Happy Birthday Ms. Johnsen!

 There was a fun birthday surprise in kindergarten this morning. Click for the video.

20 chicks

I'm a Dad.

May 26 UPDATE

Playdate for Lilly and field trip for Shawn

Lilly had a playdate with Bill, Shelley, and Abby today. They played at a park and wore her out so much that she was falling asleep in the wagon on their way home! She ended up taking an hour and a half (or so) nap... with Bill... LOL
While Lilly was busy, I accompanied Shawn on the first kindergarten field trip. We went to Norton Farm, a local farm that's only a couple miles away from school.  The kids learned about gourds, corn, and pumpkins. We went through an easy version of a corn maze and bawked at some chickens.  The students each got to select a mini ear of decorative corn, mini gourd, and a mini pumpkin. Once they use them in class tomorrow for some activities, they'll be able to bring them home to keep. The popular favorite at the farm was the play area, in which the kids ran loose for a few minutes in lieu of recess. While we waited for the bus to eventually retrieve us, Ms. Johnsen led her class in singing "Tony Chestnut" and "Wheels on the Bus." (They added some very creative verses: the teenagers on the bus keep te-e-xting...)

Kindergarten Alphabet book pages

Kindergarten news

Kindergarten news

Hi Everyone

We are really getting into a routine!  The past few weeks have been very busy. We are still working on being good listeners all the time. Please continue to help with this at home!

In Literacy: We can now read to ourselves for 15 minutes. This gives Miss Meeks and me a chance to listen to individual students read or tell us the story from the pictures. We can reinforce the use of good reading strategies of pointing to the words, using picture clues, checking the text and making sure it makes sense. Some of the children are text readers, some are using picture clues and beginning letter sounds to figure words out and others are telling the story from the picture.  With the picture readers Miss Meeks and I are pointing and reading a page and then the student will point and read after us (Echo Reading). These are all normal ranges of reading ability in a kindergarten classroom.

On Mondays just before lunch or at the end of the day Mrs. Kerr or Mrs. Schaaf’s 5th grade students read or write with the kindergartners. The children love having 5th grade reading buddies!

We are working on letter recognition, letter sounds and letter formation on a daily basis. Some of the children are able to stretch words and write independently while others need support for this. Many of them use the resources around the room for support.

In math we are counting to 100 by 10’s, to 20 by 1’s, writing numbers, learning the terms greater than, less than, equal to, some simple addition and subtraction of one more or one less. A lot of the math concepts are taught through our calendar time.

We are also learning how to sort things by different attributes. We play a mystery sort game. I have a group of students stand in the middle of our carpet and the other students have to figure out what is alike about all of them. It could be they all have Velcro shoes or they all have blonde hair. This is leading into having them sort objects or people also by different attributes and to explain their sort. We will be doing this for math as well as for literacy.

I hope you all enjoyed the 1st 12 days of Kindergarten book and our body Alphabet Book. The Bus Ride story is coming home next week.  Please use these books at home as a practice reader. (I'm hoping to get electronic versions of these class made books - stay tuned!)

We started to bring home our baggy books this week. The children may keep their book for more than 1 day or exchange it daily, but they should at least trade out for a new one once a week. Please have them read the book several times before returning it. Rereading familiar books increases a child’s fluency and comprehension skills.

I hope you are all enjoying the treasure book activity. This will give you some idea of how to support your child’s emerging reading skills. I know the children get very excited when I bring out the treasure chest and pull out our new book.  This week's book The Enormous Watermelon encourages the children to work together to accomplish a tough job.

Last week we discussed the importance of Constitution Day. We discussed all the wonderful things about living in America and about all the people that help and protect us. We discussed how we are all helpers when someone needs help or support. I hope you saw the booklets the children brought home about the Constitution. We connected the writing of the Constitution to the rules we have for our school and classroom. These two subjects are difficult for young children to comprehend but I feel they did a good job getting the ideas presented.

In Science we are working on the five senses. We went on a super duper looking hunt. The children then had to draw and write 4 things they saw on their hunt. Each week we will focus on a different sense.

Please read with your child at least 15 minutes a day!

Thank you for sending only healthy snacks for our morning snack time. The fruits and veggies have been great! Please remember no cookies or chips as a snack. Having a water bottle is also a good thing!

**Important up coming date!**

Our first field trip will be to Norton Farm on Thursday Oct. 2nd from 12:45-2:30.  I drew names from a hat from all those that volunteered and I will be emailing you individually. (I got picked!)

Wednesday, Oct. 8th we are having a family reading night from 6:30-7:30. The children are invited to come in their Pajamas so they can head to bed as soon as you return home.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Karen Johnsen and Miss Meeks

Karen.Johnsen@d303.org

PJs and compliments in Kindergarten

Lilly helped me set out the flag this morning. The morning DJs on the radio were doing a lot of remembrance and dedications.There was an eerie feeling in the air. I wonder when (if) that will ever go away.

