End of September

We are having so much fun in kindergarten and learning so much – I can’t believe that the first quarter is almost over! These next two weeks we will be doing a lot of assessments to get ready for report cards and conferences! Please remember to return your conference notes this week, if you have any conflicts please just let me know – I am looking forward to talking with you and your kindergartener about all the things we are working so hard on.

In Literacy we finished up Unit 1 and are ready to start Unit 2 – Let’s Explore! Our new essential question is “How do tools help us to explore?” I can’t wait to hear the conversations we will have about tools that we use! The vocabulary words we will discuss are tools, discover, defeated, fetch, and rumble. We will be learning the word “a” which hopefully we will all already know! We will also be focusing on the letter “p” and the sound it makes. We will be reading “The Handiest Things in the World” and “Discover with Tools”. In guided reading we will either be reading “We Need Tools” or “A Trip”.

In writing we will be talking a lot about sentences and what makes a good sentence! We will learn about spaghetti and meatball spaces and move into using finger spaces. We will also talk about punctuation marks and how at the end of every sentence we have to use either a exclamation mark, question mark, or a period. My friends have been doing a great job labeling their pictures and using turtle talk to sound out words.

We took our Unit 1 math test and it went great! We will be starting Unit 2- Explore 5-groups! We will be talking about groups of 5 and finding groups of numbers – we will look at a park scene and discuss what we see and we will be learning about problem-solving strategies to solve math story problems. We will even get to act our story problems together. This week we will also be using nickel strips when we do our counting mats. I think on Monday we will also meet the “Five Finder” – a special math superhero who loves the number 5! Make sure to ask your kindergartener about the “five finder”!

We started talking about our five senses this past week in Unit Studies. We have read some wonderful stories about our senses and have talked a lot about our sense of hearing! This week we will explore our other senses and work on our Five Senses book. We even learned a few fun songs about our senses, and know that our senses are pathways to our brain!

Don't forget we have library on Fridays and this Tuesday is a PLC day so we will be getting out of school at 2:18.

I am looking forward to another fun week in kindergarten! :) Mrs. Woita

Also a lot of you know that I work very closely with Mrs. Schroeder and some of your kids might have told you that we made her a special video and had her class over on Friday afternoon. We will be doing a lot of fun things with Mrs. Schroeder’s class throughout the school year. But tomorrow – Monday, Sept. 29^th she will be having her baby girl and we are all so very excited for her. Although I am sure gonna miss her a lot when she is gone but not to worry because she will be back right before Thanksgiving. Please check out the cute video we made with her students  - although I will warn you it is a rather long video because we all give her advice on what she should name her baby! It was so cute a lot of my little friends chose their mommy’s name or siblings name – of course I think Mrs. Schroeder should name her baby after me!

                     

Happy Birthday Zach!

We had another birthday boy in our room today! Zach turned 6 years old today! Snowflake came and made a mess again and was hiding up on the shelf by the coathall. We also all thought about words that describe Zach and made him a special gift! Zach brought yummy cupcakes today and we thought they were delicious! Here are a few pictures from his special day!

                                                 Runza for his birthday lunch!

                                                          Zach with his friends!

                                             singing Happy Birthday to the birthday boy...

                                                     eating yummy cupcakes...

                                                      Birthday Boy, Zach, and Snowflake

King Arthur

Arthur was the King of the Jungle this week and he loved every minute of it! We enjoyed reading Arthur's book and checking out his super cool toy! His favorite color is blue and he loves his Dinosaur book, he even showed us the skeleton page that he liked. His mom and dad both got to come and eat lunch with him too! He loves the Lego movie and swimming. He likes to eat pizza and his favorite animal is a rhino. His favorite song is the Star Spangled Banner which we all love as well. He enjoys playing legos at home and when he grows he wants to be an astronaut. Arthur enjoyed being the King of the Jungle this week - please check out his video of his time as King!

                        

Finishing up some units!

This week we will be finishing up Unit One in Math and will be taking our first math assessment, although I know all of my friends will do great so please don’t worry because we have been working very hard during math. We have been practicing writing our numbers, drawing objects to show different numbers, counting objects, connecting dots in counting order, and finding objects that are the same and different!

We will also be finishing up one of my favorite units – American Symbols! We loved learning about the symbols and especially the constitution – we have been referring  back to our kindergarten constitution and know that we always need to do our best to make our classroom the best that it can be! I am looking forward to seeing your family constitutions as well! A video from our symbols unit will hopefully be coming this week sometime! Also if you are in the school building towards the end of this week please check out our hallway display featuring some of our projects, don’t worry it will be up for awhile!  We will also be starting to talk about our Five Senses – a super fun science unit that we will also love! The plan is to focus in on one of our senses everyday!

