Welcome December!

I hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends.  I was certainly grateful to spend time visiting with some of my closest relatives and friends during our time away from school.

This week we are beginning a fun unit on bears!  We will read some nonfiction and fiction books to help us learn all about bears in our classroom.  We will learn true facts from our nonfiction reading.  We will learn about the different elements of a story from our fictional books:  main characters, settings, problems, solutions, and the big ideas in our different stories about bears.  Be sure to ask your children all about our learning!

This week we will also add three new words to our Word Wall~ 'not', 'to', & 'you'.  We now have eighteen words in all on our Word Wall:  I, a, the, is, me, go, it, and, no, in, at, my, like, will, yes, not, to, & you.  Please practice reading these words at home.  Knowing these words 'by heart' will help your child to begin the process of reading!  We practice our 'heart words' each and every day in our kindergarten classroom.

During math we are learning how to read, write, and count numbers 10 - 20.  Ten frames helps us to count these tricky teen numbers.  We will be using different types of materials to help us with our math learning each day.

Mystery Readers are a huge hit in our classroom.  Please send me an email or a note if you haven't signed up to read to the class and are still interested in participating in this activity.  The children absolutely LOVE it!

Family Project~ This month's family project will be sent home this week.  Please help your child to work on tracing your family members' hands.  Color, decorate, discuss, and write about the special things you do during this time of the year as a family.  Have fun! 

Gingerbread Houses~ Please mark your calendars!  We will be decorating gingerbread houses in our classroom on Thursday, December 18th at 2pm in our classroom.  Please join us for this very messy and fun event.  More information will come home, but I wanted to make you aware of the date.

Please make sure your children have winter clothing for outdoor recess each day!  The children need warm coats, hats, and gloves every day.  On snowy days the children play outside.  Please send in snow pants (they will go home each day) and wear boots.  Sneakers should be packed in your child's backpack.  Sneakers are worn during the school day and boots are worn for outside play!

Thank you so much for your support in your child's learning and play.  I am looking forward to a terrific December!

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne :)

November is a busy month!

This week we are continuing to read about families and about Thanksgiving.  We will compare families from today versus families from long ago.  We will also learn about the first Thanksgiving and about being grateful for all that we have.  This is a busy month filled with many different activities.

Please send in a picture of your family if you have not already done so. The picture should be 4 inches by 6 inches in order to fit inside of our project.

Our Family Turkey Projects are hanging in our kindergarten hallway!  Thank you for sending them in.

Reading Logs are due each Monday.  Please help your child to keep track of his/her reading during the week.  I will send home new reading logs at the beginning of each week.  The logs are double sided in case you need to start a new one or lose track.  Thank you for supporting reading at home! :)

We have some great educational websites that you can use at home.  An updated note listing the sites, usernames, and passwords was sent home last week.  Have fun exploring some of these sites at home with your child.

Our 50th Day of School will take place this Monday!  Please have fun helping your child to dress like someone from the 1950s.  You can google images to find many great ideas :)  We will be sure to take lots of pictures!

Pajama Day is Tuesday!  Our classroom 'warm and fuzzy' jar is all filled up.  The children voted to wear pajamas to school as a way of celebrating the great choices we have been making as a class :)

Mystery Readers!  It's never too late to sign up!  Our first Mystery Reader read to the children this week and the children loved it.  I am still scheduling dates and times as I receive responses.  I will send home notes confirming times along with a form to list three clues about the mystery reader.  The children love guessing who the reader is!  Please think about signing up to read during the month of November or December if you haven't already done so.  We have a little over half the class currently signed up.

American Education Week and the Scholastic Book Fair are this week.  Please return the yellow note to let me know if you or someone in your family will be joining us on Thursday, November 20th.  It helps me to better prepare the children for our activities on that day.  Thank you!

Our new Heart Words on our Word Wall are in, at, & no.  We are working hard on printing letters, words, and sentences each day!  We are also working on reading and writing stories.  We have begun working in small reading groups too! Your child might bring home a book from school in a plastic bag from time to time.  Please return all books the very next day so that other students and teachers can use them.

I'm looking forward to another fun week in kindergarten!  :)

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne

Welcome November!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with family and friends.  The children were so excited about Halloween and trick-or-treating!  I can't wait to hear all about it. :)

During the month of November we will focus on families, being grateful, and Thanksgiving.  We will read and write many stories about these topics.  We will learn about families from today and families from long ago.  Todd Parr is a terrific author and illustrator that will help us with our learning.   We are also continuing to focus on three letters and add 'heart words' to our Word Wall each week.  This week we are focusing on the letters Uu, Ll, and Yy.  Our new heart words are I, me, & go! 

Homework:  Our November Family Project will be sent home this week.  Please return all projects anytime before November 13th.  Also, please send in a family picture by next Monday, November 10th.  The pictures should be 4 inches x 6 inches in order to fit into our projects that we will work on at school.   A weekly reading calender will also be sent home this week and every week.  Please have fun reading with your child each night.  10-15 minutes is all you need! :)  In addition to our reading calendar, I will also be sending home additional math and printing practice for the children.  Please note that these practice pages are optional.  Work at your own pace and return once they are completed.

Eagle's Silent Auction:  Thank you for sending in donations for our raffle basket.  Our Silent Auction is a terrific fundraising event.  I hope to see you there!

American Education Week & our Scholastic Book Fair will take place the week of November 17th.   Parents are welcome to join us at 12:00 on Thursday, November 20th for a classroom activity.  You will also be able to visit the Book Fair at this time.  A note will be sent home this week about American Education Week.

Thank you for your support as we enter into a terrific time of the year! :)

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne