Last week we wrapped up our learning on Bears and began a new unit based on many different gingerbread stories. We will continue reading gingerbread stories all week! There are so many different fun versions.
Reading: We are having fun comparing and contrasting the characters and how the stories end. We have noticed that in each story the 'big idea' is the same...a gingerbread character escapes from the oven and is chased by many different animals and people! In each story we eventually meet a sneaky, clever fox. Will the fox trick the gingerbread character or will the gingerbread character escape?! This is always the most exciting part of each story. So many of the children were shocked when the fox ate the poor gingerbread man! We love chanting the repeating verses that occur in each story. As you can imagine, we are having a lot of fun with these stories. :)
Projects: As part of this unit, we will build gingerbread houses with our 5th grade buddies on Tuesday during the school day. We will decorate the houses on Thursday, December 18th at 2 pm. Please return the green paper and any supplies for our houses to help me plan accordingly. Thank you so much for your support! Also, our December Family Projects are due Monday!
Gingerbread Exchange: Last week the children each decorated a gingerbread man. We sent 24 gingerbread men to 24 different schools in different states throughout our country. We included a letter from our class telling a little bit about class. Soon we should be receiving gingerbread projects from other schools in different states! All three kindergarten classes are participating in this exchange program this year. This means our school should receive approximately 75 projects from schools all over our country! This is a new and exciting project for us. :)
Math: This week we will focus on addition and writing addition number sentences. We have been learning addition skills all year, but this will be our main focus during math activities this week. We will work with many manipulatives to help us practices our addition facts.
Recess: Weather permitting, please continue to send in snowpants, hats, gloves, boots, and warm coats for outdoor recess time. Sneakers should be packed inside your child's backpack each day. Boots are worn outside for play. Sneakers are worn during the school day in our classroom. The children are truly doing a great job getting ready for recess and LOVE playing in the snow together. I'm not sure of the forecast, but the children and I hope we get some more!!!
As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns. I am looking forward to a week filled with lots of fun and energy! :)
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Bears
I hope you all had a great
weekend! This is a busy time of the year for families and for us at
school too! Please be sure to check the important dates listed on the
left sidebar of our classroom blog.
Word Wall: This week we will add three new words:
'run', 'see', & 'can'. The words on our Word Wall are: I, a,
the, is, me, go, it, and, no, in, at, my, like, will, yes, not,
to, you, run, see, & can. Practice reading these words at
home. Can you find them in stories and on signs? You can also use playdough
or magnetic letters to make these words at home. We put each word on a
heart to remind us that we soon we will know all of these words 'by heart'
without needing to stretch out the sounds.
Math: We are continuing our work on teen
numbers. This week we will continue counting, reading, writing, and
searching for missing numbers from parts of a number line. We have also
been busy learning about adding numbers too! We have even talked about double
facts...even though that is really 1st grade work! Our math minds are
thinking all day long in our kindergarten classroom :)
Reading & Writing: We are reading many books about bears.
As we read, we are practicing to 'retell' the parts of the story in the proper
sequence. Using our voices to 'retell' stories is a very important
skill. Try doing this at home too! Talk about the main characters,
the setting, the problem, and the solution as you read each day. Also
discuss the big idea and what happened first (beginning), next (middle), and
last (the end). These skills help us when we are writing stories our own
stories during writing workshop as well! We will continue reading about
bears, but will soon begin comparing all different kinds of gingerbread
stories.
Teddy Bears: We will wrap up our Bear Unit on Wednesday.
Your child may bring in one bear (small enough to fit in his/her backpack) to
school on Wednesday, December 10th. Our bears will help with our
reading, writing, math, and learning throughout the day. Any bears who do
not follow our classroom rules will spend some time hibernating in our cubbies
during the day. Be sure to ask your child how his/her bear did! ;)
Scholastic Book Orders: You many order books online or by sending in
the form along with a check. There are some great book choices. The
children love the Bear Snores On series. I will place all orders on
Thursday, December 11th. This will allow plenty of time for delivery to
our classroom. Please send me an email or a note if you are ordering
books as a gift. I will put the books in a manilla envelope and tell your
child it is 'boring parent stuff' from the main office!
Extra: Our children are very fortunate to be working
with a new friend Tylor from the high school. On Tuesday mornings, Tylor
is working with small groups of children from our kindergarten class. Tylor is
visually impaired and he is teaching the children all about the tools he uses
to help him learn. The children are currently learning about
braille. We are very lucky to be working with our new high school friend.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week!
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Sunday, November 30, 2014
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!
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 :)
Sunday, November 9, 2014
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
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
Sunday, November 2, 2014
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
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
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Pumpkins, Spiders, & Halloween!
I hope you had a terrific weekend. I can't wait to hear all about Eagle's Spooktacular from the children. They were so very excited about this fun event!
Last week we began learning about pumpkins. Thank you to my parent volunteers who helped the children explore pumpkins. We measured, counted, discovered that pumpkins float, and we even scooped out the seeds! It was busy, fun, & messy. This is how we learn best in our kindergarten room! Last week we also met our 5th Grade Buddies. They helped up work on a pumpkin craft activity and then read fall stories to us. We will be working with our new 5th grade friends on most Friday afternoons. Be sure to ask your child about it!
