Can you believe we have been in school for almost a month? It seems like the time has flown by! In just a few weeks, we will have the first quarter under our belts.

Language Arts
In reading this week, our new focus is sharing our our thoughts with our partners. For example, this week, I have had the kiddos share out if they liked reading our non-fiction book (Wombats) or fiction book (Batter Up, Wombat). Sharing our thoughts and ideas (across all subjects areas) not only helps solidify our understanding of concepts, but also gives students an opportunity speaking and listening, which are part of our curriculum. We have also been working on our reading behaviors (what you do when you read a book) such as one to one correspondence (pointing to each word as it is read), return sweep, using the pictures and using beginning letter/sound to determine unknown words
Of course,  We continue to work on identifying parts of a book (title, front cover, back cover, and title page), understanding what an author and illustrator do, and identifying rhyming words.
Any of these objectives can be 'snuck in' during bedtime when you are reading you with little guy or girl.

In writing, our focus has been on adding details to our illustrations that help the reader understand more about what we are sharing. For example, I used an illustration of an ice cream cone from last week (from our "I like" sentences) and added details such as tables, myself, the sun, and some grass to show the kids that I like eating ice cream outside at Sunni Skies.
We continue to work on labeling our pictures, creating sentences that use sight words, using spaces between our word, and using a period at the end of our sentences.

In Letterland, we are introducing letters q-z. Ask your child what sound 'Quarrelsome Queen' or 'Talking Tess' makes. Challenge your child to come up things that each character might like (the characters like things that begin with their corresponding letter and sound). For example, do you think 'Talking Tess' likes telephones (yes)? What about dogs (no).

Sight Words
We have started to introduce sight words in our class. Sight words (or high frequency words) are common words that are found in most texts. Knowing this, it makes sense for students to be able to identify these important words. So far, we have introduced the words "I", "like", "see", "a". Encourage your little ones to point out and say these words wherever they may see them.
Also, ask your child to show you the gestures for these words.

Math
In math, we continue to work with numbers 1-10
-identifying numbers 1-10
-counting orally 1-10
-creating groups that represent 1-10
-writing numbers 1-10
We have also started to compare groups of numbers and using using words like more, less, and equal.
Ask your child to share with you our gestures for these words. At home you can support the development of this vocabulary/concept by asking questions like, "Do we have more girls or boys in our family? How do you know? " You can even have them use their toys to determine if they have more (or less) red cars or blue cars. The possibilities are endless!

A little bit about gestures...
In our class, I present concepts, especially vocabulary in multiple ways including:
-visually with a picture representation
-orally, so students hear the vocabulary word
-I have them repeat/say the word
-associating a gesture to accompany the vocabulary word
Research has shown that presenting concepts in multiple ways helps increase mastery/understanding, especially in young children. So......long story short, encourage your kids to use their gestures. It really does make a difference :-)

Custodian Appreciation Week
Custodian Appreciation week is next week. Kindergarten will be creating 'snack baskets' for our hard working custodians. They do a lot to keep our classrooms, bathrooms, water fountains, and hallways nice and clean for the us. If  you would like to contribute any snacks (chips, soda, candy) , it would be greatly appreciated.

At Home Volunteer Opportunity
I am looking for a parent who is willing to take home our math workbooks and rip out pages each week for our class. The books would stay with you at home until the reminder of the school year. please email me if you are interested.

Scholastic News contributions
Scholastic news is a wonderful newspaper for kids that kindergarten uses to address in our science and social studies curriculum. If you would like to contribute to help make sure we, as a grade level can continue to use this resource, please send a check or cash for $6 to school.

School Happenings and Reminders...
-No School Monday, 9/2

-Spirit Week is scheduled for September 6th-13th. 

-9/6 Spirit Day (wear Banks Rd shirt or blue/green)

-9/9 Hat Day (any type of hat)

-9/10 Dress to Impress Day (how good can you look?)

9/11 Patriot Day (wear red/white/blue)

9/12 Wacky Tacky Day (how crazy can you dress?)

9/13Spirit Day (wear Banks Rd shirt or blue/green)

-We will also have a Coin Drive going on during Spirit Week, so bring in any loose change. The overall class that raises the most money will win a Pizza Party. The winner of each Track will have a Popcorn Party. All money raised will go into the Grade Level Fund and used towards field trips, magazine subscriptions, classroom supplies, etc.
9/13 Homework will go home in your child's "Daily Folder"

 

So, thats's it! A little slice of our lives in kindergarten in a (sort of) nutshell. As always, please do not hesitate to email or call should you have any questions or concerns.

Have a safe and relaxing Labor Day!

What are we up to this week?

Language Arts
Reading-
Our focus this week is determining a purpose for reading. Today, we learned the word fiction (ask your child for the gesture) and found out that we read fiction, or make believe stories to have fun.
Later on this week, I will introduce the word non-fiction, and we will learn that we read non-fiction text to learn more about a topic.
We also continue to work on recognizing rhyming words and understanding print concepts such as
 title, author, illustrator, title page, and front cover.
Want to 'sneak' in some teachable moments at home? Go to the library (or you may already have some at home) and check our some fiction and non-fiction books. Talk about how you are so excited to learn more about x,y,or z from said non-fiction book. Or, how you think it's going to be so much fun to find out what x,y,z character does in said fiction book. While you are are at, ask your child to point out the title, title page and front cover. Ask them to tell you what the author and illustrator does in a book.  
Too tired to read your your little one? Have them go online and listen to a fiction/non-fiction book. It's still counts as exposure to different types of texts. I promise, I won't tell anyone lol:-)

Letterland/Foundational Skills:
We continue to work on our foundational skills through our Letterland program. This week we will meet some new friends (letters k-p) and found out what sounds they make.
Want to 'sneak' in some teachable moments at home? Letterland also exposes the kiddos to vocabulary that corresponds to the sound that each letter makes. For example, "Jumping Jim" likes jig-saw puzzles, juice, and jackets. See if you can challenge your child to find more words/things that the letterland characters like. For example, "Do you think Bouncing Ben likes bikes? Do you think he likes zebras?"

In writing this week, we continue to work on creating and labeling our drawings to share our thoughts and ideas. You may have had a chance to look over one of your child's drawings with labeling, that was sent home in your child's daily folder on Friday.  I attached a rubric to their drawing (the score was NOT added to my grade book) so you, the parent, could see what the end of quarter expectations are, and where your child is currently at.
This week, we  are introducing the concept of creating a sentence to go along with our drawings. We have talked about how in a sentence, the words are separated by spaces. Ask your child about the "space men" we used to make sure our words had spaces between them. 

Math
In math, we continue to work on:
-orally counting to 30 (the end of year expectation is orally counting to 100).
-recognizing and writing numbers 1-10
-representing groups of numbers 1-10 with drawings
-counting objects up to 10 with one-to-one correspondence
One-to-one correspondence is also known as 'touch counting'. Ask your child to show you what one-to-one correspondence means.
Want to 'sneak' in some teachable moments at home (and even get a few minutes to yourself?) Click on the link below and have your child sing our numbers song, they LOVE it!! Don't worry if they can't count to 100. For now, have them focus on orally counting from 1-30. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0dJWfQHF8Y
Give your child some play-doh and have them:
-make a number with play-doh. For example, can you make the number 1 with the play-doh? What about the number 3?
-represent a given number with playdoh. For example, can you make a group of 4 snakes? What about a group of 8 soccer balls? Then, have them use one-to-one correspondance (touch counting) to count the objects.

It's Friday!!!

Week 2 is down in the books....
The kiddos are really getting the hang of our procedures, rules, and expectations and we are beginning to make our way towards mastering our quarter 1 goals. Don't forget to look in your child's 'Daily Folder' sometime this weekend. In it, you'll find your child's letter and sound identification and reading behavior results from staggered entry in July. In addition, you'll find the quarter 1 objectives to see where your child needs to progress in order to earn a level 3 this quarter. As always, do not hesitate to call or email should you have any questions or concerns.
I also want to note that the results do not always reflect where a child is at academically. Parents in the past have mentioned things like, but my child knows x,y,z (or whatever objectives I happen to be sharing). Please know that meeting your child for 1/2 day does not always represent their full understanding of the concepts assessed. What is more important is your child making progress and eventually mastering the objectives at the end of each quarter. Again, please do not hesitate to email or call me should you have any questions.

Open House
Thank you to everyone who took time out of their evenings to come to our open house. I hope you left having a better idea of what the curriculum expectations are, as well as what a day in kindergarten looks like. Please do not hesitate to email or call should you have any questions.
If you unable to make it last night, I sent home an abbreviated version of our curriculum for you.

Me Bags
The 'Me Bags' went over great. Not only did the kiddos get to share a little bit about themselves, but they also got to see what they had in common with the other kids in our class.

Box Tops
Have you seen the 'Box Top' labels on many of your child's favorite foods? Did you know that just by cutting them out and sending them in, you can help raise money for our school? Just grab a zip lock and fill up a bag. When it's full, send it in to our class. Its that easy!

Technical Difficulties...
Thank you to Kacey's mom for letting me know the specials rotation was not on the right hand side of my blog. Although it shows up on my dashboard, for some reason, it does not show up for you guys. So.....here it is:-)
Monday- Technology
Tuesday-Media
Wednesday-Art
Thursday- PE
Friday- Music

What are we working on this week?

Literacy:
In reading this week, we are identifying rhyming words in nursery rhymes, books, and poems. Ask your child to show you the gesture we use for 'rhyme'.

Has your child told you about our imaginary place called Letterland? Everyday, our class goes to
Letterland. There, we get to meet some very special friends (Annie Apple, Bouncing Ben, Clever Cat, and Dippy Duck). The kiddos know that most grown ups don't see these friends hiding in the letters that grown ups know as A, B, C, and D they only come out when we are in Letterland. Want to know more? Ask your child what new friends we have met this week and what sound they make.

In writing, we continue to work on using a combination of drawing and dictating to represent our ideas/thoughts. This week, we have introduced the concept of labeling our drawings. Want to support this at home? Have your child draw a picture of something they like to do. Encourage them to label as much as they can in the picture with at least the first letter sound. Can your child sound out the first and last sound of what they are labeling? Even better!

Math:
In math this week, we are working with numbers 1-10. We have worked on identifying these numbers and making groups (for example, making a group of 5 circles to represent the number 5) that represent each number. Want to sneak in some practice without the kids even knowing? Challenge them to find a specific number around the house (or wherever you may be...for example, can you find the number 5 in the kitchen?). Encourage them to find groups of 1-10 (for example, that's a group of 4 plates). See...sneaking in practice and they won't even know it:-)

In other classroom news.....

Open House Reminder
Open House is tomorrow from 6-7:30
Principals Presentation 6:00-6:30 in the multi-purpose room (gym)
Session 1 Open House: 6:30-7:00
Session 2 Open House: 7:00-7:30

Staggered Entry results and Quarter 1 Benchmarks:
As you may remember in the last week of July, you brought your child to school for a 1/2 day where myself and other staff members completed an array of assessments on your child (fine/gross motor skills, math skills, letter naming/letter sounds, reading behaviors, etc..). On Friday, a paper will go home in your child's daily folder to share with you these results for letter naming/letter sounds and reading behaviors.
On that same page, you will see that I have shared with you the 'End of Quarter 1 Benchmarks' for reading and writing that your child is expected to meet in order to be considered on grade level by the end of September. Please know that Ms. Cassidy (our teacher assistant) and I are working diligently each day to ensure your child meets these goals. The information is sent home in an effort to keep parents informed of our academic goals. However, any support you can provide at home is greatly appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email me should you have any questions or concerns.

