Kinder News

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

What a busy week we had in Kindergarten! We were able to have a great field day! The weather held out and we played basketball, velcro tennis, big foot soccer, hopscotch and practiced our hula hoop and jump roping skills. We drew with chalk and enjoyed an extended recess after lunch. A huge thank you to Mrs. Brozek and Mrs. Gazi for helping with set up and keeping the kids moving!

The class practiced their songs for our Kindergarten closing and did a great job adding the finishing touches to their field day tee shirts. We reviewed material in both math and language arts and the children were able to pick some of their favorite centers throughout the week as our countdown to June 4th continues.

As I looked around the classroom this week, I saw such amazing growth in each and every one of the children. We began this year as a Kindergarten class but I believe we are ending this year as a true Kindergarten family. Let this weekly report serve as a very heartfelt thank you to you, the parents, for the sacrifice you make to send your children to ICS. Thank you for entrusting me with your most precious gifts. Field day served as a reminder that the school year is coming to a close and I am so truly thankful to have spent this year with your amazing children

A reminder that Kindergarten closing will be Tuesday, June 4.  The students will wear their regular spring uniforms. The ceremony will begin at 1:00pm in the church.  We will have a regular snack and lunch schedule. Following the ceremony, students and families are invited to return to the classroom to view our end of year slideshow and will then be dismissed for the summer. 

This is our last Kinder News Update. :(

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Best,

Jessica Bennett

May 10, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

 Our Faith Focus: Mary. This week we began each morning with a decade of the rosary. The children were given their class rosaries and we learned that the larger beads were for the Our Father and the ten smaller beads were for the Hail Mary. We practiced saying the Glory Be prayer after each decade. We crowned Mary on Friday in a special ceremony following the May Crowning Mass with the school. We ask Mary to watch over us every day.

The children did such an amazing job with their First Grade Readiness Tests! The sessions lasted about 40 minutes on Monday and Tuesday. We had a chance to move and stretch and extended recess as well. When the results of the tests are calculated you will receive a copy of the final scores.

In math, we reviewed all numbers from 11-20. We used 10 squares and unifix cubes to create towers of ten and count the cubes left over. The class has been practicing following directions and completing work independently.

Skippyjon Jones ushered in dinosaurs with The Big Bones. The children used vocabulary context cards to identify popcorn words and used the magnet letters to copy dinosaur names. Our popcorn word review has been elevated to great heights! We spell, gesture and even change the beginning sound to see what new words we can make. There is even a new gesture for “I am about to switch the sound”.

In science, the children became paleontologists. The children did a great job building homes and placing trees on the blocks rug for the dinosaurs to roam. We also took a dinosaur to lunch in home-living. The children prepared meals based on whether the dinosaur was a carnivore or herbivore. We will continue with dinosaurs next week and dive into fossils in the science table!

I have to do an overall thank you for the wish list items for the classroom! I am completely humbled by your generosity and thoughtfulness!!

Next Week: We will still be reviewing material in math and language arts throughout the week. Students may bring in one special item for letterbox presentations on Thursday and Friday. There are no more homework packets this year but we encourage you to read with your child and keep up the popcorn word practice.

 I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

May 3, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Joy is Good. We know that God wants us to be joyful and we identified many ways we can bring joy to others. The children arranged dominoes to illustrate how just one person’s joy can touch the next person and that joy is passed from person to person. We practiced finding joy in the ordinary and looked for a positive every day. The children did a great job recognizing that a flower will find joy in a rainy day even though we may want to play outside. Jesus wants to take the joy that He has and place it in us. We will continue to choose joy next week as well!

Review work in writing and math continued. Short and long vowel sounds, sentence structure and reading fluency were the focus in our writing center and library. We focused on graphing and used tally marks and pictures to graph information. We completed many “follow directions pages” as a way to practice for the upcoming first grade readiness test. We practiced trying our best and coloring in the circles under the answer we feel was correct.

The Skippyjon Jones series was a fun collection of books by Judy Schachner that helped us identify blends and use context clues for unfamiliar words. The children did a great job figuring out the meaning of many Spanish words. We had so much fun listening to silly voices and clapping along to special parts of each book.

In science, the children became petrologists. The students sorted through and examined a large tray of various rock and stone. They were able to inspect slate, quartz, marble, graphite and granite. We used adjectives to describe the different types of rocks in the sensory table. Ricky the Rock That Could Not Roll reinforced the concept of never giving up.

Next Week: We will continue with beginning and ending blends and the children may bring in one special item for the letter box on Thursday and Friday. We will begin our First Grade Readiness Test on Monday. A good night's sleep and a healthy breakfast is the best way to prepare. We are ready! Our May Crowning is Friday, May 10. All are welcome to attend this very special mass. Our procession will begin out the front doors at 9:45am. There will also be a 12:30 dismissal with CARES running until 4:30pm.

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

April 27, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Life is Good. All life is precious in God’s eyes. This week we explored how we are each unique and special to God. We also revisited the life cycle of the butterfly. When their caterpillar life dies, they will soon have new life as a butterfly. We will have new life with Jesus in heaven someday. We said special prayers for family members, friends and even pets who are now in heaven. The children also turned to their heart rooms to thank God for the many blessings we have in our life. One of these blessings is being able to attend mass as a school community. The children did a wonderful job at the Blue Mass on Friday. I was so proud of them!

In math, we reviewed tally marks and introduced graphing. The children did a great job transferring information and collecting data using the tally charts and pictographs. We also began to review coins and creating equal sets for our first grade readiness test the week of May 6. With 25 days left in Kindergarten, our number train is rolling along!  We are having so much fun with what we have learned!

Leo the Late Bloomer and You Can Do It, Curious George were two books from our language arts program that inspired us to try our best and never give up. The children practiced inference and prediction skills by using what they know along with clues from the stories to figure out the things the author doesn’t say with the words. Long vowel sounds and high frequency words were identified and used in sentences. The children are improving their writing skills every day.

In science, we learned about the different ways we can take care of the Earth every day, not just on Earth Day. Picking up litter, recycling, reusing materials and planting flowers and trees are just a few of the ideas the children came up with. We found many examples of recycled material in the classroom. We use bottle caps, old toys and clear containers to house our manipulatives. We discussed the Earth’s resources and how we can help the planet by reducing, reusing and recycling. Our Scholastic Weekly Reader reminded us of the many uses for trees and the importance of keeping our Earth clean. Trees provide homes, paper, fruit, and oxygen. 

Next Week: We will continue with beginning and ending blends and the children may bring in one special item for the letter box on Thursday and Friday. There is a 12:30 dismissal on Wednesday.

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

April 19, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Celebrating is Good. We thank God that we belong to the Catholic Church and are invited to the mass celebration every Sunday. The children shared the many ways that a family can make Sunday a special day for their family. We learned about the sacrament of Holy Communion and how bread is an important part of the mass. We watched Brother Francis on an animated tour of the parts of the mass and we learned about the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The children even created our own altar in home living complete with a tabernacle.

In math, we finished measurement. We measured by weight, capacity, and temperature. We added words such as heaviest, lightest, between, and coldest to our vocabulary. The children tried to create equal weight by balancing various objects on the scale. How many bottle caps will weigh as much as a glue stick? They also filled containers with bottle caps to test capacity. Will a water bottle hold as much as Ms. Bennett’s coffee cup? Probably not.

Our theme for the Journey’s program this week was sequence. Bread Comes to Life and Pie in the Sky allowed the children to revisit the concept of getting food from plants. Pie in the Sky provided great visuals for bowls, cups and teaspoons.  The children used our math vocabulary to determine which item held the most and which held the least. Thundercake brought so many of our digraphs to the text while emphasizing sequence. The children listened for the th, sh, ch, ph, and wh sounds at the beginning and end of words throughout the book. We even got the recipe for Babushka’s famous thunder cake and I sent home copy on Wednesday if you want to try it.

In science, we journeyed to the rainforest. The rainforest is also a habitat for certain frogs. Our favorite was the red eyed tree frog. The Umbrella by Jan Brett introduced us to the tapir, quetzal, and the kinkajou! The Blue Morpho butterfly, sloth, tarantula, and pink river dolphin were a few of the many animals we learned about this week. Our favorite word, metamorphosis, returned this week while we focused on the life cycle of the frog. Ask your child how a frog is different from a toad!

Next Week: We begin L blends in Language Arts! We have the ICS Talent Show on Tuesday.

The First Grade Readiness Test for all current Kindergarteners will be administered the week of May 6. The test will be segmented over four days for approximately 30-45 minutes each day. The best way for your child to prepare is to get a good night sleep and a healthy breakfast. We will review and practice in class so there is no need for additional “studying.”

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

April 12, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Air is Good. God gives us the gift of air. We cannot see air but we can see what moving air can do. We can feel the wind but we cannot see it, just as we cannot see God but we know He is with us every day. Jesus gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We cannot see the Holy Spirit but it fills us with love and we can see what love can do. We explored this concept by using pinwheels and bubbles too. The Wind Blew gave great examples of what the wind can do and the children had a great time sequencing the many things that flew into the air!

In math, we began measurement. Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni introduced measuring by length. We practiced labeling and organizing items from shortest to longest, and had fun creating shorter and taller towers with unifex cubes. Our math vocabulary included two of our digraphs: shortest and inch. Two books from our language arts program coincided with our math theme perfectly. Someone Bigger and One of Three reinforced the concepts of measurement by size and age. Someone Bigger helped us practice our sequencing skills by following the adventures of a run-away kite. One of Three focused on character traits and we tried to look for clues to identify the narrator of the story. We organized our own families by age using siblings.  We also completed our 100 Popcorn Words for the year! We ended with show, find, over, saw, take.

In science, we focused on eagles. We read, Little Liam Eagle, a book about a young eagle who gathered enough courage to fly out of the nest on his own. We tuned into the Duke Estate Eagle Cam to watch the resident eaglets and see just how big they have gotten. We learned that eagles have talons to catch prey and can see almost one mile. An eagle nest is called an aerie. 

Next week: Our blends of the week will be ph and wh. Letter box presentations will run the same way with one item representing one of the beginning blends.  Next Thursday is our Blue Mass - no gym uniforms please!!  Regular uniforms only!!

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

March 22, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Light is Good. Light is a symbol of God and his goodness. We took this theme and brought it to each area of the classroom this week. Light from the sun casts out darkness, dries the rain after a storm, and helps flowers grow. We learned “This Little Light of Mine” and did a great job!

In math, we finished up time with telling time to the half hour. We even had a few ch-ch-challenges with the quarter hour, too! We marked our classroom clock with minutes in increments of five to make it easier for the children to see what number marks fifteen minutes and forty-five minutes. The hour hand is “in charge” of the inside numbers and the minute hand is “in charge” of the outside numbers. We always say the hour hand’s number first.

In honor of the letter Q, the children began creating a class quilt. The children each decorated nine squares and will use batting to stuff each piece next week. The Quilt Makers’s Journey helped us see how giving to others makes us happy. The rich king only found happiness when he gave away all his possessions. We also welcomed the new season with When Spring Comes. Buds on trees, sprouting gardens, and birds chirping are all signs that spring is here. We are on the lookout every day. Our popcorn words were: going, could, say, or.

In science, we learned about animals that lay eggs. Oviparous was our word of the week! Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones introduced us to the many different animals that lay eggs. Eggs come in different sizes, shapes, and colors too. Turtle eggs are soft and leathery while frog eggs are clear. Fun fact: The platypus and the spiny hedgehog are the only mammals that lay eggs. The students matched plastic Easter eggs with oviparous animal figurines in the science table. They were all hunting to find the platypus. Our “Extraordinary Egg” project is going great! The kids are doing a wonderful job coming up with clues for their classmates. Ask your child if they can remember all the items in our extraordinary egg so far. Our project will be complete next week and all the items will be sent home.

 Next Week: Review Week! Rest mats can be returned on Monday. There will be no letterbox presentations next week and no new homework packet. We have an all school mass on Wednesday and a12:30 dismissal with No CARES. There will be no school on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. There will also be no weekly report next week.

Have a Blessed Easter!

March 15, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Butterflies are Good. The children focused on the life cycle of a butterfly. The butterfly was once a caterpillar inside a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, its old caterpillar life dies. It comes out of the chrysalis with a wonderful new butterfly life. Jesus came out of the tomb with new life. At our sensory table, the children wrapped plastic caterpillars in cotton to show the chrysalis.  They began beautiful oil pastel butterflies that they “paint” with baby oil for the hallway.

In math, we learned how to read a clock on the hour and half hour. The children used small clocks to move the hour and minute hands to match digital times on flashcards.. Clocks and More Clocks reinforced the concept that time never stops. The main character could not understand why the time on the clock in his kitchen was different from the time on the clock in his upstairs bedroom. The children were quick to realize that it takes a minute to go up the stairs so the time will be different by the time he gets there.

We read Jon Muth’s Zen series to celebrate the letter Z. Zen Shorts, Zen Ties, and Zen Socks introduced us to a panda named Stillwater. We also met Koo, Karl, Addy, and Michael. Together, these characters taught us lessons on forgiveness, courage, and generosity. Every day, the children looked forward to listening to the next book. We were also able to watch our favorite characters in the animated show, “Stillwater,” during indoor recess.  Each short episode focuses on an important lesson about values such as humility, dependability, and courage.  Our popcorn words were: long, has, good, help.

In science, caterpillars ran parallel to our religion theme. Metamorphosis was our gold medal word of the week! We learned that caterpillars come in a variety of colors. The black and red caterpillars turn into the buckeye butterfly while the monarch caterpillar is yellow and black striped. Butterflies have their taste buds on their feet! Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert provided beautiful cut paper illustrations for both caterpillars and butterflies. Our own Painted Lady caterpillars spun their chrysalises this week! Now we wait!  We will monitor their metamorphosis and release them in the prayer garden when they are ready to fly.

Next Week: Our last letter of the week is Q!  Last call for Mystery Readers to any family who has not had a chance to come in to read for the class.  Thank you for participating in this wonderful tradition for the month of March! 

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

March 1, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Seeds are Good. The children visited the life cycle of a seed. A seed dies to give a plant new life. Jesus died to give us new life so that we can live in love as Jesus did. The children “planted” beans in paper towels and we hung them in our classroom window. We will be able to see the sprouts appear and watch the new plants grow. We sprayed them with water and the window will give them plenty of sunlight. With sun and water from God, new life sprouts and starts to grow. It Will Be Okay is an amazing book that tells the story of a little seed that is scared of leaving his cozy packet in the farmer’s shed. We learn that the farmer always watches over the seed even in the dark and messy times. God watches over us during the dark and messy times, too. The farmer never wanted the seed to stay in the shed. He wanted him to grow and become a beautiful tree. We must trust in God’s plans for us.

Fractions took over the math center this week. We “sliced” pizza and “cut” vegetables from the garden in the dramatic play area to visualize how two halves and four quarters make a whole. We had many orders of pepperoni pizza to include our letter of the week, too. We focused on identifying equal parts and creating symmetrical shapes. The students practiced recognizing 1/4 as one of four equal parts and 1/2 as one of two equal parts.

The Paper Dragon and The Cookie Fiasco were two of our favorite books that helped us identify conflict and solution in a story. We solved the riddles of the great dragon Sui Jen and we helped four friends split three cookies equally. Our popcorn words were: off, away, just, where.

In science, we learned all about matter. The children explored solids, liquids, and gases through a variety of activities. A solid has a definite shape, a liquid will take on the shape of its container, and a gas will expand to fill a defined area. The children loved going through the scientific method during a science experiment including all three forms of matter.  The class made some very smart hypotheses on what would happen when raisins were put in soda.  Some of the guesses included the raisins getting bigger, the raisins sinking, and the raisins dissolving!  We watched the raisins (a solid) “dance” as they were dropped into a container of clear soda!  These smart scientists were quick to guess that the bubbles in the soda are a gas, and the soda itself is a liquid!

Inspired by Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made Oobleck using cornstarch and water with a drop of blue food coloring. This substance looks like a liquid and acts like a solid to touch. The best part is that it turns to powder and will wash off with just water. One cup water, two cups cornstarch and the food coloring of your choice. Enjoy!

Next Week: Our letter of the week is Y. Letter Box presentations will be on Thursday and Friday. We will be celebrating Read Across America next week.  The vocabulary parade is Thursday 3/7 at 2pm! 

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me!

February 24, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Meals are Good. We began our week with the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes. The Boy Who Gave His Lunch Away is a wonderful children’s book that told the story of Joel, a farmer’s son, who brought bread and fish to hear Jesus teach. Jesus fed the many people who came to see him with just the five loaves and two fish. The children talked about what meal time routines they practice at home. Setting the table, talking about their day and helping clean up were a few of the examples they shared. Bread is also important at mass through communion. We identified the chalice, plate and the Eucharist and learned that the Mass is a holy meal that God’s family shares.

We finished up with coins and we have quite a few Coin Masters in class! I am so proud of their coin counting skills. We also learned about odd and even numbers. The class was quick to associate even numbers with taking our “Two Train.” Children were counting snacks and identifying odd and even numbers of grapes, crackers, and pretzels.

Characters became our main focus this week and we saw how a character can change from the middle to the end of a story. We are always working with our high frequency words and decoding skills. Jack and the Giant allowed us to compare characters from the original story of Jack and the Beanstalk to a wild west version and introduce our upcoming bean project! Our letter of the week brought us a number of books that helped us practice our sequencing skills and look for popcorn words. No Jumping on the Bed and Bread and Jam for Francis were a few of our favorites. Our popcorn words were: had, got, put, came.

In science, we explored magnets and the force of push and pull. The children determined what materials a magnet would attract. Paperclips, a plastic spoon, nuts and bolts, metal cars, blocks and paper were used to see if the magnets would pull. We learned the opposite poles of a magnet and explained how a magnet attracts a metal that is high in iron. No wonder our coins would not stick!

Next Week: Our letter of the week is P. We have the Glow Run on Thursday and we will attend the All School Mass on Friday.

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

February 18, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

We were officially 100 days smarter on Friday! The number 100 was brought into every area of our classroom. The students had to stack 100 cups. We stamped ten gum balls in ten different colors to give us 100 total. Could 100 water beads sink the boat in the sensory table? You bet! The children even took 100 steps which led us to first grade! The first grade students showed the kindergarteners what it was like to be a first grader.  😉

Our Faith Focus this week: Church is Good. This week we learned that the church is not just the building we enter to go to mass. The church is God’s family, the people who gather to celebrate His love for us. We all make up the church. We learned the names for different parts of the church building. The class identified the baptismal font, altar, holy-water font, and crucifix. We concluded this unit with Mass on Friday and got to sing one of our favorite songs, We are the Church.

We concluded our coins unit in math. The class reviewed identification of the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter and assigned value to each. A grocery store was set up in home living in the afternoons to end our money unit. We priced (pretend) groceries to sell. Our prices went up to one dollar. The children practiced picking different sets of coins to add up to the same price. One dime and two pennies will give us twelve cents but so will one nickel and seven pennies. The children continued sorting coins by word, number and value. Our “Buy Me a Quarter” game became “Buy Me a Dollar” with the same directions but used a different ending value.

Sheep Take a Hike provided new verbs in present tense but by providing an example of sink and float as well. The sheep got lost and fell into a river. Their snacks and hats float but their compass sinks! This was a great introduction for magnets next week. The letter W brought us We’re All Wonders and Willoughby and the Lion. These books helped us focus on friendship and individuality. We compared and contrasted the illustrations and characters. We continued using our popcorn words in short sentences and we worked hard to recognize the short a and i sound in the middle of words. Our spelling and decoding skills are getting stronger! Our popcorn words were: every, very, your, did, but.

In science, we began learning about simple machines. The children looked for examples wherever we went. We have inclined panes and a wheel and axel on the playground. In fact, we use simple machines everyday. Forks (wedge), scissors (lever), and the blinds (pulley), make our jobs easier. They recognized the screw tops on our water bottles are simple machines too! The children constructed inclined planes with blocks and cardboard tubing. We placed the inclined planes at different heights to see how the speed of the vehicles would change.

Next Week: Our letter of the week is J. Letter box presentations will be on Thursday

and Friday. There is no school on Monday, February 19.

February 9, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: We concluded our two-week focus on forgiveness. The children identified different feelings and how we can show our feelings in ways that are respectful to others. When we sin against others, we ask them to forgive us, just as we ask Jesus to forgive us when we sin against Him. What Should Danny Do? has been a classroom hit! This “choose your own adventure” story allows the children to see what happens if Danny makes a good choice or a sad choice. Many reward stars were given out to students who made great choices and who used kindness to solve a conflict.

One-Dog Canoe and Atlantic allowed us to look for patterns in a story and identify verbs in the future tense. The children used One-Dog Canoe to compare and contrast characters, setting, and story detail with The Mitten, which we read in December. We also segmented the story into beginning, middle, and end. Our popcorn words were: here, your, an, back, walk.

Coins continued in math. We reviewed identification of the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter and assigned value to each. The children practiced making fair trades and our “Buy Me a Quarter” game was a great reinforcement for trading value up to twenty-five cents. We would roll dice to see how many pennies would start our board and when we got to five, we would trade five pennies for a nickel. We continued rolling until our nickels turned into dimes and our dimes and nickels traded for a quarter. Price tags were given to objects in Home Living and the children counted coins to come up with the correct amount to “buy” these items.

In science, we explored why some objects sink while other objects float. Our sensory bins were filled with water and the children predicted which objects would sink to the bottom or float on top. We used marbles, a plastic fork, a rock, a straw, coins, and a variety of other materials. Water beads were used to try and “Sink the Ship.” The children counted how many beads they would need to fill “boats” in the water. Only a few extra water beads would be the difference between a floating boat and a sinking boat.

Next Week: Our letter of the week is W. Letter box presentations will be on Thursday and Friday. Tuesday we will exchange Valentine’s in the afternoon.

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

February 2, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Forgiveness is Good. We read the story of Zacchaeus. This story reinforced our classroom saying, “It is never too late to make a better choice.”

The class had a wonderful Catholic Schools Week! Thank you for sending your children to Immaculate Conception School. I am so proud of these kids and I am so fortunate to have such wonderful families as part of this school community!

Coins took center stage in math this week. The children worked hard identifying pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. We learned that each coin has two sides and which president is on which coin. We assigned value and practiced adding up to twenty-five cents. Next week the children will sort coins by words, numbers and value. Home living will acquire a cash register to “buy” food and small objects. The children will assign prices to the merchandise, (less than one dollar) to practice adding the coins. Our class store will help reinforce the money concepts for the rest of the unit.

A Bargain for Francis incorporated coins, fair trades, and forgiveness. Francis saved her coins for a tea set but her friend, Thelma, tricked her into buying one she did not want. Francis forgave Thelma and they celebrated friendship with a trip to the candy store. How Much Wood Can a Woodchuck Chuck? introduced us to compound words. We searched for them everywhere. Football, surfboard, mailbox and butterfly are just a few that the class recognized and we even made up some of our own! Our popcorn words were: day, look, make, his, her.

In science, we learned about shadows. The class watched a short clip of Peter Pan trying to find his shadow and we learned that no matter how hard we may try, we will not be able to leave our shadow behind. We need three things to create a shadow: light, something to block the light, and a surface for the shadow to fall. Bear Shadow illustrated the difference in our shadows when the sun is directly overhead and when the sun is low in the sky. We made our own animal shadows by using our hands to block the light from the projector. We also had a shadow station in the science area with flashlights and figurines. We learned the groundhog did not see his shadow so we are gearing up for an early spring! I even got a few requests to have a groundhog for a new class pet. Hmmm.

Next Week: Our letter of the week is E.  There is a half day on Wednesday. 

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus: Hands Are Good (concluded). We continued practicing acts of kindness in the classroom this week. We also talked about ways that we can give to others who are in need.

In math, we continued skip counting by twos, fives, and tens. We classified numbers by even and odd and found pairs of items around the room. The class reviewed using a number line and we continued our countdown to the 100th day of school!

For the letter K we explored the Knufflebunny trilogy by Caldecott artist Mo Willems. During popcorn words this week, we reviewed all of the sixty words we have learned so far!

The 2024 Caldecott results are in! We tuned into the live announcement from ALA Media Awards on Monday. We were familiar with two of the Caldecott Honors books, In Every Life, illustrated and written by Marla Frazee and There Was a Party for Langston, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey. The class was super excited that we had the gold medal winner in the classroom! The 2024 gold Caldecott Winner was Big, by Vashti Harrison.

In science, we focused on the night sky. Big Mooncake for Little Star by Grace Lin illustrated a delicious back story for the phases of the moon. We explored the phases of the moon in real life and tried to find shapes in the stars. We joined Cosmic Kids for some Moon Yoga during inside recess, too! The sun will carry over to next week’s unit on shadows, and they will be using clay to form planets and stars.

The Duke Farm’s Eagle Cam was a constant on our whiteboard this week as we were anxiously awaiting the second eagle egg. The second egg was laid right after school on Thursday!

Next Week: Our letter of the week is V. Sound box presentations will be on Thursday and Friday. Catholic Schools week is full of themed days next week!

I hope to see you at 9am Mass at Immaculate Conception Church to kick off Catholic School’s Week! All families are welcome to attend. Students are encouraged to wear their uniform to receive a dress down pass.

January 21. 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Hands are Good. We explored the different ways we can show kindness with our hands. The children showed me so many great examples by helping a friend tie their shoes, handing a classmate a tissue, and passing a friend a napkin at snack. Jesus used his hands to bless, anoint and heal others. Based on the book, The Mitten Tree, the children designed their own pair of mittens. In the story, the main character, Sarah, knitted mittens for the children at the bus stop because she saw that some children did not have any. This act of kindness showed us how we can give to others who do not have what we do.

In math, we began working with numbers up to 100! The class practiced skip counting by twos, fives, and tens. The children began identifying numbers in order from one to one hundred. They recognized number patterns on the 100 chart and used counters to mark off skip counting. This will all prepare us for the 100th day of school on February 15.

Language arts reinforced our science theme with What a Beautiful Sky. The students

practiced separating these stories into beginning, middle and end. We also compared

and contrasted the books by illustrating the difference between day and night. We

cannot see a rainbow at night just like we do not see stars during the day. The sun is the

only exception. The Napping House reinforced patterns in print while the children paid

extra special attention to the window to see how the sky changed. Our popcorn words

this week were: get, be, now, there, into.

In science, we explored the sky. We compared and contrasted the day sky and night sky.  I have encouraged the children to look at the moon and see how it changes every night. We also learned the names for the different types of clouds we see in the daytime sky. Cumulus clouds are the soft, fluffy clouds that the children said look like cotton candy. Stratus clouds bring rain and snow. Cirrus clouds are high, feathery clouds that are often scattered in a clear blue sky. A Big Bed for Little Snow, by Caldecott winner Grace Lin, brough clouds to our read aloud.

Next Week: Next Week: Our letter of the week is K. Letter Box presentations will be on Thursday. Please return all re-registration paperwork.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!

January 13, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

The Faith Focus this week: Hearts are Good. The class talked about how God wants us to love others. The children role played different skits in the home living area that focused on doing God’s will and showing love to our friends. We practiced showing kindness through our actions every day and many reward stars were given out this week. The children are more than welcome to share pictures of their prayer area they created at home on the asynchronous day Friday. Feel free to email me and we can share them on Tuesday!

The students continued with subtraction in math and did a great job proving their subtraction sentences. They used ten frames to translate to vertical subtraction and looked for number patterns in our answers. As we approach our 100th day of school they ventured out of our number chart and tried to imagine numbers much greater than we can count. How Big is a Million? told the story of a penguin named Pipkin who was on a search for what a million looked like. The answer was in the stars so we will place the poster, that came with the book, on the whiteboard on Tuesday and the children will get to use magnifying glasses to try and count the stars!

We continued our search for our favorite Caldecott nominees with Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin and Kate Messner and In the Night Garden by Carin Berger.  The children noticed recurring pictures throughout both and revisited cut paper for the illustrations. Our popcorn words were go, come, down, little, some.

In science, we ended our arctic study at the South Pole with penguins!. The children learned that a penguin will never meet a polar bear because they live at different poles. The daddy emperor penguin holds the egg on his feet to keep him warm and safe for 65 days. The children tried to try to hold an egg on their feet for one minute. I can happily report all of our eggs survived! We continued using the penguins with an art project on symmetry. The children used a squirt bottle to paint two half circles and small line at the bottom of the page. Once we fold the paper in half......ta da! A penguin! Ask your child what a rookery is and why the penguins use this in the middle of the Antarctic winter.

Next Week: Our letter of the week is N. Letter box presentations will be on Thursday and Friday. There is no school on Monday, January 15 for Martin Luther King Day. Have a great weekend!

January 5, 2024

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

The class did a great job jumping back into our classroom routine after Christmas break.  We switched our calendar to a new month and year which was very exciting for the children.  In our prayer center, we updated our special intentions.  Many moms and dads will be receiving some extra prayers this week!  Next week we will start our countdown to Groundhog Day!

Our Faith Focus this week: Shepherds are Good. This week we read “The Good Shepherd.” The students learned why a shepherd is important to his sheep. He will keep them safe and will always take care of them. The sheep trust him and listen to his voice because they know he will lead them to good things. Jesus is our Good Shepherd and we follow Him because we know He loves us and knows each of us by name. The students had fun each day pretending to be shepherds and looking for our lost sheep somewhere in the classroom.

The children were very excited to start our exploration of the Artic with polar bears!  We learned that polar bears have black skin, live in the Artic, and have great swimming skills!  We were even able to compare the size of our feet to that of a polar bear!

Once again, science and language arts ran parallel with Home for a Tiger, Home for a Bear and Where Animals Live. We identified the verbs in the stories and reviewed the different habitats of different animals. The students began using verbs in past tense and created simple sentences using all of our popcorn words to date. Turtle Splash was a wonderful counting book that introduced subtraction. We started with ten turtles and one by one they found a way to jump into the pond until we were left with just one. The children were also able to classify words by color, number, and usage.

This week we began subtraction! Our new subtraction gesture helped to separate the three parts of our number sentence and helped visualize the X for marking objects that were taken away. Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, along with Pete the Cat himself, helped us subtract by ones. We will continue subtraction into next week.

Next Week: Our letter of the week will be Bb with letter box presentations on Thursday and Friday.

December 16, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Thank you for coming to the Christmas Show on Friday. I am so proud of each of the children and they were so excited to perform for you all!

In Religion this week, the third Advent candle was “lit.”  This rose colored candle represents joy – something that we discuss at the end of every school day!  The children had fun thinking of not only what brings us joy, but what we could do to bring joy to God this Christmas season. 

We also reviewed Bible stories we’ve learned this year.  We certainly needed the refresher on the differences between the stories of Noah and Jonah!  We will review again next week, too.  So many hearts have been added to our Grinch in the hallway....I think he is almost ready for Christmas!

Our mini author/illustrator study on Dan Santat brought one of our favorite imaginary friends to the classroom....Beekle! The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend won a gold Caldecott Medal in 2015. This lovable white “fluff” with a king’s crown was our guest reading friend this week. After the Fall continued the story of Humpty Dumpty where the famous nursery rhyme ended. Drawn Together tells the story of a grandfather finding common ground with his grandson through their love of drawing.  We will conclude next week with The Great Santa Stakeout which follows Santa’s number one fan and his quest for a selfie with the big guy. Next week we will also learn about Chris Van Allsburg, the gold medal Caldecott winner for the Polar Express!

         Our popcorn words were: went, see, not, will, so.

In science, we reviewed animal habitats. The class learned about how different animals prepare for winter. Louis Cardinal’s First Winter introduced the children to migration and hibernation. We learned that ladybugs, bats and even chipmunks hibernate for the winter while certain birds migrate to find food during the winter months. We will examine different animal tracks next week. We will also be building a winter den for our “B Bear” to hibernate for the winter.

We continued our addition unit in math by exploring both horizontal and vertical addition!  The children grasped the concept very quickly and ran with it!  Unifix cubes, counting bears, ten-frame trains, addition puzzles, and dominoes all were used in centers to practice this skill throughout the week.  The students were able to identify both addition and equal signs, as well!  After Christmas break, we will begin subtraction!

Next Week:  The sound of the week will be letter Cc.  There will be no new popcorn words, but rather a review of all the words we have done so far!  The Gingerbread Man Paper is due on Tuesday – there is a short paper to fill out that gives clues to what the children’s gingerbread man looks like and a paper for the children to color and decorate based on their clues.  We will be attending the All-School Mass on Friday (sweaters, please!). There will also be a 12:30 dismissal on Friday with no lunch and no CARES. Please be sure your child has their school sweater for Mass! 

There will be no homework and no weekly report next week so I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 😊

December 8, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Choosing is good. We began our week with the feast day of St. Nicholas. The children left one shoe in the hallway and after our morning prayers they went back to find a special treat in their shoe. We discussed the second Advent candle being lit and we read “Mary’s Visit” in our children’s Bible to learn about Mary saying, “Yes,” to God. The story of God choosing Mary to be the mother of Jesus helped us act out ways we can choose to do God’s will. Our Grinch kindness project began this week as well.  When the children are “caught” being kind, they receive a heart to place in the hallway next to our Grinch.  We are helping the Grinch get his heart ready for Jesus this Advent season. 

Our mini author/illustrator study on Jan Brett brought us The Hat and The Mitten. We made sure to look for the picture clues on each page. Jan Brett always illustrates on the insets of each page to give a hint of what comes up next or to give a glimpse of what is happening in a different part of the story. Next week we will learn about Dan Santat, the gold medal Caldecott winner for Beekle! Our popcorn words were: then, do, this, no, too.

The class practiced math facts by adding by one, two, three and four. They were very proud to have begun such big kid math! 

Snow and Storm is Coming are two of the books from our reading program that allowed us to compare realism and fantasy.  We discussed different types of weather and the students did a great job identifying verbs and popcorn words.  Our decoding skills are greatly improving each week.  The students are recognizing beginning and ending sounds much faster and are blending sounds as well! 

In science, we learned about animal habitats. Rainforests, woodlands, deserts, and oceans provide a place for animals to find food, shelter and protection. The children classified our popular animals by habitat and we learned why some animals cannot live in other areas.  Next week we focus on hibernation and migration.

We concluded our week by attending the ICS Pep Rally.  The children loved cheering for the basketball players and cheerleaders as they prepared for the first game this weekend! GO ICS! 😊

Next Week: Our letter of the week is U. Our Christmas program is on Friday and the children are asked to wear their “Christmas Best.” If you are taking you child home directly home after the concert please send in a note by Thursday. There is a 12:30 dismissal on Friday, December 16 with no CARES.

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

December 3, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Preparing is Good.  We discussed how the first Advent wreath candle is to be lit this week, and talked about ways we could prepare for Jesus coming at Christmas. When we have a birthday party there are many things we do to prepare.  The students made a list of the things we can do to prepare for Jesus’ Birthday.  Praying, showing kindness, and helping our families were wonderful ideas the students had to prepare their hearts for Jesus.  The children had a great time painting their stained-glass windows depicting the journey to Jerusalem using water colors, which will be on display in the hallway.  We ended our week with our first All School Mass and I am so proud of these kids! They looked for the color purple, listened for the bells, and proudly prayed the Our Father with our school community.

Our blending skills and high frequency word recognition are improving during journals and morning meeting.  Our popcorn words were: who, when, one, big, how. 

We explored estimation and our “Estimation Station” made a grand appearance to continue with this skill.  Each day there was a jar containing a small number of objects and the students were asked to estimate how many.  During our center work, the students would write their estimate and at the end of the day, the we counted the actual number of objects.  The objects were items such as pom poms, Legos, animal figurines, etc.  I want the children to know it is not a challenge to guess the actual number, so anyone who had an estimate close to the actual number was correct.  There is no winner!

Jon Klassen, the three-time Caldecott winner that brought us Circle, Square, and Triangle, returned this week for our letter of the week.  The “Hat” trilogy was a great collection of books with minimal words, but rich in content and humor.  I Want My Hat Back, This is Not My Hat, and We Found a Hat, made us laugh with character expression and taught us valuable lessons about telling the truth and friendship.

Actual Size and Big and Little by paper illustrator, Steve Jenkins, helped the children visualize just how big a giant squid’s eye or an African elephant’s foot are in real life.

In Science, we continued our discussions of types of animals with a focus on fish and birds.  The children did a wonderful job sorting the characteristics of fish and birds that are different and alike using a Venn Diagram.  Birds and fish were also added to our science center.

We wrapped up our week meeting and getting to know our 7th grade faith buddies!  There will be several opportunities throughout the year where we meet with them for various activities, beginning with Monday at Santa’s Workshop.  Ask your child something they learned about their buddy!

Next Week: Our letter of the week is L.  We will be attending Santa’s Secret Workshop on Monday.  Students will be able to wear Christmas tee shirts and/or accessories with gym pants.  Money envelopes and a gift list for the children to use while shopping were sent home in the folders.  There is a 12:30 dismissal on Wednesday.  The is no school on Friday for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. 

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

November 16, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our faith focus this week: Growing is Good.  We grow taller, braver, smarter, kinder, and very importantly, we can grow closer to God.  As humans, we are never done growing, especially in our faith.  We work to build our relationships with God, and grow closer to Him by learning about and living out our faith.

We took a personal look at how we grow this week. Thank you to all who sent in timeline pictures so we could assemble our personal timelines. (Never too late to send them in.) The children loved showing their baby pictures and it was great to see how they have physically changed from baptism until now. These timelines will be on display in our prayer center for the remainder of the year.

Our letter of the week was Oo and our sight words were that, was, like, and what.  The Big Orange Splot invited us to think about our dreams and get creative with our thoughts.  When a stork dropped a can of orange paint on Mr. Plumbean’s house, he was inspired to paint his house in a way that reminded him of his dreams.  At first, his neighbors on his very “neat street” (where all the houses looked the same) were upset, but one by one their view changed and soon enough everyone on the street was inspired – turning their houses into their own dreams, and making Mr. Plumbean’s street one like no other.  We took turns sharing what we would dream for our houses to look like and discovered that if it were up to us, we’d have some houses looking like beaches, unicorns, castles, ninjas, and even some of our classmates!

David’s Drawings, one of our Journey’s books this week, told of a boy who saw a beautiful tree on his way to school and was inspired to draw a picture of it once he got there before the school day started.  One by one, classmates came over to David and each added something to the drawing, making it a class picture that was hung on the bulletin board.  We took the time to make our own class picture, each of us adding our unique touches.  😊

We began to look at the numbers to 31 this week, revisiting our “towers of ten” and taking on the extremely challenging task of circling groups of ten in a small space.  Mr. Alligator continues to help us with number comparison sentences, which the children have gotten much better with!  We have been practicing our number recognition with a game the children love called “I have… who has?”

In Science, we learned the characteristics of mammals and reptiles.  Mammals have hair or fur, have live births, receive milk from their mothers, and are warm-blooded.  Reptiles are cold-blooded, lay eggs, have scales and claws, and have four legs or no legs.  The Yucky Reptile by Jerry Pallotta assigned one reptile for each letter of the alphabet.  Everyone chose their favorite reptile to draw and write about in their illustration journals.

I’ll see you all at conferences tomorrow! I am looking forward to sharing stories, successes, and plans for the remainder of the year.

Next Week: Next week will be a short review week.  There will be no sound of the week and no new popcorn words.  The children may bring in one item for letterbox that uses one of our past letters of the week on Wednesday. There is a 12:30 dismissal on Wednesday, November 22.  There will also be no Kinder News update next week.

Our letter of the week the following week (11/27) will be Hh with our letter box presentations being on Thursday and Friday.  Our sight words will be who, how, when, one, big. 

I am truly grateful to be blessed with spending my days your children and be a part of the ICS community.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

November 10, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

We continued our faith focus of “God Made Me Wonderful.”  We recalled that God made each of us wonderful and special with different talents and gifts such as dancing, drawing, playing sports, etc.  God created us out of love and we can help spread and remind others of His love by showing kindness, respect, and using our talents.  The children love the thought of being “God’s helpers.”  Our LA Book I Like Myself helped reinforce how special we all are.

What Do Wheels Do All Day? and Good Morning, Digger, allowed us to explore the ways that wheels help us every day and take a peek at simple machines, which we will be studying later this year.  The children enjoyed using wheel parts during centers to build their own simple machine.

On Tuesday, we read recent author and illustrator study Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin’s Duck for President, which provided us with the perfect characters as candidates for our own mock election: Duck and Farmer Brown!  We have come to know these characters very well over the last two weeks, so it was easy for the children to make their own choice.  The children got a feel of what it is like to vote in person by waiting in line and taking turns to mark their ballots.  At the end of the day, we tallied the votes to determine who our winner was.  Most of the children were very happy with the results – Congratulations, DUCK!

Our sight words this week were they, have, up, out and our letter of the week was Gg.  The children learned that Gg has a soft sound and a hard sound, which we practiced identifying with practically every word we encountered that contained it, especially during letterbox presentations!  Goldilocks and Just One Bear was a class favorite.  This book took us for a fun twist on the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears where Goldilocks and baby bear were unintentionally reunited!

We continued our teen number focus in Math.  The children are really getting used to using their resources, such as referring to our number posters when spelling number words, or identifying numbers that come before, after, or between other numbers.  Our worksheets recently have contained ten-frames, which we have been practicing using every morning with our Number of the Day.  The NumberBlocks have also provided us with a visual of “towers of 10” which we will see more of next week when we look at numbers in the twenties.  These will help us practice counting by tens as we continue to build onto skip counting skills.  The children love trying to figure out how many different ways we can count to the day of Kindergarten we are on!  For example, we counted to 44 by ones, twos, and fours the other day!

In Science, we recalled the parts of a tree and explored plants we eat, with a focus on ROOT vegetables!  Tops and Bottoms was a great literature connection to this focus and The Gigantic Turnip further explored our science theme with root vegetables. We also compared and contrasted The Turnip by Jan Brett.

We love our turkeys so much! The children presented their turkey disguises and we had so much fun. These turkeys are most definitely safe from Thanksgiving!

Next Week: Our letter of the week will be Oo and our sight words will be that, was, like, what.  There will be no homework packet next week.  Conferences will be held on Friday November 18th next week.  The children do not come to school on this day.  I look forward to meeting with you all!

Reminder: Please send in one baby picture, toddler picture, and current picture of your child.  The photographs should be no larger than 4” x 6”.

These can be sent in any time in the next two weeks. Thank you in advance!

. 

November 3, 2023,

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

We started out the week in the Halloween spirit!  The class loved parading around school in their costumes and celebrating with their classroom party in the afternoon!  A special thank you to our class parents for organizing such a wonderful afternoon for the class! 

Our faith focus this week was: God made me wonderful.  We took time to think about the great things God has given us, including our talents, and how each of us is different.  Some of us love sushi and some of us don’t like ice cream! God made each of us to be unique with our own personalities and skills and loves us all. 

We know that God is with us at all times, but He also wants us to tell Him about our day every day, thanking Him for our many gifts and sharing our struggles.  The children enjoyed sharing their talents and skills with the class and did a wonderful job with their sentences and illustrations showing what is special about them!

Verbs continued to make an appearance in our language arts texts. Move was a book from the that showed us the different ways animals can move. The children acted out movement words such as swim, crawl, dive, prance and waddle. We also read Johnathan and His Mommy and learned about the different ways we can move as well. The two characters in the book went on walks and liked to use baby steps, giant steps, zig-zagging, and skipping. Our letter of the week was Rr and we also reviewed all of our popcorn words to date. I am super proud of the children for searching and finding popcorn words in text!

In Math, we reviewed ordinal numbers to 10 and began looking at those tricky teens!  We reviewed some of our teen number names with Numberblocks videos, which we were very excited about.  These special treat videos are of bits of multiple numbers to review number names and facts about numbers to identify them with more ease.  Identifying teen numbers by sight is a difficult task, and takes time.  We will review them in the classroom, but extra practice at home never hurts!

In Science, we learned about the different parts of trees and discovered why the leaves fall from the trees in autumn.  We also learned that the trunk of a tree sends water from the roots to the leaves.  We discussed different things that grow on trees such as apples, oranges, etc., and explored some of what we see all around such as acorns, pinecones, and (especially now) leaves! 

The children made hypotheses of what they thought would happen to pinecones (they’ll grow, a tree will start to grow, they will change color, etc.) when placed in a container of water.  We placed three pinecones in water and when we checked on them later in the day, the children discovered that the pinecones had closed, looking like they once did while on a pine tree!  They learned that while pinecones are on trees, they are receiving water from the tree to help them stay closed, keeping the seeds safe.  When they fall to the ground and dry out, they open up which releases their seeds for new pine trees to grow.  But even after a pinecone opens, it will close again when left in water!  Try it at home!

Next Week: Our letter of the week will be Gg.  Don’t forget letter box!  Students can bring in one object for the letter of the week to be presented to the class on Thursday or Friday.  Our sight words will be: they, have, up, out.  Don’t forget - Disguised turkeys are due Wednesday!  A few have made their way in already and they are great! 

We have an upcoming project for the classroom and I need pictures! Please send in one baby picture, one toddler picture, and one current picture of your child. The photographs should be no larger than 4” x 6”. The photographs will be used in an art project, and they will be displayed for most of the year. These can be sent in any time in the next two weeks. Thank you in advance!

I am always available for any questions you may have. Do not hesitate to contact me.

October 29, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our faith focus this week was “Families are Good.”  We discussed the different roles family members have as well as the different families that we are a part of.  Each of us has a family, but we also all make up our school and are a part of the Church family. Church can actually refer to two things – the building or the people.  We learned about the Holy Family and how we become members of the Church family through baptism.  We have brothers and sisters in this family all around the world. 

In Language arts we focused on identifying character traits. Our author/illustrator study on Doreen Cronin and Betsey Lewin provided an introduction to the characters in the Click, Clack, Moo series. The students met Farmer Brown, Cow, the Hens, and Duck.  We ended the week with a special Halloween edition, Click, Clack Boo! We will continue learning about these characters next week as well.

The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything was a spooky Halloween book that allowed the students to act out the story, identify the verbs, and label the parts of the scarecrow. Ask your child to tell you what the boots, shirt and gloves did in the story to try to scare the main character.

Our popcorn words were: me, them, he, she, with. Word recognition is getting quicker!

In math, we practiced writing and identifying number words from zero to ten. I also introduced ordinal numbers and the children were given character figurines to line up in

groups of ten. They could choose Cinderella to be first and Buzz Lightyear to be sixth. Ordinal numbers are also reinforced daily during the calendar and daily portions of our morning meeting. 

In science, we explored the difference between nocturnal and diurnal animals.  The children enjoyed discovering which animals were which with the help of Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon, our Scholastic magazine, and referring to PJ Masks! (The characters in this show are nocturnal!)  We also explored how nocturnal animals are able to see or move around at night, for example, owl’s big eyes help them see and how bats use echolocation.  The children did a great job illustrating one nocturnal and one diurnal animal in their illustration journal.

Next Week: Our letter of the week is R. Please send all Halloween costumes in a bag with your child’s name on Tuesday. We hope to see you at the parade in the back

parking lot at 1:00pm! Saint outfits can also come to school in a labeled bag on Wednesday. Just a reminder that Wednesday is a full day of school. Next week we will be exploring trees and examining different types of leaves.

October 21, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our Faith Focus this week: Talking to God is Good. We can pray quietly, out loud or even through song! What kinds of things do we want to say to Jesus? What can we thank Him for today? Who can we pray for? Sometimes the hardest thing to do is listen to what Jesus has to say to us. I tell the children if we open our hearts we will hear Him. We brought back our quiet “Heart Rooms” from last week and talked to God about things we are trying to do better, things that may worry us, and even things we are so happy about. We know that even if we are having a hard day, God is always there ready to listen to us!

In Math, we practiced making one-to-one correspondences, comparing groups/numbers, and equalizing sets.  The children learned a trick of drawing a line from one object to another to make it easier to determine which group of objects has more/fewer.  We met “Mr. Alligator,” who helps us with comparing numbers.  Mr. Alligator is always very hungry and wants to eat the greater number.  The children grasped this concept very quickly!  We will continue to compare numbers throughout the year, and get used to reading number comparison sentences using the proper wording (ex: 5 > 3 “Five is greater than three,” 5 = 5 “Five equals five,” 5 < 10 “Five is less than ten”).  We also practiced the directional words left and right. The children wore small stickers and stamps on their right hand to assist them in discerning between the left and right for our math page this week.

In Language Arts, we read stories that explored our five senses. Listen, Listen provided great examples of sensory words. The children listened for words such as sweet, loud, soft, bright, and many others. My Five Senses explained how we use some of our senses together while others we use independently. We also explored what happens when one of our senses works differently or not at all. We learned how the blind use their sense of touch to read with braille. We created our own names using the braille alphabet with rhinestones and glue. People who are deaf can communicate using sign language or may have implants to help them hear. We practiced the alphabet in sign language and learned how to say, “I love you.”

