A Busy Week

We started off the week by a visit from Zero the Hero.  We've been puzzled as to what he looked like and this past week he gave us a glimpse.  He wrote a note and left us a puppet that he said looked a little bit like him.  In typical zero fashion, he left us a treat in the shape of a zero.  With the passing of the 30th day of school, we are getting the hang of counting by tens.

This week is a review week of all introduced letters/sounds and word wall words.  Word wall word assessment for report cards will be Wednesday, October 6.  Word wall words need to be read instantly upon sight.  

In math we are continuing a study on numerals.  Refer back to last week's post about the details.  

Everyone is bringing home a game for Monday's reading homework.  Your child will teach you the rules.  The game does NOT need to be returned to school.

On Thursday we will say goodbye to September by bringing home our September pages from our daily calendar notebook. Please take the time Thursday evening to listen to your child explain the pages. You will have a September calendar page, a weather graph, and a tally page.  Ask us questions about the days of the week, what day of the week is for a certain date, help us count by fives from the tally page and ask us questions about the different kinds of weather we had in September.  In October we will be adding odd/even numbers and learning how to write the date.

This is the final week for the Innisbrook fundraiser.  Money is collected on Thursday, September 30th.  

Please send in Box Top labels on Thursday.  The class that collects the most labels gets a party and we would love to interrupt our day to have a party.

Our field trip to ASF was delightful.  The students were so well behaved!  Thanks to the many moms who assisted!  Tigger was by far the favorite memory with Rabbit yelling "STOP!" coming in second place. Field trip information will be coming home on Tuesday for our October field trip to Dream Field Farms Pumpkin Patch. Money is due by Friday, October 8. 

As I update the blog, it is raining outside my window.  So I'm sure that Lazy Jane is no longer thirsty.  Be sure to send poetry journals back to school on Monday so we can get a new poem.  Poetry notebooks should be in back packs on Friday afternoon.  Please let me know if your child's poetry notebook is not making it home.

Email me with any questions or concerns you may have.  Have a good week.

Celebrating the Letter M

Whew!  We certainly became experts on the letter M.  Our day of celebrating Mickey and Minnie Mouse was busy with hats, sorting our items and celebrating our favorite team!  The following pictures are several ways we sorted our items from home:  things you can wear, items for a picnic,   things to play with, and books to read.

 

 This week looks to be just as busy.  We will be investigating the letter "Rr" as in "rooster on the roof."  The word wall words this week are:  six, look, they, all.  Next week is a review of all the sounds and word wall words introduced.  I will be assessing word wall words for report cards on Wednesday, October 6.  Make sure your child is able to read the words instantly and accurately upon sight.

For the next three weeks in math, we will be working on number concepts, counting in a sequence from 1-20, counting backwards from 10, recognizing numerals 0-9 and comparing sets up to 10.  We will be using the words more than, less than, most and least.  Last week we had a special math day using M&M's.  We counted, sorted, made patterns and had enough leftover to eat!

Field trip t-shirts will be sent home on Monday.  Look for the t-shirt in your child's book bag.  This t-shirt is to be worn on ALL field trips.  It is a safety measure for me to keep track of the children quickly and  easily.  Our first field trip is this Thursday to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to see The House at Pooh Corner.  The children may wear blue jeans with their field trip shirt.  I will send a letter home on Tuesday to the parents that are attending the field trip. 

I am going to send home lunch numbers for the children who have been assigned a lunch number.  If your child has a lunch number, look for it in the money pouch on Monday.  Please help your child learn his/her number even if you don't purchase a lunch.  We use the lunch numbers for user names on the computer.  Do not be concerned if your child does not have a lunch number.  This problem is a system problem and beyond our school's control.

More books continue to be published at the writing center.  Everything from take offs of No David! to word books to books about friendship made their appearances last week.  Please encourage your child as a writer!   We will begin journal writing in October.

Remember to check your child's folder each evening for the reading homework sheets.  They do NOT need to be returned.  Due to our field trip, there will be NO reading homework on Thursday. 

I hope "Lazy Jane" does not live at your house.  The children had a fun time with that poem.  Please notice on that poem that I used a font that makes a "fancy a."  The children need to be able to recognize all the different ways that an "a" can be written.  This week's poem has a lot of sight words!

I will be sending home scores from your child's assessment from Stars Early Literacy on Monday.  Contact me if you have any questions understanding the report.

Don't forget that every Tuesday is library day!

If you have not done so, please join the PTA.  A membership is $10.  Our class would like to be recognized as having 100% membership.  The PTA does a tremendous job of supporting the classrooms.  

We've been patiently waiting and this week we FINALLY get to go to the computer lab.  We will be working in the computer lab for the next three weeks!

I will be out of the classroom on Tuesday morning.  I will return after lunch.  I have an excellent substitute so the children won't even know the difference. Thank you for supporting the learning taking place in our classroom.

Full Swing of Kindergarten

After 24 days of Kindergarten, we are definitely in the full swing of learning.  We started reading groups this week and did great.  Remember homework sheets do NOT need to be returned.   Check the white binders daily for reading homework.

