Fabulous Friday

 We have been so busy this week.  I'm ready for the weekend! We even had to skip naptime some this week because we had so much to do.  I enjoyed it though and I think the kids did, too.

 We made applesauce today in a crockpot.  It smelled so good while it was cooking.  The kids could not wait to try it.

  I will post a step by step recipe with pictures.  I told the kids they could teach their families how to make applesauce if they wanted to.  We will work on writing a recipe in class next week.

We also made apple prints.  This was inspired by the book Ten Apples on Top. 

Next week is Homecoming Week.  Each day, there will be an opportunity to dress up and join in the spirit of Homecoming. 

Monday - College day
Tuesday - Nerd day
Wednesday - Crazy Sock day
Thursday - Twinkie day
Friday - Red Out

Fun With Apples

 Thanks for all the apples for the applesauce we will make on Friday.  We have quite a variety and that is supposed to make the best applesauce.  I'll post the recipe on Friday because you know that the kids are going to want to try this at home.

 Today, I read Ten Apples Up On Top to the class, then each of the students tried to balance apples on their heads.  It is not easy to balance an apple on your head long enough for me to take a picture, but we sure had fun trying.  It's even harder when you are laughing and some of the kids could not stop laughing.  It was pretty silly.

 These 2 kids got their serious face on and weren't distracted by the silliness.

 We also tasted apples today.  Everyone tasted a red, yellow, and green apple. Then we talked about how they tasted and how they were alike and different.  This table is all the green lovers.

These guys were the red lovers. The kids picked which kind they liked best and made an apple that showed us what their choice was.

 We aren't finished with them yet, but the finished product will go on the bulletin board in the hallway.  You'll be able to see them at Open House.

Apple Week

 This is Apple Week.  We started with a story about Johnny Appleseed. 

 The students are each making their own book about Johnny.  Each day we will add a page and learn a little more about his life.

 Today we learned that his real name was John Chapman.  Johnny Appleseed was his nickname.

 We will have the finished books on display at Open House on October 9.

 We also did some writing today.  It was our first day to use our writing notebooks to find ideas.  Last week, we put ideas in the notebook about things that make us happy. Everyone had 6 - 9 ideas listed.  Today, they got to pick one of those ideas to write about. 

 They learned how to take an idea and write about it. 

 They could label their pictures like we've been doing or we talked about how to write a sentence and some of the kids were eager to try that. 

 The whole class did such a good job.  This writing is beautiful to me.  They show no fear and are willing to jump in and try something new.  All the writing has meaning.  If you ask the author to tell you about what they wrote, they can point to each letter or word and tell you what it means. 

As we learn more letters and sounds it will be easier for others to read, but right now you still need your child to tell you about it.  Keep encouraging them. 

On Friday, we will be making applesauce in a crockpot.  I would like for everyone to bring an apple to use in the sauce.  It can be any kind.  In fact, the more variety we have, the better the applesauce will be.  If you can contribute an apple, please send it by Thursday.  That way I can have them chopped and ready to go in the crockpot Friday morning.

Birthday Girl

 Today was Madison's birthday.  Our first class birthday to celebrate this year.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to her and then she brought cupcakes to share with the class. They were very yummy and colorful.  You should have seen the faces of the kids with the frosting all over them.  We love to celebrate birthdays.

A progress report came home today in the red folder.  We don't do grades the first 6 weeks of Kindergarten so it doesn't give you much information. There are a few comments about conduct. Please sign these and return them to school. 

I won't be in the classroom tomorrow.  I'm going to a workshop so if you have any questions for me I'll answer on Friday.

Short Stations and Homework

 In our math class, we have been working on learning the days of the week.  We practice saying the days and reading the words and also they are learning how to put the days in order.  In the picture above, I hand out cards with the names of the days and they have to put themselves in order without my help.  Right now, it takes a long time to get everyone in the right place, but we'll keep working on it until it takes only a few seconds.

 On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I'm going to do what I call Short Stations. Everyone has a partner and they rotate through 8 stations.  Each station lasts 7 minutes.  Each station has a different type of work. 

 They are learning how to work with a partner, how to keep their voices low so they don't disturb other groups, and how to use their time wisely so they finish their work.

 This is preparation for when we begin reading groups.  I will start those in January and the time in groups will be longer. 

 One of the stations is to work with me.  I'm checking to see that they are learning the letters and sounds as we go and I'll also be checking their progress on sight words. 

 Homework came home for the first time today.  Everyone took home a special homework pencil.  Please make sure your child uses a pencil for homework.  I completed a sample homework page so you can see what is expected.  Homework will come home on Tuesday.  They can turn it in any day during the week but it is due on Friday.  That's when I'll check it and everyone who turns in completed homework gets a sticker.

Fabulous Friday

 Our letter this week was G so we made gumball machines today.

 Last week, our letter was O and everyone made an octopus.  These are coming home today and I wanted you to know what they are.

 Since today was Friday, we got to have centers.

We started another fun Friday activity that we've never done before.  All the kids in Kindergarten rotate through the classrooms.  Each classroom has a different activity.  My classroom is art.  Mrs. Brown is teaching Spanish.  Mrs. Price will teach computer skills when the lab is ready for us, but in the meantime she is doing hands-on activities that reinforce the math skills we are working on during the week.

I used this book to help the kids realize that we can all be artists.  We just have to try.
Your child should be able to tell you about the story.

After reading the story, everyone made 2 dots.  One dot was decorated on the inside and one was decorated on the outside. 

We will display these in the building.  When they are all put together it will look like a quilt.

Have a great weekend!  I'll see everyone on Monday.

Kid Writing

The class is getting excited about being authors and illustrators.  2 students have brought books that they wrote and illustrated at home to share with the class.  That gets me excited about what we are going to be able to accomplish this year.

I've been talking to them about what I call "kid writing" this week.  The picture above shows an example of this.  I showed them a picture such as the gorilla and we said the word slowly and really exaggerated the sounds.  I tell the kids we stretch out the sounds so we can hear them better.  After we've done that a few times, I have them tell me what sounds they could hear.  With the red marker, I wrote what the kids said they could hear.  So in the word gorilla they heard g,r,l i.  That's kid writing.
This is perfectly good writing for this stage in their lives, but I also told them that as they learn more, their writing will start to look more like what you see in a book.  I call that "book writing".  With the purple marker, I showed them what that word would look like in a book.

We will make a poster like this every week and use them for reference.  As they are writing, they can refer to these posters on how to spell words like you would find in a book.  I still won't tell them how to spell a word.  Instead, I help them stretch out the words to hear the sounds better and ask them, "What do you hear?"  If they are trying to spell a word that is on a poster, I will refer them to the poster. 

They are excited about writing and illustrating their own books.

Yesterday the kids brought home a blue folder for the first time.  This is our reading folder.  It will come home every Wednesday and Thursday.  Please listen to your child read the book.  Right now, there are no words but they can tell you a story using the pictures.  Sign the sheet on the front of the blue folder and send the folder back to school the next day.  If you don't have time to read that night, just keep the book but send the folder back anyway, especially on Wednesday so I can put Thursday's book in it.

One more thing, Thursday will be our day to go to the computer lab.  There are headphones in the lab for us to use; but if you would rather, you can send a pair for your child to use.  They will not share these with anyone else.  I would like for them to be in a a zip lock bag, labeled with your child's name and we will keep these in the backpacks until we need them on Thursday.   You can send the ear bud type or the earphone type. 

Thank You!

 The class was so excited to see all the snacks come in.  The hard part for me was convincing them we couldn't eat it all in one day.  Thank you so much for your contributions.  I think we have enough for 2 months.  I'll let you know when we need more. 

 We start our mornings every day with a paper called "Morning Work".  You should have seen it come home last week.  The class copies a message and then has some number work and coloring to do.  I usually give them between 15 and 20 minutes to work on this so when you look at this paper, if it is mostly finished, it tells you your child is using their time wisely.

 I read the book "One of Each" to the class today.  Oliver Toliver is the main character and he learns how much fun it is to share with a friend.  The writing assignment today was to draw yourself and a friend sharing something.  Then they labeled the people and what they were sharing.  You can ask your child about the labels and how they feel about sharing. 

I sent a note home today asking for volunteers for homeroom moms.  If you have any questions about what's involved, please ask me and we can talk about it.

Library books came home for the first time on Friday.  Friday is our day to check out books. The kids can keep the book for 1 week and then check out another one.  The books they are bringing home now are ones I would like you to read to them.  I want them to hear good stories with rich language.  In January, they will start bringing home books to read themselves.  They will be able to start taking AR tests in January also. 

Tomorrow I will send home a book order form.  I encourage you to look through the selections and choose at least 1 to order.  The kids get so excited about new books that they can keep.

More Work

 We are learning how important letter and sounds are.  They help us to read and write.  We have a letter that we focus on each week, but we try to learn all the letters and sounds as quickly as possible. 

 In language arts, we are learning about nouns.  Nouns are words that name people, places, and things. 

 In our lesson yesterday, they had to draw an example of each type of noun and label it. 

 Rylee drew a turtle and labeled it with a "T".

 Today, they took 1 of their ideas and drew a picture that showed a story about the idea.  Then I asked them to label as many things in the picture as they could. So Rylee took her turtle idea and drew a fantastic picture and labeled several things.  I encouraged them to write as many sounds as they could hear.  She did a great job of writing the sounds she heard in the word "clouds".  You can see it in the upper right hand corner.  She also put an "I" and an "L" together because she wanted to say "I like turtles".

I hope this example helps you to evaluate the work your child brings home and gives you ideas about how you can talk to your child about their writing.  Remember, don't correct their attempts at writing words right now.  You may be tempted to show them the "right" way to spell a word but I'm looking for confidence and an ability to take risks when they face a challenge.  Correct spelling will come soon enough.

Here's an example of something else you will see every week.  We have one letter that we focus on each week.  This week it is "O".  All week long we talk about words that begin with that letter.  This helps with vocabulary building because some of these words are unfamiliar to most 5 year olds.  At the end of the week, they decorate the letter and glue pictures of things that start with that letter.  At home, you can point to the pictures and have your child tell you what it is.  You can also talk about the sound the letter makes and how to write the letter.

Thanks for all your help at home.  Next week, we will start learning sight words and I will need your help at home.  I'll let you know more about that next week.

Writing in Kindergarten

 This week, I want to tell you about some of the work you will see your kids bring home.  I know it can be very hard to get a 5 or 6 year old to tell you accurate information about what they are doing in school. 

The pictures you see are examples of our 1st writing assignment.  The kids were told to draw a picture of something they did with their family over the weekend.  After the drawings were complete, I talked to them about labeling the people and things in the pictures.  I tell the kids all the time to just "do your best".  Everyone can do something.  The child that drew the picture at the top was able to label mom, me, rain, and rainbow.  This is a good example of listening to sounds and writing what you hear.  I never tell a child how to spell a word.  I want them to say words slowly, listen for and identify the sounds they hear.  In the beginning of Kindergarten, conventional spelling is not the goal.  Hearing and writing sounds is what we start with. 

 This child was also able to write names of family members.  These are words that have already been learned so the challenge for me is to have them get out of that comfort zone and try words they don't already know. 

The child that drew this picture told me a story about going to the swimming pool and going down the slide.  When I asked him what he wanted to label, he said, "swimming pool". Next I said the word slowly and asked him what sound he heard.  He said he heard a "p" for pool so that is what he wrote down.  For today, that was all I wanted.  As we keep learning I will challenge the kids to write more than just beginning sounds.

So, when you look at your child's writing, point to the letters that were written and see if he/she can remember what word they were thinking of when they wrote that letter.  They can also tell you about what they drew.You can offer suggestions of other things they can label and talk about the beginning sound.  I don't want any child to feel anxiety about not being able to spell words the "right" way.  Please encourage and praise these beginning efforts at writing.

You are going to amazed at what they can write by the end of the year.