Friday, October 16th

Happy Friday Weckie Parents!

What an incredible last couple of weeks we have been having in Kindergarten! These kids amaze me daily with all they are learning, are capable of doing and the amount of energy they have, even first thing in the morning! It has been so rewarding to watch friendships form, routines mastered and the group come together like a big family. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our pumpkin sale last night and we even had one lucky winner in our class, guessing the correct number of candy in one of the jars... Congrats Ellen!

Reader's Workshop
In Workshop we have been learning all about books! How to be a book lover (picking a book, holding it correctly, turning the pages carefully and how to put the book away). We have learned about Reading "Elbow" Partners and how we can turn and talk or lean and tell our partners something in a classroom discussion about books! We have talked about the parts of a book (front cover, title, illustrator, title page, picture, words and back cover) and soon we will be moving onto learning about the jobs of authors and illustrators. 

Each week we make our own familiar book... these are our high frequency sight word books. So far we have the following four sight words: a, see, the, is. These are words your child is expected to know - both being able to read them and write them. The list will continue to grow as the year goes on and I will continue to update you here, on the blog, of our sight word list. We incorporate these words daily into our Reader's Workshop (familiar book and poem), Writer's Workshop, Literacy Stations and Handwriting Practice. You'll want to be sure to continue to practice these words at home with your child. Next week they will bring home their first familiar book, "I See". Please spend time with them reading this book, helping them point to the words, and use their eyes to use the pictures to help them read. Keep these books in a safe place as a new one will come home every week. 

Writer's Workshop
In Writer's Workshop we have been learning to write stories through the use of pictures. While all of our kids are comfortable drawing pictures, we have been focusing on: adding details to the pictures, adding arrows with labels, and even putting words down on the line. Only about 5 of our 21 are putting written words down right now and that is okay! I am modeling with them daily and writing the words on their paper for them. As we move into November, I'll start passing the pen off to your child, encouraging them to try writing. Strings of letters, first letters of words, even just a few sight words are all developmental at this point in the year. As we continue to write daily, this will become more and more comfortable for all writers.

Math Workshop
Math Workshop is such a fun part of our Kindergarten day. These past couple weeks we have zoomed in on a few different things... counting to 20, writing our numbers to 10, learning to use different math tools (counting blocks, pattern blocks, base-ten cubes, etc.) and how to create tally charts. In Math Stations we have explored making numbers with play-dough, practiced reading numbers orally, practiced writing our numbers in a number book, made shapes on geo-boards and made patterns with counters. Math is a fun time! Please make sure all unit 1 home links are returned next week. Unit 2 home links will be coming home soon!

Science
One of our science units in Kindergarten is learning about the seasons and in particular, trees! We have a Maple tree in the bus loop area at Dublin that we have adopted named Mr. Maple. Throughout the year in K we will be checking in on Mr. Maple to see how he changes through the seasons. This past week we went out to check on Mr. Maple and see how he looks in Autumn (which was way different than how he looked in Summer). We talked about his parts, about the change in the leaves and why some had fallen on the ground. We made a maple tree project in the room that will be a part of a book your child will receive at the end of the year, showing the four seasons of our maple tree.

Have a fabulous, Fall weekend... stay warm!! :-) Mrs. W.

Friday, September 25th

Hello Weckie Families!

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

Friday, September 11th - Welcome Back!

Hello Weckie Families and Welcome to Kindergarten!

Make your own slideshow

It has been a most AWESOME week to be a Weckie! I have had so much fun getting to know your children this week and am the most blessed teacher to get to spend my year with your children. We have been having so much fun and already the kids are soaking up everything I have been showing them like little sponges! New friendships are being formed daily, routines are being learned and I can already tell, this is going to be the best year!

We have spent a lot of time this week learning the routines of Kindergarten: how to make a line in the hallway, how to get to different places in the building, how to work at our tables, how to eat snack at our spots, how to play with the toys and then clean up, how to use scissors, how to use glue sticks, coloring practice, etc. We have been learning new songs to help us learn the days of the week, months of the year and our abc's with the sounds of the letters.

