A week in review: September 23-26

We were busy this week in kindergarten! Being that we had only 4 days in our week we had to buckle down and work hard to fit everything in! I am very pleased with how we are adjusting to kindergarten and, not only doing our school work, but also learning how to be a good friend to those around us, all while having fun! (As well as eating a few pieces of candy corn this first week of fall;)

Important dates

  • Tuesday, October 1 Picture Day!
  • Thursday, October 3 Field Trip to DeGraaf Nature Center
  • October 11: No PM bussing
  • October 21 & 22 Parent Teacher Conferences (instructions will be sent out in email or newsletter next week)

Additional Information

Just a reminder to send library books on Tuesday!

Our first field trip is this coming Thursday, please dress your child for any weather. We will be outdoors for most of the trip. I will be sending out an email in the next few days to all the drivers with the information they will need.

Year book pictures are Tuesday! Please turn in picture forms even if you are not ordering. This is the time to order yearbooks! Yearbooks will come out in the spring, but orders go in now.

Curriculum

Bible: This week we studied about Adam and Eve and the mistakes they made and how God had a plan for restoration. We also studied about Noah’s ark and the significance of the rainbow, that God always keeps his promises even to us today. (You should have seen a painting come home with your child’s name painted in rainbow colors.)We also said our Bible verse and next week we will be starting to learn Genesis 8:22, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” We ended our week with the story of the tower of Babel and how we shouldn’t brag about things and how God is always in charge.

Math: This week in math we talked about the circle and found so many things around our room that were the shape of a circle. We also did some simple addition and subtraction with “farm animals” in our room. Ask your child what farm animal they were!

Literacy Centers: This week we continued our study of the letters of the alphabet, working on Nn-Qq. I will soon be sending home alphabet flashcards for you to practice both the names and sounds at home! 

Engaging God’s World: We continued our study of our senses as we explore the world. We had a wonderful time with Melissa from the Outdoor Discovery Center on Thursday. We learned how to make a circle with sticky feet and sticky elbows 🙂 We walked off like a leaf to explore, stopped like a stick and came back to our circle after we called out like an owl. It was wonderful to explore our space down the hill with our senses. We also tasted different kinds of apples and made a graph together of which ones we liked best! Thank you to those who donated apples! Our classroom wouldn’t run smoothly without your help!

Daily 5: This week we continued to work on building stamina. We made it to 10 minutes and each got 10 M&M’s. Next week I would like to see us hit our goal of 12 minutes and I will also be starting to introduce writing to them!

Afternoons: This week we had the chance to do some math and literacy centers which involved playing some fun board games. As always, we enjoyed quiet and play times as well as art and music. An added fun element this week was all school singing at the end of our week! It is always one of my favorite things here at ZCS! Hundreds of children worshipping our God in one place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week in review: September 16-20

This week was another busy one in our kindergarten classroom. From our science explorations, to our study of creation, to assessing all the students on their letter and number knowledge, we have completed our second full and productive week. The students are all adjusting to life in kindergarten and remembering more and more of their daily responsibilities on their own! It has been so much fun to watch their growth from just a few short weeks ago! I am looking forward to the week ahead!

Important Dates

September 27: No school/teacher professional development day

October 1: School pictures

October 3: field trip to Degraaf nature center-9:30-11:00 (plus drive time)

October 11: No PM bussing

Additional Information

Tuesday .. Remember to return your child’s library book if they would like to check out a new one.

A picture form should have come home with your child on Thursday. Our class picture will be taken on October 1st. Make sure to send the form in that day with your child even if you are not ordering pictures. The company needs correct names for the class composite and yearbook.

I sent towels home with some of the students today, please send them back as soon as possible. For those students who were half day today I will plan on sending them home next Friday to be washed.

Thank you to all who signed up to help with our field trip. If you haven’t emailed me yet please lmk how many children can ride with you and how many car seats you have. You will also need to make sure the office has a copy of your current driver’s license as well as a copy of your proof of insurance.

Also, I am still missing a few family photos, if you haven’t turned yours in yet please send it in with your child so we can include them on our family bulletin board.

Curriculum

Bible: This week we studied the seven days of Creation. We also used our own Bibles and read together. On the last day we went outside and reread the entire creation story and looked around at the world God made! We talked about the variety of things God created and how no two things are the same, we discussed how unique we all are and how amazing our God is to create us all!!! What a mighty God we serve!

