November Reminders!

~November Reminders~

~November Family Projects~ Thank you for sending in your turkeys.  We love sharing the projects.  The turkeys are currently hanging in the kindergarten hallway for all to see!
~Mystery Readers~  A note went home explaining this activity.  During the months of November and December we will have family members coming in to read to the class.  We like to keep it a surprise in our classroom.  It adds to the excitement.  Please try to arrange for someone in your family to participate in this activity.  We have had a few mystery readers so far and the children absolutely love it!  Please let me know if you would like to participate and haven't yet signed up.  
~Family Pictures Wanted!~  Please send in a picture of your family by Monday.  The picture should be 4x6 in order to fit inside a project we are making.  The children love learning about their friends' families.
~50th Day of School!~ Please see the note in your child's folder.  Next Tuesday is our 50th Day of School!  We will be celebrating by dressing up like children from the 1950s.  We will also be working on many different fun crafts throughout the entire day with all of our kindergarten friends. 
~Family Celebration~ We will have a small family celebration on Friday, November 22nd at 12:00 during American Education Week.  You are invited to come in and work on a project with your child and see some of things we are working on in our classroom.  The Book Fair will also be taking place on this day.  This is a great opportunity to shop with your child.  You can also eat lunch with the children at school at 12:50 if your schedule allows for it.  A yellow note was sent home last week.

Word Wall:  We have begun adding 'heart words' to our Word Wall!  We added I, a, & the this week.  We refer to these words as 'heart words' because we do not stretch out the sounds in these words...we have to know them by heart! We will add three new words each week.  

Writing:  We are working very hard on writing 'true stories' during writing workshop.  The children are doing a terrific job adding details to their pictures and trying to write labels and words to make their stories even better!  I am so proud of our kindergarten authors.

Math: We are wrapping up our unit on Ten Frames and are spending some time comparing numbers and groups of objects.  We are focusing on the words greater, more, fewer, and less as we compare different groups. 

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne :) 

Welcome November!

Last week we said goodbye to October with many fun activities.  We had a Fire Safety Assembly where we met some firefighters, a rescue dog, and sat inside real fire trucks.  We also celebrated Halloween with some fun crafts and treats.  Thank you to everyone who sent in supplies and volunteered in our classroom for this event!

The month of November is always a fun and busy time of the year. I will try my best to keep you all updated on the many events taking place.  This Tuesday is our last half day.  Dismissal will take place at 12:10 on this day.  Please send in a note if there any changes in dismissals.  Our class has been doing a terrific job with this!  Tuesday night is Eagle's Silent Auction.  I hope to see you there!  It is a great fundraising event for our school.

Throughout the month of November our kindergarten classes will be learning about families, Thanksgiving, and gratitude.  Below are some projects and activities that we will be working on to celebrate our families:
~November Family Projects~ will be sent home tomorrow.  Please send in all completed projects by November 13th.  We love sharing our projects each month.
~Mystery Readers~  A note will go home explaining this activity.  During the months of November and December we will have family members coming in to read to the class.  We like to keep it a surprise in our classroom.  It adds to the excitement.  Please try to arrange for someone in your family to participate in this activity.  Look for the note in your child's folder this week.
~Family Pictures Wanted!~  Please send in a picture of your family by the middle of next week.  The picture should be 4x6 in order to fit inside of our projects.  The children love learning about one another's families.
~Family Celebration~ We will have a small family celebration on Friday, November 22nd at 12:00 during American Education Week.  You are invited to come in and work on a project with your child and see some of things we are working on in our classroom.  The Book Fair will also be taking place on this day.  This is a great opportunity to shop with your child.  You can also eat lunch with the children at school at 12:50 if your schedule allows for it.  I will send home a note about this event as well.

This week we are reading stories about Mrs. Wishy Washy and learning about the letters Ii, Yy, and Ee.  We will be adding some November poems to our literacy binders too.  We are working hard as readers and writers every day in our classroom.

During math, we have been learning all about ten frames and how they can help us to count numbers.  This week will learn how ten frames can help when counting numbers greater than ten (11-20) too.  We are working with actual ten frames and our Smartboard to help us with our learning.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support!  Happy November :)

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne

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!

All About Apples!

Thank you for coming to our Open House! I hope you enjoyed your time visiting our kindergarten classroom. Below is an outline of what we are working on.

Last week we learned about the letters Aa and Ss. This week we are learning about the letters Dd, Ff, and Bb. We will have three 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. :)

During math, we are practicing counting, writing numbers 1-5, and arranging and rearranging objects to match numbers. 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...  Please send in any Box Tops this week!
         Scholastic Book Orders will be due this Friday!  You can send in a check with the paper or     order online.