Weekly News Sept 26-30

Last week we learned about and practiced many safety drills at school.  These conversations of course sparked many questions about emergencies and being prepared.  With all of this fresh in your child's mind, this might be a great time to review safety plans in your own home!  We really had a wonderful learning and growing together!

Our classroom rules are now written and posted proudly for all of us to follow!
Our rules are:
1. Take care of yourself.
2. Keep things nice and neat.
3. Treat others how you would like to be treated.
4. Everyone gets to learn and play.


Important Dates and Reminders:
October 18: Grandfriends Family Night (please sign up online)
October 19: Field trip to Heckrodt and Fire Station
October 27-28th: NO SCHOOL

PSC News

Did you know? The PSC gives a Birthday Book to each NDLC student during the school year. Make sure to ask your child about it near their birthday (or half-birthday)!

Join us! The next PSC meeting is Monday, October 3, at 6 pm in the school library.

Questions? Email NDLC.PSC@gmail.com

Here's a peek at our learning this week:

Reading: It was very exciting to move into "reading" old favorite storybooks last week.  One way to support this work at home is by reading stories that are familiar to your child over and over and over again until it becomes a story they can 'read' on their own.   We are continuing our work in storybooks in the classroom as well, trying to say even more on every page to make our words match the text and connecting pages to make our reading sound even more grown up by using phrases like "and then" and "after that."

Writing  This week we will be learning to write true stories! This means we will be taking an event from our lives, telling that story and then working to show it in pictures and words across three pages. We will practice this work as a class be writing a few class “true stories” together.  As true story writers we will need to do ALOT of story telling to help us say what happened first, next and last.  We will also use our writing folders to help us generate ideas for our true stories.

Math: In math this week our focus will shift from showing number quantity to comparing number quantity.  We will learn about a new math tool called a comparing mat that will help us to distinguish numbers as greater than and less than.  We will also be exploring and classifying shapes.  This week we will focus on the characteristics of circles, squares and rectangles.  Our math centers will be: using a comparing mat with tiles to observe number size, creating our own counting books, sorting shapes and using tiles to begin some work with adding.

Social Studies: Now that we are settling into the normal routines of school and have built the foundation for our classroom community, we will be kicking off our first social studies unit.  This unit is a School Study.  This week we will build some background on our school study and list all the different jobs that people in our school do.  We will formulate interview questions and the boys and girls will do a practice interview on me and Mrs. Steif, our reading specialist.  In the coming weeks we will take many tours and conduct interviews of these people to learn all about our school.

Weekly News Sept 19-23

I hope everyone enjoyed the terrific weather this weekend.  The cooler temperatures make it so much more comfortable for the kids in the classroom and at recess.  We had a very busy and productive first full week together and are certainly in the swing of things in Kindergarten! 

Just a few reminders (if you haven't already done so):

• School fees are due in the office ASAP
• Send a pair of tennis shoes to be kept at school for your child to wear for gym
• Send a plain white t-shirt to be kept at school for an art shirt
• Check out the link view and purchase some AWESOME school clothing

https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/

Code:  NDLCSPIRIT

Important Dates:

9/20: No School for students
9/22: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help

9/28: Kaukauna Homecoming Parade (more info to come)

10/19: Kindergarten Field Trip to Heckrodt Nature Preserve and Kaukauna Fire Dept (more info to come)

***To help us be prepared for field trips and opportunities to volunteer in the classroom later this year, please let me know if you need a background check form.  Background checks take 2-3 weeks to be verified and are required every 5 years.***

This week the entire school district will be having a "safety week."  You should have received information about this electronically via Infinite Campus messenger and will be receiving a letter detailing the events of this week.  During this time the students and I will be participating in several drills to ensure we are all aware and comfortable with safety procedures.  We will have the following drills this week: fire drill, tornado drill, lockdown and hold drill and evacuation drill.  

Some of these may be new or could possibly cause some anxiety or questions among the students.  Please know I will do my very best to explain everything we are doing to them and will make sure they know they are always safe at school.  If you have questions please feel free to contact myself or Mrs. Frischmann.

Now, here's a peek at our week:
Reading:  This week we will welcome a new type of book to out reading workshop: Old Favorite Storybooks!  These books are stories the boys and girls have heard me read aloud several times and are ready to "reread" on their own.  They are by no means expected to read these verbatim, but instead will work to rely on story elements and pictures to support their attempts.  This type of work sets them up to really begin to understand the connection that words and pictures have in books.  It also gets us one step closer to reading conventionally.  I cannot wait to listen to the students read these beloved books!

Writing:  We will continue to write teaching books this week and will really work to plan how our books will go page by page.  We will be working with a partner to ask and answer questions about our books as a way to add more and will work hard attempt to write words in our books by stretching them out and recording the sounds we hear.  Lastly, we will be using a checklist to make sure our writing is the best it can be...I know the boys and girls will feel so grown up doing this! 

Math:  This week in math we will continue to work with matching numerals to quantity and will work to create drawings to show what quantity numbers represent.  We will also work to create different arrangements that represent the same number to increase our knowledge of quantity and will even look to break these arrangements apart to find partners of a number (numbers that are added together to make a larger number).  We will begin to work in math centers each day that will allow us to work with a small group and really get to share our thinking about math.

Social Studies:  Each of us in Room 80 has determined a hope and dream for the school year!  I am very proud of the boys and girls for being able to choose something that suits them and that they feel is important for them to work on.  We are now in the process of creating 3-5 rules for our classroom that will help each of us reach our hope and dream.  Stay tuned for our published rules later this week.

