Week Eleven: October 23rd-27th

Hello kindergarten families! I am excited that it is finally feeling like fall! We had a fun week that included Pumpkin Carving with Dad/Mom/Grandpa!  Thank you to all who took the time to come and have fun with your child.  We have two more field trips coming up (Charlotte Children's Theatre and the Raptor Center) that will be a lot of fun!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:45 AM: Please have your child come dressed in their costume to school.  Their costume should be a fictional book character and they need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  They can bring a change of clothes for after the parade. Kindergarten parents have been asked to stand in the elementary gym to watch us parade through.  Please stay for the entire duration of the parade to see all grades come through. 
November 7th 9:30 AM Children's Theatre Field Trip: We will be seeing the play "Snowy Day."  A sign up genius was sent out this morning for chaperones.  We only have 8 tickets and I will pull names from a hat if we have more than 8 parents interested.  Parents will need to drive themselves and their child to meet us at the theatre uptown Charlotte at 9:30 AM.  You can take your child home with you after the play.  Chaperones tickets cost $8 and money will need to be turned into me ahead of the field trip. No siblings please.  We are excited to have you! :) 
November 10th: No school...Happy Veteran's Day!
November 15th Raptor Center Field Trip 8:45 AM: We *think* we can have as many chaperones attend as wanted.  I will let you know ASAP as we get more information.  Once again, if you chaperone you will need to drive yourself and your child to meet us there.  Mark this on your calendar if you will want to go! It will be a full day field trip.

Math

This week in math we learned a new game called Ten Frame War!  Two students play together and divide a stack of ten frame cards.  Some students played with ten frames up to 10 and some played with two ten frames with numbers up to 20.  The students would say "1, 2, 3, WAR!" and they would each flip over one card.  They had count how many dots were on the card (we want them moving away from counting dots 1 by 1 and move to counting in groups and counting on) and then whoever had more dots got to take both cards.  Students had to say their number out loud so we knew they had correctly counted the dots.  This is a fun game that you can easily make and play at home! A few of the concept that this game works on is quickly being able to count the number of dots in a ten frame, counting on, and addition.

 

Literacy

In literacy this week we rotated through centers that practiced letters, sounds, sight words, and reading.  Some centers remain the same every week and we change out the letters/words and then we also add in some new centers each week.  Most all are games and activities that are practicing skills that are the foundation for reading.  I also pulled my first guided reading group for students that are already reading.  This allows me to begin teaching reading strategies to help with decoding.   Continue practicing the sound song at home with your child so that they become 100% confident with all of their sounds! 

Thematic

In thematic centers this week, we finished studying spiders and moved onto bats!  We have learned many neat facts about bats!  Students have rotated through two bat centers so far and our Sci-Fri today also involves bats!
1. Students created their own bat out of paper that they can fly through the air!  Students had to cut, glue, and follow specific directions to make the bat correctly.  These were really fun!
2. Students created a torn paper bat! They first had to trace a bat and then tear black paper into little pieces to glue on.  Tearing paper into small pieces is really good for their fine motor skills!  We love to do "torn paper" activities in kindergarten.

Science

We learned that in a dark cave, bats cannot see to find their babies.  They use their sense of smell to locate their babies.  We will place 5 paper bats around the room with a cotton ball attached to it.  Each cotton ball has a different scent to it (peppermint, vanilla, lavender, lemon, and tea tree oil).  Each student has a cotton ball of their own that has a scent in it.  They will walk around the room and smell each bat cotton ball to determine which matches their own.  Once they find it, they will stay there because that is their "bat family" they belong to.   

Love,
Mrs. James 💗

Week Ten: October 16th-20th

Happy Friday! It was so great to see many of you last night at the CSD Kickball Festival!  It's always fun seeing students outside of the classroom and school setting. :) We had a great week including our first field trip to the farm!

REMINDERS:

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: This is a great opportunity to get dad's involved in our classroom!  If Dad cannot come, we would love for a grandfather, uncle, or mom to come! Please bring your own pumpkin for your child and carving tools (safely wrapped up).  You can send in the pumpkin Monday or bring it with you Tuesday.  This will be held in our classroom.

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  They will parade through the hallways so you can see them! More details to come on the parade route.
November 7th 9:30 AM Children's Theatre Field Trip: We will be seeing the play "Snowy Day."  More information to come on chaperones.  We have limited spots for this field trip and I will know an exact number as we get closer.  If you would like to attend, mark it on your calendar just in case and I will send out a sign up in the next few weeks.
*Tentative* November 15th Raptor Center Field Trip 8:45 AM: We are still waiting to see if they can take us this day.  More info to come! 

