11/18
We had the same visiting priest for Mass today. He had a good message about God being with us when we are afraid.
Thank you to Mrs. Olson for helping us during phonics today.
We read the book Don't Squeal Unless It's a Big Deal-A Tale of Tattletales. We have been having some issues with tattling lately and I am hoping this book helped us understand the appropriate times to get adult help (usually when something or someone is being hurt or when they have tried to solve their problems but they can't).
We did our November writing and cutting samples.
For math we did an M & M graphing activity. We also tried our hands at making tally marks. It went pretty well for a first attempt!
I am working on updating the photo pages. You will find them at the bottom of the links.
11/17
I am sending home scripts for our Kindergarten Nativity play. We will perform this on Wednesday, December 23 at 1:30 p.m. in the church. Your child will be able to leave with you after the play. Parts for the play were assigned by drawing sticks. Your child will need your help in memorizing his/her lines. If there is NOT a script in your child's folder it means that s/he does NOT have a speaking part. There are a few children that are animals that do not speak.
Some highlights from our day yesterday:
In religion we continued our respect for life unit by discussing adoption. We read 2 stories to go with this lesson: A Mother for Choco (About a bird looking for a mother-she goes to various animals that she sees are similar to her in one way, but each of those mothers points out how they are different. She finally ends up being adopted by a bear who loves her just how she is and has adopted several other animals.) and Happy Adoption Day (which is the lyrics of a song put in book form).
During our reader's workshop I read the book The Littlest Matryoshka (a matryoshka is a nesting doll). I discovered this book last year during our diversity study on Russia. We looked at 2 very different matryoshka dolls. Today Curtis brought in one to show us. If you have any at home, I have invited the children to bring them in and show them to the class if they would like (they do not have to wait for the sharing bag, they can just bring them in).
We also read the big book The Mitten by Jan Brett. Later this week we will read a different version of the story by Alvin Tresselt and then do a comparison of the two stories.
Today we read the birthday cakes the children made with you as a follow up to the story On The Day You Were Born. I hope to display them on the bulletin board outside our classroom. If you haven't sent yours back yet, you can still do so!
Mrs. Pexa helped the children paint their hands to make a handprint turkey. We'll be adding the details another day. Thank you Mrs. Pexa! As I was setting up for this, I discovered that paint bottles can explode. Yes, explode. Since last May, I have experienced many "firsts" in my teaching career. And I must say, they haven't been pleasant! I also discovered that paint from an exploding bottle travels very far. Now, I'm hoping that I discover tonight that it WILL come out of light colored clothing!
If I ever do not thank you in my newsflash for helping in the classroom, please know that you are very much appreciated!!! I could not do my job without all of the wonderful parent support!
After reading Feeling Thankful, we started working on a paper listing the things that we are thankful for.
Have a great night!
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11/11
Thank you to Eddie's family for sending in On the Day You Were Born. We will read it tomorrow.
Just a reminder that book orders are due tomorrow. I won't place them until evening some time, so you for sure have through the school day to place any orders.
We had a visiting priest for Mass today. He spoke to us about sacrifice, especially the sacrifice that military personnel make for their country. Veterans attending Mass were honored.
Captain Jake Helgestad, father of kindergartener Lucy Helgestad, spoke to the school (in 2 groups) about life as a soldier in Iraq. The children were especially intrigued by the sandstorms in Iraq. We read The Wall and also started learning a Veteran's Day song.
I read the story The Napping House to the children. They are a fun group to read to! Ask your child to tell you why the napping house woke up.
We have 3 notebooks that we are working on at different times. They are a poetry notebook, journal/writer's workshop notebook, and a math journal. We will be working on solving different types of problems in our math journal. Right now we are doing simple counting activities.
A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Pauly for helping the children with their first painting experience in our room. It takes a brave person to paint with kindergarteners! Also, Mrs. Chromy deserves our thanks for monitoring play time while I conferenced with the children on their journals.
11/10
Sorry, I misdated yesterday's entry.
I did not do an entry on Thursday and missed mentioning that we celebrated Henry's 6th birthday. Hope your day was an extra special one, Henry!!
We began an Archdiocesan "Respect for Life" curriculum today. The kindergarten focus is on celebrating birth and adoption. Today we read the book Angel in the Waters. You could have heard a pin drop while reading it. They were fascinated by the thought of our guardian angels being with us from before birth. This book is a favorite of mine-I was excited to see it included in this curriculum. Tomorrow we'll be talking about birthdays. If anyone has the book On the Day You Were Born and wouldn't mind my using it, I'd love to borrow a copy from someone! It just popped into my head as I was doing lesson plans. Of course, the school library doesn't have it and the NP library is closed for a few days.
We started reading a book on the Ojibwe people. We talked about their migration from one area to another and also read part of a creation tale. We started working on a booklet that will reflect some of the things that we learn during this unit.
During our writing time, I am modeling for the children how to stretch out words to listen for any sounds that a child might know how to write. I encourage them to write ANY sounds that they think they can write. It doesn't just have to be the beginning sound. Sometime, a child will know how to write a middle or ending sound and that is just fine. If a child doesn't know any sounds at all in a word, s/he is to write a magic line (a long "dash"). This is a "place holder" of sorts to represent the word. It helps a child to realize that there is writing of some sort for every word. I have been impressed at the growing confidence that I have seen in many children!
We are working on decoding words in phonics. Most children brought home a word list this week. There are a few children decoding well enough that they do not need the extra practice, so do not be concerned if a sheet didn't come home. Your child should practice reading the words until s/he can read them all comfortably. The parent letter also suggests having your child practice spelling the words. This would again help a child work on stretching a word out and writing known sounds (and all of the words on the list are comprised of known sounds, other than the high frequency words). Do this at your discretion. The sheets DO NOT need to be returned to school (although they say they should be).
In math, we read the story Rosie's Walk and practiced using different spatial words (under, next to, behind, next to, on top of, etc.). We also created AAB pattern towers using Unifix cubes.
11/9
We had a much more calm day today! We did create our "Ways We Want Our Classroom To Be" chart followed by the story Hunter's Best Friend At School. Hunter has a very naughty best friend, Stripe, who encourages him to join in his misbehavior. Hunter really struggles because he doesn't want to misbehave, but he also wants Stripe to be his friend. After a very sad incident during art followed by a heart to heart with Mom, Hunter learns that sometimes being a best friend doesn't mean going along with bad behavior but setting an example with good behavior and helping a friend be the best he can be.
Later we created a chart about "Above the Line", "Below the Line" and "Bottom Line" behavior. Above the line behavior is when we are following the rules and working to make our classroom the best it can be. Below the line behavior is when we are not following the rules and being the best we can be. Bottom line behavior is when we are physically hurting someone (hitting, kicking, etc.).
I forgot to mention in my post yesterday that we did indeed make our applesauce on Thursday. Mrs. Smisek helped the children with slicing up the apples over in her room (Thank you, Mrs. Smisek!!) and then we cooked them in our room. It sure smelled good in there most of the day! Everyone tried the applesauce and many came up for seconds. Thanks for all of the apples!
The two kindergarten classes are going to join with the Pre-K Little Spirits class for a Thanksgiving celebration on Wednesday November 25 from 9:30-10:30. We could use some parents from our room to help run stations. We might also need some parents to help prepare some projects at home. We are still in the planning stages, so the exact details still need to be worked out. We are in need of paper towel tubes for a potential craft project (dependent upon the number of tubes we can get). If you can help, please let me know! This will be fun chance to see parents from the other kindergarten and Pre-K class!
11/8
Wow-I can't tell you how glad I am that last week is OVER. I don't think we could've had too much more stacked against a calm week: Halloween, the time change, the accreditation visit, short week, the Harvest party, full moon and who knows what else! We were feeling it all by Thursday afternoon! I'm hopeful for a much better week.
