Week in Review--ABC's

Our poem this week was the ABC's. We practiced our zoo phonics motions with the poem all week and did a great job on our performance Friday!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word “like”!

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

“GOOD FIT BOOKS”

Have you ever spoken with a doctor, auto mechanic, or computer support person that has given you advice or directions in a language that was difficult to understand? This is comparable to reading a book that is too difficult. For readers to have high success in reading, they must spend time reading material they can read with 99 ² 100 percent accuracy. We encourage students to select books that are a good fit so that they are successful and enjoy reading. Working on the strategy of reading appropriate level texts that are a good fit will help your child read smoothly, engaging in texts they can read without difficulty.

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?

1. When your child goes to read a text, have him or her use the I-Pick method. Ask your child why that specific book was chosen. Ask your child “Is that a good-fit book for you?” The I-PICK method is described below.

I--I pick a book

P--Purpose (What is my purpose for choosing this book?)

I--Interest (Am I interested in this book?)

C--Comprehend (Do I understand what I just read?)

K--Know (Do I know most of the words?)

2. Model the I-Pick method for your child. Take a book you are reading and go through I-Pick to set an example for what it looks like and sounds like to review reading selection choices.

3. Help your child recognize when a text is too difficult. They are taught to ask:

• Are there five or more words on a page that I don’t know?
• Is this book hard to understand?
• When I read it does it sound choppy and slow?

Students practicing Work on Writing!

We practiced our consonants this week and finished the week off by putting our  names up on our classroom Word Wall according to the first letter in their name.

Math:

-This week in math, we were introduced to the five main 2D shapes that we will be learning throughout the year. All week we played games, traced shapes with our math tubs and play-doh and even painted the shapes! One of our favorite games was to spy shapes around the classroom. The five main shapes we focus on in kindergarten are circle, triangle, square, rectangle and hexagon.

Writing:

-We continued to focus on correctly writing various letters in the alphabet. We are almost all the way through all 26 letters. Once we finish with the letters, we will begin to get into our normal writing time routine with introducing and practicing the Writing Workshop model.

-Before we practice writing our letters the correct way, we always watch a video for that specific letter. Below is an example of one of the letters we watched this week.

Content: -This week was all about the ABC’s! We focused mainly on our consonants and one of our favorite games we played this week was “Mrs. Brown Says”. They did such a good job; I wasn’t able to trick all of them! We also read several ABC books and finished the week off completing an activity with our first names that went along with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 

Other: -Something new!! We started a “Homework Club” in class and the students and I are all excited about it. Every week, I send homework home on Monday and the students have all week to complete it and turn it in on/before Friday. On Friday morning, I go through the homework basket and pass out each of the pages. The students who have all three items turned in completed, will get to keep their picture in the “homework club”. At the end of every month, the students who are still in the club will get to celebrate by having lunch in the room with me! when the next month begins, all of the students go back into the club for a chance to have lunch in the room again! Good luck and don’t forget to do your homework!

-Our fantastic P.E. teacher Mr. Z creates an exercise program for the students at our school to exercise to called PEP. We started exercising this week and love every minute of it! I pick two students every day who are considered the best "peppers" of the day and they get a classroom certificate!

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Begin practicing beginning sounds in words with your child. We are just now practicing this skill, but the extra practice at home is crucial. Say a word and have your child tell you the first sound they hear in the word. For example, if you said “dog” the first sound is “d” or “couch” the first sound is “c”. Encourage your child to say the sound and not the letter name. 

Next week:

--In writing, we will continue practicing a different letter of the alphabet each day until we are through all 26 letters!

--In math, we will continue to focus on shapes all week! We will explore how you can manipulate shapes to create pictures and other shapes.

--In reading, we will continue to practice building our stamina for Read to Self, Work on Writing and will begin a third choice WORD WORK.

--Our theme next week is “FAMILY”. Please send in a picture of your child’s family with him/her on Monday. We will be sharing them all week with our class!