In Literacy we will also be talking about our senses! We will read “Senses at the SeaShore” and “A Feast of the Senses” and in our crabby book we will read “Sam Can See” and “I Can See”. And if you haven’t guessed it yet – our new word will be “see” and we will be focusing on the letter S! Our vocabulary words that we will discuss are explore, senses, feast, finished, and kneads. We will continue to work on blending sounds together to make words and finding sounds in the beginning, middle, and at the end of words.

In writing we will continue to work on adding details and words to our stories. We will also be working on drawing people so they look real and also drawing them in action  - this is tricky but hopefully we will be saying goodbye to stick people! We are becoming great writers!

What another fun week we have ahead of us! :) Mrs. Woita

King Aiden

Our first Jungle Royalty was Aiden! This was super exciting and all the kids were a little jealous and kept asking when it was there turn to be the King or Queen - I reassured them all that they would get a turn but that it may be a little while!
Aiden was a great King this week and shared with us his toy snake and his book about alligators - boy did I learn a lot about alligators - did you know that an adult male alligator can grow to be 14ft long (that is as long as a station wagon) - I am super excited to live in Nebraska and I told my friends that those alligators can stay down south! Aiden also shared his pictures with us up on the big screen because his mom had emailed them to me - this was super fun and the kids all enjoyed looking at Aiden's pictures - we all laughed when he told us he put his chair in his swimming pool! Aiden also told us that his favorite color is black and that he liked the book "The Lorax". His favorite movie is Dragons "Fire and Ice" and enjoys football and likes to eat spaghetti! He likes zebras and the song "Let It Go" from the amazing movie "Frozen"! Aiden is a special kid because he makes people laugh and smile and when he is at home he likes to play with his sister. When Aiden grows up he wants to be a scientist! Aiden had a great week being the King of the Jungle - please check out this video featuring King Aiden!

                       

Mrs. Woita the Queen of Woita's World

This week we are starting our King/Queen of the Jungle. This is a special week for boys and girls where we get to learn a little but more about our friends. But first I would like to tell you all a little bit about myself. As most of you know I have three small children who I talk about all the time! Henry is 5 years old and is in kindergarten, Lily is 3 years old and Macy will be 1 this week! Boy oh boy how time flies by... I have been married to my high school sweet heart, Justin, for almost 7 years and we couldn't be happier - how lucky we are to have three happy and healthy children! We also have a dog named Olivia who we got right after we were married who taught us a lot about parenthood! I have been a lifeguard and swimming lessons instructor since I was in high school and I love to swim! Now on to some of my favorite things... My favorite food is pasta, and I love volleyball and have been a volleyball official for 13 years! I can't really pick a favorite book but I do love Dr. Suess and Nicholas Sparks! My favorite movie is The Lorax and I love almost every song from the movie and I LOVE the song "Happy"! Here is a little video I made for myself featuring pictures of my family and me and my new kindergarten friends!

                         

Learning all the time...

We are moving right along in the literacy department! We are starting week 2 of Unit 1 and our essential question is “How do baby animals move?” We will be reading and listening to some great stories called “Pouch”, “Baby Animals on the Move” and we will also read a version of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. For shared reading (in the crabby book) we will read “We Can” and “I Can, We Can” and then during guided reading when your child comes over to me at the rainbow table they will be either reading “Hop!” or “We Hop!” Remember you can go online to the wonders website at anytime and check out the books we are reading - I bet your kindergartener would love to read you a story!

We are also going to be learning the word “we” this week and focusing on the letter “a” and the sound it makes and where we hear the “a” sound in words! We will continue to work on blending sounds together to make words! Our new vocabulary words that we will be learning are: adventure, movement, arrived, exciting, and exhausted.

During writing we will continue to talk more about nouns and will keep finding nouns in sentences. I know it is crazy -  nouns!! Your kindergarten will soon be able to tell you that a noun is a person, place, or thing or even an animal if they can’t already! This week is actually a very big week in writing because up until now your child has been telling stories orally and drawing pictures to go with their story – but this week we are going to learn how to label our pictures and use turtle talk to sound out the words we want to write and also how to use our alphabet chart to help us during writing time! I am very excited to see what writing has in store for our classroom this week!

