Vmath

Yesterday I logged onto Vmath in the classroom to show the kiddos what it's like. Previously in the year, I sent home your child's user name and password so that you can log on from your home computer to play math games. I will be sending another copy of that log in information this Friday in the Friday folder.

Vmath is a great way to practice the skills we have been working on in class and students can also create an Avatar character to look like them. There are activities relating to different math concepts we work on and kids can also play Vmath Live which allows them to play against another child who is logged on somewhere else in the world. These activities would especially be great to utilize over the winter break.

Here are some brief directions about how to log on.

In your browser search VMath and click the first link that comes up.
It should be http://www.vmathlive.com/.

Then, use the log in information (user name is your child's name after the #24, password is your child's school ID number) to sign in.

The main page looks like this:

The purple bars have the following math categories:

Under the category "Knowing Numbers and Patterns" the game called "Order Numbers to 10" is a great one to practice number order.

 I showed the kiddos several of the games in class and they were excited to try it out at home. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or trouble logging on. I did a short workshop for parents last year to go over how it all works and I am happy to do that again if you'd like some more information.

Have fun!

November 28th-December 2nd

I hope you all had a nice relaxing break. I spent the long weekend in California visiting my husband's parents. I asked each kiddo to share one thing about their break today and it was great to hear some of the fun things you all did.

Reminders

This week Durham is having a Scholastic Book Sale in the library. On Wednesday I will be taking both classes to look at books and that will be their designated time to purchase books. If you'd like to send money please, send it in an envelope on Wednesday. If you'd like to look at books with your child, you can also make purchases until 3:30 PM.

Tuesday evening Durham is hosting a Family Fun Night from 6:30-8:00 PM. Each family that attends will receive a "Klutz Build a Book" and there will be stories as well as some projects for kids to make.

Scholastic flyers will go home on Friday and will be due Monday. This is a very quick turnaround, but I want to ensure that books will arrive before break for anyone who orders.

Also, I will be sending another family project home on Friday. Projects (family tradition collages) will be due December 12th.

Reading & Writing

This week I am introducing the /sh/ sound and the /z/ sound. The children are also learning how to "Stretch and Spell" so they can write down words. This is a skill necessary for writing (thinking about the sounds in a word you want to write and writing the letters that make those sounds). At this age, I encourage kids to sound out the words they want to write and I do not correct them if they don't include all the correct letters in order to spell a word conventionally. It's more important to me that they write the words they hear and continue to try to write independently rather than relying on me to tell them how to spell a word. Most of the words we write as a group are short and we "break them down" so the kiddos can write each sound. When they write on their own, however, they tend to write longer words and don't always hear all the sounds. For example, if a child wants to write horse and he/she writes down hrs, that is a completely acceptable way to spell in Kindergarten. Children may not yet hear all of the sounds in a word and there are many tricky spelling patterns in the English language that they haven't learned yet. As the year progresses, we will continue to learn more sounds and long vowel spelling patterns, but for now, please encourage your child to sound out the words he/she wants to write and let them spell the words phonetically as they hear them. As they gain more and more exposure to printed text, they will start to recognize the "correct" way to spell, but it is a developmental process and we are just beginning!

This week we are focusing on the letter N and the children will color the flag of Nepal on Wednesday. We talked about how people greet each other in Nepal by saying Namaste and bowing, so we will practice that during our greeting circle this week.

Our word of the week is "to" and we have a very fun song that goes along with it.

Last week our staff attended a fantastic training on vocabulary with Anita Archer who shared with us some great activities and strategies to promote vocabulary development. I would like to start including a math and/or science word as a vocabulary focus each week along with our letter and sight word of the week.

Math

This week we are starting chapter 2 which focuses a lot on five-groups. We are practicing the numbers 6-10 with emphasis on seeing those numbers as a five-group plus a particular number of extras. Tomorrow the kiddos will use stampy markers to show the numbers 6-10 as a five-group with extras. On Friday, you will receive a parent letter from the math program with some visuals and a description of our work with five-groups. Those sheets are important to read and hold on to because it might help explain the homework that will come home for this chapter.

I am off to get back the results of our most recent ultrasound! Let's hope everything is looking good with Baby Girl Toppel!

A little bit of news...

Updates

This week flew by and I can't believe it's Friday already! My husband was away this week traveling for work in Central America, so I will be happy to pick him up at the airport tonight. I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Reading & Writing

This week we reviewed the /r/ sound and /b/ and /f/ were introduced. I have been introducing a new sound every other lesson and focusing on learning the sound the first day, then writing the letter the following day. All of the kiddos are making great progress in writing their letters and recognizing the letter/sound combinations. We also focused on the letter T this week, so we made patterned ties and colored the flag of Thailand. We also focused on the sight word "see."

Math

This week in math we worked on writing the numbers 4 and 5 and drawing groups of pictures to show those numbers. Today I introduced dot-to-dot pictures and we talked about connecting the dots in order. We talked about the difference between straight lines and wiggly or curvy lines as the kiddos need to practice drawing straight lines for the dot-to-dot activities. We also used the words vertical, horizontal, and diagonal to describe our straight lines. We used our arms to show what each kind of line looks like. (Math vocab words are in bold).

Science

During our science time this week, we talked about how to be safe during science. Rules for being safe included listening to the teacher, using tools in a safe way, and wearing safety goggles.

Reminders

Next week we are beginning our hygiene drive to support families in need. My classes are in charge of donating toilet paper. You should have received a note about this in the Friday folder today letting you know the time period for donations.

If you signed up for Literacy Bags, your child got to take one home today! Directions and an inventory list are included in each bag along with several books and a game relating to a particular theme. Please enjoy the activities and books with your child and carefully check to make sure all items, including all activity pieces and instructions, are included in the bag when you return it. Bags should be returned on Wednesday. Since we have a short week and then we have a full week followed by a week off, I will not send bags again until after our Thanksgiving holiday. Please take good care of the materials and have fun with the bags. If your bag is not decorated, please feel free to add some art to it.