Math: This week we continued to work on counting. We practiced making groups of things and then did our first page out of our math book, we focused on drawing pictures to represent numbers. In math centers we made play dough “apples” to match the number on the tree, we made towers to represent numbers with unifix cubes as well as doing some dot to dot pages.

Literacy Centers (Alphabet boot camp): This week we continued our study of a letter a day doing the letters Ii-Mm. We are continuing to work on rainbow writing as well as recognizing the letter in text. A huge shout out to those who donated jelly beans, marshmallows and toothpicks. They made the “J” and “M” days a huge success. We used our marshmallows and toothpicks to make different shapes and create some unique shapes of our own. Please continue to review letters and their sounds at home, as we are focusing on recognizing the letters and sounds at school, it is so helpful for this vital information to be reinforced at home. This week I had the opportunity to meet with each child individually to review all of these. It was so helpful to have this time and see where they are to begin the year!

Engaging God’s World: This week we continued to learn about our five senses. We each took a big piece of tape outside and collected some items, from litter to a moth wing, and used our sense of sight, along with a magnifying glass, to make observations about what we found! This week we will be focusing on some of our other senses including taste. If you would be willing to donate a few yellow and green apples please let me know. I have some red ones but I would like to explore the different tastes that each color has and what our individual taste buds like the best!

Daily 5: We are continuing to talk about the three ways to read a book as well as building our stamina. This week we read for 8 minutes while staying in one spot, reading the whole time, not distracting those around us and remaining quiet! Our plan next week is to reach 10 minutes, which will be rewarded with 10 M&M’s! Our eventual goal is to reach 12 minutes!

Afternoons: Our afternoons continue to be such a fun time to watch the students work together. Whether it is math centers, art or play time, they are learning not only to work together but also to have fun doing it! We end every Friday afternoon with kindergarten singing. This takes place in one of the kindergarten rooms and all the kindergarten students come! It is my absolute favorite activity of the entire week; hearing 70 beautiful voices sing Jesus Loves Me in three different languages is incredible!

 

A week in review: September 9-13

We did it! Your children made it through their first five day week of kindergarten and they are all still smiling! As well as myself;). We were so busy diving into our curriculum and still learning the ins and outs of kindergarten! I am so incredibly proud of each and everyone of them and the effort that they bring to school day in and day out! I am looking forward to the week ahead!

Important Dates

 September 20: No afternoon bussing

September 27: No school/teacher professional development day

October 1: School pictures

October 3: Field trip to DeGraaf nature center

Additional information

Thank you to all who signed up for our field trip! We have enough chaperones. If you did sign up could you please send me an email to let me know how many kids would be able to ride in your car.

Towels went home last week for washing. If you still haven’t sent them back please do ASAP! I will be sending them home every two weeks to be washed!

Library is Tuesday if your child wants to check out a new book please make sure they send it back by Tuesday!

Just a reminder, if you haven’t turned in your forms or a family photo yet, get that to me as soon as possible.

If you would like for your child to get hot lunch or milk you may bring money to the office and fill out an envelope or go to this website .

Curriculum

Bible: This week we finished up our study of the Fruits of the Spirit; learning about kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. Faithfulness was a difficult one to understand so we came to the conclusion that it means you can ALWAYS count on God and He will ALWAYS be there! We also are working on our verse Genesis 1:31a “God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.”

Math: This week we worked on shapes as well as one to one correspondence. We were able to do that in our whole group as well as in our math centers. We also finished Anno’s Counting Book and then went outside to draw pictures on white boards to match the number I gave them!

Book of Friends: We continued working on spelling and recognizing our friends’ names as well as learning more about them and finally drawing them. This week we drew our own pictures of Adalynn! After we complete all of our friends the students will bring them home to show you!

Literacy Centers (Alphabet boot camp): This week we continued our study of a letter a day doing the letters Dd-Hh. We worked on the sounds, recognizing the letter in text as well as rainbow writing the upper and lower case letter. I am amazed at how many words the class has been able to come up with that start with the letter we are learning! We will be continuing this next week and I will be adding a few different elements of excitement. If you would be willing to donate a bag of jelly beans for Tuesday or a bag of small marshmallows and a box of toothpicks for Friday please lmk! Thank you in advance!

