Friday, December 10th

Run, run as fast as you can,

You can’t catch me,
I’m the gingerbread man!!

If you haven’t heard the news… there has been a “Cookie Alert” out in the halls of Dublin for 21 missing gingerbread ornaments!! After all of our kids helped measure the ingredients, mix the dough, roll the dough and cut our ornaments, we placed 21 men into the ovens in the Teacher’s Lounge. We checked on them 5 times in 3 hours.Each time they were resting comfortably in the oven. When we returned at 3:00pm to take them out (three hours later) they had VANISHED! They left us a note and candy canes. We need your help! Please make sure to check your child’s backpack, lunch box, etc. for the missing gingerbread men. Your child will be thrilled to help search! Our first clue led us to Mrs. Entwhistle in the library today but they cookies were not there. Instead they left us chocolate and another clue. They asked that we look for them on Monday in the office. The mystery continues Monday…
Reader’s Workshop: This week workshop had a holiday theme to it! Students had two new books, one with a gingerbread many story (no surprise there) and one with a Christmas tree. Our students enjoyed learning the words to these two stories and had time to practice reading them with their Reading Partners.


Writer’s Workshop: This week in workshop we talked about the three steps a writer has to do to write a small moment. First, we picture a time something happened to us in our head. Then, we sketch a picture and third, we write down the words to describe our story. Our writers are getting better and better and listening for sounds in the words that they want to write and attempting to write words!


Math: This week in math we learned how to use a ruler!! Our students have been eagerly measuring things around the room using special caterpillar rulers. Next week they’ll learn how to measure, with candy canes!


Important Info: If you have not yet sent in a wrapped book for our gift exchange for the party, please do so ASAP. These need to be turned in soon so that I can make arrangements if someone does not have a book to donate.
Friday, December 17th: AM – All School Sing-Along (time TBD); 2:40-4:00pm – Classroom Holiday Party

Next Week’s Snack Leader: Monday: Skylar; Tuesday: Geneva; Wednesday: Gabby; Thursday: Emma; Friday: Hannah

Friday, December 3rd

It’s been another fantastic week in Room 301! We have transitioned from turkey projects right into holiday projects…

Reader’s Workshop: This week in workshop guided reading groups did not meet! Instead I have spent time this week in conferences with the kids talking to them one on one about their reading. Introducing the kids to conferences is the final piece of our Reader’s Workshop (Mini-Lesson, Independent Reading, Partner Reading, and Share are the four other parts). Next week we’ll have both conferences and reading groups running simultaneously! If you have not yet done so, please return your November Reading Log to school.

Writer’s Workshop: This has been a good week in Workshop as we have been practicing telling the story of one small moment. There has been some hesitation by many of the kids towards writing because they  “can’t spell the words” as they say. I have really been encouraging them to put down the letters they hear in the sounds of the words while also showing them patterns in words they can spell. We took a look this week at the –at chunk at the end of words. The kids were amazed that because many can spell “cat” they can also spell: sat, rat, mat, bat and hat!

Math: This week we have done work with counting (writing out the numbers up to 30) as well as learning how to measure objects. The kids were thrilled to take rulers around the classroom and see how long different objects were! We will continue this exploration next week, as we use a special holiday object (it’s top secret) to measure things in our classroom.

Important Dates:

Monday, December 6^th: 4:00pm – Parent Meeting to plan our classroom Holiday Party

Friday, December 17^th: 2:40-3:40pm – Classroom Holiday Party

Upcoming Snack Leaders:

Monday: Kaylee; Tuesday: Mason; Wednesday: Evan; Thursday: Alycia; Friday: Nolan

Friday, November 19th

It has been a turkey-riffic week in Kindergarten! We are getting very excited for our big Pow-Wow on Wednesday, November 24th! Our Pow-Wow will begin at 9:15am in the Old Gym. Parents are welcome to come and enjoy our celebration with us. If you have not yet sent in your child's tunic for the celebration, they are DUE on Monday, November 22nd! We need time to paint and feather them before Wednesday!!

