**The students are becoming more familiar with our daily routines and expectations of all of their teachers and classes. Lunch time is going well! The students are learning to eat their main entre first, clean up and recycle their milk carton and tray. A special shout out to our parent volunteers at lunch!! You have made a big difference! We are learning what popcorn chicken is as well as pizza dippers!
**We had our first FIRE DRILL today. Yes, the sound is very loud! The class did a great job of leaving the building in a quiet and orderly manner. The students participated in a follow up discussion about staying safe, following directions and not being afraid of the sound.
**NO SCHOOL-Monday, September 3rd for LABOR DAY observance.
**Please let me know if your child will be traveling at any time this year. I will send a TRAVEL JOURNAL with them so they can record their experiences and then share them with the class. We will then chart them on our United States and World maps.
**Our schedule is nearly complete. A hard copy is in your child's folder. It is also posted on the blog under specials schedule. All that is left to schedule is LEXIA, a computer based program that companions nicely with our Treasures Reading Series. This will be done after MAP testing of older students.
**The students have gone to LIBRARY this week, under the direction of Ms. Noonan. Ms. Noonan talked about how to handle books and how to use the resources in the library. She shared a cute slide show of Library Do's and Don'ts. The students will check out a book next week!
**The students will have their first Friendship Club with Ms. Bell-Bey next Friday from 8:45-9:15 am.
**Mr. Packer Math Enrichment will begin next Tuesday from 2:00-2:30 pm
**Next week, students will be given the DIBELS test along with PHONIC SCREENERS. These assessments will help in determining each students placement in our skill specific Route to Reading Groups. You will hear much more about this at Kindergarten Curriculum Night on September 20th from 6:00-7:00 pm in the Irving Auditorium. Adults only please.
**COME ONE, COME ALL to the Irving School Open House on Thursday, September 13th from 6:30-7:30 pm. Come meet all the teachers involved in your child's learning at Irving. Your child will be your tour guide!!
**Scholastic Book Order information is in your child's backpack. First order is due by September 12th.
**Spelling City is up and running. Information on access is in your child's backpack.
**The students learned about the process of earning Eagle Slips and also about how our whole class can earn Eagle Wings. This is part of our school wide PBIS behavior plan. We have already earned some!!
This week:
It was all about the students continued effort to feel comfortable with their daily school routine and meet all of their teachers for the year. It was also about ABC's everywhere! What do they look like? How do they sound? What does our mouth look like when we say them? Uppercase? Lowercase? What happens when we put letters together? The students experienced many activities surrounding the alphabet.
Reading/Social Studies: We are continuing to work on our prep to Treasures called START SMART. The students are focusing on letter sounds A-G. We are learning about imprinting sound and how our mouth looks when we make that sound. The students are using mirrors to really see what happens when they produce a sound. Is their mouth open or closed? Is there air coming out of their mouth? Is there a vibration in the throat? Lots to think about! The students are learning to work with me to create word webs on suggested topics. "What can we do in kindergarten? What can Hands do? How do we look? These exercises generate conversation and participation that stimulates oral vocabulary. The students continue to listen to rhyming patterns in words. They are learning to chant the ending. An example would be " bat, cat they end with at." The students worked on their sight vocabulary from last week and we played, "Hands Up, Hands Down." They also learned a new game called, "Walk Your Words." This week the students were introduced to their first story with words. The students are learning to track (point) to each word and picture and begin at the left when reading. The students listened to the big book story, "Hands Can." They made predictions about story content. The students also made connections in their own lives about what their hands can do. The story was reread and the students worked on story structure, story sequence and story details. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students continue work on letter naming, rhyming, blending, saying the beginning sound, segmenting and substituting sounds and telling how many words are in a sentence. Our workstations this week included matching uppercase to lowercase (Froggy, Froggy Where's your Home?), Sound matching (Little Red Riding Hood Activity), iPad acitivites-ABC Touch and Sound Sort and Sound Toy Bag Match--matching toys to their letter container.
Math: The students worked on a variety of number recognition activities including Egg Carton Math, Listen and Count and building Number Boards to reinforce concrete meaning of numbers in their workstations The students discussed what a pattern does--it repeats or starts over again. We continue to work on calendar and weather observation routines and observed our newly made AGE CHANGE GRAPH. Next week, we will have 1 student who will change their age!! The students explored face and digital clocks and components. We talked about time by the hour. The students reviewed positional words--ABOVE, BELOW, BETWEEN, IN THE MIDDLE.
Writing: The students are learning about the types of lines we use to form letters--straight, curved, slanted.
The students used these lines to create MAT MAN. We even learned a song about him. The students are using their journal prompts from our Treasures Series when drawing their pictures and beginning to write down words. Students are beginning to inventive or phonetic spelling. They may record the first letter they hear, the first and last letter or even place a vowel in spots. This is very acceptable. The students are using their knowledge of letter sounds to "spell" the word. The students began sentence mapping and written cloze activities this week.
