Start of the Year

Wow! I can't believe we have been in school for almost 3 weeks! So much has been going on at school since we have started. We were able to get a 4th kindergarten class, so our class size went from 28 to 21. Boy what a difference that makes. Our time is so much calmer now that there are less bodies in the room. Although, we were sad to see some of our friends go we can still see them at recess and lunch.

We just finished up NWEA testing. This test will give me an idea of where the children are coming into kindergarten. I was so pleased with how the students tried their best while taking the test. We will be discussing these results at Parent Teacher Conferences in October. I will use the results to help drive my instruction for small groups.

This week and next week I will be working on more assessments for each child. These include Letter Identification, Concepts about Print (knowing how books work), Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words, Written Vocabulary (how many words they know how to write), and Word Test (how many words they can recognize by sight). These assessments will also help drive my instruction for small groups. We will also be discussing these results at Parent Teacher Conferences in October.

For the last 3 weeks we have been discussing colors. We will continue to refer back to the colors throughout the year. Each child will be expected to recognize the color words. You could help your child with this by reviewing the colors with them throughout the week. We learned red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, brown, black, white, and pink. We sang songs about how to spell these words. Almost all of them know how to spell red. Ask your child how to spell red.

This week we have been studying shapes. We are learning songs abou the shapes. During math time we are cutting out the shapes and seeing what we can make from them. This takes a lot of imagination and I am so impressed with what I am seeing. We are going to take each creation and put it into a book. This will help the children review their shapes. We are studying circle, square, triangle, rectangle, and hexagon. Please review these with your child at home. It is part of the Common Core Standards for the children to master naming these shapes.

School Procedures: Kindergarten is a lot about practicing how to be in school. We have learned so many procedures. It would be great if you could practice these procedures at home. In the hallway we use 1s, 2s, and 3s. These stand for: 1 mouth quiet, 2 hands behind your back, and 2 eyes facing forward. Ask your child if they can show you what our hallway procedures are.

Please let me know if you have any questions regarding anything going on at school.

UPCOMING DATES:
September 3: No School- Labor Day
September 12: Midterm
September 25: Family Literacy Night

Miss Shue