November 7, 2014

Hello Weckie Parents! Happy Friday!

 It has been a super past two weeks to be a Kindergarten kid! We have been busier than ever! A special shout out and thank you to the parents who helped organize our awesome Halloween Party. The kids had such a fun afternoon! Another thank you to the parents (many who did both) who helped chaperone our field trip to the Dublin Community Senior Center. We had such a fun time and the seniors loved the kids. We sang songs and recited a couple of poems for Halloween. If you haven't seen this, be sure to check out the link to The Oakland Press from last Saturday morning, showcasing nearly 100 pictures of our rockin' Kindergarteners! http://media.theoaklandpress.com/2014/10/31/dublin-elem-kindergartens-visit-the-dublin-senior-center/#1

Just a reminder about the weather.... it's COLD out there!! Please make sure to LABEL everything and make sure your child has a coat, hat, gloves, etc. The kids have been coming in saying they are very cold but many do not have a real coat for recess. Please help in making sure your child is dressed appropriately. We will do our best to keep track of mittens, hats, etc. but labeling goes a long way too! :-)

Reader's Workshop:
In Workshop this week we have changed "Power Partners". We have spent time getting to know our new partners and have been given a partner who reads at the same ability. It has and will take some time for the kids to get to know their new partners, but they have transitioned quite well. We have been focusing on a new reading strategy this week called "Eagle Eye". As a reader, we use our "Eagle Eye" to study the picture in a book and see if it can help us figure out the words on the page. These readers have been great at using their "Eagle Eye" in their familiar books. A new familiar book is coming home with your child today: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". We made these fairly early in the year so any mistakes along the way you might notice, was totally developmental for September! This has been a favorite book of the kids and it took us awhile to make, so we kept them here a little longer than normal.

Writer's Workshop:
In Writer's Workshop we are wrapping up our launching unit and the growth these writers have made is incredible! I'm excited to share their writing with you at conferences so you can see all of the growth they are making. To prepare for our next unit we have been reading several books that feature personal narrative stories and we have been pulling out vocabulary words from the texts. Some Birthday (Patricia Polacco), Come on, Rain!  (Karen Hesse), The Hello Goodbye Window (Norton Juster) and Heat Wave (Eileen Spinelli) are all examples of personal narratives we have been exposed to. To help build our possible writing topics, we have been brainstorming lists of our favorites! We have created lists of: our favorite places, our favorite people, and our favorite things. It's been fun to share all of our favorites. These will go in your child's writing folder to help as story starters.

Word Wall:
These are the new words on our wall this week:  big, is, one, run
These are the words that were already on the wall: a, and, blue, can, go, I, in, it, look, me, my, not, play, red, see, the, to, two, up, yellow, you, we

Math Workshop:
We have spent time lately practicing our counting up to thirty. We are working on learning how to write our numbers up to 30. We have been using cubes and base ten blocks, counters, puzzles and video clips on the smart board! These mathematicians have also been learning to count by 2s, 5s and 10s orally! They rock!

Reminders!
Next week on Thursday, November 13th we will have parent-teacher conferences. For many of you, this is an exciting first! I'm excited to show you all your child has learned and done this year in K! It's remarkable how much growth they have made in 10 weeks. Please feel free to bring any questions or goals you may have with you to this meeting. While it is my turn to tell you information about your son or daughter, I'm also very eager to hear from you! We have a 15 minute block of time and we need to watch the clock carefully. If you are the next conference and the prior conference has gone over the time, please knock gently on the door so we know! I'll do my best to watch the clock, but while discussing your children, that can be hard too! :-)

Have a fantastic fall weekend... Stay warm!! :-) Mrs. W.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Wow, have things been busy in Kindergarten!! We have so many great things happening in 204 and I'm excited to share them with you in our newsletter!

Readers' Workshop
These past two weeks we have done all sorts of things in Workshop. We have maintained our 12 minute stamina for independent reading and have been focusing in on partner time. I'd like to announce that the "Honeymoon" phase of their partnerships have ended and there are many minor (but normal) typical arguments with partners lately. We have slowed down to focus on sitting side by side, with one book in the middle. We have spent time learning how to take turns picking a book (phew, is that exhausting) and how to take turns reading. We have also been spending a great deal of time with two different books, "Some Birthday!" by Patricia Polacco and "The Hello Goodbye Window" by Norton Juster. We picked out three words from Polacco's story: strength, familiar and investigate to be our vocab words for the week. We spent a lot of time during the week talking about the definitions of these words. From Juster's book: regular and different were our two words of focus this past week. I have been meeting with small groups of kids (2-3) daily to work on letters and sounds. Chances are, if your child was low in letter recognition and letter sounds, they have seen me! Please keep working on this at home too!

