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Weekly News 1/30/12

2012-01-30T22:56:00.002-05:00

It's great to see so many parents sign up for volunteering. If you didn't get the chance to check out the new online sign-up, and would like to, copy this link into your browser. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0A4AA8AF2DA46-parent.

Last week we finished up our second quarter and report cards will be coming home this Wednesday. We have begun our third unit in Fundations, which focuses on sounding out the individual sounds within words. We are also beginning to focus more on rhyming words. There are a lot of fun rhyming games out there you can play with your children for added practice. Speaking on adding...we are continuing to work on our addition and very soon will be moving on to subtraction. The children are doing so well with this skill!

We have an assembly this Friday for those that earned the good behavior award for the month of January. We will be having a small little tailgate for the school and the high school band will be coming over to play for the kids and telling the children what it is like to be in a band.

Next Monday we will be attending a Field Trip to Avon Lake Library. Please be looking for the permission forms to come home this week. I will choose volunteers by picking names from a hat :)
Also next week we will be holding conferences all day Wednesday. I look forward to meeting with those of you who signed up.

Have a great week!

Weekly News 1/23/12

2012-01-23T21:54:00.003-05:00

We had a good, but short, week last week. The main items that we worked on were, Fundations, addition, and Pushes and Pulls. This week we will be finishing up our letters in Fundations. We are also beginning to delve deeper into segmenting the sounds within cvc words. We have been tapping out, (sounding out words, but with or fingers as guides), to help hear the individual sounds that make up words and to help us write them. This skill helps when we are writing as well, which is something that we will be doing on a weekly basis now. Last week we read a book called, "Snowmen at Night", which is a silly little book about what snowmen do while we are all asleep. We then followed it up with writing about what we think snowmen do at night.
In science we have been exploring forces, more specifically, pushes and pulls. We will soon have a field trip coming up to the library to learn more about this topic. I will send home information soon and be asking for volunteers on the field trip form. The trip will be on Monday, February 6. We have been doing a great job with addition and have been practicing in our packets kept here at school.
As many of you have already noticed, I have changed the set-up for volunteering in the classroom. Another teacher at Erieview found a great site to have volunteers freely sign up for the days that work best for them, so I have decided to give it a try. I see that many of you have already signed up for days, thank you, this is making a lot less work for me. In addition, it allows you to choose the best days for you. I tried my best to blackout any days off that we will have and apologize if I have missed any. I welcome your feedback on this and any suggestions you may have. I left Valentine's Day off the calendar because we will be having a little party where all parents are welcome to attend. Thank you for all the support that you are able to give us.
Last Friday marked the end of the second quarter. This week we will be assessing and continuing to work on the same type of items as last week. I hope you had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying this crazy weather.

Weekly News 1/16/12

2012-01-16T23:21:00.003-05:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful MLK day today and were able to enjoy some of the snow this weekend before it all melted. We built a snowman this morning and it already fell down with the rain. I can't believe it is January!

We had a nice week last week. We are continuing to work through the uppercase letters and are also reviewing how lowercase letters are written...we need a little brushing up on some of these. We are still working on addition in math and beginning to learn about pushes and pulls in science.
We wrote a mini journal this week about snow and also wrote a sentence about Martin Luther King.
We read a story about MLK this week and discussed how he, and others, were once treated. We did a little activity to follow-up on this and then brainstormed all the great things MLK did. I don't think I have ever had a class so involved in the discussion. It was very inspiring to see how his life could even touch a Kindergartner.
In your child's school folder Friday I sent home a conference form for February. You will see that I have attached an additional form that pertains to our class only. On our conference date, February 8th, I will be beginning our conferences early in the morning and going through the night. Your children will still have their normal school day, but will have a substitute. This is to ensure that everyone can have a conference, I am only scheduled, through the district, for one night of conferences, so although I can make arrangements to have conferences before or after your child's school day I am unable to do conferences other days past 12. We can also arrange for phone conferences if needed. Please let me know of any questions you have about this.

Please remember that this is a short wee for your children since teachers have an in-service that they have to attend on Friday.

Weekly News 1/8/12

2012-01-08T23:11:00.002-05:00

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a wonderful winter break. It went fast, but I'm glad to be back to school. This week we began our uppercase letters. We speed through these, completing about 2 a day. We learn how to print them and review the sounds that they make. We are really starting to focus on putting letters together to form words and have been practicing by creating nonsense words as well as writing journals where I really have them practice spelling out words on their own. Nonsense words are simple cvc words, like cat, consonant/vowel/consonant, but are not real words. I make up a words like hup and then we sound out the words to see if we can correctly pronounce them. It is more challenging then sounding out real words and gives me an idea of where your children are at. Everyone seems to be catching on really quick.
We read a book called Corduroy this week. In this story a little bear, that lives in a department store, has lost his button and goes looking for it in the store at night. He never finds it, but finds a new home the next day where his new owner replaces the button. It is a loving story about accepting others for who they are. We discussed it and then wrote a journal page on where he could have originally lost his button. They children had to try to sounds out words for themselves which they did really well.
In math we are easing our way into addition. We have been playing several games together this week with adding dice together. We have been doing this on the ACTIVBoard and have been playing class vs. me.
It was a great week back.

Weekly News 12/18/11

2011-12-18T22:15:00.003-05:00

We have had a busy couple weeks getting ready for the Winter concert, creating Christmas books, completing Gingerbread Math, and learning about the different holidays that are celebrated in other cultures. We have finished our lowercase letters in Fundations and have been practicing forming and writing new words. We have also been working on beginning and ending sounds. After break we will be starting on the Uppercase letter. This is fast paced!
We finished working on our Gingerbread math booklets and you will see them come home Tuesday. Papers were not sent home Friday since this week is so short. This past week we did send home a Christmas tree that the children made. This was a math lesson on comparing lengths. We completed it step by step and at the end they discovered it made a Christmas tree.
This week is only two days long. Monday's main event will be our holiday party where we decorate gingerbread houses. Thank you to all who sent in the materials I assigned you. The children will have so much fun with these.
Tuesday will be our school-wide Polar Express Day. The children will be permitted to come to school in their pajamas and will get a ticket to enter the building as in the movie, "Polar Express". The children will then watch this movie with our class.
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday break.

Weekly News 12/4/11

2011-12-04T23:13:00.003-05:00

We have been busy bees getting ready for the Winter Break! In Fundations we learned the letters q and z. We started the week doing the chicken dance in honor of the letter q since it is a chicken and won't go anywhere without the the u. This coming week we will learn our last two lowercase letters, x and y.
We will be creating 3 books before the Christmas holiday begins. This past week we made and read a book called the Colors of Christmas. Each child completed the pictures for morning work and at the end of the week we put the book together and each child read the story to me. I hope that you will ask them to share it with you at home, there are some great rhyming words within the story.
In math we are continuing to practice counting from various starting points. This is a difficult concept for many children, please practice this at home with them. We also began our Gingerbread math booklets. We will be doing many activities with our paper Gingerbread boy. Our Social Studies goals for this month are learning about the traditions of different cultures. We will be learning about the different celebrations that occur around the world during this month.
Our class also wrote a book together called "Can You See The..." We compiled everyone's pages that answered this question with a Christmas theme and each student will get the opportunity to take it home to read to their family. Please remind your children that it is to be returned the next day. This will continue on through the new year because some children have already forgotten to bring it back.
We will be starting our Mystery Bag this week. One child at a time will be taking the Mystery bag home. Directions will be located inside the bag.
In case you were wondering and your children forgot to tell you...I took home their binders this weekend to spruce them up a bit. Many received new folders.
One last thing...Our Kindergarten class will be decorating Gingerbread Houses at our holiday party. I will be sending home letters with the item that they are responsible for bringing in this week. Please look for it in their binders.
I hope everyone had a great weekend.