To help us get on the right track for a good week, we'll be reviewing our classroom rules followed by creating a classroom chart on how we want our classroom to be. We will also be creating a chart on "Above the line", "Below the line" and "Bottom line" behavior. More on that tomorrow!
A big thank you goes out to T.J. Pexa for the book I'm Your Bus from the book fair!
Here is the ordering information for the November book orders:
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
User Name: mrswetschka1st
Password: StWenc
Happy shopping!
Remember: If your order is a gift, please let me know. Otherwise, I will send it home with your child.
We are about to embark on a study of the Native American Ojibwe tribe. Each class or grade level is studying a different tribe as part of a school wide diversity project. Last year we studied Asian countries. If you have any knowledge of the Ojibwe people or artifacts you could share, I would love to talk to you! We will be reading many stories, comparing life from long ago to the present and creating projects. All of this will be shared during Catholic Schools Week during a Diversity Fair.
On Wednesday we finished our study of the Bible story "Noah's Ark". Mrs. Olson helped us complete a project where we created our own ark and rainbow and then later drew animals and Noah's family.
We also read the story Ten Apples Up On Top and then made our own book modeled after the story. Thank you to Mrs. Pexa for helping us with this!
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Another forgotten item:
The book orders that came home today are due Thursday, Nov. 12.
I forgot to put this in:
Many thanks to all of the families who donated to and supported the book fair! We brought in $30 in change, plus we were given $50 to spend from book fair profits. I was able to get the remaining books on my wish list. I am especially excited about the bible songs easy readers!
Thank you to these children (and their generous parents!) for the following book donations:
Will Reiland-Colors
Ty Pauly-Too Many Toys
Matt Friedges-Humphrey's First Christmas
Veronica Pavek-I'm Your Bus
11/3
I really can't believe that it is already November! I am thankful that the rain held off until AFTER school!
We have been busy since the last time I posted an update!
A big thank you goes out to the moms who helped with our Halloween party: Amy Friedges, Andria Reiland, Allison Olson, Nancy Pexa, and Connie Geis. I appreciated all of your help-especially when I got confused about where to send the children!!
I think the children had a good time at the party and Halloween Ball. It was a fun afternoon.
Some highlights from our Monday:
We read the book Lily's Purple Plastic Purse for a little review of the letters Ll and Pp. I love that story! It was really neat when Curtis connected the story to Chrysanthemum-he noticed they were by the same author!
We also read the book We Can Get Along and discussed having "Eye to Eyes" for the times that we do NOT get along (which will certainly happen!). We practiced the appropriate steps for having an eye to eye:
1. Ask the person nicely to have an eye to eye.
2. State the problem using I language: "I don't like it when __________ ." (name the behavior)
3. State how it makes you feel: "I feel (name the feeling) when you (name the behavior)".
4. Tell the person what you want them to do: "I want you to stop."
The person who has been asked to have an eye to eye needs to respond:
1. I heard you say (repeat back the problem-"You don't like it when ______.")
2. Tell the person you will stop: "I won't (name the behavior) anymore."
3. Apologize: "I am sorry."
The person who requested the eye to eye needs to acknowledge the apology in some way: "I forgive you." or even simply "Okay."
We had our last name of the day! Thanks for waiting so patiently for your turn, Cole!
Some highlights from today:
We reviewed the story of Noah's ark (introduced yesterday) using flannel board pieces to help us tell the story.
Began working with our new words "of" and "red". We are making a chart called "What is red?" to help us: review the words "the" and "red", identify a period, understand what a sentence is, understand the difference between a word and a sentence, notice that there are spaces between words, begin stretching words out to identify sounds we can write, understand correct letter formation. I bet I could keep going on skills we work on when we create charts together!
We made a small "Noah's Ark" with the numbers 1-20 on it to help begin to learn to skip count by twos. We listened to a skip count song called "Noah's Ark" (imagine that) and counted along on our own arks. We'll keep the arks at school for now as we practice this skill. Can your child tell you anything about this activity?
During writer's workshop, we had a mini-lesson on leaving spaces between words.