September 10th - 14th

This week in reading we will...

• Work on noun substitution by singing the song "Skip to my Lou" 
• Learn the letter "X"
• Draw an ox

This week in math we will...

• Work with shapes
• Use fine motor skills to manipulate shapes and blocks

This week in handwriting we will...

• Practice making the letter "D"

This week in science we will...

• Begin our 5 senses unit

The Year Has Begun!

Oh my, oh my, oh my! Our first week of kindergarten is over and our second week is about to begin. The kiddos did so well adjusting to a longer day full of big kid expectations. I for one came home every night exhausted, so I'm guessing my little ones did too.

To start the week off, we all reviewed the rules and expectations of our classroom. We have four rules that we follow and respect.

1. Keep hands, feet, and other objects to yourself.
2. Raise your hand to talk.
3. Listen and follow directions.
4.  Walk quietly inside of school.

All three kindergarten teachers have the same four rules for inside of the school. We also have recess rules, these are very similar, but there are some details about swinging and sliding on their bottoms, as well as keeping rocks and sticks on the ground. All in all, we want our kiddos to be as safe as possible so that they can learn and thrive in school.

Along with our rules we also started our Clip Chart on Tuesday.  Kennedy is a PBS school, which stands for "Positive Behavior Supports" and this means that teachers and staff focus on the positive doings of kids, rather than the negative. In my room I use our Clip Chart to encourage the kiddos to do the right thing first and then I reward them just for that! Every day the kiddos clips start on green (Ready to Learn). As the day progresses they aim to get to the top, which is red for OUTSTANDING! This week all of the kids were above green and were simply rockstars.

Red = Outstanding

Orange = Great Day

Yellow = Good Job

Green = Ready to Learn

Blue = Think About It

Purple = Teacher’s Choice

Gray = Parent Contact

Along with practicing routines and procedures we also learned two letters!, We started with the letter "P" and the character Polly Panda. Polly has her own story and song. We glued popcorn kernals onto purple p's and found words that start with "P" using our SMARTboard.

On Thursday we met Uncle Upton, who stands for the letter "U." Uncle Upton loves onion soup and he is an umpire, so we talked about our favorite sport and read "Curious George Plays Baseball." Friday we read the book "Aliens in Underpants Save the World." It was hilarious and really got the kids engaged. After reading the book we colored paper underwear and I strung it up around the room!

Please continue to send those BEE books and snacks! We appreciate all the help that we can get! 

February 27 - March 2

This week we are continuing our study of Presidents. We read two non-fiction books about George Washington on Monday and on Tuesday we will read a book about our current president, Barack Obama. To wrap up presidents we will be writing Barack Obama a letter!

This week in reading we will...

• meet Ping Pong who makes the /ng/ sound
• draw a king
• celebrate our characters
• start writers workshop

This week in math we will...

• work on partners of 10
• focus on subtraction in small group
• work on more and fewer

Please think of us when you at the grocery store and also when you are buying goods for the week. We have some dry erase markers and gluesticks, but I am concerned that they won't last till the end of the year. Our kinders love to practice their heart words on white boards with dry erase markers! Which, if you don't have a white board, I know you can find them at the dollar store or Wal-Mart for a cheap price. They are a great tool to help your child practice their writing!

February 20th - February 25th

Welcome back after a long weekend! I really enjoyed getting to visit with you about your kindergartner. They are doing such great things in our classroom and it is exciting to share. Spring break is right around the corner and we have a lot to accomplish before that week.

This week in reading we will...

• Meet Zeke for letter /z/
• Draw a prize
• Meet June and her mule for the sound /ue/, / u _e/

This week in math we will...

• Continue to work on partners of 10
• Work with more and fewer
• Make tiny tumblers. This is a way to see and work with addition.

Monday was also President's Day and this whole week we will be reading and writing about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. I was gone Monday morning and the substitute read a TIME for kids about the presidents and they filled out a KWL about presidents; what I KNOW, what I WANT to know, and what I LEARNED. Later this week we will make an Abraham Lincoln writing craft.

February 13th - February 15th

It has been a short and jam-packed week. Tuesday was Valentine's day and we had a blast. In small math groups we did a measuring hearts activity and during reading we put together a sentence, "It is a day for love." At the end of the day we passed out valentines and had a feast. Thank you for sending valentines with your kiddos and for helping out by sending snacks or just being another adult in the room.

This week in reading we...

• Drew a boy, focusing on the /oy/ sound
• Put together a sentence for Valentine's Day
• Met and colored the Whistling Whale, focusing on the /wh/ sound. This is a really hard sound for kiddos to grasp, but they did a great job with it.

This week in math we...

• Went grocery shopping. Using cut out fruit and veggies we worked on adding the items together! They did a great job drawing pictures to represent the objects.
• Talked about more, fewer, and extra.
• Played the "missing partner" game.

Here are some pics from the Valentine's party!

We do not have school on Thursday and Friday due to conferences.

January 30th - February 3rd

This week is going to be a very exciting one. On Tuesday we are heading to the Lied Center to see a production of "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "The Ugly Duckling." It should be a great afternoon! On Wednesday we will be celebrating the 100th day of kindergarten. I have a whole bunch of fun activities planned for the kids. If you haven't already, please try and remember to send your kindergartners bag of 100 things. It is neat to see all the different items that the kids have found and counted.

It is hard to believe that it will be February this week. The kids have really come a long way since August! It almost feels like two years rolled into one. The kindergartners that walked in the door the first day are definitely not the same kiddos today. They know the routines, the expectations, and they ALL have great Kennedy PRIDE!

On Thursday of this week we will meet "Orty Orsen." He makes the /or/ sound, like in store. We will draw a horn on Friday and continue to work on blending sounds together to make words.

We have also started Unit 4 in our math curriculum. This week we will look at the teens using bug drawings, talk about grocery store scenarios, and continue to use our "Math Talk." "Math Talk," in simpliest terms is kids talking about how and why they got the answer that they did. It is a very important skill for kids to have and I have been trying to help them work on this skill.

Additionally we will be doing some Kansas activities, because Kansas celebrated it's birthday on Sunday. On Monday we made sunflowers and they turned out so cute!

Have a great week!