Reminders:

November 12: The Outdoor Discovery Center is coming to ZCS to lead our kindergarten class on an outdoor learning experience. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately to spend an hour outdoors.

No bussing dates:

What We Have Been Learning:

Bible: We have read about God’s faithfulness through generations: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Although each of these men were not perfect, they loved and obeyed God and are part of his plan.

Math: We took our first Math test this week. This is an opportunity for kindergartners to show their understanding of the math concepts we have learned this fall (number order and grouping and shapes) and this is also a time to learn to work independently. They did great! We skipped a few questions, so if you noticed something crossed out, it was supposed to be that way. 🙂

Phonics: We learned about the Alphabet Chart this week.

There are many ways to use this chart. Students can say the letter only, make the letter sound, say the picture or all three. This is a good chart to review during the week as we continue to work on letter sounds and letter formation.

Writing Workshop: We are focusing on labeling our stories and checking if our pictures tell the story. I have seen a lot of growth in our writers!

Handwriting: We have practiced O, P, Q and R this week. We noticed that we start at the top when writing letters. Often it is top left, sometimes it is top center.

Daily 5: The class continues to work on writing or read to self as I work in small groups. I love this time with your children!

Word Wall: a, at, go, I, the

Fun News:

Thank you!

Thank you for such a fun and thoughtful birthday celebration. I was actually excited about turning 40. 🙂 Thank you for the perfect gifts and delicious cake. The class especially enjoyed the cake. They kept asking if it was coffee flavored 🙂 It was not.

Reminders:

Please send in washed towels and towel bags on Monday.

We have GYM Monday and Tuesday. Thank you for making sure your kids are dressed for movement.

Great job returning library books! These are due every Wednesday.

October 14 & 18: parent/teacher conferences *in person and in our classroom at the time you signed up for 🙂

October 20-22: No School, Teacher professional development

Looking ahead…

Wednesday, May 11: Preschool Grandparents’ Day
Thursday, May 12: Preschool Grandparents’ Day; half-day of school for Preschool – 8th grade (Tulip Time parade)
Friday, May 13: Y5 – 8th Grandparents’ Day; no school for Preschool, half-day for Y5 – 8th grade

Friday, November 5th will no longer be a ½ day of school, but rather a full school day with students.

What We Have Been Learning:

Monday Special Surprise: We had a visit from the Zeeland Fire Department on Monday! It was so much fun to walk around the fire truck and learn all about the tools fire fighters use while working.

Math: We are working on math stories that involve adding and subtracting. Gather items around your house and ask your kindergartner to tell a math story. 🙂

Writing Workshop: We learned that labeling is helpful to know what something is. We saw labels on our classroom book bins and hooks and tried labeling a few things on our own. First, the class helped label me!

We used sticky notes and figured out the letter for beginning sounds of hair, eye, mask, shirt, jackets, pants, shoes and tag. After that fun, each student labeled something else in the classroom. Our stories are now going to have letter sound labels as well as pictures. We tried out this new way of writing by drawing a picture of our houses and labeling it.

Phonics: we noticed that we say words in parts. We tried listening to how we say things and figured out how many parts (syllables) are in our names. We then counted the syllables in a lot of fall items.

Bible: We read of Abraham’s love for God and his obedience to God’s calling. It would be difficult to move so far like Abraham did, but God kept his promise to Abraham and blessed him with land and a family. God keeps his promises to us too!

Chapel: Wednesday morning we enjoyed outdoor chapel led by the middle school teachers. Ask your child why they showed us pumpkins, gourds, ice-cream, syrup, sprinkles and whipped cream. (each one is terrific on it’s own, but even better all together. Each one of us is created uniquely by God and are special, but we are even better together..using our gifts for God’s glory…created for a purpose! )

Friday Fun: We are going to explore leaves and changing fall colors Friday afternoon.

Reminders:

Please send in washed towels and towel bags on Monday.

We have GYM Monday and Tuesday. Thank you for making sure your kids are dressed for movement.

Great job returning library books! These are due every Wednesday.