Engaging God’s World: We learned about our five senses this week! We talked about how many times we use more than one of our senses and sometimes we even use all five at once! We then went to the teacher’s lounge to pop a bag of popcorn so that we could hear, and smell and eventually see, touch and taste a delicious treat! We also talked about how some people don’t have the use of all their senses, such as someone who is blind, and that there are ways they can be helped, such as guide dogs. We decided that we are very thankful for the use of our senses! 

Daily 5: This week I introduced the three ways to read a book 1. Read the pictures 2. Read the words 3. Retell the story. We also started to build our reading stamina. We made it to 4 minutes this week! This means we all had to read quietly, stay in one spot, read the whole time, get started right away and do not bother those around us! I was thrilled with 4 minutes! We are off to a great start!

Afternoons: Our afternoons continue to be busy and full of learning. We enjoyed quiet time, play time, snack, recess, music, art, math centers and kindergarten singing! Play time is such an important part of kindergarten as we are learning not only how to play together but also developing our imaginations!

 

A week in review: September 3-6

It has been a fun first two weeks in Kindergarten! Your children have been so eager to learn and we are having fun doing it. I love to hear their insight, whether it is during news sharing time in the morning, or Bible or playtime. They always have some amazing things to share. We are working hard at learning our routines and respecting those around us. We have come so far in just two weeks!! I am beyond excited to walk with them through this year!!!

Important Dates

  • September 20-No P.M. bussing
  • September 27- No school-professional development day
  • October 1-School pictures-order forms coming soon
  • October 3-Field trip to DeGraaf nature center

Additional Information

We love snack time in our room! One thing that may be helpful is to pack snacks separate from their lunch so they know what to have for snack. Also, remember that we have both a morning and afternoon snack, as some are running out of food before afternoon snack!

For the students who have been at school all day every day I sent their towels home with them to be washed. If at all possible please send it back with them on Monday.

Our library day is Tuesday. If they have their book returned by Tuesday they will be allowed to take another home, if not they will only be allowed to look at the books.

Please encourage your children to play with lots of people on the playground and make new friends. We are working hard on widening our circle of friends!

Our first field trip will be to DeGraaf nature center on October 3. I will be sending out a sign up genius for volunteers in the next day or two.

If you haven’t turned in forms or your family photo please do that this week!

Here is the link for scholastic book orders, they are due on Monday September 9! Our class code is VR38N.

Curriculum

Bible: We began our study of the fruits of the spirit this week. We learned about love, joy, peace and patience. We learned about how God helps us to develop these traits and sometimes they are hard to live out! We talked about how deep the love of God is for us, so deep that He sent His Son to die for us! We also spent time outside to experience the peace God provides. One of the traits that brought the most discussion was patience. Apparently their siblings try their patience;) We will continue our study next week!

We were also able to listen to Mr. McAboy share how we see everything through the lens of God’s Word and he put on different colored glasses to help us understand!

Math: This week we read Anno’s Counting Book and looked for things on each page that matched the number we were working on. For example, on page 4 we looked for groups of 4 things. We then went outside to count things we saw. We also made the discovery that there are lots of circles on the playground, even the tire swing!

Phonics: We started learning the names of our friends and put them in ABC order!

Book of Friends: We will be continuing to work on cutting out and putting our friends’ names on paper and then drawing a picture of them! This week we worked on Mrs. Arnold. It is fun to watch their creative side come to life!

Alphabet boot camp: This is a fun thing we will be working on for the first 26 days of school. This week we did the letters A-C. We will be practicing the sound that each letter represents and then putting a fun letter together, finding the letter of the day and highlighting it in a small book, rainbow writing, and coloring a page. We also have a tub of things that start with the letter and if we finish everything we can draw a picture of something in the tub!

Tour of the school: This week, I’m sure you’ve heard that we had a scavenger hunt looking for Pete the Cat. We read a story about Pete and he left us clues to look for him and he led us all around school. It ended with a fun coloring page he left for us to do!

Afternoons: During our afternoons at school we enjoy quiet time, play time, snack and recess as well as art, music, kindergarten singing and math centers. Our afternoons are packed full but a little bit more laid back! It has been a great for me to interact with the students during a bit more informal time. I am beginning to see all their personalities shine through!