A big thanks to all the parents who came to help out with Halloween!

Have a great weekend!

School Photos

I received the kids' school photos today and I was hoping to send them home on Friday so they could stay nice and flat inside the Friday folders. Unfortunately, the make up day is scheduled for this Thursday, so that puts a kink in that plan and I will need to send them home tomorrow. I will remind the kiddos to be very careful and personally hand photos to parents when possible (parents who pick up after school).

If you would like your child to have his/her photo retaken, please make sure to send me a note on Thursday so I can help make sure that happens!!

Pumpkin Patch

A BIG thank you to all of the parents who joined us for a fun day at the Lakeview Pumpkin Patch! I really appreciate you coming out to help make our field trip such a family event!

Reminder: Students can wear Halloween costumes to school on Monday. Each class will participate in a parade and have a party in the classroom.

AM parade 9:45 AM

AM party 10:00-10:30 AM

PM parade 1:30 PM

PM party 1:45-2:15

No masks * No face paint * No weapons * No violence

Also, children should be able to participate in regular school activities while wearing costumes.

Pumpkin Patch is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch! I will be sending home a paper lunch bag today with your child’s name on it. Please pack a lunch in that bag and make sure everything is disposable. Hopefully we will have good weather tomorrow, but please make sure your child dresses appropriately for whatever the weather may be. I recommend writing your child’s name inside jackets and sweatshirts so they don’t get lost.
ALL students need to arrive at school by 8:20.

If you are coming along, you have two choices for the morning.

1. Check in when you drop your child off around 8:20. Pick up supplies, see what kids are in your group and get directions. Then, meet us at the Pumpkin Patch around 10:00. This allows a little time for a coffee stop :0)
2. Arrive at school at 9:00 to check in and get directions. We plan to leave at 9:15 AM.
   

We have a lot of parent helpers, which is great. You may be assigned 1 additional child from the class to be part of your group and I will also be putting several parents together so we have a few larger groups. Once we arrive at the pumpkin patch, we’ll make sure everyone is with the correct group.

Please let me know if you have any questions about the process for tomorrow please don’t hesitate to ask. Email is the best way to reach me.

Books We are LOVING

This week we have had a few story times that were wildly popular. Yesterday we read Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes and it was a huge hit. I got the book from the October Scholastic Book Club and it came with a CD that plays the story. The author Mr. Eric reads the story and there are children who chime in and sing along with Pete's fun little song. We were singing along too and we couldn't read it just once! If you hear your child singing...."I love my [insert color here] shoes" the tune they are singing is from this book.

If you want your own copy you can get it here at Amazon or you can still order it online through Scholastic for the version that comes with the CD (for only $7.00). Just click the link in the paragraph about Scholastic Book Clubs to the right and it will take you to the page where you can sign in. We get a free book for our classroom for every online order and I will go in and change the due date for the October order so anyone who wants to place an order now still can. Pete the Cat is number 49 in the See Saw October flier.

In the PM class today we also read Press Here, which was even more of a hit than Pete the Cat. I borrowed this book from Mrs. Kolb across the hall and will make sure to read it with the AM class as well.

I wish I had a video of the kids' reactions to reading this book. It's not even a story, but pages with directions like push the yellow dot or tap the yellow dot five times. Then when you turn the page the dot turns a different color or multiplies. They were amazed and having so much fun seeing all the pages. It was magical. You can purchase Press Here here on Amazon.

Ask your child about these books...I am sure he/she will have a LOT to say!

Can Drive

I was supposed to send home a note today about the can drive and I spaced...I think that's called pregnancy brain :0)

Tomorrow is the first collection day for the Drive-By Can Drive

You can drive by and drop pop cans and water bottles off at the following times:

Morning 7:45-8:30 AM

Afternoon 2:15-3:00 PM
Evening 5:30-6:30 PM

Please separate your cans, water bottles, and 2-liter bottles.

*No Glass*

The grade with the most donations earns a popcorn party!

October 17-21

Welcome to another busy week! My husband and I moved over the weekend, so I feel like the weekend just flew by. Although I have been back from Germany for over a year, my husband was still working there last year school year, so this past summer was our official relocation back to the US as a couple. Our container with all of our belongings, including our car, was delivered on Friday, so we have spent quite a bit of time unpacking, sorting, making piles of things to give away, and settling into our new place. Because of the relocation, we were in a temporary furnished apartment until our stuff arrived and now we are in our new place. Whew....busy busy!

I am going to start with the important reminders so they don't get lost at the end of this post.

1. Next week is our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch on Tuesday the 25th. If you are coming with us, you will most likely be in charge of your child plus one additional child from the class. If you come along you must take your child home from the Pumpkin Patch unless you need to return to work. Any children who do not go home from the Pumpkin Patch can be picked up at school at 1:00 or can ride the bus home at 2:25 if needed. All students need to arrive at school by 8:15 AM and we will leave at 9:00 AM. Please make sure your child brings a sack lunch that can be tossed away. Please don't send items that need to be returned home like water bottles or plastic food containers. Things like these are hard to keep track of and we don't want items getting lost. Also, I recommend making sure your child's name is in his/her jacket or sweatshirt, so these items don't get lost as well.

2. We will also be having parent teacher conferences next week. I will have a substitute in the classroom on Wednesday so that I can do conferences during the school day and I will also be holding conferences all day on Thursday and Friday. There is no school on Thursday and Friday for the children. I encourage you to bring your child to the conference if you can. Please return the orange conference reminder sheet I sent home ASAP to either confirm that you can come at the scheduled time or that you need me to help you reschedule. I need time to make arrangements for parents who are not able to make the scheduled times.