Weekly News 11/13/11

2011-11-13T22:07:00.002-05:00

Thank you to all that attended conferences the past week. It was nice to share with you how your child has been doing and getting feedback from you as well. This week we worked with the letters w and v. We will be stretching these letters out to this week as well since we are having a busy couple weeks getting ready for Thanksgiving. On Monday we attended our Field trip on Trees, I think the children really enjoyed learning about the different parts of a tree and the animals that live there. On Tuesday your children had the day off while I attended informative district meetings. Wednesday through Friday we worked on Fundations and our math teen number book. We also made items to go along with Thanksgiving and completed our tree unit.
Tomorrow we have our Parent Visitation at 10:00. Hopefully all the children will have someone there with them to help complete the activities to prepare for our feast, but if you could not get someone to attend, I will pair children with others. Tomorrow will be run with stations, similar to apple day but not as structured. Your children will be decorating pillowcases that will be their outfit next Tuesday, making necklaces that the Indians wore, creating place mats, and making head dresses. There will be instructions at each station as well as samples.
See many of you tomorrow.

Weekly news 11/6/11

2011-11-06T21:44:00.002-05:00

Can you believe that the first quarter is already over and it is November?! We have a lot going on to prepare for our Kindergarten Feast for Thanksgiving. This week we learned the letters p and j, which we celebrated by wearing our pj's to school on Friday, what a comfy day for all of us..including our parent helper :). In math we are continuing to learn our teen numbers, the children are doing very well with this concept. We finished our color packet and it was sent home on Friday.
Tomorrow we will be going to the library in the morning for our field trip about trees. Thank you to all that volunteered to come with us. There will be more opportunities this year to attend a field trip if you did not get picked this time. Please remember that there is no school Tuesday since the teachers have an all day meeting.
A couple dates to keep in mind this month....
November 14th- parent visitation. This is where we prepare for our Thanksgiving Feast by making items for that day. We ask that each child bring in a white pillowcase, already cut, ( I will send home instructions for this). We also ask that each child has someone to help them make their items, if possible, it can be a parent or grandparent. More information will be sent home this week about this.
November 22nd- Thanksgiving Feast...I will send home more information about this. Parents are not required to attend.
See many of you Wednesday at conferences. If your conference is Wednesday, I will give you your child's report card then.

Weekly News 10/31/11

2011-10-31T21:41:00.002-04:00

This past week we focused on three letters in Fundations..l,k, and h. All these letter begin on the sky line and go straight down to the grass line so they are taught together. You'll notice that this week's homework has all three letters and I did not send home a math homework. A math homework sheet will be coming home tomorrow. It is something simple that goes along with their Halloween candy.
In math this past week we began our teen number book and also continued with our basic math concepts of number sense. In science we continued with our tree unit and next Monday we will be taking a field trip across the street to the library for a program on trees. Field trip forms will also go home tomorrow. Please return them as soon as possible so I can notify volunteers.
On Friday we celebrated a month of good behavior by attending a fall festival in the gym. The children had a great time participating in the obstacle course, dancing, and getting their face painted. Thank you to all the parents that were able to volunteer.
Speaking of volunteers, thank you to all that helped out at the Halloween party today, the children really enjoyed it. Special thank you to our head room mom, Ms. Bye, for organizing everything.

Can you believe that the first quarter is over already! We will be finishing up assessments this week and I will see everyone next Wednesday, unless other arrangements have been made, for conferences.

This week we are learning the letters p and j. On Friday the children will be allowed to wear their pj's to school :)

Information on our school-wide rewards for good behavior

2011-10-25T22:44:00.002-04:00

October 2011

Dear Parents,

The Erieview staff is fully committed to helping all children be successful in learning
academic content as well as developing socially responsible behaviors. A team effort is
necessary to attain these goals. This year, Erieview staff and students are working
together on a school wide theme of Best Effort. Every teacher and special area will be
utilizing the Best Effort Points in conjunction with our Erieview Expectations (school
wide rules). The goal of this building wide program is to promote individual
responsibility, enhance our positive and safe learning environment, and develop peer
relationships.

The Erieview Expectations that every child knows and follows are the basis for the Best
Effort Points system. As an incentive for students to earn Best Effort Points and
demonstrate positive choices, students will be rewarded with an end of the month
assembly or activity.

If a child does not follow the rules, he or she may lose Best Effort Points. Kindergarten,
First, and Second grade students may lose up to 5 Best Effort Points and still attend the
monthly reward. Third and Fourth grade students may lose up to 3 Best Effort Points.
Students that do not earn the opportunity to attend the reward will be under the
supervision of a staff member.

Thank you for partnering with us to help our children develop academic and social skills
that extend beyond the classroom walls. Your support and commitment to helping
Erieview be a wonderful school for the success of all children is appreciated and
commendable.

Sincerely,

Mr. Bosworth & The Erieview Staff

Weekly News 10/23/11

2011-10-23T23:13:00.003-04:00

This past week we began our unit on trees. We discussed the parts of a tree and how important they are. We will continue this for the next couple weeks in preparation for our field to the library the second week of November. Information and permission forms will be coming home soon. When they are sent home please indicate whether or not you would like to attend. If I have more volunteers than needed, I will randomly choose. I will send out an email letting you know if you have been chosen.
In Fundations we have been continuing on the same track of learning our lowercase letters. A few sounds I would like practiced at home are the vowels, we learn short vowel sounds, the letter c and g... we learn the hard sounds of these two letters as in the words cat and game. Many of the children are getting confused thinking they are the soft sounds that you would hear at the beginnings of centipede and germ. We are nearing the end of the quarter so we will be assessing the children starting this week. These assessments, paired with what I see in class, will produce their marks on their upcoming report cards. Also, please make sure that you are continuing to practice their flashcards that have been sent home periodically throughout the year so far.
We have been breaking into groups 1-2 times a week for language arts. This is so I can give more focused individual instruction to each child. We practice our letter sounds, sight words, and beginning writing skills in these group times, depending on your child's readiness.

I will be out Monday, but plan on being back on Tuesday. Have a great week!

Weekly News 10/16/11

2011-10-16T23:12:00.002-04:00

We had a busy week last week. Monday we learned about Christopher Columbus and made hats that depicted the three ships he sailed to help discover what we call America. The kids watched a four minute video clip on him that helped to show what the journey for him was like. Tuesday we celebrated Fire Safety week by being visited from a fireman and learning about the important things to do if there is a fire in your home. In our classroom we read a book about fire safety and made fire safety poster, which are hanging in our hallway.
In Fundations we reviewed our past letters and learned the letters 'd' and 's'. This coming week will be more difficult for many because they are the vowels 'e' and 'u'. Please be sure to practice their letter sounds with them at home.
We focused on the sight word 'am' this past week reading our short readers that contained the words. We practiced writing in our journals using this word. Flashcards have been added to their binders, please be sure to flash the children throughout the week.
In math we will be beginning the teen numbers as we finish our numbers 0-9. We practiced measuring this week and continued with math skills that we practice each week, like patterns.
I hope that everyone had a safe day off on Friday.

