Class Updates:
Happy Saturday! First, I'd like to thank you all for the class birthday gift, the individual birthday gifts, and the continued donations from our Amazon Wishlist! A special thank you to Lincoln and Shane (students in our class) for donating books, snacks, and treasure box prizes; we appreciate you! I also received some birthday pencils, cleaning supplies, and breakfast snack items from our wishlist, but I am not sure who they are from. Please let me know if you sent these items; I would love to thank you properly! I feel so lucky to be part of such a thoughtful and supportive class family.
We had a blast during Fun Friday yesterday, and I loved seeing everyone's pajamas! Our class actually had 8 votes for a pajama party and 7 votes for a fun treat during snack; we were split evenly down the middle, so to be fair, we combined both prizes for double the fun! Students also enjoyed some m&m cookies during snack time (students with allergies were provided with Jonny Pops rainbow fruit pops).
This week, students learned how to use iReady on their iPads. iReady is a differentiated learning application to help students develop reading and math skills. Every week, I assign students two reading lessons and two math lessons (students know these as their "blue lessons" because they appear in a blue box) that coincide with their ability level and what they are practicing in small groups. I explained to students that, moving forward, there is a caveat to Fun Friday. I like to emphasize the importance hard work and accountability, and students will have to earn Fun Friday. To earn Fun Friday, students must complete all four of their blue lessons on iReady. If students do not meet their iReady goals, they will not be able to participate in Fun Friday and will be required to finish their classwork instead. I provide ample time throughout the week for students to work on iReady in class, and in years past, most students have been able to meet their iReady goals by Wednesday.
Some students like to practice iReady at home, as well. Students are not required to complete iReady lessons at home, but it is a great way for them to be an active participant in their own learning. On Monday, 9/14, I will send home all students' iReady login cards in their blue folders if they would like additional practice. I like to steer away from iPad-use and screentime as much as possible, so once students complete their blue lessons, iPads are not to be used unless we are in Technology class. The only other time iPads are used is during benchmark testing to keep noise levels at a minimum. If students have completed their iReady lessons, the only app they are allowed to go on is Starfall, which has a bunch of educational games, songs, activities, and books. All students' DIBELS benchmark assessments were completed on Thursday and Friday of last week, so please let your children know we will not be using iPads as much moving forward (students were super excited about iPads, so they may be a little bummed). DIBELS assesses students' early literacy skills, and score reports will be sent home with Q1 Progress Reports or Report Cards and will be discussed during Fall Conferences.
Thank you to everyone that returned the Star Student posters, green Emergency Dismissal form, the blue health card, and the photo release form. If you have not returned any of the aforementioned, please return to school as soon as possible. I was also super excited to see so many students return their practice assignments! Silly Mrs. Hennessy forgot to send home students' reading logs last week, so I will do that on Monday 9/14. Apologies!
Please see below for some additional reminders:
If you haven't already, please opt-in to Room Parent communications throughout the year by clicking here. This is very important!
If you haven't already, please register as a volunteer with CMS and Sharon Elementary. You cannot participate in class/school activities without being registered as a volunteer. You can register as a volunteer by clicking here.
September 15th is International Dot Day! Students are encouraged to wear dots to school on Tuesday, 9/15. Students will also have their Bus Evacuation safety drill at 9:45am today.
Important Dates (upcoming dates for this week highlighted in yellow):
September 13: Mrs. Hennessy's birthday!
September 15: International Dot Day! (wear dots to school!)
September 15: Bus Evacuation Practice (9:45am)
September 21: Teacher Workday (no school)
September 22: Gus the Bus visits Sharon!
September 24: iReady beginning-of-year benchmark testing window opens
What We Learned This Week:
Literacy Module: Students identified four different ways to play nicely together: 1) include others, 2) take care of materials, 3) share, and 4) use kind words. Students also made play commitments, and each student committed to doing one of these four things during playtime. Students learned that a commitment is a type of promise they make and drew their play commitments in their writing notebooks. Students also began learning about toy attributes and how to describe toys based on their attributes. This week, students learned about color and size attributes and played a few rounds of "I Spy" to practice describing toys using only those two attributes.
Skills Block: This week, students learned about short vowel sounds and reviewed all the letters of the alphabet. Students also completed various independent activities, including their iReady lessons, while DIBELS benchmark testing was being administered. We also began a new daily warmup! Every morning we will practice phonological and phonemic awareness skills using the Heggerty Bluebook. These skills will help students manipulate the different sound parts in words when learning to read and spell. We also learned three sight words this week: go, an, and the. Please see below for some videos we learned to help address these concepts:
Math: This week, students practiced counting and recognizing small groups of objects. We also discussed how the way objects are arranged does not affect the amount. The only way to change the amount is if you put more in the group or take some out of the group. The pattern of the objects doesn't matter! We also practiced counting to the decade number 30. Please see below for the video we used to help us count:
Social Studies: This week, students learned the difference between a rule and the law. Rules can look different across different groups (i.e. families, classrooms), but laws are a set of rules that everyone must follow. Like rules, we learned that our community has laws so we can stay safe. Students also learned about Labor Day and completed a follow-up activity where they wrote about what they want to be when they grow up! Please see below the video we watched for Labor Day:
Class Updates:
We had a great first full week together! We learned a lot about our classroom, each other, and had a lot of fun. We also celebrated Penn's birthday on Tuesday! Happy birthday to Penn! Thank you to Penn's parents for sending in a birthday treat (students with allergies were provided with allergy-safe treats). Additionally, thank you to Penn and Hudson (students in our class) for contributing snacks, gifts, and treasure box prizes to our class from our Amazon Wishlist. We appreciate you so much!
Our big emphasis this week was following our classroom rules and being a kind friend. We have shown exceptional classroom behavior, and we almost filled our entire star jar this week! Students have also been working very hard to earn their prize punches and Quiet Critters. To continue learning about each other, we will be starting Secret Student on Monday, 9/14. On Friday, 9/4, I sent home a Star Student poster. I encourage you and your children to work on this poster together! We will use the information on these posters as clues to guess our Secret Student, and when it's your child's turn to be Secret Student, I will hang their poster in our classroom. Please return the Star Student posters by Friday, 9/11. Please see below for some additional reminders:
If you have not already done so, please fill out and return the green Emergency Dismissal form and the blue health card as soon as possible. These forms were sent home at Open House in your child's clasped yellow folder. If you need an additional copies, please let me know.
On Friday, 9/4, I sent home a photo release form. I love to take pictures of our class and send to parents, but I cannot do this without your permission. Please note that any pictures I take of your child will only be seen by our class. Our class website is only made public to my students' families for privacy concerns. Secondly, I hold an annual end-of-year celebration at the end of Kindergarten. Sharon does not hold a formal Kindergarten graduation, so I use this as an opportunity for students to "graduate" and move up to 1st Grade. I always feature a slideshow of students from throughout the year, and I would love for your child to be included! Our end-of-year celebration is only open for families of students in our class to attend. Please fill out and return the photo release form as soon as possible. I hope you will grant me permission! As a mom myself, I understand the want and need to protect our children, and you have my word that your child's photo will not be publicly published. All photos remain confidential and only for our class's eyes to see!
On Tuesday, 9/8, students will receive their first practice assignment. These worksheets are not required to complete and return; they are completely optional. However, if students complete and return the worksheet, they will earn a treasure box prize! I will begin by sending one worksheet home per week, but the goal is to build students' stamina to complete three per week! On Tuesday, 9/8, all students will receive their reading log to track the books they read at home, as well. Likewise, when students fill out the front and back of their reading log, they will earn a treasure box prize.
Many families have started to send in spare clothes for their children in the event they may need to change their outfit. Thank you! My intentions were to send a Ziploc bag home this week in students' blue folders, but I have already received so many outfits that I didn't want families to think I hadn't received them. I will go through our class closet, and I will send Ziploc bags home on Tuesday, 9/4 for students whose clothes I have not yet received.
If you haven't already, please register as a volunteer with CMS and Sharon Elementary. You cannot participate in class/school activities without being registered as a volunteer. You can register as a volunteer by clicking here.
Important Dates:
September 7: Labor Day (no school)
September 10: DIBELS beginning-of-year benchmark testing begins
September 11: Star Student posters due back to school
September 13: Mrs. Hennessy's birthday!
September 15: International Dot Day! (wear dots to school!)
September 21: Teacher Workday (no school)
September 22: Gus the Bus visits Sharon!
September 24: iReady beginning-of-year benchmark testing window opens
What We Learned This Week:
Literacy Module: Literacy Module is a time where students practice core speaking, listening, and writing skills. Students will practice these through four different modules. The first module is all about Toys and Play, and this week, students have been practicing using kind words and sharing during social interactions. We also read the book Llama Llama Time to Share. We practiced identifying the characters in the story, using the illustrations to help us understand the context of the story, and discussed why Llama Llama changed his mind about sharing. We had some very productive conversations!
