Guinndergarten

Looking Forward to Next Week!

2009-08-30T13:48:00.002-04:00

Our story for the week is about a stuffed platypus. We will begin the week with an introduction to each student's favorite stuffed toy! Please remember to send your child's stuffed bear, cat, pig or whatever with them to school on Monday! We will have a brief show and tell and later, we will use them in our math lesson.

We will also begin our reading intervention program on Monday. Depending on how your child scored on the kindergarten screening tests, he or she may receive thirty minutes of additional reading instruction. Usually, in kindergarten, we have the majority of our students in the reading intervention program at the beginning of the year. If your child is not receiving the additonal reading lessons, he or she will be actively involved in literacy centers. The centers will be things like listening to books on tape, reading games on the computer, writing center, alphabet games, making words games and other fun learning activities. This extra reading time is scheduled from 2:05-2:40.

After mentioning the time for reading intervention, I realized that I haven't told you our daily schedule! Here it is:

8:00-8:30--We arrive, listen to announcements and do our morning work.
8:30-9:00--First reading group (2 groups reading and 2 groups in centers)
9:00-9:30--Second reading group (the groups change places)
9:30-10:30--Whole Group Reading
10:30-10:50--Writing
10:50-11:05--Restroom break and wash hands for lunch
11:05-11:35--Lunch
11:35-11:45--Restroom break
11:45-12:15--Computer Lab (We do a program called Successmaker)
12:15-1:00--Math
1:00-2:00--Specials (Library, P.E., or Music)
2:05-2:40--Reading Intervention/centers
2:40-3:05--Outside or Arts/Crafts
3:05-3:15--Prepare for dismissal

You may be wondering where the Science and Social Studies times are. We will be integrating these subjects into our reading groups and whole group reading on a very regular basis.

In math, we have finished our unit on sorting. I tested everyone on Thursday and Friday and am very pleased with the results. All of my class can sort by color and shape and almost all of them can sort by size and kind. I had a few children get a little bit confused, but I will continue to review this skill and will re-test before the report cards are issued. We will begin our unit on shapes on Monday. Many of the children already know the four basic shapes, circle, square, triangle and rectangle. We will begin with circle on Monday. Tuesday, we will be studying squares. On Wednesday, we will learn about triangles. Thursday, our focus will be rectangles and on Friday, we will learn about trapezoids. The unit will continue into the beginning of the following week when we study hexagons on Tuesday.

What's Happening!

2009-08-27T13:42:00.002-04:00

Wow! This week has flown by so quickly! I had every good intention to post what we would be studying this week but lost track of time! I guess I will share what we have DONE this week!

We have been working on sorting all different kinds of ways! Your child should know how to sort items by color, size, shape and by kind! The kids have had a great time sorting the different things we have in our classroom. It has been a fun unit of study for most of them!

In reading, our story was "Fix-It Duck." The kids have illustrated the setting for that story. They have identified their favorite character and today, we will be making a "cut and paste" duck. We have been looking briefly at each letter with a focus on two or three per day. In a couple of weeks, it will be a more intensive letter study beginning with letter Mm. At that time, we will be really stressing correct letter formation, sound and letter identification. Many of the children know the letters and sounds already which is great! They should be able to begin putting sounds together to read simple words.

During our calendar time, we have been talking about what a calendar is used for. I hope that all of my students will be able to say that it measures time. We also take that time to count and do some fun songs. Ask your child about "The Tooty Ta!" They really seem to like that soung. Also, this week, we have been singing about the color red. See if your child remembers how that song goes.

Kindergarten is a place where children say some of the funniest things! I have to share this one cute story with you all! On Monday, our snack for the afternoon was a banana. I told the class that when I hand them the banana, all I wanted them to say was "Thank you" and not "I don't like this." Right after my little speech, I had one of my little girls raise her hand. I called her name and she said in the cutest, sweetest voice you have ever heard "My nana's name is Nana." Kindergarten kids are precious and adorable!

Thank you for letting me teach your precious angels! They are all wonderful and unique little people!

Things I am Learning

2009-08-18T13:50:00.002-04:00

I am having the best time getting to know your children! They say some of the cutest, funniest things! Today, I learned that cooking playdough smells like rainbows. I was amazed because I personally have never smelled a rainbow before. I had to ask what rainbows smell like and was quckly told that they smell like cookies. I am looking forward to a great year with your children and smelling many, many more rainbows!

Welcome to School Year 2009-2010!

2009-08-05T09:28:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new kindergarten students and their families!

We are going to have a great school year! I look forward to actually using my blog to enhance teacher / parent communication. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions. I will be talking about upcoming events, units of study and skills that we are working on. I hope to include photos and videos of my class.

Dates to remember:

August 10, 2009--Kindergarten Screening

August 11, 2009--Kindergarten Screening

August 12, 2009--Kindergarten Screening

August 14, 2009--Parent Meeting at 1:00 p.m.

August 17-19, 2009--Kindergarten phase-in days. (Your child will come one of those days!)

August 20, 2009--Everyone's second day of kindergarten

The school day begins at 8:15 and ends at 3:15. Let us know at the parent meeting how your child will be traveling home from school!

First Week of School

2007-08-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

Wow! I am so excited about the completion of our first week in kindergarten! The children are great! I have eighteen students...six boys and twelve girls. They all have unique, interesting personalities. After this week, I know that we will not have a dull moment in our classroom this year!

