Thank you for taking the time to read our News Blog! It has been a great couple of weeks in Kindergarten! I am having so much fun getting to know your children. We have been hard at work while also making time for fun activities. It's amazing just how much like little sponges Kindergarteners can be! They are soaking up new things daily and catching on quickly to routines, songs, expectations, etc. New friendships are forming and new social skills are building.
Reader's Workshop
We are in the midst of launching our Reader's Workshop! We have spent this week learning about the parts of a book: front cover, back cover, title and illustration. We have also been working on something called "Reading Stamina". We have been reading (or looking at pictures and creating the story in our heads) for 5 to 6 minutes each day following expectations of sitting quietly, keeping our hands to ourselves, looking only at our books, etc. We also created our first familiar book this week focusing on the sight word "see". Below is a picture of the words of our story written out on a pocket chart. Daily we have been working with this book and using our first reading strategy of using our "Eagle Eye" to be a detective! We can figure out unknown words by looking at the pictures - this is reading!
We have also been working on our own book of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" taken from Eric Carle's original. This book project has helped reinforce fine motor skills (cutting, coloring and gluing) while also helping us to review our colors and animal names. The kids are eager to finish these up, but we are going slow and making sure our work is our best!
Math Workshop
In Math Workshop we have done several different things already! We have had math stations where the kids travel as a table to four different stations. We have learned how to use math manipulatives like: geoboards, base ten blocks, pattern blocks, play-dough (to make the numbers), a counting grid game on the interactive white board and some number line puzzles. We have also had some whole group activities looking at patterns with shapes (using three shapes to make a pattern) and working with partners to explore the words: shorter, longer, taller, tallest. Math is always a fun time in Kindergarten because we explore and are geared at hands-on learning.
Important Info
Mass Emailing:
Thank you to all who emailed back upon my mass emailing to confirm you received the message. I've been marking you in as I receive notice so that I know the email address you have provided is correct. If you have not done so yet, please respond to the whole class email just to me, so I know you have gotten my message.
Remind App:
If you have not yet signed up for our Remind App please do so ASAP. Your child will miss out on valuable information for school if you are not registered. I currently only have 16 of 21 signed up except that a few are two numbers for one student (which is totally fine) so it means I'm still missing a handful of families. Information came home in your green folder from curriculum night on the easy steps you can take to sign up.
Johnny Appleseed's Birthday:
Monday is Johnny Appleseed's birthday and as a surprise for the kids we will be making homemade applesauce. Please do not tell them why they need to bring in one apple, any color and flavor, for school on Monday. In order to have enough for everyone, I am asking that every child bring in one apple.
Classroom Volunteers:
Thank you to everyone who has sent back their paperwork to volunteer in our classroom. As my schedule is now set up, you'll be hearing from me soon to get you in to help out. I will gradually bring in new volunteers each week until we have everyone in and set up to help. Thank you so much for your donation of your time!
Have a fabulous first fall weekend!!
:-) Mrs. Weckstein