Math

This week we focused on "counting on" and ten frames!  Counting on is a very important skill learned in kindergarten that is a foundational skill for addition and subtraction.  We are also doing more work with ten frames because this is also a foundational skill and tool that we use for addition and subtraction.  The students did so well with the ten frames yesterday! They got to practice the by painting with Q-tips and filling in the ten frames. 

Literacy

This week we studied Daxx's name and learned how to form each letter.  We learned how many letters, vowels, consonants, and syllables are in his name.  We have had lots of practice with our lowercase "a" which we make using "Magic C."  Ask your child to show you "Magic C" and how we use it to make the letter "a" and many other letters!  We did different activities each day to practice Daxx's name.  Students also rotated through our literacy stations practicing letters, sounds, multiple levels of sight words, and reading!  

Thematic

We began our unit on "Creepy Crawlies" this week!  We will study spiders, bats, snakes, and insects! We began with spiders.  We created a "KWL" chart as a class on spiders.  The "K" stands for what we know, the "W" stands for what we want to know, and the "L" stands for what we learned.  Every child has completed two centers for spiders so far.
1. Spaghetti spider web: students used cooked spaghetti, glue, and glitter to make their own spider web!
2. Spider cookies: students learned about the body parts of a spider and made their own spider cookie using glutino oreo cookies, pretzel sticks, and candy eye balls.  This one was a hit for sure!  We try to incorporate baking and food creations often! 

Science

Michael Colvard, Joshua's dad, is coming in today for our Sci-Fri!  He is doing a lesson on crickets since we are studying creepy crawlies.  Thank you Michael! 

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James

Week Eight: October 2nd-6th

Happy Friday! It's hard to believe we are in the month of October already!  The kids are loving the Halloween and fall themed books that we have available around the classroom. :) We are excited to see you all next Wednesday for our Fairy Tale Play!

October 11th 10:00 AM Fairy Tale Play: Come and see our fairy tale play about the 3 Little Pigs, the 3 Bears, and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff!  This will be in our classroom with refreshments to follow.
October 12th and 13th: No school....Optional Parent Conferences
October 18th Field Trip to Aw Shucks Farm: Children need to be at school by 8:00 AM.  We are loading the bus and leaving the school at 8:15 AM to head to the farm.  They need to have a lunch packed and water bottle because we will eat lunch there.  Normal lunch boxes are fine.  Comfortable clothes and tennis shoes!  Chaperones please meet us there with your child at 9:30.  The program starts at 10:00 AM.  Chaperones will need to pay $8.50 for their ticket upon arrival.
October 19th: CSD Festival and Kickball Tournament 4:00-8:00 PM

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: This is a great opportunity to get dad's involved in our classroom!  If Dad cannot come, we would love for a grandfather or uncle to come! Please bring your own pumpkin for your child and carving tools (safely wrapped up).

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30/8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  

Math Workshop:

We had a great week in math workshop!  We keep the same math tubs/games open for the students to go and play for about 2-3 weeks at a time.  The purpose of this is that they become "pro's" at the game and in turn master the skill that is involved.  I have all of the games on a rotation so usually there is one or two new games introduced per week since there at 8 centers total.  The skills that we are working on include counting to 100 by ones and tens, one-to-one correspondence, and counting on.

Literacy (reading and writing)

During literacy this week, all students learned how to write the letter "R" properly using a big line, little line, and little curve.  We continued working on learning our sounds and how to blend them together when trying to read a word.  I teach them to say each little sound that they see and them then put all of the sounds back together to see if they can decode the word.  We teach them the same thing for writing.  When attempting to write a word, I tell them to say the word and put down each letter sound that they hear.  For example the word "apple" may look like this when they attempt to write it: "apl" because that is how it is written phonetically.  They have not learned about doubling the "p" or adding a "silent e" on the end yet.  We just want them writing down what they hear and their writing will progress over time as they learn the grammar rules of the English language.  We wrote short stories this week during writer's workshop!

Thematic:

This week we practiced our play during thematic center time.  The students are doing great and are excited to share it with you!  We also did an activity using kidney beans, black beans, and great northern beans and they got to create their own bear!  They used glue and beans to create their own "fur" on the bear.  

