Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Happy Halloween!

Our class will celebrate Halloween on Friday afternoon. Victoria Wipf and Jocelyn Adkins have been busy organizing our classroom celebration. Please contact Jocelyn if you would like to contribute snacks or volunteer in the classroom.

Our morning is extended until 12:00 --- the students will eat lunch at 12 instead of 11. If possible, I would encourage you to pick up your child at 12 to eat lunch and put his/her costume on at home. Please let me know ahead of time if this is your plan. Students can be picked up in the office if you are taking them home (they need to be signed out/in when they leave for lunch). Lunch will end at 12:55. Students should not wear their costumes to school on Friday.
• We will start our parade at 1:15 after all the students are dressed. Our class will walk with our 4th grade Reading Buddies. The parade route is explained in Mr. Ellwanger’s letter found in the Thursday packet online.

• If your child is getting dressed at school, please send his/her costume in a labeled bag that can be used for other clothing when they change. The students will put on their costumes after lunch. We will have adults here to help get students dressed. Please remember scary masks, weapons, or anything that is considered violent will not allowed in the school.

Happy Halloween!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Conferences

Dear Kindergarten Families,

I have made a few more time slots available for conferences this week. If you would like to change your scheduled conference for one of the times listed below, please let me know as soon as possible.

Wednesday
2:00-2:20
2:20-2:40
2:40-3:00

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Patterns are all Around Us

This week in Language Arts/Science we started our “Shadows” study. We began our unit by reading and discussing the book, “Shadow Magic” by Seymour Simon. This story taught us that there are three things needed to create a shadow. These things included a light source, a place to cast the shadow on, and _____________. See if your kindergartner can tell you what the third thing is. Also this week, we study the sounds for the letters /f/ and /g/ and read our fourth decodable book.

In math we explored patterns. The students had fun creating, extending, and naming different patterns. Please continue to practice these skills with your kindergartner at home. On Tuesday, I am asking that the student wear an item of clothing that has a pattern on it. We will use our clothing to continue our pattern exploration.

Reminders

The change in weather increases the chances for the transmission of head lice. Please stress to your child the importance of not sharing hats, combs, coats or hair accessories. This will decrease the risk of transmission of head lice.

Picture Day is Tuesday, October 19th

October book orders are due by Sunday. You can access the Scholastic Book Club through our blog.

Our Room parents are looking for volunteers to work in our classroom on Thursdays and Fridays. If you are interested please contact Jocelyn Adkins at jadkins10@earthlink.net

Our Halloween Parade and Classroom party will be held on Friday, October 29th in the afternoon. More details to follow as we get closer to the date.

Thank you to all those parents that have donated snacks.

Before leaving our blog please take a moment to visit our "Student Work" blog to see the kindergartners latest work.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Things are Shaping-Up in Kindergarten

This week in language arts we wrapped-up our first reading unit, “School”. In this unit the students were introduced to various letters and sounds, rhyming, visualization, and asking questions. Next week we will begin Unit 2, “Shadows”. This is always an exciting unit for the students because it aligns perfectly with our first science unit, “Sunshine and Shadows.” Many of our lessons in these units are taught outdoors so please be sure to dress your child appropriately for the weather.
In math this week started our unit on, “Geometric Shapes”. Some of the shapes that we explored were the trapezoid, hexagon, triangle, square, big and little rhombus. We had fun using these shapes to make pictures. Next week, we will use these shapes to explore and create patterns.

Before leaving our blog, please take a moment to visit the “Student Work” link to take a peek at some of our work.
Enjoy your weekend!

Friday, September 17, 2010

We Are Making Moves

Wow, can you believe this is already our fourth week of kindergarten? We have been busy learning so many new things. In Language Arts we continued our Unit 1 study, “School”. We are getting better at rhyming, more and more each day. Please continue to play rhyming games with your child at home to help them practice this skill. Rhyme Time is a game you can play with your kindergartner as you prepare dinner. In this game, you and your child will work together to see how many rhyming words you can come up within a minute (The sillier the better). Also, in Language Arts, we started our Letter Sounds Unit; for every letter we explored, we created a movement to help us remember. So far, we have learned the sounds for short and long vowel /a/, /b/, and /c/. Next week we’ll explore the letters /d/ and /e/.

This week we also started our Star Reading Log. Every Monday your child will bring a book home to read throughout the week. Students should return their Star Reader Log, book, and Ziploc Baggie back to school on Friday, so they can read to me and earn their star sticker. Once students have earned their star sticker for a book they can add that book to their collection at home (an old shoebox works well for storage of Decodable Books).

In Math we continued to explore numbers 1-20. We practiced counting, writing, and recognizing these numbers. Number recognition and writing can sometimes be a challenge for students. Please continue to practice counting and recognizing these numbers with your child. We also learned the game “Top-It” in math this week. Ask your kindergartner to teach you how to play it at home.

Reminders
Please remember to send a healthy snack with your kindergartner each day. We would like to thank those parents who donated snacks to the class. We are enjoying them!

Also if you have not signed up for Fall Conferences, please contact me as soon as possible to do so.

Enjoy your weekend!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Another Great Week

What a great week! The kindergartners have been working hard to learn all the new routines and procedures here at Beye School.

In Language Arts, we have been reading stories and songs that rhyme. We really enjoyed reading and acting out the rhymes, “I’m a Little Teapot” and “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”. Also, this week, we shared some fun things that we like to do with our friends and families.

In math, we explored numbers 0-15 and we began counting down to the 100th day of school. The kindergartners are already discussing what activities and games we should organize to celebrate this special day. We also had our first “Munchie Math” lesson. It was yummy!

I would like to thank all those families that were able to join me for Curriculum Night. The students were thrilled when they entered this morning to find the special love notes left at their seats. The looks on their faces were simply priceless.

Our Wonderful Room Coordinators are:

Victoria Wipf vbrownwipf@comcast.net

Jocelyn Adkins jadkins10@earthlink.net

Here’s to Another Great Week!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

What A Great First Day!

We had a wonderful first day of school. We stayed busy getting to know each other, taking a tour of our school, and reading a fun kindergarten story.

See if your kindergartner can tell you:

-Where we line up each morning
-What story we read today
-What games they played outside during recess

I know that tomorrow will be just as exciting!

Reminder: Thursday, August 26th is our Kindergarten Curriculum Night. We will begin promptly at 6pm in our classroom. The PTO will provide free babysitting services that evening for any family that may need it.