Letter Looking

This week, the students were introduced to "letter looking" as we began our letter of the week activities. We read this poem which includes several words that begin with the  /m/ sound and talked about which words started with our letter of the week. Then each child used a highlighter to highlight all of the letter m's they could find. We talked about how we could find both uppercase and lowercase m's on the page.

 

Today we also enjoyed some yummy snacks that start with the letter m. 

The PM class had some mini muffins and chocolate milk that Megan brought in.

The AM class had some Mint Milano cookies that Evan brought in.

Thank you to both Star of the Week families for providing our "m" snacks!

I would also like to thank all of the wonderful parent helpers that have both signed up and stopped in to help. I will be sending home an October Volunteer calendar on Friday. Based on the volunteer sign up sheet that some of you filled out during our Kindergarten Meet and Greet, I have scheduled some volunteers based on days that you indicated worked for you. If your name is not on the list that doesn't mean you are not welcome to volunteer. If your name is down and you can't make it on that particular day no worries. I thought it would be helpful as a way to give you an indication of when your help is needed and what days are open for volunteers. I always appreciate help and the more hands the better so please feel free to come whenever you can!

I will be out of the classroom on Thursday as I will be attending a training, but I will be back on Friday. My substitute will be Ms. Jill Solheim who I worked with in Germany at the international school. Prior to working in Germany for 2 years, Jill worked in Lake Oswego as an elementary teacher for 14 years. She is wonderful and I know the kiddos will be in good hands while I am out!

Word of the Week

This week our word of the week is "we."

Our song goes like this:

we, w-e, we, w-e

we, w-e, we, w-e

we, w-e, we, w-e

we, w-e, we

We like to do our homework,

our homework, our homework!

We like to do our homework,

then we can play

This week I will also be assessing the students on the first 10 sounds we have learned in Fast Track Phonics. I will work with each child independently to see how well they are coming along with learning the sounds. They will also have an opportunity to do some Say It Fast and Break It Down activities with sounds so I can see how well they are hearing the individual sounds in words. We practice these skills daily during our Fast Track Phonics lessons. 

We are continuing to work hard on remembering to sit criss cross applesauce and keep hands and feet to self during carpet time/instruction time. Please remind your child of school rules at home and talk about the importance of paying attention during working times. I know the kids are used to having more free time and play time and it's an adjustment to come to a place where we do a lot more "work" activities, but we are working towards increasing attention span and listening at appropriate times and it's important that they learn to focus.

I hope you are enjoying this great weather!

 

The Benefits of Reading to Children

I am sure you all know that reading to your children is beneficial, but I really enjoyed this piece in a book that I just purchased, so I wanted to share it with you!

 Excerpt from What Should I Read Aloud by Nancy A. Anderson

In addition to building a bond between parents and children, daily reading to youngsters is the single most important activity for building knowledge required for eventual success in learning to read (Anderson, Hiebert, & Wilkinson, 1985). Moreover, parents should continue to read to their children after they start school until they say they want to read on their own (or read to you).


Learning to read is a process that begins at birth when children first start to recognize speech sounds and the meanings the sounds represent.  Later, children associate these sounds with the letters and letter clusters within words. 


Children can acquire concepts, ideas, story and text structures, syntax, vocabulary, and pleasure from listening to and reading books. Each book helps children enlarge their parameters as they vicariously learn about the world and add new words to their listening, speaking, and reading vocabularies. Teachers often tell me how reading to children stimulates their imaginations and stretches their attention spans, and parents and other caregivers often remark on how it nourishes children's emotional development and strengthens  bonds between children and adults. 


When a young child sits in an adult's lap and they look at a picture book together  (called lap reading), the adult can talk about things they read and ask questions to elicit the child's oral language development. Together the child and adult can point to and discuss the illustrations, which provide rich clues to the meaning of words. When lap reading a familiar book, occasionally encourage children to focus on the printed words. 


One way to do this is to encourage children to join in on parts they recognize or remember. Rhyming text lends itself especially well to this strategy because it is predictable. Adults can facilitate this activity if they pause at the end of a sentence or line and allow children to finish it. If adults point under each word as children say them, this helps children grasp the concept of word--that written word is a string of letters bounded by spaces. Once children can match spoken words to their written counterparts, they have made an important discovery called speech-to-print match, and most children will then begin to learn to read many of these words by sight.

Jog-a-thon!

Whew! What fun and busy day! The Jog-a-thon was very exciting and I am sure your kids arrived home from school exhausted! I think today is what they wish Kindergarten was like all the time! A big thank you to all of the parents who came to help out today! We can't run events like that without the help and support of our wonderful Durham families!

I definitely need to work on my skills as an action photographer, but here are a few photos from today!

PM Class

AM Class

Have a great weekend!

Book Boxes

Friday is an exciting day because I will be sending home book boxes! 

These boxes are meant to be a safe place for keeping the paper books that we read in school which will be sent home. I will talk to the kids about choosing a special spot for their box where they will have easy access to store and re-read the paper books from school.  The paper books have an important role in the development of reading skills because of the controlled vocabulary and presence of the particular word of the week, and letter of the week that we are studying. Part of the weekly homework is for the children to read to someone or have someone read to them each day of the week. For some children, these books are fairly easy, but for some they are just right and are the perfect books to use for completing that homework. Children in Kindergarten vary greatly in their skill levels so if your child prefers to read other books at home, I definitely encourage that! Regardless, it will be exciting for the kiddos to have a special place for their books and I am sure they will proudly show off their boxes when they arrive home! As we progress this year, children will also have opportunities to bring home "real," more challenging books as well.

This weekend I will post some information about sharing stories and reading to your children. I just got a great new book and I love how the author describes the benefits of reading with children or lap reading.

Speaking of books....we had a lot of online Scholastic Book Orders this month which means lots of free books for our classroom! I already have over 1,600 bonus points!! I will also get $3 to spend on next month's orders for each online order in September. Thanks for your support and for selecting books with your children that they will be excited to read/listen to!

Stay tuned for photos from the Jog-a-thon!

Word of the Week/Star of the Week

Each week, we focus on one sight word which is our "Word of the Week." I got some great CD's that includes songs about most of the words we will focus on because singing makes everything more fun! The kids are really enjoying singing our "can" song this week. Each time we sing it we do a different action/motion when we spell "can."  We clap, march, tap our heads, snap, and hop. Ask your child to sing the song for you!

This song is to the tune of Frère Jacques

I can spell "can"

I can spell "can"

c-a-n

c-a-n

I can write the letters

always getting better

c-a-n

c-a-n

Each week the children will assemble the word of the week by gluing die cut letters onto paper. This requires the students to put the letters in the correct order and place them in the correct direction. It's a great idea to save these when they come home so you can continue to practice the words at home. We also do additional activities that require students to read short stories and write sentences that include the word of the week.

Next week, in addition to our word of the week we will also start having a letter of the week and Star of the Week! Each week one student from each class will be assigned as the star of the week. I have a list that indicates when each child will have his/her turn and what his/her letter will be which I will send home soon! The Friday before his/her assigned week, the STAR will take home the Star of the Week backpack which includes directions for a special "assignment" for each day of the week. I know the kiddos will be very excited to have a turn and share their photos, projects, and more with the class! We will do most of the sharing during our morning greeting circle because this is our community time where we focus on getting to know each other.  I am really looking forward to getting to know the children better through what they share about themselves and their families!

One part of our Star of the Week program is bringing in items that begin with the letter of the week along with a snack that begins with the letter of the week. For example, if the letter of the week is M, the student could bring mittens, a mug, money, a movie, and mints in the Star of the Week backpack. For a snack, he/she could bring muffins. The number of children in the class will be indicated on the instruction sheet so you know how many children to provide snack for. Just like birthday snacks, I ask that the Star of the Week snack is something store bought and simple to serve. We will only have about 10 minutes for eating.

A few reminders

This Thursday is Picture Day! Both classes will have their photos taken and will do a vision screening during the day. Today I sent home the photo form so please check your child's backpack even though it's not Friday. If you would like to purchase the photos please complete the order form and return it to school on Thursday with payment (Tuesday/Wednesday are fine too!). I will make sure to ask students if they have anything in their backpacks since I have collected the Friday Folders already.