Science:

Today we are doing an experiment about the blending of colors!  We have 5 different sets of colors (red+white, green+yellow, purple+blue, black+white, and blue+green) and the students predicted what each one would turn to when mixed together.   We recorded our observations and findings onto a chart.  A major component of science is them understanding how to record information on a chart/graph so we try to do this with every experiment!

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James

Week Seven: September 25th-29th

Happy Friday!  I hope you all had a great week.  I can't believe it is almost October!  We have so many fun activities in October that we are excited for! Be sure to mark your calendar for the following dates:
October 4th: Walk to School Day! Meet at the Roosevelt Wilson Park playground at 7:30 and walk to school with other classmates!

October 11th 10:00 AM Fairy Tale Play: Come and see our fairy tale play about the 3 Little Pigs, the 3 Bears, and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff!  This will be in our classroom with refreshments to follow.
October 12th and 13th: No school....Optional Parent Conferences
October 18th Field Trip to Aw Shucks Farm: Come on our first field trip with us to the farm!  More information to come about chaperones.  We are checking on how many chaperones we can have attend.  If you are a chaperone, you will need to drive yourself and your child and meet us at Aw Shucks Farm because of limited space on the bus.  
October 19th: CSD Festival and Kickball Tournament 4:00-8:00 PM

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: Students will bring their own pumpkin and get to carve it!  We love for Dad's to come to this but it is totally okay if you can't!  If Dad cannot come, a grandfather, uncle, mom, or aunt is welcome to come! Please bring your own carving tools.

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30/8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  

Math Workshop:

       

        
This week in math we continued to focus on the numbers 11-20 and also learned about "counting on."  Counting on is when you start counting at a number other than zero.  This is such an important skill that will help them when learning to add numbers!  We practiced this by using dominos.  The student would count the dots on one side of the domino and then put that number in their head.  They would then "count on" the amount of dots on the other side of the domino.  For example, a domino has 5 dots on one side and 3 dots on the other side.  They would count the 5 dots and put that in their head and then "count on" the other dots and say "6, 7, 8."  Dominos are a GREAT and easy way to practice this skill at home!  We used dominos that added all the way up to 20 to differentiate for the various levels in our classroom.

Reader's Workshop:

 

This week in reader's workshop, we focused on letter identification, letter sounds, matching upper case and lower case letters, writing letters, and sight words.  As students were rotating through the different centers, I was pulling small groups to work with children on letters, sounds, or reading.   I typically introduce one or two new activities into our centers each week.  Lila was our Marvelous Me for this week and we learned all about her and how to write her name!  Above are the activities that we did to practice. 

Thematic Centers:

We finished learning about the Three Billy Goats Gruff this week and finished up the centers from last week including marshmallow bridge building, torn paper trolls, troll grass heads, and a mini book!  We have also been practicing our play during this time and the kids are doing great! They are very excited to share it with you. :)

Science:

Kerri Barnett, a previous mom of a student in my class, volunteered to do our Sci-Fri this week!  She is going to do an experiment on different materials dissolving and will tie it into Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and their porridge. :) 

Love,
Mrs. James

Week Five: September 11th-15th

Happy Friday! In kindergarten, we had a week full of learning, fun, and a few new things!  We had Book Buddies with Mrs. Godwin's 2nd grade class for the first time!  Our kids LOVED it!  Each child has one or two book buddies who they get to read with each week!  We have book buddies every Thursday from 8:30-9:00 AM.  Yesterday, the students got to meet each other and ask "get to know you" questions.  They also got to read books together!

September 18th: CSD Community Support Cards due!  These were given to you at Covenant Conferences.
September 21st and 22nd: No school!
September 28th: Our first class walk to the park!  Come join us and walk to the park with our class. :) A sign-up will come the Friday before.

October 11th 10:00 AM Fairy Tale Play: Come and see our fairy tale play about the 3 Little Pigs, the 3 Bears, and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff!  This will be in our classroom with refreshments to follow.

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: Students will bring their own pumpkin and get to carve it!  We love for Dad's to come to this but it is totally okay if you can't!  If Dad cannot come, a grandfather, uncle, mom, or aunt is welcome to come! 

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30/8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  

Math Workshop:

This week in math we focused on learning to read the numbers 10-30.  We mainly focused on the numbers 11-19 because those are more difficult to remember the names of.  We then practiced the numbers 20-29 and learned that when a "2" is the first number you see, you say "twenty" and then the next number that comes after it.  We played a familiar game called "Roll and Record" but instead of just doing the numbers 1-6, we went all the way up to 12.  We have these cool dice that have 12 sides and the kids loved rolling them and recording what they got.  This was a good way to practice learning to read the numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 that are not normally on a die. 

