We enjoyed our first snow play of the season! Students had a blast exploring the snow, making snowballs, and learning how to manage all their winter gear independently.  

This week in UFLI, we focused on the short e sound and reviewed VC and CVC words. Students practiced hearing, reading, and spelling words like red, pen, and ten, and we continued strengthening correct letter formation during handwriting. 

In ELA, we began our new module all about Farm Animals. Students explored the difference between fiction and nonfiction, noticing how each type of text teaches us something different. We also learned to compare illustrations vs. photographs, discussing why an author or illustrator might choose one or the other. They are asking amazing questions and showing great curiosity about farm life! 

Our scientists continued exploring weather, especially storms and wind. We learned how wind can move objects, how storms form, and why weather changes from day to day. Students loved making predictions and watching how different materials move in the wind. Lots of great observations this week! 

In SEL, we focused on empathy, noticing how others feel and showing general kindness to our peers. We practiced using kind words, offering help, and recognizing when a friend might need support. We are trying to see how others might be feeling and respect their boundaries

*Important*

Specials Schedules have changed for term 2. Monday- Art, Tuesday- Music, Wednesday- Gym, Thursday- Art, Friday- Gym. Please send your child in sneakers on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

This week in UFLI, we worked through Lesson 16 (g) and Lesson 17 (b). Students practiced identifying the sounds, forming the letters, and reading simple words using g and b. We also worked hard on correct letter formation during handwriting time. Keep an eye out for UFLI home practice in yellow folders twice a week; no pressure, just great exposure! 

In math, we began Lessons 1–5 in our Shapes unit!
Students explored:

• Identifying and naming 2D shapes

• Sorting shapes by attributes

• Building and drawing shapes

• Talking about “sides,” “corners,” and “curves”

They are LOVING this unit and making great connections.

In science, we dove deeper into animal needs and explored some of the big turkey questions your children have been asking! 

On Monday, we went to the school library for a visit. They love doing this! When you're ready to return the library books, please place them in the "return to school" side of their yellow folders. Please return books after one week—return by Monday, 11/24. 

Cold weather and Winter Gear:

Kindergarten goes outside every day unless it’s raining or dangerously cold.

By our first snowfall (hopefully in December!), each child will need:

• Snowpants

• Hat

• Gloves/mittens

• Boots

• A labeled reusable bag to keep everything together

Gear typically goes home on Fridays unless you let me know you prefer it to stay all week.

Independence is the goal! Please practice:
✔ Zipping coats
✔ Putting on gloves
✔ Pulling boots on and off

If you'd like OT fine motor practice resources to help build skills for zipping, just let me know. I’m happy to send them home.

Chapstick + Lotion:
Cold weather = dry skin and chapped lips. A personal chapstick or lotion in their backpack helps avoid multiple nurse visits.

This week in ELA, our focus text was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We talked about repeated language in stories and they got really good at knowing what was coming next in the story. We used the text to help us recognize uppercase and lowercase letters wherever they may show up! We also did name recognition and letter matching activities related to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. 

In UFLI, we taught letter d and letter c (saying its hard sound /k/). We also learned the trick word "said". Right now, the trick words we know are: the, I, and, a, is, his, as, has, & said. 

In math,  we learned how to count pieces of a group or object in a circular rotation. They are doing great practicing their one to one correspondence. 

On another note: if your child brings in jewelry, toys, or gifts (for themselves or others) PLEASE refrain from allowing them to do so.  They are a big distraction in the classroom and causing social issues between the kids. 

We had so much fun in the Halloween Parade! They loved wearing their costumes and showing them off for the school and parents. We hope to get back to our normal routine on Monday, now that the Halloween craziness has passed. Fingers crossed at least 🤞

This week, we read "Last Stop on Market Street". We made connections about how the main character, CJ, used his senses to help him explore the world. They identified what senses CJ used to explore the world. 

In math, we practiced composing and decomposing numbers with picture representations. 

In science we asked and got many of our Halloween-themed science question answered. 

In literacy, we learned about nasalized like in -am and -an. We also learned short vowel o, like in octopus. We learned trick words: is, his, as, and has. 

Keep practicing those literacy skills at home, I am seeing a lot of improvement when they are doing the UFLI home practice sheets!

