Fire Safety

On Wednesday, we were lucky enough to have Firefighter Jim and Firefighter Joe from the Hinesburg Fire Department join us to talk about fire safety. They shared what to do if there is a fire in our home and we were able to see all of the important tools on a fire truck. The firefighters encouraged us all to make sure we have a Fire Plan at home with our families. If you have not already discussed what to do in the case of an emergency at your home, please do this with your kindergartner!

Emergent Storybook Reading

Literacy instruction in kindergarten takes many different forms. We learn about words, letters, and sounds during phonics time. We also spend time explore phonological awareness concepts, including rhyming, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Reader's Workshop is time during our day when we practice the habits of good readers, learn about early literacy concepts, and practice beginning reading strategies. One way that we begin to be "readers" is by practicing with emergent storybooks. These emergent storybooks are well-loved children's books that are familiar narrative stories. I choose a book to read every day for the week, in the hopes that, by the end of the week, children are very familiar with the story sequence and language. At this point, most children can retell the story in their own words, remembering key details and story-specific language. Children are always so proud of themselves, and, although they are not actually
"reading" the words, they are developing important understandings of story structure and oral retelling. Some of the emergent storybooks we've read so far this year are: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I Lost My Bear, Lucky Leaf, Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come, and Mouse Paint. Please enjoy the video of Kaleb "reading" Mouse Paint and remember to ask your child if he or she can "read" some of his or her favorites at bedtime to you!

Writing in Kindergarten

Kindergarten is a year full of incredible growth and learning on a child's part. Most children begin the year with some understanding of letters and sounds. Most are able to recognize and print their name, listen attentively to a story, and retell some details from that story. Many children have some experience with writing letters and "scribbles" to represent print. Because of all of these amazing things that kindergartners are able to do, writing time is always one of my favorite parts of the school day. Children make amazing connections between their ability to tell stories and record them on paper, using whatever form of print that they can, from scribbles, to letters, to writing complete sentences. Most of the early lessons during Writer's Workshop have focused on the core idea that writers think of something that has happened in their life, and then draw and write about that story. I was so amazed that, even on the very first day of Writer's Workshop, every single child was able to think of a story and draw a picture to represent that story. Some children were even able to add some sort of print to their story!

Writers hard at work!

We have also worked on telling our stories to a partner and adding letters and words to tell our story.

Evie adds words to her story.

Mia works on labeling her drawing.

Another form of writing instruction that happens in our classroom is interactive writing. This usually takes place during Morning Meeting. Most mornings, I ask children to help me write the daily note on the easel. We work together to stretch words out and listen for initial, middle, and ending sounds. Sometimes, we even "share the pen" and students help add the appropriate letter or punctuation mark. During this writing time, we focus on word awareness, voice-to-print matching, and letter sounds, as well as capitalization and punctuation. The children seem to really enjoy this form of writing, and I am seeing the skills learned during interactive writing applied to their writing during independent writing time.

Alaina shares the pen and adds to our Morning Message.

Thursday's Morning Message.

If you ever have time at home, you can write interactively with your child, too! Try having them help you stretch out the words you are writing on your grocery list or in a note to Grandma and Grandpa! You will be amazed at all that they are able to do!

Patterns, Patterns Everywhere!

We are currently spending a great deal of time during our Math block exploring and building patterns. Today, we noticed we could make patterns at many of our workstations. We are finding patterns in our classroom and school all around us!

Kaleb built a pattern at the Polydron station.

Danica and Ben copy and expand patterns at the Unifix Cube station.

Kate records her pattern.

Mia built a pattern out of pattern blocks!

Our calendar pattern for October....Can you see what it is?

Even our counting tape is in a pattern!

Anna built a pattern on the geoboards.

 Jora explains her pattern and how she would label it (sorry the video is sideways...I can't figure out how to rotate it...it is still super cute!)

 

Jora labeled her pattern with letters...an "ABCD" pattern.

Apple Pizzas!

We have spent time the last two weeks learning about fall and some of the changes that take place during this season. We also explored apples, a yummy and nutritious fall treat. On Friday, we made Apple Pizzas to enjoy as a culmination of our unit. We talked about what it means to follow this recipe as we made our snack:

Apple Pizza

Ingredients: 

1 package of Buttermilk Biscuits (10 count)

2-3 apples, peeled and sliced thinly

Butter

Brown Sugar

Cinnamon Sugar

1.) Flatten out the biscuits with your hands and place them on a greased cookie sheet.

2.) Butter the top of the flattened biscuits.

3.) Place the apple slices on top of the buttered biscuits.

4.) Sprinkle brown sugar on top.

5.) Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top.

6.) Bake in the oven for the recommended time as seen on the biscuit package.

7.) ENJOY!

Here are a few pictures of our first cooking experience of the year:

Kindergarten chefs hard at work!

Apple Pizzas ready to go into the oven!

Ready for a taste.

Some of us liked the apple pizzas, some of us did not!

Mark Your Calendars!

It was so wonderful to see so many families at Open House on Wednesday evening! The children were SO proud to show you where they spend so much of their time these days and I hope you have a better understanding of some of the things that we do in our classroom.

There are a number of important dates coming up that I would like you all to be aware of. Next week will begin our two week study of colors. To support this unit, we have a color of the day and ask that, if possible, children come to school dressed in that color. The schedule is as follows:

Monday 10/8: RED Day

Tuesday 10/9: ORANGE Day

Wednesday 10/10: YELLOW Day

Thursday 10/11: GREEN Day

Friday 10/12: BLUE Day

Monday 10/15: PURPLE Day

Tuesday 10/16: BLACK Day

Wednesday 10/17: BROWN Day

Thursday 10/18: RAINBOW Day

Friday 10/19: NO SCHOOL

This unit is always a lot of fun and we hope your child can participate in the excitement by dressing in the color of the day each day! 

Some other important upcoming events:

The volunteer schedule begins on Monday, October 8th. I look forward to working with each of you and so appreciate your time and support!

Tuesday, October 16th: Kindergarten Sharing of their Butterfly Project from Music Class! 

1:45 to 2:30 PM in the Gym

Friday, October 19th: NO SCHOOL

 

Monday, October 22nd: Field Trip to the Flynn Theater

(***More information to follow soon about both of these events!***)

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

We continue to be hard at work in our classroom! We are settling into the routine of the day and are focusing on learning the skills and habits of good readers, writers, mathematicians, and friends. Some of the highlights from the last couple of weeks include:

• A practice lock down drill (we lock our classroom door and go into the bathroom in case of an emergency).
• A poetry performance from some CVU Public Speaking students.
• Learning to "read" familiar texts by remembering how the story goes.
• Making Apple Pizzas!
• A Four Winds lesson from Mrs. Frazier and Mrs. Roberts all about spiders!
• Learning how to use the "shelf markers" in the Library, so we can choose books from the shelves.
• Learning about sorting and grouping objects that have similar characteristics or attributes.
• Having two guest teachers (Mrs. Murray and Mrs. Bostwick) and doing a FABULOUS job for them both!

I would like to highlight the Four Winds lesson that took place this past week. Four Winds is a hands-on science program that is run by parent volunteers at our school. Each year, there is a theme and a monthly lesson to support this theme. This year, we will focus on "Patterns" and our first lesson was all about spiders. What a perfect time of year to learn about these little creatures! Mrs. Frazier (Pat's mom) and Mrs. Roberts (Kate's mom) joined us to perform a puppet show filled with interesting facts about spiders and we then engaged in several activities to learn about spiders and why they are so important. I think everyone (including me!) learned a lot and had fun! Please enjoy the pictures of our time together here:

The puppet show! Did you know spiders are NOT insects?

Vivian examines one of the spiders that our volunteers caught.

I wouldn't want to meet this spider in my basement!!!

A jumping spider.

 

Working in a small group to build a spider from felt.

Our special spider rings!

 Thank you so much to Mrs. Frazier and Mrs. Roberts for preparing this wonderful morning of hands-on fun!