Hello everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful week!

Here in Kindergarten we are still getting busy busy with working on colors and letters! The color for this week was yellow, one of my favorites! Students are loving the posters they are making. They’re enjoying seeing the differences between everyone’s handprints, even from one week to the next. They also have noticed that we can look at the posters to see how the color words are spelled! We read a story called Green Is a Chile Pepper (A Book of Colors) to connect our colors with our Spanish lessons, which we started this week.

In Spanish, we are learning a Good Morning Song. We also talked about respecting other languages by not laughing at Spanish words or mocking them by pretending to speak it. Teaching the legitimacy of languages other than English is an important part of students learning to respect people from other cultures.

One skill we have been working on since the first week of school is remembering our days of the week! Some students have picked it up already, but some are still working on it. This is an easy thing to practice at home. Below is a link to the song that we sing at school to remember the days by:

This week we learned about the letters Ii, Cc, Ee, and Dd! Students are getting really good at thinking of words that start with each letter. We made disco balls to put on our desks for the letter D. Some students also got to practice forming letters with their bodies! This was a fun team building activity as well, as they had to work with each other to form the letter as accurately as they could.

                                                         

We learned about iguanas, elephants, and dolphins too! This is one of our favorite parts about learning about each letter: we also get a mini Science lesson! (Hopefully, we can go to the zoo sometime this year to see some of these awesome animals we are learning about!)

For Science, we also read the story Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak, which helped provide visuals and explanations as to what happens when we transition from Summer to Autumn. Students have been very focused Weather Watchers! Whenever the weather or temperature changes, they ask if we can update our Weather chart, which we do every morning during our Morning Meeting. Soon I will be changing the job name to Meteorologist to make it more scientifically accurate!

We also added the words ‘he’, ‘have’, and ‘is’ to our Word Wall! Students have been practicing finding the Word Wall words in our Morning Message and in stories that we read together. This week, students are receiving Word Wall words in their folder. These are for you all to cut out and use as flashcards to practice at home! We are still working on rhyming, and next week we are going to start learning about syllables.

In Math, we have been reviewing the vocabulary fewer/fewest and more/most. For the first time, Kindergarten got to use unifix cubes to help us complete an assignment in which we were comparing quantities. Hands on tools help make Math concepts more concrete for students who might struggle with the new vocabulary! We also have been working on writing 0-5 and counting up to 10! We have been doing this by using Math puzzles and playing games like Roll & Color.

Next week I will be sending home October Homework Challenges! I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend. Please be sure to reach out with any questions or concerns, big or small!

Love,

Ms. V 🙂

Another week in the bag for Kindergarten! We are really getting into our curriculum now and students have settled into the classroom routines nicely. They are really enjoying getting to do their jobs in the every week, and are quick to remind each other when they’re slacking (or when I am)! LOL!

In Reading this week we learned about letters Bb, Aa, Rr, and Ll. We also learned the words ‘to’, ‘a’, and ‘like’ and added them to our Word Wall! Students have been practicing identifying these letters and words in books, posters around our room, and in our daily Morning Message. We have started reading some decodable books, full of words from their Word Wall and pictures to help guide them with their reading. Students who see our reading specialists have started to get pulled out so everyone can have even more one on one attention, and everyone is doing great! The DIBELS Reading Assessment was done this week for the students, and soon we will be going over the results to closer identify the areas students struggle with.

Students searching for letters around the room.

In Math, we are practicing writing numbers 0-5 and we introduced the concepts of fewer/fewest and more/most as well as making equal groups. Practicing writing our numbers was definitely a lesson in perseverance for some of us, as some numbers like 3 and 5 can be really tricky! But we’re doing great! Next week students will be evaluated with the DIBELS Math Assessment by Mrs. Michael, and we can see what other areas need to be targeted for each student. We will continue reviewing fewer/fewest and making equal groups next week, as well as doing some problem solving work.

