A Look At Our First Week!

"COMING TOGETHER IS A BEGINNING
KEEPING TOGETHER IS PROGRESS
WORKING TOGETHER IS A SUCCESS" 
 
WOW! WHAT A BUSY AND EXCITING START TO OUR KINDERGARTEN YEAR! I KNOW THIS IS GOING TO BE A MAGNIFICENT YEAR FILLED WITH INCREDIBLE MILESTONES. I HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH AND EVERY MINUTE OF YOUR CHILD'S KINDERGARTEN EXPERIENCE-TIME HAS A WAY OF ESCAPING US. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR GEMS WITH ME.

  
Thank you for all the classroom donations and school supplies! It is greatly appreciated!
 
Reminders:

Weston Folders: Please be sure to send the Weston folder to school each day! It is a very important tool we use to communicate! PLEASE TAKE OUT ALL THE PAPERS that I send home. EMPTY THE FOLDER EVERY NIGHT! If it gets damaged and you need a new one let me know. They cost 50 cents!

Change of Clothes:  Please remember to have a change of clothes in a ZIPLOCK bag. This bag will stay in their backpack!

NO SCHOOL TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 15th. 

 

Open House is this Thursday, September 17. 

6:00-6:30 Q & A with Principals

 6:30-7:00 Grades K-2

 7:00-7:30 Grade 3-5

It is a great opportunity for you to come and ask questions, review our daily schedule, become informed on kindergarten curriculum and see your child's work. PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS NOT A CONFERENCE TIME FOR US TO DISCUSS YOUR CHILD AND THEIR PROGRESS. I DO NOT FEEL IT IS APPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS YOUR CHILD WITH ALL THE FAMILIES IN THE ROOM. Please be considerate of this and if you wish to discuss your child contact me and we can set up an appointment. 

 

PLEASE PACK 2 SNACKS! I am finding that this group is tiring out early on so I am going to try doing a morning snack around 9:30 and an afternoon snack at 1:15. Quick, easy snacks are greatly appreciated! Please pack spoons if your child's snack requires one. I do NOT have a supply in my room and we can't take them from the cafeteria for snack time. THANK YOU! Please peel oranges and cut up apples. It saves time for us!!

 

Our first week of kindergarten is under our belt! What a jam packed week it has been. I wanted to share with you some of the work we have been doing.....

  We used "No, David!" to introduce classroom rules. This funny, entertaining story made us laugh and realize why rules are so important. Below are the 5 classroom rules we use! Please review them with your child! They should know them all! We will continue to practice them each day! Our first few weeks of school are spent reinforcing behavioral expectations and routines. It takes many weeks learning how to walk in a line down the hall, sit and listen without interrupting, and raising our hand for permission to speak. I keep it positive and fun for the kiddos and they are already making progress in just a few days!

Rule # 1: Follow directions quickly!

Rule # 2: Raise your hand for permission to speak!

 

Rule # 3: Raise your hand to leave your seat!

 

Rule # 4: Make SMART choices!

 

Rule # 5: Keep your teacher happy! KEEP EVERYONE HAPPY!

 

 We also read.... David Get's In Trouble, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten and the KISSING HAND! We really loved how Chester the racoon was feeling nervous about starting school but found comfort in his KISSING HAND! Here are my little kinders showing off their Chester masks....

 

Each week we will work on building and learning about who we are and what makes us GREAT!

This week we working on learning about the 3 FAIR WAYS TO PLAY!

1. Play together

2. Trade

3. Take turns

Our objective was to

  1.  have children demonstrate asking to play together, trade or take turns when playing with another child.
2. Demonstrate using FAIR WAYS TO PLAY in everyday situation.

This coming week we will focus on HAVING FUN WITH FRIENDS. The objectives are...

1. Identify how they feel when other children do or do not play in fair ways.
2. Name ways they have fun with their friends.

Other important topics we are covering this week will be TATTLING! and INTERRUPTING!

next week we will focus on the following stories and themes...

     Reading this story will help us to understand the importance of following our classroom rule #2.....RAISE YOUR HAND FOR PERMISSION TO SPEAK!
Some children are learning quickly the importance of only having one speaker at a time. We all have such wonderful stories and information to share but we need to be able to allow one person at a time to share so that we can ALL enjoy the story!

   TATTLE TONGUE!  OH boy! We are REALLY working hard on this important topic! It is so hard for children this age to only worry about themselves! We will be spending a few weeks really reinforcing the difference between tattling and telling.  A worksheet will go home with the differences on the back. PLEASE.....review this with your child as well as reinforce at home! Hang it on the fridge for an easy reference!

 

Writing: Next week we will begin looking at our SPECIAL NAMES!  Through our study of names not only are the children learning each others names but we will learn these important concepts...

1. Your names starts with a letter that is always the same

2. You can find your name by looking for the first letter

3. Words are made up of different letters

4. Your name has letters in it

5. Your name is always written the same way

We will be counting the letters in our name and making our names with puzzle pieces and magnetic letters! 

Sight word reader: A Park

Sight word: a

Each week we will have a book that reviews the weekly sight words. Not only are we reinforcing learning the sight words but we are working on appropriate behaviors for holding a book, turning the pages and being independent readers that can sustain reading for a period of time!Your child will be getting a copy to go home for the AT HOME READING PROJECT! I will discuss this at open house.

Math: We are working on introducing all of our daily calendar math skills and concepts. We are working on learning the days of the week song, tracking our weather, counting the days we have been in school as well at number recognition and patterning.  


Ideas for at home support:

1. Have your child practice taking out and putting in the Weston folder and lunch box into their backpack.

2. Allow your child to open all snacks at 
home. The more they can do for themselves the better off they are! We are working on building independence! You would be amazed at how much they can do! Unfortunately they ASK FOR HELP before trying on their own! It is great to see the smile on their face when they realize they CAN DO IT BY THEMSELVES!

3. Practice buttoning and unbuttoning pants and jackets.

4. Practice tying shoes or consider Velcro. Safety is our number one priority! I could spend ALL day tying shoes!!!

5. Have your child practice naming all the letters in their name!

6. Ask your child about the 5 classroom rules and have them do the actions!!!

 

Our friend GABE has a birthday this week! He is turning 5!!