Upcoming Events

We have several upcoming events. This week on Friday, December 10th, at 2:15 p.m. the kindergarten classes will be holding a Christmas Concert at the JPS Gym. Come join us and sing some wonderful Christmas songs. December 14th we will have fall picture retakes. December 16th is the day of our Christmas party. We will have the party at around 1:45 p.m. I will be sending notes home regarding the party this week. December 17th is an early release day. We will be getting out of school at around 12 p.m. 

Graphing

We worked on graphing in the past few weeks. We have graphed the letters in our names, our birthdays, and even our favorite type of pets. Below is a picture of a quick graph that we made on the board with our names. The kids loved getting to count the amount of letters in their name and going to the board to graph it. 

Our Thanksgiving Turkey

 Here are pictures of our beautiful Thanksgiving turkey. The kids did a fantastic job on their feathers!! 

Evacuation Drill

Just a reminder...we are having an evacuation drill tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. We will be getting on the bus to go to our evacuation site, the Kellyville Center. This will be just a practice drill. I have already talked to the kids about it. I told the kids we were practicing in case we had an emergency, such as the losing power. 

Field Trip

 

We are heading to Calie's Acres Pumpkin Patch on Tuesday, October 26th. The cost for students is free, parents are $6 and siblings are $5. Please make sure your child is wearing tennis shoes and is dressed for the weather. Your child will also need a bottle of water for the field trip. Don't forget to send your child's sack lunch if he or she is bringing one from home. 

mClass Assessment

This week all of kindergarten will be completing our beginning of the year mClass assessment. This test is timed so please do not panic if your child scores below his or her normal ability level. The assessment will have items such as letter naming, sight word recognition, listening, phonemic awareness, and even blending. Students will have one minute to complete some of the activities. I will send home these results as soon as I am able to. 

Leaf Creatures

Our class is welcoming in Fall with our own art project. We created our own leaf creatures during our STEAM specials time. We discussed the seasons and what happens during each. The kids were super excited about snow in winter! They had fun making their own unique leaf animal. 
 

Our Class

 

We are still working in class on our classroom rules and making good choices. It has been a transition for some students and is just taking us a little longer to get into our routine. However, I feel like we are making good steps in the right direction! 

I will send home some testing results later in the week. These results are from testing completed in the classroom and through a program called Istation. If you have any questions or concerns about the results, please let me know. I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. 

Testing

This week we will start our beginning of the year testing. I will assess your child on their letter and sound knowledge, number recognition, and more. I want to see where your child is academically. I would like to know where we need to start our year off. We have spent the last few weeks working on the basics in our classroom. We focused on our classroom rules and how our classroom runs daily. Now we will focus more on small group learning. 

Updates

This week we are working on the numbers 0-5 and letters M/T. We are still practicing our classroom routines and procedures. I know this week will be absolutely crazy with the full moon. Whenever there is a full moon, our class typically goes WILD!! 

Be sure to practice recognizing those four sight words. We will add another four next week and continue throughout the year. It is important that we learn our sight words. These words are the most common ones found in text. Learning these words helps students become better readers. 

We are still keeping to our COVID protocols in class. We are washing our hands as much as possible. Using our hand sanitizer consistently in between. We are wiping down and sanitizing our tables during the day. We are trying our best to be as safe as possible in the classroom. 

Welcome!!

It was so great to see everyone on Meet the Teacher Night. I am very excited about our class. I can't wait until Wednesday!! I have included some takeaways below to think about for this upcoming year. 

• Please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. You can send me a note in your child's binder, call/text me on my cell (903)-702-5076, or call our classroom phone at (903)-665-2461 ext: 4204. If you call our classroom phone, it will not ring during the school day. Please just leave a voicemail and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Contact the main office to speak with our secretary if you have a transportation change or an emergency. 

• Your child will receive a binder for day to day communication. This binder will include their behavior chart, newsletters, homework, reading log, etc. Please send it back daily. This is the fastest way to learn about what is happening in our classroom. 

