September 15

We have had a great week!  The students survived their first full day with a substitute but  I was so glad to see them Wednesday morning!

We are really into the swing of things now.  While we are still learning routines, we have more and more time every day to work hard in all the subjects.

Reading:  We know that readers can add a "pinch" of themselves to books they are reading.  We make connections all the time as readers.  We are also learning that words and pictures go together!  We used picture cues and beginning letters to read color words in our poem this week!  They were so proud of themselves!  Yay for learning how to read!! We learned our first sight word- I.

Writing:  Students continue to write books about things they know a lot about.  This week we spent a lot of time talking about how pictures and words go together.  We also celebrated when students were able to say a word slowly and write some sounds.

Math:  We are moving on from sorting and doing a lot more counting.  We also spent some time learning calendar routines.  Next week we will get new math bins and we will focus on number writing in a lot of them.  I also spent some time with each of the students doing our district AIMS web assessment in math.  We will go over those results at conferences.

Science:  Next week we will begin our science unit Trees and Weather.  We will be observing trees and learning what it is like to be a scientist.  Ms. Noonan, our librarian, will be videotaping our science lessons so kids can used to being video taped before the formal National Boards videotaping.  Again, if you have any questions about that please let me know.  I will have the permission slips for that at conferences.

Thanks to all of you who have signed up to volunteer.  I have a rough schedule and we will likely start at the end of next week, early the following week.  It's nice to have a few more routines SOLID before I introduce extra adults to the classroom.

I hope you enjoyed the video I sent this week instead of pictures.  I do not list the link on the blog in order to respect privacy.

First Full Week!

We had a great first full week of Kindergarten.  We spent a lot of time working on routines.  I can't wait to talk to you about our Curriculum at Open House/Curriculum Night this Thursday at 6:30!  

Reading:  This week in reading we learned that readers look, think, read, and learn.  We learned some routines for reading a book on our own and some routines for reading a book with a partner.  This is all part or our Readers Workshop, which you will hear more about on Curriculum Night.  We enjoyed reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Chicka Chicka, Boom! Boom! and Wolf!

Writing:  We learned that writing is just putting our ideas down on paper.  We also learned how to use our writing folders and where we can get writing materials in the classroom.

Math:  This week we worked on math fluency routines for numbers 1-4.  We also practiced sorting objects with our math bins.  We also got our math tool kits.  We took them to our Special Learning Spots and explored some of the tools in the kits. These spots are places in the classroom where each child can go to work quietly away from others.  We will read, write, and do math in these spots. Children can always choose to go to these spots during independent work time.   Next week we will learn calendar routines and get our new math partners.

Second Step: This week in Second Step we met Ms. Heaphy's class and learned that listening is a school behavior that helps us learn.

Homework: You should have received a yellow homework calendar for the month in your child's folder on Friday.  There is no need to return any homework, but please look at the calendar carefully.  We worked as a team to create this calendar and it closely aligns with what we are doing in the classroom.

Open House/Curriculum Night:  Please plan on coming for a short presentation at 6:30.  I will begin right on time in order for parents to go to other presentations at different grade levels.  After the presentation, you are free to tour the school and meet our special area teachers.  There is childcare available in the auditorium for the presentation portion of the evening.  I will have volunteer sign ups and will share a link for parent teacher conference sign ups that evening.

Here are a few pictures of the kids making their Irving Eagles and a few kids working in their Special Learning Spots.