This week we had Ms. Byron, one of our school counselors, come in to our room to talk about listening skills. We went over some ways we can check our body to make sure we are listening –> having a still body, looking eyes, listening ears, and a quiet voice! We also read the story Wordy Birdy by Tammi Sauer this week, which is about a bird who gets herself into a tough situation because she doesn’t listen very well. This helped connect the lesson to why it is so important to listen to others, not just in school but in the real world. Ms. Byron will come in a few more times this year to do lessons similar to this one to help encourage students to learn more about certain social-emotional skills. If a specific student has a skill that needs to be worked on, her and I work closely together to help them with that skill. She is a wonderful resource and we love her visits!

In Science we have begun learning about the 4 seasons! We first did a picture matching game, matching items of clothing we wear to the appropriate season for them. We are also continuing our discussion on the 5 senses, and went on a nature walk to use our senses to see what we could learn about some of the plants around our school! We saw lots vegetables growing in the garden, and we are excited to check back in on them in the future to see how they’re doing! We will also continue to work on learning about the seasons for the next couple of weeks by utilizing stories and a super fun art project.

This week we learned about the color orange. Kindergarten has also been very focused on rhyming any words they can, and they were SHOCKED when they found out that nothing rhymes with orange. We also are working on finding patterns, specifically rainbow patterns! This helps connect our colors to math, and learning about rainbows and how they are created connects them to science as well!

Students have been earning so many tickets for their good behavior individually, and they have been thoroughly enjoying the rewards that come along with it! Students have joined me for lunch, utilized flexible seating, taken bubbles out to recess, brought in toys from home to share with friends, and we even had one friend earn the 10 ticket prize of having a day of no shoes in the classroom! We also are continuing earning stones for good behavior as a class so we can earn some sort of party as a prize. Students suggested a pajama party or a pizza party, so we will take a vote on that soon. We have filled the jar up about halfway already, so it will be happening sooner rather than later! 🙂

Next week, we have a 4 day week due to a teacher in-service training on Friday. Thank you to everyone who has donated some snacks to our classroom, it is a huge help to me! As always, please reach out to me with any questions or concerns you have. Talk soon!

Love,

Ms. V

First full week of school down! We made it in one piece!

We have started our ABC Bootcamp, where we focus on one letter a day and make our way through the alphabet many times! We also played ABC Bingo! This first round through the alphabet, we just focus on naming the letters and finding them in print in our every day lives.

We read a story for each letter and do a letter search around our room to look for it. This week we did the letters M, S, P, and T. For the letter M, we made mustaches for ourselves!

For S we colored some wooden starfish that students got to take home. For the letter P, we learned all about peacocks. This was fun for Kindergarten because many of them had never even heard of a peacock before! They enjoyed learning about them and looking at pictures of their beautiful feathers. For the letter T, we learned the difference between turtles and tortoises. We even got to meet 2 Russian Tortoises that are owned by our very own Computer and Middle School Science teacher, Ms. deBruyn! Students were so brave and each took turns petting them, and were fascinated by the tortoises’ bodily functions. We also have been collaborating on making a class alphabet line, which we will continue until we complete the alphabet.

For the letter T, we learned the difference between turtles and tortoises. We even got to meet 2 Russian Tortoises that are owned by our very own Computer and Middle School Science teacher, Ms. deBruyn! Students were so brave and each took turns petting them, and were fascinated by the tortoises’ bodily functions. We also have been collaborating on making a class alphabet line, which we will continue until we complete the alphabet.

At the beginning of the school year, it’s important to review our colors. We are going in order of the rainbow, we this week we focused on red. For another collaborative project, we practiced using paint and put red hand prints on a poster that I will keep up and add to until we do the whole rainbow. Students loved the sensory experience of feeling the paint on their palms!

In Math, we have been working on sorting. Students had the chance to get used to the format of doing worksheets together as a class and using the SMARTboard. We also got to practice using some flexible seating with our scoop chairs and clipboards while we did these worksheets. I have found that this makes it much easier to get through our Math work when we work together as a group, and it’s fun to switch things up! Next week we will be working on writing numbers by ourselves.

