Homecoming Week!

It is Homecoming week at Spirit Lake and we are celebrating with dress up days! We are also trying to finish up with our color days this week so trying to dress for both could get tricky. Allow your child to pick which one they would like to dress up for each day. I am fine with either! Here is the rest of the weeks schedule

Tuesday: Blue/Jersey Day

Wednesday: Purple/80’s Day

Thursday: Brown/Clash Day

Friday: Black/Spirit Day

Our first day of apple week was so fun! We learned who Johnny Appleseed was by watching a movie about him and reading a book about him.  We also painted red and yellow apples to make an orange apple!

During reading centers today, Mrs. Sievert (our media and technology center specialist), came in and showed us how to use the Itouches.  These are something we will continue to use almost everyday. The kids loved them!

We are almost done learning to write our numbers. If you have time at night, please practice these with your child. Every bit helps!

Can’t wait to see everyone this Thursday night for our open house! Come in any time between 5:00-6:00 pm.  The kids will have lots to show you! They have been doing such a great job!!

Peacemakers

The past two days we have read three books about our friend, David, who always gets in trouble and breaks the rules at home and school.  We like to call him a peacebreaker.  Instead of being peacebreakers, we talked about being peacemakers. Peacemakers share, care and listen to others.  The kids did a great job of thinking of ways to be peacemakers.  We read our schools peace pledge and created our own David’s.  They are hanging outside our room!

We had a lot of fun learning about the colors this week and I am excited to do it again next week!

Next week will be full of APPLES! We will be doing many fun experiments and investigations with apples.  I am so excited!

Enjoy your weekend!

Names, Colors and S.M.A.R.T.

Wow! It has been a great first week of kindergarten.  We have gotten a lot accomplished so far and the kids are doing such a great job of learning the rules and expectations of our classroom.  Last week we talked about our names and got to know the friends in our class.  We decorated the first letter of our name and practiced writing our first names.

The finished product! They look so awesome!

Last week we also read our bucket filler book. Then we brainstormed ideas of how we can fill peoples buckets.  This is what they came up with:

Great ideas! The kids have done a good job of letting me know when they are feeling “empty” or “full” and it has been a great classroom management strategy. Everyone wants to work hard to earn a “drop” for their bucket!

Every morning when we come into the room we get busy with our S.M.A.R.T. boxes.  The kids get to practice fun activities using their fine motor skills. Here they are using using a tweezers to pick out buttons, an open tennis ball (Mr. Munchy)to eat puff balls and nuts and bolts to twist.

This week we are talking about colors! Today was red day and the kids did a great job of finding lots of things that were red. We even learned a song and they know how to read the entire thing! Ask them to sing it for you—it is so cute!

I am excited for the rest of the week to learn more about the different colors as well as our school community. We will be learning about the helpers in our school and take a tour to meet all of them! It will be a great week!

Don’t forget picture day is Thursday, September 8!

Remember to bring library books back on Friday, Day 4!

August-September Newsletter

      Kindergarten News

August - September 2011

Language Arts: We will be learning the names of our kindergarten friends and starting to recognize how they are written. We will learn how to write our name, (using correct letter formation) and name each of the letters. We will be meeting all the letter people that we will be working with in kindergarten before starting to work on the letters M and T. When learning about a letter, we learn it’s name, sound, correct formation for writing, and words that start with that letter and sound.

Math: We will be setting up our meeting time in math. This includes the calendar and related items, counting and patterning. You will see papers coming home indicating that we are learning to write our numbers. Let us show you what we have learned. We will also be working with our colors. Don’t forget to bring something and wear the special color of the day!!

Discovery: Themes explored this month: 1) Getting to Know our New Friends 2) Making our School a Safe Learning Environment 3) Apples and My Senses 4) All About Me

                                                                

 

*Please be sure to check the monthly chairperson and snack calendar so your child does not miss his/her special day!

*IMPORTANT DATES:

-Thursday, September 8: Picture Day!

-Monday, September 19: No School (Professional Development Day)

A Great First Day! (Part 2)

It was another wonderful first day in kindergarten! The rain stopped and we got to go outside for recess.  Our specials today were P.E. and Music. The students did such a good job in music that Mrs. Robinson, the music teacher, gave them a 4 rating out of a possible 4 for behavior! We learned about our centers and the kids got to try out each one. Here are our pictures from the day.
Ari built a house!

Sydney and William working with the blocks

Digging for treasures


It’s Supergirl!

Charlotte in her shades

Sydney prepared a picnic at the housekeeping center

Our afternoon was longer today so after story, songs and rest time, we learned about the calendar in math and used our scissors, glue and crayons to finish a  pattern worksheet.  We enjoyed more recess and read a magazine about animals at the zoo! We finished the day with more play time at centers.
Tomorrow all our friends will be in school and we will work on learning everyone's name!

A Great First Day!

It was a great first day in kindergarten! After recess and snack we got to check out books from the library and do the alligator crawl in the S.M.A.R.T. room. You should have your child show you how they do the alligator crawl…they are awesome at it already! Then we learned about four of our many centers in the room and had some time to play and explore them. 

Playing with cars and trucks

The Sheriff and Superman stopped by

 

Playing at the sand table

Leila all dressed up!

Playing in the kitchen

I think they had a fun time at centers! The kids did a great job getting their trays at lunch and sitting at our class table together.  When we came back to the room we learned a new song, read a story and had some rest time.  We had about 15 minutes to do our calendar for the day and then it was time to go!

I am excited to see everyone back again on Wednesday for a FULL day with our FULL class!

The Final Countdown…

We just finished 3 exciting days of professional development learning about our brand new S.M.A.R.T room. You will learn more about this in our parent meeting Monday or Tuesday morning. I am very excited to implement S.M.A.R.T. activities into the classroom as well!

Now that our professional development days are over for the week, I am counting down the days until I get to meet you and your child.  There is much to be done before Monday morning, but I can’t wait to get the kids in the classroom and begin our new year!

Enjoy your last summer weekend! I will see you all bright and early Monday or Tuesday morning!