In Math this week we will continue to explore numbers 1-10 with our counting mats and daily math routines. We will also learn how to dot-to-dots with straight lines to make an object (the tricky part about this is starting at the number 1 and going in counting order).   We will also be practicing drawing groups of numbers and learning more about shapes and how to make them! We are really enjoying learning about 2 and 3 dimensional shapes! I am also so happy to see all of the homework coming back to school – the kids get super excited every time I hand homework out so I am sure hoping the enthusiasm to do homework is still there when your child gets home! A homework routine is a great thing to start in kindergarten when they enjoy it! Even on days when there is not an actual paper homework please utilize the resources you have at home to keep practicing the skills we are working on!

We are continuing to learn more about our American Symbols – we still have the White House and Bald Eagle to read about. But this Wednesday, Sept. 17^th is a super fun day for our country – it is Constitution Day! We will be learning about what the constitution is and why we have it and we will also be making our very own Kindergarten Constitution and I am hoping all of my friends will agree to it and sign it so we can have a successful school year. On this day we will be doing lots of fun crafts and you will be getting home our first family project where you will have the opportunity to create your own Family Constitution – so please look for this on Wednesday! We are really enjoying learning about our country and we are very proud to live here!

I can really tell that my friends have been practicing their address and phone number at home – please continue to work on this!  Remember your child will get a special treat when they can tell me their important information that will help them stay safe and can use in case of an emergency. We will also be adding to our list of things to earn this week. I have some patriotic pencils and once your child can recite the Pledge of Allegiance they will earn their American Flag pencil!

Picture Day is Wednesday, Sept. 17^th – please turn in your papers if you would like to order pictures!

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! It is going to be another fun week in kindergarten! :)Mrs. Woita

Happy Birthday Bella!

We had another birthday girl in our room today! Ms. Bella turned 6 years old today! She had a wonderful day here at school! Snowflake came and put fun things above her desk - there was confetti on her desk AND in the coathall - that silly little elf! Bella also was surprised when her mom brought her lunch! Bella even brought her birthday invitations to hand out to all of her friends for her party next weekend! We all brainstormed words that describe Bella and we made her a special gift! Also at the end of the day we got to sing Bella "Happy Birthday" and got to eat some yummy m&m cookies.  Check out the pictures from her fabulous day!

                                  Bella's confetti covered desk and birthday crown

                                              Bella and Snowflake (on top of the easel)

                                                     Bella and mom at lunch!

                                           Bella and her friends with her gift from all of us!

                                                   yummy.... delicious cookies.....

                                                          Birthday girl - Bella

Starting Unit One...

    

This next week in kindergarten is going to be a fun one because we are starting unit one in literacy which means we will be talking a lot about what good readers do! The strategy we will be focusing on is “asking and answering questions” and we will get to read a great book called “What about Bear?”. Our essential question this week is “how can we get along with new friends?” which is wonderful because we are continuing to build relationships with our new classmates and this ties in very nicely to making good choices and being respectful and responsible! We are going to be focusing on the letter “M” this week as well and will be sorting pictures that start with the sound M makes and we will also work hard on making the letter m correctly and by the end of the week we will be blending sounds together to make words! We will be making connections between all of the books we read and it is going to be a blast! We will also be putting the word “the” up on the word wall – please ask your child about the chant we do when we spell the word “the”.  Remember any extra practice you do at home will only benefit your child! We are also going to be starting guided reading (start is the key word) but please know it might takes us a few weeks to get into the full guided reading routine – your child will either be reading the story “Soup” or “Mouse and Monkey” at the rainbow table with me. Remember you can go online to the wonders website and check out the things that we will be doing in our classroom!

In writing we will be talking about nouns – yes I know what you are thinking nouns in kindergarten  but we really do learn about them and the kids do a great job! We will learn that a noun can be a person, place, thing, or animal! We will also be focusing a lot on our pictures when we are writing our stories from our lives, because readers can find out more detailed information from our pictures. We will be talking about planning out our pictures and what we should if we don’t know how to draw things – although the most important thing to remember in kindergarten is that we always try our best! Hopefully by the end of the week we will get the chance to read the story “Scaredy Squirrel” and talk about why authors sometimes use labels in their stories.

