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!