Our Easel is Open!

Hi Families,

Something new in our classroom this week is the opening of the painting easel. I think it's great for children to have access to paint for their own creative expression and exploration. On most days the easel is a choice for those who are interested during Explore Time. And just for fun, I read the class a book about elephants who paint! If you are interested, there is a kid-friendly event in Burlington this weekend to raise awareness on the peril of elephants and rhinos due poaching for ivory. A parent let me know that...

...a 7-grade student from Charlotte has been working hard to help organize events in order to help protect elephants and rhinos, killed for their ivory. She has planned Vermont’s first March for Elephants, scheduled for October 4th at 11:00 at City Hall in Burlington.  It will be part of a Global March for Elephants that involves over 130 cities around the world.

Here is a picture of the book and a sample painting from our room

September 24, 2015

Here is a great photo of young artists at work.  

"Painting a memory from the orchard"...

Ordering Scholastic Books on line!

In case you missed in a newsletter how easy it is to do your book orders on line here's a refresher and a live link! I will send October's selections home in the first week of the month,

About Scholastic Book Orders:

•    Every book you buy earns FREE Books for our classroom library

•    You can choose from handpicked, grade- and reading-level-specific books for your child

•    You'll find the best values on a variety of formats

Each month, your child will bring home Reading Club flyers. Together you can choose from books hand-selected by teachers and experts, and then order online

•     VISIT scholastic.com/readingclub

•     ENTER One Class Activation Code: PBYQP

•     SHOP from a carefully curated selection of the best books and value packs

•     SUBMIT your order and earn FREE Books for our classroom

Week of 9-14-15

Hi Families, 
I'm excited to share some photos with you from two exciting lessons last week.  After a discussion about two kinds of books "story books" and "learn-about-the-world-books", the children explored baskets of "learn-about-the-world-books" to see what they could learn". Using the reading strategy- we can look, we can think, we can read, we can learn.  The children learned so many new facts!  Of course at this time in the year the children are mostly "reading" pictures, but by checking the facts with an adult reader or even in some cases checking with words and letters on the page, everyone was empowered by how much information books had to offer.

Partner Game In Math

In Math this week we played a partner game to reinforce combinations that total five. Throughout the year we will use games to practice newly introduced concepts but with this being our first partner game session, we took some time before pairing off to talk about fair turn taking, careful use of materials, and being a good sport.  Here's a look at the game "Spill Five Dots".

Hi Families-

If you missed the paper copy of the newsletter in the folder, I've included it here. Also you can find the lastest copy of the The Core, Mr. T's newsletter linked to the Orchard site. Enjoy the long weekend!

September 4, 2015

Dear Room 35 Families,

It was a pleasure talking with many of you last night at Curriculum Night.  For those of you who weren’t able to make it, the packet we went over is in folders and I also enclosed the “parent suggestion” page that was accidentally left   This week we’ve continued to be mindful of our classroom rules- have a calm body, treat others with kindness and take care of our school.  The children are especially enjoying the morning movement breaks we do to get up and stretch after our meeting.  You can try asking your child about “winning the bronze medal” (aka motivated running in place) or “Super Scooper with Maximo” (slow and controlled breathing with big arm movements).  One thing you can do to assist your child with organization is ask them to explain their check-in routine to you.  It should include:

1. take their lunch/snack pack out of their backpack for easy access and place both in their cubby.
2. identify that they are here by placing their name tag by the appropriate lunch choice (home, main menu, sandwich, or salad bar)
3. understand the morning message and complete the job
4. find a table activity.

Literacy Learning

This week we completed our first class made book- a re-write of the traditional story/song “Down By The Bay”.  The children worked in pairs to come up with a rhyme that they could illustrate to make a page in the book.  We continued to work on our “All About Me” books which I think you will really enjoy reading when they come home.  Thursday’s page asked the children to identify something they didn’t know how to do when they were a baby, something they are really good at now, and what they imagine themselves doing when they are a grown-up,  Have I peaked your interest?  We’ve also worked on using handwriting lines, writing names with the first letter upper case and the rest lower, sequencing pictures, and had lots of fun with the story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.  Be sure to look for the little paper book Farm Friends that your child put together and practiced reading.  Another one to save at home for rereading!

