Aug 26-30

Well, it's official!  Your child is a kindergartner!  What a successful (albeit hot) first full week we had!

Much time was spent going over classroom and building expectations.  A few of the rules were sent home hard copy.  I hope you can refer to them as the school year progresses to check in with your child.

Our big focus this week has been centered around the names of each student.  We read From Anne to Zach and created our first class book.  We have sung songs that incorporated each child's name and we have sorted them according to the first letter.

We are beginning our Jolly Phonics program.  Each day a new sound is presented with a story, a song ,and a practice sheet.  The practice sheet will come home daily.  Have your child say the sound and practice the action that goes with it.  Seven small books will be brought home in the next couple of months.  Please look for them and have your child practice the sounds for you.

Math has been full of explorations.  We are getting to know some of the materials we will use often such as the pattern blocks and unifix cubes.  As the children explore and create with the materials, I am encouraging "math talk" among each other.  It is exciting to share with and learn from your peers.  We are talking about numbers:  different ways they can be represented, what the number amount looks like, and how they differ from other numbers.  Laying this foundation is extremely important to build a strong number sense.

Thank you for sending your child rested and prepared for the school day.  I am noticing quite a lot of folders coming back to school with papers in them from the day before.  Please take the papers out DAILY even if you set them aside to read later.  This will help keep the students more organized with that day's work.  Also, please make sure that snack is packed in a pocket of your child's backpack, separate from lunch.  Your child can quickly put his or her lunch in the bin at arrival time.  I really appreciate your help with this.

I hope you all have a great long weekend and look forward to cooler temperatures next week!

Aug 25

Well, we (parents, teacher, and students) all survived the first full DAY of Kindergarten! Things went REALLY well! The first day is hard, but sometimes the first week is harder! So don't be surprised if there are some tears or worries as Monday (or even Wednesday) approaches. Eventually we all settle into the routine and flourish. On Friday we heard a lot about our class rules. In Kindergarten our  5 rules are.... Listen when the teacher is talking, raise your hand to talk, follow directions quickly, keep your hands and feet to yourself, and be safe and be honest. The children can recite these rules with motions. We try and follow these rules everywhere we go at May Watts. We talk a lot about respecting ourselves, others, and the environment too. At May Watts we are continually striving to be good citizens.

This week we will begin our jolly phonics program. Your child will learn the motions/sounds for several letters. Please have your child show you the motions and review the sounds at home. The motions are pictured on the side of the jolly phonics worksheet your child will bring home. We also will read lots of books about kindergarten. We will compare the classes in these books to our own classroom and see what we discover. Students also will explore unfix cubes and pattern blocks as we begin to be introduced to our math tools. In addition, this week we will spend  a lot of time learning routines. The Kindergarten classroom runs very smoothly when routines are in place. We practice everything together, slowly, and then gradually release control. We aim to produce independent thinkers and learners. My goal is to help your child feel confident with their own abilities and comfortable enough to express themselves and explore their interests.

 

Please remember to remove the items each night from your child's take home folder. (Send the empty folder back to school each day) By looking over these papers, you can learn a little bit about what we are doing in class. Be sure to review the jolly phonics sounds and motions with your child as well. Remember the first few weeks of school are all about learning how our classroom functions, you may see lots of coloring pages and simple worksheets. That is ok and things will change quickly once we get our routines down.

Snack is an important part of the day :). It is easiest for your child if you pack their snack in a separate container from their lunch. The lunch boxes and snacks go in two different places so it is best to already have them apart. The children can not have juice during snack. Only water is allowed in the classroom. Please do not send juice boxes to school for snack. They can drink juice during lunch.

I look forward to getting to know your child better next week as we tackle our first five day week of school. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions/concerns as the week progresses.