Back on Track, At Last!!

We have had a great two days getting back into the swing of things in kindergarten.  Thanks to all of you for your understanding and get well wishes the last couple of weeks.  I think we are all ready to charge ahead now and find out what is next in kindergarten.  This week, of course, we are having fun celebrating Halloween.  Yesterday we made some very cute witches and today we made treat bags for them.  These witches are very particular and only like treats that begin with a /w/ sound.  The children filled their bags with watermelons, wagons, windows, watches and little witches.  They are hanging on the wall outside our room and look very festive.

Our new star word for this week is like.  The children are already very familiar with this word because of its popularity in our Daily News.  Therefore our updated Star Words include: I, a, my, the, am, like, to & go.  When you also consider the letter sounds we have discussed including /at/ words the children are reading several words.  Look for them as you are reading nightly with your child.

Fabulous Fire Prevention Friday

Today kindergarten students visited with the Leeds Fire Department in the gym to discuss fire safety and prevention.  Sparky the Fire Dog (who according to Andrew is not real, just a dude dressed up in a costume) and a Ghost Buster visited with them to share important information.  I am sure your children will be ready to share lots of fire tips with you over the weekend.

Don't forget our fun farm field trip is coming up next Wednesday.  The children are so excited!  We have been talking about the farm and working on a farm vocabulary list and a farm book about the animals on the farm.  They are really enjoying this unit.

Have a GREAT weekend!

We have been really busy this week with end of the nine weeks assessments.  You will receive the results as part of your child's report card which will go home on the 14th.  We will then go over those assessments and your child's DIBELS scores during our conference on the 19th or 20th.  I know some of the other kindergarten teachers have already sent their DIBELS scores home, but I really prefer to go over them with you so you understand exactly what they mean.  Conference times will be coming home Friday.  I will schedule them between 3:15 - 6:00 on those two dates.  If one of those dates is not good for you (or neither is) please let me know.  I am also happy to meet at 7:45 if that is a better time for you.

The children have a substitute today because I am at a technology meeting.  They will also have one next Tuesday - Thursday.  I will be at an ARI meeting those days.

We are discussing the farm at school on preparation for our field trip next week.  They are really excited about the field trip.  We have it marked on our calendar so we always know how many more days we have to go before the trip.  Thanks to everyone for sending their field trip permission slips back.

Don't forget the book fair continues through Friday.  The children have had a lot of fun shopping. I can't wait to do some for our class.  Happy Reading!

Field Trip Information

Our Baker Farm field trip is coming up on the 13th of October.  If you have not yet returned your child's permission slip please do so tomorrow.  Your child will not be able to go on the field trip without a signed permission slip.  Also, if you did not return your lunch request form today please do so tomorrow.  They will need to order the food for our trip soon so we need an accurate number.  Drinks will be provided for the trip so please do not include one in your child's lunch.

Next week we will begin studying the farm to prepare for our trip.  This is a fun unit that the children really enjoy.

Today we began blending sounds together to make words.  We talked about the "at" family and sounded out words in that family.  Try writing a few "at" words like cat, rat, mat, flat, bat and sat on  a piece of paper and sound them out with your child.  They were very excited to be reading the words!

Letter Sounds

Today we worked more on our patterning in math and letter sounds.  Beginning letter sounds are our main focus at the moment.  The more you can work with your child on this the better.  You don't need anything other than the two of you to get started.  When you are in the car, taking a walk, waiting for an appointment or even when your child is in the tub you can ask them what sound they hear at the beginning of words.  Any words with any beginning sounds will work.  You can begin with familiar words like names of friends, relatives and stores and move on to any word you can think of.  This is critical to their reading development.  The more practice the better! 

Patterns Everywhere

Today in math we worked on patterning.  This is something we do every day during calendar, but today the children were given opportunities to create patterns with objects in the classroom.  This is a fun activity that they can easily do at home with different cereals, M&M's or other candies, or just a piece of paper and a few crayons.  This is a skill I will be testing them on for the first nine weeks report card.  Please work with them on  this at home.  Thanks!

Topsy Turvy Monday!

Our room was a mess for a while this afternoon!  We needed a new program installed on our computer and in order to do so we had to move the student computer across the room so we would have an Internet connection.  This had to be done when the children came back from P.E.  They were very helpful by sitting quietly for me.  I really appreciated it!

Beginning tomorrow the children will be able to visit the computer during literacy centers and free choice centers.  I know they will really enjoy the sites that I have selected for them.  I will put links to some of the sites up so you can check them out and visit them with your child from home sometimes.

We are getting another for our computer in a few weeks and we would love more.  If you or someone you know has one they would like to donate that would be great!  A printer would also be wonderful to have so they could print their work from time to time.  Just let me know!

This week we will be discussing the letter Aa, which means we will begin blending letter sounds to make words.  Very exciting!!!

If you have not already done so please read the post on "Our Apple Day Glog" and visit the site.  There are lots of cute pictures and videos from Apple Day last Friday on the Glog for you to see and share.