Saturday, September 20th

 Hello Weckie Fams!!

Welcome to our Classroom Blog!! I have tried REALLY hard to use the blog each year and promise to try hard to use it once more this year to keep you up to date in all of the comings and goings in Kindergarten!!

Boy have we been busy these first 18 days of school... having fun learning, growing, playing and laughing together as a class and like I say, as a school family. I am 100% convinced we have the BEST kindergarten class at Dublin and I tell the Weckies this daily. 

Please be sure to follow our Instagram @weckies2025 for more pictures of your kids... almost daily, being posted!!

*Also, please make sure you have sent in a picture for our family picture board... the Weckies LOVE looking at these pictures.

Important Links:

In K we use a ton of songs to help us learn important skills like letters, sounds, counting, the days of the week and the months of the year. These are some of the songs we have been using and I'd love to hear that you are playing them at home too, to help your kiddo learn all of these important skills!

 Days of the Week

Months of the Year

Dr. Jean Alphardy *Might be the most important one here to learn*

Counting by 10s

Phonics:

In Phonics we began the year learning to "own" the letters in our names! Kids have been working on learning all of the letters in their names, counting the letters, clapping the beats and THEN teaching another child how to spell their name and identify all of the letters. The Weckies have been loving using name puzzles to teach a friend how to spell their name! Their names have each been added to the word wall as well! 

Each day we also have a Star of the Day who we learn about and slowly help Mrs. Weckstein to write about them! The Weckies have been practicing writing all letters, but specifically we have focused on the letters A to G so far - uppercase, lowercase and the sound(s) that they can make. Magnetic letters at home or a whiteboard with a marker are a great tool to use when playing with words. The "Alphardy" song above has been in HUGE in helping us to learn the proper sounds that the letters make. 

Next week we will begin learning SNAP words as the word of the week will be "see". Gradually we will build a giant list of SNAPwords that we want the kids to be able to spell, read and identify easily in print.

Our Stars of the Week this past week :-)

Readers' Workshop:

Thank you to ALL who have sent bag in the baggie of picture books for your child to keep in their book bins. If you have not done so, please do it asap! The kids love having familiar books to "read" in their bins that they can retell the stories to, recognize some of the letters and practice finding book elements like the front cover, back cover and spine. We have been getting into a routine of reading independently daily for about 10 minutes and working with partners for another 10 minutes! I have started pulling kids in small groups to get extra practice with upper case and lower case letter identification. We are striving to have ALL kids know all letters by December. We want our young readers to be able to recognize letters from the alphabet out of alphabetical order. Start asking them at home to identify letters you see out about about or even around your house! :-)

Writers' Workshop:

In Writers' Workshop we picked Table Captains who help set our tables daily to write and draw and away we went! Daily we are drawing and writing in K! Right now we are working on telling about something from our heart (something we love- a person, place or thing) by drawing about them. We are learning how to use shapes to help make our drawings more detailed and next week we'll start using our names beyond on the "name" line at the top, but as a label in our drawings to identify us! Our young writers have SO much to share - it's awesome!

Math Workshop:

In Math we have been doing all sorts of number recognition activities! We have been working with 0-5 on a five frame and have been practicing counting daily with our days of school. We are learning to count by 10s with the song above. And we have been working with shapes! Our big goal is to have ALL kids writing their numbers to 30 by the end of the year and being able to count orally to 100 by the end of the year.

Important Upcoming Dates:

*No School: September 23 for Rosh Hashana

*Dublin PTA Meeting: September 30th 7:00pm

*No School: October 2 for Yom Kippur

*Dublin Color Run: October 10th

*Dublin Spirit Wear Day (wear green): October 17th

Friday, January 31st

 Hello Weckie Families!

 I can't believe it is already the end of January... this month has FLOWN by in Kindergarten! We are now headed into a really busy time of year, so make sure to check all of the important dates below. The same dates were also sent out in an email earlier this week. Additionally, if you are not already following us on the REMIND app, please do so! This will help keep you on schedule with all of our fun :-).  Please click on the link below to join our class:

https://www.remind.com/join/weckiesk

We even had a special visit from Mr. Peace to Dublin where we learned all about kindness and always choosing to be nice!

