Weekly Update

3/6/20

It was wonderful to see so many of you enjoy the Bingo Reading Challenge! I love this time of year because the children begin to realize that each of them is a reader! The excitement is contagious! The kids are talking about their favorite books and authors in class! It is one of the reasons I enjoy Kindergarten so much!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words THEN and GOOD

· Tapping words to spell; proper letter formation

· Sequence of a story; visualize events in a story

· Continue working with teen numbers

· Review writing for information; write to tell a story

· Trip Around the World: Ireland

· Thursday: Trip to Keswick Theater to see Pout Pout Fish

2/28/20

Bonjour Families!

We enjoyed learning some French words and phrases this week as we visited Paris and Claude Monet’s water garden in Giverney, France. We painted the water and created lilypads to go along with them. They will brighten our classroom and get us ready for a beautiful Spring!

It’s hard to believe we will enter the month of March this weekend. We will be finishing up in France and heading to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day.

Next week we will celebrate Read Across America week at Enfield. Please see Mrs. VanVooren’s eBlast as well as our class calendar for special clothes for the week. A Bingo Board will also go home in folders today. We will be completing some boxes in school to help complete your child’s board. When completed, return the board to school for recognition. I will have extra boards in case you misplace them.

Bingo Box Completion in School

Monday: Read under a table

Tuesday: Read lying down

Wednesday: Listen to someone read

Thursday: Read while eating a snack

Friday: Read with a hat on

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words MAKE and SAY

· Tapping words to spell; proper letter formation

· Questioning while reading a text and identify cause and effect

· Continue working with teen numbers

· Review writing for information; write to tell a story

· Trip Around the World: France ~ then head to Ireland

2/21/20

We celebrated day 100 of school on Tuesday! It has been a wonderful 100 days! We are working hard reading, writing and counting this week, focusing specifically on numbers up to 20. Some are still struggling to get through the “tricky teens”. Any time you can spend counting would be beneficial. We also learned about some famous inventors and Presidents’ Day in our Social Studies lessons. Next week, we will head across the Atlantic Ocean to France! Wish your kiddos a Bon Voyage on Monday as they head to school!

We will also learn about a special day focusing on rare diseases. Rare Disease Day is celebrated on February 29. Mrs. Jenkins will be sharing a story on Thursday to help us learn about this. We encourage all kids to “Show Their STRIPES” on Friday in support of this.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words: THEY, UP and OUT

· Tapping words to spell; proper letter formation

· Reading to identify author’s purpose and to analyze and evaluate a text for information

· Continue working with teen numbers

· Review writing for information; write to tell a story

· Trip Around the World: France ~ we will learn a bit about the famous artist Claude Monet

· Wear STRIPES on Friday for Rare Disease Day

2/13/20

What a fun Valentine’s Day party! We had a lovely time playing some games with our friends and sharing some tasty treats! Thank you for all of your help with the party and with the cards. The children loved giving one another Valentines and were so very sincere as they walked around thanking each other! The children enjoyed making gifts for you the past several school days. Please be sure to check their folders for a painting and a card.

We are off from school tomorrow and Monday. We return on Tuesday to celebrate the 100^th Day of Kindergarten! We will do a few fun activities around the number 100!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words: HERE and FOR

· Counting and writing teen numbers

· Identifying the sequence of a story; retelling details and summarizing

· Black History Month~ This week is dedicated to some inventors: George Crum, Lonnie Johnson and Patricia Bath

· Segment CVC words in order to spell them (consonant-vowel-consonant ~ like FOG, CAT, SIT, etc)

· Writing our last names

· President’s Day

· Buddy Visit at Erdenheim on Friday

2/7/20

It was a great week of learning in our classroom! We accomplished many things, including learning facts about several famous people in American history. Be sure to ask your child what was learned about Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall and Harriet Tubman!

Last week I sent a letter home with a list of our classmates’ names for Valentine’s Day cards. If you misplaced it, let me know and I will email you the list. Here is the link to the Sign Up Genius for the party. Please make sure you let us know if you plan to attend and if you will be bringing your child home with you from the party. Also, please be aware that you must always bring your ID ~ badge and license~ with you each time you come to school. It is always upsetting when the office needs to turn someone away because of a missing license or badge.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D45A9A728A6FA7-valentines

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words: THAT and GO

· Counting and writing teen numbers

· Identifying the sequence of a story; retelling details and summarizing

· Black History Month~ This week is dedicated to some athletes: Jackie Robinson, Jackie Joyner Kersee, and Michael Jordan

· Segment CVC words in order to spell them (consonant-vowel-consonant ~ like FOG, CAT, SIT, etc)

· Reading and writing our classmates’ names

· We are off on Friday and Monday for Presidents’ Day

Hi Families!

We had a wonderful morning at our Book Swap! The children were so happy to get new books! We shared our favorites and searched for word wall words in them when we returned to the classroom. We also talked about Groundhog Day and the Super Bowl. We made predictions for both and are curious to see what comes true on Sunday. (FYI…It’s a tie for the game and most children are hoping for an early Spring!)

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I sent home a letter in homework bags today about how we share cards with our friends in Kindergarten. The letter has a list of names of all of our classmates. I sent it today in case you are ready to begin with the cards. Homework bags can come back as normal next Friday.

Be on the look out for a Sign Up for the class Valentine Party (Thursday, 2/13, 1:15-2:15) Please make sure you let us know if you plan to attend and if you will be bringing your child home with you from the party. Also, please be aware that you must always bring your ID ~ badge and license~ with you each time you come to school. It is always upsetting when the office needs to turn someone away because of a missing license or badge.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words: IN and BE

· Decomposing and representing numbers through 10 (related +/- facts)

· Identifying details in a text and summarizing stories

· Black History Month: we will learn about a special person each day and what they are known for

· Segment CVC words in order to spell them (consonant-vowel-consonant ~ like FOG, CAT, SIT, etc)

1/3/20

Happy New Year!

It was a calm and cozy start to the New Year in our room the past two days. It was so nice seeing our friends after our holiday break! I hope everyone enjoyed the time with family! We will jump back into the swing of things next week! Have a fabulous weekend! GO BIRDS!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Words: HE and SHE

· Subtraction

· Writing informational text

· Begin to “tap” CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant ~ like FOG, CAT, SIT, etc)

· Begin discussion of our place in the world (home, town, country, continent) in order to prepare our “passports” for our Trip Around the World

12/13/19

I hope you are all enjoying this magical time with your kids! We have been having a great time together in school adding learning to our celebrations. It is such a busy time here and at home, so I will only be sending books home next week for homework. If you want to do more, feel free to practice word wall words and apply addition facts to your day to day activities ( ex. You have 4 cookies on the plate and 2 more in your hand. How many cookies to you have? What is the equation to go along with this?)

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Review all letter sounds and formation

· Addition: equations and word problems

· Questioning while reading; compare and contrast

· Compare/Contrast Winter Holidays: Christmas and Kwanzaa

· On Thursday, we will have our class Winter party from 1:30-2:30. I sent the list of parents who are attending to the office and made them aware if you said you were taking your child home with you that day. Be aware that there are many class parties at that time and the office will be quite crowded checking people in.

· On Friday, Enfield will have our school-wide sing-a-long at 9:30. If you plan to bring your child home from this event, you must make me aware no later than Tuesday, Dec. 17. Once again, the office will be very crowded that day and the checkout process will go faster and smoother for you if you let us know in advance.

· As per Mrs. VanVooren’ eBlast, next week will be a Holiday-Themed Week.

o Monday: White Out Day~ wear white

o Tuesday: Wear Fuzzy Socks

o Wednesday: Holiday or Winter Hat Day

o Tinsel Thursday: Anything that sparkles!

o Friday: Wear Festive Clothes

12/6/19

As we learn about some winter holidays, we celebrated St. Nicholas Day today. We learned that he was a generous person who shared with others. We learned that in Europe, children put shoes out in order to receive a special little treat. Check out See Saw for some photos! We also learned how animals survive winter. Our Gingerbread-learning theme has started and will continue next week.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Review all letter sounds and formation

· Sight words: SAID, WILL & SAW

· Addition: equations and word problems

· Writing to inform

· Questioning while reading; compare and contrast

· Compare/Contrast Winter Holidays: Hanukkah

· Shoe Tying Challenge! There is great interest and effort taking place in the classroom surrounding learning to tie shoes! I hope many of your kids are sharing their skills with you at home!

· On Thursday, we will have a fun Gingerbread themed STEM day! We will use our creative, mathematical and engineering skills to help the Gingerbread Boy cross a bridge to escape the fox; fly away from the fox; chart a path for him and build a gingerbread house out of blocks. We will have a mini-Scavenger Hunt that a Gingerbread Man has hidden around the school!

· On Monday we will have a guest author, Liz Lynch visit all the Kindergarten classes to share about her writing/illustrating process. She has written Pandas Love Pickles and her child is an Enfield student.

Have a wonderful weekend!

11/15/19

It seems these weeks are flying by! We had a wonderful week celebrating Veteran’s Day, sharing opinions in writing, recognizing story elements, and visiting with our buddies. This week as the children were writing, I was so pleased with the growth in letters/sounds but also handwriting! Their use of lower case letters and proper letter formation is really improving! Thank you for your help with this at home!

Next week is American Education Week. We have times on Wednesday (9-9:30 or 12-12:30) if you would like to “see your kids in action!” We will not be doing anything special or out of the ordinary, it is just for you to observe your child at work.

Reminder: The children are off for conferences and Thanksgiving the week of Nov. 25. I find it unbelievable that December is right around the corner!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Xx and Yy

· Sight words: COME, WITH & MY

· Understanding addition as adding to or putting together; recognizing the plus sign

· Sharing and writing opinions; adding information to support opinion

· Identifying characters, setting, problem and solution in a story

· Thanksgiving

· Nocturnal and Diurnal animals

11/8/19

The kids were so happy to be in their pajamas today! There was a general calm, cozy feeling as we worked. What a nice way to end the week!