Reader's Workshop:

Above are pictures from our reader's workshop time!  Some involve working on letters and sounds while others work on sight words.  We are working towards all students knowing their letters and sounds so that we can begin blending the sounds together when reading!  Here is the link to the song that we practice multiple times a week to learn the sounds!  We would love for you to practice at home with your children also. :)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3S3OX6HQm4

In HWOT this week, we learned the letters P and B!  We learned that we used a long line and a small curve to make a P and a long line and two small curves to make a B.  Below are the activities that we did to practice Aria's name this week for Marvelous Me. 

                                      Bumpy Writing                             Pokey Names

                                     Playdough Snakes                          Playdough Names

Thematic Centers: 

We finished up our centers on The Three Little Pigs and began our centers on Goldilocks and The Three Bears!  We have already read multiple different versions this week and will continue to next week.  Below are the four centers that the students are rotating through:

1. Story sequencing: We are working on the concept of a story having a beginning, middle and an end  The students have to cut, order, glue, and color the pictures of the story.

2. Puppet making: Students cut and color finger puppets for the characters in the story and then act out the story with their friends!

3. Mini-book: Students illustrate each page of the book based on what is happening in the story and have to copy the words "big" "medium" and "little" onto different pages in the book.

4. Goldilocks "Wanted" poster: Students create their own "Wanted" poster for Goldilocks.  They illustrate a picture of her and also get to come up with their own "reward money" amount.

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Mrs. James 

Week Four: September 5th-8th

Good afternoon kindergarten families!  We had a great short week together and learned many new things.  Read below to find out what we learned in each subject and also for some important dates and announcements.

September 13th 10:45-11:15 AM "Kindergarten Chat": with Joy about the future plans of CSD.  In Mrs. Robinson's room (room 112)
September 15th: CSD Community Support Cards due!  These were given to you at Covenant Conferences.
September 21st and 22nd: No school!
September 28th: Our first class walk to the park!  Come join us and walk to the park with our class. :) A sign-up will come the Friday before.

October 11th 10:00 AM Fairy Tale Play: Come and see our fairy tale play about the 3 Little Pigs, the 3 Bears, and the 3 Billy Goats Gruff!  This will be in our classroom with refreshments to follow.

October 24th 1:00 PM Pumpkin Carving with Dad: Students will bring their own pumpkin and get to carve it!  We love for Dad's to come to this but it is totally okay if you can't!  If Dad cannot come, a grandfather, uncle, mom, or aunt is welcome to come! 

October 31st Parade of Fiction 8:30/8:45 AM: Students get to dress up as their favorite fictional book character!  Children will need to have the book (his/her character is from) with them to carry in the parade.  No scary costumes and no weapons of any kind (guns, swords, knives, bow and arrow, etc.)  

Math Workshop

This week during math we continued to focus on counting!  I introduced two new games into our math workshop tubs.  One is called Roll and Record and the other is called the 123 Game.  When students play Roll and Record, they roll a die and color in the corresponding number on their graph. They continue to roll and color until their entire sheet is full.  This game helps with their understanding of a graph and also being able to look at a die and knowing what number it is right away.  In the 123 Game, students have to match up a picture of a specific number of animals to the corresponding numeral, die, and fingers (finger counting).  Once students match them together, they put the cards in order of 1-10.

                                       

Reading/Writer's Workshop

During reader's workshop this week, we learned how to properly write the letter "D" using a big line and a big curve.  We also rotated through all of our literacy centers to continue practicing our letters and sounds.  We also had our first writer's workshop where each student got their own blank book to write and illustrate in.  The topic that each child wrote about was their favorite thing they did this summer.  I kept these books to show you all at conferences. :) We learned that we can write a story by just drawing pictures, by adding one word per page, or by writing multiple words/a sentence.

Marvelous Me

Our first name that we studied this week was "Anna".  We are going from the shortest names to the longest (just for the ease of learning letters).  I told the kids that I was picking randomly out a hat so that no one gets sad if they will be towards the end. :) We do four activities to practice writing and spelling their name each week.   Below are the four that we did this week!  Ask your child what each one is to find out. :)

1. Playdough snake writing

2. Bumpy writing

3. Playdough toothpick writing

4. Pokey names 

Thematic Centers

This week during our thematic center time, we learned about The Three Little Pigs!  We read six different versions of the story and compared and contrasted all of them.  The students then rotate through four centers during the week.  Each student does one center per day. Below are the centers that the students completed.