3. I need some help with filing math papers. If anyone is interested in taking home the box and filing math sheets from our workbooks, I would greatly appreciate it!

Reading

This week we will be covering the sounds /c/ and /k/ in our letter lessons. We completed the first ten lessons, so I spent some time last week assessing children to check in and see how well they are remembering the letter-sound relationships. I will share this information with you at conferences. We are also focusing on the letter P all week. Our country of the week is Papa New Guinea. Have you ever visited there? Our sight words this week are "am" and "a." We will be doing various activities and projects this week to reinforce the letter of the week and our two sight words.

Math

This week in math we are going to focus on the concepts of same and different. This will involve looking at three images and circling the one that is different and also using graphing mats to compare two numbers that are different in order to tell which has more tiles and which has fewer. We are continuing to practice putting the number tiles in order from 1-10 and quickly recognizing numbers in order to show that many fingers.

Science

Today we talked about different tools we use to observe and measure. We discussed a picture and talked about magnifying glasses, rulers, measuring cups, thermometers, and scales. Our science lessons are short and mean to draw from what students know in order to think about science and what scientists do.

Wednesday October 5

I apologize for not posting at all last week...meetings almost every afternoon kept me busy.

Both classes are continuing to do a great job. We are running our regular schedule full swing now with phonics and math lessons everyday.

Reading and Writing

So far we have covered the letters m, a, s, d, t, i, g, p, and o. After every 10 lessons, I do individual assessments with the kiddos to check in and see how they are doing with remembering the letter sounds. I will start those tomorrow and continue on Friday. Based on those assessments, we may go back and review some of the sounds, or we'll continue on with the next set of 10 lessons. We cover a new sound each day and in addition to the 26 letters in the alphabet, we cover some digraph sounds as well like /ch/, /sh/, and /th/. So far the kiddos have been doing a great job. They are eager to participate in the lessons and they love to see Alfie (both in puppet form and in the short video clips that are part of the curriculum). This past week we started to "sound it out" and read words containing the letter sounds we have worked on so far. This is a huge step for Kinders and leaves them feeling like real readers!

Each lesson also includes a writing component. At this point, we practice writing the letter of the day that we are focusing on and the children also focus on writing the letter of the week. Pretty soon, the children will be writing whole words. Because the letters we introduce are lower case, I'd like you to encourage your children to use lower case letters when they write, especially in their names. We call this the "school way" and that is what we practice tracing during morning work and what the children are asked to do on their homework. The "school way" means only the first letter of the name should be an uppercase letter. Many of the children are still writing their names in all caps, so I'd like to see them incorporating the lower case letters that we have learned. It's a process because they are used to writing their name a certain way, but that is the goal.

Math

We have been reading Anno's Counting book which is a wordless counting book in class. Each page displays a picture that showcases a particular number (0-12). The children look at the illustrations and identify what they can spot in the picture that shows the number on that particular page. We have also been working with the math trays to work square inch tiles and pattern blocks to show different numbers. When the children get their tray ready, the put their number tiles in order from 1 to 5 at the top and then the counting objects along the bottom. We pull one number down into the center of the tray and then they are asked to show that number with either the tiles or the shapes. We have been working on making different arrangements to show each number and talking about how the number of items doesn't change just because you move them around. We have also been working on number partners so the children are asked to show what numbers go together to make the number we are working on. If we are using both red and blue square inch tiles, they might use 3 red tiles and 2 blue tiles to show 5. 2 and 3 are partners of 5. This is building the foundation for addition and for quick recall of basic facts. The children have also started bringing this into our finger work. I will show a number card and ask the children to show me that many fingers. If I show the number 5, sometimes a child will show 5 fingers on the same hand, but they are starting to show different ways to make 5. This is really cool to see!

Sight Words

This week our sight word is "the." Last week our word was "we." The kids love to learn the weekly song that helps them remember how to spell the sight word. Other activities we do to help the children remember the sight words and practice reading them are sight word books, die cut sight words, stamping sight words, and dot art sight words with bingo stampers. The children also practice reading books that go with our reading program that have controlled text and include the sight words that we focus on. One book that many of the children have been reading and mastering is called We Can. The book contains both words and some pictures as clues to help with more challenging words. The text is repetitive, which is perfect for beginning readers. As part of "Travel Tuesday" children work at a book box station where they choose a book, read it with a funky finger, read it with a whisper phone, read it to a stuffed animal, and then read it to me. This is great for gaining fluency and building confidence. I love hearing them read!

Homework

So far homework consists of a weekly reading sheet and a letter of the week sheet. Math will be added soon. All assignments are due 10 days after the pages are sent home. When I send math pages home, I will staple them to the reading page and all of the pages are due on the date written/stamped on the reading page.

Special Events

I will be doing parent teacher conferences on Wednesday October 26th, Thursday the 27th, and Friday the 28th. If you have not signed up for a time yet, please email me or give me a call and we can put you on the schedule. I always encourage parents to bring their children along for conferences, but on Wednesday, I will be conducting conferences during the school day while a substitute is in the classroom with the children. Fall conferences are a time for me to share progress so far which includes Fast Track Phonics Assessments, DIBELS scores, and informal math observations. We will also discuss behavior based on the stick system. There will be no school on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th.

Our field trip to the Pumpkin Patch will take place Tuesday the week of conferences (10/25). If you have not returned a permission slip yet, please do so! I encourage parents to come as it is a very fun day.

I hope you feel caught up now! I will try to make sure I get in at least one post a week :0)

Jogathon

Tomorrow is our jogathon and I would love to have some parents come out and help! The AM class will be running from 9:35-10:05 and should wear green. This helps the volunteers know who they can check off as the kiddos run laps. The PM class is running from 1:30-2:00 and should wear blue.