 

At recess and during Free Play, I’ve observed students playing a lot of games where they pretend to shoot each other. I found this article that I thought was really helpful in understanding the reasons why this kind of play is normal and developmentally appropriate, but the ways we can still make sure it is being done safely and won’t have poor repercussions later on. We had a class discussion about how when we play these games, we need to make sure everyone involved is aware of and okay with using pretend guns. Kindergarten really took this to heart and every day this week, at the beginning of recess, they ask each other if it’s alright to play like that. When they get the go ahead, they always come to inform me that they did the correct thing. It’s awesome to see, and I hope it is one of many future lessons about setting boundaries with our friends during play!

https://offspring.lifehacker.com/what-to-know-about-kids-and-pretend-guns-1823249214

Students also attended Mass for the first time! They did a wonderful job remaining quiet and respectful. I was really impressed with them!

Finally, in Science we learned about the 5 senses. We made a chart documenting words that we use to describe what we notice when we use each sense. This is a lesson we will continue to expand upon for several weeks. Next week we will dive into learning about the seasons!

Next week, I also ask that if you are able if you could start sending in a snack for your student to have in the afternoon. I will have snacks available for anyone who forgets or who is not able to provide one, but I do appreciate any help. I do also take donations for snacks for the class!

I hope you all enjoy the fall weather this weekend!

Love,

Ms. V 🙂

Hello Hello to everyone! Welcome families who are new to STBCA and welcome back to those who are returning. We are so glad to have you!

The first week of school is always exciting, but it feels even more exciting after being out of the building since March! I, personally, am very excited to be back in person. School isn’t the same when we’re not together!

During our first week of Kindergarten, students had a lot that they were being introduced to for the first time! A new room, new procedures, a new teacher, and new responsibilities! We took this week to focus on learning all of our new procedures: how to arrive and unpack for the day, how to walk in the hallways, how to take a bathroom break, how to get a drink of water from our water bottle, and how to pack up for the end of the day! We set up our classroom expectations and the consequences of what happens when we don’t follow the expectations. We also made a separate set of expectations for our Calm Down Kit! The Calm Down Kit is a set of drawers filled with materials that students can use when they are feeling very angry or sad and need some time to regroup alone before joining the whole class again. Students signed each set of rules, which is a promise to follow them.

We read lots of stories this week about going to school, including School’s First Day of School, Kindergarten Here I Come, Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?, The Pigeon Has to Go to School, and Grover Goes to School. Each one of these books has  important themes like following the classroom rules, how to be a good friend to others, having confidence in ourselves, and respecting our school! On the first day we all made cards for Mr. Bob, the head of maintenance at STBCA, to say thank you for taking care of our school over the summer. We also read the story Mr. Wiggle’s Book to learn all about how to treat our books the right way!

Each day this week we focused on learning how to use one of our materials: pencils, markers, glue, and scissors! Every day we made an anchor chart stating the Do’s and Don’t’s for each material, followed by an activity. For our pencils, we practiced tracing. For markers, we colored in our names in bubble letters and then counted up how many letters we had in our name. Afterwards, we sorted ourselves by who had the most and the least amount of letters in their name. For glue, we practiced gluing pieces of tissue paper onto our name. This project is hanging up outside of our classroom! This was a follow up to a read aloud video we watched of the story Chrysanthemum, a story about a girl who is made fun of for her name but comes to love it anyways! For scissors, we colored in pictures and then cut these pictures up to make our own puzzles!

This groups has some great handwriting skills already, so they were ready to start working in their Handwriting books! We are practicing our posture when writing and writing straight lines vertically and horizontally. Students also had centers and free play each day where we are getting familiar with the toys and manipulatives in our room, and had a chance to start doing some alphabet activities!

We also learned about the different behavior management systems in our room — we have stones that we put in a jar when our whole class has a good day and when the jar is full we will get a classroom prize! Individually students will receive tickets for good behavior or for going above and beyond expectations, and can turn in their tickets for prizes like having bubbles at recess and having lunch with the teacher! Starting next week, each student will have a job to do in the classroom. They will have this job for a week and then they will rotate the following week. They are all so excited about this!

In your folders this weekend you will receive the September homework challenges! Remember, these are optional but I very much suggest doing them at home in order to practice things that we are working on in class. Next week we will start our Reading, Math, Social Studies and Science curriculums. I also will be reaching out to call everyone to let them about how students are doing academically. Feel free to email me with any questions and I hope you all enjoy your weekend!