Math Matters

Predicting and creating patterns, identifying characteristics for sorting writing numbers to ten, and accurate counting were all skills that we worked on in math this week.  The first 10-15 minutes of math each day consists of a routine called Number Corner in which we make pattern predictions using the calendar, keep track of the days in school, visualize quantities on five and ten frames and practice forward and backward counting.  You might try asking your child “now that you’ve been in school for nine days, how many more dots do you need to fill the ten frame?”.  When you think about it, there’s a lot of computation going on in a very visual and relavent way!

Important Reminders

1. Please help your child complete the homework from last week- the collage page for our class book.
2. If  you haven’t yet signed up to be listed in the school directory, visit the PTO website and click on the directory form tab to do so.
3. There is no school on Monday for Labor Day.  
4. Homework this week is an upper and lower case letter match page.  Do not expect your child to know them all! We are working on it. Just talking about the fact that there is an upper and lowercase way to write every letter is helpful.  

Have a great weekend,

Newletter 8/28/15

In case you didn't catch the hard copy of the first newsletter here it is on the blog.

8/28/15

Dear Room 35 Families,

It’s been an amazing first week in Kindergarten!   We are enjoying getting to know each other through name games, structured activities and open ended play times.  As you know, the first six weeks of school are largely about establishing routines, learning to use materials and getting comfortable with the group. To those ends we spent some time at the end of the week collaboratively creating our “Rainbow Rule”. That’s what we are calling our overarching rule that covers all expectations for classroom behavior.  Rather than saying specifics such as “no grabbing” or “no yelling”, we decided to say “in Kindergarten we have calm bodies, treat each other with kindness and take care of our school”. (This is not-so-coincidentally a reflection of Orchard School’s core values: respect yourself, others and the environment).  The children worked on a rainbow mural that with display our rule all year long.  Surrounding the rainbow are individual clouds on which each child stated his or her hope for the year.  Deep thoughts for the first few days of school!

 

Literacy Learning

One item to come home in the folder today is a paper version of Eric Carle and Bill Martin Jr.’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?.  It is the first of many “made books” to make it’s way home from the classroom and I cannot stress enough how valuable these predictable texts with high frequency words are in the life of a beginning reader. I strongly encourage you to save them in a shoebox or other accessible container for your child’s frequent re-reading.  Other literacy ideas we focused on this week include rhyming, the concept of uppercase/lowercase and of course what it looks like to be a good listener!  You can try asking your child what it means to “give me five” in the classroom.  (1. Eyes on the speaker 2. Ears listening 3. Voice off 4. Sitting flat 5. Hands in lap).

Math Matters

This week I introduced the children to the basics of Number Corner which is what we call our daily practice that incorporates calendar skills, pattern predicting, counting, and computation into a predictable routine.  You can try asking your child how many links are in the “days in school chain”.  The class has explored open ended math materials such as pattern blocks, unifix cubes, polydrons and geoboards.  It’s been exciting to see the different ways in which the children design and create.  We have discussed what makes a pattern (a discussion that will continue) and done several whole group activities that focus on sorting according to a particular attribute.

Important Info and Reminders

1. If you haven’t returned beginning of the year paperwork, please do so!
2. Reminder to please send a LABELED change of clothes to keep in your child’s cubby- just in case!
3. A word about recycling...often you will find a drawing that your child has made come home on the back of a recycled paper.  This is just one small way we can demonstrate the importance of reusing while at the same time allowing children access to LOTS of paper for drawing, writing and more!
4. If you have any old children’s magazines at home that you can donate to our class for various activities, I’d be grateful!

Homework

Most weeks I do assign homework- usually in the form of activities for you to do with your child.  I have found that this is one way for you to see the progress your child is making, stay informed about our themes, and model great homework habits such as reading the directions, making sure to make time, and handing things in on time.  The homework will always come home on Fridays and you can feel free to send it in ANY day the following week (Monday-Friday).  This week, the blank piece of cardstock stapled to this letter is for the homework!   Please work with your child to create a collage all about themselves. It can include family photos, magazine clippings, drawings, stickers that show your child’s unique interests, words, and anything else that may help the class get to know your child and their life outside of school.  These pages will be laminated and turned into a classroom book so please be sure any photos you include are okay to remain in the classroom all year.

Thank you so much for all you’ve done to welcome me to Orchard School and to insure that your child had a smooth start to Kindergarten!  

Have a great weekend,

Curriculum Night

Tonight is curriculum night! 

For Kindergarten families it's from 6-6:30 right in the classroom.  Hope to see you there