While our morning will be consumed with the Pow-Wow, our afternoon will feature a P.J. & Movie Party! Please look for a bright pink note in the front of your child’s folder explaining the celebration we will be having Wednesday afternoon!


Reader’s Workshop: This week our students have been working on a couple of different things. While guided reading groups are meeting with Mrs. Weckstein, our students are either: a) reading independently at their seats or b) reading with a partner. This week we have discussed and practiced this routine nearly every day as it is still tricky for the kids to remain at their seats or in their spots around the room with a partner while Mrs. Weckstein is working with groups.


Writer’s Workshop: This week we began our Small Moments Unit. Students have been introduced to Vera B. Williams’ book, A Chair for My Mother, as one of our Mentor Texts for the unit. This unit we will spend time increasing our writing stamina as we learn to become authors of our own small stories. Using an excerpt from Williams’ book, we were able to zoom in on a tragedy that happens to the family, a house fire, and talk about how Williams told us the small story of this moment in time. Our authors seemed very eager and excited to write a story as well as to have the time to share their story up on the SmartBoard!


Math:This week in math we have done a few different things! We have learned about the words: shorter and taller. We read a book called Where’s My Teddy by Jez Alborough and talked about the size of the teddy Freddie, compared to the size of the boy, Eddie. We did a sort up on the SmartBoard where the kids had to compare common objects to a large teddy bear icon. We also talked about numbers this week and how numbers are everywhere in the world! To prove this point, we set out with clipboards, paper and a pencil, and went and explored the hallways of Dublin. We found several numbers as we traveled down the hallway, up into the old building, into Mrs. Vackaro’s 4th grade room and then eventually up the stairs and to the top of the old building, into the fifth grade hallway! The kids were AMAZED with how many numbers we saw, and exhausted after our hour long trek!


Important Announcements:


Snack Leader’s: Monday: Lily P.; Tuesday: Benjamin P.; Wednesday: Kasey T.


Have a fantastic weekend…. Stay warm!!


Mrs. W.

Friday, November 12th

A BIG thank you to everyone who came to Parent-Teacher Conferences yesterday! Conferences are a great time to sit down and reflect on the first 10 weeks of school and celebrate all of the success our kids have had in Kindergarten thus far. I hope that you found the folder of ideas both informative and helpful.



Reader’s Workshop: Guided Reading Groups began this week in Reader’s Workshop. Each group is comprised of 3-5 like-ability readers. With many of our kids being at a similar level, the groups have also been structured to help students who have similar abilities (one-to-one matching of words, recognition of sight words, etc.) develop further. Please look for a colored “book bag” to come home many times during the week. There is info inside the bag telling you when the bag needs to be returned. Please make sure to return these prior or on the due date!


Writer’s Workshop: This week we spent more time stretching out the sounds that letters make within a word so that we can begin to write more words with our story illustrations. It has been impressive to see the growth in all of our writers and boy do they LOVE Writer’s Workshop!


Math: This week in math we have been working on skip counting. We introduced the concept of counting by two by using the days on our calendar. We have also been counting by 10s and are going to start counting by 5s next week! We will also begin doing some measuring next week.


Important News: Snack Leaders: Monday: Nick; Tuesday: Carly; Wednesday: Ava; Thursday: Thomas.


*As you may have heard, our kids have filled the “Big Catch”! I am still deciding on a date for this party, either next Friday, the 19th or Wednesday afternoon on the 24th. I will let you know as soon as I have info!


*Just a reminder to please begin sending in your child’s outfit for the Pow Wow on the morning of Wednesday, November 24th.

November 5, 2010

It has been a busy, busy week in Room 301!

Reading: This week we practiced talking about books with our partners! We have been learning to tell about our favorite part of a book. The kids have enjoyed reading a book one time through to learn the story and then re-reading the book to pick out their favorite parts. Mrs. W. finished assessments this week for reading levels and is eager to begin Guided Reading Groups next week. Please look for a colored “book bag” to come home with your child. There will be instructions in the bag for reading activities at home. It will also tell you inside when the bag needs to be returned to school for our next group meeting day!