Writers' Workshop
Boy oh boy are we busy in this workshop!! We have been working on drawing pictures of a time something happened, adding labels complete with arrows and writing any letters or beginning letter sounds we can on the lines about our story. We also took a written assessment this week for Writers' Workshop. This provides me with info on where our beginning writers' are and how I can group them accordingly to work on their skills! The kids had to write a story about an animal - whether it was real or make believe. We had some pretty creative ideas and stories in our bunch! We will discuss these further at Parent-Teacher conferences on November 13!

Word Wall
These are the new words on our wall this week:and, it, play, two, you, we
These are the words that were already on the wall: a, blue, can, go, I, in, look, me, my, not, red, see, to, the, up, yellow

Math Stations
Counting, counting and more counting!! We have been working on counting up to ten and have been exploring with ten frames as we learn to add numbers that total ten! Your first Unit 1 HomeLink packet came this week. This is a "return to school" packet but on your own time. It would be safe to say, they should be back typically within a week to ten days. There are activities for you to do at home that are important to reinforce concepts we have covered or will cover soon in school! Our goal this year is by the end of April, to have all of our students writing their numbers correctly up to 100. We have been practicing our number writing during the day just like we practice our letter writing!

Halloween Update!
Halloween is going to be a very FUN day to be in Kindergarten! Information came home this week updating you on our field trip, permission slip, cost as well as parade and party! Thank you to the Moms and Grandma working hard to plan our awesome party! All are invited to come join us for the parade and party in our classroom :-).

Fun Run Update
Thank you to EVERYONE who helped donate to the Dublin Fun Run. Our school raised over $13,000 which is truly unbelievable! Thank you as well to all of the parents and grandparents who came out to cheer us on! The kids had a blast and you helped make it so much fun when we ran by and heard all the cheering and applause.

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

Friday, September 19, 2014

We are off to an AWESOME start in the Land of the Weckies!! Fourteen days of Kindergarten have already passed and these kids are doing wonderful. They have learned to come in from the bus, prime time and car rider line and get ready to learn! They are actively using the Smartboard in the morning to answer a "Question of the Day" that we use for attendance. Lots of new friendships have been made and lots of growth is already being demonstrated academically. I am so very proud of all that they have accomplished thus far! We started our Student of the Day 10 days ago, and each day a different child has helped with the Calendar Routine on the Smartboard as well as helped us to do a shared writing piece about themselves. The posters are hanging in the room and we are excited to have all twenty one smiling faces teach us and tell us about themselves!

Reader's Workshop

Last week we launched our Reader's Workshop. We have been gradually adding to our chart titled: We Are Readers! as we learn the different jobs of a reader. We have been practicing this at our seats as we build our reading stamina as a class! While we were able to read and focus quietly on our books for three minutes last Friday, by Thursday this week we went for seven whole minutes! For many this just means "reading the pictures" and for others they are finding words they know on the page, familiar letters or using their imaginations to create a story as they go.

I have been testing individual students on their uppercase, lowercase and letter sounds. Information will be coming home with your child in the next few days of their known letters and sounds, and then which we need you to keep working on with them at home. The faster we can have everyone knowing their letters and sounds, the faster we can get the kids reading and in reading groups!

Writer's Workshop
Our Writer's Workshop launches in K with a focus on oral language. The kids have been learning to be good listeners and learning to be good speakers. We have practiced telling stories to partners about things we know about (ex. a time you were in a wedding, how my soccer team lost 5-1, about my cottage up north, etc.). It can be tricky at first for these young learners to be good listeners and speakers, but we are getting better and better at it each day. This oral language practice will help our kids transition easily to putting their thoughts down on paper when they are asked to write stories about their lives soon!

Math Workshop
In Math Workshop this week we have begun with Math Stations. We have been traveling as a group through different stations introducing us to the math manipulatives we will use in kindergarten. We have explored with tangrams, pattern blocks, unifix cubes, base-ten blocks, counting puzzles, number lines and even played a game on the Smartboard to practice our counting.

Important Upcoming Dates
-Monday, September 22 - Environmental print samples due
-Thursday, September 25 - No School - Rosh Hashana holiday
-Friday, September 26 - Picture Day in the PM (for our class) 

Meet and Greet!

