Week 5

It was another busy week in Kindergarten!  Students took the STAR Early Literacy test.  This is administered on iPads.  This test is a screener which helps us determine students' early reading skills.  It is administered 3 times per year (Sept., Jan., May) and helps us gage growth over the year.  I will be using the data from this test to help determine literacy intervention groups.  In our school, all students have intervention groups.  These will begin in a couple of weeks. 

In Literacy we learned about the letters i and u.  Students learned the letter name, keyword, and sound, and learned the letter formation.  We also read our first sight word book titled A Park.  The sight word in this book is a.

During writers workshop students continued to persevere on writing by drawing pictures and adding "words".  Students learned that writers keep writing, even when the work is hard.  Students are writing a book and learned that the topic carries through the entire book.

In Math we focused on counting stratagies, such as counting in a circle and creating a counting path when counting a scattered array of objects.  We also learned about hidden partners.  Students discovered there are numbers hiding inside a numbers (2 and 3 are hiding inside 5, and 1 and 4 are hiding inside 5).  Additionally, we learned learned about the number 6.

students explore with patterns and numbers during Explore Time

On Thursday, our Town Clerk, Sarah Haskins, visited kindergarten classrooms to talk to students about the voting process.  Then students had the chance to vote on a ballet for the dog tag that will be used for the 2019 dog licenses in Morrisville.  Later in the day she came back for the big reveal to find out which tag was picked.  The majority of students voted on a heart shaped tag!  So if you have a dog registered in Morrisville, it will have a red heart shaped dog tag in 2019 and your child had a part in picking it!

Dog Tag Voting Reveal

On Friday we had our first formal ECO lesson.  Students learned about how we will use our senses to observe nature.  We will use our "deer ears" to hear the sounds, "owl eyes" to see things, "bear nose" to smell, and "raccoon hands" to feel things.  We also learned how to "fox walk" which helps us move quietly in the forrest so that we don't make lots of noise when we move.  This week students were assigned Nature Names.  These are all found in the Vermont animal kingdom.  We will be learning about the role many of the animals play in our ecosystem and how they survive.  later this year each students will research information about their Nature Name animal.

The last three Monarch Butterflies hatched from their chrysalis on Friday.  We release two during ECO and one at the end of the day on Friday. 

Monarch Chrysalises  in various stages

Announcements:
Fire Station Field trip is Thursday, October 4th.  Permission Slips are in Friday Folders.  Please return these ASAP! All children should wear sneakers and have a coat (hats and mittens if it is cold).  We will be walking.

MES Open House is Thursday, October 4th from 5:30 - 6:30 pm.  All Families are Welcome to come see what your child is learning about at school!  Your child will be your tour Guide for the event!

ECO is Friday October 5th from 9:00 - 12:00.  All children need appropriate footwear (sneakers or boots) and layers to put on / take off.  Check the weather.  Send a raincoat and rain pants if needed.  Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering this Friday or another Friday.  We will also be asking for donations of firewood in the future!

Parent Teacher Conferences will take place on Thursday, October 18th between 7:30 and 5:00.  Additional times will be after school on Tuesday, October 23rd between 3:30 - 5:00.  Please call the school 888.3101 to schedule a conference with me.

NO SCHOOL Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19.