We will be having a Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday the 23rd. I'll be sending information soon about some supplies we would love to have donated! Have a great weekend!
Friday, November 4, 2016
Veteran's Day
We had a great visit from Sergeant Wilson and her son Cadet Wilson. They talked about the 5 branches of the military, sang songs with us and even showed us some commands! What important jobs they have! We know now to honor people who have served our country and thank them for all they do! See if your child can name the 5 branches!
Monday, October 31, 2016
October News
Boy have we had a busy month! We have been learning new letters and sounds, practicing how to print those letters and applying the letter sounds! We read lots of versions of The Three Billy Goats Gruff and compared/contrasted them. Our last book was told from the troll's point of view and according to him "goats just don't know hospitality" (he was the "victim" in the story of course). It was very funny to hear about how nice he was to the goats, we all laughed! We sequenced pictures from the story and made goat headbands.
We also had an Open Circle about Cooperation. We talked about how to work together when we need to solve problems. We are always respectful and kind.
We also had an Open Circle about Cooperation. We talked about how to work together when we need to solve problems. We are always respectful and kind.
We also learned about pumpkins! We read books about pumpkins, watched a video about pumpkins, worked on pumpkin books adding "seeds" to the pages to help us count, ordered pictures of a pumpkin plant (thanks to Alora for bringing in a flower from her pumpkin plant!)
And of course we couldn't forget Halloween! We made haunted houses, decorated pumpkins with shapes and recorded how many shapes we used, used play dough to make the correct number of pumpkins on fall mats, wrote about what we want to be during Writer's Workshop, played Halloween letter bingo, read lots of Halloween stories and played some fun counting games with partners such as "ghost flips".
We started our week with a parade and Halloween party! Many thanks to all who donated items and helped make it special! A big thank you to Mrs. O'Shea, Mrs. Du Ross and Mrs. Stein for coming in and making our party great!
Happy Halloween!!
Thursday, September 29, 2016
So much fun!
It was great seeing many of you at Parent Information Night last week. Please remember to send back the "You're the Expert" form that was at the back of the packet. Thanks to those of you who have sent them back in to me.
We have been moving right along learning letters and sounds! Each week you will receive information about the letters/formation. We have been working on printing the lowercase letters and once we've gone through all 26 will then work on the uppercase. So far we have learned t,f,b,m, and n! On this day, we counted the letters in our names and graphed them! Some people have really LONG names!
We have also been counting away in kindergarten. Number poems have been helping the kids print the numbers. We are also working on one to one correspondence. We've been playing partner games and dice games to help us with the formation and identification.
We've also done a couple of "Open Circles" (a social competency program designed to help create a sense of community in our class, we talk about how to show respect, care about others, be safe, listening skills, body language and cooperation to name a few topics.) We've talked about "Double Ds" when something is dangerous and destructive, you should let an adult know or when you can just use your words. We have also talked about being calm and some breathing that we can do to help us if we are feeling angry or upset (balloon breathing and flower breathing, ask your child to show you!)
We had a very exciting program called Ocean World! We got to touch live ocean animals! Everyone was so brave...some of the sea creatures were a little intimidating!
We have been moving right along learning letters and sounds! Each week you will receive information about the letters/formation. We have been working on printing the lowercase letters and once we've gone through all 26 will then work on the uppercase. So far we have learned t,f,b,m, and n! On this day, we counted the letters in our names and graphed them! Some people have really LONG names!
We have also been counting away in kindergarten. Number poems have been helping the kids print the numbers. We are also working on one to one correspondence. We've been playing partner games and dice games to help us with the formation and identification.
We've also done a couple of "Open Circles" (a social competency program designed to help create a sense of community in our class, we talk about how to show respect, care about others, be safe, listening skills, body language and cooperation to name a few topics.) We've talked about "Double Ds" when something is dangerous and destructive, you should let an adult know or when you can just use your words. We have also talked about being calm and some breathing that we can do to help us if we are feeling angry or upset (balloon breathing and flower breathing, ask your child to show you!)
We had a very exciting program called Ocean World! We got to touch live ocean animals! Everyone was so brave...some of the sea creatures were a little intimidating!
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
September News
We had a great first day...despite the rain! Thanks for remembering to send your child with his/her rest time blanket! Please remember to talk to your child about buying/bringing his/her lunch (and what the choices are when buying lunch).
We had a super busy day! We had circle time, read the book, The Kissing Hand, went to art, had snack, played with our friends, went to lunch, had indoor recess, rest time, drew pictures of ourselves for the first page in our memory books, talked about our blue home/school folder, went over a few class rules.....phewww it was a long day!
I hope your child enjoyed his/her first day of kindergarten! Everyone did a fantastic job!
We had a super busy day! We had circle time, read the book, The Kissing Hand, went to art, had snack, played with our friends, went to lunch, had indoor recess, rest time, drew pictures of ourselves for the first page in our memory books, talked about our blue home/school folder, went over a few class rules.....phewww it was a long day!
I hope your child enjoyed his/her first day of kindergarten! Everyone did a fantastic job!
Thursday, April 7, 2016
April news
We've been very busy as usual in room 7! We just finished our 2nd writing genre...informational. The kids worked hard on all their "How to" books! They will be coming home shortly. We just started our last genre which is opinion/persuasion writing. We just started our last genre...opinion/persuasion writing. We have also been learning about digraphs (2 letters that make one sound together...like wh, ch, sh, th, and ck). Learning these will definitely help with our reading and writing! We continue to work on our vowel sounds (long and short) which can be so tricky! We have been learning more sight and trick words, our word wall is growing!
In math we have been working with numbers up to 100. We're looking at the number patterns on our 100s chart and learning that 38 is very different than 83! We are always practicing our number writing! We have also been learning about 2D and 3D shapes. By the end of the school year, our hope is that all children will be able to name and give an attribute for a circle, square, triangle, rectangle and hexagon (2D shapes) and for the 3D shapes...cube, cylinder, sphere, and cone. Look around your house, I bet your child can find some 3D shapes!
If I didn't mention at our conference, we have a new "behavior management system" in place. Students are "clipping up" for good behavior, being kind, cleaning up after themselves, being a good friend, taking care of the materials, listening and following directions (some of the areas that many children were struggling with). When a student clips up to "super student" 5 times, s/he can pick from the treasure box! It is very exciting for all! Thank you to Mrs. Wysocki for donating some of the special items in the treasure box.
Please remember to send back the progress report envelope signed.
You should have received the yellow field trip information for Southwick Zoo, please sign the permission slip and return with the $10 payment.
It is so nice that the snow is melting but with the rain that means indoor recess....
It is so nice that the snow is melting but with the rain that means indoor recess....
Sunday, February 21, 2016
February
I hope everyone has enjoyed some time with your children this past week! It's nice to put the boots and snow pants away for while!
Many thanks to all the parents who helped with our Valentine's Day party! The kids had a lot of fun!
100th DAY
Hopefully you received the note about the 100th day. Our 100th day of school will be on February 25th. If you would like to help your child put together a collection of 100 objects that would be great. I gave some suggestions on the sheet (paperclips, cotton balls, pasta, pennies, legos) anything small that your child can transport easily. You can even decorate a t-shirt or make a poster?! Be creative and have fun.
MATH
In math we have moved onto the concept of subtraction, the kids did well with addition. We will revisit addition/subtraction again in our next unit. As you've probably noticed we continue to work on one to one correspondence, rote counting and number formation. We've also touched on the "teen" numbers, these come up every month when we look at the calendar. This will help us when we start to talk about the numbers in "ones and tens" (14 is "1 ten and 4 ones").
HANDWRITING
I've introduced all the lower and uppercase letters and the correct formation. Letter formation is something else we are constantly working on. It is important that the kids are forming the letters correctly, using the appropriate stokes and starting in the right spot. Many children are still making letters from the bottom and going up....there are NO letters that start at the bottom. This can be a hard habit to break, if you see your child making letters bottom up, try to remind him/her of the proper formation. Starting letters in the correct spot will help with the efficiency of writing.