Week in Review--Getting to Know You!

Every week the class has a poem to read and practice both at school and at home. This was our first poem of the year! On Friday's everyone who turns their poem in with all four signatures from the week performs in front of the class, receives a sticker, four M&M's and a GREAT big hug from me! It's amazing to see the improvement from this very first poem performance to the last one of the year!

Reading:

-Our sight word this week was the word “I”!

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

“Retell Familiar Stories”

Retelling the story is a comprehension strategy used to help readers recall what is happening in the story. It involves telling what is important in the story without telling too much. The most effective way to teach retelling is through modeling and practice. Model this strategy for your students and then allow them to practice. There are many ways to enhance learning for the strategy of retelling, here are a few:

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?

1. Introduce the Retell Rope described on the ready reference guide in the back of the CAFE book. This strategy provides a visual and kinesthetic reminder for children to help them focus on the strategy being learned.

2. After a brief reminder on what it means to be a good listener, allow students to practice this strategy by sharing a retelling of a story with a partner. Partners should listen to the retelling carefully, prompting with questions about the characters, setting, problem, events, or solution if needed.

3. Make this strategy fun by allowing children to use small props or puppets when retelling their story.

Math:

-This week in math, we focused on our numbers 1-5 at the beginning of the week, 6-10 in the middle of the week and practiced with all of our numbers 1-10 at the end of the week. We learned rhymes to go with each number to help us recognize, as well as write the numbers. We will continue to practice with these numbers and up to 20 throughout the rest of the school year. We also practiced counting as high as we could as a class. We made it to 34! By the end of the year we will make it to 100!

Writing:

-This week we started practicing writing the both the uppercase and lowercase letters in the alphabet. We will continue to practice writing these letters until we have completed all 26! Before we independently go out to practice the letters, we watched a video created by Have Fun Teaching for each letter of the alphabet. The class enjoyed dancing, singing and doing the motions for each letter before going to write them on their own!

 

-We also completed our first writing prompt for the school year that will be graded and then compared to a post test writing prompt at the end of our first writing unit. This first prompt was "Write and draw about something you love." We first brainstormed a list of things we love to give the class an idea of what to write/draw about. Then they went back to their seats and got started writing and drawing! I am excited to see the progress each student makes when it comes to writing after we complete our first writing unit!

Content:
-We have continued our learning into our second week of school. This week we focused on a theme of “Getting to Know You”. We worked all week on getting to know our new friends and what makes them special. We shared our names, favorite animals, favorite colors and an “ALL ABOUT ME” bag. We learned that a lot of students like cats and cheetahs, the color red and have wonderful families who they love to share and talk about!













Other:
-We started a new "sign in" page at the beginning of our day. Each student has to "sign in" as part of their morning job/routine. This is allowing for extra practice writing each student's name. Some students are already experts at their name, but everyone can always use practice!

   

PRACTICE AT HOME:

Have your child write his/her name AND practice their lunch number! You can also start to quiz your child on numbers you see around the house (remote control, toys…), while driving (speed limit signs, billboards…) and encourage them to count as high as they can without skipping any numbers! The goal is to be able to count to 25 by the end of the first nine weeks.

Next week:

 

-In writing, we will continue practicing a different letter of the alphabet each day until we are through all 26 letters!

-In math, we will focus on shapes all week!

-In reading, we will continue to practice building our stamina for Read to Self and start a new choice, Work on Writing.

-Our theme next week is “ABC’s”.

Welcome to Kindergarten--The First Three Days

What a GREAT first three days of kindergarten! The class has been busy learning their roles and responsibilities as new independent kindergarteners! We have practiced several routines that help make our day run smoothly, played with our new friends, adjusting to a FULL day of learning and tried to have some fun along the way. If you haven’t signed up for REMIND text reminders, please do so ASAP. It is completely FREE to sign up! Text the words @mrsbrown26 to the phone number 317-333-6825. If you have had a chance to look through the parent packet that you received at Monday night’s open house, let me know if you have any questions!