Weekly News 10/9/11

2011-10-09T14:52:00.003-04:00

This past week we focused on the letters 'o' and 'g'. Vowel sounds are difficult for many Kindergartners so please be sure to review them daily. We continued to practice our numbers and counting this week as well as sorting, graphing, and counting down. We completed several activities where we incorporated spiders, which included an interactive spider story where the children were given a spider to help act out the book. Ask your children to read the book with you, they loved working on it at school. Another book that came home with your children on Friday is "I Like", which is one of our readers that introduces the word, 'to'. Please make sure to practice the flashcards with your children daily. This weeks new word will be 'am'.
We completed our unit on the five senses this week. We had fun exploring the different types of taste that our tongues recognize...sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Sour seemed to be the class favorite.
This week coming up we will recognize Columbus Day and on Tuesday we will have a visit from the fire department for fire safety week. We also will be continuing to prepare for Halloween. Please remember that there is no school Friday.

School Pictures

2011-10-04T18:08:00.002-04:00

FYI...School pictures are in your child's binders today.

School-wide monthly theme

2011-10-03T23:13:00.003-04:00

Dear Parents,
This year Erieview will strive toward a theme each month. September's theme was Respect. As a class we discussed the meaning of respect and how important it is to be respectful to others. Each month, each teacher will take this theme and choose one student that really showed that characteristic throughout the month. This month I chose Liam Ballerini for showing consistent respect to all. Congratulations Liam! Liam will be given an Eagle award that was presented by Mr. Bosworth. I did have several children that I wanted to choose, so I put many names in a hat and picked one out :) I will get back to you on next month's theme, it is currently slipping my mind.

Germ Season

2011-10-03T23:06:00.002-04:00

Just a note...We had seven children out today. We have a nasty virus going around in our class. I'm doing my best to have the children wash their hands throughout the day and I am also disinfecting the tables and materials at the end of the day. Hopefully it will come to an end soon :(

Weekly News 10/2/11

2011-10-03T22:49:00.006-04:00

Last week we incorporated teddy bears into our lessons to bring the lesson to life. With those teddy bears we had a lot of fun by measuring, sorting, and graphing them in class. We also danced and sang with our furry friends. We also read a book about a boy losing his teddy. In this story he went to the forest to find it and instead found a gigantic teddy that he thought was his. At the same time in the story a big bear was crying because his teddy had shrunk. The bear and the boy realize that they have each other's teddy bear and switch them back. As a follow-up to the story, the children drew the setting, the forest, on a piece of paper. Then I gave the children a copy of the characters in the book to cut out and paste to their setting so that they could retell the story. If you saw this paper in their binders last Friday ask your children to retell the story to you. Thank you for sending the teddy in with your children.

Last week's letters were 'i' and 'r'. Please remember that all the vowels we learn this year should be practiced as a short vowel sound. Also, please remember that the sight words are located in their binders and should be flashed throughout the week.
This week we will be incorporating Spiders into to some lessons to help prepare us for Halloween.
Have a great week!

Weekly News 9/25/11

2011-09-25T15:01:00.003-04:00

What a great week we had in Kindergarten! This week was our Apple Week. Thank you to all the parent volunteers that helped us to have a successful learning day with an apple theme.
This week we learned the letters 'a' and 'c'. We continue to focus on two letters at a time working on the way we write them and the sounds that they make. 'A' is our first vowel sound that we have learned and in Kindergarten we will focus on the short vowel sounds, rather than the long vowel sounds. We also begin to focus on words that begin with the letter sounds that we learn and write some in our journals.
We focused a lot on learning patterns this week. The main focus was AB patterns, but we also touched upon ABB patterns as well as ABC patterns.
We will continue to learn our color words as well as our five senses in the coming week. Have a great week!

Weekly News 9/18/11

2011-09-18T20:57:00.003-04:00

Thank you for your cooperation this past week with me being out for district meetings Monday and Wednesday. Although I don't like being out, especially at the beginning of the year, I got an excellent report from the substitute.
This past week your children continued to learn new letters with the letters m & n. We learned their sounds and the proper way to write the letters. We will continue this method for all the lowercase letters which will help us to build and read words. We also began to write in our word journals. In these journals we choose a letter to focus on and brainstorm words that begin with that letter and then we choose three to add to our journals and illustrate the words.
We also continued to learn our color words and added a page to our book we are creating. This will continue through October.
In science we began our unit on the five senses by taking a nature, listening, walk. We discussed all that we heard and what we would do without the ability to hear.
In Math we are continuing to work on number sense, which includes counting by 1's, five's and ten's. We also are working on printing our numbers and representing them.
Thursday we celebrated Constitution Day by learning what the Constitution was, listening to a song that described it, and creating our own classroom constitution.

This week we will be focusing on several new skills and learning the new words green and like. We also will be introducing patterns in math and continuing the five senses. Our weekly letters are the letters, 'a' and 'c'.
On Friday we will be having Apple Day. We will be going to different stations to learn certain skills in a fun way.

I will be beginning volunteers this week, the calendar will be sent home tomorrow for this. If you are unable to volunteer on the day I assign you, you may switch with another parent on your own or let me know and I will take care of it. Have a great week.

Weekly News 9/9/11

2011-09-09T17:33:00.003-04:00

This week flew by! We began to learn our letters by beginning with the letters, t, b, and f. As we introduce each letter we associate them with the letter name, picture clue, and letter sound. For example t is t, top, /t/. Next week your children will be getting their first Fundations homework for these three letters. Along with the homework will be a guide to help you see the proper way that we teach them to write the letters. Please read the directions with your children and make sure they have a pencil to use.
In math this week we worked on learning our numbers and also began to compare the lengths of different pieces of paper with others around the room.
We are continuing to work on our color words and also introduced the words I and see. As we get into the school year more we will be increasing the amount of work and more flashcards will be coming home, please make sure to practice them with your child.
Next week....
* If you want to order from Scholastics, I will be placing the order on Friday.
* Thursday, in celebrating Constitution Day, the children are encouraged to dress in red, white, and blue.
* Friday is picture day!
* Monday and Wednesday I have teacher meetings so there will be a substitute on those days.

Have a great weekend!

Scholastics book club

2011-09-03T17:13:00.002-04:00

Dear Parents,
This year I will be offering you a chance to purchase books for your children through Scholastic Books. There are incredible deals that are offered and the points that are earned from these purchases will be used to purchase new books for our classroom. This can be completed through the internet following the link to scholastic on the right side of our Blog and then entering our class code, also located on the right side of our Blog. The deadline for the September order will be September 16th.

Weekly News 9/3/11

2011-09-03T16:28:00.002-04:00

Welcome to our class blog!

Our first full week is complete and we are starting to establish a routine. We have done a lot this week to ease into Kindergarten and have been learning about the rules to help this year to be successful.
This week we learned about our Fundations program and your children were introduced to our writing grid we will be using throughout the year. You'll be hearing a lot about having to use our sky, plane, grass, and worm lines when writing our letters and numbers. We read several books this week, including David, which follows the title character throughout the book as he gets in trouble for breaking the rules. As a follow-up to the book we made our own Davids as vowed to try our best to follow the rules.
This week we also began to write the number two using our grid. This is something that I will be sending home to practice for homework this week.
We also began learning our color words this week by starting with the color red. As we learn each color we will start to build a color book that each child will take home.

