~Color of the week:  Purple

~Popcorn Words:  Our popcorn words this week were this, is and his.  The kindergarteners found popcorn words in every morning message we read.  They are getting so good at recognizing these words! Be sure to practice these words with the flashcards that were sent home.  It really helps the kiddos master these words when they see them in more than one place.

~Reader’s Workshop:  This week we continued to read back to back with our reading partners.  After we read our books to ourselves we then turned and sat with our partners EEKK (elbow to elbow and knee to knee) style.  Your kindergartener learned how to share their favorite parts of the books with their partner.  They also learned how to share something they learned or something cool and exciting!  We are working on increasing our reading stamina and made it up to 11 minutes!! Way to go!

~Writer’s Workshop:  During writer’s workshop we learned how an alphabet chart can help us with labeling and trying to make words.  We continued writing small moment stories from our lives and adding labels and a sentence to our stories. We also worked on writing a field trip reflection  of our favorite part this week.  It is so fun to watch the students create their stories and be so eager to share!

~Handwriting: This week we started practicing our capital letters.  We began with our “jump frog” letters.  F, E, D and P.  These letters start with a big line and then “jump frog” back up to the top to form our capital letters.  The kindergarteners did a wonderful job!! We even got to practice in shaving cream on Friday! It was messy, but super fun and exciting! 🙂

 

~Math:  In Math this week we continued to work on comparing numbers 1-10.  We practiced counting numbers, aloud, on our fingers and even with our math tools.  We also compared numbers and figured out which number was bigger or smaller.  We also started practicing drawing straight lines by connecting dot to dot.  We continued to identify shapes too.   This week we will finish up our first unit in Math with a test on Wednesday. Please help you child prepare by completing their homework by Wednesday. They will be assessed on number writing 1-5, identifying and drawing groups of numbers 1-5, identifying shapes and completing dot to dot pictures.

~Split Lit. Groups:  We started our Split Lit. groups this week.  We broke up into small groups based on our individual levels to work on various literacy skills. The kindergarteners did a wonderful job with this new part of our day!!  Please continue to read together at home every night, filling in your October reading calendar that came home the beginning of the month!

~New Students: On Monday twins, Grant and Addison joined our classroom team. We welcomed them in with kindness and excitement! They signed and promised to follow our classroom promise/contract and adjusted well to new routines and procedures. We now have an AWESOME kindergarten team of 25!!

~Buddies: This was our second visit with our 5th grade buddies this Friday! They read a story to us in their classroom! We LOVE our buddies!

~Explorer of the Jungle:  We will finish up our final explorer of the jungle first time activity on Monday with Grant! We have had so much fun celebrating their posters and learning more about each other. We will continue to get more chances to be the explorers of the day with more activities to come! The next activity will be a traveling stuffed animal! We will pick a new child at random each day to lead the class the following school day. Look for this to come home for your child sometime in the next month! The directions for the activity will be included!

~Mystery Reader!:  We had two mystery readers this week! Mrs. Dykstra, Mitchell’s mom came on Wednesday to read a special book called, Little Critter Visits the Hospital. This helped us understand Mitchell’s trip to the hospital better. We were so happy to have him back to the classroom! Many of us got to sign his cast this week too! What a brave, tough kiddo Mitchell is!!!

 

We also had a surprise visit from Mrs. Bottrell, Carter’s mom this Friday. She read one of their families favorites, Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel. Thank you so much for visiting us!!! We LOVE hearing a special story!

 

~Super Fans!: In celebration of our Hudsonville Homecoming we had a fun filled visit to Georgetown Elementary from our high school Super Fans!  We got to gather in the hallways to watch and listen to them get us excited for the festivities of the game and HEF night that took place on Friday. And brave Sydney from our class took center stage as a volunteer dancer with the cheer team! Way to dance Sydney! So fun!

~Important Dates and Upcoming Events:   

****Library CHANGE just for this week only!!! Because of the MEAP we will be switching out our books on MONDAY, not Wednesday. Please return your child’s library book tomorrow, Monday!!!

* Please be sure to fill out the parent/teacher conference questionnaire on the Georgetown Elementary school website.  This will enable us to prepare for upcoming parent/teacher conferences in November.

 

* Thursday, October 31…10:00-11:00…our Fall Party.  We will have a parade at 9:45 a.m. through our hallway down to our 5th grade bus buddies classrooms.  I can’t wait to enjoy this special event! The planning is in the works! Thanks for those who are planning and helping!

*Turkey Trot: Monday, October 28 at Eagle Stadium (next to Baldwin Street Middle School).

Hope everyone is having a fun, fall filled weekend!

Love,

Ms. Yankee