This week we will be busy reading, writing, and creating different projects to go along with some of our fun fall themes...pumpkins, spiders, and Halloween. We will also focus on three new letters: Pp, Jj, & Kk. Our 'letter experts' will help us remember the sounds and proper letter formation during writing activities. The children love this important job!
Please note that Eagle's Silent Auction is coming up! Our kindergarten classes are responsible for putting together a raffle basket filled with Gift Cards. A yellow/golden colored note was sent home earlier in the month. Please send in any gift cards or donations that can be put towards the purchase of gift cards by Wednesday of this week. Thank you so much for your generosity and for supporting Eagle's Silent Auction. It is a terrific fundraising event for our school! :)
November is quickly approaching and is filled with activities! Kindergarten homework (optional) will begin in November. Eagle's Silent Auction, the 50th Day of School, American Education Week, Eagle's Book Fair, and Thanksgiving all take place in November! Please be sure to check the left sidebar of the blog for important dates to remember. Parents are welcome to come into our Kindergarten classroom on November 20th to participate in a classroom activity. A note will be sent home soon! The 50th Day of School is November 17th...We encourage the children to dress like children from the 1950s on this day! A note will also be sent home about this activity, but I wanted to give families some dates to think about :) Thank you so much for your support.
I am looking forward to another great week in our kindergarten classroom. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Last week we began learning about pumpkins. Thank you to my parent volunteers who helped the children explore pumpkins. We measured, counted, discovered that pumpkins float, and we even scooped out the seeds! It was busy, fun, & messy. This is how we learn best in our kindergarten room! Last week we also met our 5th Grade Buddies. They helped up work on a pumpkin craft activity and then read fall stories to us. We will be working with our new 5th grade friends on most Friday afternoons. Be sure to ask your child about it!
This week we will be busy reading, writing, and creating different projects to go along with some of our fun fall themes...pumpkins, spiders, and Halloween. We will also focus on three new letters: Pp, Jj, & Kk. Our 'letter experts' will help us remember the sounds and proper letter formation during writing activities. The children love this important job!
Please note that Eagle's Silent Auction is coming up! Our kindergarten classes are responsible for putting together a raffle basket filled with Gift Cards. A yellow/golden colored note was sent home earlier in the month. Please send in any gift cards or donations that can be put towards the purchase of gift cards by Wednesday of this week. Thank you so much for your generosity and for supporting Eagle's Silent Auction. It is a terrific fundraising event for our school! :)
November is quickly approaching and is filled with activities! Kindergarten homework (optional) will begin in November. Eagle's Silent Auction, the 50th Day of School, American Education Week, Eagle's Book Fair, and Thanksgiving all take place in November! Please be sure to check the left sidebar of the blog for important dates to remember. Parents are welcome to come into our Kindergarten classroom on November 20th to participate in a classroom activity. A note will be sent home soon! The 50th Day of School is November 17th...We encourage the children to dress like children from the 1950s on this day! A note will also be sent home about this activity, but I wanted to give families some dates to think about :) Thank you so much for your support.
I am looking forward to another great week in our kindergarten classroom. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Fall Fun!
I hope you all enjoyed another fall weekend with family and
friends. Below are some
highlights regarding our kindergarten learning.
Parent Conferences: We will have a half day (11:45 dismissal) tomorrow (Monday) for Parent Teacher Conferences. Thank you to those families that I have already met with. I look forward to meeting with more families this week.
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. We are working hard on sticking to one idea and expressing our ideas across many pages
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. On Friday we were really excited because our friend Zero the Hero spent the day with us to celebrate the 30th day of school! Be sure to ask your child about our friend. :)
Science: We will continue to explore our Five Senses this week while also learning about leaves and pumpkins. We will use our sense of sight, touch, smell, taste, and listening while exploring real pumpkins in our classroom. *** I am looking for three parent volunteers to help us with a pumpkin carving experiment this week. We will work on our project this Thursday at 2 pm.*** Please email me if you would like to help us out! You will need to bring in one medium/large size pumpkin along with come pumpkin carving tools. It will be a fun and messy activity that will help us explore our senses while using pumpkins :) We will then 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 to school.
Thank you for all of your support and have a great week!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
Parent Conferences: We will have a half day (11:45 dismissal) tomorrow (Monday) for Parent Teacher Conferences. Thank you to those families that I have already met with. I look forward to meeting with more families this week.
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. We are working hard on sticking to one idea and expressing our ideas across many pages
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. On Friday we were really excited because our friend Zero the Hero spent the day with us to celebrate the 30th day of school! Be sure to ask your child about our friend. :)
Science: We will continue to explore our Five Senses this week while also learning about leaves and pumpkins. We will use our sense of sight, touch, smell, taste, and listening while exploring real pumpkins in our classroom. *** I am looking for three parent volunteers to help us with a pumpkin carving experiment this week. We will work on our project this Thursday at 2 pm.*** Please email me if you would like to help us out! You will need to bring in one medium/large size pumpkin along with come pumpkin carving tools. It will be a fun and messy activity that will help us explore our senses while using pumpkins :) We will then 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 to school.
Thank you for all of your support and have a great week!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne
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