First Week

Wow! We had an amazing first week as you probably heard since we celebrated with popsicles! We got 6/6 good reports from specials and I've never had a class do that before. :) They are so eager to please and fingers crossed we keep on this track!

We have learned so much already about expectations (good choices vs. poor choices, CHAMPS, how we treat our materials, how we sit and where we sit, and we even started centers on Wednesday), but we just started diving into curriculum toward the end of the week! I've gotten all of them tested on capital and lowercase letters and I'm about halfway done with letter sounds and then we will be taking off with reading and writing groups!

We had a very important class discussion about reading! We figured out that we are ALL readers because we know how to: hold the book the right way, turn the pages gently, look at the pictures (& pictures help us figure out what the words say!), find letters and sight words that we know, point to each word as we read it, make predictions about what’s going to happen next, & retell the story after we’re done! And just like our shoes (see picture), some books aren’t a good fit for us! Some books are too big (Dad shoes) for us and it’s challenging to read them (or walk in Dad shoes). Some books are too small (baby shoes) and it’s too easy to read them! But when we pick books that are like the shoes on our feet right now, they are a GOOD FIT! We would never make fun of a friend because of what size shoe they wear… because our feet are growing & we are growing as readers too!

Please ask your child about:

-Phonological Awareness: Beginning Sounds- What is the beginning sound in cat? /k/ dog? /d/ recess? /r/ shell? /sh/

-Phonics: T- What do we say for the letter t? t, top, /t/ - Why does Ms. Ham tell you to "cut" the sound? To get rid of the schwa! ***Please look this up if you don't know what I'm talking about; I need your help with this at home! Practice makes permanent. :)

-Reading: Concepts of Print- Can you point to the... front cover? back cover? spine? What does the author do? writes the words. What does the illustrator do? draws the pictures.

-Math: Measuring length, Counting, Geometry, Counting down one- How did you guys count down one with animal crackers and "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"? We ate them!

-Writing: Drawing pictures and labeling- Where does the picture go? on the top part of the paper. How do you label a picture? with an arrow and using our sounds!

-Social Studies: Community- Tell me about the rules in your classroom. What character traits have you gotten to clip to? What does it mean to persevere? To keep trying when something is hard!

*Please see the note in the ziplock bag with "Chester Loves School" to see some tips on reading at home! We are really focusing on persevering and instilling some GRIT into these Ham kids... we know that there are things we can't do, but we just can't do them YET! :) If we keep working hard, then we will learn how to do them!

Reminders:

-No more playground drop-off in the morning... please drop off your child and he/she will walk to our classroom! Don't worry, there are lots of staff members directing them! -Please have your child bring a separate water bottle in his/her lunch so we can leave one in the classroom for snacks!

-Picture day is this THURSDAY! :)

-Solar eclipse is tomorrow and we will be staying inside and live-streaming it due to safety concerns! Thanks for your understanding.

-Please check the specials calendar and make sure your child is wearing PE shoes on PE days! :)

I hope you and your kiddo are just loving kindergarten and MVE! I love them all so much already and can't wait to see all we can accomplish this year! Hope you had a great weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham