Announcements
Independent Kindergartners: How exciting that so many kindergartners are coming into the building independently! We ask at this time that your child walk in most of the time without parents, so that all of our crew can feel the success of completing our daily morning tasks with independence.
Volunteer Opportunities:
-Making Buddy Journals- includes using the binding machine in the teacher workroom to make journals for us to use with our 4th grade buddies.
-Friday afternoon volunteer- to help plug in the iPads to charge over the weekend and rinse the paint brushes.
Please sign up here if you are interested.
-If you are interested in being a lunchroom volunteer please sign up for our time 11:10-11:30 on this lunchroom sign up.
Classroom Volunteers: If you have attended my letter formation training, then I would love to have you do letter or number formation with students. If not, no problem! I have literacy activities and math games that you can play with indiviudal or small groups of students.
Here is a classroom volunteer sign-up for days and times to come in. If you can not volunteer for the full time listed- that is no problem! Any amount of one-to-one formation volunteering is much appreciated, even if it is only 20-30 minutes.
*I ask that you do not bring younger siblings when you volunteer.
Parent University:
Our social worker and school counselor have put together a fabulous set of presentations. There was GREAT feedback about the topics last year, and I encourage you to check it out. Here is more information:
The REMS Mental Health Team would like to invite you to attend our first Parent University of the year next Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 6:00 PM via Zoom.
The topic of this virtual meeting is Addressing Anxiety. We will dive deeper into this subject after our presentation last school year on anxiety and resilience. You can access our slide deck and recorded presentation at the following links:
Parent University - Anxiety & Resilience
To RSVP for the September 14th event, please complete the form at THIS LINK. You will receive a Zoom link to join the meeting on the morning of Wednesday, September 14th.
Can't make it? We will record the session and share with all REMS families by September 21st.
We hope to see you there!
Ms. Allison Armour, School Social Worker
Ms. Monica Everhart, School Counselor
(Repeated) Volunteers Opportunities for Ms. Staci:
1.) The first step to making the drums is a Dyed Paper Project. Ms. Staci will need 5 volunteers for Sept. 12 (1:45-2:35pm). It will be super fun, but likely a bit messy, so wear clothing you wouldn't mind getting dirty. If you're able to help, please consider signing up at the link below.
2.) Next, Sept. 13 (1:45-2:35pm), parents are invited to attend the Drumhead Dyeing event. No pressure of course if you're unable, but we are requesting only one parent per child due to the size of the art room. It will definitely be memorable, as this is the drum they'll use throughout their REMS years. But again, the project has messy potential, so art appropriate clothing is recommended.
3.) And finally, Sept. 14 (9-11am) we'll be assembling the drums. 6 volunteers are needed for that. Here's that signup link again.
Calendar
9/16 Community Reading 8:30-9am
9/16 Crew Picnic at Bison Park 5-7pm
9/23 Teacher Professional Development Day. No School.
9/30 Crew Hike to Bingham Lake
10/7 Renaissance Adventure Day (aka RAD). More information coming soon!
10/10-10/21 Fall Break. No School
10/28 Halloween Parade. More information coming soon!
10/31 Teacher Professional Development Day. No School.
Crew Highlights
This week, we read Personal Space Camp in which a boy name Louis learns about personal space.
It gives the example of personal space or "comfort bubble" as about the size of a hula hoop. What a great visual for kindergartners!
This enabled our crew to discuss what it feels like when other people are in our personal space. We also talked about how personal space might be different for everyone and it might change depending on who you are with (ex: you might need more space if you are surrounded by strangers than if you are with family & friends).
It really empowered our crew with a strategy to advocate if someone is in their personal space. We practiced saying "please stay in your hula hoop" or "I need more personal space."
*Ask your child about personal space. As our crew continues to bond, kids will tend to want to play like siblings. It is important to make the distinction that at school we have to respect other's personal space.
This week, our crew of writers focused on using shapes in their drawing.
For example: yesterday, I modeled writing about climbing an apple tree. I used a circle, a rectangle and more small circles to draw my apple tree. I used ovals to draw my body. Many students did the same when it was their turn to write, then went on to add more details, label their pictures, and more! This is exactly what I hope to see at this time of year, taking the lesson and putting it into practice. 
WOW! I was so impressed by their risk-taking in drawing and in their writing! Please check out samples of your child's work on Seesaw.
Every month or so, we will do a literacy rotation called "Write the Room." The theme this week was "Back to School" and student had to find the words hidden around our room to copy. Our crew really enjoyed this!
Fun with Poke-Pining.
In Reading, we have launched Unit 1 titled Plants and Animals Have Needs.
Our essential question is: Why do living things have different needs?
We watched a short video today and brainstormed some of our own questions.
In math, we have been developing a strong foundation of counting numbers 0 to 5. Zero is an important number that represents NONE! When we count up, it represents that there is one more than the previous number, and that each number in the counting sequence increased by one. We practice math concepts through discussion, hands on practice, in their mathbook work pages, and using iReady math lessons.
Earlier this week, Ms. Monica came in to talk about "persevering through listening." Our crew had to listen carefully as they folded a paper hat.
Ta da! Listening hats! :D
This week, we met with Ms. Kristen's 4th grade crew to pair up for math games. The played dice and domino games together.
EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT: Your child will find out who their OFFICIAL BUDDY is next Thursday!
Ms. Martha has taken several great videos of their time during Music this week.
Please check out the Google Folder that has more pictures and videos
from this week (and a few from PE last week).
What a great week!
See you soon,
~Ms. Lauren
