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: May 28-31

We have arrived at our final week of kindergarten.  It is hard to believe! Thank you all for helping your children to finish strong. We have a fun four days ahead of this week and I can hardly wait! Thank you again for all your love and support this year.

Important Dates:

  • June 3: Water activities day. Please make sure to pack your child an extra set of clothes just in case. There is no need for bathing suits.
  • June 5: Field trip to the Farmer’s Market. It is also wear yellow day!
  • June 5 & 6: No PM bussing
  • June 6: Last day of school

Additional Information:

Please remember, if you haven’t already, to send in a labeled gallon sized Ziploc bag for your child to bring home their items on the last day of school.

On Wednesday we will leave for the Farmer’s Market around 9:30 and arrive back around 12:30. We will also be going to Kollen Park to eat lunch weather permitting.

I will be sending a more detailed letter to those who will be chaperoning.

Curriculum:

Bible: Our latest Bible story was the transformation of Saul to Paul through God’s work in his life.

Daily 5: We are done bringing books home so this week we worked on word families during our Daily 5 time. Please look at your house this week to make sure you do not have any of the Daily 5 books floating around. We are working on putting the leveled library back together.

Phonics: We reviewed onset and rime (beginning and ending sounds in words.)

Writing Workshop: We read the book Should I Share My Ice Cream,< by Mo Willems and then wrote our own summaries of the beginning, middle and end of the book.

Handwriting: We are continuing to work through the lowercase letters.

Math: We worked on recognizing 3-D shapes. I was amazed at how well the students did. They were identifying not only spheres and cubes but shapes such as rectangular prisms and cylinders. Ask them to find some of these shapes at your house, they will love it and you will see how much they know!

PBL: We worked this week on perfecting our presentations for you! Thank you again for all you help and support with this project. I am incredibly proud of how well they did!

Afternoons: In addition to our quiet and play times we also had art, K-5 singing and worked on our PBL projects!!

A week in review: April 22-26

It was another great week in Kindergarten with great weather, which we took advantage of, as we went outside for our playtime for a few days. We also wrote lists of spring things while outdoors one afternoon! The highlight of our week was definitely our trip to Critter Barn and the park. I want to thank all of my wonderful parent volunteers, we absolutely could not have done it without you, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am excited to talk in more detail about it with the kids on Monday! I have included some pictures at the end of this update. I tried to get pictures of each child but that proved to be more challenging than anticipated given the manner in which we were organized into groups. We have lots of things coming up as we close out our last month of kindergarten so continue to watch your emails closely! It is a blessing to be teaching your children!

Important Dates:

  • May 2: Pen Pals Pizza Party
  • May 3: Family Fun Night
  • May 8: Half day for Tulip Time
  • May 9: No PM Bussing
  • May 10: No PM Bussing

Additional Information:

This week we will be starting our ABC countdown to summer. On Wednesday we will have an apple treat (thank you to our parents for signing up to bring apple treats), on Thursday we have bring your favorite bear day and on Friday we will have fun with chalk day!

We will soon be starting a PBL (project based learning). I will be sending information out about this soon and will need some parent volunteers to help us with our research!

From the office:

Continuous Enrollment forms are now PAST DUE. Please make sure you have completed the following for enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year. If you have not completed, please complete as soon as possible.

  • OPTS (One Page Tuition Form): This is the white form with your tuition numbers on. You would have either picked-up from the office or would have received in the mail from us. Please sign and return.
  • Gold Transportation Forms: These would have come with your OPTS. Please sign and return.
  • Continuous Enrollment Form: This is an online form that you would have received in an email on or around March 4th. Please complete this Continuous Enrollment Form.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we studied the ascension of Jesus and worked on a page for our spiritual journals. We reflected on what our Easter memory verse, Matthew 28:5,6 means to us.

Word Wall Word: why

Daily 5: We are continuing to work at our different stations during Daily 5 and have also been practicing our blending cards. Please keep practicing these at home!!

Phonics: We are continuing with words families. This week we did –ip and –ig.  I am so excited as the kids are beginning to come up with words on their own! We also focused on the 2 sounds the vowel A makes.

Math: We finished up unit three and took our unit three test!

Writing Workshop: We worked on answering letters from our pen pals! Next week we will culminate our pen pals unit with our pizza party on Thursday afternoon! Thank you to those who have already volunteered, I believe there is still one spot open to volunteer!!!