Writing & Word Study: This week students have been learning to put words down after illustrating a picture. We have been practicing writing a story to go with our illustrations. We have looked at photos and made up stories about the photos to help us warm-up our minds for writing stories down in our Writing folders. To help build our letter-sound associations, we spent time doing an activity where we had to trace the letters of our name and put small punched out shapes on top of the letters. We also had a workstation where the kids used play dough or stamps to make letters and put them into words.

Math: This week we have done all sorts of things with math! Our calendar on the Smartboard has taught us about using unifix cubes to count. We have been working with cubes (each cube represents 1) and longs (each long represents 10 and is made of 10 cubes). We have tried counting different numbers and have been using these longs and cubes to count the days of school. Today was our 41st day of Kindergarten!

Important Announcements: Snack Leaders for next week include: Monday: Gabby; Tuesday: Emma; Wednesday: Hannah; Thursday: NO SCHOOL; Friday: Robby


**Please remember to return ALL October Reading Logs to school!!**


Important Upcoming Dates: (Make sure to set your clock back on Saturday night!!)


*Wednesday, November 10th – 9:30am “Buster the Bus” Bus Safety Assembly
*Wednesday, November 10th – 1:00-3:00pm Picture Retakes
*Thursday, November 11th – Parent/Teacher Conferences at Dublin
*Friday, November 12th – Spirit Day at Dublin – Hat Day

We are also collecting Box Tops for Education and Campbell Soup Labels in Room 301! If you have these at home on food, kleenex, zip loc bags, soups, etc. please send them in with your child. We have yearly contests at Dublin to see which class can collect the most. Be sure to check with cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, etc.! Let's see if Room 301 can collect the most! We are currently in 4th place of all of the classes at Dublin with 156 box tops turned in!


Have a fabulous weekend!! :-) Jen W.

Monday, November 1st

We had a spooktacular week last week in Room 301! A special thank you goes out to all of our Party Planner Extraordinaire Parents; Room 301’s party was one of the best around! It was fantastic to see everyone out on the parade route and at our party on Friday afternoon. Look for pictures to be posted onto the blog soon from our Halloween celebrations!

Reader’s Workshop In Reader’s Workshop this week we worked on our “D” and “E” books. Students have been practicing reading with their partners. We have really spent a lot of time modeling and practicing sitting “side by side” with the book in the “middle”. We’ve brainstormed ways the kids can share the job of picking the first book as well as topics partners can discuss with one another. Please make sure that you have sent in your Reading Log from October as new logs for November will come home on Wednesday!

Writer’s Workshop: This week we did our writing assessment. Each child was asked to draw a picture of a real or imaginary story that had to have an animal in it. We had some pretty creative illustrations! Then each child had to write a few words about their story. For some this was a very hard task (despite that many forget that they do know letters and their sounds) and simply have to put the sounds down to form the words. Please know that this is something we will be practicing ALL year long! I reinforced with many of the students the idea of simply putting down the beginning sound to each word and found that many instantly gained confidence in their writing abilities.

Math: In math this week we did many different counting activities. Our goal for the first quarter is for all students to be counting to 30 and many are well on their way past 30! We spend time daily counting different things in the room (calendar, days of school, kids in our class, etc.) and its becoming easier and easier for most of our kids to count this high.

Important Reminders: October Reading Logs need to be returned by Friday, November 5^th for your child to qualify for a special surprise. Please make sure you have returned your log to school. If you have lost your log but are certain your child has been read to, or been reading to you nightly, please feel free to drop me a note or an email.

Snack Leader’s for the week include: Monday: Skylar, Tuesday : NO SCHOOL, Wednesday: Narek, Thursdsay: Mrs. Weckstein, Friday: Geneva

Please remember there is no school on  Tuesday, November 2^nd due to Election Day. We simply do not want the kids in the building on the days the general public are all over the building for voting purposes!