We really enjoyed sharing our Scavenger Hunt books on Thursday. Thank you for your involvement and participation in visiting all the places. It was so nice to see all the photos and pictures! We also love the creative turkey disguises coming in! We will share turkeys with our classmates on Tuesday.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Vv and Ww

· Sight words: WE and HAVE

· Classifying objects into groups; sorting, counting & comparing groups of objects

· Sharing and writing opinions; adding information to support opinion

· Identifying characters, setting, problem and solution in a story

· Veteran’s Day: What is a Veteran? Why should we thank Veterans? What character traits do Veterans have that we can try to copy?

· Buddies will visit us on Friday morning!

Hello Families!

I hope this email finds each of you safe and warm this weekend. The storm and lingering power outages have been quite eventful and perhaps traumatic for some of you. Please let me know if your family experienced any problems so I can be of support.

We did have a wonderful Halloween at school and I hope everyone enjoyed Trick or Treating Thursday evening! It truly was a “calm before the storm!”

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Hh, Kk and Ll

· Sight words: ME and YOU

· Labeling pictures using as many sounds as we can in a word

· Writing about things we find interesting

· Comparing groups to 10; reading and writing numerals to 10

· Sharing and writing opinions; adding information to support opinion

· Reminder: Children are off from school on Tuesday, November 5^th for Election Day

· Last Friday was supposed to be Pajama Day. I decided to postpone it until this coming Friday, November 8.

· Scavenger Hunt books are due this Wednesday.

· Turkey Disguises are due next Monday, November 11.

Hello Families!

We learned the Life Cycle of a Pumpkin this week. I hope you enjoyed your “pumpkin’s” little pumpkin that came home on Thursday. It was made to teach you about the life cycle.

We have been trying our very best to learn the correct way to form letters as we learn their names and sounds. It is so nice to see the children applying their letter/sound knowledge to labeling their pictures and writing sentences. We know that every sentence begins with an upper case letter and most end with periods. We also are learning to add finger space between our words. What an exciting time for your budding writers!

It has also been nice to see so many fun outfits for Enfield’s Red Ribbon Week observances. It continues next week too ~ Monday: Kindness shirts; Tuesday: Crazy Hair Day; Wednesday: Bright/Neon/Tie Dye; Thursday: Costumes. If someone forgets, I make a fuss over the kindness and friendship they show rather than the clothes they wear!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR NEXT WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Pp and Jj

· Sight words: PLAY and SEE

· Labeling pictures using as many sounds as we can in a word

· Comparing groups to 10; reading and writing numerals to 10

· Sharing and writing opinions; adding information to support opinion

· Thursday is Halloween. Children can wear costumes to school. (See Mrs. VanVooren’s email concerning costumes.) Our school parade begins at 9:30. If you intend to come to our class party, you need to let me know via the Sign Up Genius that was sent last week. Dismissal is at NOON on Halloween.

· Reminder: Children are off from school on Tuesday, November 5^th for Election Day

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello Families!

For a week that had a break right in the middle, we sure accomplished a lot! We did many things involving what kind of job we would like to have when we grow up. We made a community in the hall with our own paper dolls. If you are in the building, please stop by to check it out! We have been learning to label our drawings. We started with focusing on the first sound of the word. We will continue that this week and try for the ending sound as well.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR THIS WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Dd and Ss

· Sight words: IS and GET

· Compare and Contrast: My Five Senses

· Reading, writing and counting sets of 6,7,8,9

· LEAVES We will compare leaves of different trees to observe similarities and differences

· Book Fair is this week. We will “window shop” on Monday.

· The Firefighters are coming to visit on Monday. We will review fire safety.

· We visit our buddies at Erdenheim on Friday for our first visit!

A flyer will come home on Monday requesting donations for the Air Force Reserve Units from PA and NJ. Our class has been asked to send in jerky products. The collection will last from Oct. 14-21. Thank you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

10/4/19

We have fallen into such a nice routine in our class! It is so fun to watch them take responsibility for routines and jobs! They are learning so much! This week we learned about workers and wrote what we wanted to be when we grow up! I have quite a few future mail carriers, dog groomers, police officers, singers, coaches and vets! The Wizards came this afternoon to showcase a bit of what to expect should you decide to purchase tickets through the EEHSP for the Wizard’s game Oct. 19^th.

A REQUEST FROM THE OFFICE:

If you wish to join your child for lunch in the cafeteria, please email 24 hours in advance, so they can expect you. You must bring along your badge and your photo ID. Thank you!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR THIS WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Aa and Gg

· Sight words: THE & AM

· Details and Questioning: The Handiest Things in the World

· Comparing numbers 0 through 5 ~ greater than, less than and equal; Assessing these skills

· TREES: label parts, recognize different kinds of trees, identifying things we get from trees

· We will have a Lock Down Drill on Thursday. I will discuss in an age-appropriate, gentle way how and why we may do this. I do not dwell on the ‘why’ because there is no reason to frighten the children. They will understand that I am serious about this and serious that they learn what to do, but the idea is not to scare, it is to learn.

Reminder: We are off Wednesday, Oct. 9 for Yom Kippur.

Sept. 27, 2019

Hello Families!

It has been a week of learning in our classroom! We enjoyed learning about the life cycle of an apple tree, tasted apples (we like Granny Smith the most!) and picked apples in a memory-style sight word game. We also had a guidance lesson with Mrs Cook surrounding the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? We started right away talking about ways to be a Bucket Filler and not a Bucket Dipper. Perhaps you could continue the conversation at home and ask your child what it means and how they can be Bucket Fillers!

We are ready for a long weekend and look forward to seeing those happy little faces on Tuesday~ the first day of October!!!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR THIS WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Cc and Oo

· Sight words: A & TO

· Text and Graphic Features: Everybody Works

· Community Helpers ~ Kick off to our Community Scavenger Hunt! I will send home the books on Tuesday but in the meantime, see the message below from Oreland Fire House. A visit to a firehouse is in the book.

· Comparing numbers 0 through 5 ~ greater than, less than and equal

A message from Oreland Fire House:

Fire Prevention Open House

at Oreland Volunteer Fire Company

1500 Bruce Road, Oreland

Time: 6:30 to 8:30 PM on Monday September 30, 2019

Information, handouts, trucks, come see our gear and try it on. Refreshments for the family!

Sept. 20, 2019

Hello Families!

I hope your child enjoyed our week in school! I know there were some tired kids this morning, but once everyone entered the classroom, it was all smiles! If you have not checked Seesaw yet, we were dancing and learning quickly. We had our first fire drill and all went super! It was not “too loud” and everyone knew exactly where to go and what to do.

Have a wonderful weekend!

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR THIS WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Ii and Uu

· Sight words: LIKE

· Story Structure, Monitoring for understanding: Please, Puppy, Please?

· The Life Cycle of an Apple Tree

· Johnny Appleseed

· Read, write and count 0-5; ways to make sets of 5

Reminder: We are off on Monday, Sept. 30

September 15, 2019

Hello Families!

After our first week of full days, I am sure there were some tired little people getting off the bus last week! I can attest to being exhausted by Friday! Each day will get easier as we all get used to our busy days of learning.

Every Monday we share something that happened over the weekend and we write/draw about it in our journals. Perhaps as your child is getting ready in the morning, you can talk about some of the things that happened this weekend and what would be something he/she would like to write in the journal.

We learned how to use Kids A-Z last week. If your child is interested in using this app at home, user names and passwords are inside each red folder.

SOME OF OUR PLANS FOR THIS WEEK:

· Letter identification, formation and sounds: Mm & Nn

· Sight words: I & CAN

· Infer and Predict: How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?

· What is Science? What do scientists study? What do you want to learn?

· Identifying Living and Non-living things

· Sharing

· Read, write and count 0-5

June 14, 2019

We are in the home stretch! Remember, we only have half days for the remainder of the year. Be sure to send your child with a snack and a water each day.

Check folders and backpacks this weekend ~ we have many things coming home each day. I hope you enjoyed reading over your child’s writing, memory book and Trip Around the World book that was sent home the other day. It’s so amazing to see the growth over the course of the year!

I put each child’s talent on SeeSaw ~ I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Have a super weekend!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, June 17, 18, 19 Noon Dismissal

Wednesday, June 19 ~ Last Day of Kindergarten!

June 7, 2019

The year is winding down! However, there is so much more to happen! To help in bringing home our things, we will be painting bags. Please send in a brown handled paper shopping bag on Monday so your child can decorate it. Many things will be sent home on Tuesday that you will enjoy reading with your child, like our writer’s journals, Trip Around the World book and a Kindergarten Memory Book. Keep a look out for the wonderful work!

Monday, June 10: Move Up Day ~ we will meet our new first grade teacher and classmates! A note will come home with the new teacher’s name!

Tuesday, June 11: Class Celebration for the End of the Year! Please let me know on the Sign Up that Alison sent if you are planning to attend.

Thursday, June 13: TALENT DAY! ~ start practicing now!

Everyone has talents! Today you will have the chance to showcase a talent you have! Whether you can sing a song, dance a dance, whistle a tune, dribble a ball, read a poem, double knot a shoe, or do a cart-wheel…practice your talent at home and be ready to show us in class. (Keep presentation shorter than 5 minutes)

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, June 17, 18, 19 Noon Dismissal

Wednesday, June 19 ~ Last Day of Kindergarten!

A message from the office:

We are still having quite a few people come to school who are not on any list. Going forward we are going to have to tell them they can't come in. Parents MUST give 24 hours notice for Lunch and should give that much notice for any other visits when possible. Thanks!

Hello Families!

Wow! What a busy and fun week! First the Zoo, then Color Day! The kids really had a great time!

They all learned about animals at the zoo and about fun and sportsmanship at Color Day.

We will be doing some fun things in the last days of school! Please be sure to check the calendar on the green folder for important dates:

Wednesday, June 5: Show and Tell Day~ You may bring your favorite toy to show the class on this day. It must fit in your backpack. Be ready to tell what it is and why it is special to you!

Friday, June 7: Buddies at Erdenheim

Monday, June 10: Move Up Day ~ we will meet our new first grade teacher and classmates!

Tuesday, June 11: Class Celebration for the End of the Year!

Thursday, June 13: TALENT DAY! ~ start practicing now! You may bring your favorite toy to show the class on this day. It must fit in your backpack. Be ready to tell what it is and why it is special to you!

Friday, June 14: Mix Up Day! Be ready to meet new friends!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, June 17, 18, 19 Noon Dismissal

Wednesday, June 19 ~ Last Day of Kindergarten!

May 24, 2019

Our busy week of school culminated in a fun Friday of learning and play with our buddies, working on our memory books and finding hidden sight words in playdough. We now know all about Memorial Day and who we honor on this day. Check out our folders for a special symbol of the day ~ a poppy we made with our buddies!

Next week is going to be FUN-FILLED and BUSY!

Monday ~ OFF for Memorial Day

Wednesday ~ Trip to Elmwood Park Zoo! Please pack your child’s lunch in bags/containers that can be thrown away~ be sure to pack a large water! It’s going to be a hot one!

Friday ~ COLOR DAY! We are BLUE!

Tuesday and Thursday ~ We have to work sometime! We will be working on writing stories, comparing facts from informational stories and finishing up our trip to Brazil and the Amazon Rainforest.

May 20, 2019

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are all set for a busy few weeks!

*We have finished introducing our sight words and will practice, practice, practice for our end of year assessment next week. Please continue to review the words nightly with your child.

*Miss Amy from our public library is coming to see us this week to promote the Summer Reading Program there. Please visit the library throughout the summer for fun activities and lots of great reading!

*Today we will be celebrating Mrs. Robinson and her baby girls set to arrive in July. Mrs. Robinson is our next door neighbor and we interact daily with her and her students. I have gifts from our class and we will be making a special surprise for her this morning.

*Buddies will visit on Friday.

*Color Day is next Friday. Mrs. VanVooren has had information in her weekly eblast regarding this for the past few weeks. In case you missed it, we are BLUE.

Have a wonderful week!

May 4, 2019

May is here…fasten your seatbelts! It’s a busy, quick ride to June!

*WORMS ARE HERE! We have redworms and earthworms in our classroom! We are observing the differences/similarities, needs, and habitats, as well as how worms produce excellent nutrients for our soil. Many photos on SeeSaw ~ check it out!

*We are finishing our word wall words~ assessments will be at the end of the month. Please continue to review the words with your child regularly. The words should be recognized and read within about 2 seconds.

*Math: Measuring objects

*Writing: Telling a story with a beginning, middle and end. Using correct capitalization, punctuation, and handwriting.

*FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS: Wednesday May 8^th, 9:50-10:20

We will host a short singing performance on the stage and art exhibit in the gym. Expect a lot of traffic. With other classes performing immediately before and after us, they will be sticking to a strict timetable. See Mrs. VanVooren’s eBlast for further information.

*If possible, please send Zoo trip money and permission slips by Wednesday~

I will be out of the building on Thursday and Friday of this week. Please send any emails concerning dismissal, lunch visits, etc to Lynn_Miller@sdst.org for those days. Also include a note in your child’s folder for the substitute. Thanks!

April 12, 2019

Hello Families!

We had some fun activities today to kick off our Spring Break! Be sure to check your child’s folder for the Duck/Rabbit we made! We did an egg hunt for words and created word families by spinning eggs.

Today also was Mrs. Sweeney’s last day with us. She is officially retiring and is looking forward to more time with her family and some relaxation after many, many years of helping children in our school district. We celebrated with cards, a gift, cupcakes and some happy moments together. She will be missed in our school and classroom.

PLEASE EMPTY BACKPACKS AND FOLDERS TODAY! Spring pictures arrived. You keep what you want and pay for what you keep OR you simply return the packet to school. If the envelopes are in the bags on Monday, I will assume you do not want them. Thanks so much for your help with this!

A LOOK AHEAD:

*We will return to school on Monday, April 22^nd to celebrate Earth Day and learn ways we can be good citizens of the Earth.

* words WALK and VERY

*Poetry! We will be learning about poetry, sharing several poems, building poems we know (nursery rhymes) and created a poetry journal to share at home when we have them completed.

*Science: Earthworms will be arriving soon! We will learn about worms, their life cycles and what makes them special.

Have a wonderful Spring Break with your families!

April 5, 2019

What a fun week in Egypt! We learned about the Great Pyramids, hieroglyphics, The Nile River and animals that live there. We enjoyed our trip to the movie theater to see Oceans. We were excited to see our plants and grass grow throughout the week. Please enjoy the “grass heads” and as far as the zinnias go, you can transplant outside when the weather gets a bit warmer. They are the mini-zinnias ~ @10-12 inches tall.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words LOOK and DO

*Review of short vowels, syllables, blends and diagraphs

*Assess shapes in math

*Spring!

*Book Fair is next week. We will “window shop” at our preview on Monday. If you wish, you can send money in throughout the week in an envelope and orders will be filled and delivered to our classroom.

We are looking forward to our Spring Break! We are off April 15-19.

March 29, 2019

Hello Families,

Our week was a busy one filled with Paris, planting seeds and learning about shapes.

We are moving on to Egypt this week, learning about the pyramids, ancient Egypt, the geography and animals. If you are in the building, be sure to walk by our room. Mrs. Robinsons class’, our next door neighbor, and our class will be creating a visual masterpiece of the region.

A LOOD AHEAD:

*Words BY, HELP and ASK

*Flat and solid shapes: their names and characteristics (we will call corners “vertices”)

*Monitoring what we read for understanding and reading to clarify

*PICTURE DAY IS MONDAY ~ each Spring we take pictures again. You do not send money ahead of time. The children will bring home a packet in a few weeks and you keep and pay for what you want. If you do not want it, you simply return it. (Be sure to return it promptly, or they will bill you.)

*MOVIE TRIP ON FRIDAY! We will be going to Hiway Theater in Jenkintown on Friday to see Disney Nature: Oceans to tie in with our trip around the world. The flyer went home saying we will be providing popcorn and a drink. There was some discussion about the popcorn, so it was decided that we will be providing each child with a bag of Pirate’s Booty. If your child has allergies to this food, please let me know and you and I will come up with an alternate snack. We will be giving the children a choice of lemonade or water.

Because of the timing of this trip, our lunch will be at 12:15 and our special classes will be at 1:50 that day.

Also, if you hear anything about Kindergarten Round Up or Orientation Night, please know this is for NEXT YEAR’S KINDERGARTEN. This does not affect you or your child.

March 22, 2019

We had a great event-filled week! An Irish Dance assembly, our first field trip and a buddy visit~ Wow! We were busy!

A LOOK AHEAD:

· words ALL & DAY

· sequencing stories

· planting seeds ~ the life cycle of a plant

· reading and spelling words with digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh, ck)

· counting numbers to 100 by recognizing patterns on a number chart

· FRANCE. We will learn about some landmarks and famous artists. We will “visit” Paris on Monday using virtual reality viewers!

· Community Helper Mystery Reader Monday~ we will start the morning with a reader sharing a book and a bit about her job. We will talk about things we can do to be good workers too.

· We will be having a Lock Down Drill on Thursday at some point. Please know that I keep things “Kid-Friendly” and try to explain on an age-appropriate way what we do and why. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know.

· APRIL 5 ~ Movie theater trip courtesy of the EEHSP ~ please return the permission slip by this Wednesday. J

Have a great weekend!

March 15, 2019

Hello Families,

What a fun day filled with leprechaun tricks, hunts and traps! I hope you enjoy the SeeSaw videos. I wanted to share the excitement with you! I think the leprechauns all headed back to Ireland, so things should calm down for Monday!

A LOOK AHEAD:

· words IS, WAS and US

· story structure

· reading and spelling words with digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh, ck)

· counting numbers to 100 by recognizing patterns on a number chart

· IRELAND ~ we will have an Irish Dance assembly first thing on Monday then leave on our trip around the world to FRANCE. We will learn about some landmarks and famous artists while there.

· HENRY AND MUDGE: We will go to the Keswick Theater on Wednesday to see a play! Due to this, we will switch our lunch and special times. We will be eating lunch at 12:15 on Wednesday.

· Friday is another half day for the remainder of the conferences. We will also have a Buddy visit here on Friday morning.

· THURSDAY: ROCK YOUR SOCKS DAY! Thursday, 3/21 is Down Syndrome Awareness Day. To show support for an inclusive community, please have your children wear mismatched, fun socks that day!

Enjoy the Spring-like weather and have a great weekend!

March 8, 2019

We have had our fair share of the germs this year! On Thursday afternoon, the kids and I went to town in our classroom with wipes! They had a ball cleaning every surface of the classroom, including pencils, scissors and glue! I hope that this helps in “germ-busting” our classroom!

A LOOK AHEAD:

· words ATE and PUT

· inferring and predicting while noticing details in text and illustrations

· reading and spelling words with digraphs (th, sh, ch, wh, ck)

· counting numbers to 100 by recognizing patterns on a number chart

· informational writing ~ writing about FOOD

· IRELAND ~ we will visit Ireland on our trip around the world…maybe we will catch a leprechaun on our travels!

REMINDER: Friday is a half-day for Parent Teacher Conferences. The children will be dismissed at noon both this Friday and next Friday.

March 3, 2019

Here is a shortened weekly update, as I am still recovering from the flu. I hope to be back to school Tuesday or Wednesday~ depending on when I am “fever-free”. Please let your child know I miss them terribly and look forward to seeing them as soon as I can! Fingers are crossed for no more snow ~ but that doesn’t seem likely….

A LOOK AHEAD:

· words THEN and GOOD

· sequencing and visualizing while reading

· informational writing

· recognizing teens numbers as 1 ten and __ ones (13 is 1 ten and 3 ones or 10+3)

Have a great first week of March! Spring is on its way!

February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

It was a fun short week here in Kindergarten. We celebrated the 100^th day and Valentine’s Day with our friends. I hope you like the “Heart-Art” your child created for you as a gift! They are so pretty!

Please be sure to empty your child’s folder today. There is a YELLOW paper in there concerning Spring Conferences. Please fill out the bottom and return as soon as possible. I will be scheduling conferences on a first come-first serve basis.

Here is a glimpse of what we will be doing this week:

*words THEY, UP and OUT

*write to give information

*teen numbers ~ counting, writing and reading them

*learning some facts about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington in honor of Presidents’ Day

*Michael Jordan, George Crum ~ inventor of the potato chip, Lonnie Johnson ~ inventor of the Super Soaker!

We will go on a Buddy Visit on Friday!

Enjoy your long weekend! Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 9, 2019

We are gearing up for a big week in Kindergarten! With the celebration of the 100^th day and Valentine’s Day, I think I will be looking forward to resting on our day off on Friday!

Here is a glimpse of what we will be doing this week:

*words HERE and FOR

*continue to add more details to a story in both illustrations and sentences

*teen numbers ~ counting, writing and reading them

*celebrating the 100^th day of school

*celebrating Valentine’s Day

*learning some facts about Abraham Lincoln (his birthday is the 12^th)

*Jackie Robinson, Jackie Joyner-Kersee & Michael Jordan

On Wednesday, we will do a few fun things to celebrate the number 100. We may have some creative art projects, building projects and a few surprises for the day!

On Thursday, we will have a class party from 2:00-3:00 in the classroom. Be sure to register that you are coming on the Sign Up Genius Alison Kopp sent. I am required to send a list of names to the office of people attending. It will be a busy day in the office since all 20 classes will be celebrating Valentine’s Day. I will be sending the list on MONDAY ~ please RSVP by then. Thanks!

Children are to bring a Valentine for each of their classmates. I sent home a list of the children’s names for your child to make/write out Valentines. Please sit with them as THEY write the names for their friends. This is a good time to talk about how much they enjoy each of their friendships and get a picture of how your child is feeling socially. Do a few a night, so the handwriting is neat and legible. Thanks for your help with this! In case you lost the list of names:

Ella

Shayla

Vivienne

Romy

Sara

Keilee

Maeve

Olivia

Anjana

Teagan

Brendan G.

Henry

Logan

Gabriel

Wyatt

Jackson

Marcos

Robby

Brendan S

Matthew

Scott

Mrs. Sweeney

Mrs. Evans

February 1, 2019

So, the big question your children want answered tomorrow is “Will the Groundhog see his shadow?” Overwhelmingly, the class is wishing for an early Spring so I hope for their sake, he does not see his shadow and gets to run and play!

This week we focused on the main idea and details of a story, wrote great stories with more than one sentence, learned to decompose numbers through 10 and started a unit of study surrounding Black History Month. We will continue to learn about someone special each day.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*words THAT and GO

*telling a story in the correct sequence

*continue to add more details to a story in both illustrations and sentences

*Chinese New Year

*complete and assess decomposing numbers through 10

*be creative in anticipation of Valentine’s Day

*Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall and Jackie Robinson

We will be celebrating the 100^th Day of School on February 13 (barring snow days) and Valentine’s Day on February 14^th. Children are asked to bring a Valentine for each of their classmates. I sent home a list of the children’s names for your child to get started on making/writing out Valentines. Please sit with them as THEY write the names for their friends. This is a good time to talk about how much they enjoy each of their friendships and get a picture of how your child is feeling socially. Do a few a night, so the handwriting is neat and legible. Thanks for your help with this! Stay tuned for more information regarding both of these exciting days!

January 24, 2019

This was quite a short week for us in Kindergarten, but we accomplished a lot! We finished our reading, word wall and letter/sound assessments this week, wrote several stories, identified the main idea and details in a story, practiced addition and subtraction facts and observed new things about our goldfish and guppies. Did you know that you can tell a boy guppy from a girl guppy? Boys have spots and girls have a bigger belly. We have 2 boy guppies and 2 girl guppies and several baby guppies that are too little to determine yet.

A Look Ahead:

*Summarize stories and gain information about the details

*Write stories and tell more ~ we will be writing more than one sentence in our stories

*Decompose numbers (ex. 6 can be 5+1, 2+4, 3+3, etc)

*Globe and Map vocabulary ~ land, water, continent, ocean

*Groundhog Day

*Black History Month ~ each day we will learn about the contributions of someone

We will be celebrating the 100^th Day of School on February 13 (barring snow days) and Valentine’s Day on February 14^th. Children are asked to bring a Valentine for each of their classmates. I will be sending home a list of the children’s names next week if you want to get a head start. Stay tuned for more information regarding both of these exciting days!

January 11, 2019

We welcomed some class pets this week! How exciting! We have three goldfish ~ Gritty, Sparkles and Little Nicky Foles ~ and several guppies. We will be observing them, recognizing their similarities and differences and come to an understanding of their needs. We also had a great time at the Book Swap. We donated our time to set up for the book swap for the other Kindergarten classes, then chose some books for ourselves. I was so pleased to witness so many of our kids picking books with their siblings in mind.

We did some awesome writing this week! We are learning to “tell more”, add details to our drawings, use finger space and good handwriting so others can read what we have written. Please encourage your child to use correct formation of letters and numbers and be neat as they do their homework. We are doing a great job learning to problem solve subtraction problems in math too! Amazing work for your little ones!

A Look Ahead:

*Recognize the Main Idea of a book and support it with details.

*Words THIS and OUR

*Assess Subtraction

*Related facts (4+1 and 1+4) and others ways of representing a number (4+1, 2+3 both equal 5)

*Martin Luther King Jr

*Buddy visit here on Friday

We will begin assessing our word wall words, and reading levels beginning this week. You can help by practicing those words at home and concentrate on unknown words.

REMINDER: Please send in self-portraits as you complete them. I’ll begin hanging them in the hall this coming week. They are due by Jan 24^th.

GO EAGLES!!!!

January 7, 2019

Happy New Year Families!

We are back in the swing of things this week...

*Words LITTLE and OF

*Subtraction: “taking apart” from a group and “taking from” a group, using the minus sign in equations

*Reading Skills and Strageties: Cause & Effect; Infer and Predict

*Writing: Editing and adding additional sentences; Informational writing

*Animals: Fish

You can look in your child’s bag on Monday for the “Return of the Homework Bag”!

Also in your child’s folder is a purple flyer describing a home project or creating a self-portrait. These are due in school by Thursday, Jan. 24. If you have any questions or problems regarding this, reach out to me and I’ll be happy to help.

REMINDER: THIS FRIDAY IS OUR BOOK SWAP! A purple flyer went home last week explaining this event. In short, have your child find a few books around the house he/she no longer reads and send them to as soon as possible. On Friday, we will trade 2 books for 1 book, with the remaining books being donated to Cradles to Crayons.

Looking forward to a fun week of learning and celebrating! GO EAGLES!

December 14, 2018

The countdown to Winter Break is on! Next week is event-filled but I will be doing my best to keep the kids calm and myself sane! I will not be sending home a homework bag next week, as I am sure you are busy at home too. Attached is a slideshow of word wall words for practice over the holidays. If the word ring is here at school and you want it for practice, let me know and I will send it home.

Next Week:

MONDAY: Welcome Winter party, 2:00-3:00

TUESDAY: Pajama Day! We will be reading The Grinch and doing activities surrounding this book. Miss Amy will visit from Springfield Township Library. Please be sure to wear sneakers for Gym. A stuffed animal that can fit in a backpack is welcome as well.

FRIDAY: 9:30 School Wide Sing-a-long; 12:00 Dismissal

Looking forward to a fun week of learning and celebrating!

Happy 2019!

December 7, 2018

It’s the most wonderful and busiest time of the year! It looks like we have enough helpers for our STEM day on Tuesday! Thank you so much for volunteering to take time out of your busy schedules to help us! I understand how hard it is and I am grateful!

We have enjoyed learning about holidays such as Hanukkah and St. Nicholas Day this week. Ask your child what traditions and customs surround these holidays. We’ve also enjoyed our gingerbread stories! It is a Winter Wonderland outside our room! If you are in the building, please stop by and enjoy our work.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: WILL, SAID and SAW

*A Review of all Letters/Sounds

*Compare and contrast characters and event in stories

*Draw Conclusions from a text and question to clarify information while reading

*Letter formation and finger space in writing

*Addition and Assessment of this unit

*Winter Holidays: Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza

*Gingerbread stories continue with our STEM Day!

A “MINDSET MISSION” assembly will be held Monday morning. Blue flyers were sent home this week sharing information about this.

On Friday, Dec. 14^th we will travel to Erdenheim for our buddy visit. We will leave about 9:15 and return about 10:30.

Our class “Welcome Winter Party” has been planned for Monday, December 17^th at 2:00. A Sign Up Genius has been sent for volunteers to contribute food, craft and games. If you plan on attending, please let me know this week, so I can submit your names to the front office. Thank you for all of your support! Looking forward to a fun and festive December!

Happy Hanukkah to all of our families! I hope everyone enjoys a festive, fun-filled weekend!

Go Navy and Eagles!

December 1, 2018

Your child’s first Kindergarten report card was placed in his/her green folder Friday afternoon. You can refer to the rubric handed out at conferences in order to understand the scoring of each section of the report card. This is a standard-based report card; therefore, we are working toward meeting the standard at the end of the year. If you have any questions, feel free to email me for clarification.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: WHAT, ARE and AT

*Letters/Sounds: Zz and Qq

*Compare and contrast characters and event in stories

*Letter formation and finger space in writing

*Addition

*Winter Holidays: Hanukkah and St. Nicholas

*Gingerbread stories

Our next 5-week session of PAWS will begin this week. This is a time in the day (30 minutes, 3 times a week) where we group students in order to target specific reading instruction. Some children will remain in our classroom, some will head to our next-door neighbor, Mrs. Robinson (you may know her as Ms. Keeys). We also have other groups headed to work with Mrs. Landau or Ms. Reagan. We look forward to this great opportunity to meet a few new friends and learn together!

We will celebrate a Gingerbread STEM day! A few parent volunteers will be needed one day the week of December 10^th~ I’ll let you know the date as soon as we have a firm schedule. (Clearances are needed). Each child will be asked to bring in one empty cardboard box beginning in December so we can help construct a “real house”. All sizes and shapes of boxes are welcome, as long as your child can independently carry it safely to our classroom.

Our class “Welcome Winter Party” has been planned for Monday, December 17^th at 2:00. A Sign Up Genius has been sent for volunteers to contribute food, craft and games. If you plan on attending, please let me know this week, so I can submit your names to the front office. Thank you for all of your support! Looking forward to a fun and festive December!

Happy Hanukkah to all of our families!

November 16, 2018

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I am looking forward to meeting with each of you next week to share the good work and progress of your little one! It’s hard to believe how much we have learned so far this year. Having an entire week off from school may be difficult for some kids. Please encourage your child to read a bit each day, write stories or notes, or draw detailed pictures and tell stories to go along with them. Kids A-Z is always available using the log in information on your child’s green folder. Don’t be surprised if next Monday brings some tears ~ it will be hard getting back into the swing of things after our holiday.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: COME, WITH, MY

*Letters/Sounds: Yy and Xx

*Summarizing fiction stories

*Adding details to our writing

*Review and Assessment of “Classify and Count Data”

*Introduce the concept of Addition

*Hibernation and Migration

*Identifying nocturnal and diurnal animals.

We will begin construction of a Gingerbread House on our classroom door this week. The “cookie” part will be assembled for us by some parents and then as we learn throughout the month, we will add details to our house. This is a fun activity that has many components ~ primarily reading many Gingerbread-type stories. We will have a Gingerbread STEM day as well! Each child will be asked to bring in one empty cardboard box beginning in December so we can help construct a “real house”. A few parent volunteers will be needed one day the week of December 10^th~ I’ll let you know the date as soon as we have a firm schedule. (Clearances are needed) Looking forward to a fun and festive December!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! Enjoy the time together!

November 10, 2018

Can you believe we are coming up on the end of our first trimester of kindergarten?!?! When I take a moment to stop and just observe the students working, I am so proud of their growth! It is so nice to see and we welcome you to come and take a peek this week during American Education Week. You are welcome to join us on Monday morning from 9:00-9:30 or Wednesday afternoon from 1:30-2:00 to watch your little one working and learning in our classroom. If you wish to see a special area class, we have those 12:25-1:05 each day. Feel free to contact those teachers to schedule your visit. If you are not sure of their email, but know the day you wish to come, contact me and I’ll help set it up for you.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*New words: WE and HAVE

*New letters/sounds: Vv and Ww

*Reading comprehension skill: Recognizing text and graphic features and gathering information from them.

*Math skills: sorting objects into categories and counting/comparing those groups

*Veteran’s Day

*Thanksgiving

*Nocturnal and Diurnal Animals

November 2, 2018

I always look forward to Halloween for so many reasons. The main reason is that each year by Halloween our class grows from a group of people working together, into a little family here at school. This is so true this year! We are doing such a nice job learning, working and playing together, accepting each other as we are and celebrating each person’s successes. What a nice class we have!

This week we enjoyed our Halloween parade and party. Thanks so much to the parents who organized, assisted and donated to our celebration! The kids looked adorable and we had a great time!

We wrote about our leaves, wrote opinions, labeled pictures and worked on rhyming. We compared groups of numbers and have been trying to write our numbers properly.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: ME and YOU

*Letters, sounds and formation of the letters Ll, Hh and Kk

*Comparing groups to 10

*Sharing, supporting and writing opinions

*We will share our SCAVENGER HUNT BOOKS on Monday. If you forgot to send it in, please do so by Monday morning.

*We will be sharing and writing about our TURKEY DISGUISES on Thursday. Please send the turkeys in by WEDNESDAY.

*We will continue to name story elements of Character, Setting, Problem and Solution in fiction stories.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Children are off on Election Day, November 6^th.

Have a super weekend!

October 26, 2018

We really enjoyed learning about things to do with Autumn this week! We used SPHERO on Monday as we painted a huge, class pumpkin vine. It is in the hallway outside our room showcasing our fine motor pumpkins. We also learned about leaves and wrote sentences using our senses to tell our favorite part of Fall. These are all in the hallway ~ be sure to check them out if you are in the building!

We are doing a good job learning our word wall words. We were assessed on those today so your hard work with the word rings at home is paying off! We also played a few letter/sound games at centers and it is so great to see the progress!

Next week will sure to be filled with excitement! There is plenty to learn too!

A PEEK AHEAD:

*Words: PLAY and SEE

*Letters, sounds and formation of the letters Pp and Jj

*Assessing numbers through 10; comparing groups to 10

*Labeling with at least the initial sound pictures of ourselves

*HALLOWEEN! We will parade and celebrate beginning at 9:30. Dismissal is at noon.

If you are coming to school on Halloween, please know that we have a total of 16 parents planning on being here in our class alone. It will be crowded and it will take time to get through our school security to our classroom. If you have something for the party, consider dropping it off the day before or sending it with your child if possible. If you are helping with the party, try to follow us in the parade so the kids can begin rather quickly.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

Scavenger Hunt books are due November 2 ~ that’s Friday. We will share them on Monday, November 5^th.

Turkey Disguises are due on November 7^th. We will be writing about them on November 8^th and hanging them in the hallway.

Children are off on Election Day, November 6^th.

Stay dry this weekend and enjoy your little ones! We have had quite a few classmates sick these past two weeks so please stay well!

October 19, 2018

We enjoyed a wonderful visit with our Buddies today! I will be SeeSawing photos soon!

The children did a super job staying still and silent during our Lockdown drill on Thursday. I tried to keep the drill light-hearted so as not to cause any fear. It was just practice in staying safe.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Sight words: AND and WENT

*Correct formation and sounds for Ee and Rr

*Label pictures with at least the beginning letter/sound

*Read, write and count the numbers through 10 and recognize ways to make 10

*Our Five Senses~ we will continue to describe our senses as we use them to make science discoveries

*Leaves: recognize that different varieties of trees and leaves have different shapes and structures.

*The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin

*A visit from a Springfield Township Police Officer

Some things to remember:

**Please remember to send back library books on Wednesdays! We’ve had many children forget each week so far.

**Keep working on the Scavenger Hunt books! They are due back the first week of November.

**I’ll be sending home an empty bag in the children’s homework bags on Monday. This bag is labeled “Leaves”. Please help your child gather a few different kinds of leaves from trees so we can talk about them later in the week on Thursday and Friday. Thanks!

Thank you so very much for your support! Together we can do great things!

Have a wonderful weekend!

October 12, 2018

We had a super fun day today reinforcing our beginning sound and math skills using BeeBots! Check our photos on SeeSaw!

I hope you enjoy the beautiful fall weather this weekend!

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Sight words: IS and GET

*Correct formation and sounds for Dd and Ss

*Compare and contrast ideas in a story

*Ask questions while reading to discover when you don’t know or understand a word or idea

*Label pictures with at least the beginning letter/sound

*Read, write and count the numbers 6-9

*Our Five Senses

*Trees: recognize that different varieties of trees and leaves have different shapes and structures.

***Our first buddy visit to Erdenheim will take place on Friday morning! We will meet a friend in Mrs. Cottone’s second grade.

Some things to remember:

**Please remember to send back library books on Wednesdays! We’ve had many children forget each week so far.

**Keep working on the Scavenger Hunt books! They are due back the first week of November.

**The EEHSP will hold their Fall Book Fair next week. We will “Window Shop” on Monday. You can purchase books from your child’s wish list or come on Family Night which is Wednesday.

**If you haven’t done so, can you fill in the survey about your child using the following link. I’ve been meeting with each child and have had a nice time “interviewing” them!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ixHX0T-hODT3T_ERSdHfU1QHzSlybfcjYMIMWw959PI/edit

Thank you so very much for your support! Together we can do great things!

Have a wonderful weekend!

October 5, 2018

It’s been a great week learning about community workers and discussing what we want to be when we grow up! Next week is Fire Prevention Week. We will learn more about our firefighters as we have a visit from the firefighters from Wyndmoor Fire Company. Please be aware of many open houses at the Fire Stations in our community.

Oreland Fire Company will hold theirs on Monday, October 8^th from 6:30-8:30. They will have information, handouts, trucks, and gear to try it on. Refreshments for the family! (1500 Bruce Road, Oreland)

We are well on our way writing and identifying letters and sounds! As we work through this, you can have your child share the letter/keyword/sound drill we do each day. Use the handwriting homework as a springboard for conversations and thinking of words with that initial sound.

(Example: This upcoming week we will be doing A and G. As your child practices the formation, ask what the sound card is ~ we say “A-apple-/ah/ and G-game-/g/” Then it can be a game thinking of word with those beginning sounds. You can play “I Spy” too! Anything to make it fun for the children.) If you notice your child having difficulty at home, you can note it on the homework sheet.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Sight words: AM and THE

*Correct formation and sounds for Aa and Gg

*Listening for details in a non-fiction story to identify the Main Idea

*Ask questions while reading to discover when you don’t know or understand a word or idea

*Label pictures with at least the beginning letter/sound

*Compare numbers 0-5

*Fire Safety

*Trees: identify and label the parts and understand their purpose (leaves gather sunlight to make food, roots absorb water and hold the tree in place, etc) and recognize that different varieties of trees have different structures.

Thank you so very much for your support! Together we can do great things!

Have a wonderful weekend!

June 8, 2018

What a busy and fun week we’ve had! Our Zoo trip, Beach Day and final buddy visit were exciting! We truly enjoyed being together at the zoo and riding the bus with one another. We all shared many animal-sighting highlights with the class. The jaguars and otters were two of the favorites! On Beach Day we made new friends who traveled through part of the morning and afternoon with us. We loved the popsicles! We traveled to Erdenheim this morning, enjoyed spending time with our buddy and once again, were treated to a popsicle!

Next week will continue to be busy as we end out the year. To help in bringing the many things we have to share home, I ask each child to bring a grocery-store sized, brown bag with handles on Monday (think Whole Foods or Trader Joes) We will be decorating them to carry our treasures! If you forget, no worries! I will have extras available.

June 11, Move Up Day. We meet our new first grade teacher!!!!

June 12, 9:30-10:45 Class End of Year Celebration! Anyone coming to join us should have notified me in advance so badges can be printed out ahead of time. You can arrive at 9:30 in our classroom and meet us outside. We will be in the Kindergarten playground, weather permitting. I plan to have food on the picnic tables with the children sitting where they wish around that part of the playground. We will play first, then eat. Last we will come inside for an activity in the classroom.

June 13, Talent Day! Everyone should be ready to share something they can do well!

June 14, half day: Girl’s Show & Tell Day ~ all items must fit in the backpack!

June 15, half day: Boy’s Show & Tell Day~ all items must fit in the backpack!

June 18, half day, last day of school!!! I am aware that many children are beginning camp this day. If your child will be absent that day, just let me know. This day will be “low-key” with most of our festivities being finished in the full week.

Thanks so much!!!!

June 1, 2018

Our First Color Day is in the books! We had a wonderful day playing and having fun. It was a steamy morning outside but so much fun! Blue was victorious, which made our class so excited! I’ll share some photos on Seesaw this weekend.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 6, Elmwood Park Zoo trip: Disposable lunches, weather appropriate clothing and comfortable shoes are needed for the day. We will be eating at the zoo and returning to school about 1:30

June 7, Kindergarten Beach Day! Dress in RED, WHITE and BLUE! We will mix up the classes and meet new friends!

June 11, Move Up Day. We meet our new first grade teacher!!!!

June 12, 9:30-10:45 Class End of Year Celebration!

June 13, Talent Day!

June 14, half day: Girl’s Show & Tell Day

June 15, half day: Boy’s Show & Tell Day

June 18, half day, last day of school!!!

May 25, 2018

The year is moving along at such a fast pace right now! I can’t believe we are at Memorial Day and at day 15 in the countdown to the last day of school!

We enjoyed our trip to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Ask your child if they can draw some of the sea life like coral, puffer fish and starfish. We have been busy reminiscing about things we loved at school this year as we make our own memory books. We had a fun buddy visit today and learned why we celebrate Memorial Day. Ask your child what are some ways we can honor our brave soldiers.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*We return to the USA on our Trip Around the World and learn about some landmarks

*We continue with our Memory Books

*We will reinforce good story writing with a topic, events and reaction along with proper handwriting.

*We will celebrate Color Day on Friday. More info to follow from the gym teacher, but if you plan on coming, we participate in the morning. We are TEAM BLUE. So we wear blue that day.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 1, Color Day Kinder competes in the AM

June 6, Elmwood Park Zoo trip

June 7, Kindergarten Beach Day! Dress in RED, WHITE and BLUE! We will mix up the classes and meet new friends!

June 11, Move Up Day. We meet our new first grade teacher!!!!

June 12, 9:30-10:45 Class End of Year Celebration!

June 14 & 15, half days

June 18, half day, last day of school!!!

May 18, 2018

Rain, Rain! Go away! We’ve been stuck inside for 3 whole days!

We are anxious for the clouds to part and for some time outside soon!

The EEHSP Carnival will be tomorrow, here at Enfield, rain or shine! They are planning on bringing everything inside. I expect to be at the Raffle Ticket table from 11-12:15. If you are here during that time, I hope to see you!

This week we shared the many ways we “bloomed” this year after reading Leo the Late Bloomer. I am so proud of how much everyone has learned, both academically, socially and as contributing citizens of our class. We used the book as a springboard for writing retellings and as a self-reflection. We were assessed on our word wall words and benchmarked for reading progress. We have been adding and subtracting in math and using manipulatives as well as number lines. We were on safari in Africa and are observing our water snails. Such a busy time!!!

As we look ahead to next week:

*We will begin to create Kindergarten Memory Books

*We will review short and long vowel sounds

*We will determine how to solve number stories

*We will head to the Land Down Under ~ Australia! We will begin to study sea life.

*We will have a buddy visit on Friday and learn the reason for celebrating Memorial Day.

***Tuesday, May 22 is Barnes and Noble Night in Willow Grove! Come out for this great school fundraiser and prepare for Summer Reading! Hope to see you there!

UPCOMING EVENTS:

June 1, Color Day Kinder competes in the AM

June 6, Elmwood Park Zoo trip

June 7, Kindergarten Beach Day! We will mix up the classes and meet new friends!

June 11, Move Up Day. We meet our new first grade teacher!!!!

June 12, 9:30-10:45 Class End of Year Celebration!

June 14 & 15, half days

June 18, half day, last day of school!!!

May 11, 2018

What a busy week! We traveled to Kenya, invited some new class pets to our room (snails!) met our visiting author, enjoyed our Festival of the Arts and shopped until we dropped at our Flea Market!

Next week won’t seem quite as busy, but so much is happening at this time as we wind down the year and review all we’ve learned. Your children’s writing of stories is really maturing and it is a delight to read what they share! This week I will continue assessing reading levels as well as reading word wall words. Please practice, practice, practice the ring to review with your child.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: WHEN and JUST

*Review of addition and subtraction

*Writing narratives with good beginning, middle and end ~ along with proper mechanics of capital letters, end marks, finger space and sight word spelling.

*Visit Kenya with the VR glasses

*Buddy’s come visit on Friday

THANK YOU so very much for thinking of me during this week of Teacher Appreciation! I am truly blessed to spend my days with your children. It is a pleasure!

May 4, 2018

This week seemed like Summer arrived early. We enjoyed the sunshine… and the shade! With construction happening on Church Road, we took a walk out front to sit under a beautiful Cherry Blossom tree and watched the construction workers for a few minutes. It was a treat for everyone…nature and big trucks! We read about chameleons, built word families, practiced our word wall words, and worked on segmenting and blending words. We visited Mexico, made piñatas and decorated maracas. We practiced addition facts and used manipulatives to solve addition stories.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: THEM and MUST

*We will be applying our reading skills and worked more independently at centers this week as end of year assessments are starting. I will be reading individually with each child to determine everyone’s current reading level. This takes time, so your child will be bringing home books that we have not read together. Please have them try it as best they can and provide support where needed.

*Author Visit on Tuesday

***Festival of the Arts: 12:00-1:00 in the gym on THURSDAY, May 10. Clearances are NOT required, so come and enjoy some singing and artwork. All MUST enter through the gym. You will not be able to visit the classroom during this time.

*****FLEA MARKET on FRIDAY! Please begin sending in items starting on Monday. If your child cannot carry it, you can drop it at the office and ask to have it sent to our classroom. Thank you!

April 22, 2018

We had a great week of learning! We learned about the life cycle of a butterfly. We learned vocabulary and worked to sequence it correctly. We took time to discuss ways to help keep the Earth clean in celebration of Earth Day. We visited our buddies at Erdenheim today and saw the incubator that is hatching their chick eggs! We look forward to seeing photos of their chicks next week!

A look ahead:

*New words: WALK and VERY

*Heading to Brazil on Trip Around the World to visit the Amazon Rainforest

*Time to the hour

*Making inferences based on illustrations and text clues

* -ing family words and the suffix -ing

*Continue learning about life cycle of plant and insect

*Assessment of 3D shapes, recognition and value of coins, composing numbers using 10s and 1s, decomposing numbers with 10s and 1s

On Friday the children will have a half day due to a teacher in-service. We will also celebrate Autism Awareness Day on Friday. We are asked to wear blue and will be given a ribbon when we come to school.

Spring Pictures were sent home this week. If you do not wish to purchase these photos, send them back to school in your child’s folder.

Permission slips for the trip to the zoo came home. Please sign and return them as soon as possible so I can forward them to the nurse’s office. Also, as soon as possible please send your child’s $12 for the trip so I can forward all of the money to the office. If you returned the slip to chaperone, you can send your $12 as well. Thanks so much!

April 13, 2018

What a lovely day! We enjoyed the time outside today and were excited to see the many insects that have started to come out of hiding! We learned about planting seeds this week and look forward to our sunflowers growing. We will continue to learn the plants’ parts and develop and understanding of their jobs. We have been working on sequencing stories as well as the life cycle of plants. See if your child can retell stories using the words first, next, then, last. We have learned several new poems and are almost finished our Poetry Journals. We also have been working hard to name our short and long vowel sounds. We learned the role of “Magic E” who makes vowel sounds long. Ask your child to sing the Magic E song!

Our math lessons were super this week! We have become quite good at naming our coins and their values, comparing number values and composing/decomposing numbers (tens, ones) Today we worked with equivalent names for numbers (9+1, 6+4, 5+5 are all names for 10)… Some exciting stuff!

A look ahead:

*New words: DO and LOOK

*Sequencing the Life Cycle of a Butterfly

*Short and long o ~ specifically the –op family and magic e in long o words

*Reading for information and matching our illustrations to the text

*Introducing quotation marks and contractions

*Comparing numbers to 100

*EARTH DAY

On Friday the children will head to Erdenheim to visit their buddies.

On Thursday we will practice a safety drill. Check Mrs. VanVooren’s eblast for more information. FYI…I tell the children very little and keep it extremely age-appropriate and calm.

Registration will be occurring for new Kindergarteners this week ~ remember that was your little one a year ago! Time sure flies!

April 6, 2018

We are officially “over the hump” and the rest of the year is sure to fly by!

We came back from Spring Break for a Spring Picture Day ~ expect packets coming home in a week or so. We started a POETRY unit this week. We enjoyed visualizing, acting out and sharing poems this week. We will continue this next week and try to write our own poems too. We did a lot of COIN recognition this week. If you have a piggy bank at home, have your child sort the coins, name them and identify their value. We also named our reading strategies in our guided reading groups. We know to look at the pictures (EAGLE EYE), get our mouth ready to make the sound of the first letter in words (LIPS THE FISH), sound out the words (STRETCHY SNAKE) and chunk parts of words together or find smaller words inside bigger words (CHUNKY MONKEY). We will continue to name these strategies and talk about how we read.

A look ahead:

*New words: BY, HELP, ASK

*More poetry fun!

