Writing, Patterns, and Much More...

This week we all become writers! We received our "Writer's Notebooks" this week and we wrote our first story. Now for kindergarten that is drawing a picture, but it was an exciting moment in our class as we received our special books and wrote the first story. Many children talked about their pet or sports. One child had a great story about a queen and dragon. I absolutely loved this moment. The children were so proud of their worked and did a super job. We then sat in a circle and some of the children shared their stories with the class. We will be working in our Writer's Notebooks about 2-3 times a week. We will be working on drawing a detailed picture, labeling our picture, writing words, forming a simple sentence, and then by the end of the year we will be writing 2 or more sentences about our story. Ask your child about their "Writer's Notebooks" as I feel they are just as excited as I am. Check out a few of these pictures showing the children working!

In Math we worked on making simple patterns with pattern blocks. We made AB and ABC patterns. The children were playing figure out my pattern. They had to guess what was missing in the pattern and explain how the pattern worked. Some children were having trouble explaining. Ask your child why? or how did you know this? when working on homework or when they say something. This helps with explaination which is an important skill in education!

Fantastic Week...

We had an AMAZING week this week. I cannot believe it is over! We learned the letter Ee and the long sound. Just wait, before you know it your children will become basic readers! We worked on writing the letter Ee! In math, we worked on comparing and the children compared fabrics, cookies, buttons, etc. They have done a fabulous job with this. This past week also was our first week of homework! I was VERY happy because we had a 95% return rate. I am thinking next week we can make it to 100%! If you did not turn in your homework and you would like to, feel free to turn it in on Monday. Just as a reminder homework is sent home on a Monday and needs to be returned by Friday. There is usually 4 practice activities for you to complete, which allows for you to do one a night! In addition, please work on identifying letters of the alphabet, writing their name, and counting!

Finally, today was a special day because we had our first school wide "Buddy Meeting." We met with the third grade (Mrs. Ryba and part of Mrs. Coleman's class...Miss Todd's class meets with Mrs. Matheny and the other part of Mrs. Coleman's class)and completed an activity with BrainPop Jr. regarding bullying. We also will have third grade pals. We are looking forward to working with our third grade pals throughout the year! We had a blast and are looking forward to learning from them!

Ribbon Cutting...

We had a great day at the ribbon cutting ceremony! There was a huge turnout and the kids were fabulous. In addition, Miss Todd held the ribbon along with Mrs. Brown, who retired at the end of last year. This represented the new and old. Madison from my PM class also held the ribbon along with another child from each grade level.

I also want to thank all of you for supporting West Clermont in the new building of WT and Amelia Elementary. The learning space is absolutely wonderful and we are thankful our children have this space!

Ribbon Cutting Ceremony; Sept. 19

A Week of Fun and More to Come...

What a great week of learning! We have been practicing our routines and the letter A. We will continue to work on our routines this coming week; however, we will begin learning the letter E this coming week. The letter E is the long sound of /ee/ (the sound of /ee/ in words like eel, eagle, me, he, see). We have been working in centers this past week and again this coming week. Last week the children were able to build with blocks and legos to work on sharing and teamwork. In addition to blocks and legos, the children worked on making a coconut tree with letters of the alphabet since we read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." This also helped us work on our cutting and gluing skills. We also worked on puzzles. Puzzles are great for children to do to help with spatial awareness. It helps in math when we talk about geometry. We will be continuing to work on our writing our names. Please continue to help your child with this. We are looking for a capital letter and the remaining letters to be lowercase. In addition, please watch your child on how he or she grips the pencil. Your child should "pinch" the pencil at the bottom with their thumb and index finger and rest it on their middle finger.

I am looking forward to another great week. The afternoon class will go to music on Monday and the morning class will go to physical education on Tuesday. Do not forget we do not have school on Friday due to Professional Development for teachers.

Routines...Routines...Routines...

PM Class...

Well we are off and running to an exciting year of kindergarten. I absolutely love this age and love how far we come with the kids. Currently, I am reminded of how important routines are for our children. We are practicing, practicing, and practicing these routines in the classroom. We are working on coming in and hanging up our backpack, getting out our folder, and going to our seat. We are working on carpet routines. We are working on table and center routines. As you can tell we are working on A LOT. I must say many of the children are doing a great job learning the routines and are doing them well. We are also working on various academics and learning the routines of Read Well (this is our literacy program). We are learning the letter A and the sound associated. Our cheer with letter A goes "A says /a/, Ant on an Apple, /a/ /a/ /a/." The kids are enjoying learning the song. In addition, we are working on handwriting and pencil grips. Please have your child pinch the pencil with their index finger and thumb. Also, we are working on going from top-to-bottom. Later in the week we are going to work on scissor/glue skills :)

We are having a blast in Kindergarten!

The Class is Set...

We had a fantastic Kindergarten "Match Night!" We had a wonderful turnout of our families to find out their Kindergarten teacher and I must say I am quite EXCITED to get the year started tomorrow with my 25 and 24 kids in the morning and afternoon! We should have a fantastic year and I look forward to sharing our learning with you. I know Miss Todd is just as excited to get the year started with her wonderful children too.

A few pieces of information...if you have not turned in your first day packets please do so. This has important information regarding your child and health information. In addition, in the parent packet there is some more information to fill out about your child. We are also asking for your email address so we can send out our newsletter and other information. Many parents in the past have really enjoyed this. In the next week or so we will be sending out information regarding room parents and volunteers.

Once again...I am looking forward to this great year!

Open House...

We had an amazing school-wide open house on September 2nd. The turn-out was great. We had a lot of kindergarten parents come through the building. As you know we checked addresses on our list, but please still send in your bus card with your child to make sure yoru child gets home okay on the first few days of school.

In addition, we will have one more open house just for kindergarten on September 9. This is when you will find out your child's teacher and visit the classroom. We will also have the children's name on their cubby. You will also get to take home their first day project they make on their staggered day!

Miss Todd and I are looking forward to working with all of you and are looking forward to a fantastic year!