Each child will receive a water bottle that was purchased by the PSO. I have written names on all of the bottles and they will be filled up for the children when they arrive at school. The bottles are a little tricky to open, so I would love to have help from parents to make sure kids can get their water. I will also need helpers to keep tally of laps each time the children pass on the field. If you are interested in helping, just show up!

Sight Word Songs

I forgot to mention about our sight words songs, so I wanted to add to the info in the post below. Each week, we will focus on one sight word and starting next week, we will add a letter of the week as well. I have some great Cd's from Heidi's Songs with cute songs to go along with almost all of our sight words. Each week, we will learn a new song and sing it throughout the week. When the kiddos get more advanced in their writing, these songs are wonderful in helping them remember how to spell very common and important sight words.

Last week, "I" was our word. The lyrics to the I song are:

I, I, I, I
I is a word with one letter.

Short and sweet.

This week our word of the week is "can." The lyrics to our song this week are:

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.

The lyrics repeat twice. Each time we spell out the world we do a motion like clapping, stomping our feet, or tapping our heads. So far the children have loved singing along and experimenting with different voices as we sing.

September 19-23rd

Now that we have our brand new rug in our learning area, I am going to incorporate some different lessons and activities in that area of the classroom. Each child is assigned a particular color square on the carpet, which is where he/she will sit each time we do activities on that carpet. We have practiced transitioning from our alphabet carpet, where we start our day, to the new carpet for our letter lessons.

Here is a look at our daily schedule:

AM

8:10-8:20 Morning Work

8:20-Announcements (children arriving after announcements are counted as tardy)

8:25-Greeting Circle with daily share (I greet each child by name and they say hello to me, then I ask a daily question and each child gets a turn to answer)

8:30-9:00-Fast Track Phonics (daily letter lesson)

9:00-9:30-Math (we start with a daily math routine, then have a math lesson)

9:30-10:00 English Language Development (ELD) for some students, others remain in class with me

10:00-10:30 Science/Sight Word Activities

10:30-10:40 Story/Star of the Week

10:40 Dismissal

PM 

11:55-12:05 Morning Work

12:10-Morning Greeting

12:15-12:45-Fast Track Phonics 

12:45-1:15-Math

1:15-1:40 Science/Sight Word Activities

1:40-1:50 Story/Star of the Week

1:50-2:20 ELD

2:20 Dismissal (I bring the Kinders out 5 minutes early to make sure they get on buses before the older children)

Reading & Writing
We  started our Fast Track Phonics Program today and have will cover the the sounds /m/ and /a/ and most likely /s/ this week. 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.

Math:

We are continuing to work on Rainbow Numbers this week. You should have seen several examples come home in your child's Friday folder along with groups of stamps to show the particular number on the page. Take a look at your child's sheets to see if he/she is stamping the correct number of times for that particular day. We are working on stopping when we get to the number of the day, circling the group, and writing the number next to the group of stamps. Most of the kiddos are doing a great job, but some are still struggling to match the number of the day with the same number of stamps. It's great to practice counting out loud and counting particular objects while saying the numbers at home as well as practicing to write numbers.

 Stories:

This week our stories will focus on different kinds of friends. Today we read Let's Be Enemies and we will also read My Friend is Sad, Little Red Hen, Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale, and Bear Feels Scared. Each of these stories touches on how friends treat each other and we will connect this to the "Bucket Book" and talk about how we should treat other people and qualities of a good friend. Starting next week, we won't have a daily story because we need to make time for our Star of the Week activities, but I will of course try to fit them in as often as I can.

ELD Time:

Some children receive ELD instruction for 30 minutes outside the classroom each day. Children who participate in this are children who speak a language besides English at home. During this time, children who do not participate stay in the classroom and we will do a rotation of activities throughout the week. Our activity rotation will be...


Monday Math-math tile games for extra practice and enrichment
Travel Tuesday-children get their very own passport and "travel" to different stations where they earn stamps upon competing work. Stations will involve reading, sight word practice, science, and learning games.
Words on Wednesday-I will use a program called Words Their Way which includes picture, letter, and sound sorts.
Thoughtful Thursdays-Time for stories or projects that focus on thoughtfulness and being kind to/helping others
Flexible Fridays-a chance to catch up or do something different

Helpers:

We have three students from Tigard High helping us in the classroom this year. These students are all participating in a class geared towards working with young children, so they come and help in classrooms to learn and gain experience. It is wonderful to have the additional hands and help. In the morning class we are sharing Miss Emily and Miss Zaineh (Zay-nuh) with Mrs. McLean's class so they will come once a week to help for an hour each. In the afternoon, Miss Taylor comes for an hour each day.
I have a few parents starting to come in and volunteer this week for jobs that I need help with every week, but other parents who are interested in coming in to help are also more than welcome.

Activities/Special Events:

This Thursday every child at Durham will take the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills DIBELS) reading assessment. This is a screening measure to help the Kindergarten teachers and our Literacy Specialist know which students may need additional support in reading. Students in Kindergarten will do the Letter Naming Fluency and Initial Sound Fluency portions of this assessment.



On Friday we will have our Jog-a-thon. I have water bottles for each student which will be filled and labeled with their name. If your child is in the AM class, please have him/her wear a green shirt on Friday if possible. If your child is in the PM class, please have him/her wear a blue shirt on Friday if possible. AM kiddos will run from 9:35-10:05. PM kiddos will run from 1:30-2:00. Parents are more than welcome to come and watch or participate with the children. PSO usually provides a treat after we run.