• Be sure to take a look at our schedule. We have very little downtime. The kids won't take a nap. We are extremely busy throughout our day. Pay attention to our PE schedule. We have PE on Tuesdays and Fridays this year. Please make sure your child wears appropriate footwear for the gym. Closed toe shoes or tennis shoes would be best. Coach Purifoy has some awesome things planned for our class this year!! 

• Your child can bring their lunch box this year. We will help children open items in their lunch box. However, we do encourage them to attempt to open items first. We will have ice cream for them to purchase as well. It is a $1 for an ice cream. I will send more information home regarding purchasing in the cafeteria. 

Graduation and EOY Events

We have discussed graduation this past week and come up with some ideas. Mrs. Whitaker will be sending home a note this upcoming week to explain our plans. If you have any questions or concerns about graduation, please feel free to contact me. If I am unable to answer your question, I will follow up with Mrs. Whitaker to give you an answer. 

We will have a field day for the kids. We will have sack races, kickball, bubbles, and more. Unfortunately due to COVID protocols, we will be unable to have parents on campus. 

Teacher appreciation week is coming up and Ms. Shyger is looking for parent volunteers. If you would like to help her, please let me know or contact Ms. Shyger at 903-665-2461 extension 3490. 

STEAM

We completed a STEAM activity last week. We have one day a week that we dedicate to science activities for our specials. We used gumdrops and toothpicks to create 2D or 3D objects. The kids had fun building their own creation. 

Picture Day

Don't forget: Thursday is picture day! We will be taking group pictures and graduation pictures. Come dressed to impress!

What We've Been Up To

We have jumped head first into our week. We have been working on 3D shapes, Christopher Columbus, a STEM activity, CVC words, and sight word building. We are always BUSY!! The kids loved our STEM activity this past week. We made butter!! They LOVED it so much! It is such a hands on activity. I enjoyed sharing this experience with our class. Below are a few of our pictures of our activities. 

2D Shapes and George Washington

Here are some pictures of the activities that we have done in class. We are working on a 2D fox triangle right now. All I can say is that each one is very unique! 

Virtual Learning

We have done a fantastic job with our virtual learning this past week. I am very proud of how much they all have accomplished. Thank you for your support as well. I couldn't have done it without you all. Please remember to return all Ipads, hotspots, and Ipad chargers. We utilize these Ipads in class and will need all of the equipment to continue. 

Sentence Building

We have been working on the first and last words in a sentence. This helps us with learning the direction of how we read. We studied how first words often have a capital letter and start our sentence. Last words come before the punctuation in a sentence. The class built their sentences to apply what we learned. 

Yay! It's the 100th Day!

 

Groundhog Day

We studied groundhogs for Groundhog Day. The class wasn't sure exactly what a groundhog was, but we quickly learned. We studied all about Punxsutawney Phil. We voted on the extension of winter or early spring. Below is our groundhog craft. Each one is unique. I love them!!

Moon Phases

We studied the moon phases in Science this week. We looked at the full moon, new moon, and quarter moons. We colored in each circle and then used oreos to recreate the pictures. The kids had a fun time creating their moon phases. The oreos were a nice treat afterwards!

January Snowmen

Here is a picture of our bulletin board. It turned out fantastic! I was so excited to see the different snowmen that the kids created. 

MClass Testing

Next week we will complete our MClass testing in reading. This is a timed test. It will cover a range of topics, such as blending, letter recognition, and listening comprehension. From that data, the Dyslexia therapist will examine the scores and determine if your child might have risk factors for dyslexia. I have attached the letter below from our therapist, Jessica Clark. Please read and feel free to contact me with any questions.

First Spelling Test

 

Our first spelling test went fantastic. Most of our class was able to sound out the words and match the sound to the correct letter. I was very proud of how far they have come. We have another spelling test this week. I can't wait to see how they do. We will study the Ug word family. This list will include words such as bug, hug, and slug. Please continue to help your child practice their spelling words by reading, writing, and spelling each one.