In Math we will be continuing to learn more about numbers but will really be focusing on the numbers 4 and 5 and how to write them. We will also be distinguishing between different sized groups and counting a certain number of objects. Last week we started talking about 2 and 3-dimensial shapes and will continue to talk about the difference between them this week too and also have some discussions about shapes and what makes something a shape! I love when the kids learn the characteristics of shapes and are able to tell me all about them! For example a triangle has three corners and three sides that are all connected and that triangles can be all different sizes and can look different. Oh how we love shapes and numbers!! We will also be having homework every single night this week so please be on the lookout!  Don’t forget to make sure your child’s name is on it so they can get credit for doing it!

America… America… America! We are loving learning about the symbols that represent our wonderful country! We started our symbols book and will continue to work on it this week as well. This Thursday, Sept. 11 is Patriot’s Day and I would love for every child in my room to wear red, white, or blue as we honor and remember our patriots.  We will be talking about how we need to stand tall and be proud of the country that we live in! I truly feel so lucky to live in this country!

Also this week is StudentServe week at LPS and you might see things in the paper or on the news about it.  Student Serve is a student-led, district-wide initiative committed to instilling civic responsibility and preserving democratic ideology in students by promoting behaviors of good citizenship in their local, national, and global communities. This year in kindergarten we are going to try and do one project a month that will benefit people in our community - this month we are going to help make cards for the organization called "Cards for Seniors". They distribute cards through Tabitha, Meals on Wheels, and other nonprofit organizations to seniors. I am sure my friends will love making the cards to fill up other people's buckets!

Thanks again to all the families that were able to come to our Literacy night – I hope you had as much fun as I did! It was great to see all of you there and I am hoping you all learned something new – remember I will be sending home more things throughout the year to put in your binder if you purchased one.

I know it is going to be another fun and busy week in our classroom! :) Mrs. Woita

Happy Grandparents Day!

On Sunday we will celebrate a VERY important day.....Grandparent's Day!!! The kids have been telling me all week how special you are to them and all of the fun things you do together! Thank you for all you do....know you are loved. Here is a little poem for you...

GRANDPARENTS

Grandparents are special people
with wisdom and pride.
They are always offering love and kindness
and are always there to guide.
They often make you feel
so confident and strong.
Their arms are always open
no matter what you did wrong.
They try to help out
in every way that they can.
They love all their grandchildren
the same whether you're a child,

Or a woman or man.
They are always there to listen
and to lend a helping hand.
They show you respect
and they try to understand.
They give their love, devotion and so much more,
that's easy to see.
Grandparents,
what perfect examples
of the kind of person that we should be.

~By Stacy Smith~

Please enjoy the video we made for you...some of the pictures might even look familiar to you:)

I hope that all the grandparents that are still with us have a wonderful day...  :) Mrs. Woita

                          

Happy Birthday Jordan!

Today we had another birthday in our classroom - Jordan turned 6 years old today! We sure hope he has a wonderful birthday! We all thought of words that describe Jordan and we made him a gift on his special day! Also Snowflake came back to our classroom but this time he was watching us from a different spot, he even put streamers above Jordan's desk! Jordan also brought in some very yummy cupcakes that we all enjoyed very much - so thank you Jordan! Again we hope he has a great day! Check out a few pictures from Jordan's birthday!

                                Jordan's desk with his birthday crown

                         Snowflake watching from the top of the tree

                                       Jordan's delicious treats

                                      yummy... we love them!

                                        Happy Birthday Jordan!!

Home Visits!

Thank you so much to the families that allowed me to come on home visits! I can't believe it was almost a month ago now! But I LOVE getting the chance to sit down and talk outside of school as you must have realized and since I took some pictures I thought that I better share them! I want you to know that I wrote these little notes before school started - but Mrs. Woita is a little behind as you can tell but I still thought I would share my thoughts with you all! I am enjoying getting to know your kindergartener and am looking forward to an awesome year!

Sopheigh – I loved seeing all of your ninja turtle things! Mrs. Schroeder and I enjoyed coming to your house and meeting your pets and of course you and your sister! I think you and I will get along very well!

Miliani – I am so sorry I messed up and got the wrong day for our home visit! You and your mom were so nice to me!! I love your backyard and wish I could have stayed there all day.

Nicole –I hope your big brother didn’t tell you everything we do in kindergarten. Your trip to Disney World sounds like it is going to be so much fun – I can’t wait to hear all about it! Hopefully you will be able to tell him some cool things we are doing in kindergarten this year!

Hayle – Oh how I love your bedroom, your bed is the coolest thing ever! Your mom and dad must love you very much! Thank you for showing me everything! I went home right away and showed Justin the pictures I took! Hopefully we will be able to find some things on pinterest that your mom hasn't seen yet that we can do as projects this year!