Science: Our room got a little loud during science this week as we continued our unit on living things as we studied live worms!!! We discussed how they used their senses to know light and dark and how they move with their bristles as well as how they need to be moist to breathe!

Afternoons: This week we did a writing activity outside one afternoon as the warm temperatures were calling us outside!! We also enjoyed our quiet and play times as well as Daily 5 and our trip to the Critter Barn!!!

2019 Critter Barn

 

A week in review: April 8-12

It was so great to be back with all the students this week after a great spring break. We were able to get back into the swing of things and enjoy some fun things such as the visit from author Kevin Kameraad (ask you kids about his puppets) and our backwards day. I am truly looking forward to the next few months together as we continue to grow and learn we finish our kindergarten year strong! It is truly a blessing to be teaching your children.

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • April 19: All School Chapel 9 a.m.
  • April 26: Field trip to the Critter barn-I sent a sign up genius earlier this weekend! Looking forward to this fun trip and I will keep you posted on any more details as I get them.
  • May 2: Pen pals pizza party- I will be sending a sign up genius out next week for donations and volunteers.

Additional Reminders:

Please remember to pack your child extra snacks. I have had many kids this week telling me they were still hungry and I am quickly running out of my reserve snacks. I think it is a possibility with the weather change that they are exerting more energy at recess and are hungrier than during the winter months!

For our Critter Barn field trip please remember to dress for the weather and dress in clothes that can get dirty! We sometimes aren’t so clean when we get back. Also remember that if you signed up to chaperone the Critter Barn is charging the chaperones $8.

We will be starting a writing unit with Mrs. Bronsink’s class next week and each student will be assigned a student in her class to write pen pal notes to. At the end of this unit, May 2, we will have an English muffin pizza snack in the afternoon. I will be sending a sign up genius next week if you would like to donate items for the pizzas or would like to come in and help us put them together!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we learned about six different parables and finished our parables bag. Please look through these with your kids and have them talk to you about what they learned about God’s kingdom. I think our favorite was the midnight visitor and asking God for what we need.

Daily 5: This week we got back into the swing of things with Daily 5. I was able to meet with most everyone once and we are starting a new writing portion of Daily 5 where we walk around the room and look for bunnies with words on them and write them down. Please continue to work on the blending cards with your kids, this not only helps them with their reading but their writing as well!

Word Wall Word: what

Phonics: For the next few weeks we will be working on word families. This week we worked on the –op and –ot families.

Math: This week we used colored straws to practice finding different ways to make 10 and then wrote out number equations to match. For example 5+5, 7+3 etc.

Writing Workshop: This week we continued to work on making our own small moment stories. For our topic this week we wrote about things we did on spring break.

Science: This week we started our unit on living things. Dominick Terpstra brought in a bird’s nest which opened up our study. We learned some of the characteristics, such as growing and needing food and water, as well as having babies or seeds that make something alive.

Afternoons: This week we had some extra fun surprises in the afternoon, including our ice cream party as well as a visit from author Kevin Kameraad. We also had our normal playtime, quiet time, recess and snacks as well as Daily 5.

A week in review: March 25-28

Our last week of school in March felt like we only had about half of our class due to illness and spring break! Praying that you all have had the opportunity to rest and rejuvenate and spend quality time with your families over spring break! I will also be praying that we have a strong last nine weeks of school before your students officially become 1st graders! How can that be?!

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • April 12: Author Kevin Kammeraad at school – I  have attached a link at the bottom if you are interested in ordering any of his books.
  • April 12: School Auction
  • April 19: All School Chapel 9 a.m.
  • April 26: Field trip to the Critter barn- I will be sending a sign up genius out soon for parent chaperones. The Critter barn has also informed us that they will now be requiring parent chaperones to pay the $7 fee. I wanted to inform you of this before I sent out the sign up.

Curriculum:

Bible: We started our study of the parables and making our parable bags. These are bags where we are making things to fill them with to remind us of each parable we study. This past week we learned about the following parables: The good Samaritan, The Lost Son and The wise man and the foolish man.

Word Wall Word: where (we are continuing working on words that start with the letters wh)

Phonics: This week we worked on listening to words to see if we hear any familiar sounds to help us spell similar words. For example if we know how to spell the word cat we could use that to help us figure out how to spell the word hat or mat.

Writing Workshop: We started putting our small moment stories on paper!

Math: We continued working on teen numbers as well as learning about different ways to make numbers. An example of this would be 4 and 3 make seven but also 5 and 2 etc.