Skills Block: Skills Block is a time where students practice reading and spelling skills. Skills Block consists of a whole-group lesson, which addresses Kindergarten benchmark standards, and small-group time. Small-group lessons are tailored to what each individual student needs to practice. Some students may need extra practice with letter-sound correspondence while others be may ready for decoding and sentence writing. I have four reading groups, and students are grouped by ability level (no more than 5 students per group), and each group practices skills that their specific group is ready for. While I work with one group, the other three groups are working independently to practice a previously taught skill. Benchmark testing begins next week, and I like to make reading groups when testing is complete. Thus, students practiced working in small groups this week on some of the small-group activities they will be using. Our whole-group lesson this week addressed misconceptions with letter sounds. We also practiced identifying how our mouth looks and feels when saying certain sounds. We also learned three sight words this week: a, me, and I. We discussed how a and I are also letters, but I is only a word when it is uppercase. Please see below for some videos we learned to help address these concepts:
Math: This week, students had the opportunity to explore and build with various math manipulatives we will be using this year. Students explored connecting cubes, pattern blocks, two-color counters and 10-frames, and geoblocks. Like Skills Block, I have four leveled math groups. Benchmark testing for math begins on 9/24, so, like Skills Block, students practiced working in small groups on some of the small-group activities they will be using. Every week, we will practice counting to a different decade number. This week, we practiced counting to 20! Please see below for the videos we used to help us count:
Social Studies: Social Studies and Science rotate about every month. Once two units of each content area is completed, we switch. We began with Social Studies and will make the switch to Science in a few weeks! Our Social Studies lessons this week got us thinking about various rules we have in the classroom, school, home, and community. We brainstormed some great safety rules and discussed the importance of why we have rules. The biggest reason we have rules is to be safe! Students did a great job.
Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year at Sharon Elementary! I am so excited to be your child's teacher this year and am very much looking forward to working with everyone! Prior to our first full week with our class, I wanted to provide you all with some important information that will carry us through the first week of school and the school year.
I encourage you all to read and review our Class Handbook, linked here. You can also find the handbook by clicking the "Class Handbook" tab on our class website to refer back to at any point in the school year. In addition, please visit our "Links" tab to refer back to for any and all important links for the duration of the school year. I also encourage you to visit our "Educational Resources" tab to support your child's learning at home.
Please complete the Class T-Shirt form, linked here, by Monday, 8/31. All class shirts are free of charge and provided by the PTA. Class shirts are to be worn on class field trips, spirit days, pep rallies, Field Day, and the June Jamboree. Our class color this year will be neon green!
Please complete all required forms in Infinite Campus, no later than Friday, 9/4. Additionally, please check the contents of your child's clasped yellow folder from Open House. Please fill out and return the Emergency Dismissal form, the blue health card, and the photo release form by Friday, 9/4, as well. Additionally, you will find an accident insurance form; this is optional to complete and return. In your child's yellow folder, you will also find extra blue stickers. Please fill out the blue stickers and have your child wear them to school every day until they run out. You will also find a card rider sign; if your child is a car rider, you must fill out this sign. I recommend writing on the car rider signs with a sharpie or dark-colored marker. You will show the car rider attendants at dismissal the sign, and they will call for your child.
If you haven't already, please download and register with Parent Square to stay updated with Sharon School information. Parent Square is my main line of communication with parents. To join Parent Square, please click here.
If you haven't already, please register as a volunteer with CMS and Sharon Elementary. You cannot participate in class/school activities without being registered as a volunteer. You can register as a volunteer by clicking here.
All students will be given a blue Sharon School folder they will bring home on Monday, 8/31. This folder is to be brought home and returned to school each day. Students will bring home any work they have completed and important forms for parents to review. Students will also keep a reading log in the "Return to School" section of the folder. Although not required, I strongly encourage you all to read with your children daily. Once students fill out an entire reading log (front and back), another reading log will be provided and stapled to the one previously completed. The goal is to read 100 books this year, and students that reach this goal will receive a certificate at our end-of-year celebration and get to choose a treasure box prize. I also send home weekly practice assignments. Please note that all weekly assignments are optional. I do not assign homework, but I do like to send home additional practice for those that may want to work with their children. If students return the practice worksheets, they will get to choose a treasure box prize.
In your child's blue folder, I have placed a Ziploc bag in the "Return to School" section. In the event that your child may ever need to change clothes, I ask that you please place a spare change of clothes (shirt, pants, socks, and underwear) for your child to keep in the classroom in the Ziploc bag and return to school no later than Friday, 9/4.
Please remember to pack your child a snack! We eat lunch at 10:45am, and students are very hungry by the end of the day. I recommend packing snack separate from their lunch because students tend to eat their snack at lunch if everything is packed together. However, in the event that students forget to bring a snack or are otherwise unable to provide one, I always have extra snacks in the classroom.
I highly value and place strong importance on the teacher-family relationship and communication. Families will receive correspondences from me very frequently throughout the school year. Please never hesitate to reach out with any questions, comments, or concerns. You can reach me via email (jennifern.degroof@cms.k12.nc.us) and Parent Square (preferred).
Newsletters will be posted here and on Parent Square every Sunday. Stay tuned for our first "official" newsletter on September 6th!