More Apple Fun!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend.  Though it feels a bit like summer, we are learning about fall in our kindergarten classroom!

This week we will wrap up our unit on apples.  Please send in 2 apples by Wednesday.  The apples can be red, yellow, or green.  We will be using the apples for graphing, tasting, painting, adding, writing, and making some homemade applesauce in our classroom!  It will be messy, but also fun :)  Thank you for your support in helping us with this unit.

As readers, we are working on what reading looks and sounds like in our classroom.  We are 'Reading to Self'  and 'Reading to Someone/ Partner Reading'.  The children are really doing a great job with this.  We love to spend time reading pictures, words, and retelling familiar stories each day as kindergarten readers.   Practice these skills at home too.   We are also learning about the letters G, I, and T.  Please be sure to check your child's folder to see if he/she is our 'letter expert' this week! Next week we will begin  Kindergarten Reading Logs as part of our home/school connection.

As writers, we practiced writing in our journals and writing what we know.  We spent some time talking about what we are 'experts' at.  This helped us to think of ideas to get down onto paper.  We are experts at swimming, riding bikes, swinging, making cookies, making beds, climbing the monkey bars and so much more!  The children are so excited to begin the process of writing workshop.  We are currently working on using our voices to talk about our ideas, drawing pictures, and adding details.  Some of our friends are writing labels, words, and sentences too!  We will continue writing workshop time each day in our classroom throughout the school year.  :)

During math, we will continue to work on counting, building, reading, writing, and drawing numbers. We are having fun comparing numbers and talking about greater than and less than.  We will use apples this week to create graphs and patterns during work stations and activities.

Our first Scholastic Book Order was sent home last week.  You may order books online by using our classroom code or you can write a check and send in the paper order.  Whichever works best for you is fine with me! :)  I will place the classroom order on Tuesday, Sept. 30th.  The orders usually arrive quickly.

Also, our first Family Project will be sent home this week.  You will have plenty of time to work on it with your family.  Take your time and have fun! :)

I am looking forward to another fun week of kindergarten learning! As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns that you have.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)

All About Apples!

All About Apples!

Thank you for coming to our Open House! I hope you enjoyed your time visiting our kindergarten classroom.  I will try to link the open house slideshow to this blog during the week.  The children are doing a great job and I'm so happy to work with them each day.  Below is an outline of what we are working on.

 So far we have earned about the letters Aa, Ss, Cc, & Mm.  This week we will learn about the letters Dd and Oo. We will have two new 'letter experts' this week to help us learn about our new letters.  Please practice printing these letters and identifying the sounds they make. Be sure to check your child's folder each day. Every child will eventually get the opportunity to help us learn about a letter.  Thank you for your support with this important kindergarten task! :)

We are also continuing to learn about one another as we crown a new child king or queen for the day! We have been having so much fun interviewing our friends and learning all about our likes and dislikes. This is also helping us to learn about our names, how many letters are in each name, and whose name is the longest. We are using unifix cubes to 'build' our names each day. This helps us to compare how long or how short our names are! We are 'sneaking' in some math and counting during our literacy work. :)

As readers, we will begin learning about what reading looks like and what it sounds like in our classroom.  We will talk about the three different ways to read a book: read the pictures, read the words, & retell a familiar story.  We will spend a lot of time practicing working as readers this week.

During math, we are counting, writing numbers 1-5, and arranging and rearranging objects to match numbers. We are also building towers and drawing what we see.  We can move objects around but the number is still the same! Continue to practice counting and printing numbers at home too. Talk about which numbers come before and after a given number. 

During science, we will begin a fun mini unit on apples. We will read many nonfiction books about apples and create several projects to go along with this theme. We will even use real apples for some of our projects. Feel free to send in a picture of your family if you have been apple picking! Write a sentence to go along with the picture and we can share them during this unit.

Thank you so much for your support. We are looking forward to a fun week of kindergarten learning!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
PS    I will send home a  Scholastic Book Order this week.  These book orders are optional.  They have some great titles for discounted prices.  Your purchases help me to purchase books for our classroom as well.  You can send in a check with the paper order or you can order online with a credit card.  Look for the order in your child's folder.  I will place the orders next weekend.       

Our First Full Week!

The children did a terrific job transitioning into our kindergarten classroom on Thursday and Friday.  I was so proud of how well they did, despite the hot weather!  We cooled off with some ice pop treats before before getting on the buses!  We have had a lot of fun so far.

This week we will continue to work hard on learning our routines, learning about one another, and forming friendships in our classroom each day. We read some great books about going back to school. So far we read The Kissing Hand books by Audrey Penn. We even had fun searching our school for Chester, making our very own hand prints, and creating a Chester the Racoon craft during one of our work stations.  The projects will soon be hanging in our kindergarten hallway for all to see!

This week we will begin reading alphabet themed books such as Alphabet Adventure and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! to help us recognize and identify letter sounds.  Each week we will focus on learning 2-3 new letters.  We will begin with the letters A & S.  We will even have kindergarten letter experts to help us learn all about the alphabet.  Be sure to check your child's folder to see when it is his/her turn to help with this important task! 

During math, we will begin using many types of manipulatives to practice sorting and counting each day. We are also learning to recognize and print numbers correctly.  Practice counting during everyday activities at home too.  Make it fun! :)

Thank you for your support as we begin this exciting school year together.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

PS....The PTO would like me to remind families to return the PTO Student Directory forms so that your family can be included in the school directory.  Thank you!