This Friday is the jogathon! We are asking that students in the AM class wear green shirts and the students in the PM class wear blue shirts (if possible). This will help the volunteers keep track of which students are in which class.

The students participated in DIBELS testing today which consisted of a Letter Naming Fluency test and an Initial Sound Fluency test. This helps give us (myself and the Reading Specialist) a baseline idea of performance for each student which helps us fit instruction to students' needs. I can provide further information and discuss your child's scores with you at conferences.

Speaking of conferences, I would like to post a schedule in the next few days so that you can start signing up for times that work best with your schedules. Conferences will be held on Thursday and Friday the 21st and 22nd of October. I always try accommodate families that need to come later in the afternoon/evening and I will do my best to find a convenient time for each family. I have a class at PSU on Thursday evening, so I will be unable to stay past 4:00 on the 21st, but I will be able to stay later in the afternoon/evening on a different day of the week or Friday. Conference time slots will be for about 20 minutes. I will post a sign up sheet outside the classroom and will also start making calls and sending emails to schedule everyone.  Please feel free to call or email me to schedule a time!

Literacy Bags

Over the summer I created a proposal through DonorsChoose.org to request some materials in order to put together literacy bags for this year. I was really happy to get half of my project funded through Nickelodeon and their Dora's Beyond The Backpack initiative. Because Nickelodeon funded half of my project from the outset, the amount I needed in order to be fully funded was greatly reduced and I found out on the first day of school that I had complete funding to get the materials I requested. I was thrilled to get an email from our secretary Lindsey Dickinson this afternoon letting me know that my box of items had arrived!

Check out all the goodies!

games!

themed book libraries

each library contains 5 books on a particular theme

 My goal is to create literacy bags that the children will be able to bring home over the weekend to share with family members. I received 10 themed libraries and I have 1 or 2 additional themes in mind that I will add. I would like to get 1 more book related to each theme so that I can create two literacy bags per theme (one per class containing 3 books each). That way, each child should be able to bring home a different literacy bag approximately every other weekend!

I think it will take me some time to get these bags organized, but I am really excited to get working on some additional games/activities to include in them as well. I am also planning to invite parents/students to join me at school either before or after my PM session to decorate the bags. I would love to include families in the creation of these bags since the idea is to promote family involvement in reading and literacy at home and I think that will really get the kiddos excited to take the bags home and take good care of the materials. If you are interested in helping with this project, please let me know! You don't have to be particularly artistic, but if you are that is wonderful!

I have had a lot of parents sign up to volunteer this year and I think this is a special project for which I will greatly appreciate a lot of help. I will figure out a checkout system and it would be great to have a parent helper on Fridays to organize which bag goes home with which child.

In addition to these literacy bags, I will also be sending home a Birthday Bag on each child's birthday and an I Lost a Tooth Bag when a child loses a tooth. These bags will both contain a journal where children can write about how their birthdays are celebrated and how their teeth came out.

Getting a box full of new books for my students to enjoy was like opening presents on Christmas morning. I am really excited for this project and I hope you are too!

Specials

We are well into our second week of school and this week Specials were introduced. Both classes have enjoyed our Librarian Mrs. Rodriguez, our PE teacher Mr. Gaffney, and our Music teacher Mr. Silverman. One of our specialists joins us in the classroom for 10 minutes each day so that the students have exposure to story time, songs, and some additional physical activity. All three of the specials have been a hit!

Mrs. Rodriguez read Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and The Wheels on the Race Car (which is a variation on The Wheels on the Bus) during her story time with us and the kids had a lot of fun chiming in with both stories.

Mr. Silverman led the children in a follow the leader game with a song to go along with it. They walked, hopped, skipped, and marched around the room singing and doing different movements. There were lots of giggles!

Mr. Gaffney did some exercises with the kiddos and they may have even worked up a sweat! Good thing he reminded them that chair pushups are only allowed during PE class! :0)

We also started our Fast Track Phonics Program this week and have worked on the sounds /m/ and /a/ so far. Starting next week, we will also have a letter of the week that we will focus on, but our phonics program introduces several sounds each week so that the children can learn the sounds and letters at a faster pace. The phonics program incorporates some video elements which both classes loved. Our letter of the week activities will review the letters that we have already done in Fast Track Phonics and will involve other skills and projects.

