Last Week of October ~

I apologize for the late update.  This is a busy and quick week filled with excitement about Halloween. We are spending time this week incorporating pumpkins, fall leaves, and Halloween stories into all of our learning this week.  We are reading, writing, counting, playing, and having fun with our fall units as we get ready to say goodbye to October this week.

Please note, Thursday is Halloween for many families.  The children do not wear costumes to school, but they are encouraged to wear orange and black or festive t-shirts on this day.  We will have a small classroom celebration for the children in the afternoon.  Please note that only four parent helpers will be joining us on this day to work with the children.  During the months of November and December we will have classroom celebrations where all families will be invited to attend.  I will try to get the dates set soon so that you have time to make arrangements to join us!

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne :)

October 21st!

I hope you all enjoyed another beautiful fall weekend with family and friends.  The weather sure has been cooperative!  Below are some highlights regarding our kindergarten learning.

Parent Conferences:  We will have a half day (11:45 dismissal) this Wednesday for Parent Teacher Conferences.  Thank you to those families that I have already met with.  I look forward to meeting with more families this Wednesday and next Tuesday.

Literacy:  We are working hard in our classroom learning all about what readers and writers do.  As readers we have learned that we can read books in three different ways:  read the pictures, read the words, and/or retell the story.  We have also been practicing 'reading to someone' or 'partner reading'.  We sit side by side, elbow to elbow, knee to knee, book in the middle, so we can both can see!  We are doing a great job spending time with books each day.  As writers, we have begun working on our very own stories.  Just like Donald Crews, we are writing books about transportation.  Some books are about cars, some are about buses, and the list goes on and on.  I am so proud of our growing kindergarten readers and writers.

Math: This week we will continue counting, playing games, reading, writing, and comparing numbers 6-10.  We have been using dominoes, dice, beads, and pipe cleaners to explore numbers in different ways.  We are really excited because our friend Zero the Hero will visit our classroom on Monday.  He loves the number zero and Monday will be the 30th day of school! We will work on using materials to make groups of 10 to help us count to 30! 

Science:  We will continue to explore our Five Senses this week while also learning about pumpkins. We will use our sense of sight, touch, smell, taste, and listening while exploring real pumpkins in our classroom. Thank you to my four parent volunteers for helping out with this fun and messy activity on Friday! We will donate our pumpkins to Eagle's Spooktacular event.

Spooktacular:  Eagle's Spooktacular will take place on Friday 6-8pm.  This is great time for children and families to share their Halloween costumes with their Eagle friends.  We do not wear costumes to school on Halloween, but we can have fun wearing orange and black or festive shirts on this day.

Thank you for all of your support and have a great week!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

October 15th

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend with families and friends.  The weather was absolutely perfect!  Below are some kindergarten highlights.

We have had a lot of fun this past week thinking about the fall season. We can see leaves changing many different colors and falling to the ground.  We can hear the leaves crunch under our feet too!  Last week we went on a leaf walk and used real fall leaves to make leaf projects after reading Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.  Our 4th grade buddies helped us with this fun project.

This week we will be learning about the letters R, 0, and C. We will also begin our handwriting program, Handwriting Without Tears, to help us learn proper letter formation. Please help your child to remember that we always start our letters at the top! 

During literacy, we will start an author study on Donald Crews. We will learn that Donald Crews loves to write books about transportation.  He also draws big pictures and loves to include labels! We will study his books as readers and writers and even make list books of our own during writing workshop. During writing workshop we are learning that some writers use pictures, some writers use words, and some writers use a combination of the two. Please encourage your children's writing skills at home too! 

During math we are practicing reading, writing, and counting numbers 1-10.  We are comparing numbers and practicing putting numbers in order too. We are playing math games and using many hands on materials to help us with our counting each day.

Soon we will begin learning about pumpkins as part of our fall learning.  I am looking for four volunteers to help with a fun pumpkin project on Friday, October 25th. These 4 volunteers will need to provide a medium size pumpkin, carving tools (just to borrow for the activity), a scale, and some newspaper. This project will only be open to the first four volunteers that I hear from. Please email me if you are interested in helping out on the 25th and can provide the above mentioned items. Please note that there will be other opportunities for parents to join us in our classroom throughout the year! 

One last reminder...we will have an early dismissal this Thursday due to parent conferences.  Dismissal will take place at 11:45.  Please write a note and place it in your child's folder if there will be any changes in normal dismissal routines.

Thank you for your support.  I am looking forward to another fun week of kindergarten learning! :)

Sincerely,

Mrs. Eileen Browne

Welcome October!