Lots of updates!

We've been very busy in kindergarten and have a lot of updates!

Ms. Burns attended the second step training through the district and has been incorporating what she's learned into our class. The program is based around making the school a safe environment free of bullying. We have special puppets which help us learn how to be socially responsible. Impulsive puppy, be calm bunny, and slow down snail will help us learn how to treat others. Ms. Burns is very excited to bring this program into the classroom and we are looking forward to how it all turns out. Each week on our non-resource days, we will have a lesson. The students have already had two lessons based around the program. Ask your child about our special puppets and what their names mean.

I'm very excited to announce that Ms. Burns has been nominated for Teacher of the Year. Ms. Burns works extremely hard in and out of the classroom for New Berlin. She is truly deserving of this award. We will let you know the results after all the staff members have voted!! Congratulations, Ms. Burns!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to ALL of you who sent in a white t-shirt for our field trip shirts. Numerous parents sent in extra shirts which will help us with providing Tye-dyed shirts to new students who may arrive later in the year. I've picked up the Tye-dye, and will be busy Tye-dying all the shirts. We will send a note home about when the shirts will be sent home with the students. Please make sure that your child is dressed in their Tye-dye shirt for every field trip. We will always put a label in the agenda to remind you of when the field trips are. The students voted on red shirts but unfortunately the store only had one package of red. I went ahead and got green (the next color with the highest votes) and look forward to seeing how they turn out!

Book orders will go home tomorrow for the month of October. We had an overwhelming response to our September book order. There are a lot of inexpensive books that the students enjoy in the October order. Check out the book order, and if you're interested you can order online or send money into the classroom. If you have any questions, let us know! Remember, every online order that is placed, gets our classroom a free book. We are so excited for the materials we will be able to bring into the classroom. Book orders will be due on Friday, October 16! Thanks in advance for your continued support!

This week in class we are learning:

Math Investigations- We are continuing our work with patterns. A information guide was sent home on Tuesday giving you an idea of how to relate what we do in the classroom to things you do at home. Look over the guide and work on some of the activities with your child. Today we made pattern snakes with pattern blocks. The students really enjoyed the activity and we will continue it tomorrow. We learned new vocabulary words to put on our math word wall. Please review pattern, unit, repeat, and prediction with your child. They should be able to explain to you what they mean and how we use them in Math.

Writer's Workshop- Narrative writing has been constantly on our minds. Today we talked about ways to make the beginning of our stories engaging! What draws a reader into your story? How can we make someone want to read our story? The students have been working very hard to meet the narrative writing standard. I encourage you to practice writing stories at home with your child. When your child is writing a story, make sure to remind them of the following things: two-finger spaces, story book language, sight words (spelled correctly), engaging beginning, and DETAILS!! The students are reminded of these practices daily and are getting better and better at writing stories. We are very proud of their hard work.

Reader's Workshop- We are still working on our reading strategies: pointing to the words, looking at the pictures and getting our mouth ready! When reading with your child, make sure they are doing the following things. Ask what getting your mouth ready means and see how your child is able to explain it to you. Ms. Burns has started guided reading groups this week so your child will be meeting once, if not twice a week in a special group based around his/her reading level. I will be helping with guided reading as well as working in small groups to make sure the skills we are introducing are being understood by the children. Has your child talked about sequencing events in stories? Last week we worked in our reading journals to sequence the story of The Wolf's Chicken Stew and the students had to put the events in order. Ask them about the story, as they should be able to re-tell you it!

Skills Block- We are now rotating to two centers a day! This week we are learning our two new sight words- like, is as well as continuing to work with rhyming words and syllables. Ask your child about our syllable song "Hickety-Pickety Bumble Bee". They love the song. For added practice have them teach your family the song and use each family members name to find out how many syllables they have in their name. The sight words for the first nine weeks are written in the back of the agenda. Please continue to practice all of the sight words. While it isn't required that the students know how to spell them, we encourage you to practice this at home. It really helps with writing if the students already know how to spell them.

I think that's it for now! Take a look at the most recent pictures! As always, thanks for all your support! If you have any questions, send us an email, note in the agenda or call us. :)