Next Thursday is Picture Day
AM 10:10
PM 12:50

Back to School Night

Thanks to all of the parents who made it to Back to School Night. It was great to see all of you and I hope you felt like you came away from the evening with some helpful information about what to expect this year in Kindergarten. I have never worked with a translator before, so my presentation went on a little longer than I planned for. If you have any questions that were not answered last night, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I want to make sure all of your questions are answered! If you couldn't make it last night, I am sending home your folder of information on Friday in the Friday Folder. There is a permission slip to participate in my literacy bag program and a personal alphabet in there, which are both important papers we talked about.

Math:

This week we have been working on "rainbow numbers" during math time. This exercise involves a lot of practice in listening and following directions, but also provides practice in writing the numbers. Each day we focus on one number (1 on Monday, 2 today and so on). We start with a red crayon and trace the number, then continue to trace the number with each color of the rainbow. We practice "my turn" and "your turn" so the kids know that when it's my turn they need to watch what I am doing and listen so they know what to do when it's their turn. After we have traced the number in all of the colors, we have been using stamping markers to show that number in different groups. Once we have stamped the correct number of times, we draw a circle around it and write the number of the day. When you see these papers come home on Friday, you can check to see if it looks like your child was getting the idea and following the directions. I think the kiddos have been doing a great job. We have also been using our math trays to show the number of the day. The children start by putting their math tiles in order from 1-5 and then we put the number of the day in the center of the tray. Today, the kids use many different objects to show me how many two are. They put two pennies, two connecting cubes, two little letters, and two counting fruits next to the number two on their tray. I was really impressed with how well most kids did (not so much that they can count to 2, but that they followed the directions really well and didn't go ahead of me or play with the items.)

We will continue these activities with a new number each day. 

Reading:

I also introduced our creepy fingers today which we will use for reading. It's really important for children to practice pointing to the words as they read, so I gave each child a  green plastic witch fingers with long red fingernails to help them point to each word as we read. We worked on our first sight word book, which was on the word "I." The children had to write the word "I" where it was missing and circle the letter I in a word search. We will continue to use our funky fingers when we read our paper books.

I introduced Alfie to both groups today and we started to do some Fast Track Phonics exercises. We talked about the letter m and how it makes the /m/ sound like when mom bakes fresh cookies and we say mmmmmmmmm. I also introduced the alphabet chant. Once the kiddos learn it better, I would like to take a video and post it on the blog so you can see and hear it in action! 

Stories:

Yesterday we read The Worst Day of My Life Ever & Froggy Goes to School. Today we read Big Wolf & Little Wolf and On The Way To Kindergarten. Each time we read a story I am including practice with comprehension skills such as making predictions and comparing different stories. Yesterday when we read The Worst Day of My Life Ever, we looked at the illustration on the cover and made predictions about what might happen that would make it the worst day ever for the boy. We talked about using picture clues and the kids did a great job making guesses. As we read, we reviewed all of the different things in the story that made it a bad day. Today when we read Big Wolf & Little Wolf, we talked about other stories we know with wolves in them like The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood. The Wolves in our story today were good and kind, so we talked a bit about how that was different than the Big Bad Wolf in The Three Little Pigs and the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. So far many kids are making great connections during the stories and they have been very successful at telling me what happened in the stories after we have read them.

Science:
We also talked a little bit about science yesterday and the children will get a chance to use magnifying glasses (aka hand lenses) to observe some items during a science station later this week. We talked about the word "observe" and how it means to look at something very carefully. I know the children are looking forward to getting their first crack at science in the classroom.

Heads Up:

• Tomorrow we are going to have our first Fire Drill during the AM session. I will read a story about fire drills and practice with both classes because we will have a monthly evacuation practice and I want both groups to be prepared. Most of the time, I will tell the kids in advance when we are having a fire drill so they are not scared. We will line up and exit through the door in the back of the room. We don't have to be in the classroom with the alarm for long, so hopefully no one is too bothered by it. 

• Next Friday September 23 is our Jogathon!

• Scholastic Book Club orders are due Monday Sept 19th. You can send in the completed order form or order online. When you order online we automatically get a free book for the classroom, so thanks to the parents who have already done that. I love books and so do the kids!
  

Wednesday

Another great day! We are continuing to practice our transition from table work to the alphabet carpet in the morning. After our good morning greeting, both groups got a chance to share something about themselves. In the morning class each child got to share about their brothers/sisters and in the afternoon class each child got to share about something they like to eat and their brothers/sisters. I like to make sure each child is recognized as an individual and has the opportunity to take the floor and share with his/her classmates. We are of course working on being quiet listeners when someone else is talking.

We read two great stories today. Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen and Hands Off, Harry! (from a new series called Kindergators by Rosemary Wells). Both stories featured characters who had a tough time making good choices at first, but both Harry and Howard learned to make better choices and get along better with their classmates in the end. We related both stories and characters to our goal of keeping all three of our sticks each day.

 Did you spy a sticker on your child today after school? A smiley sticker means he/she kept all three sticks!

The kiddos also got to do some exploration with the math tiles that are part of our math curriculum, which is called Expressions. Each child got a baggie with tiles numbered 1-10. They got a chance to put the numbers in order and show me particular numbers when I called them out. They did a great job listening and stopping each time I rang the bell to give directions or call out a different number. Our math program uses a lot of different manipulatives throughout the year, so the children get to do many hands on activities.

Finally, in order to practice listening and following the directions, the kiddos each made a stop sign. They had to watch and listen in order to put the red, yellow, and green circles in the right spot. This also gave them a chance to practice using glue.

My phone is still "out of order" so please email me with any questions/concerns you might have. Or, if you leave a message with the office, they will make sure I get it. I am typically in the classroom after school and check my email frequently (even from home in the evenings sometimes).

I think the children are adjusting very well to being in Kindergarten and I have had several students tell me just how thrilled they are to being going to school now. :0)

We made it!

Today was a great first day in both classes! We went over some of our classroom routines including how to clean up tables, push in chairs, put morning work in the blue or green baskets, and find a spot on the alphabet carpet when the Good Morning song starts playing. We will start each day with a Good Morning greeting once we are all settled on the carpet. I say good morning to each child by name and ask that they say good morning Mrs. Toppel in return. As we learn about some different countries this year, we will also learn how to say hello or good morning in different languages.

We read The Kissing Hand, which is my favorite story for the first day of Kindergarten. Some of the children were familiar with the story already (probably from preschool) and they impressed me with their knowledge of nocturnal animals. I love the big vocabularies they have! Nocturnal--wow! After we read the story and talked about it, the kiddos did a little project which you will see hanging on our bulletin boards sometime this week. They had to complete the sentence, "On the first day of Kindergarten I felt _________." Most said they felt happy or good, but there were a few that said they felt nervous or shy.

We also did some practice with my quiet signal, which is a red bell named Buddy Bell. When I ring the bell I expect everyone to stop, look, and listen. Both classes did a great job with that. Impressive!

The other important thing we talked about today, which you may have already heard about is "the sticks." To introduce the system, I am starting over each day, so each child has three sticks at the beginning of each day to "protect" by following classroom rules and expectations. We talked about ways to keep sticks and also talked about choices that result in me having to take a stick away. For now, anyone who has all three sticks at the end of the day gets a sticker. In October, we transition to three sticks for the entire week earning a choice time on Friday, but we need time for them to get used to what things lose sticks before they have to keep three all week. Some kids will test and try out different behaviors, but for the most part they seemed to really get the idea and do well with the system today. Please ask your child when he/she gets home if he/she got a sticker and kept all sticks. It's a big deal and they should be really proud of doing so! If your child has lost a stick, it's a great idea to have a brief conversation about why and make sure they understand a different choice that could be made next time.

We had a few conversations today about what we do in school and I told the kiddos that we don't have a daily recess and we don't have a snack at school (until we start Star of the Week and then we'll have snack once a week on Wednesdays). They may be a bit disappointed and feel like we're not doing anything fun, but it does take us awhile before we can get into some real learning. The first few weeks include a lot of instruction of routines and practice to make sure we have them down. This makes for a much better school year once we do take off with reading and math (and science this year too!). It is really important to build the foundation for good listening and boundaries in the classroom now so they are used to the expectations when we kick it into high gear.

As we start a new year there are always some kinks to work out with bus stops and routes, so I appreciate your patience and understanding if there are any mix-ups with departure routines. Occasionally children are returned to school on the bus if an adult is not waiting for them at their stop, so please know that if for some reason your child does not get off the bus, they are safe and are probably being brought back to school. It is a good idea to be at the stop early and to arrive early if you are picking up as well, especially in the PM because the parking lot gets very busy and crowded.

Please make sure your child brings his/her yellow bus tag to school all this week and next week. When we have our bus routines down and the drivers know the kids, I will collect them and keep them at school. Until then, it is imperative that they have those tags so the bus drivers have their information. If you are picking your child up, it's not as important, but it does help me group the kids in the line, so until I have everyone's schedule down pat, I would appreciate all kids having them every day. Also, in the event any child gets separated from me at the end of the school day, another teacher will know to return them to me! And, speaking of kids getting separated, I told children who get picked up not to leave with a parent until they look at me and I look at them and see they are with a parent. Sometimes kids see mom or dad and disappear so quickly, which makes me nervous. I need to see you before you take your child.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for Back to School Night on Monday September 12th! I will giving more detailed explanations of our reading and math programs as well as info about homework, literacy bags, and much more! I am looking forward to getting to know all of your families better!

It was wonderful to meet many of you last night at our supply drop. I could tell that there were many very excited Kindergartners! I hope that you have read through the information I passed out and that you will use this blog as a way to check in frequently with what we are doing in the classroom. I try to post at least once a week and I often post photos to give you an idea of what we have been working on. I had great feedback from parents last year who really enjoyed the blog and felt that it helped them talk to their kids about school because they already had a lot of information about what we had done.

I also want to let you know that my phone in the classroom is not working right now. The cord was removed during the summer and our custodian, Mr. Z, has been searching for a new one with no luck. If you need to get in touch with me, please use my email.

ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us

Next week I will introducing the children to the routines and rules in the classroom and we'll spend a lot of time practicing different procedures like cleaning up, transitioning from the tables to the carpet, and lining up. I will also make sure to give the kiddos a tour of the bathrooms so they know where to go if they need to go.

I will be using a behavior management program this year, which I will also introduce next week. I prefer to focus on what kids are doing well, so my system allows children who are following the classroom rules and expectations to earn some choice time on Fridays. Both of my classes last year LOVED having choice time, so it is a great motivation for them. I will send home detailed information about "the sticks" that are used and I will explain it at Back to School Night as well.

As you prepare to send your treasures off to Kindergarten, please remember that although they may be feeling nervous or unsure, they will quickly adjust and will have a great year! It's normal to have some crying on the first day or during the first week (sometimes longer), but they will quickly feel at home in their new classroom. I know it can be tempting to stay, especially if your child is feeling upset, but I encourage to give them a big hug and tell them you'll see them later so they can get used to being here without a parent.

If you have any questions/concerns/information that you would like to discuss with me, please don't hesitate to get in touch. (email is best for now but hopefully my phone will be working soon!). I am looking forward to getting to know both you and your kiddos better!

Meet Mrs. Toppel

This will be my seventh year of teaching and I am so excited to be teaching Kindergarten again! 