This week, we continued our unit on the 5 senses. We read "My Five Senses" by Aliki. We talked about how our senses help to make us aware. We even made books on our five senses!

In math, we practiced using ten frames to represent numbers 0-10. They did very well with this concept

In science, we learned the life cycle of a pumpkin. We learned what a pumpkin plant needs in order to grow and the stages it goes through. We also explored the many types of pumpkins there are. Many exciting connections were made to this at our field trip to Roger Spring Hill Farm!

Today, we visited the pumpkin patch, and it was a blast! The kids did a fantastic job following directions in a new place. They got to go on a hayride, pick their own pumpkin, play at a playground, navigate a hay bail maze, and feed animals. 

Progress reports will come home in folders today. Please do not panic if your child's report doesn't look how you anticipated it to! Bring any of your questions you have to conferences and we will talk through it all. Bring reports to conferences as well to sign and return :) 

Also, I have gotten a few questions about a class directory. I will have people sign up for it at conferences (if you want your contact information shared with other parents to set up playdates/birthday parties). If you opt out, no information will be shared; it's all up to you!

It was a WILD week here in kindergarten! Our book of the week in Wit and Wisdom was "Wild About Books". Our essential question was how does reading help us learn? We talked a lot about our favorite books and our favorite animals from this book. 

We connected our science lessons to ELA by discussing animals and zoologists. We learned all about how scientists are able to study animals and the different ways they learn about them. On Wednesday, we learned about Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees - to clarify, this was before knowing of her passing on the very same day. Overall, the kids loved learning about different animals and how they are studied. 

In Literacy, we learned the sounds of S and T. We also practiced writing their uppercase and lowercase S and T. We have started blending VC and CVC words with the letters we know such as: at, mat, and sat. For our trick words, we have taught "the" and "I".

In math, we have continued working on counting and sorting. They sorted by shape and size this week. We also began practicing proper number formation.

October Dates: 

10/10 - Early release (11:55am) and PJ/movie/stuffy day (decided by student principal of the day)

10/13 - No School for Columbus Day/Indigenous People's Day

10/17 - K Field Trip 9-11am 

We had a great spirit week! The kids loved dressing up and having all the excitement around the fun run! Thank you to anyone who was able to make a donation. I am beyond impressed by the amount of money raised. They all had a blast running today. 

This week we started our UFLI literacy lessons. The kids learned A and M. Making short a sound like in apple and closed mouth m sound like in mouse. They practiced where in a word these letters could be found. We also explicitly taught how these letters should be formed, in both uppercase and lowercase form. 

In math, we started module 1 of the Eureka Squared curriculum: counting and cardinality. They were able to sort and count objects in different groups. They were great at decided what belongs and what doesn't fit in a group. 

In science, we learned about the changing seasons. This was fitting for the first week of Autumn. We talked a lot about leaves on the trees; both how they change color and how some trees are special in that they don't change color. 

We learned our Zones of Regulation this week, too! We used "A Little Spot" books to learn about peacefulness, anger, anxiety, sadness, love, confidence, and happiness. We related our zones to the Inside Out characters which help give us reminders of what zone we are feeling. We practiced different strategies that can help us get back to our green zone and grow our Peaceful Spot when other emotions try to take over. 

Show and Tell:

• If your child is up to anything fun, please send pictures to my email. I put them up on the board for students to talk about for show and tell. 

• In the past, parents have sent in pictures from vacations, birthday parties, museum trips, etc. I've also gotten pictures of lego sets kids have built or something they're proud of that maybe they can't bring into school.

• Our show and tell using pictures will be ongoing throughout the year, my inbox is always open!

Bus Tags:

• Starting this week, kindergarteners no longer need bus tags!

• They are doing amazing with getting to the classroom independently and lining up for buses in the afternoon

• As always, I will be around to remind students where they should be, and any changes to dismissal can be sent to me and bagnallattendance@prsd.org via email. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend 😃

This week we practiced a lot of routine changes! We had an unexpected fire drill that all the kids did amazing with. We had our first assembly with the entire student body. It was our fun run kick-off where the kids were introduced to the fundraiser. Then on Friday, they had their first time following a half day schedule. They also were pulled by our reading specialists for our OWL screener (checks for comprehension based understanding, more info went home in folders). Considering all those changes, these kids did amazing with being flexible. 

For our Social Emotional Learning (SEL) this week, we learned about and practiced having a Growth Mindset. We read the books "The Magical Yet". We made a list of things we can't do right now and added the word yet; We talked about how if we work on something then some day we will be able to do it. We worked a lot on having a growth mindset, especially when it comes to learning. 

In math, we have been using many manipulatives to learn about shapes and build shape knowledge. We have also been practicing sorting and counting as we prepare for our first math module.

The reading specialist and I got an understanding of the kids initial literacy skills, and starting next week, we have regrouped students for literacy centers to target areas that need more practice. 

Reminders: 

Picture Day  Tuesday 9/23:

• Return picture forms in their folders that were sent home yesterday

• Makeups on 9/24

Spirit Week   9/22-9/26:

• Monday - Sports/princess dress up day

• Tuesday - No homework (like everyday in k)

• Wednesday - Pajama Day

• Thursday - Crazy Hair Day

• Friday - Fun Run!

Fun Run   Friday 9/26: 

• Our Fun Run time is 9-9:45am

• Please register using information on the flyers sent home in folders

• Families are welcome to come watch

Show and Tell:

• If your child is up to anything fun, please send pictures to my email. I put them up on the board for students to talk about for show and tell. 

• In the past, parents have sent in pictures from vacations, birthday parties, museum trips, etc. I've also gotten pictures of lego sets kids have built or something they're proud of that maybe they can't bring into school.

• Our show and tell using pictures will be ongoing throughout the year, my inbox is always open!

Bus Tags:

• Starting this week, kindergarteners no longer need bus tags!

• They are doing amazing with getting to the classroom independently and lining up for buses in the afternoon

• As always, I will be around to remind students where they should be, and any changes to dismissal can be sent to me and bagnallattendance@prsd.org via email. 

We made it through the first full week! The kids worked so hard on their routines, and they are adjusting well to our busy schedule. I am also so grateful that I got to see so many of you on Wednesday for back to school night. I appreciate you all for taking the time to be there. 

This week in our ELA block, we read "Scribble Scrabble" and "Shape Stories". These books help to promote the fine motor skills needed for handwriting our letters. The kids did workbooks that correlate with each skill needed and addressed in the stories. 

We also started our literacy centers this week. This routine is a HUGE one to learn as it involves a lot of academics and a lot of independednce. The kids crushed it! In my group, we practiced writing letters and focused on proper handwriting techniques. Our reading specialist, Mrs. Gleason, had a group that worked on letter identification using magnet boards. Mrs. Legro took a group who worked on alphabet coloring books that practice the sounds of each letter. Independently, one group worked with dabbers to create shapes in a packet they took home. Lastly, our final group began the Lexia placement on the iPads. I was so impressed with their abilities to follow the demands of our centers; they were really amazing!

A big talk this week continued to be personal space. We read "Our Personal Bubble" and practiced sitting on (and remaining inside) our new rug spots. 

The kids continued to explore centers around our classroom. They are learning to take responsibility for cleaning up their own areas. 

It was a great first week of kindergarten! We worked very hard on practicing our school routines. We learned our schedule, got to visit each of our specialists, and practiced including others to make new friends. 

We read many books this week! On Tuesday, we read "A Letter from your Teacher"; on Wednesday, we read "The King of Kindergarten"; on Thursday, we read "Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten"; and on Friday, we read "Personal Space Invader" (personal space is something we will continue working on next week too!).  

We also learned how to and practiced using many different school supplies. Wednesday's focus was crayons, Thursday's was pencils, and Friday's was glue sticks. They are doing a great job being responsible with their supplies! 

To practice our early math and literacy skills, we worked with puzzles, letter magnets, play-do, and many other shape manipulatives.

And, of course, the first week of kindergarten was full of play! They got to explore all of our play centers in the classroom throughout the week. We also got plenty of time to navigate the playground since the weather was so nice. They did a great job including others and making friends in the process. 

I'm looking forward to working with this group of kids all year! We had a WONDERFUL first week!