Happy Halloween

Our party on Friday was a success! Thank you to all those who were able to attend and assist their little ones with crafts! Also, a HUGE thank you to Sue Fitzgerald and Jenny McDonald for organizing and planning the room party! Check out some photos of our fun day:

Granoth Halloween Party

Way to go Shining Stars!

The children have had a lot of fun this week playing our game of "Sparkle!". The game is very basic and can be modified to support almost any learning goal throughout our entire year. Currently, the kids have been playing Sparkle to strengthen their skills of counting using 1:1 correspondence. We will also use this as we begin to segment and blend words in Fundations!

We have continued to talk in class about "What good writers do" and we are now beginning to look at "What good readers do" as well as what they physically look like when reading. This week, the kids began to practice reading to self as well as "Eek". Eek stands for elbow to elbow, knee to knee. This acronym reminds the children of what their bodies should look like when reading with or to a friend.

In Writer's Workshop we continued to discuss "What good writers do". The children now know that in order to be a good writer, they must first be a good storyteller using five or more details in their stories as well as being good illustrators of their pictures. On Wednesday, the children practiced drawing people and characters in their stories using only ovals and circles to form the body parts. This was even a challenge for Mrs. Granoth, as I like to draw stick people! The children really did a great job following this process and came up with some pretty realistic looking people for their stories!

On Thursday the children participated in an all-school A.L.I.C.E. Safety Drill. Mrs. Leonard as well as our School Safety Officer, Officer Muolo, came around to each Kindergarten classroom and complimented the kids on a job well done.

Please remember to send your child in with their red cloth browsing bags on Monday! Have a wonderful weekend!

We LOVE learning how to read!

This week 1/2 Day Kindergarten began their whole group guided reading work. The kids walked into the lesson saying, "No way, Mrs. Granoth. I CAN'T read!!!!" My answer was, "You can't read, YET, but by the end of today you will!" They thought I was crazy! Well by the end of our reading block that day, the kids proudly realized that they COULD read all by themselves! Hip hip hooray!

From now until the first of the year, I prefer to do whole group (whole class) guided reading lessons with the kids. These books are fairly simple for the children to confidently decode and they really become proud of their successes. Following the 1st of the year, I will begin to meet with smaller guided reading groups of 4-5 children where I can really focus in on all of their individual strengths and needs.

Each week the children will bring home a new paper book added to their red cloth browsing bags. Please read these books over the weekends with your children! They are so proud to share with all of you. Please remember to bring browsing bags back in each Monday. If for some reason we have a holiday or you forget the bag, please always send it in the following day so that we may continue to add to their book collections.

Looking forward to our upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations. More information to come on both! Have a wonderful weekend!

Hard at Work

I hope everyone enjoyed a long weekend home with their Kinders! As usual, we have been busy as ever in Kindergarten! We of course all loved our Pajama Day reward day last week! Mr. Potatohead was taken apart following this special day and the kids are working hard to put him back together again. For every positive behavior compliment they receive, he will get a piece put back together.

We joined the rest of the Barrows School last Tuesday for an assembly. Mrs. Becker, our Assistant Principal, talked all about our Barrows Beliefs of being safe, respectful, persevering, and collaborating. As we progress in our classroom Open Circle curriculum, the children will learn what each of these big words means to them both at home and at school.

The children dove right into our Lucy Calkins Writer's Workshop program this past week. They learned that in order to be a great writer, they must first be a great storyteller. They enjoyed pairing up with each other and working on telling detailed stories about important moments in their own lives. On Friday, the kids took their storytelling and began to illustrate drawings to accompany their great stories!

Please enjoy some photos of the kids hard at work from this past week!