A couple reminders....
Please return all paperwork that I had given you during orientation from the office and myself.
Please remember to send a snack in with your children each day, water is the only drink permitted.
Please remember to send in your $15.00 cash sunshine fee for items I purchase throughout the year, including pictures that are developed for their end of the year scrapbooks.
Please check their binders daily for important information.
No school Monday because of Labor Day.

I will be getting a volunteer calendar together soon so please be looking for it in your child's binder.

Have a great long weekend.

Weekly News 5/22/11

2011-05-22T21:21:00.003-04:00

No baby yet, so far, I'm still around! I hope that everyone enjoying the nice weather this weekend.
This past week we have been working on a creating a book of rhymes. The book will hopefully be completed by the end of this week for the children to take home to read to you and other family members. We also have been working on fractions this past week and will continue to work on them this coming week. The work is very basic and concentrates on dividing items up into halves, fourths, and thirds. The idea is to help build a foundation for the children as they continue onto further grades.
This past week I sent home journals that the students have been keeping throughout the school year. You can see the growth that they have had as the year went on. On Thursday, COSI came to our school and the children learned about the different systems that we have in the human body. The children were able to explore through experiments and even got to see what their skin looked like under a close microscope.

Next week we will be eating lunch in the cafeteria on Wednesday. We are going to be eating at around 10:45, I know this is early, but because of the schedule for lunches, as well as us being half day, it is the only time that works for us. Your children will be given the option to buy the school lunch for that day, which is Dominoes pizza, or bring their own lunch. I will be sending you the order form via email tonight, and I will also be sending a hard copy home tomorrow. If you are planning on having them order a lunch for Wednesday, the form needs to be returned by Tuesday.

Have a wonderful week!

Weekly News 5/7/11

2011-05-07T22:51:00.005-04:00

We had a great week back. This week we continued to learn about time to the nearest hour. All the children did a wonderful job with this concept. Next week we will be working on subtraction. Each morning we have been continuing to scroll as well. The children are doing a fabulous job writing their numbers and many of them are at the 200 level already. We even have someone that has written all the way to 800 so far.
This week we also reviewed our sight words that we have learned so far. We have one reader left this year. I'm so impressed with the great effort that all the children have put into learning the sight words this year.
We also have been continuing to write journals on a regular basis. The children are becoming very good at this and are beginning to understand the basic mechanics of writing.
This Friday the students will be going on a Field Trip to the West Side Market. We will be discussing wants and needs and relating it to field trip when we return. For the Field Trip I will be driving separately and Miss Wilhelm, the afternoon teacher, will be riding the bus with your children and you. I am close to my due date and don't want to take any chances of going into labor on the bus :-) I will see many of you Friday.

Happy Mother's Day! Please be sure to check your child's book bag for a little gift that they made for you.

Weekly News 4/18/11

2011-04-18T22:32:00.003-04:00

We have been very busy workers the past couple weeks. We learned the words do and what and reviewed some old words. 'The' seems to be a tricky word for many so make sure to review that at home whenever possible. We have been practicing to write several times during the week. We have completed several journal pages that we are putting together in a booklet for the end of the year. I have seen a tremendous improvement with the children tapping out their words to spell in the journals. We have been practicing many of our skills that we are learning with games such as Bingo and a music chairs type of game, the children seem to love it and it is much needed time out of their chairs since we are getting a little antsy waiting for spring break and nice weather to arrive.
In math we have begun time. Our main focus will be telling time to the nearest hour and half hour. We will continue this skill after spring break. We also have been continuing to work on addition and scrolling for morning work. Addition packets will be sent home on Thursday regardless if they are completed or not. If your child has not completed the packet, they can use it at home for extra practice, not to be returned to school.
We have a packed week this week, getting ready for spring break, Jump roping for a healthy heart, and spring pictures. Please don't forget that spring pictures are tomorrow and an information sheet was sent home today about it. Also, I have decided not to give homework this week. With so many activities going on and the short week, I felt that it was good to have the week off from it.
I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe, spring break. When we return there is only five more weeks of school. My due date for baby girl Romito is May 28th. I will keep you posted as I get further along, but I plan on being here until she comes :)

Rodeo

2011-04-01T21:33:00.003-04:00

I hope everyone had a blast at the rodeo today. Thank you for all the support and help making today happen. If you would like to email me any pictures you had taken today, I would love to see if I can add them to their end of the year portfolios. Thanks again!

Weekly News 3/29/11

2011-03-30T20:41:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the Fourth Quarter! We have had a busy couple weeks with the end of the quarter assessments being completed and getting ready for the rodeo. Our report cards will be coming home next Wednesday so be sure to look for them in your child's folder. Next Friday we will be taking a field trip to the Bay Nature Center to learn about what we see in the day and night sky. The Field Trip forms will be coming home tomorrow, please send them back by next Wednesday and indicate if you would like to be one of our volunteers on it. I will choose on Wednesday by drawing names if I get many that respond. Just a little heads up...Our field trip to the West Side Market in May, all parents are welcome to join us. The dates for future events are in an earlier post.

I am opening book orders for March and April catalog together. I waited so you could possible get Easter books for your children. I will send out the order next Wednesday to ensure that it comes in before Easter break.

Hopefully we will see some signs of spring soon.

Rodeo Information

2011-03-30T18:34:00.002-04:00

**** Information for the Rodeo Friday!
This Friday will be the Kindergarten Rodeo. There will be no a.m. Kindergarten for Mrs. Romito’s class. Children should arrive at school at 12:30 and meet in their classroom, dressed in rodeo attire. At this time if parents would like to volunteer, please go to the gym and you will have an opportunity to sign up to help at an activity. Parents may attend regardless. If you were asked to bring in a snack item for our rodeo, please have that in by this Wednesday. The rodeo goes from 12:45-2:45. Please make sure that your child is picked up by 2:45 from the gym so that we are out before afternoon buses arrive. Thank you for your support.

Weekly News 3/20/11

2011-03-20T21:22:00.002-04:00

We had a great week last week celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We worked on rhyming skills, creating _ot pots. We wrote journals on what we would do if we caught a Leprechaun, Made Rainbow books, and completed a Leprechaun Land map to name a few. On St. Patrick's Day we went on a Scavenger Hunt that our classroom visitor, a Leprechaun, sent us on. He used North, South, East and West as clues for us to find his pot of gold. The children had a blast searching all over the school for them.

This week we will begin our third quarter assessments. I can't believe that we will soon be entering the fourth quarter. Time is flying!
Also, this week we will begin our lessons from Junior Achievement which will last for 5-6 weeks and for 20 minutes each Thursday. Junior Achievement is a partnership between the business community, educators and volunteers — all working together to inspire young people to dream big and reach their potential. JA's hands-on, experiential programs teach the key concepts of work readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy to young people all over the world.

Another visitor into our classroom for the coming weeks will be Mrs. Speier. Mrs. Speier is our school's guidance counselor and will be coming in for 20 minutes on Monday mornings to talk about the topics of All About Me/ Feelings and Being a Friend.

Have a wonderful week!

