Upcoming Events/mark your calendars:
- Monday, September 4: No School, Labor Day
- Friday, September 8: EARLY DISMISSAL, 2pm
To Do:
- Attend Fall Fest beginning September 8th. 🙂
- Hot lunch: Monday, Wednesday and Friday–don’t forget to submit orders. Make sure your child likes what you order. Also, if it’s just a hot dog, just chicken nuggets, just a pizza slice, etc. please send in additional fruit/veggies/side to go with that. They end up being finished REALLY quickly…and not to mention, still quite hungry! Thank you!
- Seesaw: Log in to SEESAW at some point in the next week. Please look at the SEESAW PAGE that I gave you on the orientation day. That has directions to getting logged in. If this has been misplaced, PLEASE CONTACT ME and I’ll print another copy. Once you’re logged in, go to MESSAGES and see the BOOM CARDS I have posted there. I see about half of you have already logged in and checked them out. Great! These are self checking, quick practice–not a lot of screen time, but gives you an idea of what we’re working on at school and how your child’s doing with those different skills. I ask that you sit with your child when these boom cards are being worked on. Again, it’s meant to help YOU see what your child is working on as well as the progress he/she is making. I will change the boom cards every two weeks (the links will expire after 2 weeks). Two weeks is plenty of time to check them out. I don’t want it to be overwhelming or considered homework, but again, a way to track your child’s learning and progress.
- Handbook Agreement Form: OLDEST AND ONLY children-please sign and return (the form was in your Wednesday envelope)
This Week:
We made it through our first full week! Good job kindergartners, good job grown-ups! Here’s what we’ve been working hard on:
Morning routine: Children go straight to their tables, put backpacks in chairs, open folders to check for papers, then backpacks go on the bottom hook, lunch bags on the top. Children sign in at the smartboard by dragging their names to the “yes” or “no” side to answer the morning question. On that same slide, they will see a picture clue which tells them their morning job. So far, the morning jobs they’ve been introduced to are: book look, dry erase sleeve practice and STEM tubs. Still to come–flashlight poetry journal practice and morning folders.
Centers: Children rotate through 7 (4 one day, 3 the next) centers. 2 of those centers are always building corner (blocks, connecting toys, magnatiles, train, etc.) and listening center/reading corner. 2 of the centers are always teacher directed and the other 3 centers are independent. There are 3-4 kids at each center. Once they’re done with the activity, they have to clean up the center, stand and point behind their chairs. Then they rotate to the next center.
Free choice: Usually every kindergarten student’s favorite time of the day, as it should be! Time to explore, get creative, work on language, problem solving and time to have some unstructured play time! Children can move to whichever play center they want but they do have to clean up first. This is something we’ve been working on.
Snack/lunch: Both have been going well. The kids have been great about knowing what’s for snack (vs lunch) so thank YOU for your help with that. It saves us so much time.
Rug behavior: we worked on raising hands the “kindergarten way,” (one finger over the lips, other hand in the air), listening to the speaker, using the bathroom at designated times, saying “excuse me” to walk up to the smartboard, remembering carpet spots and waiting to be called on/not shouting out. We are also practicing using each other’s names (not “he” “she” or “teacher”) and not going up to a teacher to ask a question, but rather raising hands. Phew, that’s a lot!
Next Week:
- I will be introducing CLASS JOBS (lights, cardinal (helper), line leader and prayer/pledge leader)
- We will have a tornado drill.
- We will be taking the iReady READING diagnostic test.
What is i-Ready?
i-Ready is a program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade with an individualized “learning path” for instruction based on each student’s performance on the i-Ready Diagnostic test. Once students complete the Diagnostic (this is what we will begin taking next week) , i-Ready builds a unique learning path with a starting point for each learner based on their individual results. I have the ability to review their data each week to set goals, assess progress and that is used for my lesson planning and differentiation of instruction. Students are encouraged to pass 2 lessons in reading and 2 lesson in math each week. We will spend approximately 30 minutes a week on reading and 30 minutes a week on math to reach that goal.
Language Arts:
We have started both SUPER KIDS and HEGGERTY PHONEMIC AWARENESS, for phonics an phonemic awareness. I will be sending information home a letter next week about SUPER KIDS and HIGH FREQUENCY WORDS next week so you understand how these programs work and how you can help your child at home.
Math:
We will be starting GO MATH next week. During our morning centers, we have a very hands on approach to learning new math skills. Two-three days a week in teh afternoon, half the class will complete GO MATH pages in our workbooks at lap desks on the floor while they follow along with me on the smartboard. The other half will be doing their iready math. The two groups then switch. Next week, we will be working on:
Chapter 2, Go Math: Comparing numbers to 5
- Tally marks: tallying numbers up 10 remembering to “make a bundle with 5” and “circle groups of ten”.
- Number formation: We will practice forming numbers 1-10 using poems. These poems will be sent home so you can practice as well.
- Counting to 20: We are practicing counting to 20 and are being extra careful with “13, 14, 15”
- Ten frames: representing numbers 1-10 on a ten frame.
- Comparing numbers 1-5 and naming them as less than, greater than or equal to.
Religion:
We will begin the first unit, “I am special” in our religion series. We will learn our first pocket chart song and will illustrate the song in our poetry journals. Pocket chart poems and songs will change every week or two. Each new poem/song that is introduced is added to our poetry journals. We will illustrate these songs/poems, mark any high frequency words we know, practice left to right tracking and pointing to each word as we read or sing. After we have learned a few, we will begin to practice reading our poetry journals once a week as part of our “morning job”.
We made a “church visit” on Friday. This means we went over as a class, not for Mass, but to just spend some time with God. We looked for the candle next to the tabernacle that reminds us that Jesus is in church in a very special way and we talked about “genuflecting” to the tabernacle when we enter and leave church. We also reviewed blessing ourselves with holy water when entering and leaving the church. When we get to our baptism unit in a few weeks, we will discuss how blessing ourselves is a reminder of our baptisms.