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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Catching Up!


Sorry it has been awhile since I had a chance to update our blog!  We have been busy in Kindergarten.  We finished up our letter of the day program at the end of October.  We spent time last week learning about fall and reviewing all that we learned in September!

It was so great to see all of the parents and families at Parent-Teacher Conferences last week and to talk about all of the progress our students are making in Kindergarten!

This week, we will continue our Fall them for the month of October.  We all began our letter of the week program this week.  We will be learning about the letter Aa and apples this week.  Since Aa is one of our vowels, we will be recognizing the two different sounds that Aa can make and be listening for that sound in words.


Last week, our first Pre-Decodable book (The Park) came home.  These books are from our Open Court reading series and will be coming home almost every week.  We use these books to learn our sight words and practice reading them in class.  This week, our book will be Lunch.  We will work with these books all week and then they will be sent home on Friday.  These books along with any other Emergent Reader books should be placed in your child's Reading Treasure Box at home and they can be read at home together.  Please let me know if you have any questions about these books as the year progresses. 





Friday, September 16, 2016

Happy Friday!!


Today, the students were very busy in the morning with letter work and working on writing.  They spent time writing in their journals and time putting various alphabet cards in order.  Here is a picture of a few in progress below!  They did a great job.  We are working on completing this task faster and faster each time to increase fluency.


Students have increased their stamina this week!  They are successfully completing "Read to Self" for 4 minutes!  Way to go!  Next week, our goal is to be able to read to self for a total of 10 minutes by the end of the week!

I know a lot of you are working on Reading Treasure Boxes at home with your child for the September Family Homework Project.  We will try and share these on the day they are brought into school.  However, sometimes we will have to keep them at school an extra day or so until we have time to share them.  This beautiful treasure box was brought in by a friend today.  We had planned on formally sharing it today, but were busy this afternoon and didn't have time. :(  It was so fun to see the excitement from the students when the box was brought to the classroom! We will share this box on Monday as well as any other boxes that are brought in.  I hope you are having fun with this project! Enjoy your weekend with your family and remember to fill in the September Reading Log each time you read to your child at home!



Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Tuesday, September 13


Building Stamina

Today, one of our focus areas was learning how to "Read to Self".  This will be part of our small group rotations soon.  Right now, we are practicing doing this correctly.  Students learned they need to select an area quickly, read quietly, and get started right away.  Along with the expectations for read to self, we discussed that we want to build the amount of time that we "read to self" as the year progresses ~ build our stamina!  Since this is a new skill, I set the timer for 2 minutes and I monitored the students.  I know 2 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but there can be so many distractions in a Kindergarten classroom, so doing this effectively for 2 minutes is a big deal and I was super proud of them! :) Each day, we will add a little bit of time as we work on this skill as a whole group.  Once the students have built a little stamina, then this will be used during small group.  This is part of the Daily 5 program and I  love incorporating this into our daily small groups. 

**MATH HOMEWORK: There is a math homework sheet in your child's folder today (writing 4 & 5).  Please help him/her complete and return to school.  Thanks!


Monday, September 12, 2016

Week 4 of Kindergarten


Monday, September 12

Today, our letter of the week was letter Jj. We listened to our letter Jj song, read our Jj sound box book, and practiced writing the letter Jj.  During small group time, students are often working with the letters of the alphabet. Here are a few of the acitivities they did today with the letters.


All of our students are readers!  We learned today that all of the students in our class can read.  A few of them told me, "No, I can't read yet" when I told them this. :)  However, we learned today that there are actually three ways to read a book!  Yes, three!  The three ways to read a book are to read the pictures, read the words, or retell the story.  Reading the pictures and retelling familiar stories are great ways to get beginning readers to build self-confidence and later move onto reading words.  We will be practicing a lot of picture reading and retelling in class.  

Finally, this afternoon, the class had fun using watercolors to paint jellyfish.  These will dry this evening and we will finish them tomorrow.  Have a great evening!




Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Tuesday - Letter Ff


Tuesday, September 6

Happy Tuesday! I hope everyone had a relaxing three day weekend with their families! Today we began our small group rotations.  You might also see or hear me refer to this time as guided reading time, stations, work stations, etc.  Regardless of the title, it's when I am able to work with a small group of students on language arts skills and really get to know all of the kiddos!!!  I love this time and today went great!  I was so proud of the students for working quietly at their own stations while I worked with my group.  We have five rotations each day so that each child can meet with me in a small group every day! (Usually it will work out like this, but sometimes, our schedule gets a little complicated). :)  The students love it because it keeps them moving!  I know things will start to go a little smoother as we continue to work each day. 

We also introduced our first math chapter today on numbers 0-5.  You will see a lot of math papers in your child's folder today! :)  These are just the introduction papers for the book and the chapter.  There were also flash cards that came home.  These can be cut apart and reviewed at home. They do not need to return to school.  We will be working with these math vocabulary words during Chapter 1.  We will usually do one lesson per day.  We will even sometimes complete the homework at school.  I want to make sure the students have a chance to receive help in class if they need it. However, depending on time, there will sometimes be a math homework page that comes home during the week. 

Today our letter of the day was letter Ff.  Students wrote about families, drew their friends and read a fun story about a frog.  Our story was full of rhyming words and animal characters.  Ask your child about Finklehopper Frog!  See if your child can remember any of the other characters (a dog, a cat, and a rabbit). Finklehopper realized that everyone is different and he doesn't have to be like all of the other animals.  He can have fun just being himself.  We are making some Finklehopper Frogs at school that we will finish tomorrow. 

REMINDER: Thursday is Library this week.  Please return your book! 


Friday, September 2, 2016


Friday, September 2

Happy Friday! Two weeks into Kindergarten, and the students are doing great! We have spent the last two weeks reviewing a lot of expectations and routines.  I think the students got it! :)  Understanding expectations and routines makes the learning day go so much smoother! They have also all done well with learning their after school transportation, so they do NOT need to wear their bus tags any longer. 

This week, we focused on letters Aa - Ee.  Next week, we will move onto letters Ff - Ii.  At the end of each week, I will be doing a quick assessment with the students to make sure they are making progress with our letters and/or letter sounds.  This will determine what we will be working on during small groups. 

Next week, we will begin our small group rotations.  It usually takes a little while to get into the groove of small group time.  However, after about two weeks, the students are experts! :)  Small group rotations are one of my favorite times of the day!  I really get to know each student and their strengths/weaknesses during this time.  I will be in communication with you regarding how your child is progressing.

Today, we read the story, Elmer.  Elmer is a colorful elephant who decides it is much more fun to be himself, even if he is different than all of the other elephants.  The other elephants agree that different is good! :)  This story has a wonderful lesson that I enjoy sharing with the students.  Celebrating our differences is an important part of our classroom! We will finish coloring our own Elmer the Elephants on Tuesday.  Today was busy, and we ran out of time!

I hope you all have a great three day weekend.

REMINDER: Check under the "My Classroom" tab on the website to see our upcoming specials schedules. 


Wednesday, August 31, 2016


Wednesday, August 31

Today our letter of the day was letter Cc.  We read a cat story and made colorful cats.  The students brought these home today.  This activity focused on listening and using fine motor skills.  We played a Crocodile game with all of the alphabet letters. We will use this game to review our letters from time to time.  The class had a lot of fun finding out what letters the crocodile ate!


We also used our white boards to practice printing the letters Aa, Bb, and Cc.  We will be focusing on correct letter formation a lot during these early weeks of Kindergarten. We will use dry erase boards, chalkboards, paper and pencil and other tools to practice forming the letters. 

Today, the September Reading Log came home.  Please read to your child each day/week and color one book for each 10 minutes of reading.  Students brought home library books today, so this would be a great book to start with! :)  When students return the completed reading log at the end of the month, they will receive a small prize.  

