October Calendar

We will be adding more information to it this week, but we wanted you to see it now for reference of whats to come before the copy of the calendar is sent home.

Week of October 1

We have another fun week coming up in Kindergarten!! Our Resources this week are: Mon~ART, Tues~ MUSIC and Wed~ P.E. On Friday we will have Hat Day. You can wear a silly hat, a comfy hat or branch out a decorate a plain hat! Zoe will be bringing Fun Friday Snacks for the whole class. 

MATH

This week we are finishing up our unit 1 on numbers 0-5. We will continue to practice counting forward and backwards, writing our numbers, using our counting strategies to count one to one. We will continue to work our buddies using our math tools to help us visualize numbers and match them to the correct number. Towards the end of the week we will take our end of unit assessment. Please continue working on our Quarter 1 goals as  the end of the quarter approaches.

WRITING

We are still working on detailed settings and characters. We are discussing what area we are in. Then we discuss what we see in the sky or the ceiling. Followed by what is on the floor or the ground.

  We will be assessing on this next week, so be sure to get all the practicing in!!

SAXON/READING SKILLS

Saxon has really immersed us in coding words. We have learned the rule for using a breve~ If there is a vowel followed by a consonant, code it with a breve and the vowel makes the short sound. Please look at your child's Saxon papers that are going home, the breve is a mark that looks like a smiley face and it should only be written above the vowel.

Our focus letter this week is Pp. Make sure you child is making the sound correctly. We do not want them saying, "Puhhh." If this occurs, we have to mark it wrong. 

Our Sight words this week are: three, four, it & go.

Make sure to practice with this slideshow and all of the others. Sight Word Testing will be starting out soon and the students are expected to read 20 words this quarter.

READING

We are continuing to work on predicting, inferring, retelling and giving our opinions on stories. This week our story is Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. 

This is one of our favorite stories!! If you aren't familiar with the book, check it out. It's about a little mouse named Lily who gets very upset with her teacher and she lets him know by writing a letter.

**We will begin Module Testing on the weekly stories. We read through the story every day in class, however if your child is absent you will want to watch the Youtube video with them and discuss the story.** 

Week of September 24

We have a great week planned and lots of learning will be taking place!! Wednesday is an Early Release Day. Friday is Fancy Friday and School Picture Day! Graham will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the Whole Class!! Our Resources this week are Monday~MUSIC, Tuesday~MUSIC and Friday~ MEDIA.

MATH
This week we are going to continue to focus on the numbers 0-5. We will be practicing counting forwards and backwards, recognizing and writing the numbers, and comparing the numbers using more and less. We will be working with our buddies in activities to visualize the numbers. Throughout the week we will be reading the book Five Little Monkeys and discuss what's happening to the numbers. Please continue working on the quarterly goals.

WRITING

We are honing in on our details in settings, along with reviewing the details in our people. Together we will focus on the details that we will see at a pool and a playground. We are asking the students what they see in the sky, on the ground and all around them. We discuss how a reader wants to look at the picture and get a story in their mind. 

SAXON/READING SKILLS

Our Saxon letter this week is letter Tt. We will focus on producing the sound and figuring out the beginning sounds of pictures, some with /t/ and some with /h/, /l/, /o/ or /g/. You may have also noticed on your child's Saxon paper that we have begun stretching out words and coding our short vowels with a breve. (A breve looks like a smiley face above a vowel.)

Our Sight Words for the week are: blue, yellow, me, no.

Make sure to be practicing letter recognition and producing sounds in a mixed up order. When we go to test before Report Card time we will assess the students on any items they answered wrong last time. Our tests do not assess in alphabetical order.

We're including a fun Florida Alphabet Song that is sure to get your child singing along!!

READING

If you have never listened to this story, make sure to listen to it!! This is one of our favorites and we're sure it'll be one of the classes favorite story book's too. We will be working on prediction~ what the students think will have when Katie Sue goes on the playground without permission from the student Mean Jean... We will work on inferring with text evidence~ why had Mean Jean gotten so mean to the other students?  We will again be working on retelling in our Reading Journals using pictures and we will work on Opinion Writing by telling what we liked and did not like in the story.  

Monday, Sept.24-Teachers Absent

Both teachers will be out tomorrow, Monday, September 24. We have two qualified substitutes coming in to facilitate our lessons. With that being said, they will not have access to our email and they will have limited access to the voicemails left for us on the classroom telephone. 

If there are any changes in dismissal, CALL THE FRONT OFFICE and let them know that both teachers are absent and they need to call the classroom and talk to the substitutes.

We both hope to return to the classroom Tuesday. 

Wild and Wacky Fun Run Pictures!!

We hope your children came home with great stories about Friday's Fun Run!! It was perfect~ perfect weather, perfect behavior and PERFECT full on participation from all the runners. :)  If you weren't able to pledge money for your child last week, do not worry: they have extended the date for a few more days. So get out there and pledge!! We want our class to be the TOP DOG for supporting Chimney Lakes.  Click here to visit the 99Pledges Page.

And in case your were wondering how many laps your child ran... find their number below. :)  *If a student was absent, we listed their laps as 0. Also, we color coded red for the girls and blue for the boys.  After you check out the numbers, scroll down to the bottom to see all the pictures we took. They are GREAT!!

COMPLETED LAPS

1~32     2~27     3~35     4~34     5~27     6~32     7~0     8~0     9~0     10~21     11~29     12~35     13~26     14~23     15~27     16~23     17~0     18~0     19~32     20~33     21~23     22~27     23~24     24~25     25~23     26~24     27~27     28~0     29~0     30~23     31~22     32~24     33~37     34~0     35~0     36~0     37~41     38~29

Customize your own picture slideshow

wILD AND wACKY fUN rUN!!

tHEre iS oNe MOre dAy to GEt YouR MoneY iN BefoRE OuR RUn TomoRRow!! 

(haha That was super tricky to do yall!haha)

Make sure to get your donations in by tomorrow at 12:00. Our Fun Run time for Group one is scheduled for 12:00-12:45. We hope to see you there cheering on our WILD AND WACKY BUNCH!!

Week of September 17

Here's to another busy week in Room 41!! We have Resources on Tuesday: MEDIA, Wednesday: P.E. and Thursday: ART. Then on FUN FRIDAY we have the Wild and Wacky Fun Run at 12:00! If you are able to come watch and cheer us on, please do!! :) Also, we will be dressed wild and wacky on Friday and Haleigh will be bringing in snack for the whole class. 

MATH
We are continuing to focus on numbers 0-5... recognizing them, writing them and counting/making groups for each of them. Make sure to practice this at home with your child.
We noted on the Detailed Progress Report who still needs to work on these items. Make sure to practice so that your child is ready for next quarter when the expectation moves on to #10. **If your child has already mastered 0-5, begin working on 0-10 now. :) 

WRITING

We are still working on drawing detailed people, however now we are adding to that by drawing a setting in our pictures. Settings are where the stories take place. There are many different places that students like to draw in their pictures: Chuck E Cheese, the beach, their homes, the park, etc. We expect the students to name a place~ we do not accept the response of "outside." 

We'll be making a class chart of settings. We will try to get a picture of it on the blog so that you can review it with your child. 

SAXON/READING SKILLS

This week Saxon has us focusing on letter Hh. We will be reviewing letters, Ll, Gg and Oo. Please make sure to review these with your child. It was very difficult for them to make the letter sounds, it was also tricky writing them. 

Here is a fun See It, Say It, Sign It letter video. Enjoy!!

The sight words we are focusing on this week are: purple, pink, to & and. The students will be tested on reading Sight Words before Report Card time. Make sure to check back on the other weekly blog posts so that you can practice reading the words with your child. The expectation is reading 20 words.

(We will be sending home flash cards with the sight words on them. We call them Sight Word Money.)

READING

This week the book we are focusing on is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.  We will discuss the feelings and emotions of the main character at the beginning of the story, versus how she was at the end of the story. We will work on retelling the events of the story in order. (We didn't get as much time to practice this last week as we would have liked. So make sure to practice it at home too!) Then at the end of the week we will pretend to be Vashti and make our own "dot" drawings! 

Silly Socks Day

The silly socks were a huge success!! We loved listening to the students compliment each other on the SILLINESS! :) It was adorable!!

Enjoy the slideshow!!

Another free photo slideshow by Smilebox

i-Ready Information

We discussed i-Ready during Open House. However, we wanted to make a blog post specifically about i-Ready. :) 

* i-Ready will only work when going through the link on the Duval Schools website~ through Blended Learning

* Students are logged onto i-Ready during their Groups Center time. (We do Centers daily for 1 hour, but time is only counted when the students are actively working.) or when we visit the school Computer Lab.

* The District expects students to go on i-Ready Math for 45 minutes a week. (Go on MyProgress to see how much time they have completed.)

* The District expects students to go on i-Ready Reading for 45 minutes a week. (Go on MyProgress to see how much time they have completed.)


Some of you have requested your child's username and password and the wait is no more... We will send home a black and white laminated copy of your Child's i-ready log in card on Monday. Keep the card at home so that your child can use it.

Detailed People Drawings

In Writing we have been working A LOT on drawing detailed people and we wanted to show you the best our class has to offer. 

So that we would be able to see all the details on the face, we used a black marker to draw the circle head. :) 

Also, you'll notice these drawings aren't perfect, they're still missing a few details, they might still need some practice in drawing fingers... however WOW! These students have come a long way since the first week of school. We are very proud of their hard work!!