 

Love,

Ms. V 🙂

Tips for Helping Your Student With Online Schooling:

1. Maintain daily routines for your student as you would during the regular school year. That means the same bedtimes (not too late!) and wake up times, the same meal times, same homework times as usual. Don’t let them stay in pajamas all day. We want to keep them on schedule and to maintain a sense of normalcy. Routine and structure is so very important for children’s academic and behavioral success and can make this transition easier.
2. Set aside a designated work space. Just like for adults, it’s hard for students to work and focus in an area that is mostly used for playing or relaxation. If you are able, set aside one specific spot where students will go to do their work every day and keep all of their materials there. Make sure it is not cluttered, free of distractions, and that they have enough space for whatever they might need.
3. Continue emphasizing independence with your student! We have been pushing this in Kindergarten to get them ready for first grade and want to keep up with it. I often use the phrases, “I already went to Kindergarten, so I already know how to do this!” (keep it lighthearted!), “I can help you, but I will not just give you the answers.”, and “Try two or three on your own first, then I will come and see IF you need help..” Stay firm and consistent with this as well!
4. Sometimes students will struggle, be frustrated with their work, or just not want to try…and that’s okay!! When this happens I give them some space and tell them to ask again when they are ready for help and/or are ready to try their best. It is easy to get frustrated with students when they are not putting in effort or not getting something you have explained what feels like a thousand times, but give them the space to calm themselves down or even have them try the assignment again at a later time when they are in a better head space. Learning to overcome frustration and to push through challenges is even more important than getting all the answers right the first time.
5. Praise their effort, not the results! This can be a hard habit to change, but we want to remind students that even if they did not get the answer correct, we are proud of them for trying their best, trying it by themselves first, etc.! Verbal praise and recognition is also key to building academic confidence and resilience. Sometimes I will have students who were frustrated during the task say with me after completing the task, “Yay! I did it! I’m smart! I can do hard things!” When we make this a habit, they will be more likely to continue putting in their best effort in the future.
6. It’s okay if YOU need a break! Burnout is a very real thing for parents and teachers alike… take the time you need to walk away if you are getting too frustrated, give yourself time to accomplish what you need to throughout the day, and don’t be afraid to share your struggles with your child. I often will vocalize to them: “I’m getting frustrated because …. So I am going to close my eyes and take some deep breaths, then we can try this again.” Or: “I understand that you’re tired, I’m really tired today too. Let’s try and push through this day together.” And even: “I love you very much, but I need a little space to myself right now. We can talk/play/etc. together in a few minutes, okay?” Modeling the techniques we want them to use and showing them that these kinds of emotions are normal and okay can make things easier for all of us.
7. Be flexible! This is advice that I am trying to follow as well as things are changing so quickly due to the current situation. Sometimes we will have a plan for the day and it will just not happen the way we want it to. Being flexible and allowing for adjustments and changes to our day without letting it ruin our day is an important skill that we want Kindergarten to be practicing. While routine and structure are important and we want to maintain that as much as possible for them, we want our students to be prepared to deal with the challenges that life throws their way. So we want to go with the flow!
8. Reach out to me whenever you need! Please don’t be afraid to contact me with questions, concerns, or even just to let me know how things are going. We are all in this together and need to work as a team for Kindergarten to succeed during this time! Again, I am available to do video calls with you and/or your student if they need help with anything, if you need extra ideas for things that they can do, or even if you both just need a break! I’m here for you!

Hi parents!

Due to the official decision that the next two weeks will be online instruction, I have come up with a schedule that we will be following. I have tried to keep this as similar as I can to what we typically do at school. Because I will not be there physically with the students, I have allotted time throughout the day where you and the students can reach out if they need help with any assignments and I can do some one-on-one and small group work. Some lessons will be pre-recorded. Some will be live using the platform Zoom! I will send out a link to the Zoom meeting we are in that day, we will all be able to see and talk to each other using our laptops’ webcams. I can also share my screen so we can look at the same thing while in the meeting. This will require parental supervision and although it is not mandatory that your student is a part of it (I will record every meeting and post it for later if you want to go back and look at it), it is highly recommended that you participate. This will help us maintain a sense of classroom community and provide social interaction. It also gives you all a chance to see more of what we do in Kindergarten on a daily basis!

