Happy Halloween!

Thank you parents for all your help and support!  You made this party SPOOKtacular!

Thrilling Thursday

Here are some reminders about our upcoming party and parade:

Tomorrow, October 31, the elementary classrooms will have Halloween parties from 1:55-2:50.  We encourage students to wear costumes for the event.  Parade starts around 1:45.  Parents that are helping with the party are requested to be in K02 at 1:30 to help get costumes on.

Costumes must be appropriate for school:

• must be simple to get into without help
• no blood
• nothing too scary
• no play weapons
• no face make-up
• no colored hair spray

Reminder of Party Attendance by Visitors/Parent Volunteers: Parents that are coming to help in K02, please be in the room at 1:30 to help with costumes. Per school policy, no younger siblings may attend our classroom parties. Please make this a special time for your school-aged child. Alternative educational activities will be provided for any students who do not celebrate Halloween in the Library during this same time.  We appreciate all parents who are planning to help as room parents or other assistance for the parties.  Thank you for making other arrangements for younger siblings during this time.

• One other party expectation--Due to Confidentiality and FERPA requirements, all pictures or videos created during the party by parent/visitors must include ONLY your student. No other students can be a part of these images.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Conferences
Last day for conferences is tonight.  

Time Change

Reminder that the clocks are set back an hour on Saturday.

Today the counselor came in and talked about good touch, bad touch.  The kiddos have a worksheet in their bags today with a note about what was covered.

In reading, we made a book based on a poem called Rainbow Hair.  The kiddos made a poem book based on this.

In math, we played a game with our pattern blocks.

Wild Wednesday

Halloween is coming!

Here are some reminders about our upcoming party and parade:

On Friday, October 31, the elementary classrooms will have Halloween parties from 1:55-2:50.  We encourage students to wear costumes for the event.  Parade starts around 1:45.  Parents that are helping with the party are requested to be in K02 at 1:30 to help get costumes on.

Costumes must be appropriate for school:

• must be simple to get into without help
• no blood
• nothing too scary
• no play weapons
• no face make-up
• no colored hair spray

Reminder of Party Attendance by Visitors/Parent Volunteers: Parents that are coming to help in K02, please be in the room at 1:30 to help with costumes. Per school policy, no younger siblings may attend our classroom parties. Please make this a special time for your school-aged child. Alternative educational activities will be provided for any students who do not celebrate Halloween in the Library during this same time.  We appreciate all parents who are planning to help as room parents or other assistance for the parties.  Thank you for making other arrangements for younger siblings during this time.

• One other party expectation--Due to Confidentiality and FERPA requirements, all pictures or videos created during the party by parent/visitors must include ONLY your student. No other students can be a part of these images.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Conferences
Last day for conferences is Thursday night.  

Time Change

Reminder that the clocks are set back an hour on Saturday.

In reading we are spending a little time on review of the alphabet.  

We are also continuing our look at schema, or what we know.  We looked at a bunch of tools and learned that others know tools we do not and we know some that others don't.

In math we worked on a worksheet with Halloween patterns.

Trembling Tuesday

Halloween is coming!

Here are some reminders about our upcoming party and parade:

On Friday, October 31, the elementary classrooms will have Halloween parties from 1:55-2:50.  We encourage students to wear costumes for the event.  

Costumes must be appropriate for school:

• must be simple to get into without help
• no blood
• nothing too scary
• no play weapons
• no face make-up
• no colored hair spray

Students in grades K-1 will parade past all of the older classrooms at the beginning of the parties in their costumes.  

Reminder of Party Attendance by Visitors/Parent Volunteers: Parents that are coming to help in K02, please be in the room at 1:30 to help with costumes. Per school policy, no younger siblings may attend our classroom parties. Please make this a special time for your school-aged child. Alternative educational activities will be provided for any students who do not celebrate Halloween in the Library during this same time.  We appreciate all parents who are planning to help as room parents or other assistance for the parties.  Thank you for making other arrangements for younger siblings during this time.

• One other party expectation--Due to Confidentiality and FERPA requirements, all pictures or videos created during the party by parent/visitors must include ONLY your student. No other students can be a part of these images.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Conferences
Conferences are tonight and Thursday night.  I can't wait to show you all your child has done!

In Math, we are continuing to work on patterns.  Today we are looking at what patterns we can make with only 2 colors.

In reading, we are starting to learn about schema. Schema is what you already know.  By the end of our study, we will learn that experiences are different for everyone so everyone has a different schema.

Today we looked at tools and which ones we knew.  Tomorrow we are going to discuss how everyone looked at these differently.