A Little Bit About Me: I moved to Portland in 2005 and taught preschool in a bilingual Head Start program until I started working for Tigard Tualatin School District in 2006 at Tualatin Elementary. I taught First Grade at Tualatin for three years during which time, I also got married. In the summer of 2009, my husband and I moved to Germany where I worked as a K-12 Support Services teacher at an international school. It was a fantastic experience to work in an environment where the students and families come from all over the world. While living in Europe we traveled to Ireland, Prague, Austria, and, Spain, Italy, London, and Amsterdam in addition to some fun cities in Germany. My husband also got to visit Madrid and Paris on business (lucky man!) I learned quite a bit about different cultures and strive to create a classroom and learning environment where all cultures, language, and differences are valued.  I returned to the US last year to join the staff at Durham Elementary and had a wonderful year teaching Kindergarten! I am happy to be back!

Berlin, Germany--December, 2009

Ireland (Cliffs of Moher)--March 2010

Austria--August 2010

Wearing a traditional German Dirndl

  I graduated from Villanova University in Pennsylvania (this is one Oregonian who is neither a Duck nor a Beaver!) and I received my master's degree in Special Education and endorsements to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages and special education from Portland State University. I speak Spanish and am working on learning German as well, but I am finding it quite a difficult language. I am also currently working on my Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction because I never want to stop trying to improve my skills and learning how to be a more effective educator.

I love to read, workout, cook, travel, do crafty things and write. While in Germany I also started working on my very first quilt.

Still working on it...but my teacher is back in Germany, so now I am on my own!

I grew up in Connecticut with a wonderful family and an older brother who is about to welcome his third baby in Februrary. He and his wife already have two daughters, Alyssa (2.5 years old) and Aubrey (1 year old).

Left to Right--Mom, Me, Dad, Brother Dan with Baby Alyssa, and his wife Shari

I hope as the year goes on we get to know each other quite well!

A Little Ditty

Check out the AM class doing a cute song in Music class with Mr. Silverman!

A few things...

• Today is the last day of extended day reading services. Starting Tuesday, all AM students will leave school at 10:40 and all PM students will arrive at 11:55. Bus stop times may shift a little due to additional stops/children be added back to the routes, so please review the revised bus schedule that is in your child's Friday folder. When I received the schedules, I noticed that several names are missing and the lists don't seem to be entirely correct, so please let me know if there is an error involving your child and I will pass the information to the office.

• Don't forget to turn in a permission slip for our fishing trip. Students who do not return permission slips will not be able to attend. Mrs. Kolb pointed out that when she created the permission slip, the wrong date was printed....our fishing trip will be on TUESDAY JUNE 14th (not the 11th). The correct date is on the June calendars that I sent home today.

• So far I only have one PM parent volunteer for the fishing trip. If any other PM parents can come along, please let me know. It is going to be a really fun day!!

I hope you have a great weekend! I am headed to California tonight to see my in-laws for the weekend. I am looking forward to some relaxation, good food, and time with family and I am hoping to finalize my very long Core paper that I have been working on all year!

Teen Numbers Hip Hop Style & Butterfly Songs

This week, I showed the kiddos this fun video to help them remember the teen numbers. We sang it a few times and then we also changed the words a bit in order to remember that the 1 in every teen number really stands for a ten.

It's kind of one of those songs you can't get out of your head...
which is exactly the point!

We've also been practicing a few butterfly songs:

Fuzzy Fuzzy Caterpillar

(to the tune of the Itsy Bitsy Spider)
 

The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled up on a leaf,
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell fast asleep.
While she was sleeping
She dreamed that she could fly,
And later when she woke up
She was a butterfly!

I just may have to take a little video during class tomorrow!

We are still working on the other one which is sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat. That one is a bit longer, so we are learning just one verse at a time.

BOB on the iPad!

I have recently been playing around with finding some iPad apps for kids and I came across a few that I really like. These are more on the basic side (better for beginning Kinder), but there are tons out there, so surely there are more that could be more geared towards students at the end of Kindergarten or even (gasp!)--FIRST graders!

I am in denial that my kiddos are only with me for 14 more school days....

I recently got an iphone, so I am having fun using the video function.
Yes, recording my iPad with my iPhone makes me a bit of a technology freak :0)

It's a whole new generation of BOB!

I love how kiddos can hear the sounds and hear them blended into words!

app name: BB Magic Lite-FREE

(I don't recommend the lite version because there isn't much to it, but there are other more comprehensive versions for sale with different levels of books)

This game is great for vocabulary building and phoneme segmentation.

app name: Word Magic

app name: ABC Tracer

There is a free "lite" version, but it didn't include the whole alphabet, so I paid for the real one, but it was on sale. 

I also downloaded:

PBS Kids

Sight Words Lite (this version doesn't have the complete list that the full version does)

ABC Phonics

KidsMathFun

Kindergarten

Count Magic

Math Series (fill in the missing number game)

I haven't played with all of them yet, but so far the ones I have played or used with kids have worked well!

Butterflies

We were so excited on Friday to see three butterflies come out of their cocoons! 

Our examination station

the children can practice putting the life cycle in order

I ransacked the Washington County library system for all the books I could find about caterpillars and butterflies and the kiddos are enjoying looking at the pictures and reading them to learn more about the life cycle of butterflies!

Our book shelf is fully stocked :0)

I am hoping that by Monday all of the butterflies are out and about. We will have five in all. At some point in the near future, we will release them (on a day that is 55 degrees or more) and send them on their way. With the goal of having both classes get to see butterflies released, I decided to have the AM class join Mrs. Kolb's class or Mrs. McLean's class when they release theirs and then the PM class can release the ones from our classroom. I ordered my caterpillars a little bit sooner than they did, so it may be another week before they are ready to let them fly away!

Snacks

I hope I am not inundating you with requests for snacks, but I tried sending out an email to both of my class group lists and I haven't gotten a single response (usually when I ask for help I have lots of willing volunteers, so I am thinking there has been an issue with the group list emails again).