We have read several back to school books and then spent a lot of time working with the book: Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom and created our own class book about our names going up the coconut tree! If you are not familiar with the story or want to hear it again, click this link below to watch the video at home with your son or daughter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH4bBMW8eus

Another important routine of Kindergarten is our daily calendar routine. We have already begun counting the days of the school year using base-ten blocks, filling in a September calendar, learning how to check the weather and learning new songs we will sing daily at calendar time. It's pretty neat to watch the kids begin to do the calendar routine instead of Mrs. Weckstein in the next few weeks up on our interactive whiteboard.

Over the course of the next few weeks a lot of notes will be coming home. Please make sure to send your child's green folder back to school daily! I hope to see everyone at Curriculum Night next Wednesday night at 6:30pm in the old gym.

Have a fabulous three-day weekend!
Mrs. Weckstein :-)

Welcome to Kindergarten Weckies!!

Are you ready? Here it comes... the very first day of... Kindergarten!!

Thank you for coming to check out our Kindergarten, room 204, classroom blog! This page will serve as an important communicator for our parents throughout the year. I will post newsletters bi-monthly and photos on this page. Bookmark: mrsweckstein.blogspot.com or sign up on the righthand side to subscribe to our blog and receive a copy of each posting in your email. I'll be sure to post more in the next few weeks about myself and this great school year ahead! For now, soak up summer and rest up for a fantastic year! :-) Mrs. W.

Thursday, March 12th

Greetings from 204!

 Have you seen any cute little green men walking around lately? The Weckies are on a mission to catch the leprechauns at Dublin this St. Patrick's Day! Thank you for all of the great recycled supplies you have sent in to help your little engineer construct their traps! The challenge has been posed: Can you create a trap that can catch and hold one leprechaun?

Reader's Workshop:
In Workshop this week we have introduced a new reading strategy called "Wise Owl". We spent time talking about the word "wise" and how it meant someone who was smart and made thoughtful choices. The strategy says to be wise in figuring out the sounds of word with what would make sense with the words around the tricky word. Reading groups have taken a couple of weeks off so I can do individual assessments and because our students have spent more time in partnerships exploring new texts (to practice our new strategy), I have seen all in conferences instead. Look for books to be returning late this week to early next week home. Again I continue to stress the importance of reading daily for 20 minutes at home with your child... we're even working on this with Liam at home too!

Writer's Workshop:
We have been working on a new unit called "Close Reading" in Writer's Workshop... yes, you can write about your reading!! You should have had a mini book come home all about dolphins last week and some additional writing your child did about dolphins. Close reading is exactly that, we read a text super carefully (three times) and then do writing about our reading. We are learning to answer questions about the text and to use DETAILS in our writing! Little by little our writing has looked more like sentences with detailed answers and this is HUGE! We have continued this week and last week with a close reading on Whales. Next week the kids have selected four ocean animals to research in small groups. Look for info to come home with your child as they will need your help researching their animal! We will use our close reading skills at school to learn more about our animals. This includes: Sea Turtles, Sea Horses, Sea Stars and Sharks.

Math Workshop:
We have been busy in Math... we are practicing all sorts of things! Months of the year, days of the week, days a month, counting with tallies, counting up to 100 by 2's and 5's and 10's and then most importantly, working on our addition with numbers adding up to or close to 10. We have done several activities that use pictures or manipulatives to count objects when adding up groups. Please try this at home to reinforce what we are doing at school!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on the leprechauns... the traps are looking awesome!!
Happy Friday!
:-) Mrs. W.

Thursday, February 13th

Hello Weckie Parents!!

 We have been busy, busy in Kindergarten these last couple of weeks! The kids are very excited for Valentines' Day tomorrow and have done an awesome job filling out and passing out their Valentines cards. Remember that our party starts at 3pm and all are welcome to come and join us in the classroom from 3-4pm. A special thank you to Erin Callico and her team of parents who are helping to make the day so special.

Reader's Workshop
Reading groups are well underway for ALL of our readers! Yay! Please make sure to sign the reading slip when you complete sharing a story with your child at home. I will do my best to see groups on a regular basis and appreciate your help when the schedule gets off a day or two! Lately we have been catching up from snow days and groups have been meeting on different days. Thank you for your help with this!

In Reader's Workshop we have been working with a new fluency strategy called "Slippery Snake". This skill teaches your child to run their finger under a tricky word, slowly stretching out the sounds each letter makes and then putting the parts of the word together into one word. Try to use this one at home with your son or daughter when they get stuck!

