Beginning of the Year

Buckle up, this is going to be a long one! We have so much to share with you... and week 2 was a WORLD of difference from week one! We're gettin' the hang of this kindergarten life!!

We read "The Kissing Hand" and graphed how we felt on our first day...

We've talked A LOT about choices...

We've established our calendar routines & "Days in School" for Number Corner!

The kids decided on our class rules after we established good vs. poor choices!

We've hit the Zones of Regulation hard with clips from "Inside Out" and books like, "On Monday, When It Rained" and "Sophie Gets Angry. Really, Really Angry." We made a thinking map for each of the 4 zones!

We're focusing a lot on being in control!

We've been building our classroom community with books and discussions:

"Strictly No Elephants!" (This is one of my all time favorite read alouds! It's precious!)

"The Crayon Box That Talked"

We had a very silly, yet important conversation about "Just Right Books":

We learned that this friend couldn't walk in the baby shoes... they were too small!

And this friend couldn't really walk in Dad shoes... they were too big!

We walk best in OUR shoes because they fit our feet. There are going to be books that are too hard for us right now and books that may be too easy, but there are books that fit us just right! We also talked about how our feet GROW and we're going to grow as readers this year!

We've been focusing on concepts of print: parts of the book, holding it the right way, turning the pages gently, pointing to the words as we read (one-to-one correspondence), and looking at the pictures because the pictures help us figure out what the words say!

Ask Your Child About:

-Phonics: Tt (What do we say for t? t, top, /t/), Bb (What do we say for b? b, bat, /b/) Please make sure your child is "clipping the sound" and not saying that "uh" sound afterward... this is formally called a schwa sound and I am a STICKLER about this.

-Phonemic Awareness: beginning sounds

-Reading: Centers

-Writing: Pencil grip (we tell them to pinch the pencil with their pointer and thumb and then the other 3 fingers make a table to rest it on), letter formation

-Math: Filling Five Frames & Numerals 1-5. We use these little poems:

& they work wonders! So many of the kids were over the moon excited that they "Just made a 2 or 5 FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, MS. HAM!!!!" It was heart melting.

-Social Studies: Community building, establishing rules and procedures, & Zones of Regulation

-Technology: Bees & Honey game (mouse skills)

We are going to get our classroom jobs on Monday because they earned them this week! We're still really focusing on kindness, manners, and listening! I appreciate your support at home!

I'll leave you with a Kid Quote from the first week...

SO happy we're past that stage! :) My hands may be full with this crew, but they're already stealing my heart!! I am so lucky to be their teacher this year.

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

With SO much love,

Ms. Ham