Up in Lights: This week Emily Tubergan was up in lights. Her dad came to share about her and her grandma and brother came and had lunch with her. Her dad also brought her favorite treat, chocolate chip cookies, to share with the class. Emily has such a caring heart and is always willing to help anyone! We are so blessed to have Emme in our class!

Afternoons: This week we were able to do our usual afternoon activities as well as some math centers as well as cleaning out our old books from our book boxes so we can replace them with new ones after spring break!

Kevin Kammeraad Order Form

 

A Week in review: March 18-22

So at the Arnold house we are all into the March madness basketball tournament and having loads of fun with it, and I think in school as well we have hit a bit of March madness! We have been working so hard trying to get as much done as possible, as well as fighting some illnesses, but we are almost there! Spring break is just around the corner. I encourage you to help your child finish this upcoming week strong!

Also, I wanted to let you know that I thought your children did an incredible job at our music program on Tuesday evening. Their joy and enthusiasm is so contagious!

Thank you all for your effort to have them there on time and looking AMAZING!!

Important Dates:

  • March 27: March is Reading: Beach day *dress in bright colors or beachy clothes (no    swimsuits)
  • March 29-April 7: Spring Break
  • April 26: Field trip to Critter Barn-more information coming in the days ahead

Curriculum:

 Bible: This week we concluded our study of the miracles of Jesus, learning about Jesus walking on water, feeding the 5,000 and raising Lazarus to life. I love the discussions we have during our Bible time. The theme with the miracles of Jesus has been a discussion of how amazing our God is! With a God like this we know that we never have to fear what may come!

Word Wall Word: who-we also talked about how the “wh” makes a different sound than just a ‘w.”

Daily 5: We were able to do 6 rounds of Daily 5 this week! We are all becoming better readers and are continuing to learn to use context to help us figure out words we don’t know. We also took a brief break from writing books during our Daily 5 to writing words we saw around the room! The kids did a great job with this!

Phonics: we added –ad to our list of word families and we also listened to words and divided them up to hear the first phonological sound and the string of letters that make the final sound (onset and rime). For instance c –at or  c –ake , then we practiced writing them on our white boards.

Math: This week we have totally focused on our teen numbers. We are working on grasping the idea that the 1 at the beginning of the teen numbers stands for 10!

Writing Workshop: We are continuing to learn about small moment stories and some of their characteristics. Ask your child about my example (hint: Treyton made a really big mess in my kitchen!) We then thought of messes we made and talked with a partner about ideas for our own stories. Next week we will begin the writing process!

Up in Lights: This week Sam DePoy was up in lights. Sam’s mom came and shared about him and his whole family was able to join him for lunch. Sam’s favorite colors are blue and yellow and his favorite song is Hail to the Victors. Mrs. Arnold had a little bit of a hard time with that 😉  Sam has a great sense of humor and we are so blessed to have him in our class!

Afternoons: We were able to enjoy quiet time, playtime, art and recess as well as math centers and Daily 5. One afternoon we also helped the 4th graders with their survey for their annual Market Day!

A week in review: February 11-14

MORE SNOW DAYS!  What a crazy winter it has been! I am praying that we have seen the last of the snow days and we can get into a “normal” routine again. This coming week will still be a bit different being that we do not have school on Monday and I will be gone on Thursday and Friday to watch my daughter at the B1G Championships! I already have a sub lined up and I can assure you she is AMAZING! She subbed last year for me when I went to this meet and the kids absolutely loved her! Also, I wanted to thank all of the parents who chaperoned the trip to For the Kidz gymnastics. We had a great morning! Enjoy your extended weekend!

Important Dates:

  • February 15-18: No School Mid Winter Break
  • February 22: 100 Day
  • February 28: No PM Elementary Bus
  • March 5: Optional Parent Teacher Conferences

A Few Additional Reminders:

100th Day is approaching soon! It is scheduled as of now for February 26. I will get back to you on that. We will be doing lots of fun activities that day to celebrate the number 100! One thing we will be doing is dressing up like super heroes! Mr. McAboy will be dressing up like Zero the Hero that day and surprising us in our room as well! Please feel free to use anything you have at your home to make your child into a super hero, be creative and have fun! Do not stress about this as all of your children are super heroes already! We just want this to be a fun day for the kids!

For those of you who still have students going half days if you want to add any afternoons you may do so this week.

