Week of September 24th

Welcome back from a long weekend! I hope it was restful!

Sight Words:
We have 5 new sight words this week. They are:

1. did
2. get
3. yes
4. can
5. had

Science: 

Last week your student did their investigation on the pumpkin they brought in. They got to choose some seeds and put it in a bag so that we can watch the roots begin to grow! When the roots begin to grow, we will send them home and you are welcome to plant them or toss them :) Here they are in our window!

Transportation Changes:

Please remember that if your child will be going home a different way that usual you MUST call or email the office. Please don't email me on the off chance that I am home sick or haven't had a chance to check my email until the end of the day. Please don't just show up at the end of the day thinking we can just grab them off of the bus, sometimes that doesn't work out and the buses get dismissed before we get to your car. 

School Wide Book Celebration:

Each year our school chooses a book that every grade level will read and celebrate at the end of October. On our Book Celebration Day (October 31st) we will have a party and your student is invited to dress up like a character from the book. No weapons and modesty rules do apply. 

Homework: 

Your student will bring home their 3rd week of homework today. If they have not turned in their homework for the last two weeks, please help them get that in. It is a grade on their report card. I encourage them to keep it in their Home Folder on the "Return to School" side as a safe place. I won't take it out until it is due. 

Week of September 17th

Welcome back to another fun week in kindergarten! This week our kiddos will get to investigate the pumpkins that were brought in. They will count the seeds in their pumpkin and get to plant some of them. I love this time of year!

Discipline Plan:
I wanted to let you know about a slight change in our discipline plan. At the beginning of the year I told you that after 3 Refocus's your student would be referred to administration to handle discipline. That is now changing to 5. Your student will still get a refocus that looks like this when they have been reminded 3 times for the same thing.

We still want to use this with our students because they are meaningful to them and help them understand what the teacher's expectations are. Stapled to the back of it will be an "Incident Report" that looks like this.

You will get a pink and yellow copy home. Please send the pink one back signed and keep the yellow one. I will circle which is which at the bottom to help you remember. These go to the office to be tracked and after the 5th one, administration will step in. This will allow us to do the same thing as the rest of the school, but still have it be meaningful for the kids. Let me know if you have any questions about this.

Reading:
This week in reading we have 4 new sight words and 1 left over from last week. We spend 2 weeks with the word "an" because kiddos want to say "and" and we want to make sure they know the difference. :)

1. up
2. I
3. on
4. a
5. an

Math:

During math this week we will be investigating numbers 0-10. Your student will also be practicing writing their numbers on the back of their homework. 

Homework:

Your student's homework from last week was due today. If they forgot to send that in, please have them send it back in tomorrow. This is a part of your student's grade quarterly. 

Week of September 10th

Welcome back to our first full five day week of kindergarten! Things are going so well here and my class is really doing a great job of figuring out how to be at school :).

Sight Words:
Your student started their first list of sight words this week! We have five words that we are working on. They are:

1. it
2. at 
3. in
4. us
5. an

Later these words will become their spelling words too, but for right now we are just focusing on reading them. Please help your student look for these words in real life! They are always so excited when they notice one of them on a sign or magazine :). 

Lunch:
We are having some confusion with lunch bags. We are teaching the kids let us know if they have a lunch from home or school by having them move a magnet to the appropriate place on the board. Some of them have been confused and don't move their magnet to the school lunch side because they are bringing a lunch box from home that just has a small snack in it. Then we don't get their lunch from the cafeteria on time, and it limits the time they have to eat. If your student is bringing a snack from home, please clarify to them in the morning that it is not their whole lunch and they still need to get a lunch at school. We don't want any hungry tummies!

Science:
Our  class will be starting one of my favorite science units this week! They are going to be learning all about the life cycle of the pumpkin! They will learn fun little songs, make and read books, and draw pictures of the life cycle. Next week they will be planting their own pumpkin! If you are able, please send in a small pumpkin on Monday the 17th. If you are unable to buy a pumpkin, please let me know and we will make sure your student has one here at school! These pumpkins should be about the size of a baseball.

Homework:
Your student is bringing home their first week of homework in their Homework Folder today. I told the kids that they can leave it on the "Return to School" side of their folder and I will leave it in there and collect in next Monday the 17th when it is due. That way it is in a safe place and doesn't get lost. If you do lose it, let me know and I will send another home. :)

Bathroom Use:
Bathrooms are always a new thing for kindergartners. We make sure that they have two scheduled times a day when the whole class goes to the bathroom. We also encourage them to go during their recesses because we walk right past the bathroom on our way out to the playground. If they need to use the restroom during class, they hold up one finger to let the teacher know. We always let them go when they need to, we may have them wait a few minutes if we have two other students out using the bathroom, but let them go as soon as possible. I also remind students to use the restroom at the end of the day before we head out. Please talk to your student about appropriate bathroom behavior and using the bathroom when it is offered. I obviously cannot be in there with my students so I talk to them before they go in about expectations. It's normal for kiddos this age to try to look under stalls or play in the bathroom. We just talk about how that isn't appropriate :).

Week of September 4th

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend with your kiddos! We are back in the swing of things here!

Snacks:
Please make sure you take a look at the calendar on the back of your student's folder to see when you need to send in snacks each month. I have some extras, but not a lot so we could end up in a pickle if you forget to send in snacks on your day. Please try to send in something that feeds our brains (nothing sugary :) ).

Social Studies:
Your student's Family Crest was due back on Tuesday, September 4th. If they did not get that in, please help them to get it done and turned in as quickly as possible.

Art:
This month your student will be learning about the artist Jackson Pollock. They will also be learning about the element "line". They will be doing different activities with that throughout the week!

Character Trait:
This month we are studying the character trait Trustworthiness. Your student is invited to wear blue on Friday, September 7th to show that they are "true blue" trustworthy!

Picture Day:
Your student is bringing home a picture packet in their home folder today. Pictures will be on Friday, September 14th. You can fill out that form and send it back with money, or you can order online and send in the receipt with your student.

Home Folders:
Please help your student remember to bring their Home Folders every day. This is part of our learning Responsibility in kindergarten. I look through them every day to check for notes from you. It is very important that your student bring it to school every day.