Weekly News: August 27-31

News: 

What a great first week of school! Thank you for sharing your children with me! We are having so much fun getting to know one another and adjusting to this crazy thing called kindergarten :) 

There is no school next Monday, September 3rd due to the Labor Day Holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families!

School picture day will be Thursday, September 6th! Be on the look-out for a flyer being sent home soon! 

It is Kindergarten Assessment Week! We will be testing students after school every day until 1:00. You should have received a note with your child's assigned test day. Please send your child to school with a lunch on his or her assigned test day, as we will be eating lunch together in the classroom. You may pick up your child at 1:00 from our classroom. Thank you for your support!

Assessment Schedule: 

Monday: Paige, Kassidy, Arlette, Evan, Ryland

Tuesday: Valine, Nathaniel, Talise, Landon H, Zayne

Wednesday: McKenzee, Jake, Chase, Matthew

Thursday: Morgan, Sydney, Ashley P, Landon P

Friday: Cooper, Landon T, Valon, Ashley W

Please visit the SONGS tab on our website to hear our sight words songs and other songs we learn in class. This is a great way to learn the sight words and reinforce letter identification too.  Have your child point to each letter as they sing the letter name. 

Our very first Scholastic Book Orders are being sent home this week. This is SUCH a great and inexpensive way to order books for your child and with every order, you are providing a free book towards our classroom library!!! Just follow the directions on the Order Form Page I send home or visit the "Book Orders" tab on our website. Book orders are due next Friday, September 7th.

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: IS, THE, ME, OR.

Letter Team: TH (we are learning that TH has two different sounds - a hard sound [like in mother and the] and a soft sound [like in thumb])

Reading: We are learning the vowels!!!! Ask your child about our special vowel song and what sounds the vowels can make! We learned that each vowel can make 2 sounds - short and long. We are learning the different parts of a book: title, author, illustrator, title page. You can help at home by asking your child to point to each part of the book before you read. Students will continue to practice one-to-one matching this week. We will also learn our new reading strategy: Look at the Picture (see the Reading Strategies tab for more information).

Writing: We are writing a new book together about our shapes and colors using our sight words of the week. This week we are learning that a sentence starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a period. We are working on putting finger spaces in between our words. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart. You can help your child at home by using the same sound chart on the back of your Homework Folder to help with sounding out words and writing at home.

Math: We are learning to sort objects by color and size. We are also learning to read and extend patterns. We will also focus on identifying what number should come next without going back to 1 to count. For example, if I ask a student to "count on" (we call it "popcorn counting") from the number 7, I would like them to tell me "8, 9, 10.." without having to go back to the number 1 to figure it out. We will continue to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30.  

Leadership: This month our theme is "orderliness". We will talk about keeping ourselves and our surroundings "orderly". We are learning that orderliness is keeping things neat and tidy. 

Homework: August 27-31

A note about homework: Besides the sharing writing each week, you do NOT need to turn in any homework to school. Papers that we send home are to live at home with you. Sometimes we will send home tips, activities, or ideas for you to do at home, but you do not need to turn that in to class. We trust that each family will reinforce what we are learning in class and work on that at home. My advice is to develop a consistent routine with your child: set aside 30 minutes every day to read, study flashcards, and practice writing and math concepts.  

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our new sight words (IS THE ME OR) and letter team (TH). Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. Please see the Sight Word tab for more flashcard ideas. We will have a spelling and dictation test on our sight words every Friday! A dictation test means we will be asking your child to dictate a sentence using the sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for the words to be spelled correctly, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, and a period at the end. An example of a dictation sentence may be "We can see a dog." It may be a good idea to have a practice test with your child on Thursday night! 

Reading: Read to your child every day.

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), number writing practice, and practice drawing shapes. Please see your child's number writing assessment that will go home this week.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: We will have two things for sharing homework this week.

1. We are learning that orderliness is keeping things neat and tidy. Please help your child to write one sentence about showing orderliness.  Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Just send it to school in your child's folder whenever you are finished! Our goal is to share a few student's papers every day so that we do not have 22 students sharing on Friday. 

2. You should have received a flier about making a Kindergarten Book Box in your child's folder. This book box will be used to store his/her little books that we will be making throughout the year. You may use a cardboard shoebox or plastic container. Your child may choose to paint his/her box, cover it with colored paper, wallpaper, fabric, etc. Some ideas might be to use sequins, beads, stones, gems, stickers, foam letters, and so on. Please feel free to assist your child and use your imagination to decorate! These boxes will be shared in class throughout the week. Please send these boxes to school any day next week - they then returned that day to live at home with you. Thank you for your support and have fun making those boxes!!

Here is an example of one of our wonderful book boxes from last year... 

Our First Weekly News:

News: 

We had a great first two days of school! Thank you parents for attending Back to School Night and for ALL of your generous donations! Thank you so much!

Thank you to the parents who signed up to be my "Daily Morning Folders" helper. This will begin tomorrow!

 Daily Morning Folder Helpers are: 

Monday: Amanda Scherneck

Tuesday: Amanda Scherneck

Wednesday: Erin Lane 

Thursday: Megan Petty

Friday: Amanda Scherneck 

Classroom volunteers during "center time" will begin sometime in mid-September - I will let you know when the time comes! 

If you are able to help copy and prepare materials for the next few weeks of kindergarten, I will have my "Friday Prep Time" materials out in the classroom on Friday. I really appreciate all of your help and support!

Throughout the year, I will be sending out many parent emails. This is the most convenient form of communication for me. I sent out a first email in order to be sure I have all of your correct email addresses.  If you did not receive the email, either I typed it incorrectly or I did not have one for you.  If you would like to be added to the list when I email information, please let me know.  If this is an inconvenient way for you to communicate, please let me know that as well. I also have a "updates by email" link on the website - if you check the bottom of the left-hand column, you will find the "Updates by Email" gadget. Feel free to submit your information to receive an email EVERY time I update our website! 


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WE, CAN, SEE, A.

Letter Team: EE (like in SEE and BEE).

Reading: We are reading Big Books by the author, Joy Cowley. Students are learning one-to-one matching (see the Reading Strategies tab for more information). We are also reading books about the beginning of school and books about being friends in school.

Writing: We are writing a book together about shapes using our sight words of the week. This week we are learning that a sentence starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a period. We are working on putting finger spaces in between our words. We are also learning that our ABC Sound Chart helps us to identify sounds/letters in words. This sound chart can be found on the back of your homework folder! 

Math: We are learning to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30.We are also learning the days of the week and months of the year.

Leadership: Here at ILCS, we focus on a certain leadership theme each month. This month our theme is "orderliness". We will discuss ways to be orderly and responsible at home and at school. 

Our First Week of Homework

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our new sight words (WE, CAN, SEE, A) and letter teams (EE). Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. Please see the Sight Word tab for more flashcard ideas. We will have a spelling and dictation test on our sight words every Friday! A dictation test means we will be asking your child to dictate a sentence using the sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for the words to be spelled correctly, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, and a period at the end. An example of a dictation sentence may be "We can see a dog." It may be a good idea to have a practice test with your child on Thursday night! 

Reading: Read to your child every day. Have your child find sight words in the books that you are reading. 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), number writing practice, and practice drawing shapes.

Writing: PRACTICE WRITING YOUR NAME with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc) - please see your child's ABC writing assessment that went home this week. Also, practice writing your sight words of the week for the spelling test on Friday! 

Sharing: Our sharing this week has been our "Get to Know You" goody-bags. We have been having so much fun getting to know all of our new friends in class! 

First Day Information

The first day of school is almost here! I am so excited to meet my new class! I am certain many of you have questions, comments, concerns, and emotions. Hopefully the following information will help. Here are a few things to know about the first day:

• We will meet down on the playground at 7:50am (school starts at 8:10am).  The basketball court is where we will line up each morning.

• Please remember, no backpacks.  Although it's fun to choose a new backpack, we just don't have the space for them.  Backpacks will be something to look forward to in first grade.  

• Please send a small snack for our nutrition break.  It can be in a lunch box or bag with your child's name.  This is not lunch, just a short break, so a small healthy snack is plenty.

• If you are able, we invite you to join us for the first 15 minutes in our classroom as we read our first story together as a class.

• Dismissal will be at 11:50am.  Please pick up you child on the ramp in the front of the school.

• Smile! The first day of Kindergarten is exciting!

Also, Back to School Night will be Tuesday, August 21st at 5:30pm in the Lion's Den (Sanctuary) on our campus.  Please plan to attend.  We will be covering a lot of important information.  For this reason we encourage you to find child care for your children.
Enjoy your weekend and I will see you Monday!