January Highlights

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend and are staying warm! We have been very busy in our kindergarten classroom and are getting ready for another fun week of learning. Below are some of the things we are working on each day.

Reading: We are doing a terrific job working in small groups and as partners during our Daily Five Literacy block. The children are learning how to use pictures and their growing sight word vocabulary to read short stories. We are currently reading many fun stories about snow, mittens, and hats. We have also been working on various projects that go along with our stories. These projects are helping us to recall the 'big idea' and the sequence of events in each story.

Word Wall: We now have twenty-two heart words on our Kindergarten Word Wall! Each morning we spend time reading and writing these words. We are finding these words in everything we read! :) Our current heart words are: the, no, in, is, I, it, go, me, and, a, at, to, run, my, yes, like, will, see, am, on, we, can.

Writing: As writers we are working on proper letter formation, journal writing, and writing and illustrating individual stories. We write every day and are making terrific progress. This week we will be working on a short book to go along with Jan Brett's The Mitten.

Math: We have been very busy learning all about counting and comparing numbers 1-10. This week we will begin working more closely with numbers 11-20. We will be using many hands on activities and games to help us identify, read, write, and build these numbers.

Reminders:
The January Family Project is due this Wednesday! We have enjoyed sharing the snowmen that have been sent in so far.
Also, please begin looking out for Acts of Kindness. A note went home on Friday explaining this important project.
Lastly, the cold winter weather has arrived! Please make sure that your child has warm clothes for outdoor recess. The children need hats, gloves, winter coats, as well as boots and snow pants on snowy days. Please note that the clothing will go home with your child each day. It is helpful to have a plastic bag for wet clothing so that your child's backpack remains dry. We have been doing a super job getting dressed and keeping track of our clothing so far! Thank you so much for your ongoing support.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

Welcome 2012!

I hope you all had a terrific break with family and friends. Welcome back and Happy New Year! I am in the process of updating our January events so please check back soon! This week we are working on settling back into our daily routines of reading, writing, math activities, and work stations. Two of our friends, Hannah & Justin, have moved to a new house and a new school community in CT. We wish them well and will stay in touch through letter writing. Today we welcomed a new friend, Emily, into our kindergarten classroom. The children were so welcoming and helpful with our new friend! We are looking forward to a great week of kindergarten learning as we begin to read, write, and learn about snow! :)
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

Gingerbread Week!

I hope you had a fantastic weekend. We are gearing up for a fun and exciting week in our kindergarten room. This week we will continue to work on our reading, writing, and math skills each day. We will also be comparing and contrasting many different gingerbread stories as we incorporate this theme into our daily activities. There are so many different fun versions of this familiar story. We are learning that the 'big idea' is the same, but sometimes the characters, the illustrations, and the endings can be different. We love the repetitive words and often join in during read aloud time each day! Try reading some of these stories at home too! We have added two new heart words to our Word Wall: run & see. We thought these were perfect words since we are finding both of these words in our gingerbread stories.

Reminders: Please join us on Thursday, December 22nd at 2:15 to help us decorate our very own gingerbread houses. You may also read some of our stories with your child and take the gingerbread houses home on this day. Thank you so much for helping with the supplies for this fun and messy project! :) Also, we will have a small festive pm snack on Friday, December 23rd during our usual snack time. If you signed up to send in a treat, please drop it off in the main office before 11:30. Thank you for your support during this very busy time of the year.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

Teddy Bear Week!

Our bears survived Teddy Bear Week! We had so much fun learning and sharing our many different stories and activities with our cuddly friends this week. During math, we sorted our bears by color, by size, and by clothes. We also lined up our bears from tallest to smallest and practiced counting in many different ways. During reading, we read stories all about bears. We read both fiction and nonfiction stories to our teddy bears. Some of our favorites were Brown Bear, Brown Bear; Corduroy; We're Going on a Bear Hunt; and the Bear Snores On series. We also taught our bears about our word wall and the twelve heart words that we are learning to read. Our bears helped us to sing some of our letter songs each day too. We ended our bear week with a snack especially for bears...honey combs, goldfish, and teddy grahams. Boy were they hungry today! I'm sure your bears will be very tired from their busy and fun week. They will definitely need a hot bath in the washing machine and some rest!

Have a terrific weekend!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)

Welcome December!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend and are ready for December! This is a busy month filled with report card conferences, collections for the Bethlehem Holiday Food Drive, a December Family Project, Gingerbread Fun, and our classroom holiday party. Please check the side of this blog for important dates to mark on your calendar and feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. I will update our classroom blog during the weekend, but wanted to post our December dates. Please check back soon!:)
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful weekend and are ready for a short week of kindergarten learning.

This week we will continue working on adding heart words (go & and) to our Word Wall and learning about two more letters (Qq and Yy) and their sounds. Our Word Wall Work is helping us as readers and as writers each day!

We will also spend time learning about the first Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, the Mayflower, Squanto, turkeys, and much more! On Wednesday we will celebrate Thanksgiving during snack time with a special friendship salad. Thank you for helping with this activity by sending in fruit on Tuesday. I'm sure we'll have a terrific Kindergarten Thanksgiving.

In addition to our many activities, I am looking forward to meeting with parents to discuss your child's progress in our classroom. Report cards will be uploaded to BC@Home the day prior to your child's conference date. Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

I'm looking forward to another great week and wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne :)

American Education Week!

Welcome to American Education Week! You are invited to visit our kindergarten classroom on Tuesday, November 15th at 11:00. We will be working on an activity to go along with our Thanksgiving unit. You are also invited to go to the Book Fair with your child at 11:40. Our recess time is at 12:00 and our lunch time is at 12:25. Please feel free to come to any of these activities on Tuesday. I look forward to seeing you!

PTO Silent Auction Fundraiser~ Our kindergarten class has teamed up with Mrs. Bogus' kindergarten class to create a basket filled with new small toys for the Silent Auction. Please see Eagle's homepage for more specific information in order to help out with this terrific fundraiser.

Report Card Conferences~ Most days and times are set for our upcoming conferences. Please return the conference form confirmations or send me a note/email if you are unsure of your time. Thank you!

Reading/Writing~ We will work on the letters sounds V, G, U, and X this week! We will also add two more words to our Word Wall. So far our Word Wall has the words a, I, the, & is. The children have been so excited to learn the new letter songs along with our heart words. They are 'spotting' these letters and words everywhere! In writing we are working hard on labeling pictures, adding words to complete sentences, and trying our best to write the sounds that we hear. I'm so proud of the children and their recent efforts to write each day!

Social Studies~ We will begin learning about families and Thanksgiving as part of our social studies unit. This is such a fun time of the year and I'm looking forward to the many different activities that we will work on together. We will be sure to send the projects home before Thanksgiving so that your family can enjoy them as well.

As you can see, we will have another busy week in our kindergarten classroom. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne