Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

Today our class read the book called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. It mentions how everyone has an invisible bucket that they carry around with them. When they are happy their bucket is filled with drops and when they are sad their bucket drips and can become empty. Bucket fillers are those people who do nice things for others. Bucket dippers are the opposite and they cause drips from others' buckets. It talks about how when you fill someone's bucket, you also fill your own because it makes you feel good to be kind to someone else. Ask your child if s/he has put drops in someone's bucket today.

Marble Jar Reward

They did it again! Our awesome class filled our classroom reward marble jar. To celebrate, they all enjoyed popsicles.

Curriculum Night Reminder

SCS Kindergarten Curriculum Night will be this Thursday, September 20th from 6- approximately 7 PM. Please come to the cafeteria a little before 6 PM to pick up a packet with your child's name. This has some great information to look at before we start the presentation. We have lots of great information to share with you about your Kindergartener's year! This is an adult meeting time. Please find alternative childcare for children if you can. Hope to see you there!

Math Work Places

In the beginning of the kindergarten year, much of our time in math is spent discussing 2-D shapes and patterning. Every day the children participate in 10-15 minutes of Calendar Math. So far, the children have learned about the 12 months of the year, the days of the week, and numeral formation 0-10. After short daily mini-lessons on different shape concepts, the children have been introduced to five work places which they work at as I pull small groups of students to work on additional skills. The following are pictures from the current work places. These math work places switch out frequently and are a lot of fun. The work places not shown below are pattern blocks and unifix cubes.

Playdough Numbers

Geoboard Shapes

Polydrons: Hayden used 2-D triangles to create a 3-D pyramid

Our class has been talking about how cool it is to be unique. The students listened to a story called Elmer by David McKee. This book is about an elephant who is very happy being unique. The children discussed how they are each unique and special by partnering up with "Eye to Eye, Knee to Knee" bodies. They also shared connections that they had with their partners. Then they set to work making their own personal unique Elmer to take home. ENJOY!

Mira and Kareem are Totally Terrific

The students are doing a great job getting to know each other. During our "totally terrific" name writes, most students are choosing to first practice the names on writing grid boards together during our whole group instruction time. I am also seeing many children making connections to others' shares and children are seeking out new friends to talk with based on new facts they are learning about one another. They are making connections!

Special Visitors

Our Journey team was very lucky to receive a special visit from 24 Japanese college exchange students from Saint Michael's College today. These visitors sat with the kids in small groups and showed them how to write their names in Japanese and how to make special warrior hats. Before they left, we sang songs together and we ended by teaching them one of our classroom favorite songs called the Months of the Year Line Dance.

Creepy Crawly Spiders

Today was our first Hands On Nature lesson. The children learned about different spiders through a puppet show, about the parts of a spider by dressing me up like one, and a scavenger hunt to find different types of spider webs.

Totally Terrific Zoe

Zoe was our totally terrific child for today. We learned that she has a dog, four people in her family, and she loves to visit Shelburne Farms. Zoe said that she has lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins that love her. Thanks for sharing Zoe!

Extra Practice

Today I sent home an alphabet song that the kids have been singing and learning to read. Please have them sing it to you, using 1-1 match on the letters as they go. It is very cute! Please keep it in a good place at home for s/he to refer to often. I also sent home a number rhyme sheet that you can use with your child to practice number writing.

Totally Terrific Hayden

Hayden was our honored student for today. The children noticed that he has 6 letters in his name. I introduced white boards and markers to them and children got a short handwriting lesson for the letters in his name. We learned that Hayden enjoys visiting Story Land and he loves Legos. His favorite color is orange and he has made "so many new friends" this year. Thanks for sharing today Hayden!

After creating hopes and dreams clouds for their kindergarten year, the children worked together to come up with our classroom expectations. After a long list of rules such as no hitting, punching, spitting, and stomping on feet, we all decided that we wanted a positive spin to expectations that would hang proudly in our classroom. So, after some thoughtful discussion, the children all promised with to be their best selves all throughout the day. This is our classroom rule/expectation.

