More Letters...

Creative Alphabet

Today the children enjoyed reading the story called Albert's Alphabet by Leslie Tryon. In this book, a principal wants the school carpenter to build an alphabet for the walking path on the school playground. Albert finds that he does not have enough materials and he very creatively used materials from within his workshop and outside to make the alphabet. After the story reading, the children had the opportunity to creatively make a couple of alphabet letters on their own using our large letter key cards. Here are a few of the letters that I photographed. The kids loved this activity! It sparked wonderful creative and cooperative skills.

Just FYI

Class Picture day will be November 7th. They will be doing picture retakes that day as well.

More Totally Terrific Child Photos

Key skill Practiced: Sentence Structure

Key Skill Practiced: Letter Formation

Key Skill Practiced: Sentence Structure

Key Skill Practiced: Letter formation

Totally Terrific Class

We are now finished honoring each of our classroom friends as a "Totally Terrific Child". This activity was a great way to get to know each child as a unique and interesting individual. It was also a great opportunity to beginning work in key phonological awareness and phonics skills. We worked on letter and sound recognition, letter formation, syllables, rhyming recognition and production, sight words, sentence structure, and beginning Writing Workshop routines. All of this was accomplished and some very important Kindergarten skills have been front loaded so that the children have been given a sneak peak at some of the skills we will be diving into more deeply in the coming months. The month of September was also spent gathering baseline assessment information on each child in literacy and math. Next week we will begin formal Reading and Writing Workshops. The children will also begin small group work in all academic areas which will ensure that all learning needs are met at the level where the children are at. You will also hear this called Differentiated Instruction. We are also beginning a new unit called "Me and My Community" next week in Social Studies. I have subscribed to a Scholastic newspaper for Kindergarten aged children called "Let's Find Out". When these come home, please reread it with your child. Try to have them read it to you using their "tracking fingers". (They can teach you about this!)

Imagination Playground

Our school is so lucky to once again be able to host the Imagination Playground. On Monday, the children got a chance to go for the first time. After a short discussion on expectations and the power of team work, our class build this structure using these cool building materials. VERY COOL!

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.