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.

End of the First Week

I can hardly believe the first week of kindergarten is over! We worked hard to learn how to be at school. Your sweet kids have done so well and worked so hard! Kindergarten is a fun place to be, but it's not like home. We have to be more structured and follow certain rules so that we can all function in our classroom.

Calendar:
Please check out the calendar on the back of your student's folder. It has important dates for the month on it as well as the student's name on the date you signed up to send in snacks. Please remember to send in healthy snack options that feed little brains for learning :).

Book Orders:
Your student will bring home book orders each month. The date they come home and the date they are due back are on the calendar. I always let students know that parents might say "no" this month, and that is ok! Please don't feel pressured to buy anything. I always offer this to parents as it is a great way to build libraries at home with age appropriate books for very little cost. You can order books online by clicking the link to the right of my blog. The code for my class should be listed on the flyer your student brought home. Our class earns free books with every purchase you make, so it is a win-win!

Jackets:
I told my class today that they are welcome to bring in a jacket to keep in their back pack. I keep the classroom on the cooler side to help keep germs at bay. They are welcome to wear their jacket in class if they need to.

Family Crests:
Mrs. Rice sent home their Family Crest assignment yesterday. They are due on Tuesday, September 4th. Please help your child get these done and turned in so that they can share them with the class!

This week has been fantastic! Please email me if you have any concerns or questions!

Wonderful First Day!

We had a wonderful first day of kindergarten! I am so excited to continue getting to know your sweet kids! Today we worked on the rules, transitions, and practicing walking in line. We will keep working on getting to know each other and practicing how to be at school through out the week. I am sorry I didn't get a chance to take any pictures today for the blog, we were too busy! But I know this year is going to be great, our magic play dough said so!

Harvest Festival:Harvest Festival is Monday, October 29th 6:30-8:30 at the Farmstead! We will be having items to raffle/silent auction off as well as one of our Administrators will be kissing the pig at 7:30pm! Admission for this event is discounted to $5.66 per person (plus tax). The Farmstead will donate $1.00 per admission back to our school. If you are interested in donating any items for our raffle or silent auction, please email shereeboothby@visioncsd.org. No food items are able to be accepted. Thank you!

Class DojoBe looking in your child's folder for a flyer about Class Dojo. It is a point system I use in class that helps my students redirect themselves. They hear a specific sound for either a point gained or a point lost and I teach them to self evaluate when they hear either sound to see if it could have been them, and then adjust accordingly if needed. You will get a code for your child that lets you see if they earned or lost any points for that day. Some days they won't have any points because I just can't give points for every little thing :). 

Thank you for entrusting your little one to me this year! I love them each already!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Hello parents and families! I am so excited for this school year! Kindergarten is so much fun and Mrs. Rice and I are looking forward to all the great times we are going to have!

In an effort to make sure everyone is on the same page, I am going to put all the information that I gave you at our meetings in this post. I worry that I didn't tell everyone all the things I was supposed to remember, and some information changed after I already met with some of you. Please read through this blog and email me with any questions or concerns!


First Day of School:
This is one of the big changes for some of you! Due to our security measures parents will NOT be able to walk kindergartners down to the class on the first day of school. I know this can be difficult and I am sorry. Student safety is our number 1 priority! Between the front doors (where you will drop your student off at) and my classroom door there are 5-6 adults stationed looking for the little ones and ready to help them to class. Older siblings may also walk them to class. Hopefully because they have been here for pre-screeners, Meet the Teacher Night, and our beginning of the year meetings, your kiddo will feel confident and ready to come to school!!

Me Bag:
I gave your student their "Me Bag" when I met with you this week. I explained everything to them, but I figured I would let you know a few pointers as well :). Everything they bring (a max. of 5 items) should fit in the bag. These bags may stay at school a week or two so don't send anything that is super important to them! They can draw a picture or take a picture of an item that needs to stay home or won't fit. They will be sharing these with the class so having them practice at home first might be a good idea :).

Take Home Folders:
One of the things we emphasize with the kids is that their take home folder is THEIR responsibility, not the parent's. Please encourage them to take charge of their folder. This is one small step of teaching them responsibility. Part of that is taking care of the folder so that it lasts all year. If it is treated well, this folder should work well the whole school year! If it is lost or broken, we don't have any replacements because they are pretty expensive.

Snacks:
Thank you to everyone who signed up for a day to bring in snacks! Keep an eye on the calendar on the back of your student's folder, I will put your student's name on the date you are signed up to bring snacks in. We currently have 23 students.

Please send in healthier snacks. Our goal is to feed our brains, not just our bellies. No fruit snacks or sugary options please.

Water Bottles:
We encourage kids to bring water bottles to school! If you send them on Monday, we will send them back home on Friday to be washed. We don't like to send kiddos into the hall to get drinks if we don't have to and cups get spilled on our work :). If you don't have a water bottle with a lid that doesn't leak, and you don't have a way to get one, please let me know and I will help you out!

Transportation Changes:
If your student will be going home a different way than usual, please call the school office at 208-455-9220 or email Mrs. Brown at crystalbrown@visioncsd.org . It is best if all route changes come through the office.

Lunch:
Your student will be eating lunch in the classroom at 10:45. Please make sure that if they bring a lunch from home it is something they can just take out and eat. We don't have the ability to reheat anything for them.

Volunteering:
We will start coordinating our weekly volunteers for centers in a couple of weeks. We work hard to establish our classroom routine before we have parents in our classroom.  I have already found a Room Mom who will work to plan our class parties, but she will need helpers! If you would like to help with class parties please email me and let me know. I will put together a list of your names and contact info to share with our Room Mom.

Daily Schedule:
Bell Rings: 8:07
Tardy: 8:10
Lunch: 10:45-11:15
Specials: 11:15-11:45
Dismiss: 3:05

Remember, Mrs. Rice will be with my class until 11:30 when I get here and then she goes next door with Mrs. Harmon's class. Because of this, email is the best way to get in touch with me. I will email you back within 48 hours. This is going to be a great year!