Photos and New Activities

I just uploaded my Halloween photos to our Kindergarten Shutterfly account so you can log on and view them. Unfortunately I was a lot more successful in getting pictures during the AM session and there are only a few from the afternoon. :0( 

Go to www.shutterfly.com and log in with my email [ ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us ] and the password [ 2010kinder ]. You can upload your photos too if you took any! This will be a great way for me to share photos with you throughout the year in a format where you can buy the ones you like!

I also got some great new activities that I will introduce during choice time this week. I am transitioning the kiddos from having daily choice time to focusing a bit more on "work" activities during that 30 minute block. By incorporating fun activities that also help to build skills, it's a win-win since they have fun, but they are also learning!

 sight word magnets to go along with our magnetic letters. Now the kids can practice the sight words and can start building sentences!

 Fun rhyming game with cute little objects to match rhyming words

 Word family game with sliding letter card to make different words

 Word building which is great to build "Break it down" skills. The children will sound out words and then build them with letters according to the sounds they hear.

 Addition and Pattern puzzle cards

 

Difficult to see in this photo, but these are counting stamps where the kiddos will have to write in the number of objects they see. Each stamp has a sentence such as "I see ____ frogs." This will be great for practicing writing numbers!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

A BIG thank you to Brandi Coffman-Luckcuck and Heather Bakker for taking the lead in organizing and planning our classroom Halloween parties and to all of the other parents that provided treats and came to help out. Both parties were great and the kids had tons of fun. Several kids remarked that it was the best party ever or that they didn't want to go home because it was such a fun day. I cannot express how lucky I feel to have such fantastic parent helpers!

The morning class decorated goody bags for their treats, colored Halloween pictures, played pin the tail on the black cat, did a ghost toss, and did pumpkin bowling. We also paraded over to the Durham Center where the kids got candy and treats from the students and teachers.

The afternoon class decorated Halloween sugar cookies, played musical chairs, and wrapped each other up like mummies with toilet paper. Since the Durham Center was closed, we paraded through the school and visited some of the upper grade classrooms.

Since lots of photographs were taken,  I made a Shutterfly account so that any parent who took photos can log on and upload them. [ www.shutterfly.com ] That way, parents can view all of the photos and purchase ones they like. You can log in with my email: ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us and the password: 2010kinder. I have not yet uploaded my photos because I think I left my camera in the classroom, so check back next week. If you have some photos to share, please upload them. It would be helpful if you can include either AM or PM when you name the album!

I was out two days this week, so I didn't get a lot of posting in, but I promise to be better next week! Just an fyi, I am participating on two different teams that are part of the district's Courageous Conversations about Race training that meet once a month. I was out on Tuesday with the PASS team which stands for Partnerships for the Academic Success of Students. It is really hard to be away from the classroom, but the work we are doing is very important so I appreciate getting excellent reports from the sub and knowing that the kiddos are secure enough in their routines that they do just fine without me. I did get a lot of hugs upon returning though! I am sending home a November calendar on Monday and I marked down the dates that I will be out just so you are aware.

Next week we are focusing on the letter T and the sight word see!

What a week!

This has been a busy and exciting week with both our first field trip and conferences. I am looking forward to going home today and putting my feet up! It has been a pleasure getting to talk with you all this week and I have to say that I have never before had such a wonderful, supportive, and kind group of parents! We have such a fabulous community at Durham and I am glad we get to share this adventure of Kindergarten together!  Thank you for taking the time to come and meet with me at school and for being so supportive at home to help your children continue to learn and grow. Have a great weekend :0)

Thank you!

THANKS!!!!

A HUGE thank you to all of the parents and family members who came to the Pumpkin Patch today! It was so wonderful to have you with us and the kids had a great time! If you imagine me with all 41 kids, you can imagine how grateful I am to have the support of terrific parents.

 **I'm not really sure how I ended up with this snowfall effect on the slideshow, but I wasn't able to go back and edit it, so I got stuck with some pumpkin patch snowflakes (aren't we lucky we really had a gorgeous, sunny day and that it was nowhere near cold enough to snow!) I will work on my slideshow skills!

Reminder: There will be no school on Thursday and Friday of this week due to parent teacher conferences. I met with some families after school today and I am looking forward to connecting with the rest of you in the next few days!

Also, next Friday we will be having our Halloween parties. I still need to find out some more info from the other Kinder teachers about what typically occurs for Kinder kiddos, but children can wear their costumes to school and we will have some fun activities and snacks. I would love parent helpers and party planners! Please email me if you are interested! [ ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us ]

Volunteer Calendars

I have added a PM Kinder volunteer calendar that you can access online to schedule volunteer dates. You can click on the link on the top left of this page which will link you to a gmail sign on page. 

AM parents can use the log in: toppelam and the password 2010kinder.

PM parents can use the lon in: toppelpm and the password 2010kinder. 

 Please let me know if you need more of an explanation of how to do this. 

Thanks to all parents who have come in and helped out! It makes such a difference to have extra adults and extra hands in the classroom!

Play Dough and Work Station Activities

 I would love to add some play dough to our choice time centers. I have alphabet cookie cutters and I just came across a great math activity for shaping numbers in play dough and then making the corresponding number of balls. Play dough is also great for working the hand muscles to increase fine motor control...but it's fun too :0)

Is anyone interested in making some play dough at home for our classroom?

I have made it before and it's very easy, but I though maybe some of you might be interested in making a batch at home with your children and then bringing it in.

There are several different recipes *here*.

Please let me know if that sounds like something fun you would like to do for our classroom!

Thanks!

***

Some recent additions to our classroom and choice time activities...

These wooden letters show kids where to start letters (with a green dot), what direction to go in (with arrows), and where to stop (with a red dot). They are write on/wipe off so kids can practice their letters over and over in a fun way. We practice writing letters daily with either markers on whiteboards or pencils on paper, but these are great for some of the trickier letters and for practicing in a different way.

This activity allows kids to match upper and lower case letters and then find pictures that match that letter sound. The letters are also bumpy which is helpful for kids who learn through touching (tactile learners). 

Each day while some children attend English Language Development class, the rest of the children have choice time and enjoy work stations in the classroom. Some of the stations (like the ever so popular kitchen) are just for fun and others incorporate alphabet, math, reading, and writing activities. All stations provide children with opportunities to gain skills, cooperate with others, share, take turns, and problem solve.Watching the kiddos during this time and listening to their play and busyness is one of my favorite times of the day because I really get to see them in action!

Thanks to Katie Webb and Keri Larsen for helping out today!

It's Been Awhile

I feel like I haven't posted in a long time! I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and got to have some fun! I spent a lot of my weekend doing homework for my doctoral courses with some pilates and yoga mixed in!

This week we are focusing on the word "like" and the letter S.

Micah and Natalie are the Stars of the Week!

Today I introduced the "like" song and it goes to the tune of what I like to call "the Barney Song". 

Is Barney even still on TV?

I like you, you like me

I spell like l-i-k-e

with a great big hug (hug yourself)

and kiss from you to me (blow a kiss)

I spell like l-i-k-e

I like you, you like me

I spell like l-i-k-e

with a great big hug (hug yourself)

and kiss from you to me (blow a kiss)

I spell like l-i-k-e

We also did our letter looking to find all of the Ss's in today's poem.

***

Random Notes

Thanks to everyone who returned the personal alphabet activity. It was so much fun to read through each child's alphabet to find out all kinds of things about them. I really appreciate you taking the time to do that little project.

I will send home notes on Friday to remind you when your conference appointment is. Almost everyone has signed up and I look forward to spending some time with each family and talking Kindergarten! Conferences should last about 20 minutes and we will discuss how your child is doing so far along with any questions/concerns/feedback that you have. 

I just went through all of the field trip permission forms and it is wonderful that so many parents have volunteered to come along! It is going to be a fun day and I am hoping we get good weather!

Both classes have had their first visit to the library to check out a book. We will go to the library every sixth day on our specials rotation and each time children can check out one book provided that the one they checked out previously has been returned. Since Mrs. Rodriguez no longer has an assistant due to budget cuts, we will need to have our books returned the day before we go to library to ensure that she has enough time to check them all back in before our class session. I will start adding reminders on the monthly calendar so that you know what day the book needs to come back to school.

Word and Letter of the Week

This week we are focusing on the letter Aa and also the word "the." Today we listened to and practiced the "the" song. Here is how it goes:

t-h-e, t-h-e

I can spell the

t-h-e

t-h-e, t-h-e

I can spell the

t-h-e

  

We clapped, snapped, and tapped our knees during the parts where we spell out the word. We did some letter looking and practiced recognizing both upper and lowercase a's in a short poem.  

