Great First Day!

We had a great first day!  We are working with "The Kissing Hand" and various activities to learn about school.  I am looking forward to seeing the next group of kids tomorrow and Friday!  Then the full year starts on Monday (8/22) when the whole class comes together!
~Joe

The Wonderful Kdg Team (Ms. Buchheit, Mrs. Spurlock, Mrs. Nicodemus, and myself)

First Day...

We had a great first day in kindergarten.  We read "The Kissing Hand" and the children learned about the character Chester.  We also met our new friends and worked hard!  Here are a few of our friends (I will post more pictures throughout the week)!

Kissing Hand...

We had a fantastic first day!  I am thrilled to have met your children and I am looking forward to seeing the "B" class tomorrow.  We read the Kissing Hand today and made a puppet!  The children identified Chester as the character and talked about how they felt about coming to school.  A lot of children said they were excited, but nervous!  Thank you for making it a great start and I look forward to partnering with you this year.

 

 

 

A Great First Day...

We had a great first day with the A group yesterday and the B group today!  We got to read "The Kissing Hand" and the kids really enjoyed it.  We also made a puppet of Chester, who is the main character in the story.  The kids related to Chester because he had to go to school and was missing his mom.  We also got to learn in centers!  We had legos, blocks, puzzles, and working with the teacher.  The children did a great job being friendly to everyone!

We also practiced our school procedures and classroom rules and how to be a good bobcat (our WT mascot).  I would just remind your child to continue to work hard and follow the school rules!

It is going to be a great year!

The Kissing Hand...

We had a great day with the Blue Group! We read "The Kissing Hand" and learned about Chester as a character. We made a Chester puppet, which the children colored and cut. I am a believer in having the children do their work by themselves and me to aid in their ability; therefore, you are seeing what your child actually did at school. I do help the children with holding their scissors and to begin having them line up their paper. Also, I help the children work on gripping of pencils/crayons. Many children were doing an awesome job holding the scissors and pencils/crayons correctly. I will put a post about this later on this week or this weekend.

I was thrilled to get to know your children better and look forward to the year. Both groups of children are working hard on procedures and learning "school." I know it has been hectic with all the changes and the kids are doing extremely well working through it. Please be aware your child needs to bring lunch money each day and/or you may prepay your child's lunch through the account online. You can access this through the West Clermont website and go to the "For Parents" section.

I cannot wait to see the children this week. We will be continuing our work with "The Kissing Hand."

Yellow Group What a Great Day...

We had a fantastic first day with the yellow group of kids. We began learning our procedures and we read "The Kissing Hand" and learned about Chester as a character. We also had an exciting time of eating lunch in the cafeteria and also we went outside to play. This typically does not happen this early on, but it is a little cooler out and I want to take this moment to let you know about our outside policy for recess. We go outside as much as possible; therefore, please dress for the weather. We will go out as long as the temperature with windchill is above 32 degrees. During the cooler months of the year, please send in hat and gloves because it is always nice to get some fresh air.

Also, thank you for being patient with the transportation today. It went as smooth as possible and it will only get better as the everyone gets into the routine. Also, if your child is going to be picked up different please send in a note or call the office prior to noon. This gives ample time for the message to be passed on to myself and/or the office (943-6900). If you send in a note I will get it in the morning and pass it along to the office.

Finally do not forget to fill out all your forms for school. This is important so we have the correct contact information. This helps with communication! Thanks again and I am looking forward to seeing the blue group tomorrow!

First Day Arrival...

I am getting more excited about the first day of school, which is Tuesday for Group B and Wednesday for Group A. When you arrive at school to drop off your child you have a couple of options. First, you may stay in the drop-off line of cars and your child will be helped out of the car by a staff member and will help direct your child where to go. Second, you may park your car in a parking spot and escort your child up to the front of the building. I want you to be aware all staff members will be outside and collecting children by grade-level; therefore, you will want to look for Miss Todd and/or myself. Once we have all the children we will begin to walk down to the classroom. Adults will not be permitted inside the school because everyone will be outside (I know this is a change from the other night). We are trying to figure out the smoothest way possible to help children in the building and alleviate as much congestion as possible. I know some of you were worried about your child not making it inside or out of the car and you wanted to walk your child inside. Mrs. Schmidt has decided to allow you to park your car and escort your child to the front of the building where Miss Todd and myself will be, but once we have your child you will then be able to leave. Unfortunately due to the nature of staff members being outside, you will not be able to escort your child inside. If you have any concerns or worries please email (stahl_joe@westcler.org) or call (943-6929) and I will try and help.

This should be an exciting year for your children and I am eager to start! See you all this week!

Almost Time...

Well I must say I am getting eager for the start of school! It should be an exciting year with all the changes. We have TONS of technology, which should only enhance your child's learning. In addition, our space is perfect for learning. In addition, we have a new teacher joining us at WT (Miss Todd)! She will be teaching an AM class and then unfortunately she will have to travel to Merwin to teach a PM class. I have met with her throughout the summer and I am thrilled to have her as a co-worker. We have a fantastic gym for physical education, an art room that is unbelievable, the music room (I wish I could have her room) is awesome with a huge bay window, and a media center perfect for library.

We will have an open house on September 2. I will be there from 6-7:30. You are more than welcome to stop by to see the kindergarten classrooms. We will have a more "formal" open house on September 9 beginning at 6. As a reminder we have made some changes to how we are doing the kindergarten class lists this year. Here is a reminder of how we will be working this new system: Some of you may have realized when you went to school to find out your child's teacher the kindergarten list was not posted. Assigning children to classrooms is a difficult task and when we design the class lists we try to get an even mix of gender, ability, behaviors, etc. in each of the classrooms; however, with kindergarten it is a toss up because your child has not been to our school. Therefore, we have decided to try something new this year! We are going to wait three days into school before we make classroom assignments. You may be thinking this is odd, but we feel this is going to help better serve your child. The first three days of school are staggered for kindergarten children; therefore, your child will only come on Sept. 7, 8, or 9. This one day allows your child time to see the school with just a few other children, it allows us to assess your child's needs, find out a little bit about your child, etc. Once we have met all the children we will then assign your child to a classroom. All kindergartners will start on September 10th in their assigned classroom. This process will allow us to have an evenly mix of children in each classroom. Please do not worry or stress about this process. We will be communicating with you throughout the whole duration of this process. On September 9 the classroom assignments will be posted at 5 and then a parent meeting will occur at 6. After the parent meeting you will be able to visit your child's classroom and meet their teacher. We are very excited about this new process and truly feel like this will best meet the needs of your child! If you have any questions or concerns about this process please feel free to email me or call the school at 943-6900.

I look forward to meeting everyone and beginning our journey of learning with the children!

August is Here...

The summer is winding down faster than I can believe. Next thing I know I will be starting to set up the classroom and getting ready for the kids to arrive! I am quite excited to get the children in the classroom and begin teaching in our wonderful learning space. I know everyone will love it. I had a meeting this morning at the building and had the opportunity to walk down and see our space and I placed a few pictures of the room (check out the link to the left). I'm excited about getting in there and adding my touches to the room to make it fantastic!

As we continue towards the beginning of school take some time to make sure your child can recognize his/her's first name, recognize a few letters, write/attempt first name, button/zip pants, and just enjoy reading to them! If your child can do more, that is great!

I cannot wait to meet all their smiling faces on the first day and I am sure your smiling faces will have tears of joy as they head off to school!