Phonics

In Phonics we are in the midst of learning how words have super powers! When we say that they have super powers, we are talking about how so many different words can rhyme! We have spent a lot of time working on the following endings:

-at

-an

-in

-it

Be sure to ask your kiddo to come up with some words that end with each of those rimes. They should be able to name a few if not a lot! We have then taken what we have learned about these words to help us write more words on our whiteboards, in partnerships and then ultimately in our Writers' Workshop work! We also have worked with picture cards where we had to first figure out the word, and then use that to help us sort them by ending, and write the words. Hard work, but such good work! If you have a few spare minutes at night or in the car, ask your child to help you find words that rhyme! Great ones to work with beyond those four include: -ouse, -ike, -ice, -oat and -ake.

Readers' Workshop

We have successfully finished our iReady Reading Diagnostic! Yay! Please remember this is just ONE snapshot of what your child can do, but it does not show us or tell us everything. We are always just looking for growth! If your child's score did go down, please know that each diagnostic gets harder than the last, so if their score is similar to the first score, they may have still grown! If your child has qualified for an individualized reading improvement plan because they did not meet the cut score of 355 in reading (ONLY), you will be hearing from me today (Friday, January 31st). Otherwise, please look for their score papers to come home in their backpacks either Friday or Monday (depending how fast I can get them printed).  In workshop we paused the last few weeks for iReady but then picked up this week with learning how to read in a comfy spot and learning how to ignore distractions. This is something we will be working on for many, many weeks to come as we instill good reading habits in our young readers! Guided Reading Groups will be launching next week. Look for a baggie with a book to come home with your child sometime next week. It must be returned IMMEDIATELY the next day. If your child cannot return their book, no further books will be sent home. These books are not cheap to purchase as they are a part of a larger set.

Writers' Workshop

In Writers' Workshop we are REALLY getting good at writing words!! While we are expert illustrators, it has been so much fun to watch kids share their writing and realize that they can in fact write words! As we learn to put sounds together and look for word super powers in rhyming words, we are realizing just how much we can spell! Encourage your child at home to draw pictures and add words too! The more practice they have, the more confident writers they will be! We even learned how to write a letter to someone and used our writing skills to impress and thank Mr. Drewno for being such a great principal at Dublin!

Math Workshop

In Math we have been working on all sorts of things! We have been playing with the tricky teens and practicing comparing numbers that fall between 10 and 20. We have learned a game called "Monster Squeeze" that we played with partners first and then on our computers second! This has helped us to compare numbers even more to find what numbers are larger or smaller than other numbers. Today we began talking about capacity and made "Capacity Cakes". Be sure to ask your child about their yummy bonus snack today!

Important Upcoming Dates:

Wednesday, February 5 – Global Play Day (more info in the note)

Friday, February 7 – 101 Dalmatian Day – Five volunteers have been selected… a few need to make sure to return the Criminal Background Forms sent home in your child’s folders ASAP. Our helpers have all been contacted. Thank you! Please plan to be at school that day at 9:20am. Remember, black bottoms and a white top work great for Dalmatian Day. 

 

Diversity Week at Dublin…

Feb 10 – Pajama Day 

Feb 11 – Wear your favorite color

Feb 12 – Wear your favorite sports team (hats are fine)

Feb 13 – Dublin Green Swag

Feb 14 – Red/White/Pink Valentines

 

February 12-14 – Send in Valentine’s Day boxes

 

February 14 – Valentine’s Day Party – Just for the kids and 5 parent/grandparent volunteers. More info to come… look for a Sign-Up Genius for donations soon.

Have a fantastic weekend- stay warm!! :-) Mrs. Weckstein

Here's a few extra fun scenes from Room K2 ...

 (Teachers at Bingo Night)