November 11

Happy Thursday. It's hard to believe how quickly our days and weeks together fly by. We had a busy day of learning.

We are really practicing how to read to ourselves. We have practiced the physical actions many times. Right now we are reading to ourselves for 3 minutes. We are in the midst of "building stamina." We add a couple of minutes on a week. Our hope is to get to 15 minutes. We are talking about the three ways to read a book: look at the pictures, look at the words, or make up a story to yourself from the pictures you see. It was a big success when we accomplished this today. We even got to watch Ms. Baxter's class as they read independently. We were observers, thinkers and reflectors and after we saw how fun it was to read, we wanted to do it right away. Students will be getting their own book boxes--as soon as you use a box of cereal, will you send it in? These are what we will use to turn into our book boxes. Students will have both books of their choosing and books that I choose that are at their level. This will be the prelude to our small guided reading groups that will start after Thanksgiving break. Our next steps will be learning how to choose a book that "fits" just like we choose clothes that fit us just right.

We were excited to hear from Tina Krech--a local cosmetologist who taught us about hair and skin care, and what it is like at her job every day. It was fun for the students to hear from another member of our community.

We continue to work on number practice (writing and recognition). Please practice counting with your student from 0-35, and have them practice writing from 1-10.

Tomorrow is show and tell day! Don't forget to bring in your show and tell bags with your rhyming words.

November 9 Part Two

Dear Kindergarten Families:

Please review our classroom rules and expectations together with your student. Our class has been having trouble remembering how to follow our rules despite lengthy discussion, modeling and reminders. I would appreciate any home support and reinforcement that you can offer to your student regarding these rules.

All kindergarteners have recently completed a unit on rules. By now we should understand the purpose or rules, and that everywhere we visit in our community has a set of rules that we need to follow. Asking your student what they remember how rules, and how they keep us safe would be a great family conversation.

I will be following the procedures and consequences outlined in the parent handbook that was given out at the beginning of this school year. If you would like to have another copy of the behavior consequences, please let me know and I will be happy to find one for you.

I am looking forward to watching our students strengthen their understanding of what it means to be a person of principle and integrity.

November 9

Here we are--enjoying our milk and granola bars--thank you Molly for our special snack today. YUM!








Students are bringing home another story that focuses on the sight word MY. We read this several times in class today. Ask your student how they know the seasons are changing in the book. Please read this many times with your student. They are getting to be such good readers.

Tomorrow students will be bringing home their show and tell bags. They should be durable and last the entire year. I will ask you to return them at the end of the year. I will send home a reminder about our show and tell procedures with the bags. I think the kids will be excited to share.

If anyone is willing to donate extra snacks, and Clorox wipes for our classroom, we are in desperate need:-)

Please remind your student about being a kind and caring kindergartener. We have been having trouble remembering how to demonstrate our rules as a class. Our biggest concerns are remembering to listen, follow directions and keep our bodies under control. I appreciate the reminders and support that you give at home.

November 8

Happy Monday. It was so good to be back and receive so many hugs and high fives from the kids. We were hard at work learning the site word A and learning to differentiate it from the letter a. We read and explored a book called A PARK. Students brought these books home. Please have them read them to you. They will have quite a collection by the end of the school year. Students may bring them back signed (they will be returned) to receive a sticker tomorrow.

Yellow math link sheets were sent home this week. We have been talking about different kinds of patterns. Please complete this sheet together with your student and return to school by Friday.

Take a look at our classroom rules. We discuss these daily. I thought it would be helpful to post them here so you know what to reinforce at home. We are working so hard on being kind, respectful and helpful kindergarteners.

November 7

Happy Sunday Kindergarten Families:

Happy Birthday Giovanni!

I wanted to let you know that I am getting caught up on things this weekend. I am sure your student told you that I was not at school Wednesday-Friday. I had some minor outpatient surgery and needed time to heal and relax. I am doing well. I appreciate your concern and report. I was so happy to hear excellent reports about student behavior from the substitute teacher. I think this was many of our students' first experience with a substitute. I am so proud of how well they helped out the new teacher and told her about our routines.

They worked hard reviewing the letter M and writing journal entries about our community. You should see many of these papers coming home Monday. I noticed several full cubbies when I was into school this weekend:-)

The students also made themselves dressed as what they want to be when they grow up. I hung these up along one of our bulletin boards. I think the kids did a great job. I love how colorful they are.


I also took a picture of our PYP theme board. Students drew their wish for who they want to be when they grow up. The PYP board inspired the community helpers cutout board.


I hope you were able to ask your student about hearing the pilot and mail carrier speak last week. I heard many great things.

Please continue to send in pictures of your student with their sleepytime word walls. I am hoping to use them for a class book project. Until we have enough to make a book, the pictures are on display in the classroom.

Show and Tell sharing theme for this Friday is SOMETHING THAT STARTS WITH THE LETTER S. I will continue to send reminder notes home this week.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility during my time away from school. I will be responding to emails and folder notes tomorrow.

Have a great evening. Did you remember to set your clocks back?