It was OUTSTANDING to meet so many smiling lil Weckie faces today at our Meet and Greet! My hope is that you enjoyed your first time in 204 and are eager and excited for next Tuesday. I wanted to thank EVERYONE for the awesome donation of school supplies.  You'll be surprised just how quick we go through so many of these items. Thank you for your generosity and your kindness! Have a safe and fun holiday weekend. :-) Mrs. Weckstein :-)

It's a fabulous day to be a Weckie!

Welcome to Dublin and welcome to Kindergarten! If you've found this page, you're doing great! This is where I will post our news blog every other week. Parents, you'll be able to find important information here about all of our accomplishments in the week and upcoming important dates. Kids, you'll be able to come here and share this link with your friends and family to show off all of your hard work because I'll post pictures here too! I am SO excited to meet you ALL! :-) Mrs. Weckstein

Monday, April 14

Hello 204 Parents!

 Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you enjoyed the week off... The Weckstein's went to Florida and it was PERFECT!!! Sunshine, the beach, palm trees,  warm air... and even someone's first tooth!! 

April Reading Calendars - I have to apologize!! They have been here in the tub waiting to go home and are now rather late! Feel free to fill in what you recall if your child is reading daily (which they should be) and then go from today, April 14th on the calendar if you can't recall. I'm noticing that not many Reading Calendars are being returned. Please remember that these are mandatory and need to be done and returned. It is vital that your child is reading daily, I cannot emphasize enough just how important this is for their growth!

Word Study has kept our second graders on their toes lately!  We have been focusing on recognizing vowel teams in words (like “oa” in “goat”), listening for consonant clusters at the beginning of a word (like “st” in “stop”) and listening for consonant clusters at the end of a word (like “mp” in “jump”). 

During Writer’s Workshop, students had a week to finish publishing their personal narratives.  We focused on having a neatly written and illustrated final copy.  We finished learning about personal narratives by having a celebration!  Second Grader’s came to Camp Read S’more on Friday last week.  The students shared their personal narratives with children from other classrooms.  Children were also able to set up their tents and have some reading time around the room during that time.  Thank you to the parents who sent in supplies for our s’more trail mix snacks!

This past week during Writer’s Workshop, children have started to work on planning the characters, setting, problem and solution, and repeating lines for their own fairytale story.  We were able to use what we learned from our study in Reader’s Workshop and apply the fairytale elements to our own writing. 

Our study of fairytale and folktale elements in Reader’s Workshop came to an end last week!  We dove into different fairytale and folktale stories to discover magic and repeating lines in books.  We also learned about the different tellings/perspectives that are found in different fairytale and folktale books.

This past week in Reader’s Workshop, we started a new unit on non-fiction books (books that tell us true facts or real information).  We started by talking about what makes a non-fiction book different from a fiction book and then sorting books in our classroom into fiction and non-fiction piles!  The children were great at finding non-fiction books and telling one another an example that makes it non-fiction.  We also focused on learning a few text features that are found in non-fiction books (glossary, index, table of contents, close-up, caption…).  Students also have had a chance to explore non-fiction books on their own and practice reading a few at their just right reading level!

In Social Studies, we have also been spending more time focusing on the history of our community.  We have found examples of what Walled Lake was like many years ago by looking at different jobs that were held, what schools were like, and what the community looked like!   Thank you for supporting learning at home by completing the Venn Diagram of how schools are the same and different now and in the past! 

Lately, just at the mention of science, we hear cheers!  Children have loved exploring air and weather this unit. Children also have been re-enforced with the information on moon phases and different tools to collect rain (rain gauge), tell the temperature (thermometer) and discover wind speed (anemometer and wind vanes).  Children loved exploring wind with bubbles this week in science.  We talked about how wind can change direction and cause a flow of air movement that the bubbles can travel along!  The children LOVED being outside to explore with bubbles!  This would be an easy activity to do at home too! 

We had HUGE amounts of learning in math last week when teams of children measured to make GIANT body parts that we pieced together to make a classroom giant.  After we measured how tall our classroom giant was, we compared them with the other second grade classrooms!  The children continued to practice using measurement by measuring to the nearest inch/centimeter and nearest half inch/centimeter.  Children also learned about perimeter and area this week by measuring different objects around our classroom.  In addition, children explored capacity and weight!   We also had our benchmark and Unit 9 math test where children were able to showcase their math knowledge!  

Important Dates:

Tuesday, April 15: Artifacts Museum in Social Studies DUE

Friday, April 18: No School - Good Friday holiday