Reading:

-We will begin learning a new sight word next week!

-The CAFÉ strategy we worked on this week was the strategy.

“3 Ways to Read a Book”

We began this lesson by discussing who is able to read in the class. The majority of the students informed me that they cannot read. I told each of them, yes you can! You are already readers and I’m going to show you how I know that. We took a book from my basket and practiced the first way to read a book, which is “Read the Pictures”. I started off by reading what I saw in the pictures on each of the pages. I then called on students to help me read the rest of the book. They proved that they were already becoming readers by being able to read a book by reading the pictures! We continued on the rest of the week by practicing the other two ways “Read the Words” and “Retell Familiar Stories”. .

How can you help your child with this strategy at home?
 

1. When reading with your child, have him/her first read the book to you by just looking at the pictures and creating their very own story!

2. Another option would be to have your child choose one of his/her favorite bedtime stories and encourage them to retell the story to you. If they have heard the story multiple times, he/she should be able to retell the story to you almost word for word.

3. Use the following questions to promote this strategy. Ask your child:

 

What do you see in the pictures that helps you read them?
What is something you remember about this story on this page?

Can you find a word on this page that you know? Maybe a few letters?

Writing:

-This week in writing we focused on creating two charts as a class. The charts we made and wrote together were “What is a good friend?” and “What is a good teacher?”. The class brainstormed a list of things they think makes a good friend and a good teacher. I loved hearing their thoughts and ideas. We will be sure to look back at these charts throughout the year if we ever have issues of getting along with one another.

Math:

-This week in math, we introduced our calendar and explored our math tubs. We used our imagination using each of the tubs! We will be using these tubs when learning math skills all year long!

-On Friday, we practiced sharing and getting along with each other while exploring and playing with classroom toys during play stations!

Next week:
--In writing, we will begin practicing a different letter of the alphabet each day!

--In math, we will focus on numbers 1-5 at the beginning of the week and numbers 6-10 by the middle of the week!

--In reading, we will continue to practice building our stamina for Read to Self.

--Our theme next week is “Getting to Know You”. We will continue learning about each other.

--We will begin our “normal” routine next week. Be on the lookout for homework in your child’s BLUE home folder Monday night! All homework is due back any day Tues-Friday!

 

PRACTICE AT HOME:

See if your child can tell you our 5 classroom rules! We have hand motions for each of the rules too!

 

1. Follow directions quickly.

 

2. Raise your hand for permission to speak.

 

3. Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat.

 

4. Make smart choices.

 

5. Keep your dear teacher happy. J

Welcome back!

Here we are! It's that time of year again, August has rolled around and we are saying goodbye to summer and hello to school days! I am excited to meet my new batch of eager learners. The video below is a sneak peak inside the classroom, all set up with its arms wide open to give a huge hug to each and every brand new kindergartner! Let's have a GREAT year! 

Week in Review--LAST WEEK!

I cannot believe it is our last week in kindergarten this school year. I am also very sad that I was unable to be with my class these past four days, but I am happy they were able to keep smiles on their faces and enjoy them as much as possible. Below are a few videos and pictures that were given to me throughout the week from teachers and parents of my amazing class since I was unable to be there. 

I wanted to first post this picture of the class on the very first day of kindergarten in the fall. I planned on taking another one here on the last day, but of course plans had to change. I hope you enjoy looking back as much as I did!

On Tuesday, the class celebrated their kindergarten graduation. Below is a video slide show of pictures that were sent to me from parents who were there to take them. Thank you for sending those to me, I felt like I was there!

Since I wasn't able to be with my class this last week of school, I recorded a "Hello and Good-Bye" video for the sub to show them on the last day of school. I sure will miss this group next year, but I am excited for them to continue their learning into the first grade! 

Have a GREAT summer!