Weekly News 3/14/11

2011-03-14T19:22:00.003-04:00

Dear Parents,
This past week we continued to work on addition and also on identifying penny, nickels, and dimes, and what each of them are worth. We will continue that this week as well. We will also be learning a little bit about measurement and what type of tools to use when measuring specific items.
In fundations we will continue to tap and write words and also work more on writing sentences through our journals. "On" is our latest sight word and "in" and "look" will be the next ones we are working on.
We will be completing several activities for St. Patrick's day to help celebrate the day. We are hoping to catch a Leprechaun and we will write about what we will do if we do catch one.
We also have begun to really emphasize the parts of a story. I encourage you to read with your children asking them what happened in the beginning, middle, and the end of the story. Also, ask them about the main characters and have them give you an overall explanation of has happened in the story.

The Kindergarten Rodeo is coming up. During the Rodeo we will be having several stations for the children to participate in. It is a fun filled day with learning activities with a rodeo theme. I have sent a separate email to you today and will continue to keep you updated as the event gets closer. I also will be asking for you to bring in a specific item like we did for the gingerbread houses. This will be coming home in the weeks to come.

A few other important dates for the remainder of the year...

* April 1st from 12:45 to 2:45- Rodeo. Yee-Haw!

* April 9th or 15th (I will let you know when confirmed)- Field Trip to Bay Village Planetarium for our Sun/Sky unit.

* April 21st- Easter party. More information to follow.

* May 13th- Field trip to Westside Market for our Needs and Wants unit.

* May 27th- Year-end party. Hopefully I will still be at school for this. Baby Romito is due on the 28th :-)

* June 3rd- Field day. Though the rest of the school has their field day in the afternoon, Our Kindergarten will have theirs in the morning.

Tanks have a great week!

Weekly News 2/24/11

2011-03-01T20:38:00.002-05:00

Dear Parents,
We've had our fill of snow days, hope everyone is keeping warm! Last week we did a lot of different activities to help recognize President's Day. We learned what a President is and discussed President Washington and Lincoln.
In Math we continued working on addition by working on touch math activities. Touch Math is a program where each student learns how to touch the numbers one through nine with their pencil or finger. They count forward and backwards touching each number at specific points. Each number has that many touch points. The number eight has eight touch points for an example..
In Fundations we are continuing to practice forming words by tapping out their sounds. We have been doing more writing activities in class to help with this.
In Social Studies we have been working on Maps, learning about directions and the symbols that may appear on a map.
This week we will be doing activities with a Dr. Seuss theme and incorporate a lot of his stories and rhyming activities to help celebrate his birthday. You'll notice that the homework this week also has a Dr. Seuss theme :)

In addition to the curriculum this week we welcome a new addition to our classroom for the next six week. Her name is Sarah Hill and she is a TEE student form the high school that is looking forward to becoming a teacher someday. She will be in the classroom Monday's-Thursday's from 9:30-11:20 and will be assisting myself and the students. f you have any questions or concerns, I would be more than happy to address them.
Have a wonderful week! Happy March!!!

Weekly News 2/21/11

2011-02-21T22:47:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone enjoyed the day off and kept warm and safe inside their houses. We've had a busy couple weeks...

We finished our unit on Pushes & Pulls by making a trip over to the library to do fun experiments to learn about gravity and the ways things move. The children had a great time. We celebrated the 100th day of school by complete a lot of fun activities, including drawing what they would look like when they are 100 years old. I plan on adding this page to their journals at the end of the year.
We also celebrated Valentines Day by having a small parade around the school carrying our newly created parade polls.
This past week we worked on graphing skills, rhyming, patterns, and wrote love poems...Love is...

This week we will be learning a bit about President's Day, working on our new maps unit, addition, and more journaling, to name a few things. Have a great week!

Weekly News 2/4/11

2011-02-04T20:18:00.003-05:00

What a week! This week we read about the groundhog and used reading strategies to make predictions about what would happen with the groundhog. We practiced writing words that we sounded out in Fundations and practiced rhyming. We also worked on a journal page about what we did on our snow days. In math we completed some counting exercises and next week we will dive into addition. Today we had our January school-wide reward, which was a dance party in the gym. The children we led by Mrs. Haber and were taught some neat dances through different years.

Looking ahead.....
Next Thursday we will be going to Avon Lake Public Library to learn more about Pushes and Pulls. The Field trip form was sent home today. If you are interested in volunteering please indicate that on the form and I will let you know who has been chosen.
Next Friday we will be celebrating our 100th day of school and be doing some fun activities to help with the celebration. I sent home a piece of there homework today so it can be worked on over the weekend.
On Monday the 14th we will be celebrating Valentines Day. During our celebration we will be making parade poles and parading around the classrooms at school to show them off. We will then come back to the classroom and have a treat and pass out valentines.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly News 1/28/11

2011-01-27T22:29:00.003-05:00

This week we finished our Uppercase letters. The next step will be focusing on segmenting words and seeing what sounds make up words. We also started reading groups this week. The purpose of the groups is to give more focused attention on the individual needs of each students. We read a couple snow themed stories this week and as a result we have been creating "Snow-Ems", little snow poems. We also read a poem about a chubby little snowman and created art to help us act out the poem, they are hanging in the hallway by our room.
In math we introduced touch math and plan on starting addition shortly. We also did some story problems together.
In science we have been working on learning about pushes and pulls and we will be taking a field trip on February 10th to the library to learn more about them.

Conference sheets went home today. Please let me know if there are any issues with your times you were assigned.
Also, I will be sending off the Scholastic orders tomorrow afternoon.
Have a wonderful weekend.

Weekly News 1/22/11

2011-01-23T20:27:00.002-05:00

The past two weeks have been very busy for your children. As we ended the quarter they were being assessed on our classroom information as well as school wide testing for benchmarks assessments so we can track their progress during the year. This week I plan on starting our reading groups. These groups are for the purpose of giving the students extra practice either with their letter sounds or beginning reading skills, it will depend on where they are with their reading academics. With these groups comes more center time where they will be given group activities to complete, for example working on letter games.
Papers will be set home this Monday for the past two weeks. With the short week last week and the testing the last two weeks, there hasn't been much time to pass out items.
Conference times will be coming home at the end of the week. I tried to give you your requested time slot, unfortunately because the sibling conferences have to be scheduled first, many of your requests were already filled. If you find that the conference time you are scheduled is not good for your family, please let me know and we will try to reschedule for a different day before or after school.
This week we will complete our uppercase letters in Fundations. We expanded it a week because of last week's short week.
Have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,
Linda Romito

Weekly News 1/09/11

2011-01-09T22:15:00.002-05:00

We had a great week back. This week we began learning our uppercase letters. We do 2-3 a day and so we will be finished with them in three weeks. You see that the homework for Fundations will change based on the uppercase letter. Please make sure that your children take their time on it and use the lines as a guide. We also have been doing a lot more practice with sounding out words, we call it tapping out. You can practice this at home by giving them simple words like cat and asking them for the sounds in the word. /c/ /a/ /t/. We learned the new word, we, and I sent home a new reader this past week for them to practice. As we near the end of the quarter we have been reviewing math skills such as counting by two's to 30, by fives and tens to 100 and counting back from 15. We also have been working on counting from various starting points and practicing teen numbers.
This week we also read a story called, Corduroy, Corduroy is about a bear that wants a home and discovers he lost his button. We wrote a journal page about where his button may be and made our own Corduroy Bears.

Star"fish" student of the week information

2011-01-02T22:44:00.002-05:00

We will be beginning our star"fish student of the week next week. I have attached the schedule for when your child's week is under our class Wiki page. Please note that this activity does not involve parents like other classes in our building. More information will come home when it is your child's week.

Happy New Year!!!!!

2011-01-02T20:53:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-21T10:32:00.002-05:00

Dear Families,
I hope you and your family have a wonderful Winter Break! See you in 2011!
Sincerely,
Linda Romito

Weekly News 12/11

2010-12-11T21:08:00.003-05:00

This week we learned the letters 'qu' and 'z'. We found that the letter q was a chicken because it can't go anywhere without the letter u. We did the chicken dance to help remember this, your children are great dancers and they told me that they learned the dance from their moms and dads :-) Both letters are plane line letters because they start on the plane line. Next week we will be practicing these letters for homework and also learn our last two lowercase letters, 'y' and 'x'. The homework for these two letters will be after we get back from winter break.
In math we completed a review of several math concepts in our Gingerbread math booklets that were sent home on Friday. In this book we worked on measuring, graphing, and also glyphs to decorate our gingerbread man. We had fun completing the booklet.
On Tuesday our guest speaker came in to talk to the class about Hanukkah. She brought in a Menorah and taught the children how to play the Dreidal game. The children had a wonderful time and were sent home with their very own Dreidal.

We completed another Christmas book this week called, "The Shapes of Christmas" In this book we explored the many shapes of Christmas and constructed pictures to help illustrate the shapes. The books needed to dry and will be sent home next week.

This past week the children practiced a lot for their Christmas concert for this coming Wednesday. Our concert will begin at 9:30 and because of parking, I would plan on getting there a little earlier. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Also, next week will be our Holiday party where we decorate our Gingerbread houses. Thank you for those that have brought in your items already, please remember to send the items in by Monday so our parent volunteers can get everything ready before hand. Our party is at 10:30 on Thursday and all are welcome to come in and help their children construct the houses.
On Friday, for meeting our school behavior goals for the month of November and December, we will have a class movie. Great job to our whole class for earning the reward!

I have a feeling this week will fly by. Hopefully the snow won't keep us away from school. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and try to keep safe and warm in the weather.

Holiday Party

2010-12-05T11:19:00.003-05:00

Our Holiday Party will be on Thursday, December 16th at 10:30. We will be making Gingerbread Houses and all are welcome to join us to help out. The list of what to bring has been sent to your email, is on our class Wiki page to the right, and will be sent home this week. Please try to get the assigned items in by next Monday, December 13th so I can make sure we have what we need. If you have any questions please let me know. Thank you.

Weekly News 12/3

2010-12-04T23:21:00.004-05:00

Only 2 weeks left until Winter break! This past week we have been learning the letters w and v. We practiced writing these letters and finding words that start with them. We discovered that the two letters are both plane line letters and are made with diagonal lines. This week we also worked on predictable charts. This is when we take a starter sentence and finish it. After each person finishes their sentence we practice reading them a couple times and then the next day they are given their sentence cut up and they have to reassemble them and read the sentence to me, they then draw a picture to match. For this activity we decided to make it into a class book. The sentence starter was, "Can you see the ____", and it was a Christmas theme that they had to think of to complete the sentence. We will be doing more of these in the future.
We also completed one of our class Christmas books called, "It Must Be Christmas". It will be coming home next week. We finished our teen number book in math and it came home on Friday. When I was checking these books, I was looking for their ability to write the number and verbally tell me the numbers. I realize that not all of the pictures were completed because of time. It can be an activity that can be finished in their free time at home. We also did some graphing this week and worked on our counting skills.
Hanukkah started this week and so we read books on Hanukkah and we will be having a guest speaker in on Tuesday to teach us more about the Holiday. Part of our Social Studies unit is to teach about the different customs from other cultures.

I was not going to do a Scholastic book order this month because of the short amount of time, but I had a request to have one for Christmas gifts. So I am opening it up until Monday only so that we get the order back in time for Christmas.
Have a great weekend!

Pajama

2010-11-15T20:27:00.004-05:00

In our of learning the letters p and j we will be having a pajama day on Thursday. You may come to school wearing your pajamas!

Weekly News 11/14

2010-11-14T13:51:00.002-05:00

This past week we began our unit on Thanksgiving. We discussed the Pilgrims and completed many activities to help reinforce what they had learned about them. We will continue this into next week. We also have been dong a few journals on Thanksgiving, writing sentences that incorporate our sight words. We created Turkey Glyphs this week which is sort of like a puzzle to figure out who's turkey is whose. They are currently hanging in the hallway for the passing school students to figure out.
In Fundations we worked finished up practicing the letters, /l/, /h/, and /k/. We brainstormed words that began with these letters and found that the l and h, were easier to find than the k. In language arts we added the word you to our collection of sight words. Look for our book, "Kittens" that will be coming home for homework this week.
In math we continued to learn about our teen numbers. We practiced writing them as well as counting. We also started to really on counting by 5's, 10's and 2's. We also are counting down from 15.

Just a reminder, we are having our Parent Visitation this Friday in preparation for our Feast next Tuesday. Please remember if you have not sent in the pillowcases that you do so by this Thursday. Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
Linda Romito

Scholastic book order for November

2010-11-08T16:43:00.002-05:00

Those wishing to place a book order for November please go on the link under the starfish...to the right. After going to the scholastic site our Activation code is DVTTL. You can view the November catalogs there as well. I am ending this sale this Saturday so that your children receive the books before Thanksgiving. I am hoping to send home the paper copy as well this week.

Parent Visitation

2010-11-08T16:15:00.000-05:00

Parent Visitation
Our parent visitation day will be on Friday, November 19th at 10:00. During this time we will create items to be worn for our Feast on the 23rd. We are asking that each child has someone come in to help them create these items. If you are unable to make it another relative or close neighbor may come in instead. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Linda Romito

Wiki-fish to the right

2010-11-08T16:07:00.002-05:00

In case you loose the papers on the Parent Visitation I have posted them on our class Wiki page to the right...just click on the fish.

Thanksgiving Feast ad Parent Visitation

2010-11-07T21:35:00.003-05:00

Next Friday, November 19 at 10:00, will be our Parent Visitation Day. On this day we will create items to be worn and used for our Feast on Tuesday, November 23rd. All our encouraged to attend this day to assist your child with their creations. If you are unable to attend a grandparent, relative, or even a close neighbor, may attend in your place.

Tuesday, November 23rd at 10:30 will be our Feast all are welcome to attend.

More information on both of these events will be sent home shortly.

Weekly News 11/7

2010-11-07T21:16:00.003-05:00

What a fast week we had last week. We had Tuesday off, Wednesday we had an assembly on Bullying, and Thursday we had a field trip. It flew by for us.
We had three new letters we worked on this week. The letters 'k', 'l', and 'h'. We began activities with these letters, but because of the short week we are going to extend the letters over a two week time period. Homework will only consist of the letter 'k' this week and next week it will be the letters 'h' and 'l'.
This week we also introduced our class ActiVotes. These are hand-held devices that make it possible for me to assess the children via the ActivBoard. They answer multiple choice questions and I get a report sent to an excel sheet.

I worked hard this weekend to complete their first quarter report cards and they will be sent home on Wednesday. Also, on Wednesday there will be conferences. If you can't make your scheduled time please let me know and we can arrange to meet another time. I already have two requests for this and will be getting in contact with those parents about a better time for them.

Scholastic Book orders will be sent home this week. I didn't send them hoe last month because of the the book fair at school. To ensure delivery in time for Thanksgiving I will end the sale for the books on Friday.

