End of October

I am almost complete with progress report testing and am delighted with what I am seeing. Children are really picking up on the necessary kindergarten skills. Just in the past month they have come so far. I can't wait to see each of you at conferences in November to go over progress reports.

We are starting chapter 4 in math next week, which is numbers 0-5. We are also going to be learning about nocturnal animals in science. The kids are having a lot of fun working with our middle school helper in the mornings with sight word and math games. I am really seeing the benefits.

We have been making a lot of class books in our room too. Each one is totally different and each one all of the kids contribute too. We have a book where I took pictures to measure how tall they are compared to paper pumpkin cut-outs, a book based on the children's book "No David", a skeleton book where I took their picture and they manipulated a skeleton cut-out to copy what they were doing in the picture, our version of Mrs. Wishy Washy, and many more. We even have a book by last years kindergarten class giving this years class advice about kindergarten. It's called "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Welcome To Your New Room". My goal is to have enough class made books by the end of the year for each child to take at least one home.

A special thank you to all of my volunteers that will be helping with our party today and to all of the families that sent in stuff for the party. Remember, if your name wasn't on the list, your name will be on a list for an upcoming party. We make gingerbread houses in December and there is a lot of goodies and help required for them. It is so exciting to see the kids understand the interest you are taking in their education. There are so many ways to let your child know that you value their education including volunteering, chaperoning trips, helping them with their homework, reading with them, asking them how their day was, helping with prep work, etc. I know each of you are doing one or many of these because I hear the kids talk about it all the time.

Time to get ready for the day. Hope each of you have a fun and safe weekend!

Conferences, Book Orders, and Parties

Fall conferences are just around the corner. Next week I am going to begin assessing students for the progress reports that we will go over during conferences. We test over many items. Some include Zoo Phonics animal name, sound, and signal (motion that goes with the sounds), name writing (like on homework sheet), number writing to 10 (reversals are counted as incorrect), number identification to 10, comprehension, rhyming, and more. Some of the testing is completed whole group and some individually. Remember, I cannot score your child on how they perform for you at home, only how they perform during the test for me.

Next week you will be getting your November book orders. I am sending out 4 of them instead of just 2. There are some special orders for the holidays and also a math/science order. I thought some of you might be interested. If you are considering buying your child some books as a present, please let me know and when the books arrive I will not send them with your child. I will contact you instead. A huge thank you to all of the parents that are ordering books online. I have earned 4 free books for the classroom so far based on the online orders. I can't wait to do some shopping!

I am still looking for volunteers for our Halloween Party next Friday, October 30th. I have 3 volunteers so far and am hoping for 4-7 to really make sure things run smoothly. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know ASAP. The party will run from 11:50-1:10.

Sorry I missed so many of you at the pumpkin patch. I can't wait to see each of you real soon!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!

This week we took our second math test. The children are really starting to understand test taking procedures. Each child gets their own "office" during test time, which they think is pretty neat. We are now moving to Chapter 3 in math which is all about patterns. During calendar, the children have already learned about AB patterns and AABB patterns, so most of the concepts will already be very familiar to the children.

Our child with the peanut allergy has moved and so we are lifting our "Peanut Free Zone", unless another child moves in with a peanut allergy.

In tomorrow's homework folder I am sending out our class list of what is needed for our Halloween Party on Friday, October 30th. We will have our party from 11:50-1:10. I am looking for volunteers to help out with activities during this time period. Let me know A.S.A.P. if you are able to help out. Not all children were included on the list of things to supply. If your child was not on the list, they will be on a future list.

The weather is starting to get more and more unpredictable. Please, please, please make sure your child is dressed for the weather. We stay inside if it is raining or pouring, but if it is barely sprinkling, the children may be going outside for recess. It is hard to be cooped up all day in the classroom for the children. Also, when the weather gets colder, your child may be sent to sit in the office if they are not dressed for the weather. This is not because they are in trouble, but because we cannot have children outside in the cold with no coat.

I am looking forward to our first field trip tomorrow. I have been talking with the children all week about dressing for the weather tomorrow. I hear it may be raining! I know tomorrow is red and black day for spirit week, but dressing for rain is probably more important since we don't want cold, wet kids in the afternoon.

See many of you tomorrow!

Welcome October

We have been learning a lot about the pumpkins and the lifecycle of a pumpkin in science. We have already learned many similarities between pumpkins and apples and will be comparing them in the coming week on a Venn Diagram. Of course the kids are super excited about our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Don't forget to make sure your child is dressed for the weather that day as we will be coming back to school after the trip and finishing up our day. We don't want any kids in wet clothes for the day because it rained etc.

As with every class I have students of all levels. I have been working really hard to challenge kids that need a extra challenge. Two of my ways of accomplishing this is through our Calendar Math Books and Daily Math Journals. Our Calendar Math Books we complete after calendar each morning. We complete how many days we have been in school, write out the date (eg. 10-10-09), roll 2 dice and graph the total, and pick a domino where we draw the domino on our paper and find the number on a hundreds chart. I would be happy to pull these out at conferences next month and show you. We also do our Daily Math Journal at the end of the day. We are working on addition and subtraction right now as well as one to one correspondence and understanding a number line. I understand that not all children will understand the concepts this early in the year, but all children are able to follow along with me as we complete these as a whole group. We completed our first journal and it went home Friday. The nice thing about both of these books is that for the children that need the extra challenge, they are able to stretch their brains more and can move from recognizing concepts to understanding and applying math skills. For the children that are still recognizing math skills, this will only strengthen their number sense skills, which is a huge focus in kindergarten math and math throughout the grades.

Parkside Elementary has a Lost and Found located on the railing in the office. If your child is missing any articles of clothing, this is the place to look. As the weather is getting colder, children wear their coats out to all recesses and if they are hot at recess, we encourage them to tie their coats around their waist so the coats do not get left outside and end up in Lost and Found.

I have come up with some fun ideas for our Halloween Party this month and will be sending out information soon.

Start of a New Month

October is starting today and I know the kids are excited as I am. They were watching me change the calendar yesterday and already asking important questions like "Are we going to the pumpkin patch tomorrow?" I have been so impressed this week by how independent the children are getting during centers. They really know what to do and are going the extra mile to help each other be successful. Along with the weekly newsletter (the Classroom Happenings section on the homework cover sheet) that is going home this week, there is also a October newsletter from me. Please read both to see what we have been busy doing in September. Hopefully you get a chance to look through your child's work weekly when it is sent home to see how far he/she has already come. Volunteers are coming out of the woodwork! It is a great feeling to know how supportive each family is of their child's education. Have a great first week of October.