1. Muddy Pigs: Students cut out pig ears and a face out of construction paper and used it to make a pig.  The students then got to use brown paint to finger paint on the pig's belly and they practiced writing the word "pig" in the paint. This was a great fine motor skill center!

2. Three Little Pigs Sequencing: Students cut apart pictures and had to put them in the order that they occurred in the story.  We talked about the beginning, middle, and end of the story and how to look at the pictures to tell what is happening. 

3. Three Little Pigs Mini-Book: Students colored and helped illustrated a mini-book withe the story of the Three Little Pigs.  They also had to write the words "straw", "stick", and "brick" in the book.

4. Students created their own tri-fold booklet with a straw house, a stick house, and a brick house.  They had to trace the houses, write which kind of house it was, and then use specific materials to create their house (straw, toothpicks, or red construction paper bricks).

Science

Mrs. Sue is coming to do our third "Sci-Fri" experiment this afternoon!  We are so excited to have her!  If you would like to come in and teach science/do a science experiment with our class, sign up on the Sign Up Genius for next week.

Have a great weekend!

Love,

Mrs.  James

Week Three: August 28-September 1

Happy Friday! Thank you all so much for making it a priority to come to Curriculum Night on Wednesday.  It was great to see all of you and give you all of the information you need for a successful kindergarten year! :) If any questions came to mind afterwards, do not hesitate to email me.  Below is a review of our week and important upcoming dates:

 

September 4th: No school! Happy Labor Day!
September 7th 9:00 AM Parent Volunteer Training: In the elementary music room
September 13th 10:45-11:15 AM "Kindergarten Chat": with Joy about the future plans of CSD.  In Mrs. Robinson's room (room 112)
September 15th: CSD Community Support Cards due!  These were given to you at Covenant Conferences.
September 21st and 22nd: No school!

***Volunteering in our classroom will begin next week!  I will send out a Sign Up Genius today with the days/times that we need help.  You must have filled out the volunteer paperwork and turned it in before volunteering in our classroom.

Math:

This week in math workshop we began "counting collections".  This is explained in the article I gave you at curriculum night and why it is so important in the beginning of kindergarten.  We spent most of our math time learning about our math manipulatives (unifix cubes, pattern blocks, attribute blocks, C-rods, etc.) and also counting collections.  We are focusing on teaching the children one-to-one correspondence, how to sort/group objects, and how to count them in different ways.  We added a new game into our tubs called "Roll and Cover" and next we will add one called "Roll and Record"!  In the game "Roll and Cover", students roll a die, look at the number they rolled, and cover that number on a gameboard with a circle chip.  The continue to roll and cover until the game board is full!

Literacy:

This week in reader's workshop we learned how to properly write the letters "F" and "E" using big lines and little lines.  We learned that we ALWAYS start our letters at the top.  We will learn more "Frog Jump Capitals" next week.  We also began literacy centers that include ABC puzzles, an upper case/lower case letter matching game, SWAT with letters, and crayon rubbings with letters.  The game "SWAT" is a really fun game that you can easily make/play at home!  We have all of the letters of the alphabet written on index cards.  Three students play and one is the "caller" who calls out the letters and two students are the "swatters" and they have a fly swatter.  The caller calls out a letter and the swatters try to find the letter first and hit it with their fly swatter.  The person who hits the letter first gets to keep the letter!  They continue to play until there are no more letters.  This can be adapted for any level because the student can say the sound that the letter makes or you can write sight words on index cards. 

Thematic:

We finished up our nursery rhyme unit today!  We learned about rhyming words through our nursery rhymes and practiced making up our own rhyming words.  Your child should have many nursery rhyme mini-books at home that they can read with you!  We begin our fairy tales unit on Tuesday and will start with the 3 Little Pigs.  Beginning Tuesday, students will rotate through four thematic centers (one each day) that will involve art, reading, writing, math, or science.

Science: 

For our Sci-Fri today, we are reviewing Humpty Dumpty and are experimenting with a hard boil egg and a raw egg.  We will take the eggs outside and have each egg in it's own plastic container.  We will drop the container off of a brick wall and observe the differences between the two eggs when dropped.

Have a great, long weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James