Weekly News 10/31

2010-10-31T22:45:00.002-04:00

I hope that everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! We had a great week getting ready for Halloween and working on our tree unit. The children were introduced to the word 'can' and also the letters 'e' and 'u'. We created a new class book for how many pumpkins tall your children are. The book will be sent home for you to read with your family and then returned the next day to be sent to the next student. In math we measured the length on items around our room to see how many bats long they were and also begun to learn our teen numbers.
We created monsters based on the story, "Go Away Big Green Monster" and we used our color to help out.

Few notes for the week ahead...

This week there will be no school on Tuesday due to a teacher in-service. Wednesday there will be an assembly in the morning on Bullying. Thursday will be our Field Trip to the library to learn about trees. Also, Thursday, I will not be at school, I have a family matter I have to attend, but will be back on Friday. It looks like it will be a fast week.

Weekly News 10/22

2010-10-22T17:58:00.003-04:00

This week we learned the letters 'd' and 's'. We had a lot of success finding words that started with both these letters. One thing I would like you to take extra time with at home is practicing writing the letter 's', it is a harder one to print.
We did a lot of story work this week. We talked about parts of a story, the meaning of the vocabulary words within the story and followed-up the story with an activity that related to it. I think that my favorite this week was "I Know an Old Lady That Swallowed a Fly". We had a cut out little old lady that we practiced sequencing with to follow the story. We will use it for another story next week and then it will come home for them to tell you about it.
Coming home this week is a bat flip math game that we played. It was an activity on graphing and they were looking forward to playing it at home.
I have started to assess your children for the end of the quarter and will be continuing to next week. They will be tested on the color and sight words they have learned thus far as well as number identification and counting to 30. Please remember to have your children practice nightly.
We worked on our tree unit this week, choosing a tree outside to observe. At he beginning of November we will be going to the library for a field trip on trees. The permission form will be sent home on Monday. I didn't want it to get mixed up with Friday papers. Also, on Monday I will be sending home your conference times for November 10th. The way it works with getting a conference time is I have to meet with the other teachers in the building and schedule conferences for those students that have siblings first and take their time request first so that they can have back to back conferences. When this is complete I go through and try to accommodate all your requests. I am seeing that the night is filling up quickly this year with sibling conferences. If the time is not going to work that you have been set-up with, please let me know and we can try to set-up a conference for another day, or a phone conference.

Our Halloween Parade/party is next Friday. The parade is at 9:00 and the children come to school dressed in their costume or they can put it on when they get here. (No weapons please). Following the parade we will have a Halloween Party in our classroom. All are invited to attend, but our head room mom , Mrs. Gurule, will need some volunteers for some of the activities. She will, if she has not already, contact some of you for this.

Have a great weekend.

Weekly News 10/7

2010-10-07T20:13:00.002-04:00

This week was a little different for us. We had two assessment that were completed in the computer lab. The first one was in language arts and the second was in math. They measured the kids on Kindergarten skills to get a benchmark as to where they are. This will be used to measure growth throughout the year.

It was also fire safety week. We had a visit from Firefighter, Sue. She spoke of important things to do in a fire. All week in class we have been talking about important things to do if there is a fire in your house. A lot of our students have a meeting place outside their house in case of a fire. It is a great idea to have one and to practice fire drills at home.

A few things to note...
The little readers that are sent home will not be sent home every week. We will do 2-3 a month as said in the initial letter. "I like" will be sent home tomorrow. Also, although the children can read the book as many times as they want, let's stick to 10 initials per book, they can space it out throughout the week.
Yesterday the librarian sent home library card applications for the public library. I guess she cannot except them back because further information is needed when you turn them into the library, so they need to be taken to the public library. Thanks.
Today I sent home conference sheets for the November 10th conferences. A.M. Kindergarten only has conferences on that Wednesday. If you are unable to conference at that time, please let me know. We can set up a conference during the kids specials, or before or after school any time after the first quarter has ended and report cards are sent home. If you feel a conference in unnecessary at this time, lease let me know. We do our best to get you your requested time frame, but please keep in mind we have to match up times with siblings.
Coming home tomorrow are their results on their number assessments. This week in class we tested them to see where they were with their knowledge of identifying numbers 0-20. The half sheets that are coming home tomorrow have their results. The circled numbers are the ones that they missed and the numbers written next to them are their responses. If the sheet is empty they were able to identify all the numbers. I use these sheets to check for progress so you will see them, or ones like them, monthly.

Have a great weekend.

Fire Safety

2010-10-03T22:29:00.002-04:00

This week is Fire Safety week. On the left I have a link to a fire safety tip sheet.

Weekly News 10/3

2010-10-03T21:21:00.002-04:00

This past week we introduced the letters a & c. The children discovered that there were many words that started with the letter c, but they had a hard time with words that started with an a. In math we worked on patterns, sequencing, and writing numbers. We learner the word to ad started to read our little reader, "I Like". We will continue with this book next week so it will not be part of this week's homework. We took a break from color words to concentrate on apple week. Throughout the week we incorporated the apple theme into many lessons, reading books, learning an apple song, graphing, and working in our poetry books.
This week will will continue with our color words, work with the word to, and continue with number sense. We also will being taking our school-wide assessment in the computer lab for progress monitoring. Let me know if you have any questions about this and I will do my best to answer them.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Apple Day!

2010-09-28T21:56:00.003-04:00

This Friday is apple day. During the week we will be doing activities incorporating apples, including reading many poems and performing math activities. On Thursday we will prepare to make applesauce and on Friday we will have stations to visit where we will graph our favorite apples, work with apple poems, create patterns, and eat our applesauce. Have a great week!

Weekly News 9/23

2010-09-23T22:12:00.003-04:00

This week we learned the letters 'm' and 'n'. We practiced writing the letters and learning their sounds. We then brainstormed 'm' and 'n' words to write in our word journals. Our new words this week were blue, purple, and like. We have been working on our new paper readers and they will be coming home soon in their blue folders. I am so impressed with how many times the kids have been reading to their families. Thanks for your support, they really seem to like the books. We also began to work in our poetry books this week. We are gathering poems, reading, and illustrating them. We will add poems to our book throughout the year.
We are continuing to work on learning our numbers; writing and representing them. We have been counting by fives and tens, counting down, and working on identifying the penny, nickel, and dime. We are also having fun making patterns.
Tomorrow will be purple day. We have learned so many new songs to help learn the spelling of our colors. Ask your child to sing a song for you.
This week we began our homework. Every week we will have similar activities for homework. Please be sure to let me know if you have any questions about the homework. Each week I will send it home in the left side of the homework folder. When the homework is completed have the children place it in the left side, with their names on them.
I began to assess your children to get a baseline as to where they are with their knowledge of language arts skills, including letter identification and sounds. I will use these results to make sure your children are making progress throughout the year. Also, Erieview will be performing short school-wide assessments in language arts and math. To perform the assessments we will be going to the computer lab in a couple weeks to take a quick online assessment. Once again the results from this program will help us to make sure that the children are making progress to ensure they don't need extra support.

I sent home the classroom volunteer schedule for the end of September ad all of October. If there is a date that you are assigned to and cannot be there, please let me know.

Next Tuesday night I will be sending the Scholastics book order in. If you were interested in order books for you children please place your order by then. They offer great books for low prices.