Word Work:  We have begun to study names in our classroom.  Each day one student is chosen to be the Star name.  We study, spell and chant their name and then take some time to learn about them with a quick interview.  The info we gather is then turned into a book about each child that we can ALL read.  Each child will also get a copy of his/her book to read at home.  The boys and girls have been so excited about this!

Have a great week!

Weekly News Sept 12-16

It's beginning to feel like fall...with the return of football anyway!  We are a divided household (as you can see) and luckily we all had a terrific Sunday with big wins for our teams!  I hope you had a terrific weekend as well!!  

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
9/14: Picture Day- please send your order forms to school on or before this day

9/16: Fitnesss wear Friday- wear Athletic clothes

9/16: Fox Cities Kids Fun Run

9/20: No School for students

9/22: Family Night: Hot Dogs and How to Help- please send RSVP's to school with your child by     Sept 15th

Every Friday throughout the school year will be NDLC wear day.  Students can/should wear their school apparel proudly!  Check out this link from Eagle Graphics to purchase NDLC school apparel online.  Clothing samples are available in the office and will be out at family night on 9/22.  Ordering can take place through 9/25.
We are hoping orders will be fulfilled by mid-October!

 Here is the link and the code

https://eaglegraphics.itemorder.com/

Code:  NDLCSPIRIT

Here is a peek at what will be happening in Room 80 next week:

Reading:  Right now as readers we are enjoying super interesting non-fiction books or, as we call them, "learn about the world books."  Our goal when exploring these books is to look closely at the pictures and learn as much as we can.  While we are doing this we are connecting new information back to the title/topic of the book and also connecting new information as we "read" more and more pages.  During reading workshop each day we have a time to reading independently (private reading time) and a time to read with a friend (partner reading time).  When we meet with our reading partners we are talking about and sharing all we have learned from our books.  This week we will focus on rereading books to learn more and more and to begin to think about what the words in the book might tell us.

Writing: As writers we have been working on thinking of a topic we know a lot about and then showing what we know by drawing a picture and maybe even using a letter or two.  We feel so grown up using pens to write with and have also been working to keep writing...we even learned a new saying "when we are done, we have just begun!"  This week we will work more on listening to and writing down the sounds we hear in words we are trying to write.  We will also practice our drawing skills to challenge ourselves to write about ideas that may seem hard for us.

Math: Last week as mathematicians we learned that we carry our most important tools for math right on our body: our fingers and eyes (and our brains too).  We used them to see math all over our classroom and school.  This week we will practice using different math tools in the classroom to reinforce counting, patterning and sorting.  We will also focus on ordering numbers 1-5 and drawing and "reading" pictures to tell how many objects we see.

Word Work:  During word work time we will be focusing on skills we will need to begin to spell words.  Right now word work time has lots to do with matching upper case and lower case letters, building names, reading familiar color words and sorting letters of various fonts.  Each day the children work in a center to reinforce these skills.  As we grow as readers and writers this time will look differently and focus on more sophisticated skills.

Social Studies: Right now in kindergarten we are studying our classroom.  This week we will use all we learned about last week to determine a hope and dream for ourselves for the school year.  Each child will decide on something they really want to accomplish and we will share it with the class.  We will publish our hope and dreams and display them in our classroom.  After we have set our hopes and dreams we will write classroom rules together so we can all reach our hopes and dreams this school.  This is big, important work for the students and really helps them to build a community in our classroom!!

Have a great week and please keep me posted with any questions and concerns!!

Elly :) 

First week in the books!!!

We had a great first week learning together!  I think the kids surprised themselves with how quickly they became readers, writers and mathematicians in the classroom!  We have been taking time to learn about each other, our school, rules and of course, what we will be working on as learners!

Here are a few pictures of some of our first week fun!!

Reader's Workshop

All School Dance Off!

Here are a few helpful tidbits!!

• Continue to send a snack with your child each day.
• Please return decorated writing folders by Friday, September 16th 
• Send any completed paperwork to school with your child
• Gym days will be Wednesday and Fridays, Music will be on Tuesday and Thursday, Art will be on Monday and library will be on Friday
• I will send a link to our updated blog every Monday to keep you informed of what we have going on at school and in our classroom.

Have an awesome weekend!!

Welcome to Kindergarten!!

Hello Kindergarten Families!

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit with me over the past two weeks!  I loved meeting your families and look forward to a great year of learning with you and your children!   As the excitement and nerves about the first day of school start to happen, I wanted to keep you in the loop with a few tidbits and reminders!

First day: New Directions staff will be wearing purple shirts on the first day of school. This may help your child find us in the morning, although we will be keeping an eye out for them as well. We will all meet at the purple NDLC awning that faces the playground.

Snack:   All students should bring a SNACK FROM HOME each day.  Children can also bring a water bottle each day. It’s warm in our room so water bottles are helpful!

Rest: Students should bring a beach towel/small blanket to rest on each afternoon.  These will be kept at school in their lockers. 

Breakfast:  Breakfast is available for children to eat in the classroom each morning.  The cost of breakfast is $1.45 and it will include milk.  Please let us know if you intend for your child to eat breakfast at school each day.  We want to ensure kids who need breakfast are getting it and no one takes it if/when they are not supposed to. 

Folders: You will find a Take Home folder in your child’s backpack upon returning from their first day as a kindergartener. This folder should be emptied each night and returned each day.

Specials: Please remember to send gym shoes and art shirts if you have not done so yet!

Blog: Weekly updates, pictures, and upcoming activities will be posted each week to our blog. Here is the link to view our classroom blog:

Please feel free to email me with any questions or concerns!!  Enjoy your last few days of summer!  I can’t wait to see you soon!!!