Picture Day
Picture day is Wednesday, August 21st. Please be on the lookout for information regarding this in your child's daily folder this week.

Early Release
We have an early release day next Friday, August 23. Dismissal will begin at 1:15pm for all carpoolers and bus riders.

For School Updates and Information
Want to know about upcoming events/information in our school? Click on the link below to access the Banks Road Elementary website.
http://banksroades.wcpss.net/

We've made it!

Phew! 1 week down and I must say, the kiddos did great!

I will try to keep this short and sweet....

Library books
Your child will be bringing home a library book they checked out from the library this week (they are soo excited!) This is a perfect opportunity to read with your child and sneak in some of the reading skills mentioned in the previous blog post.

Daily Folders
Please check your child's green daily folder each day. In addition to this blog, it is the main way I communicate with you. There is an 'All About Me' assignment that is due next Friday in your child's folder today.

Rest Towels
Rest towels were sent home to be washed. Please send it in again on Monday:-)

Thank you
A big thank you to Meg Yancey and Ms.Kozlowski for sending in notebooks and playdoh for our classroom.
And last but not least, thank you Ms. Melton for volunteering to be our PTA liaison.

Have a wonderful weekend:-)

Halfway There....

I don't know about you, but this week has flown by! The kiddos are really getting the hang of our procedures and routines. Not too shabby for the third day:-)

Want to find out more???  Ask your child about the first 3 rules in our class (and the gestures to go with them). You will see that gestures that go along with our objectives this year will be very big in our classroom. Ask about our 'truck driver' cheer or how many 'Blazer Bucks' your child has earned and why.

Ident a Kid This Friday
Please make sure to check your child's backpack after school today. There is some important information about Ident -a-kid. Ident-a-kid is an opportunity for your child to get a safety ID car made. If you are interested, please return the completed form with your payment. Please see your child's daily folder for more information.

Open House/Thursday, August 15th
 I can't wait to share with you our kindergarten curriculum and our classroom norms. There will be a 'Princpal's Presentation' in the multi-purpose room at 6pm. Following that, there will be two, 25 minute Open House sessions in our classroom. This way, if you have more than one child at Banks Road, you will be able to go to their classroom, as well.


Wish List Items- thank you
A BIG thank you to the fabulous parents who sent in paper bags, ear phones for our I-touch center, and glue sticks for our classroom. I usually like to thank you all by name, but I am not sure who took what wish list items.

Things you can work on at home...
A lot of parents have asked me about homework. Although we are not sending it home yet (that's usually around the (5th week or so of school) there are a few things you can do at home to help your child.
-Read daily to your child
It's first because it really is so important. YOU are your child's first teacher. Show/ask your child to point out
*the title
*front cover
*identify capital letters/lowercase letters
*ask your child to match a lowercase letter to an uppercase letter
*point out the first/last letter of a word
*point out a word vs a letter
*help them work on one-to one correspondence (that is pointing to each word as you say it)
*If he/she can, have your child read an easy-reader book to you

Volunteers
Many of you have been kind enough to inquire about volunteering opportunities this year. I will have my classroom computers available for you to register as a volunteer during Open House. All volunteers must register with Wake County before helping out in our classroom. Can't make it to our Open House??? You can come into the school computer lab and register anytime during school hours (and yes, you must register at school, through our intranet...sorry!)