Zach – You and your brother Nate are so nice! I loved hearing about your soccer camp, swimming lessons, and karate! You sure are a busy boy!

Bella – I can’t believe your mom took off the whole week and you girls got to do fun things everyday – how lucky are you!!! I loved seeing your room and talking to you girls! I sure hope you had fun rest of the week!

  Cody – I am so glad that I finally found where you live! I love the view you have and can’t believe that you see deer out your window – that is soo cool! Those legos you and your brother have are pretty cool as well! I also loved the caricature of you!!!

Xander – Wow your toys were so super cool! I will have to start learning more about transformers!  Your parents are way too nice to me! I can’t believe all the school supplies they bought for our class! You are one lucky boy!

Briley – You are just too fashionable for me! I loved all of the outfits I saw! I will never forget when Sarah Rebecca jumped towards me and scared me! I am soo happy to hear that the sheep showing went well! I am so glad I got to come over to your house – it was a good reminder of our fundraiser that we need to do this year!

Olivia K.– I enjoyed hearing about your shopping trip that you had with your mom. I am excited to see you new backpack and lunch box! Your sister is so cute and so lucky to have you as a big sister!

Chloe – Your bedroom is so organized and you have motivated me to organize all of Lily’s things at home! I am so jealous you have a pool and little park right outside your window!

Gabbi – I am so bummed I missed the dance party with my favorite song, if only I would have been running on time! Your pink room is adorable and I loved the closet organization! Your flips on the trampolines were amazing!

Keegan – Your giraffe snake was so cool! I learned a lot from you about snakes! I am so glad you are such a good helper and big brother!

Josiah – I really enjoyed looking at your scrapbook, it was so neat to see all of your pictures! Thank you for taking the time to show me!  Your ninja turtles were so cool, of course you know I don’t love the snake but it was crazy that it was taller than you!

Olivia M – You are such a great big sister. Your twin sisters are so cute and are so lucky to have you as a big sister! The bed you were making was so cool! I am so glad that I got to come visit you!

Sam – Oh Sam I can not believe that there was a bird in your fireplace – I don’t think I will ever forget that! It was so fun meeting your dog and your big brothers! I am so excited to work with you this year!

September already!!!

I can hardly believe that it is already September!! The start of the school year has really flown by quickly!!! I am sure it is because we are SO busy in kindergarten!! We will continue to get even busier, if that is possible!!!

In literacy this week we will finish up with learning about the alphabet!! We will be learning about W-Z!!  That is SUPER exciting!! Although, next week we will start focusing in on one letter a week!!  On Friday we will review the alphabet and have a little chicka chicka boom boom celebration!!! We will continue to talk about all of the fun things kindergarteners can do. We will continue to review the words ‘I’ & ‘can.’ We have even been reading them in books…YES I said they are reading them. It is pretty amazing to hear these kids already reading. We have also been reading a lot of nursery rhymes…the kids really enjoy these!!

In writing we continue to become amazing authors!! We now have our writing folders and have been practicing telling our stories out loud to our talking buddies and drawing pictures!! This week we will really focus on trying our best as writers and how to draw objects that may seem tricky we will practice drawing people together- but not the stick kind!.  We will also focus on our first writing trait "Ideas"!

We will continue to discuss Anno’s Counting Book in math! We will also be doing our counting mats and graphing with numbers 1-10!! We have also been working hard on writing numbers and will really focus on writing the number 3 this week! Please remember to practice with your children and also remember that sometimes they write number backwards…but we will work on that!! We have also been talking about things that are alike and different!! I love hearing the kids talk about math and seeing them reason about numbers!! They are just SO smart!! Please watch for math homework coming home this week!

In unit studies we start a new unit!! We will start to talk about American Symbols!! The five symbols we focus on are the Bald Eagle, Statue of Liberty, American Flag, White House, and Liberty Bell. We will be reading stories, looking at pictures, and making pages for our very own American Symbol book!! This is a really fun unit and one of my favorites!

I have some reminders to give to you as well!! Please remember that we have literacy night this Thursday (September 4^th) from 6-7 in our classroom!! This is a very important night and we will talk about things you can do to help your child at home!! If you did not send back your RSVP please know that you can still do this! If you can’t make arrangements for other children it will be okay to bring them, but they won’t be allowed to play with things in the classroom.



Also you can send me pictures if you have any for our special project we will be working on this week - if you have any questions please email me at acuster@lps.org

Well….I think that is all for now!!! I hope you have a great week!!! :) Mrs. Woita