For assignments, I have put together packets and their workbooks that I will need your students to be doing along with the online lessons and activities. They are available at school for you to pick up and to drop off the previous packets you were doing. The hard copies are for things like handwriting that we don’t want our Kindergartners falling behind in. All assignments (online or otherwise) are to be done the day that they are assigned and sent in proof of completion unless otherwise stated. Please turn in the completed packets at the end of the two weeks so I can keep them on file. As usual with Kindergarten, the only grading I do is by completion and if your student does not complete assignments given that day they will be considered absent.

This is all new for me as well so we will be learning together! There will be some trial and error and things are subject to change at any time. Thank you for all that you do and for being patient through this tough time.

Warmly,

Ms. V

Hello to all! Happy first week of March!

This week in Kindergarten we have been doing all sorts of things in Math! We are continuing practicing our ordering, reviewing shapes, and practicing number words. We also are working on our subtraction number sentences! Students have gotten much better at putting their numbers in the correct order, practicing a lot in small groups and one-on-one with our 8th grade helpers!

In Science we started talking about plants! We used KWL charts to give us a starting point with this unit. We do a poster about what we already Know about plants, and then after we went on a Nature Walk we made a poster about what we Want to know about plants. At the end of this unit we will make a poster about what we have Learned! K-W-L! This is a great way to assess a student’s knowledge. It also is really interesting to hear what they are curious about!

On our Nature Walk we to the back of the school and around the church to see all of the different kinds of plants! There were some bushes, trees with budding leaves, and all sorts of other plants! Students had so many questions about why they all looked so different.

In reading we have been doing a lot of leveled reading and differentiated reading groups! Students have been working on building up their confidence in their ability to read. We can encourage this by having students practice, practice, practice reading at home as much as they can! The more they do it the more will believe that they are capable and be more willing to try!

We also have been cutting back on the snack in order to prep getting ready for first grade! We are now having it only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We have been doing lots of free play where students are given choices between 3 or 4 different pre-planned activities or stations that provide practice in both fine motor skills, imaginative play, and creativity!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Let me know if you have any questions!

Love,

Ms. V 🙂

Hello! Thank you all for being patient about the blog posts. The past two weeks have been very busy in Kindergarten, and February feels like such a blur!

For the past two weeks in reading, we have continued to work on our word families by creating lists of words that have the same endings but different beginning sounds. We have been discussing vowels and the difference between long and short vowels and the sounds they make in the middle of words. We also have been adding more and more words to our word wall of sight words including number and color words. Our small groups during centers have been focusing on specific skills that the students in that group are working on like identifying and categorizing ending sounds and blending sounds.

Students have been reading up a storm! We are working more on reading independently and with partners. It is so heartwarming to see them help each other read and enjoy stories together.

Here, students are practicing segmenting sounds in words used sound boxes. This tactile activity makes the learning more multi-sensory which enriches the experience so much more. Lately we have been focusing on segmenting consonant blends, like the initial sounds in ‘stop’ and ‘black’. These can be tricky to separate, but it is important for the foundations of spelling. We have been reading folktales this week, starting with a classic — Goldilocks and the Three Bears! Then we read a West African folktale called Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears which had some very valuable moral lessons.

In Math, Kindergarten has now started to work on subtraction. We have started with using the language “taking away”. We are going to be doing number sentences with subtraction next week, and we have been and will continue to be reviewing addition up to 10. We are trying to incorporate math into everyday things and continuing having students use teamwork to solve problems.

Kindergarten has been very interested in our Connect Four game that we got recently! Such a fun way to incorporate Math concepts into play. We also still still routinely use unifix cubes as a manipulative to help assist solving math problems!

Here students are doing number sentences where they need to find the missing addend or the missing piece. We discuss this by asking, “How many more do you need to make ____?” We are practicing counting on from the original number we have up to the number we need to have and figuring out how many we added to get there.

