Announcements
SAVE THE DATE: On September 16th, we are going to do a Crew Picnic at Bison Park in the Meadows from 5-7pm. This will be for only Ms. Lauren's Crew. Families are welcome to bring all siblings and a picnic dinner. It is a great time to connect, see who your child has been playing with, exchange contact info, and build CREW.
Drums: Please make sure that you have bought your child's drum with the School Bucks account. It was mentioned as an option during Express Check In- but we know how confusing that got! Right now, it looks likes only half of our crew has paid to buy their drum.
Birthdays: If your child's birthday is coming up then please email me about a time to come in to read a book. If your child's birthday was over the summer, you can choose whether you would like to celebrate now (a little late) or next May/June (a little early). Please note that we do not celebrate with food or toys.
Still Needed: Lunch Volunteers: Thank you to all of our lunch room volunteers! Your help is greatly appreciated. Click here for the lunch volunteers sign-up.
*Additionally, we ask that the only parents that are in the lunchroom are those who have signed up to help assist the kindergarten crews.
Still Needed: Volunteers: Our crew has voted on some colors and locations for things to be posted on our walls. If you would like to help with hanging fabrics, borders, and a word wall, please check out the sign-up. Also, I have a few projects that can be done from home. If you are interested, sign up for the Wednesday volunteer slots. On Wednesday after dismissal, I give a brief explanation, and then these projects can be taken home. I ask that you try to complete them by Friday or the following Monday. Thanks! Click here for the volunteer sign-up.
Climbing Volunteers: If you would like to attend Mr. Doug's belay training so that you can volunteer to help your child climb this winter and spring, please check out the belay training sign-up.
Take Home Folders: Today, I sent home Take Home Folders. Please empty your folder and return on Monday. Thanks! There are samples of student writing, cutting, math shapes sheet, math quiz, scholastic news, and more!
Scholastic Book Clubs:
If you would like to purchase books through Scholastic Book Clubs:
You can choose to have your books shipped to your home or delivered to me with our class order.
With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS).
Class Order Due Date: 09/06/22
Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/YCRBR
Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/kindergarten
Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends.
***All orders also earn FREE Books for our class. I love that our crew library grows from every order that is placed! Thank you for your support!
Class Code: YCRBR
Calendar
8/26 Community Reading 8:30-9am
8/29 Picture Day!
9/5 Labor Day. No School.
9/16 Crew Picnic at Bison Park 5-7pm
9/23 Teacher Professional Development Day. No School.
Crew Highlights
A highlight of this week has been seeing the blossoming friendships, teambuilding, and feeling of CREW through PLAY.
*What have you been doing when you play in the classroom?
Who is it with?
*What have you been doing when you play outside? Who is it with?
(P.S. Someone set a new record for the Name Game this week with 16 names- WOW!)
We were lucky enough to have Ms. Liesl, the music teacher, come read her All About Me book to the crew. Ms. Martha got some FANTASTIC videos of our crew in music this week! Check them out with the link at the end.
Thank you for sending in lots of samples for our inspiration wall! Students are able to see that writing comes in all forms! One important example that we added today was a story with no words. This is meant to encourage our crew that they can tell a story with or without words.
Our writing time is pretty open-ended right now. Students can choose what they want to write about. I have started to meet with students to show them proper letter formation for letters in their name. Also, I have encouraged and praised students for sounding out the first letter of what they are writing about, such as "f" for flowers.
*Students selected a piece of writing that they want to share with you! Please ask them to tell you all about it and celebrate our kindergarten writers!
In addition to writing, we did some practice with cutting. Before handing out scissors, we talked about what scissor do and don't do. Ha! :)
*Check out the samples sent home. I encourage you to have supervised cutting station at home periodically. This is really important for developing finger and hand muscles that are used in writing.
These are the two books that we are using as mentor texts. This week, students learned how to identify "fiction" and "nonfiction" texts, as well as the characteristics of each. We talked about how fiction tells a story and nonfiction has facts that help teach you something new.
*During your nightly reading, ask "Is this fiction or nonfiction?" "How do you know?"
In phonics, we have been working on the high frequency word I. During a reading of Brown Bear Brown Bear, our "word detectives" had to find the word of the day. Volunteers would put highlighter tape on the word.
*Can you find I in your nightly reading?
Students took home a one page emergent reader to practice reading the word "I."
*Please have them read this to you tonight. And over the next few days! Practicing pointing to each word and having extra practice with word recognition is going to help our growing readers!
Math is everywhere!
During Morning Meeting, we voted on the chart to show our favorite color. Then I prompted students to "read" the graph to see which color had the most and the least votes.
In expedition, we have continued to get to know each other and what it means to be crew. This book led to a sweet conversation about kindness and how it fill our buckets and others' when we do something kind.
*What is something kind you did today? What is something kind that you saw someone else do today?
We had created a HUGE list of Crew Agreements, but we decided that we needed to shorten our list. After some conversation and voting, we came up with these 4. To "sign" their agreement, they colored the following to show that we are a crew of super STARS! :D
Wednesday is our library day! Kids LOVED meeting Ms. Erin, our wonderful librarian. Kids can check out books, then bring them back on Wednesdays to check out new books. We talked about having a special place to keep your school library book to keep it safe. Then please add to your routine to put library books in backpacks Wednesday mornings. Thanks!
We love to celebrate birthdays!
Today celebrated Hazen with a wonderful story!
Had to share this awesome picture of our fabulous Kindie Team!
For more pictures and a bunch of great videos from music, check out this link to a Google Photo Album.
Have a great weekend, and I will see you Monday!
~Ms. Lauren
