All About Farms!

I hope you had a terrific weekend!

Last week we wrapped up our Apple Unit with apple tasting, graphing, and making applesauce.  We learned that our class liked the red, crunchy, sweet apples the best, but green and yellow apples were not far behind.  We had a lot of fun tasting our apples.  On Friday we made applesauce.  We peeled and cut apples, then added sugar, cinnamon, and water to a crock pot for cooking.  All day long our apples cooked in our classroom.  It smelled amazing.  At the end of the day, we were able to eat some homemade applesauce.  Yum!

This week we will be learning all about farms as we celebrate 'Farm to You Fest'.  Please see Eagle's homepage for more information.  This is  a great week to bring in healthy snacks that are grown in gardens and farms to help us with our learning.  Children are also encouraged to bring in fresh fruits and vegetables to help 'squash hunger' all week. 

As readers we will be learning about the letters Nn, Bb, and Ff this week.  We will also be learning more about reading to self and reading with partners each day.  We are working very hard on building our stamina and using whisper voices during reading time.  The children are doing a great job and are truly excited about reading each day.

During math we will talk about reading, writing, and comparing numbers.  Some of the vocabulary we are using is: more, fewer, greater, and least.  We are using dice and many other math manipulatives to help us show numbers in different ways each day.

Reminders:  

~Wednesday is Picture Day!  We will be taking our pictures early in the morning :)  

~Friday is our first Parent Teacher Conference Day.  The children will be dismissed at 11:45 on Friday.  Your child will not receive a report card at this time.  We will use this time to discuss how your child is transitioning both socially and academically and to address any concerns or questions that you may have. Please note that each conference will last approximately 15 - 20 minutes.  

~Our first Family Project will be sent home on Monday and is due Thursday, October 16th.  Have fun working with your family on this!

~Monday, October 13th:  No school due to Columbus Day  

Wishing you all a great week :)

Sincerely,

Eileen Browne

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!

Welcome to Kindergarten! :)

I hope you are having a terrific summer! I can’t wait to meet you and hear all about it! I have been spending lots of time with my four children, my husband, and my dog.  I have also been very busy getting our classroom ready for the school year and planning many fun things to do together.

I am looking forward to meeting you on September 2nd, 3:00 - 4:00. This is a great chance to meet some of your classmates, find your cubby, and drop off your classroom supplies. Below is a list of the classroom supplies that you will need each day!

These items will be community supplies – please do not label with your child’s name: 2 Boxes 24 crayons 12 sharpened yellow #2 pencils 1 Pink Eraser 2 Boxes markers (boys) 2 Boxes colored pencils (girls) 10 large Elmer’s glue sticks 8 dry erase markers 1 4-pack play dough (optional)

Please label the following items with your child’s name: 1 pair of scissors 2 laminated 2-pocket folders (pockets on the bottom) 1 Primary journal (Mead Brand - vertical pages and has primary lines with a place for a picture on each page)

This blog will be updated weekly once school begins. Please bookmark this site and check it throughout the school year. In an effort to save paper, I will not be sending home weekly newsletters.  Thank you for your support.  I am looking forward to a great year!  Enjoy the rest of your summer :)

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)

June 16th

Thank you so much for attending our Kindergarten Graduation.  We hope you enjoyed our songs and treats. The children were super excited and did a terrific job!  They have been singing their little hearts out each day. :)  Also, thank you to all of the families that donated  treats and supplies to make this event special. 

We are truly in the 'homestretch' of the school year.  I am currently organizing pictures and reflecting on the children's work from this year.  I can't help but notice how much the children have grown ~ in every single way!  Some are missing teeth, some have shorter hair and some have longer hair, and they all have simply stretched out and lost that 'preschool baby look'.  These kids are readers, writers, poets, scientists, and mathematicians.  They are loving, kind, polite, and filled with growing confidence.  Please know how very proud I am of each and every child.  They have all come so far since our early days of September and are now ready to rock First Grade!

During our final days we will spend time reading, writing, playing, and getting ready to be First Graders.  Eagle's Field Day is Friday, June 20th.  Please have your child wear his/her orange graduation shirt, socks, sneakers, & sunscreen to school on this day.  Water bottles and baseball hats are also great ideas...especially if the weather is sunny & hot!  The children will participate in many different fun activities during the day.  The main goals are teamwork, cooperation, following rules, and having fun!

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
PS  I hope your families have a wonderful 'Father's Day' and enjoy the project that your child made for your family. 

Welcome June!

Wow!  We are truly getting into the final stretch of our school year.  We still have many fun activities planned to help us learn, play, and grow each day. 

Our graduation t-shirts are here! Please check your child's backpack on Monday for his/her t-shirt.  The children should wear their t-shirts to school on Friday (for Kindergarten Graduation) and the following Friday (for Field Day).  The children are very excited to sing some songs and share some treats next week with family and friends.  Please send back the purple note if you haven't already done so.  It helps us with planning and setting up seating for Friday's celebration.  
 
On Tuesday we will be starting our Kindergarten Countdown to the end of the year. We will have fun counting the last 12 days of school. Each letter in the word KINDERGARTEN will represent an activity for the day.  A copy of the activities for this countdown will be sent home on Monday.  Tuesday is the first day of our countdown.  It will be K day, which will be Kindness Day. We will be showing kindness to our 4th grade buddies by making them thank you cards for a great year! Most of these activities will be done during the school day.  You do not need to worry about sending anything in from home, but we wanted you to be aware of our countdown. Be sure to ask your child all about it!  

Throughout the remainder of the school year we will be reading and learning about different sea creatures.  We will also continue to practice our Heart Words as we read and write each day.  During math we are working on sorting objects and identifying different types of shapes and patterns.  The end of the school year is approaching, but we are still learning each day!

Thank you for all of your support.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne :)

PS...  As the weather gets warmer, please feel free to send in a water bottle with your child each day.  The children may keep their water bottles at their tables.  Please fill all bottles with water only.  Thank you!