Technology: The students have begun their training on iPad use. This year all kindergarten students will use the iPad as a tool to enhance and motivate their learning. This week, the students learned basic operation skills and care of this great tool. In reading workstations, all students explored the app--ABC Touch, while others explored the app Sound Sort with a partner.
Literature: "Oops!" "The Cat in the Hat." "Hands Are Not For Hitting," "Skippyjon Jones-Class Action," "The Mixed Up Alphabet," "Alphabet Mystery," "I Like Myself." "ABC, I Like Me," "How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?" "Curious George's First Day of School."
Friday, August 31, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
UPDATES for 8/22-24 2012
**Once again--WELCOME NEW KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS and FAMILIES!! I am so glad you are a part of the Irving school family. I was very happy to meet all of you. We are going to have a great year!
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at LUNCH for the next 3 weeks. The students are learning about the lunch routine and about recycling the paper products like trays and milk cartons. Because of our large class size, we now have 2 tables for our students to sit at. We can enjoy eating lunch with our friends Kaya and Emma from Ms. Von Hagel's class. Please keep reinforcing--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH?--MILK?--WHAT KIND? Our volunteers and myself are encouraging the students to eat their MAIN ENTRE first, whether it is a sandwich, salad, noodles etc. and then eating fruit, granola bars, pudding etc. Thanks for sending such good choices in their lunches and for snacks. I will always have either Veggie Straws or fruit on hand if your child forgets a snack.
**If you have not sent in head sets, don't worry about it. I was lucky enough to purchase lots from the Dollar Store. Our lab time for LEXIA READING, which is the computer companion to our Treasures Reading Series will be scheduled after MAP testing of older students. I will need 2 parent troubleshooters to help out in the lab. I am hoping to sign up for two-30minute periods twice a week in the afternoon. Stay tuned. LEXIA will also be available online for home use.
**I will be setting up SPELLING CITY, XTRAMATH and TREASURES online sites hopefully next week. These are skill building activities for your child to access at home. STARFALL.com is up and running. It is located on the left side of this blog under resources. Also check out the great sites on our Irving Parents Resource Wikispaces.com also located in resources.
**Please remember GYM SHOES and SOCKS on GYM DAYS. Check the specials schedule on left side.
**BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY was Friday, August 24th beginning at 5:30 pm at Barrie Par.k. I arrived later than expected but still enjoyed seeing many of my new students as well as old friends. Fun, Pizza, Band, Movie and Community!!!
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 3rd--Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines and expectations! Yes, I talked a lot! Our daily schedule is slowly taking shape. The students are meeting their special area teachers. We are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS and class EAGLE WINGS as part of our PBIS Behavior Initiative.
Reading: This week students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading Series called START SMART. The students are using their language skills by responding to a Daily Warm Up question. They worked on their listening comprehension and making predictions and connections by listening to the big book story, "Animals in the Park-An ABC Book." The students worked on identifying a sequence of sounds using the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle." We reviewed the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, and the sounds they make. The sight words, I, am, yes, no, can, red, blue were introduced. We learned how to play Hands Up, Hands Down game to help reinforce our new sight vocabulary. The students were introduced to a wordless pre-decodable story, "We Go to School." They took turns telling the about the pictures on each page. The students learned about book handling, locating the title, author's name, illustrator and making predictions about what they think the story is about using the title and cover pictures. We retold the story together as we looked at each page. Then the students partnered up and retold the story to each other. The students listened to a fable in our read aloud book. In the fable, "You are Beautiful as You Are," the students created a picture in their mind about what was happening. There were no pictures. They thought about what the lesson of the story might be and give their ideas. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students worked on recognizing rhyming words, segmenting words, adding and taking away word parts and counting how many words are in a specific sentence.
Math: The students were introduced to our calendar and weather chart routines. We are adding a number each day to our worm. When we get to 100--PARTY!!!! The students did an activity called "Partner Match," where they found a partner who had the same length of paper that they did. We compared the lengths and ranked them from shortest to longest. The students worked on recognizing numbers from 0-12, counting backward from10-0 and recognizing basic shapes. We learned to play, "Got It." During choice activity time, the students explored unifix cubes, pattern blocks, geo boards and gears. We worked on the positional words--top and bottom.
Writing: The students discussed what a school journal was. They used the writing prompts from our Treasures series, drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name. The students began to explore the types of lines used to make a letter.
Literature: "David Goes to School," "Wemberly Worried," "How Will I Get to School this Year," "Splat the Cat," "Muse Loves School," "Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches," "Kindergarten Rocks."
