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!

Week in Review--Oceans

Poem of the week!

Writing:

-In writing this week we finished up our last unit four on opinion persuasive writing. We reviewed all of the important details we need to include when we write our opinion. And then we took our posttest writing sample. The kids have learned so many things this year when it comes to writing I am beyond impressed with their writing capabilities. I'm excited to see what they do in first grade! On Friday we completed a fun writing activity by talking about our summer bucket list. We have a lot of fun plans this summer I hope you are all as excited as I am!

Reading:

-We reviewed all of our sight words this week.

-We read the story There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell. After reading the story, we took pictures from each part and recreated the story by retelling using our pictures and imagination!

-We have learned and practiced many reading strategies this school year. Here are ten tips to keep your child reading over the summer…
 

1. Let kids choose! 92% of kids say they are more likely to read a book they have selected themselves.

 

2. Read outside! Bring sleeping bags, pack camp-friendly snacks and invite friends for a read-aloud adventure.

 

3. Track reading minutes! Have kids log reading minutes at scholastic.com/summer and earn rewards.

 

4. Aim for a certain number of books. Have a goal will help your child have the drive to reach the goal! There could even be a special reward once the goal was reached.

 

5. Read on the go! Find good apps, eBooks and track reading minutes using the scholastic reading app.

 

6. Build a home library! Research shoes it only takes a $40 budget to fund books for one child all summer.

 

7. Go stargazing! Select nonfiction reads about constellations and planets around upcoming meteor showers and eclipses OR just enjoy the sparkling stars on a clear night.

 

8. Be a reading role model! Parents who read often are SIX times more likely to have children who are frequent readers.

 

9. Get crafty! Pick crafts based on a character in your child’s favorite book. Love princesses or pirates? Create your own wand or sword!

 

10. Go beyond the book! Take trips to locations featured in books. Visit a museum, historical site, garden, zoo or a local city to bring a story to life.

READ READ READ!!

Math:

-We finished our last week of daily five math. It was a lot of fun looking back on all the things we have learned in math. We have grown so much this year when it comes to all of our areas but especially in math. Some students came in not knowing any of their numbers or counting higher than 10 and they are leaving counting to 100 or higher and adding subtracting sorting grouping graphing and much, much more.

 

Content:

 

This is was our last full week in kindergarten. We had a great time learning about the ocean and all the living things that live there. We started the week off by reading several books and illustrating an ocean picture with an outline using crayons. After we drew the outline the following day we used our watercolor paints and painted the picture bright and colorful adding lots of detail to our drawing. We continued the week on by reading more books and one of our favorites this week was called there was an old lady who swallowed a shell. In the story the old lady swallows various items found at the beach or in the ocean and we re-created that book and read told the story during our first daily five lesson one morning. We continued our learning fun on Friday afternoon by writing a story about a fish that we could have and coloring a big fish to match!

After we finished writing and creating our "Summer Bucket List", we shared our goals with the class! Watch the video below to see what we want to do this summer!


Other:

We had our last activity with our big buddies in the fifth grade this week. We went outside with our buddies and they tested us on writing our sight words. We wrote our sight words using sidewalk chalk. It was a lot of fun!

Lexi's mom came in on Friday to finish our last week Zoo unit up by showing off four animals from the Columbian Park Zoo. We were excited because we were able to touch each of the animals!