A Peek At Our Week!

 I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and enjoying the beautiful weather! Please take a moment to see all the fun that was had in our classroom last week!

Important Dates:

September 27th:

Picture Day

Smile!

September 28th:

Open House Night (Parents Only)

Session 1: 6:00-6:30

Session 2: 6:45-7:15

Curriculum Update:

Reader's Workshop

This week we began Reader's Workshop using the Lucy Calkins reading program. Our first unit kicked off by teaching the children that they can read the world around them. This led to an exciting exploration of environmental print! We enjoyed walking the hallways of Boyden looking for words that we were able to read. We found "stop" and "exit" to be the most frequently occurring words in our school! 

The class had a great time reading other words in our world as they played environmental print bingo!

On Thursday, one of Boyden School's amazing reading specialists, Mrs. Myles, visited our classroom! She taught us the expectations for partner reading and brought some brand new books from the Boyden Book Room for us to enjoy!

Math

The counting fun continued in math week as we practiced counting the numbers 6-10! One very important lesson centered around the ten frame, a counting tool we will use frequently this year. 

The student above practice making the numbers 6-10 by placing counters on their ten frame mats. Later in the week the class had a great time completing various counting activities at math centers!

Writer's Workshop

Writer's workshop also got off to a great start last week as the children began to write "books" about topics they are familiar with (pets, vehicles, toys, etc). It is important to note that at this early point in the year the children will be telling stories mainly through pictures. Our words and writing will come as the year progresses!

On Thursday we practiced drawing people and backgrounds using shapes that we know. Adding these types of details to our work will help make our stories come to life and will make them easier for our readers to understand and enjoy!

Media

Another highlight of our week was visiting the Media Center (library) for the first time! We met the Media Specialist, Mrs. Moses, and got a tour of Boyden's library. Please note that library day will be on Mondays. Please be sure that your child returns their book each week so that they are able to check out a new one

After reading the story So You Want to Build a Library the class enjoyed building their own mini libraries using fun manipulatives!

Science

Last week was an exciting time for science as we explored apples! The class learned about the different parts of the apple including the skin, flesh, stem, seeds, and core. We also learned about the life cycle of an apple seed, and enjoyed cutting apples in half both vertically and horizontally. We discovered when you cut an apple horizontally you get a special star surprise!

Our exploration wouldn't be complete without some fun apple stamping!

Classroom Wish List:

Our Classroom is currently in need of the following items. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated!

• Clorox Wipes
• Paper Towels

Thanks so much for taking a peek at our week! Please check back soon to see all that is new in Room 202!

A Peek At Our Week!

 The children settled into Room 202 nicely as we spent our first full week of school together! Last week we continued to practice classroom routines and also review expected behaviors.  I couldn't be more pleased with how quickly everyone is acclimating to Kindergarten life!

Important Dates:

September 24th:

Early Release (11:55am dismissal)

September 27th:

Picture Day!

September 28th:

Open House Night

(6:00-7:30PM)

Announcements:

Boyden Folders
Please be sure to check your child's Boyden Folder (nightly if possible) for important notices and information. Any class work or announcements should be removed and kept at home unless otherwise noted. Thanks so much for your help!

Open House

Please note that Open House night has been rescheduled to Tuesday, September 28th from 6:00-7:30pm. The format of Open House will also look different this year as the focus will be placed on familiarizing parents with the Kindergarten curriculum rather than the student driven "meet and greet" structure of years past. In the event that you are unable to find childcare in order to attend, please don't hesitate to contact Mr. Dearborn or myself and we will do our best to accommodate you. I hope to see you there!

Curriculum Update:

Literacy

Lots of Literacy learning was happening in our classroom last week! We read the story The Little School Bus by Carol Roth which helped us answer the question, "How do children get to school?" We also began our Fundations program which taught us important practices such as how to hold our writing tools and have proper body posture, as well as how to "sky write" our letters. At the end of the week the students were introduced to the letter "T"!

The students above show off their story sequencing projects! For this project the children had to place each character in the story in order of how they got on the bus.

 Rhyming was another focus of my instruction last week, and the students enjoyed participating in both whole group and partner activities to help practice this skill! We also had a blast making our own Rhyming Dust Bunnies after ready the book with the same title by Jan Thomas. 

Last week we also spent a great deal of time discussing our names. The class enjoyed writing their names using various tools, counting the letters in their names, and making some special name projects!

The students above show off their names and beautiful self portraits after reading the story A My Name is Alice by Jane Bayer. The story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was also great for not only discussing the letters in our names, but also having some hands on fun with letters as well!

The students above worked carefully to stack as many letters on their coconut tree as they can without it going "boom!".

Math

Last week in math we dove into Topic 1 of our Envision program! This topic focuses on counting numbers to 5 and the children participated in many fun games and activities which helped them practice this skill!

Dot Day!

Another highlight of our week was celebrating International Dot Day on September 15th! We marked this day by reading the book The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds and creating our own colorful watercolor dots!

I hope everyone enjoyed taking a peek at our week! I hope you check back soon to see all that is new in the wonderful world that is Room 202! :)