Week 3

We survived our first full week of kindergarten!!!  By now students are beginning to settle into the new routines that kindergarten brings.  Many parents are reporting that their child is very tired when they get home.  This is to be expected, but will improve.  My suggestion is to keep evenings as relaxed and stress free as possible.  I know many children play soccer or have other after school activities such a gymnastics or dance. These are wonderful extra curricular activities, however try to limit how many evenings you are out doing scheduled activities.  Children in kindergarten need 10-11 hours of sleep at night, so establishing and keeping an early bedtime will allow your child to be at their best!  Keep afterschool activities lighthearted and fun.  Children should be playing and relaxing during their free time at home.  Consider limiting screen time to 30 minutes and build in time to read to your child everyday (before bed is a great way to wind down the day).

During our third week of school we observed monarch caterpillars and were able to witness, in real time, one of the caterpillars build it's chrysalis.  What an excited and interesting thing to watch!  We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl.  On Tuesday we made a large caterpillar for our wall and sequenced the events that happened in the story.  We also made name trains this week.  We spent a couple of days establishing our classroom rules.  These were made after sorting "Good Choices" into three categories 1)Stay Safe, 2) Do your Best, 3) Work Hard.  Many good choices overlap in these 3 categories making it easy for us to remember our rules.  We learned that as long as we make good choices, we will be following our rules!

We learned about the letters b and f.  Students learned the letter formation, and the sound.  

We are establishing routines around readers and writers workshop. 

In math we are working on sorting skills by identifying alike and different, exactly the same, the same but different (It's a button but mine is blue and yours is green, or we are both girls but I have brown hair and you have blond hair), and sorting into up to 3 categories (items that go with snowy weather, rainy weather, and sunny weather).  We also learned about the numbers 3 and 4.  We learned the number formation, and the quantity.  We are also working on counting skills.

For our  theme: All About Me.  Students made ME BAGS in which they identified 3 things about themselves (favorite food, something they like to do outside with a friend, and their favorite toy).  We are sharing these with the class. 

Friday kicked off our CLiF year of the book!   MES is the recipient of a grant awarded by the CLiF foundation.  As part of this grant, each child was allowed to pick out a free book to bring home!  The will receive 9 more books over the course of the school year.  Stayed tuned for more information about upcoming CLiF events!

On Friday we went on a nature walk and collected items found in nature.  Back in the classroom we sorted our items into categories (math connection!) and then worked collaboratively to build a nature mandala.  (A mandala is a circular design which begins in the center and works outward building symmetry.  They are found all over the word in many cultures (and in the nature work...think flowers, tree trucks etc.) and are often used for meditative purposes).  By creating our nature mandala we worked on collaboration and unity.  Each child brought one item at a time to the design.  There was no right or wrong way to place an item and children could not move a previously placed item.  They could only add to the design.  This was done without talking.  It was very interesting to witness how different students approached this task! Some were very thoughtful, others were more spontaneous.  It really taught me a lot about their approach to a task and their individual personalities!

Finally, we are working a lot on self regulation skills.  Students have been learning about various breathing techniques to help us regulate our bodies.  We are also practicing focus and awareness by doing various yoga poses (such as tree pose) and doing mindful listening activities such as chime listening and listening to the sounds inside / outside our classroom.  We made two "Clam Down" jars (mindfulness jars) which are used to help settle our minds.  

Phew!   It was a busy week!   

Reminders:  

Picture Day is Wednesday, September 19th.  All children will have their photo taken for school records.  If you plan to order a package, please return your envelope along with payment by Wednesday morning.

Open House is coming up!   Thursday, October 5 from 6-7 pm!