Week 1....New beginnings!

Welcome to our FIRST official BLOG

of the new school year!

Most of my blogs for school are picture heavy.

I try to explain what is going on, 

but if you ever have questions,

please ask!

Here we are on the very first day of KINDERGARTEN!

Each and every morning when we arrive,

we will have table activities to investigate or

morning challenges to solve together.

The green table is playing with wooden cubes...

The yellow table is discovering pattern blocks...

The red table is exploring unifix cubes!.

 These manipulatives are part of our Math curriculum.

We always take time to explore, play, create with

these items (and many more!)

before we use them for solving problems!

We read the book The Kissing Hand

which is about a raccoon named Chester who was reluctant 

to go to school until his mama

showed him the kissing hand trick!

Your child's homework was to create a kissing hand at 

home with you!  I will post pics of our adorable

kissing hand tree next week when Mrs. Pilger's kids

bring theirs as we only use half of the tree!

We also created Chester....CUTE!

And we made YOU a kissing hand so you 

wouldn't get sad with your kiddo!

Our days are very busy but we do

have FREE CHOICE for 15-25 minutes 

twice daily...Yay!

At this point in the year all kiddos are playing at choice time.

Soon, kids EARN their choice time by completing 

our projects and work.

Sounds tough, but it really does help to keep kids focused!

Here are some of the choices kiddos made this week:

The button table...sorting, counting, organizing going on here!

Playing cars together...sharing, cooperating, socializing!

Puzzle solving....brain building, teamwork!

Legos...sharing, cooperation, creating!

Fischer Price toys...imagination, sorting, classifying, friendship!

Housekeeping....sharing, organizing, pretending, socializing!

Book Time....brain building, stamina (how long they read increases as the year progresses)

We learn there are 3 ways to read a book:

1.Read the Words

2."Read" the Pictures

3. Retell the Story 

We created several books this week that your k kiddo

should be able to read to you in one way or the other!

Many many many of our projects will stay at school

either to decorate our room and hallway or

as part of our "LUCKY DUCK" books.

Lucky Duck books are essentially our journal pages

and writing responses that we bind into a book 

and send home for the night for your kiddo to share 

with her/his family.

Please return these classmade books the next day

so someone else can take it home!

Here we are creating one of our first lucky ducks...

Painting and labeling a color bear!

Any project that begins like this.... 

promises to be tons of good educational fun!

We do have rest time in Kindergarten.

Kids DO NOT HAVE to sleep, 

just lay quietly for 20 minutes.

We earned the privilege of resting with one book.

Soon we will be able to rest with TWO!

 We practiced with our scissors and glue by 

creating this huge bear for the hallway.

We painted them the next day...see a bit farther down

on this blog for our painting station!

We created the adorable

"cute as a button" picture frames for you 

as a gift!  Hope you enjoyed them!

We even had a birthday celebration already!

Here's the painters...

and more hard workers....

Each morning the kids will sign in our our 

daily chart....here is Fridays...

 So many skills go into the reading and data collection on our charts.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this part of our day!

We also read the book Corduroy on Friday 

which is about a little stuffed bear who wants more

than anything to be adopted!

We just had to create our own version of Corduroy for your kiddo

to share with you!

This "stained glass" name art is a new project this year!
I LOVE it!

What a beautiful way for us to practice coloring with markers...

leaving no white behind and trying to stay in the lines.

I did tell the kiddos that this will be the LAST time

we will put their name in all CAPITAL LETTERS!

Now we are writing like Kindergarteners and we must

only use ONE CAPITAL and the REST LOWER CASE!

 Please keep reminding your k kid at home about this skill.

Here are some of the books we read this week:

   

Now for this upcoming week:

September 9-13

Reading: Nursery Rhymes

Math: Sorting/Classifying

Science: What Body Parts Do Animals Have?

Social Studies: We Learn From Our Families

Theme: Brown Bear

Special Notes:

Field Trip forms are due on Thursday as we must order lunches two weeks prior to our trip.  Hope you can come with us!

Book orders are also due Thursday.

Your child may bring a water bottle to school 

(water only...no Gatorade or juice) 

Please make sure the water bottle is labeled with your k kid's name

yep, even disposable ones, just so there is no mix up.

Your child should have their lunch number memorized

by the end of this week...keep practicing! 

(cold lunch kids, too!)

If you have an additional email or a family member who would also like to stay involved with your kindergartener

(grandma/grandpas for instance)

Just have them zip me an email at

marciaoduggan@gmail.com

with all necessary information:

Their name, their email, and which K Kid they belong to.

Also please do not leave a time sensitive voicemail on my school phone number's voicemail. 

 I  will not access my voicemail until after school.  

Please speak directly with Nancy or Michelle in the front office.  This holds true for texts and email also.

If it requires timely reading, please send BEFORE NOON as I 

check my email and cell before I go to lunch at 12:15 

and not again until after school.

Wow...that is a lot!  Pretty soon I will have all the information

out to you that is required...until then, I apologize for the length of 

these messages!  

Have a great week!