What we did the first week in school: Of course, all students only attended two days total, so we didn't actually do a lot of "stuff." Much of our time was spent on establishing rules and practicing procedures. Besides the basics of the beginnings of school, we did do a few activities. I had each student draw a picture of him or herself and then share it in front of the rest of the class. On the first day, we read the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See." I chose this book to help me determine who might not know all of the color words. I do have a few students who need a little work on color words but I have no doubt they will pick it up quickly. We also used felt board cutouts of the characters and placed them in the order they appeared in the book. After reading the book, we made a brown bear face using circles that the students cut from brown construction paper. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the students are able to hold the scissors appropriately and can cut with relative ease. They also did a good job listening to and following directions. After lunch, we learned about sorting objects by color. We first sorted colored shapes on the Activboard. After getting the hang of what sorting is all about, we sorted teddy bear counters. Each child was able to successfully sort by color! We also made playdough! The children really seemed to enjoy making and playing with the playdough. I know that many of you may be thinking why I would choose to make playdough with my students. There are several reasons. Most importantly, children of this age are developing their writing muscles. These muscles need lots of different types of "work" to get them ready to successfully write. Playing with playdough helps strengthen these muscles (and the kids just thought they were having fun!) Another reason we make playdough is to show the children the importance of following a set of directions (the recipe). Finally, we make playdough to talk briefly about how things can change when heated. (The playdough starts off as a liquid mixture and when cooked, it is of course a solid.) We also went outside for a brief period of time in the morning (afternoon highs have been over 100!)
I had eighteen children on the second day. ( I had about six children each day for the three days before the "second" day) We went over the classroom rules and procedures throughout the day. We read the sequel to "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See," which is "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?" We then made a polar bear face out of circles. We traced a large circle and we traced our names. After the children had traced their names, I took note of who knew the letters in their name. For those students who do not know the letters in their name, my assisstant and I will be working individually with them for the next week. If after a week they still do not know the names of the letters in their names, I will make an audio tape for that child that will last about five or six minutes. The child will have a sentence strip with his/her name written in large, colorful letters. The audio tape will direct the child to look at each letter calling it by color and by name. The child will be instructed to trace the letter, and repeat the name of the letter several different times. These tapes will be used until the child can competently name the letters in his or her name. Oh yes, back to day two! We used color tiles to sort by color again today. We danced and sang to "Tooty Ta," "The Button Factory," and "Is Everybody Happy." We also went outside again today. The cutest thing happened when I was reviewing the rules for the playground. I had just reminded the children to not pick up sticks or anything else on the playground when one little girl told me she knew why we weren't supposed to pick up two sticks. I asked her why and she said "If you pick up two sticks and rub them together, you will make a fire!" Of course, I had to agree with her that this might indeed happen so it is best to leave the sticks alone.

The first two days were great! I look forward to a wonderful year with these students and my new instructional assistant Ms. Susan! The children are eager to learn and seem to enjoy school.

Next week we will be working on these state standards:
(Many of these standards will be worked on year long!)

Week 1 Standards:

K 3.03b Spell own first name.
K 1.1b Count by 1’s and 10’s to 50.
K2.1b Communicate using mathematical terms appropriately
· calendar
· day
· months
· week
· sorting
· size

K.2.1.a Sort objects by color.
K.2.1.a Sort objects by size shape and kind.
K.7.1 Identify daily weather conditions
K 14.1 Identify the sun as the source of Earth’s heat and light energy.
K.4.02b. Identify purposes for having rules.
K.4.02c. Be aware that laws and rules are followed and created by the school.
K.1.03e Identify front cover and back cover of a book.
K.1.08d Use illustrations to preview text.
K.1.13i Sequence events in a story
K.1.05a Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters.

National Reading First Conference...St. Louis

2007-08-12T22:33:00.000-04:00

My teaching partner and I were blessed to be able to attend the National Reading First Conference this year. It was held in St. Louis. After a nine hour drive (we did stop for lunch and gasoline!), we arrived in St. Louis. I had never been in Kentucky or Missouri and only had been in the Chicago airport for a layover. The drive was not too bad! We relied on the GPS to for the majority of the way. I was shocked at the condition of the interstate in St. Louis. It was in very poor repair.

Things We Learned at the Conference:

1. Fluency. We learned several things to do to increase a child's fluency in reading. My favorite suggestion involves post-it flags and re-reading text. The child reads the passage for a minute and then places a post-it flag where he or she stopped. The child then re-reads the passage in an attempt to "beat" his/her last time. This process should be repeated three or four times. This puts the air of competition into reading but the child is not competing with others, only himself.

2. Behavior. I have a difficult time with student behavior. I find that I have a difficult time being one-hundred percent consistent. One of the presenters helped me realize another problem I know I have in this regard. She said that you tell students what you want only one time and then you scan the room for those who comply. Reward them with a small trinket and say "Thank you for _____. You never know when you will get a reward." I have a very bad habit of repeating myself over and over. It can be to the point of nagging. I know that many children stop responding if you "nag."

3. Comprehension. Interestingly enough, we learned that comprehension is mainly based on fluency. Reading must sound like speaking for the brain to understand it. (I guess we always knew this...but it is interesting to think about!)

Getting Ready For School!

2007-08-05T15:55:00.000-04:00

I can't wait! The first day of school is just around the corner. It has always been an exhilarating anticipation...back to school!

My room is still in quite a bit of disarray. Books and other items need to be re-shelved due to a bit of downsizing. A new reading series has been adopted and room will need to be found for its various components. I do have an extreme amount of work in front of me but know that I will get through it with little or no complaint. Last year, our school was in the process of remodeling. We were not in the building until October. It was impossible to have things the way that I wanted them to be! Some work could have been done in my room over the Christmas holidays but workers were still in the building and we were asked not to come. For that very reason, I am thrilled to be starting the year under "normal" circumstances!

Our school has had many changes this year. We have added another kindergarten class. (I am so excited!) This should keep our class size smaller than in the past few years. We have also added a fourth grade class. The only grade with only two classes now is fifth grade. Our school is growing!

Next time: St. Louis National Reading First Conference