Various Photos from the First 5 Days of Kindergarten

This is our Art teacher Mrs. Caraher. She came to our classroom last Friday to talk about what it means to do art. They read a fun story together and then she showed them different ways to use one crayon.

These girls are buddy reading while waiting for snack time to end.

These two children are painting their hopes and dreams clouds after participating in a guided discovery of our classroom watercolors.

Madisen shares her finished dream cloud.

This was the students first time meeting Mr. Lewis, our P.E. teacher. They are very excited to go visit him in the big gym tomorrow. Don't forget to have them wear their sneakers.

Totally Terrific Child

Today James was our first Totally Terrific Child. We learned that his favorite color is gold, that he loves to do gymnastics and artwork. James played baseball last year and loves to play with his older sisters. The class made their first book for James after studying the letters of his name. For the next 16 days of school, one child per day will be honored as our Totally Terrific Child.

Wonderful Start to the Week

The children had a great day back from the long weekend! I was surprised at how much they remembered about our daily routines from last week. I love to watch all of the new friendships blossom! These first six weeks of school are spent getting to know each other, learning classroom routines and expectations, and participation in guided discoveries of classroom materials. Guided Discoveries help students to understand how to use and care for classroom materials so that the materials can be readily accessible for academic activities later. We have begun to weave our initial Social Studies Unit called "The Story of Me" into these beginning weeks. In this unit, the children will learn about how people have unique qualities that make each and every one of us special. I have begun initial assessments in literacy and math. This will help me begin to gather information on each child so that I can begin to group children for small group activities in math and literacy. Activities for small group work may include students being grouped by ability and at other times by topic interest. I always try to integrate our theme topic throughout the curriculum as I am planning for instruction (currently "The Story of Me"). Please be sure to ask your child about the following: The Marble Reward Jar, Chee Chee Cha, Razzama Tazzama, Hopes and Dreams Clouds, Calendar Math shape patterns, our new classroom Elmo and projector, Choice Time Centers, and our classroom expectation that the children worked together to create which they identified as "Be your best self"! I will post photos from the first 5 days of school tomorrow. Have a relaxing evening.

A Couple of First Day Photos

Here are two photos from today that I thought were cute. One photo is of the kids working with Mrs. Burritt, the Music teacher. The other is of a table group of kids who are waiting for the school day to begin by enjoying a tub of alphabet, nursery rhyme, number, and song books.

Great First Day of Kindergarten

We had a very fun first day together. Along with many new stories and songs, the children began to practice classroom and school routines. We did many community building activities. One favorite activity was Tunnel Tag outside. Mrs. Burritt, the music teacher, came to the classroom for music class today. The kids were all so excited to play in the classroom at Choice Time in the four centers we opened today: blocks, doll house, drawing, and the game closet. I cannot wait to introduce more of our room to the tomorrow using a technique called Guided Discovery. Be sure to ask your child about the following: The Freeze Game, Months of the Year Line Dance, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, The Birthday Graph, Self Portraits using multicultural skin color crayons, lunch time, recess, and quiet time.

PTO Representative Needed

Are you looking for a fun and interesting way to help out your kindergarten child outside of the school day? If so, please consider being our classroom representative for the SCS PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization). This entails attending monthly meetings and emailing me a brief summary of the meeting to post to our classroom blog. Last year a summary of meeting notes were provided to members to pass along via email to teachers so that was really simple and handy. I believe that childcare and dinner are provided. There are a lot of fun, energetic members of this dynamic group at SCS who help make a difference in every classroom in many ways. In the past, the PTO has supported our classrooms by fundraising to help supplement classroom supplies and materials, awarding grants to classrooms to buy technology and tools, and organizing school wide assemblies and special events. They run the Holiday craft fair in December and the annual Jog-A-Thon in the spring. So, come join to fun and become part of a great group of people. Please email me if you are interested.

Dates to Remember

I thought that I would pass along some important dates that I just heard about. School Picture Day-October 3 Fire Prevention Day-September 19

Building Community

It was nice to see so many children and families at Open House tonight. Thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to come in. This time of year is spent building the classroom community into a positive, friendly atmosphere for the children. This process begins even before school starts. So, thank you for helping make the beginning of our year together start on such a positive note.