I’ve had a lot of kids want to return books the day after. I just don’t have anyone to accompany them down to do that. Please check the calendar and make sure they have them on C and E days. If you need another ABCDE calendar, it is on the district website.

I could use some small trinket things for my treasure box that are fall/Halloween related and I don’t seem to have a lot of “girly” stuff. If you have some new McDonalds toys or other things, feel free to sneak them to me! 🙂

Thanks to all who came to the walk and read community night. We will have another one the last Wed. in Sept. from 5:30-6:30 and it will have different books than this week. We hope you can come and join us!

I will send more information home soon about the upcoming field trip.

Hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Monday 9/11 update

1. Copying from the email for reference:
2.  Field trip permission slips are coming home today and must be returned by FRIDAY the 15th at the latest.  Please sign for your child, cut off the bottom, keep the top for your info. and return.  We will take 6 parents from each room to assist.  Due to the size of the orchard, we will not take more than that.  If you’d like to go, please read the parameters and fill out the slip and return by Friday as well.  If we have more than 6 per class, we will draw names.  If chosen to go, you would need to get yourselves there and it’s a drive, so I would suggest you carpool.  Sibling are never allowed to attend field trips per district rules.
3. Book orders are coming home today and are due the 27th.  Scholastic has great prices on books.  They ship to school and then I send them home with you or your child.  I always ask in case they are gifts.  You do not pay any shipping and you get a free book with a $25 order with code READS.  All books purchased allows the class to earn points to add to our class library.  Orders must be placed online and you can look at a LOT more books than are on the sheet coming home and order from other grade levels as well.
4. I am doing Fastbridge testing this week, which means the kids are having some independent time.  We learned to use Epic on the I-pad today.  Please be sure they are charged nightly and come in daily, especially this week as they’ll be on them a little more than usual due to testing.
5. Our class stuffed animals, Bella and Daisy are coming home with two kids tonight in a backpack.  There is an about my child for you to fill out and they will share that with the class when returned on Fridays.  There is a journal too.  Please print a pic of your child and the animal doing something at your house or out and about and put in the journal.  Then, write about it and I will read it to the class and they will share what they did with Bella or Daisy during the week.  Speaking and listening skills are a part of our grade card and an important part of kindergarten.  Please be sure to return the backpack on the Friday that you have it so it can go home with someone else on the next Monday.  Everyone will get Bella OR Daisy by winter break.  After break, they will get the other animal with a show and tell task.  They were super excited about it today!
6. Reading buddies came home on Friday.  Please  encourage your child to “read” to their buddy.  That could mean finding sight words, reading their star words books, finding letters they know, retelling a story or actually reading a book.  There will be times their buddy will come back to school and I’ll let you know when that is!
7. Lastly, this Wed. we are doing a community book walk around the trail from 5:30-6:30.  You will have a chance to connect with other kindergarten parents, read a story around the trail and buy Kona Ice if you choose.  There will be younger books and chapter books if you have an older sibling.  I will be there and would love to see you there!

Week of August 28th-Sept. 1st

It was a busy week full of good books and learning about letters, words, sentences, how to stretch the sounds in words, and how to use our reading fingers to read our color word books. Make sure to keep the books that come home with a word highlighted in their star words bag so they’ll have a collection of books that they can practice reading! We have started working hard on our phonics program and are learning the letters, the sounds they make and the action that goes with them. We are also learning about syllables in words and how to put them together to make new words.

We are talking about the power of YET and how to have a growth mindset of “I can’t do it….YET.” We are talking about trying our best each time we do work and not giving up even if it’s hard. We learned to draw people this week and it was kind of hard, but we worked on doing our best and using appropriate colors when we draw.

In Math, we are working on the numbers to five and writing them is proving to be difficult. Numbers have to touch the top and bottom line on the writing sheet and start from the top. If they write them backwards, it’s still developmentally appropriate, but I have them correct it, otherwise it just becomes a bad habit. We are also doing simple addition as well. We are going to work a lot this year on fluency and subitizing. Subitizing is when I look at a set and I know how many there are without having to count. This is easily practiced with dice. So if I roll a five, I can look at it and know there are 5 without counting.

We are talking about our own space and “bubble space”. Making sure you are keeping your body and hands safe and not being in someone else’s space. We have had to have several talks this week about specials teachers. They’re having a harder time having above the line behavior in those classes. I use the word expectation a lot and they know the expectation is to have above the line behavior no matter who the teacher is. There will be times this year that I have to be gone and I want them to understand that it’s not just with me.

Please be sure your child can say their first and last name. I know that several kids have been unable to tell me when asked. That is an important safety piece that we don’t work on in kindergarten. I also always remind parents that knowing a parent’s phone number is super important. Many times they learn it in preschool and then forget because they don’t work on it again. Please work on this at home. They should also be able to write their name now with a capital letter and all the rest lowercase and know what the letters are in their name.

On Sept. 7th the district is having a district wide spirit day for the Chiefs game. We’ve been asked to wear red or Chiefs gear!

As long as the weather holds, we have a field trip at the end of the month. Unfortunately it’s not one that all parents can go to for capacity reasons. What we do is send you the info., and interested parents can sign up. If we have more than we need, we will draw names. Siblings are never allowed to attend field trips. More info. will be coming.

Please note that when we come back on Wed. Sept.6th, it will be library day. Please be sure the i-pads come back and are charged as well. Thanks!

I hope you enjoy the long weekend! I watched the Utes win last night and am headed to KU tonight to hopefully see another victory. I do love college football season! Have a great weekend!