Monday!

What a wonderful Monday we had today!  We started out by finishing our writing from last week.

FYI: With our writing, we are working on writing our name and date on the paper, drawing a picture of what we did in our story, labeling all the parts of our story and writing our sentence the best we can.   We are working on listening for all the sounds in the word, this is phonetic spelling, which means words are probably not going to be spelled correctly and that IS what we want at this point!  I have attached the same alphabet chart that we use in class, so your child can get used to looking for the picture for the initial sound.   Please do not help them spell the word, ask them to sound it out, you may help them at the beginning of stretching it out long so they can hear the sounds (snake= ssssnnnnaaaaaakkkkkkeee), then transfer the responsibility to them to sound it out.  This is one thing you do NOT want to do on a regular basis for your child, because then they are relying on you to sound out a word.  They must be able to do this on their own!  You could use this chart to help with writing homework sentences as well.

 Please note, I love this chart, but the only letter that doesn't start with the correct sound on this chart is the Xx, Xylophone doesn't start with the Xx sound.  We talked about how it should be an X-ray there instead.

After writing, we played with Play-Doh for a few minutes.  Then we interviewed our Camp Ranger of the Day, did Calendar, the Daily News, and wrote the campers name for their Name Book.  We then had a short recess.  After recess, we worked on counting to the number eight with objects in a tens frame, tall like a tower and long like a train.  We worked on how 5 and 3 make 8, then we completed our math page where we are creating 8 several ways with 5 and 3.  After math, we read "The Picnic at Apple Park," where several families went and had a picnic at Apple Park, they flew kites, played baseball, ate their picnic, their dogs found a skunk and then it rained on them, so it was time to go home.  The PM class also had Library today!

Reminders:
1) Tonight Homework is coming home in backpacks along with the Take Home Book!  Students should work on their homework packet.  Please just provide them a quiet spot and read the sentence prompt to them. If they ask how to spell something, just say..."use your best guess spelling! You can do it!" Please note that our building policy is to only give between 5-8 minutes of homework per day in kindergarten (that includes writing their sentence, three math problems, and reading their take home book). If you would like to give your child extra work, that's up to you. If you have questions regarding your child's homework and/or our homework policy, please email me.    

Here are some rules for you that will be very hard to stick to during writing homework:#1- Do not spell anything for them,#2 Do not write anything for them,#3 Do not tell them they wrote something incorrectly. You literally smile and say good job!  I am so proud of you!  That is perfect!  

2) Take Home books also came home today, so be sure to help your child point with their magic pointer finger to all the words as they are reading!  Remember you can help guide them and help them read the first time if needed, but they are pointing to the words. 

3) Donuts with Dad is October 22nd from 8-9am for AM and PM classes. Dads DO need to stay with students until 9am. There is not an early drop off.

4) Tonight is the second PTO meeting at 6:30!  If you can make it that would be great!

5) Just a reminder that the PTO and school calendars are linked on the side of the blog. All upcoming events are posted there and is a great resource.  You can click Here to see the PTO website!

Have a great evening!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer