What beautiful weather we are having as we move into the season of fall today!  This week is Ss week.  We will be doing lots of fun activities to highlight this letter sound.  One of the things we do for each letter is draw a picture of an animal that begins with that sound in our ABC drawing books.  This book will come home to you at the end of the year filled with drawings the children and I have done in a "Step By Step" manner.  I lead the children and demonstrate on the Smart Board and the children do their own drawings in their booklets.  The children love producing a drawing that really looks like the animal representing the sound.  When these books come home, you will note, I am sure, the fine motor and visual motor progress your child has made over the course of the year.  We will be making Sticker Snakes, doing a drawing and dictation of what makes us feel Sad and what makes us Smile, a Sand S, and a Silly Socks Day!  Please have your child wear a pair of Silly Socks on Friday.  I will also be introducing a new game that we will play every few weeks for the letter of the week, called "What's In the Bag?.  I will send home a lunch bag on Thursday with your child's name on it.  Please find a small item in your home that begins with the letter Ss.  Please write 3 clues on the index card that is enclosed that tell about the object.  The class will try to guess what is in the bag....this is a great language game that reinforces the letter sounds we are working on. 

In a few weeks we will doing some activities as part of our Human Body unit about our Five Senses and having a Senses SWAP where the children will be visiting other kindergarten teachers, learning about each one.  I will be doing the sense of smell and wonder if any of you have any extracts that are used for flavoring in cooking that you would be willing to send in....I am looking for lemon, banana, peppermint, spearmint, almond, licorice, and the like that the children will be smelling and identifying.  Thanks in advance.

I have sent home the volunteer sign up form, please know that the times may need to be adjusted to meet the needs of the children and class schedule.  Thanks so much in advance for considering coming in -- the children love it when you come in! 

Don't forget the Ice Cream Social on Thursday, September 25th begininng at 4:30--hope to see you all at KES!  Bring your family and friends for this fun event.

Till next time, Cindy

Dear Families,

The first full week of school has almost passed! I cannot get over

how well the children have learned the routines and how easily they have

transitioned to the school setting. There is so much to learn and these

children are practically experts already! The children were involved and

continue to be involved, particularly these first six weeks, in many

activities that focus upon creating our classroom as a community

of learners that cooperate and respect one another. This is in keeping

with our commitment to the Responsive Classroom Curriculum, our school's

underlying social curriculum.

We have a class meeting each morning. This week we will be

identifying our hopes and dreams for the year at school. From these we will be generating our "class and

school rules". This is the way that we "do business" in Mrs. Hayes'

class and at KES. We will be reviewing and revisiting these often.

Please help to reinforce these rules and values at home, as well.

Below are our class and school rules.

We are kind.

We are safe.

We take care of our school and other people.

A classroom focus last week and this will be on learning each other's

names. We will be making "Star Names", "Magic Names", and we will be

involved in compare and contrast activities that

highlight the features of our names. Many more of these activities will

continue throughout next week. I will be sending home a "Friendship List"

which has all the names and telephone numbers of our classmates. Please

send back your student information sheets with all areas filled out so that I

can make sure that your child is included on class lists.

Next week we begin our Phonics and Friends Program. Each week we will

focus on one letter of the alphabet with many learning activities to

support and extend the learning of this letter sound and symbol. Our first letter is Mm. We spend

two weeks on each vowel. You will see some phonics worksheets coming

home. These are requirements of the program. Each week we learn a song

that highlights the letter. The children love these songs and you may

hear them singing these songs often. I send these home with the children

each week. It may be fun for you to keep the songs in a folder and add

each new song to the collection. The children may enjoy looking back from

time to time to sing these phonics songs. I will sometimes send along

"homework" for the children relative to the letter of the week. These fun

activity suggestions are taken from a website and coincide with each

letter. In addition you may see a math activity come home as a "Home

Link". The math activities support our Everyday Math program.

We are beginning to do some "center work" and the children are doing very

well moving through the four stations that have been set up for them.

Centers will become part of our day at school, and be focused primarily on

developing literacy skills. I will need parent volunteers to assist me

with the management of these centers. The more individual help that can

be given to the children while they are doing their "jobs" in centers

leads to greater learning and concept and skill development. I know I

have some willing and anxious helpers. The formal sheet will be sent

home soon, as well as electronically. I will get back to you soon

regarding a time that is convenient for us all.

Our math program is well underway and we are learning the routines of the

weather and calendar, doing some graphing and measurement, as well as

introducing the "materials" and language of math that will be used

throughout the year.

We have several caterpillars, thanks to Donavyn and family, and are anxious to watch them change and grow.

We are keeping track of how long it will take for the butterfly to emerge, and

observing "Metamorphosis" first hand. We are learning a song to help us

understand "metamorphosis" and lots of theme activities are planned. If

your child would like to bring something in for our science table, they

may. Just be sure that anything that comes into school is in a plastic

(not glass) container.

We have been to all of our "specials" and have enjoyed meeting some of the

many "school helpers." We will be starting our classroom guidance

lessons with Ms. Roux, the guidance counselor at the school. The children

already know Ms. Roux, as she makes a point to introduce herself early on in the year to both

parents and students. She will be coming in to the classroom on a once a

week basis for 6 weeks this fall. The focus of her work is geared toward

making friends, identifying feelings, conflict resolution through the use

of "I messages", and the importance of showing caring and kindness to

each other.

Mrs. Mason, the Occupational Therapist, and Mrs. Fornaro, our Physical

Therapist, will be coming into our classroom this afternoon and taking

a peek at our backpacks, speaking with us about backpack safety. We will

also be getting some pointers and help with our pencil grip and holding

our writing tools the "school way". We appreciate these two busy

therapists taking this time to share important information that will keep

us healthy and on the right track in writing.

We will joining with Ms. Todd's third grade class each Friday afternoon

for "Book Buddies". We like to make connections with others in our

school. Ms. Todd and her class are in our village and we look forward to

sharing stories and making friends with our neighbors down the hall. Book

Buddies will begin soon.

We have begun Spanish lessons with Mrs. Kugler and I have included the Spanish vocabulary that we are learning at the end of this message for you to have fun with at home and reinforce the vocabulary we are learning here at school. We will be making up all missed Wednesday classes (due to Early Release afternoons) on Friday mornings.

We have been practicing evacuating the building in a quiet, safe and efficient manner. Today we had our first all school practice (drill). We will be having more practices like this and the alarm will signal us to evacuate soon. This can seem loud to some children, but with reassurance most children do quite well. We do not focus on the reasons why we may need to evacuate, we just feel proud that we can exit the building quickly if we need to.

I will be sending in the Scholastic Book Order at the end of next week. If

you wish to order books, please send the order form and the payment in

with your child.

Toward the end of the month an ICE CREAM SOCIAL will be held at KES--It is a really fun event !! Information will be coming home soon with the children. I hope you all can make it!

I could go on and on letting you know all of the many happenings, events

and reasons to smile, but I should get going....

As always, please let me know of any concerns, questions, feedback,

etc...I will be getting back to you with the volunteer schedule....thanks

for all you do and for all the wonderful supplies that have been donated.

Thanks again for sharing and entrusting your children to me......Letting

them go is a big step!

See you all soon!!

Cindy Hayes

From Mrs. Kugler----Our Spanish Vocabulary