The week of Aug. 29.

I hope you all had a great weekend!  The rain is sure helping my grass green up!

A couple of things.  Math homework went home Friday in the green Friday folder.  It was a practice sheet on writing 1, 2, 3.  Please make sure your child completes it and returns it tomorrow.  Many students need extra practice on their numbers.  There will be a 4, 5 homework sheet coming home on Friday to be returned on Tuesday, Sept. 6.   Thank you for helping your child succeed at school and home by doing the extra practice at home!  I will let you know when most homework is due by a note.  If there isn't a note, homework is due the next day and I will email you that the class has a page to complete.

Flip flops~  Please refrain from allowing your child to wear flip flops to school.  I have seen many children trip and get hurt when wearing them.  I have also seen the flip flops break and then we have a bigger problem.  If the flip flop has a strap around the back of the foot, that would be fine!

Thank you for your help with this.

Ss book came home today!  Have your child point to each word when reading!  This helps them with word awareness and will help them write sentences in the future!  They know to add it to their bucket of books!

Watch Me Grow~  Each month we will draw a house, tree, and me in the Watch Me Grow packet. They will also learn to  add details to make their picture interesting.  This will help them learn to find the "baseline" on a page, so they learn how to place objects on a page.  As they draw each month, they will learn that houses and trees should be at the bottom of the page like they sit on the ground.  Many begin by drawing them in the middle of the page which would represent them floating on air.  :)  

Reading this week!

Theme book:  Is This My Classroom?

vocabulary:  respect, behave, neighborhood (we will read, David Goes to School this week and talk about positive/negative behavior.)

comprehension:  making connections with our own neighborhood

letter of the week:  Ss, Take turns with your child saying words that begin with Ss.

sight words:  and, is  Have your child think of a sentence with one of the sight words in it.  How many words are in it?

color of the week:  Yellow,   wear yellow on Wednesday

Math this week!

This week we are counting 4 and 5 objects as we put a mark on them.  This helps us not to miss any objects we count.  We will also be writing the numbers 4 and 5.  A practice sheet to write 4 and 5 will come home on Friday.

Coming Up

Aug. 31       Wear Yellow today!
Sept. 1         Apple Day Planning Meeting @ 4:15 in North Activity Center
Sept. 5         Labor Day, no school
Sept. 7         Wear Blue today!
Sept. 14       Wear Green today!

Red Day!!

Camp Kindergarten!

We ended our week having fun with our 5 senses!  I had items in 4 bags for all but hearing.  The kids had to smell, taste, touch, and see the objects and write what they think it was in their camp booklet that came home.  Have them tell you what they guessed and if they got it correct!   My favorite was the smelling bag!  I put a yellow rose in there for them to smell.  I was afraid it wouldn't have enough smell since they couldn't hold it up to their nose, so I sprayed a little perfume on it.  Some of them thought it smelled good, and some didn't.  Only one guessed it was a flower, but there were some great guesses!  For the hearing sense, they listened to outdoor noises from when I camped in a tent this summer!  I woke up early one morning before everyone else, and heard the awesome noises of birds, owls, and cows.  That one was an easy guess!  The last thing we did was sit around our fire, eat our smores, and the kids told scary stories! (what a hoot!)  Enjoy the pictures!

Praying Mantis visitor

Today we had a visitor in our classroom!  One of our student's found a praying mantis on his driveway, so it became a family pet!  Since the Royals now have a team mascot, praying mantis, for good luck, this one was named after two baseball teams.  It is called, "Tornado-Slider"!  It is the largest mantis I have ever seen!  We learned about what it eats, it's habitat, and that it is an insect.

Today we were learning about the five senses, so we thought about what senses we would use to identify it.  We said:  seeing, touching, hearing, and smelling.  We all agreed that we would not taste it!  Enjoy the pictures!

The first full week of school!

Camp Kindergarten has started off great!  We have learned so much already!  Thank you all for getting your child to school on time so we can begin as soon as the bell rings!  It really helps your child to begin their day on the "right" foot.

The class has learned quickly how to get peanuts in our class bucket!  They are doing great working as a team in our campsite!  When the bucket is full, we will have a class party!