We ended the day on Friday with a science lesson on the five senses of taste, touch, hear, smell, and sight.  We popped popcorn in an air popper and used all five senses.  As you go about your day, ask your child what senses he/she is using to accomplish the task.  We discussed that most activities do not use all five senses.  

Please help your child to remember to pack his/her library book for Tuesday's visit to the library.  

We continue to work with complex patterns this week.  We are experts at the ABABAB (ex. red, blue, red, blue) pattern.  This week we will investigate AABB, ABC, AABBCC, and any other patterns the children create.  Your child should be noticing patterns in the environment.  Patterning is a foundational math skill.

This week we are investigating the letter  "Mm" as in "monkey on a mountain."  The word wall words for the week are:  five, go, so, no.  We will celebrate the letter Mm on Thursday with a Micky/Minnie Mouse day.  Please send one item to school that has Mickey or Minnie Mouse on it.  If you do not have an item, please let me know.  

Hopefully your child taught you the motions for Tony Chestnut from our poetry journal.  The children are so excited when we find a word wall word in our poetry notebook. Thank you for taking the time to celebrate our beginning reading skills.


If you have a family member or close friend that is deployed, please send me his/her name and address.  Blount participates in Adopt a Troop and we would be honored to write to your service member.

Book orders for this month are going home on Monday.  Book orders are voluntary and come home once a month.  You may order on-line or send in payment (check payable to Scholastic) by Friday, September 17.  

The students will be bringing home an Innisbrook fundraiser on Tuesday.  Far away friends and family may order on-line at www.innisbrook.com with our school number being 112533.  Thank you so much for supporting our school.  

The policy at Blount is birthday invitations may be distributed at school as long as you have an invitation for every child in the classroom or an invitation for every girl or an invitation for every boy.  I will give you contact information for specific children if your party is small. 

The writing center is by far the most popular center in Room 115.  Book making is a hit and I try to find time during the day to read all of their books.  The most successful writing at this age is telling stories.  Please refer to the handout I passed out at the small group meeting on ways to help your child become a writer at home.    We always have a need for paper for our writing center.  White paper is great but so is colored paper, stickers, envelopes, stamps and anything else you think we would like to write on or with.   

Thank you supporting the learning of Room 115.  Please contact me with any questions or concerns. 

Good Looking Kids in Hilarious Hats

I know that our classroom is filled with happy children but if you needed proof look at the personality of our Hilarious Hats.  As is evident in the photograph to the left, happy children create hilarious hats.  We made a lot of people smile with our hats.  Everyone had an opportunity to share how the hats were created.  Then we sorted the hats every which way you can imagine;  hats with feathers, pink hats, tall hats, paper hats, hats with sparkles, animal hats, hats with wiggle eyes... and the sorting went on.  Thank you so much for supporting the learning of our classroom.  The children were very proud of their hats.

We will start small group reading instruction on Tuesday.  Check folders every night this week for a reading homework sheet.  Reading homework sheets do not need to be returned. Do not hesitate to ask questions about the reading instruction.

This week the entire class will be investigating the letter "Kk" as in "kid in a kayak."  The word wall words are:   three, four, pink, you.  I sent home a progress sheet on Friday as to the status of your child in learning the word wall words.  Remember to stay current on word wall words.  Do not wait until the end of the nine weeks to start practicing them.

How many times this weekend did your child pass by a mirror  and say "Hi, good looking kid!" ?  I hear that phrase from children in the bathroom while washing hands!  Thank you for taking the time and sharing our poetry journal.  This week, our poem is set to music and complete with motions.  Poetry journals come home every Friday.

Don't forget to send library books on Tuesday.  Check book bags for our latest selection.

This is a short week so if you are purchasing snack/juice, please send in $2.00 per item.  Time for Kids is due on Wednesday (check payable to Time for Kids for $4.50).  Payment for our field trip to ASF is due on Friday (check payable to Blount for $17.50).  Chaperone tickets for our class are sold out.  If you want to attend, please email me and I will see what I can do as it gets closer to the date.

In math we continue to make patterns.  We are very good at making simple patterns and our next goal is to move to more complex patterns.  Numeral recognition is another objective for this week. We are starting to practice numeral writing.  Please refer to the handout from our small group meeting on how to help your child at home.

On Wednesday, a letter will come home to notify me of the phone number you want your child to learn.  Please return to school on Thursday. 

Heads up that the lunchroom sells fruit roll ups for $.50.  Our lunch time goes by quickly and a lot of food gets thrown away so I was not promoting another item to put on our lunch tray.  However, the children noticed the fruit roll-ups and they are quite popular.  Please talk to your child if he/she is allowed to purchase a fruit roll-up. The only reason I'm writing about the fruit roll-ups is that they can quickly deplete a lunch account and I wanted you to be aware.

The picture above is almost a class portrait.  We had one friend absent on Friday.   Our class size is now at seventeen.  This was a difficult week but in the best interest of all the children it was the correct decision.  We should stay at seventeen for a very long time.

Contact me with any questions you may have.