One of my philosophies is that I want my students to be good friends, make good choices, and do good work. Today I was able to say that my students are indeed becoming amazing friends! This past week I told my kiddos that we were going to be make happy colorful pictures for my mom because she is sick and she has to be in the hospital for a week. I told the K kids I was going to visit her Wednesday and I would take their beautiful pictures with me. This morning when I was going through their folders, one of the K kids came up to me and said "Hey, how is your mommy doing? You must really miss her!" I thought I would melt there on the spot!! If that isn't a great friend I don't know what is. So blessed to be surrounded by 22 of the best little friends I could ever ask for! =)
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We know how adorable our kinder kids are and we wanted the whole district to see! So we taught them a song and dance, made costumes, and wa-la! We had a Rider Pride Day performance =) Check out our "dress rehearsal" at the Rider Pride Pep Rally (87 little bears singing and dancing on stage!!) and our actual performance at Rider Pride Day below! Thanks to all of the fantastic k families who brought their little ones out on a Saturday to perform!! The Bear Hunt Dress Rehearsal - Rider Pride Pep Rally @ Welch Elementary The Bear Hunt Performance - Rider Pride Day @ Caesar Rodney High School Each week in Room 123 we practice a poem, and at the end of the week we perform it for Moms and Dads via Miss W's camera! We thought it'd be fitting to start our Poetry Performances with a turtle poem, since we just love Myrtle Turtle =) Enjoy our first performance!! P.S. If you thought this was adorable, you're in for a treat on Rider Pride Day! The Rider Pride performance is completely optional, but the kids absolutely love it! They get to dress like a bear and sing a song about a Bear Hunt! Hope to see you there! =) I was procrastinating writing a paper this morning on Pinterest (it might be sad that my grad school procrastination involves stuff for my classroom - I just can't stop! =]) and I found this from A Teeny Tiny Teacher! Thought it might be helpful as you work with your little ones!
I have been so impressed this week with how motivated and excited your little ones are to learn!! It means that we have so many possibilities in our classroom =) I had several parents ask me for advice on teaching letters, sounds, and words, so I thought I'd share what we do in our classroom each time we learn a new letter and word!
Whenever I teach a new letter, we practice identifying it first. For example, I write a bunch of letters that include the one we are working on, others that look similar, and others we have down, and they have to circle, stamp, sticker, etc., the letter we are working on. After identifying our letter, we write it. We write it in sand, we write it on "paint bags" (ziploc bags filled with paint and taped shut), we write in on the table with dry erase markers, we write it with our fingers on our buddy's back or hand - anything to make it fun! After writing it, we learn the sound. We listen and look for words that start with that sound. For a GREAT letter sound song, look up Dr. Jean Alphardy on YouTube - we do it every day and the kids LOVE it!! =) For words, we do a similar approach. We sing and spell our word (i.e. t - h- e spells the!). After getting our spelling song down, we work on putting the word together by mixing and fixing it with magnetic letters. You could even do this without magnetic letters simply by cutting the word into individual letters after it's written on paper or an index card. After that, we work on identifying the word - highlighting it in our paper books, finding it in books or other prepared materials. After identifying it, we learn how to write it. We write it in our journal, on dry erase boards, etc. After writing it several times, we'll try to put it into a sentence (i.e. the cat). After that, I constantly review the letters and words we've introduced to build up their fluency (and their confidence!). This comes in the form of passwords by the door that they have to read whenever they leave or come back, games we play, etc. Don't try to do the whole list at once! See what your K kid knows, and go from there! Introduce one or two and work on them until they get them down, then move on. We don't want to leave them frustrated! =) I hope this helps if you are struggling with your little one or just wanted some more guidance. If you have any other questions I'd be more than happy to help! =) P.S. You can COMPLETELY ignore this is your method is already doing wongders on your child - don't feel like you have to change anything you're doing! This is mainly if anyone is struggling or just to =) Hi K Families! The powerpoint does a great job of explaining Odds and Ends. You can access that by clicking the picture below! Here's the recap that I wanted to make sure all parents knew for Parent Info Night:
Flowerpots: Each K kid has a flowerpot. Their goal by the end of K is to fill their flowerpot! They can earn bugs and flowers for meeting the readiness skills in the report card (knowing their letters and sounds, writing their first and last name, tell their phone number, birthday, and address, knowing their kindergarten words, tying their shoes, and counting to 100). I pick a different kid to assess on tying shoes, counting, writing their name, and telling their phone number, birthday, and address, and each kindergartener is tested every week for letters, sounds, and words. When a flowerpot is full, the K kid will receive a special treat from Miss W, have their picture on our website and Facebook page, and get a certificate! Behavior: In the beginning of the year I tend to be really firm (and it kills me - I hate being Mean Miss Warriner!!) in order to get students to align to our expectations. I will give a warning (i.e. you shouted out - remember we raise our hands to speak!), and then when it happens again I will move a color. Consequently, you may see a lot of color changes throughout September and October. This is perfectly normal! I'm trying to teach the K kids that we have rules and expectations, and that when you move a color you can learn from it. The K kids have really done well remembering what they've moved colors for and I've seen colors moved with less frequency already! When your K kid moves a color talk to them to see what they've done (we talk about it every day before we go home!) and talk about what they can do to have a green day. I always tell them that yellow is an "oops" and I don't get mad for yellows (unless it becomes too many yellows in a row), so I hope you don't either! Contacting Me: If you ever, ever, ever have any behavioral, academic, or any other classroom concerns PLEASE contact me! I see such a huge difference in our little ones when there is strong parent involvement. I looooove to work with my parents to help make our little ones the best they can be. There are 22 little ones and I try to reach everyone in a timely manner whenever there is a concern, but if you notice something or have a concern, don't hesitate to contact me! Homework (Reading and Word Practice): K kids have homework every night: reading their book that comes home (if they don't have a book it's a free choice night!), being read to by you, and practicing whatever they are working on (letters, sounds, or word cards). Please don't feel like your child has to master all 30 sight words right now - that's not always developmentally appropriate! My goal is that they maintain progress with what we have taught (i.e. right now we have done letters Mm, Rr, S,, and Tt and the words a, I, and my, so that is all I expect them to know!). If they have these down and you want to start introducing more, then by all means go ahead!! =) Once your little ones master their words, I'll send home a new set of words (Fry's First 100), so they can be even more first grade ready! Report Cards: There are rubrics on our website under Curricular Expectations for the report card. Feel free to check it out so you can see what is expected of your K kid for the January and June report card! ** Click the family picture below for our Parent Information Night powerpoint! It may look a little different than I intended because of the fonts I have downloaded on my computer (I just love to make things fun!), but at least it'll give you an idea of what's happening in Room 123 this year! ** We have been working hard in kindergarten on drawing and writing using our pencil and cutting using our scissors. These are skills that you can work on at home, too! I have a great Pencil Grip video that demonstrates the proper way your little one should be holding a pencil, and a cute Scissor Song to remind students where their fingers should be when they cut. You can use any scrap paper you may have laying around and let them draw, write, and cut away! If you want them to practice specific things, like writing their names in the lines or cutting a straight or squiggle line, you can draw them on a paper. If you'd like any practice drawing, writing, or cutting pages let me know! Anything your K kid does at home and wants to bring in to show is always welcome - our Braggin' Dragon looooves to show off any work that's done at home! =) Teaching Pencil Grip
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