For Black History Month, we had an assembly on African dance with the whole school! It was so much fun and a great change of pace. We also discussed two new historical figures this week, George Washington Carver and Rosa Parks! For George Washington Carver we watched part of this video on Black Scientists and Inventors and for Rosa Parks we watched this read aloud of the book I Am Rosa Parks.

In Science we are wrapping up talking about animals and their habitats! This tied into the STEM activity we did with The Secret Life of Squirrels book, in which we made an obstacle course for the squirrel and practiced positional words. We then made a fun obstacle course for Kindergarten to complete! Next week we start talking about plants!

In Religion and Art students have been learning about the story of Jonah and the Whale and made some whales with a boat and a Jonah inside of them. The art teacher Ms. Dowe does a wonderful job of connecting art to other subjects and we love having their work up in the halls!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend, here’s to another great month!

Love,

Ms. V

Hello to all! Kindergarten had a crazy week full of excitement!

We started the week off with our 100th day of school! Students spent the morning making necklaces with 100 beads, writing about what they would buy with $100, and building a chain with 100 links! We also went on a search for 100 hidden Hershey’s Kisses around our classroom and matching them to the 100’s chart based on the numbers on the bottom of the candy. Everybody’s costumes were so great as well! So much fun!

Wednesday we celebrated my birthday with some homemade sugar cookies! Not only a yummy treat but also a good motivator for good behavior!

Friday we had our big Valentine’s Day party in the afternoon! We watched an episode of Ask the Storybots on Netflix titled, “Where does chocolate come from?” which was very fitting considering that afterwards students exchanged candy and Valentine’s cards! They also received gifts from the company Yoobi with school supplies inside and Valentine’s Day slinkies! We took our slinkies to the staircase to try and have them go down the steps on their own. Students did this several times to see if there was a strategy that would work, but we determined that they were too short to fall down the steps. A fun little experiment to round out our day!

In Math this week we have been adding 3 and 4, practicing making 10, ordering numbers over 10, and telling the difference between numbers that contain the same two numbers just in different positions (for example, thirty-two versus twenty-three). We took a “test” on Friday to practice working independently without conversations. Students love feeling like big kids and using the folders to make sure their work is hidden! We also are still practicing partner work and making sure that when students are working with partners that they are actively helping each other out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In reading, we have still been working on segmenting words by individual sounds and identifying our vowels and the different vowels they make. We were lucky enough to have some 8th graders come and help us out during centers on Friday to help play the Oh No! game, in which students pick letters and have to say the sound in order to keep they card. If they pick an Oh No! card, they have to put all their cards back into the box! The player with the most cards at the end wins.

We also read a book from our classroom library about Ruby Bridges and added her to our wall. Selma Burke, a sculptor who created the relief of Franklin D. Roosevelt that is used on the dime, was also added to our wall. Students looked at real dimes to see her work and we also looked at some of her other sculptures that she made.

In Science, students read animal books and picked one animal in particular that they wanted to focus on. They then used the information from these non-fiction books to figure out what that animal’s habitat is! We have been discussing the difference between mammals, reptiles, fish, and birds and talking about their habitats help students realize that animals live in places where they can thrive based on how their body works and what their needs are. Students then drew a picture of the habitat they chose, along with the animal in that habitat. There was a wide range of animals from sharks to snakes to bears! These drawings are posted up outside our room.

Looking forward to this upcoming week, there is no school Monday due to the holiday. We also are having an Open House on Tuesday from 5:30-7 pm for incoming families. Be sure to spread that information around and swing by yourself if you are interested or even just want to come by and say hello!

Don’t forget that the Pepperoni Roll Fundraiser and the Pennies for Patients fundraiser all end this week. Please be sure to send in your order forms for the pepperoni rolls (along with money for these orders) and any more change that you can spare. Remember, the class that has the most money for Pennies for Patients will receive a pizza party and a free dress day and the class with the second most money gets a free dress day. We want those prizes! It also is a great opportunity to teach our students about the importance of giving back to those who need it!

Also, thank you again very much for all of the lovely gifts I have received this week. You are all so kind and make me feel very appreciated!

Hope you all are enjoying this long weekend!

