Sept. 27th ~ Oct. 1st

I sure hope you were able to enjoy the beautiful weekend ~ we are finally getting our summer weather!

The letters this week are Xx, Ww, Nn, Ss, and Hh. We will again focus on the sound or sounds that each letter makes and proper letter formation. It is so important to reinforce the correct way to write each letter and imprint this into your child's muscle memory. It is much harder to break habits, than to learn new ones.

Our manner this week is to use "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me" frequently. We will focus on one manner each week as we learn to be good citizens of Poly Drive Elementary and the world.

Show and Tell on Thursday will be “Kid’s Choice”. Your child may bring something that fits in the paper bag . . and he or she should write the letter that the item begins with on the outside of the bag.

Text Talk ~ We will begin a vocabulary series this week that focuses on more challenging words than we might regularly discuss in kindergarten. This builds comprehension and vocabulary skills, while exploring fun read-aloud stories. Our text talk words will be posted outside the classroom door and I encourage you to use these words in our room when you visit, and at home when applicable. You will see your child's eyes light up as he or she is able to recognize these new words in daily conversations. The read-aloud book this week is "It's Mine" and the vocabulary words are: bickering, defiantly, harmony, recognized, desperately, and selfish.

Math ~ We will continue working with and creating various types of patterns.

Science ~ Inquiry-based science is our focus in kindergarten and we will practice questioning techniques to use when we want to discover something. Specifically, we will explore various fall leaves from my yard and the school grounds. We will form questions about the attributes and characteristics of the leaves and create a class chart depicting our questions.

Rachel's Challenge ~ All Poly Drive students will attend an assembly on Tuesday titled "Rachel's Challenge". Rachel Scott was the first person killed in the Columbine, Colorado school shootings and although the manner of her death will not be discussed, the legacy for life she left behind will be. Rachel was mature beyond her years and her message of kindness and compassion is one we can all learn from. Although she was only 17 at the time of her death, she encouraged others to start a chain reaction of kindness and compassion. You will see and hear more about Rachel's Challenge as the year progresses.

I will have a guest teacher in my room on Friday and I will let the kids know ahead of time. Brenda Sheehan has taught in my room before and the kids will really enjoy the day. I'll only be gone one day.

Have a wonderful week ~ can you believe it is October already!?!

September 20th ~ 24th

Help Needed at Saturday Live! If you are able to spare even one hour on Saturday to help the Poly Drive effort at Saturday Live, call Jami Eaton at 591-0958. Thanks a bunch!!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Our letters this week will be Qq, Zz, Kk, Ll, and Uu. We will continue to study the sounds that each letter makes and proper letter formation. If you write with your child at home, please encourage the D’Nealian style. I will be asking the children to use a capital letter at the beginning of their names and then the remaining letters in lower case. We will practice this at one of our literacy centers and at our tables throughout the week.

The kids will use GelBoards to practice letter formation and we will use our journals to reinforce the concept that our thoughts and words can become the written word on paper.

Math ~ We will focus on picture graphs, real graphs, sound and movement patterns, and color patterns.

Social Studies ~ We are working on a Kindness and Compassion rainbow. The children are tracing their own hands on colored paper and then cutting the shapes. We will then form these into a rainbow of friendship signifying little hands working together.

Show and Tell ~ I apologize for the mix-up last week. I have moved show-and-tell to Thursdays due to our schedule on Friday afternoons. I have enclosed a brown lunch sack in the Wednesday Watch envelope this week (I really did this time) and your child should bring an item beginning with the first letter of his or her name. The item should fit completely in the bag and we will use questioning to guess the contents of the bag.

Art ~ We will create a water color leaf painting by tracing leaves and then outlining with watercolor markers and water. It is a fun technique that produces beautiful “paintings”.

Thursday is an early-out day and the kids will be dismissed at 12:00 noon. Lunch is not served on early-out days. If you would like to attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new shade shelter, you may come to the playground at 11:40. After the ceremony, we will bring the kids back into the building to get backpacks, etc. and you may head back to the front of the building via the sidewalk on the east side to pick up your child.

This Friday we will begin interacting with our buddy room ~ the 4/5 combo class at Poly Drive. Mrs. Porrisch is the 4/5 combo teacher and she is an awesome educator. This experience provides a wonderful opportunity for the older kids to mentor a kindergartner and for my class to build relationships with the older students in our school. We will work on craft projects together, play math and literacy games, and get to know each other better throughout the year.

Have a great week ~ Remember to read with your child for 20 minutes each evening.
Don't forget to attend Saturday Live this weekend at Pioneer Park.

September 13th ~ 17th

It was wonderful to see so many families at the Poly Drive Open House and it was terrific for your child to share our classroom and describe all that we do and learn each day. The kids are really beginning to learn and apply classroom rules, procedures, and routines.

The letters we will focus on this week are Vv, Cc, Ii, Oo, and Ff. We will also begin Show and Tell this week and I would like each child to bring something that begins with the first letter of his or her name. The paper lunch bag is provided for you to use for Show and Tell. Please make sure that your child's item is able to fit completely in the bag so we can make guesses about what might be inside. This is a fun activity that also reinforces the sounds that each letter makes and phonemic awareness.

Math ~ We will begin our study of measurement and graphs. We will create a classroom growth chart to reinforce this concept. We will measure everyone in the class this month and then again in May to document each child's physical growth during kindergarten.

Constitution Day ~ This Friday we will focus on the Pledge of Allegiance and the history of the United States Flag. On Monday, we began reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as part of our daily routine.

Classroom Jobs ~ We began classroom jobs this week and your child will be assigned a job every other week. The jobs range from being our line leader, helping during calendar time, feeding Cinnamon (the fish), delivering our library basket to the library on Friday, etc. This instills a sense of accomplishment and responsibility.

Have a great week ~ Remember to read with or to your child for at least 20 minutes per day.

September 7th ~ 10th

Greetings from Room 9 ~ I hope that you had a great weekend and were able to spend time with family and friends.

We will be filling Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard on Friday and we are in need of food labels. Please choose labels that are easily recognizable to your child and send them to school by Friday. Environmental print is a great way to show the children that there are many things they can already read.

Our letters this week are Yy, Gg, Ee, and Pp. We will focus on the letter sounds and proper letter formation using the D'Nealian handwriting curriculum. The children are learning a song that coincides with each letter and these songs in print will become the first additions to our poetry binders. This is the purpose for the 1" binders you provided and your child will have an extensive collection of poems and nursery rhymes at the end of the year for summer reading. The children will use their journals to draw a picture of something that begins with the first letter of their names. I encourage the children to write letters or words to match their pictures and it is exciting to watch them put their thoughts and ideas on paper. Reading and writing are two distinct skills that generally do not progress at the same rate.

Math ~ We will sort objects by one attribute and more than one attribute and the children will use logical reasoning to determine the sorting rule for a set a objects. We use many types of manipulatives in kindergarten to make the transition from abstract concepts to concrete function.

We will meet our school counselor, Mrs. Kvilhaug on Wednesday and she will visit with the kids about her job at Poly Drive. Mrs. Kvilhaug is the person who teaches our personal safety and bullying lessons and she likes to introduce herself and provide a tour of her room/office before our first lesson.

Don't forget our Open House this Thursday evening from 5:30-7:00. If you are able to attend, you may come to the room where your child will provide a tour of our room and share what we do each day. I will be available to answer any questions you may have or just to visit!

Have a wonderful week and weekend ~ and thank you for sharing your child with me!