**WELCOME NEW KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS and FAMILIES!! I am so glad you are a part of our Irving School family. I was so happy to meet all of you. We are going to have a great year!
**Thanks to all of you who have signed up to assist at LUNCH for the next 3 weeks. The students are learning about the lunch routine and recycling milk cartons and paper trays. We are enjoying eating with our friends, Sophia and Jalin from Ms. Von Hagel's class. Please continue reinforcing--HOME LUNCH or SCHOOL LUNCH---MILK??---WHAT KIND?? Our parent volunteers and I are encouraging the students to eat their MAIN ENTRE first, whether it is sandwich, pizza, salad, yogurt, noodles etc. and then eating granola bars, pudding, chips etc. Thanks for sending good choices for lunch and snacks. I will always have either Veggie Straws or fruit on hand if your child forgets their snack. You can still help--just meet us on the playground at 11:45 am.
**The students have been using our awesome new schoolyard. They are learning about the how to safely use all the pieces of equipment. Our RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY on Wednesday morning was pretty cool. I was part of the original discussion over eight years ago to design a new playground. It is a great feeling to see it come to fruition.
**We had our first FIRE DRILL on Thursday. The students did well exiting from the building and following directions. The fire marshal was on hand to see how fast we were to exit the building.
**Please remember to send GYM SHOES and SOCKS everyday. Check your special schedule for Gym days.
**We were hot and sweaty, but we survived the heat and humidity this week. The students were real troopers!! Although the temperature and humidity will come down next week, you can continue to send a water bottle with your child.
** Don't forget to send a healthy snack each day.
**I am working on setting up our on line activities, SPELLING CITY, XTRAMATH, READING EGGS and some new activities. Currently, STARFALL.COM is up and running. Please stay tuned.
**Irving's Back to School Party/Movie is next Friday, September 6th from 5:30-9:00 pm. at Barrie Park.
**OPEN HOUSE/CURRICULUM NIGHT is Thursday, September 12th from 6:30-8:30 pm. More info is forthcoming.
**NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 2nd--Labor Day.
This week:
It was all about routines, expectations and meeting new people. Yes, I talked a lot!! Our daily special area schedule is slowly talking shape. The students met with their special area teachers. They are getting to know each other and fostering new friendships. The students learned how to earn an individual and class EAGLE SLIP as part of our school wide PBIS Behavior Initiative. Our Eagle Essentials are....Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe, Be Peaceful Everywhere.....and have FUN!
Reading: In our first week of school, the students began a 3 week prep in our Treasures Reading Series called Smart Start. This year District 97 will be joining with other Illinois school districts as well as other states nationwide in adopting the Common Core Standards of Learning. I will share information on this during Curriculum Night. Our Kindergarten Team is using Treasures along with other materials to ensure that each standard is taught and assessed. Students used their language skills by responding to a daily warm up question. They worked on their listening comprehension skills and making predictions and connections by listening and responding to the Big Book story, "Animals in the Park-An ABC Book." The students worked on identifying the sequence of sounds in the rhyme, "Hey Diddle Diddle." The students identified letters Aa, Bb. Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg and Hh and worked on sound recognition. The students were introduced to the sight words, I, am, yes, no and go. They learned to play the Hands Up, Hands Down Game to help reinforce letter recognition. The students learned what a character is in a story. They also worked on telling about where the story happened. (setting) The students read their first paper story called, "I Run." They began learning about using their pointing finger to read the word and picture. Exciting!!!!!
The students are also using the Haggerty Blue Book to assist in letter and sound recognition, rhyming, upper and lowercase recognition and how many words are in a given sentence.
Math: The students were introduce to calendar activities. Using a ten frame, the students will count and place a dot on the frame for each day they are in school. When we get to 100--PARTY!!!
Our problem of the day was about positional words. The students worked in small group workstations on"egg carton math," "number /picture match." and one to one correspondence frames to 5. They also learned to play the counting and number recognition game, "Got It" with a partner. The students also explored geo boards, pattern blocks, unifix cubes and simple plain shapes.
Writing: The students discussed what a school journal was and how to use it and what to put in it. They also began work on strengthening pencil grasp. They practiced writing their names. Students worked in their journal drawing and even trying to write a word or two. Most students were able to talk about the picture they drew in their journal entry.
Literature: "You're Finally Here," "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books," "Kindergarten Rocks," "Who Will Be My Teacher This Year?" "Curious George--First Day of School," "School Days Around the World," "In My World," "Wemberly Worried," "How Will I Get to School This Year?" "Hungry for Numbers."