I sent out information regarding signing up for Parent Teacher Conferences this week, if you did not get the link from the office and would like a Parent Teacher Conference please let me know.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we discussed the story of Mary and Martha and how God sometimes likes us to be still and listen to Him.

Word Wall Word: come

Daily 5: In our condensed week I was able to find a time to meet with each child at least once. They should have a new book in their bag again. They enjoy pointing out word wall words when they read! Ask them which ones they see, they love to share! Continue to work on the word wall words and blending cards in their bags as well as any sounds they may not have mastered yet! We are becoming better readers every day! It is so exciting to watch them grow!

Phonics: This week we started learning about word families. We started with the –at family and we will be continuing to work on different families as the year progresses. We talked about going through the letters of the alphabet to see which ones make words when attached to –at.

Writing: We continued on making pattern books. This week we made books that started with I like… We also talked about the direction words go, always from left to right, and once again talked about capital letters at the beginning of sentences and punctuation at the end.

A week in review: February 4-8

Enjoying our picnic.

This winter has been unbelievable! Just as we were starting to get into the swing of things again it hands us a delay and another snow/ice day! Despite the weather we were able to get a lot done this week and are working hard. It is a time of year that we see so much growth! There is an opportunity coming up soon to talk to you about your child’s growth. March 5 ZCS will have optional parent/teacher conferences. If you would like to sit down face to face to celebrate your child please sign up (details coming later on that process). We can talk about your child’s spiritual, emotional, and academic growth. If you receive a personal email from me, that simply means I’d like you to sign up for a conference. This doesn’t mean I am necessarily concerned, but that I feel that face to face time would be good. If you don’t receive an email from me, you may still sign up. More details on all of this will come in the next week.

Our picnic was a huge success. Thank you to all who donated fruit! It was fun sharing our salad together! I hope you all had a good week and here’s to hoping that next week feels a bit more “normal!”

Important Dates:

  • February 11: Field trip: For the Kidz Gymanstics
  • February 13: All School Chapel 9 a.m.
  • February 14: Valentines Party
  • February 15-18: No School Mid Winter Break
  • February 22: 100 Day
  • February 28: No PM Elementary Bus
  • March 5: Optional Parent Teacher Conferences

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for this Monday February 11 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. If you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. I sent home driver’s guidelines for those who are driving us which need to be signed and returned! Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. One other matter of importance is we are in need of car seats so if at all possible if you drive your child to school could you please bring a car seat in for them on that morning or even the day before. That would help us immensely!

We will be starting our new incentive next week. After we fill our jar we will be having backwards day. The kids will be able to wear their shirts backwards, if they choose, and we will be doing our entire day backwards. Starting in the morning by singing our goodbye song!!!

100th Day is approaching soon! It is scheduled as of now for February 25. I will get back to you on that. We will be doing lots of fun activities that day to celebrate the number 100! One thing we will be doing is dressing up like super heroes! Mr. McAboy will be dressing up like Zero the Hero that day and surprising us in our room as well! Please feel free to use anything you have at your home to make your child into a super hero, be creative and have fun! Do not stress about this as all of your children are super heroes already! We just want this to be a fun day for the kids!

For Valentine’s Day we will be having a party from about 11:00-11:45 on the 14th. It would be great if your child brought in valentines to pass out to the whole class (20 students). You do not have to label the “To” section of the valentines just the “From” section. This will make it much easier for the students to hand them out! Also these may be either homemade or purchased, whatever you prefer.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we studied the story about Jesus blessing the children which culminated in saying our verse Matthew 19:14. We also continued learning about the ministry of Jesus with the story of Zaccheus.

Word Wall Word: come; please continue to practice the word wall words in your child’s bag.

Daily 5: This week I was able to meet with each group once. They should all be coming home with one new book to read. As always, continue to listen and encourage them as they read. Also make sure to practice the blending cards. Some children are still not confident with these because they are unsure of a few letter sounds, so keep working on these too!!! These are all such important parts of becoming good readers.

Math: This week we worked together on putting items together to make a new number. We are continuing to add to our knowledge of addition.

Science: We went outside and observed our motion on the playground. Learning words such as backwards, forward, fast, slow, up, down etc. They enjoyed adding to their knowledge of motion.

Up in Lights: This week Colten VanRoekel. His mom and dad and little sister and brother were able to come and share about him as well as stay for lunch. Colten’s mom also brought a treat for everyone and it was delicious! We are so happy that Colten is a part of our class, his kind heart is loved by everyone!

Practicing our ice-skating!

Afternoons: This week we added a fun dimension to our playtime. We worked together to make a skating/hockey rink. This is great opportunity for the kids to use their math, writing and reading skills as we made a concessions stand, skating “plates” with sizes, and shoe lockers. We will continue to make this an option for play as long as we can keep indoor voices while playing “hockey.” 🙂  We also enjoyed our normal recess, snack and art time as well as being able to do a round of Daily 5 when everyone was present!

Working together at our concessions stand.

A week in review: January 22-24

Due to the weather and in service day it was a very condensed week! Wednesday was a bit mind boggling to most of the students. They simply could not believe after only an hour that it was time for lunch! We fit in as much as possible and enjoyed the weather at recess. The snow is always so much fun for them, other than putting all the snow clothes on! I hope you all had a great week and try to stay warm this weekend!

Important Dates:

  • January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz gymnastics
  • February 13: 100th Day
  • February 14: Valentine’s Party
  • February 15-18: No school Winter Break

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. If you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. I will also be sending home driver’s guidelines for those who are driving us which need to be signed and returned! Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. One other matter of importance is we are in need of car seats so if at all possible if you drive your child to school could you please bring a car seat in for them on that morning or even the day before. That would help us immensely! We will also be keeping an eye on the weather. If ZCS happens to have a snow day the field trip will be cancelled and will hopefully be rescheduled. We will also be looking at the roads we will be traveling on to determine if it will be safe for us to travel. Please watch your email on Monday morning.

We only need 5 more “bugs” in our jar to reach our goal for our class incentive. I am anticipating that we should reach the goal by Friday. I would like to plan our picnic for Wednesday February 6. Please let me know if you would be willing to bring some pre-cut fruit in on that morning to add to a class fruit salad for our picnic. Also, please still send a lunch with your child as I will just be adding a snack along with our fruit salad and a drink box! I will send another reminder about this towards the end of the week!

100th Day is approaching soon! It is scheduled as of now for February 13. We will be doing lots of fun activities that day to celebrate the number 100! One thing we will be doing is dressing up like super heroes! Mr. McAboy will be dressing up like Zero the Hero that day and surprising us in our room as well! Please feel free to use anything you have at your home to make your child into a super hero, be creative and have fun! Do not stress about this as all of your children are super heroes already! We just want this to be a fun day for the kids!

For Valentine’s Day we will be having a party from about 11:00-11:45 on the 14th. It would be great if your child brought in valentines to pass out to the whole class (20 students). You do not have to label the To: section of the valentines, but just the From:. This will make it much easier for the students to hand them out! Also these may be either homemade or purchased, whatever you prefer. Leah Russcher’s mom, Lisa will be heading up this party and will be sending out sign ups for volunteers and donations soon! Thank you Lisa for doing this!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we had chapel and were honored and privileged to hear our guest speaker Cleopatra Kennedy. She has been actively involved in the civil rights movement and as a gospel singer. She shared stories of many of her experiences with us and then we were able to go back to class and discuss what we heard. We had a great discussion about how people were unkind but can still be that way today. We talked about being kind to everyone and that often people are unkind because they don’t know and have a relationship with Jesus. It was an amazing time of reflection about the difference Jesus makes in our lives.

Word Wall Word: am

Daily 5: After assessing each child’s reading I have constructed some new reading groups and goals for the kids. Each child should be bringing one new book home with them this weekend. They also should have a bag with word wall words and our new consonant, vowel, consonant cards to help them say each sound and then blend them together to work on sounding out words. Please work on these with your child at home! I will also be sending a Sign Up Genius soon for volunteers to help during our Daily 5 to listen to our kids read and practice sight words.
Math: This week we took a unit review test to see where we are at with simple addition and subtraction as well as the numbers 1-10 and a few new shapes.

Phonics: This week we had picture cards and practiced listening for long vowels and then finding the vowel on our pocket chart. This was helpful for the students as well in reminding them that vowels have 2 sounds unlike consonants.

Writing Workshop: This week we continued with our pattern books, as well as making pattern books in the writing portion of our Daily 5. We attempted to write 4 pages on our own. It is still relatively difficult but we will be working on this for several more weeks. I am encouraging your child to listen for sounds and write what they hear. The perfectionist in many of them makes this extremely difficult. We continue to talk about what matters is not perfection but being willing to try their best!

Up in Lights: This week Lindiwe Weeda was Up in Lights. We loved looking at her baby pictures and are still hoping to have mom come visit as the snow day prevented that! Lindiwe is a blessing to our classroom!

Afternoon: We continued our normal afternoon rituals of quiet time, play time, snack and recess. Also, because we have everyone here on Tuesdays and Thursdays we are now able to add some extra Daily 5 during the afternoon!

A week in review: January 14-18

Kindergarten Days!

It has been another busy and productive week in our kindergarten classroom! We are truly back into the swing of things after Christmas break! We are continuing to work hard while also learning to be good friends and classmates, another very important part of kindergarten! Here are just a few reminders for you. I sent the towels home today to be washed if you could please send them back on Monday. Also library books need to come back on Wednesday for your child to be able to check a new book out. Lastly, I have noticed this week that many students run out of food by our last snack and then they want to share. I am trying to avoid that as there are so many illnesses going around right now. If at all possible throw something extra in your child’s lunch just in case. Thank you in advance for your help with this!

Important Dates:

  • January 21: In service day for all teachers, NO SCHOOL for students
  • January 24: All School Chapel with Cleo Kennedy
  • January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz gymnastics
  • February 13: 100th Day more details coming soon
  • February 14: Valentine’s Party more details coming soon
  • February 15-18: No school Winter Break

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. I believe I have received all my permission slips already, way to go parents! Also, if you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. I will also be sending home driver’s guidelines for those who are driving us which need to be signed and returned! Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. One other matter of importance is we are in need of car seats so if at all possible if you drive your child to school could you please bring a car seat in for them on that morning or even the day before. That would help us immensely! I am so looking forward to this field trip and I am sure the kids will love it!

We have only ten bugs to go in our class incentive jar! When we reach our goal we will be having an indoor picnic. I would like to do a “class fruit salad” for this if you would be willing to contribute some of your child’s favorite fruit please let me know!

One final reminder, there is No School on January 21 as there is a professional development day for the teachers.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we started full swing into our study of the ministry and life of Jesus here on earth. We learned about how Jesus chose 12 disciples and how they picked up everything to follow Him. We also discussed how we are His disciples now and how we can point others to Him by the way we live.

Word Wall Word: and (keep practicing a, at, and, am, go, here, I, is, look, like, me, see the, up, we)

Daily 5: Each child was able to add a new book to their bag this week. Enjoy reading this with them and make sure to send their bag in on Tuesday. In the next few weeks I’m hoping to add some cards with sight words to their bag as well as some cards that will have dots under each letter so they can learn to say each sound slowly and then slide them together to say the word. We will be practicing them at school so they will be able to show you how they work! I am very excited about this!

Phonics: We continued to work on ending sounds this week by playing a game where we matched the ending sound to a letter on the game board.

Math: This week we noticed patterns when we subtracted one. It is simply counting backwards one number. We then talked about how when you add one the pattern just becomes one more. We are continuing to work on simple addition and subtraction with manipulatives. Finally, we learned about a triangle and talked about different things we see that are triangles.

Writing Workshop: Last week we started working on creating pattern books and we will be continuing that over the next several weeks. A pattern book is a book where each page starts with a phrase such as “I like..” or “I see..”. Right now we are simply writing one page on our own but my goal is for them to be able to write a four page book. This week we specifically worked on “finger spaces” between our words as we write.

Engaging God’s World: Gravity was our focus this week. We had so much fun throwing or dropping different sizes and shapes of different items, including a feather, weighted balls, light balls, tissues, paper and pretend block bricks. We learned about the effect gravity has on everything on earth and how whatever we drop always goes down. It was very interesting to see their reactions as they saw the feather and tissue took the longest to drop. Our discussion was amazing and I think we have a lot of mini scientists in our class!

Interactive Read Aloud: We read The Mitten by Jan Brett and sewed a mitten of our own. We learned about sequencing and then retelling the story by putting the animals into the mitten.

Up in Lights: This week Sawyer Ipema was Up in Lights. Sawyer’s mom and siblings came to share about him and his dad came and had lunch with him. We loved looking through his favorite book about dinosaurs and learning from him some of their names. We are so very happy that Sawyer is a part of our class!!

Afternoons: This week we were able to do math centers as well as learn about feelings and that it is ok to be sad or worried or homesick or even to not know how you feel. We also learned that it is ok if your feelings aren’t the same as your friends. We are working on being understanding of the feelings of those around us. In addition we enjoyed our regular play time, quiet time, snack, recess and art!