FYI: Today we practiced our sever weather drill in the afternoon. 

Tuesday, August 30, 2016


Tuesday, August 30

Today our letter of the day was Bb.  We practiced making the letter Bb and listening for its sound.  We played a Hidden Bumblebee number game with the numbers 1 - 10 and then the students made a bear parade of numbers 1 - 10.  These came home today.  The class practiced following directions, coloring, cutting and gluing during our bus activity.  The buses are decorating our classroom door.  They did a great job! 




We practiced our fire drill this afternoon.  We continue to work on giving everyone a chance to use the Chrome Books.  The students are doing a great job with them so far!

Reminders
Tomorrow is Library
If you would like to order from the Scholastic Book Order, please order online with our classroom code before September 2 at 3 pm. 
Character Rock T-shirts can still be ordered.  Return the order form and payment to school.



Monday, August 29

On Monday, we started our "Letter of the Day" unit with the letter Aa.  The students used their fine motor skills to make a torn paper apple craft.  They also sorted pictures that started with Aa and  pictures that did not start with Aa.  The students practiced writing our letter of the day on dry erase boards. 

Some of the students spent some time using the Chrome Books in class today as well. I reminded the students that not everyone had a turn today, however, we will rotate through everyone by the end of the week.  We are just becoming familiar with the Chrome Books and will start to incorporate them more each week into our daily routine. 

You probably noticed that a behavior sheet came home in your child's folder today.  We spent a lot of time last week learning about the 4 Be's.  Starting this week, I will fill out the behavior sheet daily to let you know how your child is doing at school.  Please check it and initial it each evening and leave it in your child's folder.  At the end of the grading period, we will have a Good News Party to celebrate good choices!

*Just as an FYI, this week we will be practicing our emergency drills (fire, sever weather and intruder.)


Thursday, August 25, 2016


SPECIALS SCHEDULE:

The weekly specials schedule will be listed in my newsletter each week.  However, you can also find the schedule under the "My Classroom" tab on this website.  Let me know if you have any questions!


Tuesday, August 23, 2016


DAY 2

Another great day in Kindergarten.  Today we read Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten and had fun with the rhyming words in the story.  See if your child can tell you some rhyming words! 
This morning, we focused on learning the 4 Be's of Whiteside School (Be Safe, Be Caring, Be Respectful and Be Responsible). We also learned the rules for scissors and glue in the classroom and practiced using these when we made stoplights this afternoon.  




Monday, August 22, 2016



HAPPY FIRST DAY!

What a wonderful first day of Kindergarten!  Our class is super!!! Thank you so much for sharing your sweet kiddos with me this year!  I can't wait to get to know them all better and I am so glad to have shared their first day of Kindergarten with them!! We read two fun stories for the first day of school.  Ask your child who Sarah was in the First Day Jitters!  (We were surprised to find out she was actually the teacher in the story, and she had a few jitters too at her new school!) We drank a little "jitter" juice to make any first day jitters go away. :)  Also ask your child about Chester the raccoon. The students brought home a little treat to go with this story.  

TENNIS SHOES: We have PE on FRIDAY this week.  Please have your child wear tennis shoes.





Sunday, August 21, 2016


The Night Before...
I can't wait to see everyone tomorrow for the first day of Kindergarten!  Check out this great read aloud for the night before your first day!  It is the story, Twas the Night Before Kindergarten, written by Natasha Wing. 


Listen to a bedtime story tonight by clicking this link: 



Thursday, August 18, 2016



THANK YOU!

Thank you for attending Open House tonight!  It was so great to meet all of our Kindergarten families!  If you have school supplies that still need to be brought to school, you can send them with your child on Monday.  I hope you all enjoy your last few days of summer and I can't wait to see everyone again on Monday!

