Last Week In Kindergarten...

We had a very busy week last week! Everyone is getting used to the routine and we are becoming more independent as we work.  One activity the students really like is journal writing.  We learned about writing the date at calendar time and have been practicing in our journals.  After that the kiddos "get comfortable" somewhere in our room and write words they see around the room or practice printing the alphabet.

 

 



We also have a really good time doing our calendar.  We are learning the days of the week as well as working on the terms yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  At calendar time we practice our alphabet flashcards and counting to 20 forwards and backwards.  Best of all, someone is chosen as the meteorologist and gets to report the weather using the microphone!

The house projects we did last week were absolutely fabulous!  Everyone who came to visit our room was so impressed with our creativity!  Make sure to continue practicing your address with your child.

 

 

 

 

Another fun activity last week was our visit from the DENTIST!  Dr. Hollen from Southwest Kids Dentistry came by our room to teach us all about taking care of our teeth.

Brushing the alligator's teeth.  LOOK OUT!  That alligator can spit pretty far!





Flossing is very important because Sugar Bugs like to hide between our teeth.







 

  Doin' the Dentist Dance!

 

Finally,  we have finished individual activities with each letter of the alphabet.  We will continue to review letters and letter sounds as we begin learning how to put sounds together to make words!  It is so important that you read with and to your child every single day and also

 

 encourage them to find and read words on their own.

 

 







Five Senses Popcorn Party

This afternoon we used our five senses to explore popcorn as a culminating activity to our Five Senses Unit.  Such delicious fun!

Our popcorn chart.

 

How does it feel?

Tasting the popcorn.

This is so YUMMY!!

Thinking hard about how to describe the taste of popcorn.

We love popcorn!

Happy Monday!  We have a new friend in our classroom!  Meet Einstein!  Einstein is a short haired hamster.  We learned about being safe around his cage and NOT sticking our fingers in because he will think our fingers are carrots.  We also learned that hamsters are nocturnal animals.  We think it's pretty funny that he will be awake and playing while we are all sleeping tonight.

We had our first homework assignments over the weekend.  It is very important that your child has their homework folder every day and that their homework is completed and returned in that folder.  Over to the right side of your screen is a kindergarten homework button which will take you to the AMS site and my homework page.  Your student is also bringing home an agenda book today.  Homework is listed in the agenda for the week.  Please make sure to sign the sheet each day indicating that you and your child did the homework assignments.  Homework is due THE NEXT DAY unless otherwise indicated.   All homework assignments are review work for the day (what is in our curriculum and expected for kindergarten) and your child should be able to handle it.  If you are noticing a struggle let me know.  It is normal for them to need a lot of help right now but as the year goes on they will be more and more independent.

Follow this link to read an article on Separation Anxiety:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-14-school-anxiety_N.htm

We learned about how to use some of our Center Time math learning games this afternoon. 

Please check your child's backpack and homework folder.  There is math homework and a fun name art project to do over the weekend.  Both are due on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

We all survived our first day of Kindergarten!   Today we read two stories about the first day of school:

 





After reading First Day Jitters we made a class graph of how we felt about our first day of Kindergarten:

We also worked on our fine motor skills and letter matching for our names by matching clothes pins with letters on them to our name tags:





 



Be sure to ask about The Kissing Hand and your child's cute raccoon art project!