We are Readers!

Hello Families!

Since the beginning of school, your children have learned that letters make up words, words make up sentences, and sentences make up stories.  We have been practicing identifying and categorizing examples of letters, words, and sentences.

We created this interactive anchor chart as a class
 for students to use as a reference while reading and writing.

For the past week, the students have been learning that good readers touch each word as they read. We started out simple, pointing to the dots below a strip of pictures or letters as we read. 

Next, we practiced recognizing and spelling the word “see” so we could create our own “I see…” statement by drawing a picture to complete the sentence. From there, they excitedly accepted the challenge to point to each word while reading a short story. (Of course they read the pictures first before reading the words as good readers do!). The children have practiced each of these activities both independently and with a partner.

Students can now confidently say “I can touch each word as I read!” and are eager to share with you their new reading skill. Today, your child should have a paper book called “Pets” in their homework folder. The black dots below the words help remind our young readers to point as they read. Commend them on this important reading milestone!


The next time you read a favorite book together, ask your child questions similar to these:

Can you point to the letter ___?

Can you find an uppercase/lowercase ___?

Can you point to the words as I read?

What do I do when I get to the end of a line? (Return sweep; start at the beginning of the next line of text)

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Libby

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1
Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.A
Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.B
Recognize that spoken words are represented in written language by specific sequences of letters.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.C
Understand that words are separated by spaces in print.

We are off to a great start!

We’ve made it through the first 6 days of Kindergarten!!   The children are doing well learning the morning routines and are doing them on their own now (with some reminders).  We also practiced walking outside for a fire drill and they did a wonderful job staying in a quiet line. 

All of the children seem to be adjusting well to coming to school whether on the bus or being dropped off.  On Thursday, they began the regular morning routine with the first and second graders and now wait in the gym before heading down to the classroom.  They are all doing well getting ready for dismissal at the end of the school day.  I am gradually trying to get them to be more independent with placing papers in the pockets of their folders and packing their backpacks on their own.

We have been busy learning each other’s names, practicing our cutting and gluing skills, learning the daily routines, and the expectations of school behavior.  We have also been learning the terms “before,” “after”, “alike,” and “different” in math and even started math stations on Friday and practiced counting up to 20 objects and writing numbers to 10.

I have been encouraging the children to go home each day and share one thing they have learned.  If your child has not shared what we have been doing, here are a few suggestions of what you can ask them about:

• Can you show me how you write the numbers one and two?

• Can you teach me the days of the week song?

• What does a 5 star listener look like? (I am looking for children sitting with legs crossed, hands still and in their laps, ears listening, eyes watching the speaker, and lips that are zipped)

• Who were the characters? or What was your favorite part of the books The Kissing Hand, Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, The Wheels on the Bus, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and Fox Makes Friends?  (The underlined titles take you to read alouds of the stories).

We will be discussing much more at Open House next Thursday, September 17 so I hope you will be able to attend.  Please look for the Open House notice I sent home on Friday for more information.

Here’s a quick peek at the past week through pictures!

We LOVE the Smart Board and have used it to practice writing letters and numbers.  We even created a graph to show how many letters in our names, which gave us the opportunity to use our math words "most" and "least".

Each day during morning meeting, we read the morning message.  Here is where we will review and practice important skills and concepts.  This week we learned about punctuation marks, which we call stop signs at the beginning of Kindergarten.  Already, the children are spotting stop signs and remembering that these marks tell us it is the end of a sentence and that they need to stop and take a breath before continuing to read.

The children are already learning so much and I'm looking forward to the fun and excitement the rest of the year will bring! 



CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.K.3
With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.K.2.b
Recognize and name end punctuation.       

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.A.3
Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects).      

CCSS.Math.Content.K.CC.B.4.a
When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.

                                                                       

Welcome to our class blog!

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by!  This is my first year blogging about the exciting activities and learning that is happening in our classroom.  I feel like this forum will be a terrific way to keep you informed of all that is taking place in room 117. Be sure to enter your email under "Follow by email" located in the right sidebar to be notified each time I share a new post.

We had a great first two days together and the year is off to a wonderful start!  Our first few weeks together will be very busy.  We will focus on getting to know each other, learning about our school, and mastering daily routines.  It is amazing all that the children learn during their Kindergarten year and I love watching their confidence build as they begin to see themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and historians.

Here is some important information regarding classroom policies and procedures:

Classroom Policies:
Please remember to label all of your child's belongings. This includes folders, backpacks, lunch boxes, coats, hats, etc.

Please place all notes, lunch money, milk money, and homework in your child's folder. It is much easier for them to hand in the papers if they are all located in the same place!

Fuller Meadow has incorporated http://www.myschoolbucks.com into the school lunch program. Please see the school website for further information.

Please refer to the Fuller Meadow School website and/or your student handbook for further information regarding school-wide policies.

Expanding Learning At Home:

The Kindergarten Team encourages you to expand your child’s learning experience at home as much as possible. The following educational websites are a fun way for you and your child to learn and explore together.

www.Starfall.com

www.Scholastic.com

www.Storylineonline.net

www.ixl.com

Specialist Schedule:

Monday: Computers

Tuesday: Library

Wednesday: Physical Education (please remember to wear your sneakers!)

Thursday: Music

Friday: Art

Important Dates:

First Day of School for Kindergarten: September 2^nd

Open House: September 17^th at 6:00 p.m.

Early Release: September 21^st  @ 1:15 (Lunch will be served)

Field Trip to Ingladsby Farm: TBA  (field trip permission forms will be coming home soon!)

Planning Ahead: 

Conferences: Wednesday, December 9^th and Thursday, December 10^th

                  Wednesday, April 6^th and Thursday, April 7^th

Progress Notes: Friday, October 16th

                        Friday, January 29th

                        Friday, May   6^th                  

Report Cards: Friday, December 4^th

                      Friday, April 1^st  

                      Last Day of School (tentatively June 14^th with no snow days)        

* * * * *

I look forward to getting to know you and your family over the course of the school year.  If you feel your child needs extra help at any time, please contact me to discuss things further.

You may contact me with all questions and/or concerns through email (alibby@middletonps.org), phone (978.750.4756), or notes placed in your child's folder.

~Mrs. Libby