Halloween Day Info

Hello 301 Parents!!

 I hope everyone enjoyed our first day OFF this school year!! It was definitely a surprise to me this morning, as I was on my way to Dublin when the fan out called from Dublin. I had a note that was going to go home with the kids today reminding everyone about our schedule for the day on Friday.

 All students should BRING their costumes to school for our party but come to school in regular clothes. If you have not sent in your $3 yet for the party, please do so tomorrow as well.

 From about 9:20-10:00am we will be in the Old Gym for a Magician Assembly. The rest of our morning will look as usual, and if possible, please have Nolan still bring in his snack and show-and-tell tomorrow for our Snack Leader. If you are not able, we do have a pretty good stash of leftovers! :-) The rest of our morning and lunch will look pretty normal (we have a lot of Halloween projects to finish up).

At 1:20pm the kids will come inside from recess and have a short bathroom and drink break. At 1:30 the kids will go to Art for a shortened 30 minute period. At 1:30pm it will be safe for parents who are helping with the party to come in and start setting up. At 2:00pm the kids will return to the room and ALL will be putting on their costumes. We are conveniently located right next to the restrooms, so that will help, but I anticipate they will be busy! If your child has a costume that needs extra attention, please plan on being at school around 2:00pm. At 2:30pm the Parade begins throughout the entire school. Our hallway is the last to join the parade route (that way we get to see everyone's costumes) and we will travel from our classroom down the main hallway towards the bus doors. We will come out of Dublin, and cross the street by the Nursing Home. Then we come back to school via the soccer fields and parade around the field. It is advised that all parents wait on the black-top to get photos, videos, etc. as we cross by the blacktop last.

We anticipate being back in our classroom around 3:00pm. Before we start the party, the kids of 301 have a special "something" to show! Then it'll be time to party!

If this is your first Halloween at Dublin there are a few things you will want to know! 1) Parking will be CRAZY. I would suggest coming to school early or plan on walking from the nearby neighborhood to the school. 2) There will be lots of commotion prior to the parade. If you plan on bringing little ones, just know that it will be BUSY. 3) If for some reason the weather is uncooperative, the Parade will still happen, but it will be led throughout the building.

I hope that helps clarify EVERYTHING! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me back, give the room a call tomorrow or stop by in the morning.

We're looking forward to an AWESOME day in 301!! :-) Jen

Friday, October 22nd

It has been a FANTASTIC week in Room 301! The great news is…. The Smartboard is up and running!! YES, our kids have all used the board and they are LOVING it! I’m pretty sure many of our parents have used the board too! We are able to do our attendance in the morning on the board as well as our daily calendar. We have done several math lessons with patterns on the board as well. It is incredible to see how engaging this tool is and how excited it has made our students about learning. Feel free to come watch attendance in the morning or check it out at the end of the day! We would not have this board without a very generous grant approval from Walled Lake Schools’ Foundation for Excellence.


Reader’s Workshop: This week students worked on their “Bb” and “Cc” books! We have been practicing reading these books fluently with and without the pictures to help us. These books will be coming home with your child today. Your child also brought home a silver or gold box today! These special boxes are for your reader to use to keep their little books in at home. Please pick a special place with them to keep this box so that it stays safe and in one piece.


Writer’s Workshop: This week in Writer’s Workshop students began adding color to their labeled illustrations. They are using the color to show emotions, details and more about their story. By adding color, we are helping the students to expand orally when they talk about their illustrations. Next week we will be doing our Developmental Writing Assessment (DWA), where each child will be given a prompt to illustrate a story about and be asked to write letters or words to tell their short story. I am eager to see what they can come up with.


Math: This week in math we have completed Number 9 in our counting and shapes book. We also spent time working with all sorts of patterns (check out the photo slide show to see us in action on Wednesday). Our mathematicians had time to explore with patterns on the Smartboard as well as with manipulatives at their seats. You should point out patterns in your house or out and about with your child, so they see that we are surrounded by patterns. We looked for patterns in our room and found a whole bunch!

