Week of Sept 12-16

What a fun week we have had here at school!

We started off our week taking great school pictures. I am sure you are all anxious to see how they turned out! Kindergartners also really enjoyed Spirit Week here at school. They had a lot of fun with their hats and pajamas. Today we celebrated Constitution Day by saying the Pledge of Allegiance and singing the Star Spangled Banner at the flag pole with the entire school.

Wednesday we had a great time learning about our Five Senses. Several moms volunteered their time to come in and run stations where they students could learn with hands-on activities about each sense. We had a tasting station, which was a big hit, along with a "Guess that Smell" station, which was also a lot of fun. In the listening station students got to put their hands on objects that made different sounds and listen to recordings to try and identify different noises. The visual station was fun for students to look through different objects, have a chance to really examine their eyes up close and also look at optical illusions. The touch station had students classify objects by how they felt and guessing what they were touching in a bag. We are continuing to learn about our senses through out the next couple of weeks.

In math we have been working on writing our numbers. This is something you can reinforce at home when kids have a few spare minutes. We have also been talking about shapes and learning the difference between a circle and sphere. Help you child pick out the difference in objects at home. Kindergartners also made their first graph this week. We colored an "eye" to match their eye color talking specifically about the pupil and iris. We have a considerable amount of blue eyes in here!

We learned two new characters in the Animated Alphabet: Actress Annie and Daisy Dragon. Keep those pictures coming. I have a couple of moms working on the Alphabet book and the students are really enjoying seeing the book come together.

Library - This was the first week that students could check out books from the library. Our library days are on Tuesday, please help your child remember to bring their book back by Tuesday so they can check out a different book on each visit. Thanks!

Thanks for all your support at home!

Week of August 29 - September 2

Dear Families:
Thanks for such a great turn out at Parent Information Night. I really appreciate all the people who signed up to help out in the classroom and with various jobs. No one signed up to work on the Alphabet Book, so if you didn't get a chance to sign up and would like to help out let me know.

Don't forget we do not have school Monday (Labor Day) and Tuesday (Professional Development). Enjoy that extra long weekend with your kiddos!

Also, don't forget about Grandparent's Day, Friday, Sept. 9 at 11:10-11:45. If you have not sent back a note letting who will be here for your child please do so this week.

Something else I wanted to talk about at Parent's Night and didn't get to...Your child is welcome to bring a water bottle to school. Just make sure it is marked with their name and will not easily spill or leak.

Here is what we did this week...

Animated Alphabet: This week students learned Ollie Ostrich and Mimi Mermaid. We read two new sentences and learned more popcorn (sight) words. Help your child practice these sight words. The faster they learn their sight words, the easier it will be for them to start learning to read simple sentences. Don't forget to keep sending those pictures for our alphabet book.

Math: This week students learned about graphing numbers and the purpose of graphs. We also learned how to classify items as alike and different.

Handwriting Without Tears: Students learned how to use their handwriting book pages this week and practiced writing letters P and U. In a couple of weeks we should be able to catch up with our characters and practice writing a letter each time we learn a new character. When your children practice writing letters at home please have them use a pencil and help remind them of how to correctly hold a pencil and how to hold the paper still with their other hand.

Thanks again for your involvement. Don't hesitate to contact me questions. I'm enjoying all your children this year. Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Minor