Week of September 10

Get ready for another BUSY WEEK IN KINDERGARTEN!!! We have a lot of teaching to do this week, along with a lot of testing for Progress Reports!

We have lots of Resources this week: P.E. on Monday and Tuesday, ART on Wednesday & MUSIC on Thursday. Wednesday is an Early Release Day! Friday is Silly Sock Day and Nash is bringing in Fun Friday Snack for the class. :) 

MATH
We are continuing to focus on numbers 0-5. This includes writing them, recognizing them and counting objects up to 5. In class we practice counting objects in rows, columns, groups, and circular formation. We are also practicing number partners to help them understand breaking apart numbers. Please keep practicing numbers 0-5 as it is the First Quarter Expectation. 

WRITING

Last week we started drawings of the faces. Together we all drew a self portrait... they were adorable! This week we will complete the drawings and discuss what is necessary for the Drawing Test we are taking at the end of the week. 

Please note to receive all of the points on the Drawing Test students must have the following parts on their face: hair, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, ears. Their bodies must include a neck, a chest(or shirt area) with muscle arms and hands with fingers & then muscle legs with either feet or shoes at the bottom. 

It sounds like a lot, but I know the students can do it!! Below is the video we watched in class. This is the best drawing video out there... however the man does not draw a neck on his people. We point that out in class and remind the students, "If you don't have a neck- your head will fall like Mashed Potatoes!" haha (This usually helps students to remember the neck. )

SAXON/ READING SKILLS
This week we are focusing on Letter Gg. Here is the Jack Hartmann video for the letter, along with his Uppercase Letter Writing Video. The video is great for reaching all learning styles and promoting the letters of the alphabet!
Our sight words for this week are: black, white, can & like. We aren't testing sight words for Progress Reports, but make sure to be practicing... Students need to read 20 or MORE at Report Card time. 

READING
This week we going back to Engaging Readers and enjoying the book Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Levell. If you haven't read this book, watch it with your child and Enjoy!!
The concepts we are working on this week are Visualize, Retell, Connection and Opinion. The vocabulary words we will be discussing all week are fumble, foolish, stacked & reveal.
The most difficult concept for Kindergarten Students is Retell. We will work on this all school year long with every book we read. Retelling stories shows us how a student comprehend a book. When we retell we use the name of the Characters (we try not to say he or she until after we've named the Characters) and we discuss the events in the order that they occurred from the beginning to the end.  (Engaging Readers always uses pictures to help the students with their retellings.)

Safety Training Letter & Email

On Friday (9/7/18), all of the students at school received this letter. The letter informs you of a age appropriate video that will be shown to students about Safety Training unless you OPT out by filling in the bottom portion of the form. Our Principal Mrs.Metz also sent out an email. If you didn't receive the email, please know that it may be in your Junk Mailbox or that school does not have your current email address.

These students will not be viewing the video: 2,  10,  13,  15,  19,  20, 23  &  27.

This means that these are the only students who will not be viewing the age appropriate video. If we receive more opt out letters- we will add their numbers to this post. 

Sunglasses Day Pictures

Today was the perfect weather for Sunglasses Day!!

The kids were too cute wearing their sunglasses in the hallway and the classroom. However it was funny, when we went to Recess a few didn't want to wear theirs outside. haha And of course when it comes to pictures... there's always a few that don't care to pose. So we apologize if your child had sunglasses and isn't in our slideshow. 

Customize your own digital slideshow

** It seems our Smilebox Subscription for Teachers was not granted. :( I guess they've given me a free subscription for way too many years... I was able to get this slideshow, but I need to mention it comes with ads. This is the first time I've ever posted this way. So I hope it isn't too bad. Not to mention I'm not sure how many they'll allow me to make before they take this away.  

So we may have to go back to just posting regular pictures. I'm a little bummed, but you'll still get to see our Classroom Cuties!!**

Fun Run Update!!

If you haven't received pledges for the Wild and Wacky Fun Run yet, don't feel discouraged... theres still time to get pledges in!! We have 64 days left to spread the word to our Family and Friends.

Currently our class is in Second Place with $200. Woohoooo! We need to keep going and see how much money we can earn to support our School. :) 

If you forgot how to get to the page~ just click HERE!

Shoutout to Graham Coleman! Thanks for supporting your school. Keep up the hard work!!

Name Writing Practice

We have done a lot of name writing practice in class recently and there are a few things we've noticed... Some students get very emotional when they can't write their name and sometimes it even causes a color change. Some students know how to write their name, but use all uppercase letters. Some students draw swirls and shapes and call them letters- their name. :) 

We wanted to remind you for your child to get the full 5 points for this Test. They need to write all the letters of their first name. Only the first letter us uppercase and all other letters are lowercase.  Unless noted by parents at Meet the Teacher or Open House.(We believe this only applies to one student in our class.) 