Next Friday we will have apple day. I will need some volunteers to help on this day. I will post a separate blog post to let you know about this.

FYI: Next Tuesday I have a meeting, so I will not be in class.

Weekly News 9/16

2010-09-16T21:00:00.002-04:00

We had another great week in Kindergarten!
This week in Fundations we learned the letters 'b' and 'f'. We practiced many different methods of reinforcing these letters and learned the proper way to write them. We also began to work in our words journals where we have a letter designated for each page. We add three words that begin with that said letter and draw a picture depicting the words. It is our own personal dictionary :)
We learned the sight and color words; I, see, and green. We did many activities to help learn these words including reading from our paper, sight reader books. There will be a new folder in their binders tomorrow where we will keep track of reading these books along with a note explaining the new program.
This week we also began our two week unit on the five senses. This week we had a taste testing. We tested something sour, sweet, salty, and bitter, then they chose their favorites. We took pictures of your children and added tongues to place our favorites on. They will be displayed on the bulletin board outside our room and make their way home in the next couple weeks. We also made paper glasses and played an I spy game on the board to study the sense of sight. The glasses were sent home today :) Tomorrow we will be doing a lesson on hearing and we will be wearing animal ears to help identifying secret sounds on the board.
In math we are continuing on working on numbers and also AB patterns.

For next week...We are starting homework. I will send homework home on Mondays and it will have to be returned by the last day of the school week. Typically, the homework will consist of Fundations, math and our sight words to practice. I also will be posting the homework in our class Wiki section to the right. This is in case you lose the copy sent home.

Tomorrow is picture Day!

Have a great weekend.

Reminder...

2010-09-15T16:03:00.002-04:00

Bring your smiles to school and your order forms for pictures this Friday!

2010-09-14T21:56:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is green day! Children can participate by wearing something green or bringing in something green. Thanks for supporting our colorful days. The next color day will be next week.

Fundations

2010-09-12T21:28:00.002-04:00

This past week we began our Fundations phonics program. We start this program with learning the lowercase letters and their sounds. Weekly, I will introduce 2-3 letters, with the exception of weeks that we may have days off. Typically, the way that our week will work is on the first day I will introduce the 2 new letters and we will practice sky writing the letter as well as coming up to the board. Then we will work in our student notebooks to further reinforce the letters. On the second day we will drill sounds and use our dry-erase boards and magnetic tile boards to practice the sounds the letters make and we will practice writing letters. The third and fourth day we will once again drill all letters learned so far and make a list of words starting with those letters. We will then enter 3 words into our letter journals on the correct page. The fifth day is for review and different activities, such as letter bingo. The following week their homework will reflect the previous week's letters. I will send home more information on this soon.
Enjoy your week.

Weekly News 9/09

2010-09-09T19:50:00.004-04:00

We worked really hard this week! This week we learned the color words orange and yellow. We worked on a couple worksheets in our color workbook for both of these and also made pages for our other color book. Many of the things that we are working on in class will not be returned right away because we are compiling a lot into booklets. Thank you for your cooperation with the color days that we are having. In case you missed the other post, instead of dressing in a specific color, your child may bring in something small that is that color.
This week in math we are continuing to work on the topics from last week, but we are also working on learning to counting backward. Today we counted down Smarties as we ate them, what a delicious lesson. We also compared sizes of sentence strips and continued to write our numbers. Today we found a new friend, "Zero the Hero" Zero will joining us throughout the year while we count how many days we have been in school. He comes to us on the days that have a zero as a place holder. Today was the tenth day of school, so he brought a snack that was in the shape of a zero, Cheerios. If you would like to bring in any zero shaped treats for these special days, I welcome them :-)

We read several books this week. One of them was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. This is a colorful story about the alphabet climbing a coconut tree and falling off. In class to follow-up we made coconut tree art and had our names climb up the tree. I also brought in a real coconut and we all got to see what the inside looked like.

We will be beginning our phonic program tomorrow, starting with the letter 't'. I will send home information on this. We will also be introducing the words, "I" and "see". We also will be beginning our unit on the five senses.

Please make sure that you are checking your child's binders. Papers are starting to pile up.
In tomorrow's binder look for papers from the office as well as the Picture Day form for next Friday. Please don't send that form in until picture day.

Next week we will be working with the letters, 'b' and 'f', continuing activities with the sight words "I" and "See", and color words, green and blue.

2010-09-06T23:10:00.003-04:00

Just a few notes as we start another week...
Wednesday will be the first day that I am not going to meet your children outside in the morning. I will speak to them about this, but also would like you to remind them Wednesday morning to walk in with all the other school children.

Wednesday will be Orange Day and Friday will be Yellow Day. If your child doesn't own anything to wear that are these colors, they may bring in a small item that color to keep at their tables.

Have a great week.

Weekly News 9/02

2010-09-02T18:56:00.002-04:00

We had a great start to Kindergarten this week! So much to tell you about so I will highlight some of the things we have been up too... We have begun to learn our color words. We started this week with the color red. We typically will address 2 colors a week from here out until we work our way through them all. To help reinforce these color words we have begun to create a book, it will be sent home when it is all complete. Today we completed the red page, "Red is a ladybug". We will also be reading several stories about each color and singing songs. The songs can be found on our class wiki page to the right if you want to sing them at home:-)
In math we have begun to write our numbers, take time and ask your children to practice writing them at home. We have also been graphing the weather daily, recognizing shapes, identifying the penny, nickel, and dime, counting, and comparing sizes of objects. Many of these concepts will be continued throughout the school year during calendar time.
This week we were also paid a visit by the Gingerbread Man. After reading the story we had discovered that he left us a clue to find him, but he was too fast for us. Each day he has left us a new clue, we are hoping to catch him tomorrow.
Thank you for getting your forms from the office in so quickly, we were the first class to have turned in all our workbook fees. Also, thank you for supporting our class by contributing to the class sunshine fund. Your generosity will help to make this a wonderful year.

Next week we will be beginning or phonics program. We are going to begin slowly and work our way into learning each letter. Homework will not begin for a couple more weeks.

Remember, there is no school Monday for Labor Day. I will greet the class next Tuesday outside in the morning, but after that, they will start to walk into the building on their own. The safety patrol and bigger students will be around to help them if needed.

Have a great, long, weekend.

Sincerely, Linda Romito

2010-08-29T21:31:00.002-04:00

We had a great start to the school year. We went over a lot of our classroom rules and read a book called, "No, David". In this book David is constantly breaking the rules, but finds that his parents still love him despite his bad behavior. In class we talked about why rules are so important and made our own Davids for our bulletin board in the hallway.
We also have a new classroom pet that came to our classroom on Friday, a fish. Our fish does not have a name yet. We are voting on one between our class and the afternoon Kindergarten.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

2010-08-19T20:36:00.003-04:00

I am so excited to meet my new students this year. This past week I have been working hard to get our classroom ready. We got new floors in our room so I wasn't able to get into the room until Wednesday. Since the short amount of time in the room, our room will not be ready until orientation Next Tuesday and Wednesday. Tomorrow night we will be having an ice cream social in the gym and then following we will be meeting in room 109 with the other Kindergarten teachers to tell you a little bit about this year, I hope you're all able to make it. As I wrote in my letter, if possible I would like you to hold off bringing in the school supplies until orientation. Since our room is still being put together I want to make sure nothing gets misplaced. Thanks for your support in this matter.
See you soon!

Sincerely,
Linda Romito