SPECIALS 

 Mr. Silverman the Music teacher with the AM class

Both classes have been practicing moving around the room in different ways/to different rhythms and beats and stopping when they hear 3 beats on the drum.

 

 

Mr. Gaffney the PE teacher with the PM class.

Both classes have been working on learning the Cha Cha Slide dance which includes lots of directional movements, stomping and hopping.

I didn't snap a picture of Mrs. Rodriguez, but she has read some great stories with us and has taught us about the importance of having clean hands when reading library books and keeping library books in a safe place at home. 

We will begin going to the library to check out books this week (PM) and next week (AM).

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

A BIG thanks to Brandi Coffman-Luckcuck for organizing an online Parent Volunteer Calendar for my AM class. I think it will be a great way to organize volunteers because each parent can have access to the calendar to choose dates when they can volunteer and can easily make changes if something comes up. Instructions on how to use the calendar were emailed to all parents who signed up to volunteer at our Kindergarten Meet and Greet who provided an email address. If you didn't receive that email and would like to volunteer, you can click the link on the upper right-hand side of this page and that will take you to the page when you need to sign in. The user name and password are listed there as well. Once you sign in, click on "calendar" which you will find at the top of page on the left and you will be taken to the calendar. I will work on getting the same thing set up for my PM class as well. If anyone is interested in taking the reigns on that for the PM class like Brandi did, please let me know!

Also, I would like to ask for help on two other things.

1. If you drink bottled water/juice can you please save the plastic caps and send them to school? I want to make some activities using letters on the caps so I will need lots of them!

2. Does anyone have a table saw that would be appropriate for cutting our writing whiteboards? The ones I inherited with the classroom are just too big for such little people and I think it would be great if they were cut in half to be a bit more manageable. If anyone is interesting in helping with that project, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

Friday Folders

Today's Friday folders seemed jam packed with information, forms, and student work! A few important things to be aware of:

Our first field trip will be on Tuesday October 19th and we are going to the Pumpkin Patch! Both classes go together so that requires some changes in scheduling which I will remind you of as we get closer. Please fill out and return the bottom half of the blue information sheet that was sent home indicating that you give your child permission to go and if you would like to come as well. Children have to return a signed permission slip in order to go on the outing.

I also included a permission slip pertaining to Donors Choose. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was able to get a donation fully funded so that we can put together some literacy bags that the children will be allowed to take home over weekends. Part of the process of having a project fully funded will be having the kiddos draw pictures/write thank you notes to the donors. Another part is taking photos of the children enjoying the materials that were donated to us to show the donors how their donation is contributing to student learning. Donors Choose asks that I get permission from parents before photographing children. If I do not receive the signed permission slip, I will not take any photos of your child for our thank you package. I plan to have a sign up sheet during conferences for parents who are interested in helping to decorate the literacy bags.


I included the October Scholastic Book Orders as well and please feel free to order online! Several parents chose that option in September and I never knew book orders could be so easy! We also received 18 dollars in coupons towards books for those online orders in addition to 3 free books I was able to choose AND 10 free books that were included for the classroom due to the quantity of the order. Thanks for making reading exciting for your kids and for helping our classroom to obtain new books! If you look at our Scholastic page online, you can also view some books that I have recommended this month. There are a couple of book packs that have The Kissing Hand and other books about our favorite Raccoon Chester! There is a link at the top of this blog with directions for how to log in when ordering from Scholastic online for the first time. If you have any difficulties or questions, please let me know!

Your child should have also taken home two more paper books today ( an M book and " I can" book). Please remind your child to put them in his/her special book box for safe keeping!

Next week our Stars of the Week will be Ava (AM) and Jhaywon (PM). We will be focusing on the letter A all week in addition to the other letters that we study for fast track phonics.

I will make sure to get you an October calendar of events/days off. I meant to do that this week, but I started my fall classes at PSU and I forgot how busy it feels to go from school to class! I feel like time is just flying by and it's hard to believe that it's already October.

Finally, thanks to all of the parents that helped out this week! You are wonderful!

I hope you have some fun plans for the weekend. Now that I am back to school I will be spending some of my time doing homework on the weekends just like the kiddos!