Friday, October 3rd

It has been an outstanding last two weeks to be a Weckie! I am floored daily how much these kids have learned and grown in only 23 days of Kindergarten! I have to brag and say that in our hallway, the Kindergarten kids get into the room faster than their second grade neighbors and are ready to learn! I am so proud of all of their hard work.

Friday Packets

You’ll find your child’s first Friday Packet in their green Everyday Folder today! Although there is not a lot of work in there, the work that is there is awesome! We spent time early on reviewing our colors and the first letter of each word and then we did two different practice activities for literacy stations. There are two sheets coming home in their packets featuring our six sight words for last week. We will focus on six words a week as we become more familiar with letters, words and patterns in spelling. This past week the words your child should know include: a, can, go, I, red and see. Please review these words with your child at home and spend time going over these pages in their packets. This would be a great time to start a collection of flashcards with these words! Attached to every Friday Packet is a colored note for you to sign and return back to school with your child the next week. If you have any comments, questions or concerns, feel free to write them on the half sheet of paper!

Reader’s Workshop

Our readers have already built up our reading stamina to 12 minutes! For 12 whole minutes they are quiet, in their seats, looking at books. We have many who are practicing touching the words as they go (even if they can’t read just yet), we also have many who are using the sight word books we have created in class to practice reading stories they have learned and can read. We have also spent time working with our Power Partners. Our Power Partners are our reading partners and were assigned based on abilities. We will keep these partners for the first few weeks. We have been learning how to sit side by side, how to share one book to read, how to pick the book we read and how to take turns reading. This in itself has been quite a task, and the kids are getting better and better each day!

We also completed our Brown Bear, Brown Bear project where each child made a book complete with all of the animals that they see throughout the story. We are going to keep these at school for a little while to practice reading and then they will come home. This was a HUGE task and the Weckies ROCKED!

Writer’s Workshop

We have just begun to put our thoughts down on paper in the form of pictures! A few writers have been trying to add letters and words they know to their illustrations. Now that we have spent the first three weeks doing a lot of oral story telling about things we know, it is neat to watch that transfer from oral work to written work! We will be doing a writing assessment next week that will help guide instruction on just what each child needs in writing. I have seen a lot of growth already in everyone’s letter formation and we spend time daily working on our handwriting. Soon we want to get everyone writing their name with a capital letter to start and lower case letters for the rest (now that we have everyone writing their name)!

Math Workshop

In Math we have spent time working on numbers: counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s. These counting patterns can be tricky but we will get it! You can practice this at home with your child orally as they learn to do them in school. This was new for many of our kids, so expect some difficulties at home! We have also been working on calendar routines which help kids in counting. Every morning we have a Super Leader who helps with calendar, a pattern of the day and counting the days of school using base-ten blocks. We will make it through our last two kids next week and then begin all over again!

Just an important reminder, the weather has turned cold this week! We are outside every day when it is dry and the kids need warm jackets! Many kids are coming to school with just a sweatshirt and then complaining about being cold outdoors! Please watch the weather and plan accordingly!

Have a fantastic weekend…. Stay warm and of course, GO GREEN! :) Mrs. Weckstein