Writer's Workshop
Our Writer's have been BUSY!! We have been working hard on writing sentences. We've spent time learning about letters, how you put them together to make words, and then how you put those words together to make a sentence. We have been working on lowercase letters and periods at the ends of our sentences. Thank you for your help practicing with this at home! It's amazing to see such great writing at school and at home! Please make sure folders come back to school on Monday.

New Word Wall Words include: black, brown, all, he, she, am, at, ate, did, do, are

Math Workshop
We have been doing all sorts of math lately! Approaching the 100s day of school has us practicing our counting daily! We've been working on learning the months of the year, using tally marks, counting with base-ten blocks and practicing writing our numbers!  Math stations have got us learning how to use geoboards, making shapes with play-dough and using number tiles to count to 100.

Important Information

• No School - February 16-20: Mid-Winter Break
• School Resumes - February 23rd
• 101 Dalmatian Day - February 24th - 2:30-3:30pm
• Dental Health Assembly for K - February 25th - 1:30pm
• All Day Crop - February 28th - 9:30am-9:30pm (Come join me!!)
• No School - March 3: Professional Development

Friday, January 9th

Happy 2015!! Welcome Back!!

It's been an awesome first week back in Kindergarten! It AMAZED me how excited the kids were to be back on that first day after break. Typically when I taught second grade, the first day back the kids were pretty mellow and quiet. Most wished they were still home. Kindergarten kids are a way different breed! They were so excited to see everyone, there was lots of hugging and lots of stories being told. It has been SUPER!

Reader's Workshop
The kids continue to build their book drawers of familiar books. It is great to see how quickly they are picking up new words and patterns in texts. This week we talked about words vs. letters and practiced finding words and practiced finding letters.

Currently I am working on Language Arts Assessments. The kids will be doing a series of mid-year testing including: letter ID and sound recognition, rhyming, sight word recognition, a writing sample and then a reading assessment. Reading groups will begin for ALL students in the next few weeks. Some have had a chance to meet in a group and take a book or two home. This will be happening for ALL soon and is VERY exciting!! A colored book bag will come home with your child and need to be returned on the days indicated in the bag. Those are the days I will see your child's group. Most often you'll have a book for two nights so don't feel like you need to send it back immediately if your child doesn't have reading group that next day. Play with the text, the words, the letters, etc. for a couple of days. There will be a form in there for you to sign and leave any comments, questions or concerns! This is an exciting time!!

Writer's Workshop
We are just wrapping up a unit on Pattern Books. Pattern Books have a repeating line throughout each page... I like ______ . I like ______. to start each page. We have written a few different pattern books and we have fabulous writers in our class!! Please look for Writing Folders to start coming home as well in the next few weeks. There are directions inside the front pocket for how we will use these folders for the rest of the year. Yes, your child will have writing homework too! It's a great way to reinforce the concepts we are working on in school at home.

Math Workshop
1...2...3...4...5.... We have spent a LOT of time this week working on counting!! We have been filling out a hundreds grid daily and you should be seeing these come home. I'm not concerned with how much the kids get through here as each child is working at their own pace and ability. Already though, I've seen huge growth! The first day we just worked on counting up. The second day we counted by 10s and highlighted those on our charts. Today we have been working on counting by 5s. These charts do not need to be returned however I would like them to be completed at home. Many of our kids will need help with this and it's a great time to spend one-on-one with your child helping them to sharpen their counting skills. Once the grid is filled you can use it to play a simple counting game like a "Chutes and Ladders" minus the chutes and ladders. Familiarity and fluency with numbers is a huge developmental milestone in kindergarten and the goal is to have ALL of our kids writing to 100 by June.

Upcoming Dates:
Friday, January 16 - NO SCHOOL - Professional Development for Teachers
Monday, January 19 - NO SCHOOL - Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Observance
Wednesday, January 28 - Report Cards Available on Skyward**

**If you are not sure how to view your child's report card on Skyward, please let me know! I would be glad to help you get this set up now. Skyward will follow your child through their entire K-12 career and you need to be able to use this tool now for report cards and later for daily grades, attendance, lunch accounts, and teacher communication.