Friday, October 18, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

             Happy Fall Break…

                     See you on Tuesday, October 22!!
                                 

Friday, October 11, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

We’ve certainly been enjoying this beautiful fall weather!   We are looking forward to watching the leaves as they turn into their vibrant colors-yellow, red and orange!!

RELIGION: The kindergarten/first grade children would love to see you at chapel this coming Wednesday, Oct. 16 at 8:15 a.m. as we deliver our message of “JOY, PEACE, HOPE”!!

READING: New letters being introduced –Dd as heard at the beginning of dinosaur, dog and dad and Nn-for nose, needle and napkin! That means homework after a two week hiatus (you know it would return)!  New sight words are We, we, and Go, go!  So let’s get going!!

            “Reading through the Seasons” Family Fun Night event-Thursday, October 24-The Fellowship Hall will be open at 5:00 if you want to bring your own dinner and eat before the big event which begins in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 with an introduction of the evening activities.  It’s all about the fun of reading!  Come and join us!

MATH-We are having fun with our “What’s Missing” game…numbers 0-10 are spread out-one child hides his eyes while another removes one number, the child uncovers eyes and tries to guess “what’s missing”-game continues with children taking turns-it’s great fun!  It will get harder during the year with more numbers added!  Also NUMDER BINGO will be introduced!  We love numbers!!

Social Studies-We are headed to Europe-Germany, to be exact! 

SCIENCE- Pumpkins…Squirrels…Bats…Owls are all in our future in the coming weeks!
        GARDEN NEWS-How about some lettuce/radish salad???? It’s happening!!

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Friday, October 18!  You received a memo from the school office with the procedure to follow for making your appointment online!!  If you prefer to meet with me another day please email me or send me a note and I’ll gladly work out another day to meet!

Field Trip –Hot off the press---K/1 will be going to the Central Fire House located downtown on Thursday, November 7-leaving school at 9:15 and returning about 11:15.  Drivers will be needed.—email me if you are interested!  More info coming soon!!!

Boxtops and Labels-When sending to school please be sure to place them in a bag and label with “Kindergarten” so that our class gets the credit!  Last year kindergarten won an ice cream party-sure would be great to do that again, right?!!

Friday, October 4, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

Wow, it is October and I can see that it is going to be a very busy month!

RELIGION: The Children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea and are wandering in the wilderness!!  And they will be there for a little while, especially while K and 1 are preparing for their chapel service which is on Wednesday, October 16!!  You are very welcome to join us as we lead the worship that morning-8:15 a.m. 

READING: We are enjoying our first vowel, Aa, and will be focusing on  -at words like mat, cat, rat and several others.  We will get out our desk white boards and letter cards to write many of these words-the kids have a great time with these activities.  I believe they surprised themselves this past week by sounding out - am words!  We are also listening for syllables in words, playing “What’s the Word” by taking apart sounds in a word to discover what it is when put all together!  We have been looking for “action words” (doing words) in stories!  I see “bread” in our future after reading the books Peanut Butter and Jelly and Hold the Anchovies ask your child about them!!!

MATH-Making AB patterns using our body (clap, snap clap, snap; touch head, touch knees, head, knees and similar movements).  We will have sorting practice by using buttons-sorting them by color, size, shape, number of holes, etc).  We will order number 0-10 and play of game, “What’s Missing”!   Numbers 5 and 6 will be practiced!

Social Studies-We have left Australia and are home washing our laundry as we prepare to leave for Europe.  Next week we will talk about the famous explorer, Christopher Columbus!


SCIENCE- You can help me by sending in some fresh green leaves on Wednesday/Thursday for a leaf project we will be doing!
        GARDEN NEWS-Next week we will be weeding our garden boxes and picking a few radishes to see if they are about ready!!

Parent/Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Friday, October 18-These may be scheduled by going online-watch for more information!   If you prefer to meet with me on an alternate date-please email me as I would be glad to meet with you on another day-after school on a Wednesday or a Thursday or an early a.m. before school.  Make me an offer and I’ll see what I can do!

Boxtops and Labels-When sending to school please be sure to place them in a bag and label with “Kindergarten” so that our class gets the credit!  Last year kindergarten won an ice cream party-sure would be great to do that again, right?!!

  P. S. There are now 21 children in K/1 as we welcome Hayden into our first grade.  Please remember this when planning any special treats for the classes!
                                   

Friday, September 27, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

 Whew-a whirlwind of a week!  We’ve had fun on the farm-especially our trip to Motley’s Farm-I’m sure you heard all about it!  But did you hear about the pumpkin juice??  A special thank you to our drivers and chaperones!  If any of you have great pictures of our day please e-mail them to me/school as we can use those in the yearbook!

RELIGION: Moses leads his people home-not an easy journey!

READING: Finally a vowelAa as heard at the beginning of ant, alligator and apple!  This allows us to begin blending the letter sounds we have learned to make/read words like: am, Sam, Pam (the _am family of words will take center stage this week).  It’s exciting as we begin to read and write very simple sentences in the weeks ahead! The fun of reading begins!!  No Aa homework!!

MATH-More fun with AB patterns!  We will work with ordinal numbers and talk about the order of some of our daily routines.  Triangles and squares have a special focus during the week!

Social Studies-The kids have had fun in Australia and will wrap up that trip and prepare to pack their bags for a trip to a different continent in the world!!

