Week 3/4!

Week Three/Four

We are finally to the point where the kids know the routines that I have taught them! It’s a great feeling! They are doing so well. There is still a lot to learn but we are off to a great start!

Last week’s focus letter was M. This week we are working on the letter B and next week’s letter is S. We have learned the sight words A, I, see, the, this, and is. Please practice as much as you can at home! Next week, I am introducing the sight words me and our. We will also begin working with color words during writing time.

There has been a lot of focus on beginning sounds.  Soon I will be pulling reading groups to start working on sorting beginning sounds!This is such an important skill for developing readers to learn.  The children are also very excited about the new addition to our room…. A coconut tree! After reading the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, the coconut tree from the story showed up in our room! It is now a new classroom job to be the gardener and water the plant each day.

We also started our first Science unit.  To introduce the Five Senses we did an activity with popcorn! The children pretended to hear the popcorn popping, they smelled it,looked at, felt it and finally tasted it! We also made an anchor chart to show the senses that we used to learn about the popcorn.The kids loved the lesson...especially the part where we got to eat the popcorn. Each child has a Science journal. These will go home after we complete the unit.



In Math, we have been doing a great deal of counting, patterning and sorting activities. There are great activities in the math homework book that went home to help reinforce these skills! Please use these books! They are a wonderful resource! I'll beguin assessing the children on AB patterns, counting 1-15 and sorting next week. We have also been creating graphs and working with tens frames.  Another Math activity that we are doing is creating number posters.These posters help us see that numbers can be shown in many different ways.

Roll and Graph!





Check out next weeks NEW centers...



Letter Salad! The kids use tongs to find letters and write the letters that they find!



Counting Beads! The kids choose a pipe cleaner with a number on it. If the number is 10 then they count ten beads and put them on the pipe cleaner. It's also great for fine motor skills!

If your child’s mode of transportation changes please send me a note in the D.O.G binder. Notifying latchkey is not enough. Thank you!

I'll try to take more pictures of the kids next week! Keep checking the blog for updates!

Week Two Update

Week Two Update

Everything has been going fantastic in our class! We are still working on learning routines, centers, and working on what school behavior looks like.  I have been slowy introducing our five Literacy Centers (Daily 5). They are Read to Self, Read to Partner, Listen to Reading (Computer), Writing and Word Work. One center that we have been working hard on  is our “Read to Self” center. During this center, the children can sit anywhere in the whole room and read a book to themselves. We talked about and practiced finding a spot, reading the whole time (so that we can build our stamina) and reading one of three ways. They can read the pictures, read the words or retell a previously read book. I also allow them to use “phones” while reading and sight word sticks. A sight word stick is just a popsicle stick with a sight word on it. They chose a stick then read the book while hunting for the word. They try to see how many times they can spot the word!  We will learn how to do the Listen to Reading center and Read with a Partner center this week!

In Math, we did a fun activity with goldfish! I gave each child a zip lock bag with 10 goldfish cracker inside. They had to count them one at a time and put them in line on the table. Then, a SHARK would come and gobble up the last goldfish in line. I would ask how many were left , they would tell me and then would check their answer by counting the fish. They LOVED it! It helped us work on counting, couting down, one-to-one correspondence and listening to oral directions. We also learned some new math centers this week.... sorting shells by attributes and counting.  

Sorting and Exploration



Counting, number identification, one-to-one correspondence



We will learn how to do this Domino Parking Lot Center
 this week!

We are working on the letter M this week. Our sight words will be the and is.  I put the preprimer sight word list as well as a alphabet chart in your child's D.O.G Binder. Please begin practicing a few words and a time. If your child does not know his/her letters and letter sounds please take 5 minutes and practice every evening!

Book-in-a-Bag Homework goes home this week for the first time! I'm so excited for the children to read to you! Math Homework will also go home this week.

Please make sure to send in your family photo and the All About Me poster!

On another note, apparently my phone is still having issues. I'll let you know when it is working properly. E-mail me in the mean time!

My goal is to create a blog update AT LEAST every other week but I will most likely update it more often. Enjoy!

Special this week:

M- PM ART

Tu-AM MUSIC

W-PM P.E.

Th-AM ART

F-PM MUSIC

Have a great week!

Mrs. Seegert

Week One!

Week One

      The first week of Kindergarten has been wonderful! I’ve enjoyed getting to know the children. We started off learning the daily routines and expectations. It will take some time but soon the children will know exactly what to do and when to do it. 

     Our first lesson was an “I AM SPECIAL lesson. To introduce this topic, I placed a mirror in a cardboard box with a small flap cut in the lid. I told the children to pass the box around and look inside the box to see THE MOST SPECIAL THING IN THE WHOLE WORLD… themselves! We then made a paper craft to go along with the lesson. They are now hanging up in our room.

 

     In math we have been learning about the calendar, exploring pattern blocks and AB patterns. We even made AB pattern fish for our hallway bulletin board! 

     Any worksheets that have gone home so far, have been morning work. They are just practice sheets. If they didn’t finish it, feel free to have your child finish it at home. 

We have also been learning some great educational songs by Dr. Jean. We start our day off with the Good Morning (rise and shine) song. This is my chance to greet all the children and welcome them to school. In math, we sing the Days of the Week song and the Months of the Year song. As a body break we enjoy the “Lettercise” song. This song works on letter sounds while getting us up and moving! I use many songs in my classroom to help teach and reinforce skills. I may even record them singing some of these songs and post them on the blog…once we know all the lyrics;) 

After a hard day of work, we take some time to work on making friends, social skills, fine motor skills, and problem solving skills by playing in our Developmental Centers! The children have a blast! The rice table and blocks are very popular! 

On another note, my phone has been down all week. It should be up and running by Friday. If you have called me, I have not received the message and I apologize.

If your child’s regular mode of afternoon transportation changes please send in a note. Place it in the front pouch of the D.O.G binder where I can easily see it. Each morning I quickly open each binder to check for any money, notes, returning work, or other important information. 

This will be a great year! Thanks for checking out the blog! Come back soon!

Thank you,

Mrs. Seegert