We also read Flora and the Flamingo. This wordless book illustrated non-verbal communication through the two characters who became fast friends. We also learned that a person’s body language can tell us a lot about how they are feeling.  Our popcorn words were: are, all, at.

Our five senses traveled to the sensory table as well where the children created Mr. (and Mrs.) Potato Head people based on our senses. All Potato Heads need eyes, ears, a nose, mouth, and hands. The children picked a card that gave them a nose, mouth, ear, eyes, or hand and they could pick out the part they needed to added to their potato. If they picked a question mark they could choose an accessory from the “extra” bin.

The book, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? became a project the children enjoyed with Mrs. Brickley’s room on Thursday. Four large pumpkins were cut and emptied of the pulp and seeds. The children were separated into groups and each group had to count their seeds by tens. I love this combined science/math lesson and it smells good too. Pumpkin Jack helped us review the life cycle of a pumpkin and we made our own class Jack-O- Lantern.

Leo Lionni was our featured author/illustrator. We read Swimmy, Fish is Fish, and Frederick.  The children learned how to use collage and we compared characters from book to book.

Next Week: Our letter of the week will be Dd.  Our sight words will be: me, he, she, with, them.  Picture Day is Friday, October 27. Please send all payment forms in your child’s folder even if you pre-order online.

October 15, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,    

Our Faith Focus this week: Quiet is Good. The children were encouraged to close their

eyes, take a deep breath and silently talk to God about whatever may be troubling them.

We also took this time to thank God for the many blessing He has given each of us. The

Kindergarten class says a decade of the rosary during morning prayers for the month of

the rosary in October. They are doing a great job with the Hail Mary and following along

with the beads.

In Language Arts, The Little Red Hen and Stone Soup were stories we compared and

contrasted this week. We focused on themes, characters, and the moral of each. Why

should we help others? How do we want others to treat us? These stories allowed us to

revisit patterns in print. The students brought these stories to life in our dramatic play

area. Students pretended to bake a cake, simmer soup with a stone and help a friend in

need all week long. We included a Halloween twist with our book, Bone Soup. The

children used a witches cauldron and glow in the dark skeletons to create a bubbly brew

to parallel the stone soup from our class text. I sent home a copy of the recipe just in

case anyone wanted to try it at home. Our popcorn words were: by, my, play, we.  Our letter of the week was Ii - a vowel with a short sound and a long sound.  The children are doing such a great job being sight word detectives – they even look for them on our math, religion, and

phonics pages! 

In math, positional words such as below, between, inside, and above began our week in

math. We will continue this this week – the children will build obstacles on the blocks rug and assign positions to different figurines. Maybe Yoshi will be INSIDE the house and Spiderman might stand ON the bridge!

In science, we identified the life cycle of the pumpkin. The children used illustrations

with labels to sequence the seed, sprout, vines, flower, and pumpkin. They also

practiced sequence on the magnet board by arranging pictures and assigning pre-made

labels.

We will begin our Midnight Pumpkin project this week. This process art piece combines many different mediums such as oil pastel, chalk pastel and red and yellow paint. They will

create their own shades of orange by mixing two primary colors and follow two step directions to create our newest hallway display.

Maurice Sendak was our featured author/illustrator. We read Where the Wild Things

Are, Pierre, In the Night Kitchen, and Chicken Soup with Rice. We ended this study with

a very special pop-up book called Mommy. Please ask your child what Mr. Sendak used

to create his award-winning illustrations. Your children should also be able to tell you

what the “Wild Things” were originally supposed to be.

Lastly, we had a visit from the Fire Department where the students learned important safety tips from our local firefighters.  They even got to practice “stop, drop, and roll” and got to tour the fire truck!

Next Week:  Our letter of the week is Ff.  Presentations of items with the letter Ff will be on Thursday and Friday. 

Do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Have a wonderful weekend!

October 8, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

The animal theme took over our Kindergarten wing this week!  Each child was able to bring a “stuffy” to our Cuddly Care Clinic right in our Kindergarten classrooms.  The children illustrated their animals and read Ranger Rick magazines in the “waiting room.”   They had their “stuffies” measured, weighed, and even checked for enough sparkles in their eyes!  We are happy to report that every child’s stuffy is very much loved, had a clean bill of health, and took home their certificates on Thursday.

In Religion, we learned how God created the world and everything in it.  We thank God for His amazing creations and gifts to us in prayer and by taking care of our world.  The story of Noah was our Bible story this week.  Alice Joyce Davidson’s The Story of Noah gave us insight as to why God asked Noah to build the ark and spoke about the symbol of the rainbow.  After the flood, God promised Noah He would never flood the Earth again, giving us the rainbow as a reminder of his great promise.  The children made a wonderful Bible story connection – stating that the people in the beginning of the story about Noah were like the Ninevites in the story of Jonah.  The class sorted animal figurines and added them to our Ark, and we learned The Unicorn Song by The Irish Rovers complete with hand movements.

 On Wednesday, we celebrated out Spotlight Saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. Father Mhonchan performed a blessing of the (stuffed) animals and of Mr. Fred (K11’s pet turtle).  The children brought their stuffed animals and helped them fold their paws, claws, and fins for prayer.  We practiced making the sign of the cross on their animals and promised to take care of all of God’s creatures.

This week, the children were introduced to the rosary.  We will be praying a decade each day together as a school during morning prayers throughout the month of October. 

In Language Arts, I Have a Pet and Please, Puppy, Please! continued our animal theme and brought us to the discussions of different pets that we have and/or pets that we would like to have, as well as the responsibilities that come along with having pets.  Our letter of the week was Ss and our sight words this week were: of, said, for, can.  The class did a great job with our word whackers game!

We concluded our author/illustrator study on David Shannon, featuring Good Boy, Fergus!, A Bad Case of Stripes, Duck on a Bike, Duck on a Tractor, and How I Became a Pirate.  Duck on a Bike and Duck on a Tractor helped us predict what would happen next, examine facial expressions, identify common characters, and went with our Science theme this week of comparing and contrasting details in a story that could happen in real life and could not happen in real life.  Good Boy, Fergus reinforced our pet theme and The Rain Came Down ran parallel with our weather!  The children learned the fun fact that David Shannon had a white Scottish Terrier named Fergus, and each of his books has a hidden image of Fergus, allowing us to appreciate the illustrations even more!

In Math this week, we learned about different kinds of patterns – color, shape, size, and growing patterns.  Identifying the “pattern rule” in color, shape, and size patterns is something that usually takes a lot of practice, but the children did a great job picking it up throughout the week.  The children noticed that our number board contains patterns – they’re all around us!  We will continue to explore the concept of patterns throughout the year.

Next Week: Our letter of the week will be Ii.  Presentations for objects beginning with the letter Ii will take place on Thursday and Friday.  Our sight words will be: by, my, play, we. There is no school on Monday, October 9. We will begin our author study on Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are.

I am always available for questions! 😊

September 23, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our faith focus this week was “Names are Good.”  Jesus calls each of us by name.  We call others by name as a sign of respect because every person is special and each person’s name is important.  Alma and How She Got Her Name  and Chrysanthemum led to our own class discussions about how our own names are special and Jesus knows each and every one. Some students are named for grandparents, dads, and Saints.

God is three persons in one: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.  God the Father and Jesus’ names are holy, so we use them with reverence.  We show reverence in prayer by bowing our head when saying Jesus’ name.  We respect God’s name by using it when we are praying or when we are teaching others about Him, and not using it in vain.  The children got a good laugh when I explained that in our Kindergarten family we say: oh my gosh, oh my goodness, oh my golly gee, oh my mac and cheese, etc.  and began inserting their own silly, but appropriate, words. 

We wrapped up the week with learning about our Catholic to Know: Saint Matthew.  The students learned that St. Matthew followed Jesus and shared His teachings around the world.

Stay tuned for more information on the way about our special part in the All Saint’s Day Mass.

In math, we concluded our unit on sorting, practicing how to sort objects by more than one attribute (size, shape, and color).  Grouping objects in more than one way is a complex concept; however, the children did an amazing job!  We practiced with magnet shapes on the white board and shape tiles in the math center. This skill will continue next week as we introduce three-dimensional shapes such as cylinder, sphere, and cube.

In language arts, our sound of the week was Mm and our popcorn words were: I, in, is, to.  Ask your child to make the hand motions for each popcorn word!  Robert Sabuda’s The Moveable Mother Goose was perfect for our letter Mm this week and was filled with fun riddles, some of which the children were familiar with!

