Almost September!!!

I can hardly believe that it is almost September!! The start of the school year has really flown by quickly!!! I am sure it is because we are SO busy in kindergarten!!

In literacy this week we will finish up with learning about the alphabet!! We will be learning about the letters S-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 and we have even been learning about syllables!

In writing we continue to become amazing authors!! We now have our writing folders and will be practicing telling our stories out loud to our talking buddies!! 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 be looking at the book “Good Dog, Carl” (which is a book with no words) that will help us learn that stories can be told just through pictures – which is where we will start. In kindergarten we start by drawing pictures then we will add beginning letters to our pictures, then labels, and finally start some sentences (we will be focusing on just pictures this week and will slowly get to the rest).

During math we will be continuing to explore numbers with our counting mats as well as our own counting books but we will also start practicing how to write the numbers 1 and 2 and comparing things that are the same and different!

In unit studies we are continuing to learn about how to stay safe and will finish up our safety books! We will hopefully get to go on a safety walk around the school to practice using the crosswalk and also so we can see the signs that are all around us to help us stay safe. 

 

Remember we go to P.E. on Day 4 on the calendar  – so this week again it falls on a Thursday so make sure to mark it on your calendar. You can find the day on the lunch calendar! I will hopefully also be sending home our homework folders this week and I will try and put that on our calendar as well! Yes I said HOMEWORK - and it is crazy but my friends this year have been begging for homework - so I hope that they still love it once it starts coming home! 

Also this Tuesday is our first PLC Day so we will be dismissing at 2:18 which is 80 minutes earlier than usual. It will be a fast, fun day. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and of course if you have any questions or concerns please let me know!  Mrs. Woita

Week 2 of Kindergarten

Well I honestly can’t believe that we are starting the second week of school!

Last week we really did talk a LOT about routines and my friends are really doing a good job with them! 

We read a lot of books that had to do with starting school and especially kindergarten. I love Chester the Raccoon and we read quite a few of his books as well this past week – I am sure you heard all about it! I also hope you liked the Kissing Hand we made for you! We even got to take a quick tour of our school while looking for Chester and we found out where the office is, the lunch room, all of our specials (computer, pe, music,library and art) classrooms are, we also found the courtyards. I sure hope your kids told you all about it! I know they were all disappointed that we never found Chester - but he did leave us a bracelet to make!

In Math we will learn more about our Daily Math Routines which we will do everyday and I promise I will explain in detail at a later time. We also started to learn about how numbers are all around us and we LOVE math already! We read Anno’s Counting Book (which actually has no words just scenes so we will get to make up the words) and will be looking at this book again and will actually get to make our own counting books were we will get to draw scenes of numbers and discuss them with our new friends! Last week we were introduced to our math mats. These are mats that we use to show a number and display objects of that many number. We will use counting mats many times throughout the year and will learn to talk about our display with our class and listen to our friends as they share WONDERFUL ideas!!

In Literacy last week we learned our ABC chant (which my friends LOVE) and also focused on the letters A-H and this week we will keep on going with as many letters as we can get through! We always practice finger writing the letter and saying the sound it makes! We also read a poem everyday out of our "Big Book of Rhymes" and will continue to do this as well. We even read "Animals in the Park" and will be rereading that as well! We will be talking a lot about books and authors and illustrators and what it takes to be a good reader and writer! We will start to look for capital and lowercase letters and also punctuation marks! Hopefully your child told you we learned a new word "I" and we even read sentences with it!  We can point to the words and read the sentence to our friends! We are SOO SMART! And this next week we will learn another new word "can" and I can't wait to see the sentences we read.

 During writing we read “Library Mouse” and discussed storytelling and about writing about what you know. Thank you for sending in a picture of your kindergartener - it was soo fun to hear them talk about it - we still have a few more to share. But please know I love hearing details of all the amazing things my friends have done! We will also be discussing the rules and procedures of writer’s workshop. We will practice how to sit, how to write, and how to put our things away. We might even get our writer’s workshop folders! We will store our writing in them AND be able to use some of the charts to help us spell better! I have learned that we LOVE to talk in our classroom so I know they will love getting introduced to talking buddies. They will have a buddy that they are paired up with. This is the friend they will practice orally telling their stories to before they write. I just know they are going to LOVE this! 

In unit studies we will be learning about safety! This week we will talk about stranger safety, fire safety, and our important emergency information. I will be sending a note home in Wednesday folders about this. On this note I want you to write the primary address and phone number you want your kindergarten child to learn in case of an emergency.The kids are going to be making their very own safety book so they can stay SUPER safe!!

We will continue to go to specials & we all love that time. Here is the schedule for this week:

Mon.: day 1 - Art 

Tues.: day 2 -Computer

Wed.: day 3 -Music

Thurs.: day 4-PE .(please send your child to school wearing their tennis shoes)

Fri.: day 5 -library (please make sure to return your books)

It's gonna be another great week!:) Mrs. Woita

First Week of Kindergarten!

Well...the first week is past us and it has been a SUPER busy and fun week!!! We have been learning all about Meadow Lane and the expectations. We have learned a lot about our 4 expectations...be respectful...be responsible...be safe...and be productive. We have also learned about the voice levels we should use in the building. The week has been filled with lots of excitement and of course, a few tears (but not for long- I promise).  I know it was hard to send your sweet little kindergarten kid off to school, but I want you to know that I am going to work very hard to make sure they are not only learning at school, but that they also feel special. I am so excited to see what the year has in store for us. I know it will be a good one!!

Please enjoy our first week video...You will have to actually go to my blog to watch it! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!
                

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREU!!!