Reasons your child will lose points on this test: used all uppercase letters, used more uppercase letters than necessary, one or more letters were reversed or they omitted one or more letters. 

Your child will receive a grade of 0 if they do not attempt a letter within 30 seconds of being handed the test paper. 

If you have any questions, please write us an email or a note in your child's folder. If you have received notes from us on work your child has taken home or know your child really needs to practice name writing~ consider visiting this link and making name tracing sheets at home for your child. :) 

***Second Quarter's expectation is to write the first AND last name correctly. ***

Scholastic Orders

Scholastic Book Orders are in!!

Thank you to everyone who submitted a book order online or through us. Your support is greatly appreciated. The order has been submitted and all the books will be delivered to the school. Once we receive the shipment we will send the books you ordered home with your child. For those of you that maybe didn't get a chance to order this time... no worries, it's not too late. You'll have the opportunity to order anytime throughout the year. Our class code for ordering stays the same, QDG3F. If you ever make a purchase we get notified so you order whenever online. However once we get new catalogs we will send them home. Thanks again for supporting your children and our class. We can't wait for you to be able to enjoy your new books. 


https://clubs.scholastic.com/home

Week of September 4

We are still working on our Resource Calendar, so please error on the safe side by sending your child to school every day in tennis shoes. We'd hate for them to miss PE because of the wrong shoes.

Lanie will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the whole class!! If you wish to sign up for a date, email us and we'll get you one. :) 

MATH
We are continuing to practice writing our numbers 0-5 this week. Please keep in mind that this is something we expect them to be able to this quarter. We will be testing for progress reports this week as well. Along with practicing our number writing we will be continuing to make groups. In our Duval math we will be sorting into groups by their similarities (size, color, and amount). Students will also be learning how groups up to 5 may look different but have the same amount. Our vocabulary were working with is rows, columns, and circular. You will hear if not already that we are Jack Hartmann's number one fans! Below are some more videos we will be using to practice with our counting and number recognition as well as number writing.

   

WRITING

We get to write in our Weekend Writing Folders on Tuesday. :) We are so excited to see the students illustrate their detailed body and show something fun they did over the three day weekend. ~ If time permits, we'll try to take a few pictures. 

As the week progresses, we will discuss 3 STAR Color Details. This is very important for Kindergartners because we do give a grade for color details. We look to see if the students are coloring in the lines and not leaving white space (no scribbling!!), do their colors make sense (no blue leaves or white tree trunks) and most importantly using multiple colors. (we aim for five or more so that the whole picture is not just one or two colors.)

This is the best example of a 3 STAR Coloring clip art I could find.

SAXON/READING SKILLS

This week Saxon has us focusing on letter Oo. This is a very simple letter to write, however we notice a lot of difficulty producing the sound. Make sure to check out Jack Hartmann's video and when making the sound with your child, point one finger in your mouth like a doctor checking your tonsils. Don't touch your tongue though, just point. (We do this movement every day during Alphabet Echo.) Also we will discuss how O is a vowel and makes two sounds. Currently we are only focusing on the short o sound.

Our Sight words for this week are: brown, orange, I & the. We will practice these words, along with the words from last week. :)

We're also practicing writing our first names correctly. Many of you received notes on your child's Saxon papers saying "Please Practice Name Writing." We try to write this note when ever we notice your child is frustrated when writing their name... we don't always get to it though. So we need you to remember to practice. :) 

READING
We are sticking with Duval Reads again this week. :) Our Nursery Rhymes are Jack & Jill, Little Miss Muffet and This Little Pig Went to Market. We are focusing on naming the characters, figuring out if the Nursery Rhyme is fiction or nonfiction and making connection with a time we were frightened (connection to Little Miss Muffet).
We will be writing about our Connections in our Reading Journals.

Wild and Wacky Fun Run

Here is a picture of a few of our PTA Representatives at the Wild and Wacky Assembly. :)  We can't wait to see how wild and wacky the students are for the Run!! 

On Friday the students had an assembly about our Wild and Wacky Fun Run!! Your child brought home a flyer explaining a little bit about the Fun Run and informing you of the website to tell people about. :) Here is a link to the website: WILD AND WACKY. Send people to that page and there is a rectangle for them to enter in your child's name. 

**Last year Mrs.Croft and I had the top earner in our class. Congrats Catalia Rivera!!

We hope to have the top earner in our class again. :) **

Just in case the flyer didn't make it home... here is a photograph of the front and back of the flyer.

You may have noticed the flyer listed the Wild and Wacky Fun Run on September 21 and the time 12:00-12:45 for Kindergarten. If you play on volunteering to help~ you need to complete the online Volunteer Application for the District. 

Also this is a big fundraiser for our school. So we hope our class has 100% participation!! Every donation helps CLE!!