Fun Friday

We had so much fun today!  With pajamas and crazy socks, it was very colorful in our room.  Those that brought money or a hygiene item got to spend all morning without shoes on.  That was a real treat!

Today we worked on our manners.  We learned that sometimes a bad day can spread to other people.  But if we work on our manners, then everyone can have a great day!

The counselor came in and talked about interrupting.  We learned that if you hold the words in your mouth, blow them out your nose, then you can suck them back in your mouth later when it is your turn.

We also finished our work on The Dot by Peter H Reynolds.  We learned that even if all you can make is a dot, you can turn that into something wonderful!

Reminder there is no school on Monday and next week is conferences and Halloween party/parade on Friday.

Thoughtful Thursday

Remember PJs and crazy socks tomorrow!  $1 or a hygiene item for the socks.  Kids already earned the PJs.

Today I woke up without a voice.  It can be difficult to teach without a voice so I only made it through a half day before my throat got too sore.

But while I was here, we continued to work with patterns in math.  We used shapes as well as colors.  Some of the kiddos are getting it, while others still struggle.  But we will have many more day of practice to master it!

In reading and writing, we are spending more time on germs.  With everyone starting to get sick, I am hoping we can learned good habits of washing hands and covering our coughs and sneezes.  They will be making an art project this afternoon about this and I want to hang them on the wall for you to see for conferences.

Windy Wednesday

Friday 

• Pajama Day!  The kiddos earned a special day so they may wear pajamas to school. (no cost for this!)
• "Socktober"When:  Friday, October 24, 2014
  What:  Students should bring a hygiene item (shampoo, soap, diapers, toothpaste, toothbrush, detergent, toilet paper) to school on Friday OR $1.00 and will be able to go "shoe-less" at some point during the day in their classroom.  We're also encouraging students to wear fun, crazy socks.
  *All items and money donated will be given to Peace Lutheran's Necessities For Neighbors program.Student Council will stop by each classroom at the end of the day on Friday to collect items and money.

All Week

• BINGO this week during morning meeting - Mr. D. reads off a few of the books available at the upcoming book fair.  If we get a BINGO, we can win book money for our room.  We are one square away from winning!

Today we had our last Artist in Residence.  We got to hear a story about a river monster that ate a family and how the daughter tricked the monster by feeding it rocks.

Then we got to spend time writing about one of the stories we heard about in Artist in Residence.  Hope wrote about the river monster.  Kelan wrote about last weeks story and the colorful flowers.

In writing we worked on signs we see.  We talked about stop signs, crossing signs, working signs, and many others.  Then we went to our notebooks and drew our own signs.  Isaac made a sign about no turtles crossing the street.

In math we are starting to look for patterns.  This week we are going to look for 2 color and 3 color patterns.

How do Kindergarteners read?

Friday 

• Pajama Day!  The kiddos earned a special day so they may wear pajamas to school.
• "Socktober"When:  Friday, October 24, 2014
  What:  Students should bring a hygiene item (shampoo, soap, diapers, toothpaste, toothbrush, detergent, toilet paper) to school on Friday OR $1.00 and will be able to go "shoe-less" at some point during the day in their classroom.  We're also encouraging students to wear fun, crazy socks.
  *All items and money donated will be given to Peace Lutheran's Necessities For Neighbors program.Student Council will stop by each classroom at the end of the day on Friday to collect items and money.

All Week

• BINGO this week during morning meeting - Mr. D. reads off a few of the books available at the upcoming book fair.  If we get a BINGO, we can win book money for our room.

Today I thought I would spend a little time explaining what is expected for reading in Kindergarten.  If you are like me, in Kindergarten the teacher read to us but we never did anything but look at pictures.  While I do read to the kids, we take reading farther than I did as a child.

In each of our books, we determine who is the author?  Who is the illustrator?  What do each of these people do?  How do the pictures help us figure out what the book is about?

We also talk about punctuation.  A period means stop.  A question mark means someone is asking something.  Quotes mean someone is talking.

We talk about spacing.  How there is a space between every word. All this happens before we even really read the book.

We look for words we must know.  In this room we call them snap words.  These words are simple words like: I, a, the, how, see, like, do, and you.  We should know all of these without having to sound them out or take time thinking about them.

With the harder words, we use letter sounds and split bigger words into chunks or syllables.   Today we looked at the word elephant.  We broke it down into el - e - phant.

If you are reading with your child at home, try some of these techniques and see what your kiddo will know.  They just might surprise you!