Snack Leaders: Monday: Mason B; Tuesday: Evan C; Wednesday: Alycia Y; Thursay: Nolan C.
Top Dog: Emma K.

NEXT FRIDAY… Next Friday is a BIG deal in Kindergarten and across ALL of Dublin! We will have a magician assembly in the morning to begin our Halloween Day. In the afternoon our parents who have graciously volunteered to help with the party, will be meeting in our classroom around 1:30pm to start setting up. At 2:00pm ALL of our kids will be putting on their costumes. If your child has a complicated costume, please plan on coming in to help! At 2:30pm there is a school-wide parade! Kindergarten tends to lead the parade that travels through the building, out the doors by the bus loop, across the street to the Nursing Home and back to Dublin (around the soccer field) and onto the blacktop of the playground. Parents and extended families can come and watch the parade outdoors on the blacktop. It is advised that you come to Dublin early, as the parking lot will be VERY busy all day long. After the parade, around 2:45 or so, we will begin our classroom party. Our students have been working on a surprise to kick off our celebration! Our party will run from approximately 2:45-3:45pm.

If you have any questions about Friday, please feel free to contact me!
Have a WONDERFUL weekend! Jen W.

A digital scrapbook by Smilebox

Friday, October 15th

What a fantastic week we have had in Kindergarten!! Each day has been busy with something new…


Reader’s Workshop: This week we continued working with partners to read books! Students created their “Bb” books and have been practicing reading with their partners. We have also been reading a new big book, Mrs. Wishy Washy. Next Friday we will be decorating our little book boxes that the kids will be bringing home. If you can send in any donations of stickers or adhesive foam shapes that would be great! :-)

 Writer’s Workshop: Stories, stories and more stories! In Writer’s Workshop we have been writing stories by drawing pictures and adding labels to the important parts. Our writers’ have shown great improvements in their drawing and even began adding color to their drawings today to show more details of their story.


Math: In math this week we talked about patterns! We took a look at patterns we can make with counters, wooden beads and chain links that snap together. We continued working on our shape counting books too! This week we covered the numbers six, seven and eight! We are hoping to have these books done and home in the next week.


Science: This week we began our Science Unit! We talked about trees, seeds, and tree parts (roots, trunk, branches and leaves). On Tuesday we even planted a REAL maple tree! Be sure to ask your child about Mr. Maple! A special thank you to our two Dad’s who just happened to be helping in our room that day (they ended up digging us a giant hole and lifting the new Dublin kindergarten tree into the hole)!


Classroom Blog: Today you are reading our newsletter on the “News Blog”. We also have a “Kids Blog”. This week we went to the computer lab to type our first Blog article. Our little Bloggers were very excited to learn that they have their own Web Site where we will visit and post all kinds of neat things! You can visit the blog at: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=118873 .


**SmartBoard Update!! Yes, we are still waiting for an installation. There has been a problem with the mount that was delivered with the board. If we use the mount that was delivered, we would need to have our old white board removed from the wall. This poses a major problem. We are looking for an alternate way to mount the board as soon as possible with the minimal amount of damage!

Snack Leaders! Monday - Matthew, Tuesday - Kelsey, Thursday - Kaylee

Have a fantastic weekend!!! And by the way… GO GREEN!!!

Friday, October 8th

"The truck was the BEST part of the assembly. They even turned on their hose!" Anonymous 301 Kindergartner

It’s been a fabulous  week here in Room 301! Our kids have been busy learning all about fire safety as it was Fire Prevention Week at Dublin. We had our first assembly on Thursday with the White Lake Fire Department. They talked to the kids about the importance of “Stop, Drop and Roll” as well as having a plan in your house for what to do if you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of a fire alarm. This would be a great time to review your plan with your child at home.