Shawn's kindergarten class has been working on their goal of 50 compliments. For each compliment they earned as a class, they received a link in a paper chain. When the chain reached the floor, they met their goal. They voted as a class for a pajama and stuffed animal day.

Wednesday, the class met their goal! Shawn was so excited that he pulled out just the right pajamas to wear to school as soon as he got home. He had no trouble getting dressed this morning and was very excited about their reward.

About 15 minutes *after* Shawn's bus left on Thursday morning, I got an email blast from Mrs. Johnsen announcing the reward the class earned. For tomorrow. Friday. Ooops!

Since I hadn't heard anything official from school about pajama day until then, I had packed regular clothes in Shawn's backpack just in case (though he didn't end up changing). Today would have been a perfect pajama day, if you ask me. It was 48°F at the bus stop this morning! (I highly doubt we ever reached the forecast high of 61°F!)

From Ms. Johnsen:

Hi Everyone
Great News! The compliment Chain hit the floor this week!  The children votes to have a pajama day and bring-a-stuffed-animal-to-school day.!
So tomorrow, Friday, the children will be allowed to wear pajamas and bring ONE stuffed animal that will fit into their back pack. It will be a fun day of learning, teaching our favorite animals all about kindergarten. If the girls are used to wearing night gowns please have them wear shorts or slacks under it.  If your child prefers not to wear pajamas it is a choice! They can just bring their stuffed animal.
They are all very excited that they earned this reward!  We have already started earning new chains towards our next reward day!
Have a good day.
Karen Johnsen

Lilly and I went to Gymboree for Level 4 Play & Learn. The equipment was set up for the theme "Rocking & Rolling." Lilly's favorite activity was rolling/throwing whiffle balls down a ramp. Of course, she also likes the routine of bubbles, parachute, and "Gymbo the Clown Goes Up and Down" song.

Then, we picked up a gift at Babies R Us and visited my friend Melissa, with whom I used to teach. She had her second little boy 3 months ago, and I had yet to meet him. With her maternity leave ending this week, we made a point to set a date to see each other, otherwise we'd run the risk of not doing it until next summer! Lilly fell asleep on our way there, but it was more of a mom-playdate than a kid one anyway. Baby Alexander was very sweet, and I even got to cuddle with him for a little while :) Most of all, it was great to catch up with Melissa. Lilly and I said goodbye in time to pick Shawn up from the bus stop.

Instead of being disappointed or embarrassed that today wasn't actually pajama day, Shawn was thrilled that he gets to do it again tomorrow! He'll bring a small stuffed animal, too. The trouble is... which one? Decisions, decisions!

From Ms Johnsen:

From Ms Johnsen:

 

...We have had a wonderful first 13 days of school. Today the compliment  chain reached the floor! Tomorrow we will be voting on what special treat we want for our reward!  I will keep you posted!

This class is a wonderful group of students!  They can get silly or chatty at times but they can also get settled and be good listeners!

This week we have a wonderful addition in Kindergarten. Mrs. Vera Lynch joined the kindergarten classrooms for 5 hours a day! She has aided in Kindergarten before and moves easily between both classrooms. She is helping support students by working along side the teachers during a lesson and helps the few who need support when most of the class has finished. She is able to work with small groups or one on one for review or extra practice when needed. She is a wonderful extra set of hands in our busy rooms. By the end of October we will also being getting a High School helper each day for 1 hour and 20 minutes. These are students who are planning to pursue a teaching career in college. I have had a high school helper for the last 2 years.They have been a wonderful addition to my classroom, and the children benefit from additional adult support.

In the first 3 weeks we have been working on getting into a routine with our schedule. In Literacy we are working on using our letter sounds to stretch our words and write what we hear. All the students are willing to at least try and write something. We have a large range of skill ability in the room. Those that know all their letters and sounds are being encouraged to write more and to work independently as much as possible. The students who only have a few are getting support when needed.  Miss Meeks and myself have been pointing out all the wonderful beginner writers we have in the room. Even the beginning letter is celebrated!

We have been listening to a lot of stories and doing some comparison of different versions of the Gingerbread Man. On Friday the Gingerbread Man had left the back page of our book so we went looking for him around the school. The children had to figure out different clues and we moved around the building looking for him. We ended back in our classroom where we found some gingerbread play dough and a little bag of teddy bear cookies for each student.  The play dough was home-made. Not really meant to be eaten since they played with it but it is all edible. (very salty though!)

In Math we have been working on writing the numbers from 0-10 and learning all the different ways we can represent a number. We started our math books. As we work through the math curriculum we will be doing some paper and pencil activities and lots of hands on  manipulative activities.  As we work with the math book there will be homework pages as well as stapled packets of a mix of completed pages and pages that can be used as extra practice at home.

I hope you are enjoying the treasure story questions as a time to discuss stories with your child.

This week our Treasure story is The Rainbow Fish. Look for their canister on Friday.

Please read with your child daily!

...Have a good night.

Kindergarten!

See the Story here.