We LOVE Kindergarten!

Another busy week for us here in 1/2 Day Kindergarten! We learned 4 new uppercase Letters of the Week on Monday: D, P, B, and R. We enjoy practicing how these letters are formed through our Monday stations where we build the letters using wood, cotton balls and playdoh! We read Chrysanthemum in class yesterday and talked about how special each and every one of our names were. In Fundations, we have been reviewing the sounds for lowercase letters t, b, f, m, and n. We will be starting to learn the letter/sound recognition for i and u later this week. In math, we are getting to be experts at our counting out loud as well as our number writing. We have learned how to properly form the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 by singing to the tune of "Skip To My Lou My Darlin". Ask one of your kiddos and they will be happy to sing it for you!
Mrs. Leonard came in to meet the class today and read a book called "What Do You Do With An Idea?" by Mae Besom. She was even nice enough to donate it to our classroom library once she was finished reading it! Tomorrow Nurse Rose will be in our classroom to talk about proper hygiene and hand-washing rules. Check out a couple pictures from our week so far!

And we're off!

What a busy and exciting first two weeks in Kindergarten it has been! The kids have really adjusted nicely to our schedule and learning environment. I'm already so proud of each and every one of them. We have been extremely busy learning lots of new things in our classroom. In Fundations, the children have learned letter id and sounds for the letters t,f, and b. You may notice over the upcoming weeks that our Fundations program will be changed just a bit. We are going to be focusing on sounds of lowercase letters and the formation of uppercase letters. This is a change from what was presented at Curriculum Night. Information regarding this change will be coming your way soon as it is a district wide modification.

In math the children have been working hard at proper number formation for the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well as 1:1 correspondence when counting out loud. We have been talking about things that are the same and things that are different and what physical attributes make them such. Each morning we practice our counting. This is something you can do for fun at home as well! A Kindergarten end of year goal is for all children to be able to count out loud to at least 100!

In the upcoming weeks, I will be sending out volunteer information. If you are interested in volunteering in our classroom for our literacy and/or Writer's Workshop blocks, we would love to have you! We generally ask for 1-2 parent volunteers for each block. I understand that many parents work and are unable to commit to this, so please don't feel any pressure that this is expected! There will also be ample opportunity to come in to be a Mystery Guest Reader for your child's birthday and other fun events.

Also in the upcoming weeks, I will be sending home a phone and email contact list for all of the parents and students in our classroom. This list was really useful last year when coordinating play dates and birthday parties. I am just waiting on a few more families to get their paperwork back into me and then I will send these out.

Lastly, a HUGE happy birthday to Owen this weekend! Thank you, Mrs. Gallagher, for coming in as our Mystery Guest Reader on Friday!