Beautiful Monday

Friday 

• Pajama Day!  The kiddos earned a special day so they may wear pajamas to school.
• "Socktober"When:  Friday, October 24, 2014
  What:  Students should bring a hygiene item (shampoo, soap, diapers, toothpaste, toothbrush, detergent, toilet paper) to school on Friday OR $1.00 and will be able to go "shoe-less" at some point during the day in their classroom.  We're also encouraging students to wear fun, crazy socks.
  *All items and money donated will be given to Peace Lutheran's Necessities For Neighbors program.Student Council will stop by each classroom at the end of the day on Friday to collect items and money.

All Week

• BINGO this week during morning meeting - Mr. D. reads off a few of the books available at the upcoming book fair.  If we get a BINGO, we can win book money for our room.

It looks like it is going to be a beautiful week!  So glad we have the sun shining.

In reading we are working at reading independently.  While this is something we will always be working on, this week we have found a book that we can read by ourselves.  Ask your child what his/her book is about!

We are also trying to sound out big words such as el-e-phant.

In math, we worked on our memorization skills.  I showed 6 items and had them close their eyes.  Then I hid one or two of them and the kids had to guess which one(s) were missing.  They did excellent on this.

In writing we are continuing to work on bats as well as get our conference folders ready to show you what we know.

Flying Friday

• Bring back coins for kids containers (even if you did not fill them).  We will use them again next year.
• Look in your child's Friday folder for conference times and the bookfair that also runs during conferences.  You will be able to see some books there that K02 would like to have for their book area as well as pick up some great holiday gifts!
• Prairie Pass - a paper was sent home today about the SD Prairie Book Challenge.
• "Socktober"When:  Friday, October 24, 2014 What:  Students should bring a hygiene item (shampoo, soap, diapers, toothpaste, toothbrush, detergent, toilet paper) to school on Friday OR $1.00 and will be able to go "shoe-less" at some point during the day in their classroom.  We're also encouraging students to wear fun, crazy socks.*All items and money donated will be given to Peace Lutheran's Necessities For Neighbors program.Student Council will stop by each classroom at the end of the day on Friday to collect items and money.

What a difference a day makes!  It looks like winter keeps trying to come early this year.  I hope we can hold it off a while longer.  Please watch the weather reports.  Some kids were very cold this morning for recess.  Also, be sure your child knows how to button, zip, snap and tie their own jackets and shoes.  If you can imagine, it takes a very long time if there are 22 kids needing helping getting ready for recess so having warm gear that is easy for the kiddos to get on makes it easier for all.

Another issue that has come up is snack time.  In the morning, the kiddos need a healthy snack to help them get through the day.   This means no candy bars, chocolate or other sweets.  With that being said, you need to make the best decision for your child on what is considered healthy. Some of the youngsters have been upset with what their friends bring.  If you are hearing this at home, please tell them what we say.  Each parent decides what to send for snack and all are fine.

We also worked with the counselor on tattling and telling.  We learned that if no one is hurt  then we should not tell.  This is something we are going to work on for a long time.

Thoughtful Thursday

Friday 

• Coins for Kids - In your child's backpack, is a container for coins for kids.  Please fill this container with coins.  Return the container, even if empty, tomorrow.  The containers will be used next year as well.
• Conferences - Conference schedule will be sent home on Friday.
• Book Fair - A book fair paper will also be sent home on Friday.  The Book Fair will be during conferences.

All week we have been learning about bats.  The group learned that not all bats drink blood.  In fact, only one kind does.  We also learned that bats are very shy so we don't need to worry about them.  We made a small writing book to show you at conferences.

We also worked on rhyming words.  We used the word "rat" and found as many words as we could with "at" at the end.

Pumpkin Patch!

Friday 

• Coins for Kids - In your child's backpack, is a container for coins for kids.  Please fill this container with coins and return by Friday, October 17th.
• Conferences - Conference schedule will be sent home on Friday.

First I have to tell you how proud I am of the kids today.  One of the people at the farm asked if we were older than the rest of the Kindergarten groups because we were so well behaved.  Great job K02!  What a wonderful compliment for our first field trip!

This morning we had Artist in Residence.  She is a published author and showed the kids some of the stories she has written and acted out a story for them too.

Here is us on our way to the pumpkin patch!

I love to take pictures so here are many of the pumpkin patch.  We learned how pumpkins grow, had snack, picked our pumpkins, rode around the farm, ran races, and heard a story.  I am sure all the kids are exhausted with all that we were able to do!  Thank you to my parent volunteers for the help.