Homework: August 24-29

Please visit the website goorulearning.org to access our “ILCS Kindergarten" homework site.  Here you will have access to materials such as digital flash cards, books, videos, educational games as well as downloadable games, documents and much more.  You can also download the Gooru app for iPads and access all the videos and documents; the iPad does not support sites requiring Flash Player. 

goorulearning.org  

Class code: QCAWKCF 

Class Name:  ILCS Kindergarten

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our new sight words (IS THE ME OR) letter team (TH) and letter team -ap (tap, rap sap, cap, etc). 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! 

Phonemic Awareness:  Please see the Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips on working with your child on these skills: Rhyming, Beginning/Middle/Ending Sounds, Syllables, Blending, Segmenting.  You will also find many wonderful resources for phonemic awareness activities on gooru.

Reading: Read to your child every day. Have your child find sight words in the books that you are reading. Have your child read to you every day.  You will find the poems of the week and a Fluency passage on gooru.  You can download the poems and fluency passage for your student to keep in their book box at home for additional familiar reading material.  On Friday your student will be bringing home some paper books we’ve been practicing in class.  These books should be read each night. 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), number writing practice, and practice drawing shapes or make them out of play dough or craft sticks, and name the different attributes each shape has.  For example, “What shape has three sides?”  “What shape has four vertices with two long sides and two short sides?”  “What shape has four equal sides?”  You can also find number and shape practice on gooru.  Your child will also be bringing home “Daily Math” practice pages.  Please take a moment to go over any missed problems you see on these practice pages.  We will be completing “Daily Math” practice pages in class Monday through Thursday and a “Daily Math” weekly assessment each Friday.

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 for the spelling test on Friday! Write sentences using your sight words and sound chart to help spell unknown words.  Keep a writing journal at home to write in each night.

Sharing: Sharing: You should have received a flyer 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 shoe-box 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 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday of this week - then they will be returned that day to live at home with you. Thank you for your support and have fun making those boxes!!

Weekly News: August 25-29

What a great first full 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 :) 

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

 Daily Morning Folder Helpers are: 

Mondays:  Nicole Stevenson

Tuesdays:  Carrie Anderson

Wednesdays:  Kim Winkleman

Thursdays:  Kelly Sams

Fridays:  Kindra Crendell

Other classroom volunteers will begin sometime in late-September. 

I will let you know when the time comes! We are still in need of four parent volunteers for Friday morning prep from 8:10 - 10:00!!  Please let me know if you are available to help.  Thanks!

There is no school next Monday, September 1st due to the Labor Day Holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families!

Throughout the year, I will be sending out many parent emails. This is the most convenient form of communication for me. I sent out an email Friday evening 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 do 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. 

School picture day will be Friday, September 5th! Be on the look-out for a flyer being sent home soon! 

Last Thursday, I sent home a CD with all of our sight words songs. 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. You can also visit goorulearning.org to access sight word flash cards and other songs we learn in class. Have fun singing!

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 and with])

Word Family: AP (cap, tap, rap, etc)

Reading: We are learning the vowels!!!! Ask your child about our special vowel song and what sounds the vowels can make! We are learning 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, Get your mouth ready for the first sound and Look at the Picture (see CAFE Reading Strategies tab for more information). We will also practice the reading strategies know the letter sounds and stretch out the sounds.

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, shape and size. We are learning the 3D shapes cone, sphere, cube, cylinder, triangular prism (pyramid), and rectangular prism.  We are learning that these shapes are solids.  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 and through September, our theme is "grit". We are teaching that grit is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. We will discuss ways to demonstrate grit at home and at school. 

Weekly News: August 18-22

We had a great first two days of school! It has been so nice to meet all of you and your awesome kiddos! I have a wonderful group of students and I am truly looking forward to a fantastic school year! 

Thank you for ALL of your generous donations!!!  Don't forget to attend Back to School Night on Monday, August 18th at 5:30 in the Cub's Den (the church sanctuary). We will be covering a lot of important information. For this reason, we encourage you to find child care for your children.

I will be sending home Take-Home Folders this Tuesday. This folder needs to go to school and home EVERYDAY! 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WE, CAN, SEE, A.

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

Reading: We are reading many books about beginning school! We are also beginning our first part of Daily Five: Read to Self. Each student is given their own classroom "book box." Eventually, the students will be able to fill their book box with "good fit books" from our class library to practice reading to themselves. We are also learning two reading strategies from our CAFE menu, Make Your Finger Match the Word and Retell What You Just Read. Please see the Reading Strategies tab for more information.

Writing: We are learning to neatly write the alphabet using correct letter formation.  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. (You will also find the ABC Sound Chart on your child's Take Home Folder!!)

Math: We are learning to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30, identify and name shapes and sort them by different attributes.  We are also learning songs for the days of the week and months of the year.  Your child will also be working on “Daily Math” practice pages in class.  These practice pages will be sent home each day for you to review with your child. Keep an eye out for this to come home soon!  Please take a moment to go over any missed problems you see on these practice pages.  We will be completing “Daily Math” practice pages in class Monday through Thursday and a “Daily Math” weekly assessment each Friday.

Leadership: Here at ILCS, we focus on a certain leadership theme each month. This month and through September, our theme is "grit". We are teaching that grit is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. We will discuss ways to demonstrate grit at home and at school. 

Homework: August 18-22

Please visit the website goorulearning.org to access our “ILCS Kindergarten" homework site.  Here you will have access to materials such as digital flash cards, books, videos, educational games as well as downloadable games, documents and much more.  You can also download the Gooru app for iPads and access all the videos and documents; the iPad does not support sites requiring Flash Player. 

goorulearning.org  

Class code: QCAWKCF 

Class Name:  ILCS Kindergarten

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our new sight words (WE, CAN, SEE, A) and letter team (EE) and Word Family (AN) can man ran tan pan fan van.  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! Visit our gooru page for digital flash cards for the words this week.

Phonemic Awareness:  Please see the Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips on working with your child on these skills: Rhyming, Beginning/Middle/Ending Sounds, Syllables, Blending, Segmenting.  You will also find many wonderful resources for phonemic awareness activities on gooru.

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 or make them out of play dough or craft sticks, and name the different attributes each shape has.  For example, “What shape has three sides?”  “What shape has four vertices with two long sides and two short sides?”  “What shape has four equal sides?”  Please see your child’s Number Writing Assessment  that will be sent home on Tuesday this week. You can also find number and shape practice on gooru.  Your child will also be bringing home “Daily Math” practice pages.  Please take a moment to go over any missed problems you see on these practice pages.  We will be completing “Daily Math” practice pages in class Monday through Thursday and a “Daily Math” weekly assessment each Friday.

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 will come home this week.(ABC Writing assessment will be sent home on Tuesday) Also, practice writing your sight words of the week for the spelling test on Friday! 

Sharing: No Sharing Homework this week.  Next week students will be sharing book boxes. (Please see note that will be sent home with your child on Tuesday)

 

 

First Day of School

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:

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

1. 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.  

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. Dismissal will be at 12:30!!  Please pick up you child on the ramp in the front of the school. I ask that you come introduce yourself to me - tell me your name and your child's name - this way, I can start getting to know faces and make pick-up as safe as possible. 

1. On the first day of school, your child will come home with a first day packet full of papers from the office. Please be on the look out for this important packet, fill out the appropriate paperwork, and return to school as soon as possible. 
   

1. Smile! The first day of Kindergarten is exciting!
   

Also, Back to School Night will be Monday, August 18 at 5:30pm in the Cub'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.