Halloween Info.

Happy Friday, families!

Please be reminded that we will be celebrating Halloween on this coming Tuesday, Oct. 31st. The children are encouraged to wear their costumes to school that morning. Please join us for a costume parade outside starting at 8:45am. A "festive" bag was sent home with the children last week. You may use the bag to pack a secret treat for your child's snack. I apologize for them being so small and please feel free to provide your child with their normal snack bag as well!

We are asking our Barrows School community to donate canned goods and other materials to help those suffering in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. Students may bring in donations now until November 9th.

The students have been busy little bees continuing to work on their letter recognition and hand-writing, as well as number formation up through number '9'. We have begun to distinguish between vowels and consonants when exploring our letters.

In Writer's Workshop, the students are continuing to work on detailed pictures, but are now also encouraged to "stretch words out" and begin to label beginning and ending sounds that they hear in their words. We began using special pens this week to do our labeling with - such a treat to use rather than pencils!

I appreciate all of your patience with my being out again last week for Professional Development time. Have a wonderful weekend with your littles!

October 13, 2017

Hello everyone! What beautiful fall weather we have enjoyed these past few days! The children have enjoyed exploring all things "fall" this week. Please check out our Class Dojo photos daily to also get an up to date taste for what we are doing in the classroom! (It seems that the app was freezing up a bit today, so hoping all photos are able to be viewed.)

We are cruising along in Fundations and have now learned letters t, b, f, m, n, c, and o. The children are encouraged to practice writing their name with their first letter being uppercase and rest of letters lowercase. Feel free to practice this at home as well. 
In math, the children have practiced counting and writing up to the number '7'. 

**Please note that all Kindergarten teachers will be out next Thursday and Friday, the 19th and 20th, for Professional Development Training. I am also slotted to be out on that following Tuesday the 24th, also for mandatory Professional Development Training. I will let all families know if there are any changes to these dates. I truly apologize for any inconvenience!

We will celebrate Halloween on Tuesday, 10/31.  The children are allowed to wear their costumes to school that day.  That morning all of the kindergartners will parade around the school; you are welcome to see our parade – just stick around the blacktop after drop-off.  Then we will return to the cafeteria for a mini-monster mash of sorts.  Please send your child to school with a plastic bag; I ask that the costumes be relatively easy to put on and take off so they don’t get damaged.  I also ask that no face paint be applied and that there be no weapons of any kind. We will enjoy a special snack that day (details to come) and will also enjoy a mini celebration in the room. Unfortunately due to our large class this year, we cannot invite families to attend. Room parents will reach out if help is needed.

Have a wonderful weekend!

October 3, 2017

Today the children wrapped up their Literacy Station exploration on the book, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. In the story, Chrysanthemum is picked on at school because her name is too long. We tied our book discussion into our Open Circle lesson for this week and discussed how making fun of someone can be called bullying. We also talked about dangerous and destructive behaviors in and out of the classroom. The students all agree that making fun of someone or bullying them is a form of dangerous and destructive behaviors and is not okay.
We have continued to practice our Barrows School Pledge as well as school song during our mornings. On Wednesdays the children meet up for Sing-Along practice with the other two kindergarten classes. There, the children sing our school songs, fall songs, and songs about the alphabet and counting. It is a nice way to come together as a team and relax a bit!
In math we have formed numbers up to the number 6. We are still singing our "Skip To My Lou" tune to help up remember how the numbers are formed correctly.
In Fundations we have now taught t, b, f, n, m, and now i. We talked today about how "i" is a vowel letter and we often see it in between two other letters called consonants.
In Writer's Workshop we have continued becoming great storytellers. We know that in order to be a great writer, you must be a great storyteller first with LOTS of details. Our stories right now are still in the form of beautiful illustrations. Today we told true stories about things we like to do in the fall and then illustrated our thoughts.
We will be attending the Book Fair this Thursday from 9:30-10. Parents are welcome to join!
Have a FABULOUS WEEK!