October 14 & 18: parent/teacher conferences *in person and in our classroom at the time you signed up for 🙂

October 20-22: No School, Teacher professional development

Looking ahead…

Wednesday, May 11: Preschool Grandparents’ Day
Thursday, May 12: Preschool Grandparents’ Day; half-day of school for Preschool – 8th grade (Tulip Time parade)
Friday, May 13: Y5 – 8th Grandparents’ Day; no school for Preschool, half-day for Y5 – 8th grade

Friday, November 5th will no longer be a ½ day of school, but rather a full school day with students.

What We Have Been Learning:

Daily 5: small groups continue to work with me and the rest of the class is doing well reading independently. Next week we will add work on writing to our Daily 5 time together.

Math: We studied shapes, focusing on building the vocabulary of square, rectangle, triangle, and circle. The class also looked for shapes and then graphed how many shapes were found. We have also been noticing shapes around us inside the classroom and outside.

Phonics: The class helped me write sentences this week about what we do in kindergarten. Each child dictated the sentence and I wrote it down. Later, I cut the sentence into parts and asked each child to put their sentence back together. We noticed the structure of the sentences and focused on each word. Then the sentences were illustrated.

Writing Workshop: We continue to sketch our stories, thinking of what came first, the details (where we were, who was there and what we did) and the end.

Bible: We read the story of the Tower of Babel. We noticed that like Adam and Eve, the people wanted to be like God. They wanted to build the tower by their own strength. We realize that we need God and his amazing power to help us do all things.

The kids worked in pairs to build the tallest tower. After one minute, I asked them to stop and only speak in baby talk or jibberish. We tried to experience what it may have been like to have our languages mixed up and stop our building. 

Handwriting: We practiced K, L and M. M was a little tricky “the school way” but we will continue to work on it.

We enjoyed using our senses to explore apples on Friday! It was fun and tasty. Ask your child how we are like apples.

This week in play memory became a favorite game to play. I always try my best, and the kids almost always win. 🙂

Clark was Up In Lights this week! We enjoy Clark’s ideas and excitement in our classroom. He is a good listener and loves to share his ideas as well. When Clark grows up he would like to have a phone, be a soccer player, race car driver and a dad.  We enjoyed listening to “Parts” when Clark’s mom came in.

Reminders:

Please send in washed towels and towel bags on Monday.

We have GYM Monday and Tuesday. Thank you for making sure your kids are dressed for movement.

Great job returning library books! These are due every Wednesday.

I emailed instructions for parent teacher conferences coming up in October. I also included a link for the questionnaire to help me prepare. Thank you for taking the time to sign up and fill this out. I look forward to our time together!

Book It sign ups were sent home today along with calendars to track your reading. It is a fun way to stay motivated to read to your child at home.  I noticed after the packets were stapled that December ended up before November. Sorry about that! 🙂

Friday, October 8: apple project Would you please send in one apple for your child on Friday, October 8? It can be any variety, but I have to make sure each child has his/her own apple from your house. 🙂 Thank you! 

What We Have Been Learning:

In Daily 5 it has been great to work with a few students while the rest of the class is reading independently. Remember that they are: reading the pictures, reading the words (looking for letters) and retelling the story.

We are beginning to sketch our stories in writing workshop. The first several weeks of school were focused on oral language-telling our stories. Now we are thinking of the pictures in our heads and sketching these out to show the beginning, middle and end of our story. We will work on this for a few more weeks.

In Math we are comparing numbers. We show the value of the number using tiles or blocks. Then we can compare which number is greater and which is less.

In Phonics we are almost finished with our alphabet review! This has been beneficial in learning the sounds of each letter.

In Bible we read the story of Adam and Eve. It was sad when they disobeyed God, but we learned that God had a plan right away. He would send Jesus to take away all of our sins! We also read the story of Noah. His obedience is one to be admired. In a sinful world, Noah obeyed God. God also promised to never flood the whole world again. We recognize the rainbow and a sign of God’s promise. We know that God keeps his promises!

Friday morning we explored the changes God is making in autumn. Please talk to your child about the writing paper we filled out after our walk.

This week we celebrated Brinna Up In Lights! We love Brinna’s friendship in this classroom. We learned that Brinna has a few pets (dogs and a gerbil) and when she grows up she hopes to be a police officer that rides on a horse.