Warmly,

Ms. V 🙂

Hello to all! I hope you are all enjoying this snow day today! We’re lucky to have the Flexible Instruction Days approved so we don’t need to add on extra days at the end of the school year! Luckily we got so much done this week, which is fantastic!

This week we had another visit from Ms. Byron, our school counselor, to teach us some more techniques to use when we are angry or frustrated. Kindergarten has grown so much in their ability to calm themselves when they are upset, Ms. Byron and I are both very impressed! Our goal now in our social-emotional development is how to calm down when we have disagreements with our peers and how to work and play together. We talk a lot about walking away and talking to a grown up instead of making a bad choice that could have consequences (screaming, hitting, pushing, etc.).

We read the book Pink Is For Boys by Robb Pearlman this week, and students loved it! This book reminds kids that all colors are for everyone, and they are beautiful because we see them in nature and our environment all the time! I have been hearing a lot of talk from the students about how certain colors, toys, and activities are only for boys or only for girls, and research shows that this kind of viewpoint can inhibit children from well-rounded physical and emotional development. For example, prohibiting girls from playing with toys or games that have to do with building or other physical activity can stunt their gross and fine motor skill development. On the flip side, prohibiting boys from playing with dolls or other kinds of toys that encourage imaginative play can stunt their social and communication skills. In our classroom we encourage students to do what they enjoy, to try new things, and to play and learn without judgments so they can be well-rounded individuals!

In Math, we have started adding by 1 and adding by 2 and practicing writing these number sentences! On Wednesday our lovely middle school helpers were able to help Kindergarten during our Math centers where we practice using manipulatives to make addition concepts more concrete. On Thursday, we did something similar but with the whole class and using the smart board to give them a visual of how a number sentence is created. We also use arm motions to demonstrate what a plus sign and an equal sign is! Students were administered the Acadience Math assessments this week (scores will be going home soon), and they did wonderful! We kick butt in math!

In reading, we have been having students practice reading to each other! This helps them work on learning to work together and to have patience with their peers! This peer learning prepares them for future school experiences and can even make certain concepts more accessible to them when learning from someone their own age.

We have been focusing on isolation middle and ending sounds in words and putting them into groups based on having similar sounds. Students learned what the vowels are this week and even learned a song to help them remember them! In the next few weeks we will be focusing on the different sounds the vowels make (“When the vowels are loooooong they say their name, when they’re short[!] they make their own sounds!”). Based on their scores on DIBELS and their skills inventories, students are put into small groups for interventions on skills they need work on. One game you can practice at home is finding three different pictures or objects and having them find the two that have the same ending sound. Jack Hartman on Youtube also has a lot of videos that are great for practicing letter sounds!

We also have been drilling when is the right time to use uppercase letters! One way to do this is having students spot mistakes in capitalization and to fix them, like we did with our morning message on Wednesday! We are trying to remind them that there are no random uppercase letters in the middle of a word, names of things and people are capitalized, and the first letter of the first word in a sentence is capitalized.

On Thursday we brought back out one of Kindergarten’s favorites…shaving cream!! Students practiced spelling sight words and CVC words, writing letters that match a given sound, and even had a little spelling competition in the shaving cream! It is a fun, multi-sensory way to learn!

This week for Black History Month, we learned about Garrett Morgan who invented the traffic light and Mae Jemison who was the first black woman to go into space. We played the game Red Light, Green Light after learning about Garrett Morgan and read a book from our classroom library about Mae Jemison. Do you have any recommendations about people we should learn about this month? Feel free to send them my way! We will continue to add to our wall of inspirational African-Americans throughout history for the rest of the year, not just in Black History Month. 🙂

Next week is the 100th day of school on Monday, students are being asked to dress up like old people! Canes, curlers, glasses, etc.! We will do some 100th day activities in the afternoon. Wednesday is my birthday so I will being in a special treat for the students, and Friday we will have our Valentine’s Day party in the afternoon!

If you want to send anything in for Valentine’s Day, cards, candy, or otherwise, please make sure you have enough for the whole class (12) and that it follows the safe snack list from the school! Let me know if you have any questions!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Ms. V 🙂