We learned how to use our alphabet as a resource for letter/sound connections and practiced identifying beginning sounds as well as all sounds in three letter CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) using our “finger taps” which helps us isolate the sounds we hear in words we want to read.  The children loved using their dry erase paddles and markers to write the words out as we went along!  We also practiced sky writing and stretching our letters from the plane line to the grass line.

We explored the color wheel in science this week, identifying primary and secondary colors.  I Love Colors and Mouse Paint were a great introduction of what happens when two of our primary colors (red, blue, or yellow) get mixed together.  We decided to test if what the books said was true, and conducted our first experiment.  This required six jars, food coloring, and paper towels.  We filled up three jars with water and added one of the primary colors to each. We used the paper towels to disperse the water to the empty jars and the result was a secondary color!  The children also all had the chance to work with our primary colors and make their own secondary colors with paints and q-tips!  These color circles became rainbow chicks that are on display in our Kinder art gallery in the hallway!

The Color Monster by Anna Llenas provided us with an incredible science, language arts, and social-emotional learning connection.  This story tells of a monster who doesn’t understand his feelings.  A little girl helps him identify names of different feelings, assigning each of the colors the monster has on him with a feeling.  We practiced identifying these feelings of happy (yellow), sad (blue), angry (red), scared (black), calm (green), and loved (pink) throughout both last week and this week.  A big lesson we learned is that it is OKAY to have each of these feelings, but that it is important to identify what you are feeling and how you are going to deal with those feelings.  We try our best not to make our blue or red feelings turn someone else’s feelings blue or red, but it is always nice to help someone feel like the yellow, pink, or green color monster. 

Mo Willems was featured in our combined lesson with K-11. We Are In A Book introduced us to our new favorite characters Gerald and Piggie (and Pigeon!). We had a great time finding all of our popcorn words in the text and reading character expressions to determine their feelings. Pigeon Has to go to School launched a lesson on comparing and contrasting emotions in a story with Color Monster Goes to School and How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? We made connections from the texts to our real emotions about starting school this year.

As you can see we were very busy in Kindergarten this week. We also finished up any Brown Bag presentations that came in and had a huge turn out for the letterbox on Thursday and Friday. There were a Multitude of M items!

Next Week: Our sound of the week will be Tt with presentations on Thursday and Friday.  Our sight words will be: it, on, you.  Our first homework packets were sent home this week in their red homework folders and should be returned by Monday.  I will send the new homework packet home on Wednesday. Next week is all about apples!

Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

September 17, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

The children did a wonderful job presenting their brown bag projects and we learned a lot about one another this week!  I was surprised with how well everyone remembered what each item was in their bag for, as this can sometimes be tricky when in front of the class.  If your child still hasn’t brought in their brown bag, they still may do so!

Our faith focus this week was having a welcoming spirit and showing kindness just as Jesus loves and welcomes us - the perfect theme to start the school year!  We discussed the story of how Jesus welcomes children to come to Him with open arms.  Each one of us is welcomed into His church family, school, and classroom Just as Jesus did, we should make others feel welcome in a group and in our classroom.  One way we can do this is by greeting someone when we see them in the morning or when they visit our classroom.  We have been putting this into practice by greeting and saying goodbye to each other, along with welcoming others to play outside and during learning centers.  We want others to feel loved just as Jesus loves us.  Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) was our Spotlight Saint this week and another model of what welcoming and caring for others looks like.  We learned that she specifically welcomed the poor and the sick.  We concluded our week by attending the Grandparent’s Mass.  The children did a wonderful job.

We are so excited to officially begin our Fundations phonics program. The children were

introduced to Echo the owl that prompts them to “echo” my sounds. Ask your child about the

names of the lines we use for letter formation. (Sky Line, Plane Line, Grass Line, and Worm

Line). Our spotlight sound was the short A sound and we listened for the short a sound in our

popcorn words and read alouds. Letter Box was a success with so many creative A items!

Keisha Ann Can!, from Into Reading, helped us explore characters. We saw similarities in what

Keisha Ann did at her school and what we do every day in our classroom. These characters

helped me introduce nouns, specifically names for people. Aunt, Mom, Grandpa, and sister

were just a few of the nouns the children identified in the books we read this week. The children

have begun labeling their family pictures for display in the room, too. It is never too late to send

in a family picture for our Kindergarten Family Wall. The children love to show their classmates

the people they love.

We began our Math unit this week on classification - discussing the terms alike, same and different, and practicing sorting objects by color, shape, and size.  The children enjoyed the different centers for sorting, and did a great job working both independently and together.  Our sorting unit will continue next week, with an additional focus on shapes and our “mystery shape” project.

This week we began our first author/illustrator study on three time Caldecott Award winning artist, David Wiesner. We read Flotsam, The Three Pigs, Tuesday, Mr. Wuffles, and Art and Max. He is a native of Bridgewater, New Jersey and creates books with few or no words so the pictures tell the story. Please ask your child what a Caldecott Medal is and why it is so special. Bonus points if they can tell you what Flotsam means! We also began our photo Flotsam project that will take several weeks to complete. Stay tuned! The children made wonderful connections between the books and compared characters, settings and important events.

Next Week: Our Spotlight Sound will be Mm, with the letter box presentations on Thursday and Friday.  Our sight words (popcorn words) for next week will be: I, is, in, to.  Please do your best to incorporate letter sound and sight word practice at home – this will help with reading skills!  Our first homework packet will be sent home on Wednesday, to be returned on Monday, September 25th. Please remember at this time the challenge instructions are optional. Please encourage your child to try them. Labeling a picture can be as simple as writing the beginning sound. The most important part of homework is for the students to try their best. I want these packets to be a source of information for you as well as reinforcement for your children. 

I am always happy to answer any questions you may have!  Please do not hesitate to email me!

September 9, 2023

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

We had a wonderful week in Kindergarten!  Transitions for arrival, centers, snack, and dismissal are all going smoothly.  The children are so good with waiting for their turn to use a certain toy or manipulative, and are doing so well with raising their hands to talk.  I’m truly impressed.  I was even able to open the home living play area (aka “the kitchen”).  The children used bowls, rolling pings, and measuring cups to “bake” delicious alphabet cookies based on the beginning sound of their name.  I am so proud of the children for following directions and trying their best. 

The Gingerbread Man is Loose in the School was a great success!  This book provided a walking tour of our school and gave the children a visual as to where they will be going for their Specials classes, which began on Thursday.  We Don’t Eat Our Classmates introduced us to nervous T Rex on her first day of school.  Her struggles helped me emphasize our class motto: It is never too late to make a better choice!

  We also took time in the prayer corner to share our special intentions.  These intentions will change weekly and the children love sharing stories about who they are praying for.  This week we prayed for someone special who lives in our house. 

Treasure Box was a huge WIN for the class as well.  I am so happy so many were able to taste success and leave the school with a little more pep in their step.  Some are just a few stars away!

       The Brown Bag Presentations that came home yesterday have no official deadline.  As they are filled at home, they can come in.  We usually present two or three bags per day, so you do not have to go crazy this weekend finding items to fill the bag.  Anytime in the next two weeks would be perfect. 

Finally, we ended each day sharing ways we found JOY and thanking Jesus for all the happiness he brings into our lives. 

Next Week: We start our first Spotlight Sound!  We will begin with the letter A.  Our first Letter Box presentations will be on Thursday and Friday.  We will have many items to share, so please have your child bring in ONE object that begins with the letter A. This item does not need to come in until Thursday.

The children will be labeling their family pictures next week, as well.  Due to limited space, I ask that you please send in one 5x7 picture.  Whenever you find the time to send one is fine (if you haven’t sent one in already).  I can’t wait to assemble our “family” wall!

CARES will begin on Monday.  If your child is attending, please be sure to pack an extra snack.  It is helpful if you label it “CARES” for them!

A reminder that we are a nut-free school and will be eating our lunch in the classroom.  Please be sure to pack a napkin and utensils for your child!  If you would like your child to purchase lunch from the cafeteria, I can either swipe your child’s cafeteria pre-loaded card OR you may send in cash in an envelope.  😊

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Be sure to check out our class website for reminders, updates, and pictures!

https://sites.google.com/ics41mtn.org/kindergartenk10/home