Each sound card has a picture that incorporates the formation of the letter. There is an "animated alphabet" video clip where we see that picture in action. This is meant to help the children connect the image on the cards (which are posted in the classroom) and the sound that the letter makes. So far this week we have done the /m/ card for which we say The man marches on mountains and the /a/ card for which we say Alphie asks for apples.

Alphie the Alligator is a puppet that is used with the program and the kids learned some "games" that we play with Alphie to help them become readers. We Say It Fast (Alphie uses his special Alphie Talk to say each individual sound in a word and the children say the word fast) and we also Break It Down (I say a word and the children say each sound in the word). Both of these skills are very important for reading and spelling/writing. Another aspect of the Fast Track Phonics (FTP) program is learning how to write the letters. Some students are tracing letters and others are writing them independently. As I monitor progress, I am looking at how each child is holding his/her pencil, whether or not the can write their name, and how much support they need to write letters.

Both groups are doing a great job remembering their morning routines. When they arrive at school they hang up their backpacks, check in with the attendance chart by turning over their picture, and then sit down at their tables for seat work. You will see a lot of coloring pages coming home in the Friday folders, but please don't think all we do is color! I use coloring activities in the morning because the children can work on them independently which makes me available to talk with parents, collect bus notes etc. As we continue to build skills, morning work will probably start to look different.

***

Also, as a heads up to parents of children in the PM class, I will be having a substitute on both Tuesday and Wednesday next week as I am participating in a training. The training does not start until 1:00, so I will be with the kids and the sub for the first part of their afternoon session and then she will takeover from 1-2:25. I am having a good friend of mine, and wonderful teacher substitute for me. She has over 16 years of teaching experience and we actually worked together in Germany at the international school which is where she taught last. She has been in class several times already volunteering and she is an excellent teacher. I know the kids will love her, but I will be there for the transition so they understand why she is there.

First Week

It has been a great week in Kindergarten. I know the children are anxious to start learning, but we have spent a lot of time practicing routines and talking about expectations this week. Kids really benefit from having routines and seeing procedures modeled for them, so I like to start the year by teaching and practicing our daily routines.

We started out by talking about "Give Me Five." The children learned that when I say "give me five," they need to stop, look, listen, stay quiet, and put their hands together. As we go through our lessons, I use this signal frequently when I need attention or when I have directions to give. Both classes did a great job remembering what to do! They are learning that when one person is talking, everyone else should be listening and that when directions are given it is important to look and pay attention so they will know exactly what to do!

They also learned that they should put away their pencils and crayons and come to the carpet as soon as they hear the Good Morning Song. They did a wonderful job cleaning up quickly and finding a spot on the carpet for our morning greeting circle. We will start each day in a greeting circle so the children can learn the names of the other kids in class and so that every child is recognized and greeted each day. This is a great time to practice our classroom voices and language skills. It also empahasizes the importance of our classroom as a community of learners who care about one another. Next week, I will work with the children to use the attendance chart so they can "check in" when they arrive at school. I have moved this chart so that it is now part of our meeting area, so when we are doing our greeting circle, we can acknowledge who is absent from school as well.

I think one of the most popular routines that we learned this week was the Daily Math Routine. The program was developed so that the children actually begin to take the lead and conduct the routine themselves instead of me leading it. The new math program that we adopted places a lot of emphasis on number sense rather than just rote learning of numbers. The children learn about one number each day and we continue to add on as the year continues. Although it may seem easy so far, the program is building foundations for addition and place value which are more advanced concepts. The kids love getting the chance to "be the teacher" and lead the other students.

120 Chart 

Each day we circle the next number and write an equation using addition. We practice counting up to the number of the day and thinking about where we can find that number in real life. The kids were able to name lots of things that come in twos like eyes, ears, legs, arms, shoes, and socks. When we count we incorporate motions with our arms so the kids can enjoy some movement.

 Money Chart

Each day we uncover one penny and this chart builds knowledge of place value. 

We also talked about our school rules this week, which are: 

We also enjoyed lots of stories this week! Some favorites were:

The Kissing Hand

Marley Goes to School

It's Hard to Be Five

The Night Before Kindergarten

Have a great weekend!