Ms. Curran

The first full week is upon us.  We will be working on class routines and getting to know each other.  We will continue to “open” new materials each day.  We discuss how to use them and how to put them away so we will safely take care of our things.  This week and into next week, we will discuss our hopes and dreams for kindergarten, we will talk about how to take care of each other and our school and then, develop class rules together.   These rules will be hung up in the room.

We will continue to work on getting to know our names.  Sometimes we sing them, we will make them with magnetic letters and we will play some games with them.  We will even look at the different shapes our names make. 

If you have not sent me in a note (or the slip I provided with the orientation packet) about what your child will be having for lunch and snack drinks for the week, please do so.  It makes the morning much easier if I know that they are to buy a snack drink and if they are having hot or cold lunch.  If you need to do this day by day that is fine too, just drop me a note each day. To open the online account for your child’s lunch account, you need their school ID #.  I will send this home this week. If you wish to send money to school for the lunch account, it is helpful to put this ID # on your check and envelop too.

We will be making a puppet of Chester the raccoon from the story the Kissing Hand this week.  We will also begin to do some activities to go along with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom towards the end of the week.  This is a fun book that really helps the kids get excited about letters!

In Spanish class we have learned to introduce ourselves “Me llamo” ( may-ya-mo), to introduce others “Se llama” (Say-ya-ma) and to say hello “Hola”(O-la).  I am sure your children would love to show you what they have learned!

One last thing, most children will be tired and may be even get a little grumpy for a few more weeks.  It takes a little time for them to get use to the school routine. J

Remember, if you have any questions, please feel free to email me, drop me a note, or call.   Thanks so much for your help!

Theresa C.

Phonics and Friends has started…This is M week!  All week we will be working with the letter Mm.  We sang the Mask song today and will continue to sing it all week.  We will practice writing the letter Mm and also be making monkey masks! 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eating the Alphabet, and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carl. 

We have started centers in our room and they seem to be going well.  Although I would love to have parent volunteers for centers, I think I would like to hold off until the week of October 6^th before we start.  The children are just getting use to the classroom routine and to being away from their parents. I want them to feel secure in the school setting so that letting the volunteer parents go when centers are done is not a problem.  The “training” time for volunteers is WEDNESDAY, October 1^st at 3:30.  The original form said Monday the first, but it is a WEDNESDAY.

We started with the Star Student yesterday!  The Star Student will be in charge of all the jobs for that day.  It is going very well.  Please be assured that everyone will have their turn.  We have 18 students so it will take a little while to get through the list. 

In math, we have been working on the number of days we have been in school, the weather and the calendar.  We will be comparing sizes, and looking at patterns.

Our schedule is:

Monday           Spanish and Art

Tuesday           Phys Ed and Music

Wednesday      Computer

Thursday          Music and Phys Ed

Friday              Spanish and Library

Please be sure to have SNEAKERS on Tuesdays and Thursdays

Our letter for this week is Ss.  Once again we have a song for our letter and lots of activities.  We will be making suns and coloring snakes.  You may have noticed last week your child brought home three phonics activity sheets related to the letter m.  They will do this each week with whatever letter we are studying.  It is part of our Phonics and Friends Program.  Last week we wrote about why our mom’s were marvelous (It did not go home…it will be a class book).  This week we will be writing what makes us smile.

The information about pictures went home last week.  If you need another picture form, please be sure to send me a note.  I will collect the picture form and money any time you send it in.  The photos will be taken on Friday, October 3^rd, but we never know exactly at what time.  Please send them dressed in what they are to wear for pictures.  If you would like them to change into play clothes after the pictures just write me a note. J

Wow, time is flying by already.  Last week we worked on the letter Hh and the word is.  We will be introducing sight words on a weekly basis.  This upcoming week is a review week.  We will review the letters Mm, Ss, Ff and Hh this week and also review the word is.  We will introduce the word my.

In math, we have worked on sorting items in different ways, counting to and from 12 and showing numbers on our fingers.  We sorted coins the other day and talked about their different attributes and values.  This week we will be comparing the sizes of items and heights.  We will also make a class telephone book that includes their self portraits.  Please practice your phone number with your child.

Please remember that there is no school on Monday and that Wednesday is a half day.  Thursday is our first field trip.  We will be discussing using our senses in science and this is a great kick off for that.  We will be using our senses to study the surroundings.  This trip will take place in the morning and we will be back in time for lunch.  Please be sure your child is dressed for the weather and for walking outside.  I could use a few more chaperones, if you are able to come please let me know.  (If you checked off the chaperone box on the permission slip, I am planning on you coming and will call you on Tuesday to discuss times to meet us there.)

This week is Tt week.  We will be making tons of teeth and making pictures with toothpicks.

As you already know, we are going on our fieldtrip this Thursday.  Please let me know asap if you are able to join us.  So far I only have two chaperones. 

Your children have been bringing home black and white paper books.  I have asked them to read these books to you at home.  They have read them with me and with a little help from you, they should do a great job! When reading I have asked them to use their finger to “tap” each word.  This helps with one to one correspondence and with left to right directionality.

In math we have been working with patterns and looking for them all around us.  If they wear a pattern to school, I will take their picture to add it to our pattern board.  Shapes have also been a big part of our math this week and last week.  We have been working on the triangle, square, rectangle and circle.  Please continue to count with your child both forward and backward to/from 20.