Reader’s Workshop: This week in Workshop we spent time with a new little book, “A Fireman”. We practiced reading this book on sentence strips, as a whole group and in the little books many times! An important part of Reader’s Workshop is the Independent Reading time. While many of our kids cannot fully “read” just yet, they are getting better and better at the routine. Our kids’ ability to recognize words in the little books is getting more and more frequent and they are starting to notice letters, sounds and how we blend the sounds together to make words. Our focus word this week was “the”.

Writer’s Workshop: In Writer’s Workshop we are working on adding words to the drawings we have created the past couple of weeks. By creating a drawing to represent stories, each child has now added labels onto important parts of their illustrations. Be sure to ask your child what they have been drawings on their pages for Writer’s Workshop.

Math: In Math we have been playing with numbers! We have been counting objects, counting on the calendar, counting on the hundreds chart and even counting the number of holes in buttons! We have read a couple of stories that have involved counting including: Ten Black Dots and Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. With the Five Little Monkeys book we even learned the song and had volunteers act out the parts of the monkeys with monkey stuffed animals, the mom had a phone and the doctor had a stethoscope of course!

Science: We also began talking about our upcoming Science kit this week! Our kit will teach us about plants and trees. In a few weeks we will even be planting a maple tree as a grade level at Dublin! Look for our new tree, Mr. Maple, to be outside by the bus driveway soon. We began talking about trees by reading Eric Carle’s Tiny Little Seed book. We talked about the voyage the little seed made before becoming a large flower! Students worked on a painting project this week were they used their hands and fingerprints to create the fall colors of an autumn tree!

Important News: Snack Leader’s next week include: Monday – Thomas; Tuesday – Lily; Wednesday – Ben; Thursday – Kasey

Next Week’s Top Dog is…  (to be determined in class on Friday!)

A big THANK YOU to all that came out to help with the Dublin Fun Run on Friday! Look for pictures to be posted to the blog soon! :-) 

We took this picture after we received a gift of new books from Mrs. Weckstein's Grandparents!!!

 

Happy October 1st! :-)

It has been another fantastic week in Kindergarten! We had a lot of “firsts” this week in Room 301. The pictures below show our first day of workstations!

Free digital slideshow generated with Smilebox

Reading: This week we read a new big book, “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed”. We learned the song and practiced the words by re-reading the book. We even used this book to help us practice our counting for math! We also spent time on a new little book, “The Apple Tree”.  First students listened to the book in a read aloud format and then we went back through the book and practiced reading the words together. Students took this little book to their Reader’s Workshop book drawers where they are keeping it for more practice during Independent and Partner reading. Speaking of Reader’s Workshop, we started Reader’s Workshop this week! Each child has their own book drawer where they are keeping the little books that we have made so that they can practice reading them (in the sense of recognizing letters, words, sentence patterns, etc.) As we build our collection of little books at school, look for more books to come home to be practiced more. Your child can even put these books on their October book log!

Writing: This week we also launched our Writer’s Workshop! Our writers each received a yellow folder where they are collecting their drawing pieces. The program we use begins by helping our children to develop strong oral language to retell a story. Students spent time this week sharing stories with the class… we heard lots about fun family vacations, things our pets at home do, funny stories from pre-school and more! Then the children have a chance to work on a detailed drawing of a story on special paper. We have spent time learning how to add details to our drawings. We have some very detailed illustrators in our room! By establishing solid drawings with details, we are laying the foundation for our students to transition soon to adding labels to pictures, words and eventually sentences to tell the story of their illustration.

Math: This week we have focused on numbers. Numbers on our calendar, numbers counting the days of school (today is day #18), counting the number of teeth we have lost this year, counting the letters in the names of our classmates and counting shapes in our new shape books. Each child has been working on a special counting book that not only uses numbers to count but also shapes! These books are looking great and will be a wonderful addition to your family library at home soon.

Important Announcements: Snack Leaders for next week include: Monday: Robby L; Tuesday: Nick M.; Wednesday: Carly M.; Ava M.