LITERACY
We continue to work on "tapping out" our CVC words. It is kind of tricky manipulating the fingers but the kids are getting it! You can work on this in the car, before bedtime, or really anywhere! Give your child a CVC word and watch them tap. Try writing the CVC word and watch how great your child is at blending the sounds together! Everyone's writing is really coming along as well! During Writer's Workshop the kids have been writing "How To" books. Ask your child what his/her book is about. We've had some great books about making pizza, making s'mores, playing sports, building a snowman etc. In addition to what our "How To" books need (numbered steps, transitional words such as first, next, then, specific directions, and pictures) we continue to work on spacing, best guess spelling, and lowercase letters.
READING AT HOME (RAH RAH)
Your child will be receiving a bag of books called "RAH RAH" books. (Reading At Home) These books will be at your child's independent level of reading, meaning that these will be books that s/he can read with ease, they aren't challenging, they aren't meant to be books that you have to assist your child with many words. These will be books that will build up your child's confidence and show everyone in your family what a great reader your kindergartner is! The book bag will go home on Tuesdays and be your child's homework. S/he can return the book bag with the books s/he has read anytime before the following Tuesday. I will need to check out 2 new books to each student to go home on Tuesday. There will be some information in their bag that you can take out and read through. Math homework will go home on Wednesdays.
CONFERENCES
March conferences will soon be upon us. Be on the look out for a google doc to sign up.
Many thanks to all the parents who helped with our Valentine's Day party! The kids had a lot of fun!
100th DAY
Hopefully you received the note about the 100th day. Our 100th day of school will be on February 25th. If you would like to help your child put together a collection of 100 objects that would be great. I gave some suggestions on the sheet (paperclips, cotton balls, pasta, pennies, legos) anything small that your child can transport easily. You can even decorate a t-shirt or make a poster?! Be creative and have fun.
MATH
In math we have moved onto the concept of subtraction, the kids did well with addition. We will revisit addition/subtraction again in our next unit. As you've probably noticed we continue to work on one to one correspondence, rote counting and number formation. We've also touched on the "teen" numbers, these come up every month when we look at the calendar. This will help us when we start to talk about the numbers in "ones and tens" (14 is "1 ten and 4 ones").
HANDWRITING
I've introduced all the lower and uppercase letters and the correct formation. Letter formation is something else we are constantly working on. It is important that the kids are forming the letters correctly, using the appropriate stokes and starting in the right spot. Many children are still making letters from the bottom and going up....there are NO letters that start at the bottom. This can be a hard habit to break, if you see your child making letters bottom up, try to remind him/her of the proper formation. Starting letters in the correct spot will help with the efficiency of writing.
LITERACY
We continue to work on "tapping out" our CVC words. It is kind of tricky manipulating the fingers but the kids are getting it! You can work on this in the car, before bedtime, or really anywhere! Give your child a CVC word and watch them tap. Try writing the CVC word and watch how great your child is at blending the sounds together! Everyone's writing is really coming along as well! During Writer's Workshop the kids have been writing "How To" books. Ask your child what his/her book is about. We've had some great books about making pizza, making s'mores, playing sports, building a snowman etc. In addition to what our "How To" books need (numbered steps, transitional words such as first, next, then, specific directions, and pictures) we continue to work on spacing, best guess spelling, and lowercase letters.
READING AT HOME (RAH RAH)
Your child will be receiving a bag of books called "RAH RAH" books. (Reading At Home) These books will be at your child's independent level of reading, meaning that these will be books that s/he can read with ease, they aren't challenging, they aren't meant to be books that you have to assist your child with many words. These will be books that will build up your child's confidence and show everyone in your family what a great reader your kindergartner is! The book bag will go home on Tuesdays and be your child's homework. S/he can return the book bag with the books s/he has read anytime before the following Tuesday. I will need to check out 2 new books to each student to go home on Tuesday. There will be some information in their bag that you can take out and read through. Math homework will go home on Wednesdays.
CONFERENCES
March conferences will soon be upon us. Be on the look out for a google doc to sign up.
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