week of school! What an exciting week we had! Your children are amazing and I am so excited to learn with them this year.
I hope your student told you about at least one or two of the fun activities we did, and that they were not too exhausted by Friday afternoon. If they were, don’t worry! It is completely normal for them to need time to adjust to the new routine of school! It is also normal for your child not to want to talk about their kindergarten day. To some, it can be overwhelming to think about what they did since we do so much.
A few tips for talking to your Kindergartener about their day at school:
1. Start first with recess. Ask what they did, who they played with.
2. Ask specific questions such as “What was your favorite station activity?”,
“Did your teacher read you any books?”, or “What did you choose to play for choice time”.
3. Look at the classroom blog together and talk together about what is happening in the pictures.
In case there were holes in your student’s report, here is a recap of what we were up to in class last week…
Chasing Our Gingerbread Cookies!? | Introducing Ms. Katz |
Agreeing to Be Kind, Safe and Fair | Assessing Our Listening |
Social and Emotional Learning ~ Class Meetings & Calm Body Spots
On Thursday, Julietta Skoog, our school counselor, came by and read us a book called Jared's Cool-Out Space. We really liked the book, and talked to her about ways we can cool down when our body does not feel calm or ready to learn. Many students expressed an interest in creating a cool-out space at home, like Jared did in the book, and plan to talk to their families about doing so. |
Class meetings are one of the positive discipline tools I will use this year to create a safe, trusting learning environment that empowers the kids to feel like they are connected and significant members of our learning community. We had our first one on Friday, and we practiced taking turns talking and listening using our talking (rain) stick. We also talked about what a compliment was (telling someone something you appreciate or admire about them) and learned the difference between outside compliments (about something external ~ clothes or looks) and inside compliments (about internal qualities ~ personality traits, practiced skills… ) . Each day, our class meeting will begin with students giving and receiving inside compliments.
This Week...
Kindergarten Learning Behaviors | Classroom Jobs! |
I am looking forward to starting another fun and exciting week on Monday! Mr. Elliott has been working with the district on moving our wait list, so we are all looking forward to welcoming our final student this week. We will continue to work on our classroom kindergarten routines, teaching our new friend all of the things we learned about our classroom and school last week. For kindergarteners, clear expectations and lots and lots of practice really set kids up for success. We will continue to do a lot of fun practicing of what it looks like and sounds like to do different things in our class such as coming to the carpet, lining up and walking in lines, and learning together during carpet lessons, learning stations and readers and writers workshop. | On Monday, I will assign each student their first classroom job. They will have this first job for two weeks, getting to know how to do it well and drawing/writing a job description for the job that will help teach others how to do the job. After the initial two weeks, jobs will be rotated every week on Monday. Students will have an opportunity to do every job at least one time during the year. The point of kindergarten jobs is to build community and ensure that the students know that they have an important role in our classroom. |
Readers' and Writers' WorkshopsWe will launch Readers' Workshop and Writers' Workshop this week, teaching students the workshop routines as well as the following teaching points: ~ Readers take care of books. ~ Readers use pictures to read stories. ~ Writers use pictures to tell stories. I will be blogging more in the upcoming weeks about what Readers' and Writers' Workshop are and what they look in our kindergarten classroom. These instructional strategies are magical, and I can’t wait for you to experience your child’s growth as they are exposed to them. If you have any questions, please always feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. If you have an urgent matter, please do not hesitate to call or text my cell phone at 206)786-3743. Enjoy your week! Katie | Family Homework!Every once in a while, I will send homework home for you to do with your student. The first assignment will come home on Monday in your student's orange folder, and will ask you to: ~ Log on to our classroom website with your student, and go to our Class Blog! page. Read the post to your student and look at the photos. Leave a comment about our learning for our class to read. ~ Go to the Student E-Folio tab. This will eventually be where your student's electronic kindergarten portfolio will live, but while the portfolios are being constructed it is housing our class photo page. (password is explorers). Look at the pictures with your student and practice names. Ask your student to point out friends. If your child does not feel like she/he knows anyone yet, role play things he/she could say to initiate a friendship. Let me know if you ever want some help with this ~ I love to help friends become friends! ~ Follow our class on Twitter! @msCLqae Please take time to do this homework by Friday, Sept. 12th. |