We are also collecting Box Tops for Education and Campbell Soup Labels in Room 301! If you have these at home on food, kleenex, zip loc bags, soups, etc. please send them in with your child. We have yearly contests at Dublin to see which class can collect the most. Be sure to check with cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, etc.! Let's see if Room 301 can collect the most!

P.S. If you want to check out something neat, go to: http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=118873 . This link will take you to the Student Blog that I have kept with fourth graders, second graders, and soon, YOUR kindergartners! Yes, that's right! Your kids will be blogging this year and have their own pages. You can scroll down the link to the Room 301 blog and see what my we were up to in the past years!

Friday, September 24th

What a fun and busy week we have had in Room 301! Everyone seems to be learning the routines of the day and many new friendships have been formed. I love hearing from the kids that they “Love School!” :-) Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this post to see a slideshow of our ABC Yoga routine!



Read Alouds: This week we read aloud several books. Students continued hearing Robert Munsch Books as we talked about the message in each book. We began our interactive read-aloud program called Making Meaning and read the book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie. The kids enjoyed guessing what would happen next in this story as it follows a circular pattern. We have also read books like: The Eensy Weensy Spider, Counting to Ten and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Look for a project to come home with your child early next week that will help them to practice their ABCs while using the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom palm tree!


Shared Reading: We spent all week working with the poem, “Good Morning in September”. Each day we have done a different activity with this poem as we work on building fluency, letter recognition and concepts about print.


Reader’s Workshop: We also began Reader’s Workshop this week! We created an anchor chart titled, “What is a book?” and we talked all about books. When you read with your child at home have them identify the: title, pictures, front cover and back cover. These are all words we are now using to describe books when we read. To help build our stamina for reading and to help get our minds ready to read we have been creating several “little” books. You will be receiving more info about “little” books next week and their role at home with you and your child.


Math: In math this week students spent time learning more about the math manipulatives we use in Kindergarten. We did a counting activity where each table used different counters to find different numbers. We also did some working with patterns in colors using unifix cubes and colored chains that hook together.


Important News: Just a couple of reminders and announcements this week! A BIG thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help in the classroom and an even BIGGER thank you to those who have already come in to help. Right now I need help copying, laminating, cutting, etc. Soon when parents come in to help we will have literacy and math workstations running and you will get a chance to work a station with the Kinderkids of 301. If you have not had a chance to respond to my email about volunteer days/times please do so as soon as possible.


Snacks Leaders for next week include: Monday: Geneva Gilliam, Tuesday: Gabrielle Hajji, Wednesday: Emma Kimler, Thursday: Hannah Kryzhan <- Please note this is an updated list of snack volunteers from the original calendar that went home!


I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Mrs. Jill Jones will be my Guest Teacher on Monday (a wonderful, former Dublin teacher) as I will be heading to Memphis, TN on Saturday morning to participate in the Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Walk on Sunday afternoon with extended family, an annual trip! I look forward to seeing everyone back in Room 301 on Tuesday! :-) Mrs. Weckstein


P.S. If you haven’t heard, we do have a GIANT box in our room containing our SMART Board! We are still waiting for an installation to occur. If you are curious, check out: http://smarttech.com/

Free picture slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Friday, September 17, 2010

Our first full week of Kindergarten!

It has been a fantastic first full week of Kindergarten! Everyone seems to be learning the routines of our day and lots of new friendships have been formed. On Friday’s I will post a newsletter to this site telling you about our week! Throughout the week I may also post photos to show you new things we are learning, places we have been and more.

Read Alouds: This week we read aloud several books. Students were introduced to Robert Munsch (a favorite author of mine and many kids worldwide). Books we read included: Andrew’s Loose Tooth, We Share Everything and Get Out of Bed! We talked about the stories and any connections we had to our own lives.

Shared Reading: We spent all week working with the poem, “The Flying Man” and read the corresponding “Big” book, Dan Comes Home. This book gave us many different methods of transportation. We spent time with the word “H” and found as many words as we could in the Big Book that began with “H”. We also brainstormed a list of methods of transportation (airplanes, submarines, helicopters, etc.) that were all mentioned in the book. Students had the opportunity to draw an illustration of what they might pack for an adventure like Dan has in the story.