Today was a very special day in kindergarten, because our friend, Treu, turned 6! This was the first birthday since we have started kindergarten (just four short days ago) and it was a little crazy this morning in our classroom. For the past few years I have had an elf - yep I said elf - come to my classroom during the holidays to keep an eye on my students while they are at school. Some of you may have heard of the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition and boy does Mrs. Woita love when Snowflake (our elf) is watching because my friends are always on their very best behavior. But... last year I heard about Santa giving special permission to some of his elves to help come and celebrate birthdays because Santa loves birthdays too! So I wrote Santa a letter asking if we could have an elf come and help celebrate birthdays in my classroom and guess what? CONFETTI the elf CAME! He was even dressed up in his birthday suit! The kids were so excited to read the book he left about the birthday tradition! Confetti was so silly he left confetti all over Treu's desk and all over the carpet (although Mrs. Woita might have to write another note about the confetti and maybe keeping it at the north pole next time but we will see what Confetti thought of it - since he was watching us all day long too). This morning we all thought of words to describe Treu and Mrs. Woita made him a little gift from all of us - we sure hope he likes it! Treu's mom and younger brother and sister even came in to eat lunch with him! And if you can believe it Treu even brought gift bags to school for all of his friends.  I sure hope Treu had a great day too! Here are a few pictures from our fun day!

 Birthday Boy - Treu

 Treu with Confetti (our birthday elf)!

 Treu with his family at lunch!

 Treu and his friends and the gift we made him!

 Singing Happy Birthday to Treu!

 Another one of the Birthday Boy!

Treu handing out his gift bags!

First Week of Kindergarten

Well I honestly can’t believe that we are already done with our first day of school this year! It came and went so fast! Thank you to everyone who came into open house last week - I am glad you got to come in and check out our classroom! Also a big thank you to everyone who picked up a donation sheet - I appreciate all of your donations very much! 

I know that the first day of school you and your child probably felt lots of different emotions... excited, anxious, nervous, scared.. but please know that when your child is at school with me I will do my best to help them feel comfortable and safe at school. We went over today our jobs at school and my number one job as a teacher is to teach and keep kids safe and their number one job is to learn. I am so very fortunate to have a job that I truly love and I promise to try my hardest each and every day to make your child’s experience in kindergarten the very best that it can be!

This first week we will be going over A LOT of routines and the kids will probably not like me very much because I have learned that it is much better to go slow and learn things well than to go too fast and have to reteach everything (yes I learned this the hard way)  But I assure you we will be having fun along the way to learning the routines of kindergarten. 

We will learn our line order – this is how we will line up everyday all the time – for example when we get to school, when we go to lunch and specials and how we line up after recess is over and at the end of the day. Right now my line order is in alphabetical order but will probably change once we get into the swing of things!

We will also learn our four school rules – Be Respectful – Be Responsible – Be Safe – Be Productive. We will be reading a lot of books that have to do with starting school and especially kindergarten. I love Chester the Raccoon and we will read quite a few of his books as well this week – I am sure you will hear all about it!

We will take a tour of the school and find out where the office is, the lunch room, all of our specials (computer, pe, music, and art) classrooms are, we will also find the library and the courtyards. And we will be meeting some important people along the way!  Please make sure to ask your child about this on Wednesday night!

Also I realized today that I messed up when I sent home the specials schedule - we will actually be following the number schedule on the lunch calendar. I will try to remind my friends when we have PE so they can wear tennis shoes!

Day 1 - Art

Day 2 - Computer

Day 3 - Music

Day 4 - PE

Day 5 - Library 

We will practice a fire drill twice – once with just our classroom and the other one with the entire school. When we hear the bells we will line up quietly and go out the door toward the fence by the playground. I will also talk to my friends about what would happen if they were not in my classroom when they hear the fire alarms.

In Math we will be learning how numbers are all around us, we will be reading Anno’s Counting Book (which actually has no words just scenes so we will get to make up the words), we will also be learning about our Daily Math Routines which we will do everyday and I will explain in greater detail at a later time!

In Literacy we will again be learning the routines but also be focusing on letters A-E and learning the word “I” – yep we will be reading before you know it! We will read a different poem everyday and we will also be talking a lot about books and authors and illustrators and what it takes to be a good reader and writer! We will read “Library Mouse” and discuss storytelling and then everyone will get to sit on the rocking chair and tell a story that has really happened to them!

In Unit Studies we will be focusing on staying safe when we are at school and learning the school rules!

Lunch time will be a big learning time as well – I promise there are many adults that will help your child not only go through the line to make sure they get milk, and fruits and vegetables, but that they get silverware and get to the table with all their food still on their plate. We will learn how to open our milk and hopefully eat without getting too distracted and finally how to dump our trays! Your child does not need to know their snap number but if you need it to put money into their account please just let me know!  

JEEZ!!! We will be doing a lot this week and I know I have forgot a lot! I will be honest and say that dismissal time is a little crazy and I appreciate your patience with dismissal. It always takes a little while the first week while we are getting the hang of things! I expect each kindergartener to say to me “there is my mom/dad/sister (whomever it is that is picking up your child) and then I will try and make eye contact with you and I will give them either a high five or a hug and I will send them off to you! Thank you again for your patience and cooperation with dismissal!

Please know that I am so very excited and looking forward to this new school year and working will all of my new friends and watching them grow as learners! If you have any questions or concerns please know that my door is always open!

We had a super great first day of school and I am loooking forward to learning more with your kindergartener the rest of the week!! Mrs. Woita

New School Year!!

Well it's time to start another school year again so I will be deleting all of my last year kindergartens from my blog so you won't get the email updates! But please know that I hope all of my friends have a wonderful year in 1st grade. I also hope you all enjoyed your summers and please come back and see me if you ever get a chance!!! Can't believe my little friends from last year are going to be 1st graders!!!I I know they will all do great!