Upcoming Events/Mark your calendars:
- Tuesday, September 30: 8am Mass
- Wednesday, October 1: Picture Day: we will still attend gym class so students should wear gym shoes with their picture day outfit. Students should NOT wear gym clothes and we will not be changing. Mrs. Gorman will take it easy that day and pictures will happen before they attend gym. 🙂
- Friday, September 3: Students will attend the fall pep rally, PC gym at 2:00
What’s Due:
- Hot lunch orders: Order now!
- Picture day forms: Please complete your purchasing online before picture day on Wednesday!
- Boom cards: I uploaded NEW boom cards this week! Be sure to check out and always reach out if you have any difficulties getting logged in!
- Virtus training: In order to volunteer in our classroom or go on a field trip, you must be VIRTUS TRAINED: https://stcletusschool.com/volunteering/; Please be sure to get this completed! We’d LOVE to have you in our classroom! 🙂 Please reach out to Ms. Krieger in the office with ANY questions about virtus training: mkrieger@stcletusparish.com . We LOVE volunteers and are happy to help you with any questions.
Next Week:
Permission slips for our first field trip will come home on MONDAY. Watch for that!
Language Arts:
- Fundations: So far, I’ve introduced:
t, top, /t/
b, bat, /b/
f, fun, /f/
n, nut, /n/
m, man, /m/,
i, itch, /i/
u, up, /u/
c, cat, /c/
o, octopus, /o/
a, apple /a/
g, game, /g/
Fundations reminders: We are ONLY working on LOWERCASE formation right now in Fundations. Each letter is introduced as “letter-keyword-sound”. Here is what that sounds like and how the students recite it each day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYhKyXCs7Ug
During Fundations, formation will be explicitly taught for each lower case letter using the following language: Sky line (top), plane line (dashed), “grass line” (under the plane line) and “worm line” (bottom).
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- Name writing: Names are looking GREAT! If you have any additional practice pages at home, work on finishing those up in the next couple of weeks. Again, the focus is: one capital letter, the rest lowercase, proper formation of each letter and being able to name each letter.
- Journal writing: We have WRITERS in our classroom! What are students practicing right now? 1.) Drawing a detailed picture with crayons. 2.) LABELING the picture with a word, written in pencil. 3.) Using lowercase letters and breaking that “all capital letters” habit. 4.) “stretching” words or “writing the sounds we hear.” Right now, I am modeling for the students what “stretching” words looks like and then they do it with me. The goal is to move toward independent sounding out of words once I’ve introduced all Fundations lowercase letters in a few weeks.
- Listening center: Fall stories will be out at the listening center!
- Write the room:Next week, our write the room will change from “the ___” labels to full sentences! Students will write, “I see the door,” “I see the flag,” etc. This helps students recognize that letters make up words and words make up sentences. It also gives students another chance to practice letter formation. And lastly, it is an academic opportunity that still allows their bodies to MOVE, which they need!
- Poetry journal: Students will have their second “flashlight Thursday” next week. Each week, students read and sing through their poetry journals with the lights off and flashlights on to practice left to right tracking.
- High frequency words: I have introduced: the, I, we, go, yes, no, will, to. Next week, I will introduce: see; we will practice reading and writing these words during centers and calendar time.
Math:
We are well into our math workbooks and the kids are doing great! Students do math workbooks 3 days a week in the afternoons. Half of the students work me on their lap desks on the rug. As they’re writing in their math workbooks, I’m also doing the same thing on the smartboard so they’re able to follow along. While the one half is working in their workbooks, the other half of the class is either doing iready or another small group activity with Mrs. Zontos. Each group is about 15 minutes and then we switch. MathWork books are divided into “modules” or chapters (20 modules total). We will be wrapping up module 2 next week. Current math skills include:
- Number writing: 1-9 number formation. Numbers are looking great, and remember, it’s okay to still occasionally see those backwards numbers pop up! Here are our Number Poems so you can support your child at home!
- Ten frame practice: We are working on numbers 11-19. We talk about these numbers as “a group of ten with ___ ones left over.” At home, you can practice representing numbers on a ten frame. If your child is not confident with numbers 1-10, please stick with the single ten frame. If your child is confident with numbers 1-10, move on to the double ten frame and practice representing 11-20. TenFrameWorkmatsFREEBIE-1
- Tally Mark practice: In addition to ten frames, we also work a lot with TALLY MARKS in kindergarten because it helps students to recognize numbers as ‘tens’ and ‘ones.’ We will continue to practice tallying numbers greater than 15.
- Counting to 30. We will practice counting daily. At home, please practice counting to 30 (or beyond)! The goal by the end of kindergarten is to count to 100 (or beyond)!
- Greater than/less than: Students will practice inserting < > = symbols in between two numbers. Students will then have to practice READING those number sentences, using the words ‘greater than,’ ‘less than,’ or ‘equal to.’
Religion:
- We are handing out cardinal dollars left and right! Woo hoo, what a respectful, responsible and compassionate group of kids we have!
- We will continue to attend 8am Tuesday Mass each Tuesday. Remember, doors open 5 minutes early, at 7:45.
- Next week, it’s all about BAPTISM! We will talk about Baptism as when we became a part of the church family. We will have a show and tell opportunity for students on Thursday and Friday. Each child can bring in a baptism memento to share with the class. This could be a picture, a candle, an invitation, etc. If your child hasn’t been baptized, ANY special religious memento that reminds your child to keep God close is PERFECT! See below for when I’d like your child to bring the item in:
1.) On Thursday, October 2nd, GIRLS, please bring in a baptism memento to share with the class.
2.) On Friday, October 3rd, BOYS, please bring in a baptism memento to share with the class.
In addition to bringing in the item, please take some time to talk to your child about why it was important for your to get him/her baptized. Discuss the following questions:
1.) Did your child cry? smile? sleep?
2.) Did you have any kind of celebration after?
3.) Who are your child’s Godparents? Why did you choose them?
Thank you for sharing these stories with your child!