Math: In math this week students spent time working with partners as they were matched up by finding a student with the exact same size strip of paper as them. Words like: shorter, longer, bigger and smaller were all introduced and used in this lesson. We also spent time this week exploring with Pattern Blocks. We learned about triangles, squares, trapezoids, rhombuses and hexagons! We sure had fun using these blocks to make all kinds of patterns! J On Friday we had our first Math Workstations. Each table was equipped with a different set of math manipulatives and had time to explore with the math tools while using them to create patterns and designs. When asked what the kids thought of math, they told me, “We LOVE Math!!”

If you are looking for a great way to review with your child what they learned this week, ask them to help you sing this new triangle song we learned to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

1, 2, 3 straight sides,

And 3 corners too,

Triangles here,

Triangles there,

We find them EVERYWHERE!

Important News: Just a couple of reminders and announcements this week! A BIG thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help in the classroom. Now that we have our specials schedule I will be sending out emails Monday to let you know about days/times we can set up to get a regular rotation of volunteers in the room. Another BIG thank you to everyone for coming to Open House last night, it was great to see so many enthusiastic smiles about Kindergarten last night.

Snacks Leaders for next week include: Monday: Evan C., Tuesday: Alycia Y., Wednesday: Nolan C. and Thursday: Skylar C. J

Have a fantastic, fall weekend! J Mrs. Weckstein

P.S. Please make note of our Special’s Schedule listed on the blog below!

We have our FAPES Schedule!!

Here is our Schedule for our Specials Classes 2010-2011:

Monday:
9:20-9:50am - Media (Library books returned)
3:10-3:40pm - P.E. (Your child will always need gym shoes for P.E.)

Tuesday:
9:15-9:45am - Music
9:45-10:15am - P.E.

Wednesday:
11:05-11:35am - P.E.
2:40-3:10pm -  Music

Thursday:
Block Planning - Teacher Work Time (students spend 1/2 hour indoors, 1/2 hour outdoors for recess)

Friday:
1:40-2:40pm - Art

T.G.I.F. :-)

Hi 301 Parents!
 If you are reading this message give yourself a pat on the back! I'm so glad to see people coming onto our blogspot. I hope to use this page for parent communication as well as a place to share pictures of our daily activities!

I am LOVING all of your kids and hope you are hearing lots about their day when they come home. If not, try asking them some of the following questions:

1) What songs did you sing today?
2) What books did you read today?
3) Did you do anything special today? (Art, music, P.E., Birthday treats, etc.)
4) What did you play with during free choice?

Please comment back to this post (click comment below) so that I know you have seen our Blogspot and now know where to come for the latest 301 news!!

Have a great weekend! :-) Mrs. W.

Teacher Meet and Greet!

Hello 301 Families!

I am hoping that you all see this post to our news blog to know that there was an incorrect time given in my family letter sent out this week. Our Meet and Greet will be held at Dublin on Thursday, September 2nd from 3:00-4:00pm. My note had a time of 4:00-5:00pm, so I am going to keep the room running and open for visitors from 3:00-5:00pm just to make sure everyone has a chance to come and see 301.

I hope to see everyone on Thursday!!

:-) Mrs. W.

Welcome to Kindergarten!!

Hello!! My name is Mrs. Weckstein (formerly Miss Phillips). I am very excited to be your Kindergarten teacher here at Dublin. I am hoping to try something new this year, a Blog, as a website for our classroom newsletters as well as important announcements. If you are in fact seeing this blog, that means you have already received a special letter from me in the mail!

I sure do hope you are getting excited for the new school year! I cannot wait to see all of your smiling faces (many of which I already know and love, and many more I cannot wait to get to know) soon at our Meet and Greet on Thursday, September 2nd!!

Let me know what you think about this site!! Feel free to comment here or email me at: JenniferPhillips@wlcsd.org .