SCIENCE- A little more time on APPLES and then on to the season of FALL!  Lots of fun activities in the weeks ahead for this colorful season!
        GARDEN NEWS-Our radishes will soon be ready to be picked and taste tested!  Our poor spinach-nothing!!  We think that possibly some heavy rain washed our seeds away!   Oh, well, that happens when you garden!!

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

 Busy, busy days in Kindergarten! I can’t express how wonderful it is to have the first month of school behind us!!

RELIGION: Moving into another great man of faith-MOSES!

READING: Now that the children have a sense of the routine we will be working on two letters next week-the letter Pp as heard at the beginning of pink, pony and pumpkin and Cc as heard at the beginning of car, cot and catch (not the children or circus sounds)!  Picking up the pace a bit!  New sight words to be presented are I and Like, like!

MATH-We will have a little fun making our own AB patterns using various materials!  We will use our teddy bear counters to act out story problems (adding/subtracting).  Ordinals numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) will be introduced and practiced!

Social Studies-We are temporarily “stuck” in Australia…but having a great time “down under”!  Actually Mrs. Parscale will be in Texas to be with her daughter and the birth of her brand new granddaughter, so I will have K/1 in the afternoons all next week! Pray for my stamina!!

SCIENCE- Just finished up talking about our five senses.  Next week we celebrate Johnny Appleseed’s Birthday!  To honor him I am asking everyone to bring a “washed” apple placed in a sealed baggy on Thursday.  The more variety the more fun we will have.  We will slice them and enjoy the various flavors-label the variety if you can!
        GARDEN NEWS:  We might pull some radishes next week and see how they look!!!

FIELD TRIP-Next Thursday, September 26-leaving school at 8:30 a.m. to head to Motley’s Farm/Pumpkin Patch and returning to school by 11:30.  Please send your child’s booster seat if he/she requires one!  The children are encouraged to wear their CLS spirit t-shirts for the day!!
            In honor of this special trip we will be spending time next week talking about farms and farming led by your farming expert-me-Mrs. McNabb (former Iowa farm girl and proud of that heritage)!!






Friday, September 13, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

 Yea for cloudy weather!  We noted that we had our first cloudy day of the school year on Thursday!

RELIGION: One of my favorite Bible characters-Joseph-a man of great faith and trust in God’s promises!!

READING: Letter Tt as heard at the beginning of tag, turtle and tickle (we will not focus on the th sound of the letter at this time)!  However our new sight word will be The, the-a little irony there, huh.  Other skills we continue to work on-beginning, middle, end of a story; that the first word in a sentence starts with a capital letter and the sentence ends with a period (or maybe an exclamation point or a question mark)!

MATH-We will make sure we can put numbers 1-5 in order (also which is missing) and then match each number to a set of objects. We will make a graph of our favorite color of pattern block and talk about the most and the fewest.  We will learn to make a matrix (it’s kind of a special puzzle we put together) with some shape pieces which is valuable in helping to understand the attributes of shape, color and size of the shape pieces as well as their position in the puzzle! The children will have some fun making their own AB patterns!!  And numbers 3 and 4 will be featured!  And, my favorite, we will learn to do dot-to-dot using numbers (number ordering)!! Whew-sounds pretty “mathy” to me!!

Social Studies-We are travelling Australia-looking for kangaroos, koalas and the old kookaburra!!

SCIENCE- Garden News-Hmm…we’ve got radishes coming along nicely, but having trouble seeing any spinach, trying to be hopeful!!  We’ve had some watering issues, so things seem to be a little behind!  It is a learning experience for the children that gardening can be frustrating and it can take work!  There are weeds to be pulled!!

  We are also talking about our five senses with emphasis next week on SMELL and TASTE!!! 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Kindergarten Korner

            Moving along with a moo and a squeak!  See if your child can explain!  Hint: it’s from a story we have been reading!!

          Thanks for your understanding regarding the cafeteria as it looks like we may be “brown bagging” for a couple of weeks.  Just one of those issues that you aren’t expecting, so we just deal with it till it is all repaired!!
                                                                                   
RELIGION: Tricky Jacob gets tricked and Esau forgives Jacob (sounds like a good time to talk about forgiveness). Continuing to memorize our school theme verse from Romans 15:13!

READING: We will continue to reinforce letters Mm and Ss and letter Rr will be introduced-the rabbit, robot, and rug sound.  So be watching for that homework!   


MATH-Writing, counting and recognizing number 2…sorting objects by color and graphing to see what we have the most/fewest of…acting out story problems (the beginning of addition)…making sure we recognize circles and rectangles!

Social Studies-Pack your backpack for Australia

SCIENCE- Garden News-keeping it watered-watching as our seedlings grow!   Our radishes are getting taller and adding leaves, spinach is a bit of question!  We will keep watching!!

     Next Friday as a part of Nature Club, we will be examining vegetable/flower seeds looking at differences in sizes, shape, color, etc.-no planting!  To assist I need some packages of seeds-maybe you have some old outdated ones-that would be perfect. The package may even be partially used.  You need not bring more than one package.  I am looking for a good variety!!  Also if eating any fruits/veggies in the next week you come across seeds that you would ordinarily throw away(watermelon, cantaloupe, peach pits, etc.-save a few, place in a baggie, label and send to school as we can use those as well!  All items needed by next Wednesday, Sept. 11!  Thanks so much!

  We are also talking about our five senses with emphasis next week on SIGHT and HEARING! 

                                                GO “PIGGIES