*Listen for short and long vowel sounds

*Addition and Subtraction stories

*Breaking down numbers into 10s and 1s

*The Life Cycle of Plants ~ we will be planting seeds!

On Monday the children will attend a Book Fair Preview. They will look at books available at the book fair and write a wish list. They will bring these home on Monday. you are welcome to send money and what books you’d like to buy starting Tuesday. More information was sent home earlier this week.

March 18, 2018

Top of the Morning to you! We hopped over to Ireland on our Trip Around the World to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day last week. We read some Irish folktales, learned about things common to Ireland and were captivated by the idea of leprechauns. I hope your child shared all the excitement of St. Patrick’s Day with you! The children had a ball following the footsteps of the leprechaun, discovering the gold he left for us and since they are known to be tricky little fellows, the children enjoyed blaming everything on him for the day! I shared photos on SeeSaw so you could enjoy their excitement.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: IT, US and WAS

*Short and long vowel sound sorts

*Word Families (ex. The IT family: sit, bit, hit, fit, etc)

*Back to France to learn about Claude Monet, his art and garden and FROGS

*Number Stories

*Understanding the author’s purpose when reading books

*Review of 2D and 3D shapes

*On Friday morning our buddies will visit us

**Wednesday will be CRAZY SOCK DAY to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day.

We will recognize and celebrate our differences in several activities this day.

**Friday is a half day for parent-teacher conferences.

**We are off for Spring Break next week. We will return on Monday, April 2.

March 9, 2018

Bonjour! We had a great week of learning in Kindergarten~ even missing a day and a half due to snow! Let’s hope that March begins to become like the lamb soon!

Here are some conversation starters based on our learning in school:

*Ask your child if they can explain the saying “March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.” We talked about it and took a tally survey ~ more of us are ready for lamb-like days!

*We have learned about Wilma Rudolph, Jackie Robinson and Ruby Bridges the past few weeks. Ask your child to share what was learned and explain why these people where strong and brave.

*We built bicycles to ride in our own “Tour de France” today with Addie’s mom. Ask your child what they liked best about this and how far their bike went across the hall.

*We took a virtual field trip to Paris using the VR viewers. Ask your child what was seen and have them read their paper that is in their folder to you.

*Empty out a piggy bank. Have your child sort the coins naming each and how much it is worth. (If you can, perhaps you can send the coins to school for the Pennies for Patients drive that is still going on!)

A GLIMPSE AHEAD:

*Words: ATE and PUT

*We will hop over to Ireland to learn about the Emerald Isle for St. Patrick’s Day before we head back to France to study some famous artists and learn about frogs.

*We will write about our favorite foods using a graphic organizer.

*We will sort words into groups based on their vowel sound ~ long or short. (Long vowels say their name.)

REMINDER: The next two Fridays are half days for parent teacher conferences.

March 4, 2018

I hope this update finds everyone well, with power and recovered from the storm on Friday. It was quite a way to end an exciting week! It was Read Across America Week and our school celebrated by logging the books read in school. Our class devoured books! The kids enjoyed so many books that we won the contest by reading the most in kindergarten! We were rewarded with a prize on Friday ~ a book of our own! Each child took home a book for them to keep on Friday!

We did a fabulous job noticing details in print and illustrations that authors and illustrators use to “tell more” ~ then we added some of these to our own writing! The children are doing great with this! I will be paying close attention to proper letter formation as we continue this week. If your student is struggling in this area, I will be sending home some handwriting practice in folders to do nightly. Any assistance with this is appreciated!

We read a biography this week and learned about Jackie Robinson. The children who remain in class during PAWS wrote about him too.

A GLIMPSE AHEAD:

*Bonjour! Our trip will take us to France this week. My plan is to visit Paris in books through the week and end the week with a virtual trip.

*Words: THEN and GOOD

*We will conduct interviews with each other and write facts about our friend as we continue reading biographies ~ this week’s will be Wilma Rudolph.

*Our math lessons will continue review of coins, skip counting, 2 and 3D shapes, measuring, 10-frames, patterns and comparing numbers.

*Monday: NED Assembly ~ info was sent home and will also be coming home regarding this fun program.

*Thursday: Visiting Author ~ Meghan McCarthy

Below is information I thought to share from the Free Library of Springfield Township about a program that families often enjoy this time of year with their budding readers. Hope you can check it out:

Tail Waggin’ Tutors at Free Library of Springfield Township

Monday, March 5, 4 to 5 PM

Tuesday, March 6, 6:30 to 7:30 PM

Monday, March 12, 6:30 to 7:30 PM

Wednesday, March 14, 4 to 5 PM

Monday, March 19, 4 to 5 PM

Tuesday, March 20, 6:30 to 7:30 PM

Children in grades K to 6 can read aloud to a certified therapy dog to help build reading confidence! Sign up for a 10-minute time slot. Spots still available for this Tuesday, March 6! Please call the library at 215-836-5300 to register.

February 25, 2018

Ni hao! Hello! We have been visiting China on our trip around the world this past week learning about Chinese New Year and pandas. We will continue for a few more days this coming week using the virtual reality viewers to tour the Great Wall, trying to use chop sticks while eating rice and sharing oranges for good luck. We will be moving on later in the week or next week to France.

We will be kicking off a fundraiser on Monday, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Penny Collection. Please check your child’s folder for more information regarding this worthy cause.

A Glimpse into the week:

· Words MAKE and SAY

· Penny, nickel and dime ~recognize, sort and identify value

· Focus on short vowel sounds in CVC words ~ reading and writing

· Identify action words in stories

· Add details to writing and illustrations to tell more

· Dr. Seuss ~ Read Across America: We will list books we read independently throughout the day to participate in a whole school challenge! We will also learn about Dr. Seuss and share several of his classic books. If you have a few at home, dig them out for your child to read at home! Green Eggs and Ham was written with only 50 words ~ all of which your child can read! Imagine the excitement when the children realize they can read this book to you!

Be sure to read the eBlast from Mrs. VanVooren regarding visitors to the school. I will take care of letting the office know if you are signed up for center help or Mystery Reader. If you are planning to come for lunch, please let us know ahead of time, preferably at least 24 hours notice, in order for me to share this information with the office. Only those with advance notice will be admitted into the building. Be sure to always bring your badge and ID. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

February 15, 2018

What a busy week for us here in Kindergarten! We learned about tapping maple trees for syrup and facts about polar bears on our trip to Canada. We celebrated friendship on Valentine’s Day. We were mathematical wonders on our 101^st day of school! (Check SeeSaw for some great photos of the week.)Now for a four-day weekend to recharge and regroup for another whirlwind of a week!

Next week we will travel to China for Chinese New Year celebrations! We will learn customs and traditions associated with this holiday, some landmarks in China and about pandas. We will also celebrate OLYMPIC DAY in Kindergarten! Our team will wear PURPLE on THURSDAY as we compete in some Olympic themed games with other classes.

Some other highlights include:

· Words: THEY, UP and OUT

· Recognize and count PENNY and NICKEL

· Review 3D Shapes: cube, cylinder, sphere, cone

· Presidents Washington and Lincoln

· Buddy Visit to Erdenheim on Friday!

REMINDERS: If you have “Box Tops”, please send them in for the EEHSP collection. I was just alerted to a contest going on ~ I must have missed that email….You can place them in a bag or envelope with our class name on it.

February 10, 2018

This week really was “Out of the world!” literally and figuratively! So much Eagles spirit filled our school throughout the week! We enjoyed learning about things in outer space, such as some constellations, the moon and other planets. Our Sky Dome assembly was informative and fun. Our trip to see The Cat in the Hat was also a great day! We really enjoyed the show!

The upcoming week is sure to be a very busy one in Kindergarten! We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Wednesday by sharing cards with each of our classmates and a class party beginning at 1:45. This will also be our 100^th day of school! We will hold off on that celebration until Thursday, as we celebrate day 101!! We will have off from school on Friday, Feb. 16 and Monday, Feb.19 for President’s Day.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: HERE and FOR

*Writing an informational piece about Polar Bears from a graphic organizer

*Counting by 5s, reading ten frames, measuring with rulers and comparing numbers, using a number grid, collect data using tally marks and graphs

*100: celebrating all things 100!!!! DON’T FORGET YOUR COLLECTION OF 100 THINGS FOR THURSDAY! You can send it in early if you have it ready.

*CANADA on our Trip Around the World: Learn about tapping maple trees and sampling maple syrup.

REMINDERS:

*All children should have a Valentine for each of his/her classmates on Wednesday. A list of names was sent home last week. If you need another list, please let me know.

* All children should have a collection of 100 things in a quart sized ziplock bag for Thursday.

February 2, 2018

FLY EAGLES FLY!!! We had a fun day today getting energized for the big game! I hope you watched our video on SeeSaw when we sang with Miss Keeys’ class! The kids enjoyed themselves! We also made signs for our class windows and made Under Dog masks to support our team!

Some other great happenings this week included welcoming our pets, Pop and Bubbles, the goldfish and some guppies. We can tell you what our fish need to live and what is the same about their body parts. We were also learning about constellations in preparation for our Sky Dome Planetarium assembly on Monday in the gym. We learned to measure with our feet and heard a story about how the ruler came to be. See if your child remembers the story about how the king asked his workers to make a bed for the queen.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: THAT and GO

*Writing an informational piece from a graphic organizer

*Counting by 5s, reading ten frames, measuring with rulers and comparing numbers in math

*Science: day and night sky

*CANADA on our Trip Around the World

REMINDER: Tuesday, Feb. 6^th is our trip to the Keswick to see the play: “The Cat in the Hat”. You have already paid for this and sent in the permission slips. We will adjust our lunch and special class schedule that day to accommodate the trip.

January 26, 2018

I hope everyone enjoyed their Friday off from school!

Throughout this week we worked on applying good reading strategies such as using context and picture clues and “tapping out” unknown words. We were careful to use our writer’s checklist so we “write for others to read”. We concluded our trip to Antarctica, learned to name the seven continents by singing a song and using our bodies as a map. We read, wrote and compared 2 digit numbers and are beginning to count by 5s.