Anyway, since every child has now had a turn to be the star of the week, we don't have anyone else scheduled to bring in our Wednesday snack. Since the kiddos really look forward to it, I would like to keep having that snack for the rest of the school year. So, I need some help in order to make that happen.

If you want to provide a snack and would like a specific date to send it on let me know, or else just send in a snack that I can keep in the cupboard until needed. Thanks!We now have 22 kiddos in the AM class and 21 in the PM class.

Updates

You may be wondering what we have been up to lately since it has been too long since I last posted! Sorry about that! Here is a look at this week:

Reading and Writing:

Q is our letter this week, so we are working on an alphabet quilt where the kiddos write one word for each letter of the alphabet and illustrate it. This is a fun activity because they get to think of things that are important to them for each letter and make a cool quilt all about what they like. Another Q activity that we will do this week is Q-tip painting. It's always a fun time when Mrs. Toppel brings out paint! We are also working on some non-fiction writing where the kids read information in non-fiction books (mostly about animals) and then write down information that they learned in a "four-square" organizer. This helps them practice writing multiple sentences on a single topic.

I am seeing lots of improvement in the children's writing as they work on different writing projects and in their journals. If your child writes at home, it's always good to remind him/her to use spaces in between the words, to use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, to use a period at the end of the sentence, and to write down the sounds they hear in the words they want to write. Spelling does not need to be accurate for emerging writers, but I do look to see that they are writing the sounds that can be heard. At this point, the children should be able to hear all of the sounds in short 3-letter words and should be able to correctly spell the sight words we have been working on. Longer words are more challenging, so we will continue to spend a lot of time on different writing activities.

Math:

This week we are focusing on graphing. Each day the children will poll 10 other students in order to find out their answer to the daily question. They will color their graph according to the answers their classmates give and will be able to tell which answer they got the most of and which answer they got the least of. The questions for the week are:

• Which team do you prefer? The Ducks, The Beavers, or a different team?
• Which special do you like the most? PE, Music, Library, or Computers
• Do you have a Brother, Sister, Both, or No Siblings?
• Do you prefer Choice Time or Outside Recess?

The kids did a great job today of asking each other the daily question and coloring their graphs to show the results. They especially loved being out of their seats and active during math time! 

Science:
We have caterpillars in our classroom! We are learning about butterflies, so I got caterpillars from amazon.com so that we can watch them as they change and see the lifecycle of a butterfly in action! It's pretty cool to be able to order live caterpillars from the internet and have them delivered two days later! The children have been really excited to see the caterpillars each day and to notice how they are changing. I am heading to the library after school, so I plan to check out some additional books on butterflies so we can learn lots of interesting information.

Fun Stuff:

Our second field trip will be on Tuesday June 14th and we are going fishing!
Tomorrow night is Family Reading Night starting at 6:30 pm and you can also visit the Book Fair as well! Books are buy one get one FREE! What a deal!

I cannot believe how quickly the end of the school year is approaching! Time has flown by this year and I am just amazed at all the growth I have seen from both of my classes. I was looking back at some photos from the beginning of the year thinking how little the kids looked back then and how grown up they seem now! (I think I will make sure to have a few extra boxes of tissues by my side on the last day of school!).

Speaking of the last day, the last day of Kindergarten is June 15th. This is different than the last day for other grades. There will not be any 1/2 Kindergarten on June 16th even though other children will be at school.

V Week

Hi parents! We have been busy so far this week. Here's a little bit about what we have been doing...

Reading & Writing

So far this week, we have read Stone Soup and two other versions of that story called Kallaloo (which takes place in the West Indies) and Cactus Soup (which takes place in Mexico). We have been making comparisons between the different versions and noticing parts that are similar and parts that are different. Yesterday students did some critical thinking and wrote about whether or not they would share food with hungry strangers coming through town. Today they started writing lists of ingredients for the different soups in the stories. We are continuing to practice sounding out words in order to write down what we are thinking. We also read Tops and Bottoms which is a funny book about a sneaky Hare and a Bear planting vegetables. I borrowed a few other stories and non-fiction books about vegetables from the library for our V week, so we can learn all about them before our vegetable "party" on Friday. Speaking of vegetables, don't forget to send in your secret vegetable Wednesday or Thursday! If you are interested in helping on Friday for our vegetable tasting, please let me know. Or, if you want to come and watch in awe as your child actually eats vegetables you are more than welcome! In addition to the letter V, we are focusing on the sight word from this week.

I have also been snatching up every book by Mo Willems I can find because the kids are loving them! Our latest was Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog as well as several Elephant and Piggie books. We could read those stories over and over and never tire of them.

Math

Yesterday and today we worked with ten sticks and one cubes to show two digit numbers. We practiced counting by tens and forming numbers with the tens and ones manipulatives. This activity builds a foundation for learning place value, which is a math skill that continues to pop up through upper elementary and middle school. For the rest of the week, we are going to continue using pattern blocks to make more complex patterns and we will focus on learning the words hexagon and trapezoid.

Fun Stuff

Next Wednesday both classes will have Art Literacy with Miss Katie. Wednesday is also the last opportunity to turn in cans for the can drive. After the first drop off date, Kindergarten was in fifth place, so please save all of your cans and plastic bottles. If you want to send them in early (if you are sending a smaller amount) please feel free. I will collect them in the classroom and drop them off at the drive next week.

Visitors!

Today our PM class had some special visitors. Mrs. Kolb bought 12 chicks over the weekend for her farm and she brought them to school today since our kiddos have been so interested in the hatching eagle eggs! She brought them over this afternoon so the children could watch them. They each got a chance to hold one, too!

It was really exciting to have real chicks in our room. We enjoyed watching them eat, drink, and huddle together for naps! It was fun to hear all the peeping too.

The chicks will be back for another visit tomorrow during AM Kinder so the morning class can have a chance to see them as well.