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to help at LUNCH for the next 3 weeks. The students are learning about the lunch routine and about recycling the paper products like trays and milk cartons. Because of our large class size, we now have 2 tables for our students to sit at. We can enjoy eating lunch with our friends Kaya and Emma from Ms. Von Hagel's class. Please keep reinforcing--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH?--MILK?--WHAT KIND? Our volunteers and myself are encouraging the students to eat their MAIN ENTRE first, whether it is a sandwich, salad, noodles etc. and then eating fruit, granola bars, pudding etc. Thanks for sending such good choices in their lunches and for snacks. I will always have either Veggie Straws or fruit on hand if your child forgets a snack.
**If you have not sent in head sets, don't worry about it. I was lucky enough to purchase lots from the Dollar Store. Our lab time for LEXIA READING, which is the computer companion to our Treasures Reading Series will be scheduled after MAP testing of older students. I will need 2 parent troubleshooters to help out in the lab. I am hoping to sign up for two-30minute periods twice a week in the afternoon. Stay tuned. LEXIA will also be available online for home use.
**I will be setting up SPELLING CITY, XTRAMATH and TREASURES online sites hopefully next week. These are skill building activities for your child to access at home. STARFALL.com is up and running. It is located on the left side of this blog under resources. Also check out the great sites on our Irving Parents Resource Wikispaces.com also located in resources.
**Please remember GYM SHOES and SOCKS on GYM DAYS. Check the specials schedule on left side.
**BACK TO SCHOOL PARTY was Friday, August 24th beginning at 5:30 pm at Barrie Par.k. I arrived later than expected but still enjoyed seeing many of my new students as well as old friends. Fun, Pizza, Band, Movie and Community!!!
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 3rd--Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines and expectations! Yes, I talked a lot! Our daily schedule is slowly taking shape. The students are meeting their special area teachers. We are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students learned how to earn EAGLE SLIPS and class EAGLE WINGS as part of our PBIS Behavior Initiative.
Reading: This week students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading Series called START SMART. The students are using their language skills by responding to a Daily Warm Up question. They worked on their listening comprehension and making predictions and connections by listening to the big book story, "Animals in the Park-An ABC Book." The students worked on identifying a sequence of sounds using the nursery rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle." We reviewed the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, and the sounds they make. The sight words, I, am, yes, no, can, red, blue were introduced. We learned how to play Hands Up, Hands Down game to help reinforce our new sight vocabulary. The students were introduced to a wordless pre-decodable story, "We Go to School." They took turns telling the about the pictures on each page. The students learned about book handling, locating the title, author's name, illustrator and making predictions about what they think the story is about using the title and cover pictures. We retold the story together as we looked at each page. Then the students partnered up and retold the story to each other. The students listened to a fable in our read aloud book. In the fable, "You are Beautiful as You Are," the students created a picture in their mind about what was happening. There were no pictures. They thought about what the lesson of the story might be and give their ideas. In our Haggerty Blue Book exercises, the students worked on recognizing rhyming words, segmenting words, adding and taking away word parts and counting how many words are in a specific sentence.
Math: The students were introduced to our calendar and weather chart routines. We are adding a number each day to our worm. When we get to 100--PARTY!!!! The students did an activity called "Partner Match," where they found a partner who had the same length of paper that they did. We compared the lengths and ranked them from shortest to longest. The students worked on recognizing numbers from 0-12, counting backward from10-0 and recognizing basic shapes. We learned to play, "Got It." During choice activity time, the students explored unifix cubes, pattern blocks, geo boards and gears. We worked on the positional words--top and bottom.
Writing: The students discussed what a school journal was. They used the writing prompts from our Treasures series, drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name. The students began to explore the types of lines used to make a letter.
Literature: "David Goes to School," "Wemberly Worried," "How Will I Get to School this Year," "Splat the Cat," "Muse Loves School," "Peanut Butter and Homework Sandwiches," "Kindergarten Rocks."
Thursday, August 16, 2012
SUMMER UPDATES August 2012
**Greetings... my soon to be first graders. Kindergarten is but a memory...a good memory!!! I can not believe the new school year is beginning. My summer went by so fast. I bet yours did too! I will be saying good bye to you and wish you well in your first grade class. I will be welcoming my brand new class of kindergarten students for 2012-2013. Here is our last IRVING GARDEN update. Thanks to all of you who have been coming to harvest the veggies and herbs. Please continue to do so. Our zucchini plants are still continuing to produce flowers so we will have more zucchini. Carrots and potatoes still need some growing time. There is quite a bit of basil, mint and sage. The chard and kale are in abundance and are so very tasty. I have been enjoying that. There are peppers (jalepino and ancho), cucumbers, zucchini, chives celery, parsley, onion and a few beans that can be harvested. Also, more baby egg plant will soon be ready. Have a great weekend! See you at lunch or in the halls! School is cool!!!!!
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