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: IN and BE

*Reading for fluency

*Writing using our writers’ checklist

*”Tapping out” sounds to build 3-letter short vowel words with emphasis on short I and short E sounds

*Adding numbers to 12, comparing numbers to 100, counting by 5s, and ten frames will be our math focus

*We will head to Canada on our Trip Around the World!

*We will learn some Mindfulness strategies with Mrs. Cook, our school counselor

*We will welcome some surprise pets in our class on Tuesday! The children will need to think like scientists to predict what they will be and then again as they observe these pets throughout the coming weeks.

REMINDER: Tuesday, Feb. 6^th is our trip to the Keswick to see the play: “The Cat in the Hat”. You have already paid for this and sent in the permission slips. We will adjust our lunch and special class schedule that day to accommodate the trip.

January 19, 2018

This week we visited Antarctica for our first trip on our around the world voyage! We prepared passports and made planes to fly on our journey. You children learned many facts about penguins. We made penguins with our buddies today. I’ll be hanging them in the hall and in our classroom.

Be sure to ask your child to share something learned!

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: ON, YOUR and SO

*Reading for fluency

*Writing using our writers’ checklist

*”Tapping out” sounds to build 3-letter short vowel words

*Counting by 10s and 5s

*Reading and writing 2-digit numbers

*Sorting by attributes

*Recognizing that numbers can be represented in many ways (3+1, 6-2, a domino with 2 dots on each side ~ these are all ways to show 4)

REMINDER: Next Friday is an in-service day for teachers. The children are off from school.

January 12, 2018

We accomplished so much this week despite the weather interruptions! The children have been writing stories and trying to use correct capitalization and punctuation, finger spacing and handwriting. We are spelling unknown words by writing the sounds we hear. I hope you enjoyed reading their “snow” stories that came home on Thursday. What growth we see in Kindergarten!!

The children and I spent some time this week learning about Martin Luther King. We watched a few short videos, read a few books and spent time talking about our dreams for the world. I was deeply touched listening to their heartfelt thoughts. We had good conversations from reading their “dreams” for the world that you did together for homework. Below is a link to a video we shared from Kid President. It’s worth watching together to continue conversations at home.

Today we had our Book Swap! The children enjoyed working with some other classes in setting up for the swap as part of their “service” to the other kindergarteners. We then went back to pick our books. Other children cleaned up from the event. Over 500 books were then donated to Cradles to Crayons, fulfilling one of the dreams we have of sharing with others who are less fortunate.

A LOOK AHEAD:

Next week’s highlight will be the kick off to our Trip Around the World! We will recognize similarities and differences in places around the world and learn a bit about landmarks, foods, animals and the customs of people who live there. We will strive to visit at least one country on each continent. This trip will continue through the end of the year. Next week we will prepare our passports, planes and pack for our first trip to Antarctica! Penguins will be a key topic.

I have an itinerary created already, however if you have a country you would like to share, please get in touch! I’d love to work with you to teach the children.

All children were screened for sight words ~ they did AWESOME!!! I am so proud of them! I will continue reading screenings this week and we will continue to add words to the word wall ~ this week’s words will be: THIS and OUR.

Sequencing, sorting and number stories will highlight our math lessons.

We will have a buddy visit here on Friday.

January 8, 2018

Hello Families! Isn’t Winter Wonderful!?!?! Just when we were getting back into the swing of things, Old Man Winter decides to wake up and visit us.

This week we will be working on a few new topics and strengthening some skills we have already learned. New topics include Martin Luther King Jr, adding the works LITTLE and OF, as well as HE and SHE to the word wall and understanding the concept of “subtraction” in math.

Some skills we will strengthen are:

*Proper letter formation

*Writing complete sentences ~ adding a second sentence to our work, complete with capitalization, punctuation and finger spacing.

*Reacting to stories in listening center

*Writing stories from a prompt

Book in a Bag has been scarce lately, I know! With the holidays, I let up on it knowing things at home are very busy. In January we assess the students reading individually, so the time spent teaching the lessons needs to be spent reading with each child alone. I may not be reading the book sent home with your child ahead of time so it may seem hard (or perhaps too easy)

PLEASE have your child review the sight words this week every night! We will be assessing these words on Thursday in class and a good review at home would be helpful.

BOOK SWAP Friday is our Kindergarten Book Swap. We do this in recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Our goal is to promote reading, while sharing with those less fortunate. Please have your child search their bookshelves for books they no longer read. For every 2 books donated, your child can select 1. All the extras are sent to Cradles to Crayons. This is such a fun day for the children~ one of my favorite days of the year! Their faces light up with new books and they are amazed at the number of books we end up donating. Please begin sending in the books as soon as possible. If the books are too heavy for your child to carry, please drop them off at the office with your child’s name and my name labeled on the bag/box.

December 15, 2017

We were so excited to see the snow fall this afternoon! Oh, to be a kid at this time of year with snow!!! Does it get any better!?!?!

We had a nice buddy visit this morning at Erdenheim! We made snowflakes with pipe cleaners, then came back to class to enjoy some math centers. This week we worked on reading and writing AN family words, reading Gingerbread stories, used tally marks and graphs to share and gain information and also learned about some winter holidays.

Next week will be a busy one, so here are a few things to keep in mind:

*Self-portrait Project ~ Due Wednesday! As soon as you are finished, feel free to send it in. I’m hanging them in the hall as they arrive in the classroom.

*Holiday learning ~Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, and New Years.

*Class Winter Party: Thursday, Dec. 21 If you are coming, please let me know ASAP. Clearances are required.

*School Sing a Long: Friday, Dec. 22, 9:30***If you wish to take your child home from this event, PLEASE send in a note by Wednesday the 20^th. With the sheer number of adults that choose to attend and the safety of the children being paramount, we will be asking for notes ahead of time to help arrange for a safe dismissal for all.

*12:00 Dismissal Friday, Dec. 22

Much of the week will be review and practice of learned skills, such as:

*All Word Wall Words ~ please review every night, especially if your child is struggling with them. Practice is so important!

*Proper letter formation and fingerspace in writing

*Short A and Short E~ reading and writing words containing these sounds

*Rhyming and syllable counting

*Tally marks and graphing, “counting on” by rolling 2 dice

*Christmas and Kwanzaa ~ history, customs and traditions

December 8, 2017

There’s nothing like a weekend in December! I hope you all enjoy yourselves with family, friends, fun and festivities as well as some fun in the snow!

We accomplished so much this week! Our writing is improving so much! Between handwriting, conventions of writing (capitalization, punctuation, etc.) and content, the children are doing a great job! We enjoyed a few Gingerbread stories this week, with more to come next week. We identified story elements and compare different stories using a Venn Diagram. We celebrated our own likenesses and differences as we recognized INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS WEEK. We read several stories that encouraged us to celebrate what makes us unique and realize that we all belong and everyone is welcome. Ask your child what was the “Best gift ever!” (Hint, it was hidden in a gift box that we passed around at Morning Meeting)

We named 2 and 3D shapes and shared information learned from reading graphs. We compared numbers in math this week by playing Top It ( you may know “War” ~ it’s the same game, but a more kid-friendly title)

Some things to keep in mind:

*Self-portrait Project ~ As soon as you are finished, feel free to send it in. I’m hanging them in the hall as they arrive in the classroom.

*Holiday learning ~ We will be learning about how people celebrate various holidays this month. Some holidays we focus on are: St. Nicholas Day, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, Christmas, Kwanza, and New Years. If you celebrate one of these holidays and wish to share with our class a special tradition or custom, feel free to contact me. I would be happy to schedule a time for you to come in! (FYI:Clearances would be required.)

*Class Winter Party: Thursday, Dec. 21

*School Sing a Long: Friday, Dec. 22, 9:30***If you wish to take your child home from this event, PLEASE send in a note by Wednesday the 20^th. With the sheer number of adults that choose to attend and the safety of the children being paramount, we will be asking for notes ahead of time to help arrange for a safe dismissal for all.

*12:00 Dismissal Friday, Dec. 22

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: SAID, WILL and SAW

*Proper letter formation and fingerspace in writing

*Gingerbread stories: story elements, compare and contrast characters and events in stories

*Word family: AN

*Tally marks and graphing, counting ~ from 0 and interrupted counts, “counting on” by rolling 2 dice

*Hanukkah and Las Posados ~ history, customs and traditions

*Buddy visit to Erdenheim on Friday

December 3, 2017

Hello Families! December is upon us! For Kindergarten that means learning about holidays and traditions, Winter and animal adaptations, applying letter and sound knowledge to read and spell words, especially word family words (ex. –at words; -an words), building our sight word vocabulary and becoming better writers by checking for upper/lower case letters, proper formation of letters, punctuation and finger space. We will work on all of this while embracing the fun and excitement of this month.

Some things to keep in mind:

*Self-portrait Project ~ We spend time focusing on kindness and peacefulness. To aid in our lessons, we ask children to work on a self-portrait. These will be referred to during lessons and displayed in the halls.

*Holiday learning ~ We will be learning about how people celebrate various holidays this month. Some holidays we focus on are: St. Nicholas Day, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, Christmas, Kwanza, and New Years. If you celebrate one of these holidays and wish to share with our class a special tradition or custom, feel free to contact me. I would be happy to schedule a time for you to come in! (FYI:Clearances would be required.)

*Class Winter Party: Thursday, Dec. 21

*School Sing a Long: Friday, Dec. 22, 9:30

*12:00 Dismissal Friday, Dec. 22

A LOOK AHEAD:

*Words: WHAT, ARE and AT

*Proper letter formation and fingerspace in writing

*Gingerbread stories: story elements, compare and contrast characters and events in stories

*Comparing numbers, writing and solving addition and subtraction problems using manipulatives and number lines, 2 and 3D shapes and graphing in Math

***This week we will be celebrating INCLUSIVE SCHOOLS WEEK at Enfield and in our classroom. We will be sharing books to help spark conversations about what it means for our school to be welcoming of ALL people. This will be the focus of our Morning Meeting and read aloud story each day.