I have sent several notes home about "happenings" in our classroom or information on what's coming up in either their daily folder or their Friday folder that went home on Friday.  Please check these folders when they come home.  It shows your child that what they do at school is important.  I have noticed that most of the daily folders are coming back with initials under the leap pad.  Thank you for checking to see how well your child is doing behaviorally at school.  Let them know you are proud of them for following directions and listening by ending on "green" at the end of the day!  When they see you acknowledging their green each day, they will continue to be proud of their day!

Our Reading Program is called "Rigby".  Every two weeks we have a theme that we learn about.
Our first theme is called:  Faces and Places at School.
The first story is:  "Is this my Classroom?"

We will take a tour of our school to find important places and people to know about such as the Nurse's office (Nurse Amanda), the office where the secretaries "live" (Mrs. Bolan and Mrs. Toland), the Principal's office (Dr. Frye), our school improvement specialist's office (Ms. Woerdehoff), and the counselor (Mrs. Schierts).
Theme vocabulary:  students, principal, school
Comprehension:  making connections with what we know already
Letter of the week:  Mm (the action is putting one fist on top of the other and "mixing" while saying the /m/ sound.
Phonemic awareness:  word awareness (pointing to the words as we read) (make sure I'm pointing to the words in my new paper "Mm" book)

Color of the week:  Red  (wear red on Wednesday!)
Sight words:  the, a (we are learning that "a" is a letter, but it is also a word) Look for flashcards coming home on Friday with the 1st quarter sight words on them.  Please begin reviewing the words as we learn two each week.

Envision Math is our math program.  Each day we will have a math worksheet that we will do together as a class.  If anyone is struggling on the concept, I will try to put a note on their math for you to review it with them.  It is always good to review with them each day anyway so you know how they are doing individually.  

This week we are counting and writing numbers to 5.  Your child will have a math packet sent home for homework on Friday to practice writing 1, 2, 3.  Please make sure your child is starting their numbers at the top, not at the bottom.

Math homework!  We will have math homework at times.  I w ill usually give it on Fridays to have time to complete it over the weekend or I'll let you know the date it is due.  Please read the directions to your child so they understand what to do.  It will be a review of what we are doing in class.  I do want all homework returned when it is due.  If it is a daily math sheet that we didn't finish in class, it will be due the next day.

Handwriting Without Tears is our writing program.  We will be learning that letters and numbers are made with "big line, little line, big curve, little curve". This will be the handwriting vocabulary we use when writing letters and numbers.  ALL LETTERS AND NUMBERS START AT THE TOP!  Please watch your child when writing and make sure they are starting at the top.  Each child will be using a "helper" gripper on their pencil.  This will help them use the three finger grip that develops good handwriting, with the thumb, pointer finger, and tall man finger.

Parent Information Night!  I hope to see you all Thursday at 6:30 in my classroom to learn all about Camp Scott Kindergarten!  This is a Parent only night, so you can focus on the plethora of information about Kindergarten.  If you are unable to make it, I will have a packet of info. for you to go through at home.  Please let me know if no parent can make it.

Coming up!
Aug. 25       Parent Info. Night at 6:30
Aug. 31       Wear Yellow today!
Sept. 1         Apple Day Planning Meeting @ 4:15 in North Activity Center
Sept. 5         Labor Day, no school
Sept. 7         Wear Blue today!
Sept. 14       Wear Green today!

Here's some first day pics. of Camp Scott Kindergarten!

Welcome to my Kindergarten class!  This is my 7th year at CCE and teaching kindergarten.  I  taught various levels of elementary prior to staying home with my two kids, Connor and Hallie.  Connor will be a junior at DeSoto High School and Hallie will be an 8th grader at Mill Creek Middle School.  They both enjoy playing soccer throughout the year. Connor also plays tennis at DHS, while Hallie enjoys Cross Country at Mill Creek.  My husband, John and I both graduated from Kansas State University, so we love attending KSU Wildcat football games! 

This year I will be teaching AM Kindergarten only.  It will be a fantastic year in Scott's Camp Kindergarten!