Snack
Thank you to everyone who has helped to make sure that snack is in a separate bag.
Just one quick request to add onto that...
Please pack your child's snack in a Ziploc bag (or something like it) and not a lunch bag. When Ms. Cassidy or I see a lunch bag in your child's cubby, we generally assume that is their lunch. And with 20 students in our class, it is difficult to go through each child's lunch bag to make sure it is indeed lunch and not a snack. I would feel terrible sending your child to lunch with only a 'snack portion' of food:-/

PTA Liaison
If anyone is interested in being our PTA liaison for our classroom, please email me. This position would include keeping parents informed of upcoming PTA events at our school.

Thank you so much for your emails and questions this week. Please keep them coming:-)
Enjoy the rest of your week.

The First Day of Kindergarten Has Come and Gone!

I don't know about you, but I could use a nap! Lol. We had a whirlwind day today. Between touring our school, learning our classroom procedures, and just learning how to 'be' in school, it was quite a day. Do you want your child to share more with you about school, other than is it was 'good'? Ask your child to tell you about smilies/frownies, class/yes, rule #1, or the ten finger wooooo!

For the rest of the week, we will continue to work on our classroom procedures and expectations. We will focus on creating a classroom community by getting to know each other through fun games and activities.

Afternoon Transportation
You may have noticed your child go home with a tag on their backpack. This tag is to let our staff  know how your child gets home in the afternoon, so please keep it on for at least the next few weeks. If your kiddo needs a new one, please do not hesitate to email me.

Specials
if you have a chance, take a gander over to the right hand side and look at our specials schedule. please note that on PE days, students should come to school with shoes they can run in, no flip flops or sandals.

Don't see what you are looking for?
Please let me know how I can make this blog better. If there is something you would like me to mention and/or add, please feel free to email me and let me know. I am always looking for ways to make our blog more parent friendly:-)

Last, but not least....
A BIG thank you to you, the parents for entrusting me with your kids. Being a parent myself, I know how hard it can be to leave your baby with someone you don't know very well, in a place that your child doesn't know at all. I know it was a big day (and not just for the kiddos) and I want thank you for trusting me to take care of them. I am looking forward to a year of excitement and growth together.

Meet The Teacher

WOW! What a turn out. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their Friday night to come meet me and see our classroom. It was nice to see the all the kids' smiling, excited faces. I am so excited to start the new year together and I hope you are, too!

Some things to remember for Monday...

The first day
I had a few parents ask tonight, so I want to make sure to address the 'Can I walk my child to the room on the first day' question. The answer is of course, YES!! It is expected that you, as a parent will want to walk your child to class the first day (even the first week). I have found that after the first week, most kiddos are feeling pretty good and can get to class on their own, however, if they are still a bit hesitant after the first week, please let me know, so we (parent and teacher) can talk about how to make your child feel more comfortable.

Confirming transportation
When you came in for staggered entry, you signed a form stating how your child would get home on the first day and the rest of the year. On Monday, please make sure you confirm/initial how your child will be getting home (on Monday and the rest of the year) on the transportation form in Mrs.McGarry's room.

Meet the Teacher Envelope
When you came in our classroom, you were given an envelope with various forms (our schedule, classroom behavior information, volunteer forms, "All About Your Kindergartner", etc...). Please make sure to review the forms and return on Monday. Please do not hesitate to email  me should you have any questions/concerns about ANYTHING :-)

Snack
Although this hasn't come up yet, I want to make sure to address snack. Right now, we are scheduled to have snack at 3:00pm. In order to make sure your child does not accidentally eat their snack during lunch time, please make sure it is in a separate bag (not in your child's lunch bag)with your child's name on it. You may even want to talk with your child, so they are aware of what is snack and what is lunch.

Kid Connection Daily Folder
Each afternoon, your child will be go home with a a metallic green folder. Please check it each night. In it, you will find your child's behavior form, as well as any pertinent information that you need to know. All other work will go home on Friday.

Wish List
Thank you to everyone who took a wish list item this evening from our board. One item I forgot to add was a box of extra snacks for students who have forgotten a snack.

Again, thank you for taking the time to meet me tonight. I am looking forward to a fantastic year with you and your child.