REMINDER:  Please remember to send snack for 24 students sometime next week.  Please read the snack note that was in the Open House Folder for details regarding snack. :)


OPEN HOUSE FOLDERS:  Please be sure to read through all of the papers that were in your child's Open House folder.  Remember to fill out and return the papers that were on the "Return to School" side of the folder next week.  Thanks! :)

NAME TAG: Your child should wear the orange name tag to school on Monday.  He/she will come home on Monday with a new name tag. 



Tuesday, August 16, 2016


Let's Stay Connected!

The home/school connection is so important!  I am constantly looking for ways to build the home/school relationship between our classroom/school and our Kindergarten families. Here are a few ways to stay connected to what is happening in our classroom and at our school!

1. Subscribe to this blog! Add your e-mail to the subscribe section on the right side of this page and you will get e-mail notifications when I update the blog!
2. Follow our classroom on Instagram: cason_kindergarten
3. Download the "Remind" app and join our classroom.  (Information will be sent home about this in your child's Open House folder!)
4. E-mail - Feel free to e-mail me any time with questions or concerns.  I always try to respond the same day!
5. Phone Call - Please call me if you have any questions or concerns.  You will most likely have to leave a voicemail during the school day.  However, I will try and call you back the same day. 
6. Keep an eye out for opportunities to join our classroom for things such as class parties, special events or read alouds!

I can't wait to get to know all of my students and their families this year!  


Monday, August 15, 2016


OPEN HOUSE
 Open House at the Elementary School is on 
Thursday, August 18 from 5:30 - 7:30.  
Bring your child's school supplies and come check out our classroom! I can't wait to meet everyone! 




Thursday, July 21, 2016


Hello Kindergarten Families!

I hope you have all been enjoying your summer!  I can't wait to start the 2016-2017 school year and meet all of our classroom friends and their families!  I have a lot of information to share with you and you have so much to learn this year in Kindergarten!  Please check back to our classroom blog often for updates! Enjoy your last weeks of summer and I will see you all soon!



Monday, March 14, 2016

Tt Week


Our letter of the week is Tt.  Today, we made our Tt word list.  We also discussed different types of transportation.  The class made a list and selected their favorite transportation to write about.  This week, we will also be learning about turtles.

On Thursday afternoon, we will attend our school wide JumpRope for Heart Assembly.  More information will be sent home soon!

Our sight word focus will be 3 letter words this week.  The students did great on their 2 letter word quiz last week!


Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Rr is for Rainbow


Last week, our letter of the week focus was Rr.  We discussed the colors of the rainbow, and finished up our lesson with a rainbow craft.  A perfect classroom decoration for our upcoming season of Spring! The rainbows really brigthen up our room! :)


Tuesday, March 8, 2016

WRAPPING UP WINTER!


During the months of January and February, we were busy with a lot of different activities.  Check out a few of them below!  We are wrapping up all of our winter activities and we are ready to to leap into Spring!
ANIMALS IN WINTER
We learned about the different ways that animals adapt to the winter and made an idea web to organize the information that we learned from our books and research.

THE MITTEN
We read the story, "The Mitten", by Jan Brett. After reading the story, we worked on sequencing the events in the story. The students then had fun in the afternoon being creative while watercoloring some mittens.


SNOWMAN ADJECTIVES
We read so many fun snowman stories during the months of January and February.  We used these stories to help us make an anchor chart of all the words that describe a snowman!

LABELING
The students helped create sentences to label a snowman!

SNOWMEN AT NIGHT
One of our favorite snowman books was "Snowmen at Night", written by Caralyn Buehner. After reading the story, we made a list of all of the fun things the snowmen did at night!

SNOWMAN CRAFTS
The students used their fine motor and listening skills to make snowmen to decorate our classroom!


Fingerprint snowman painting was a lot of fun! Those small finger muscles were working hard!

MATH
In Math, we worked on taking apart numbers 1 - 10.  We made these number bonds to help us organize the information we learned. These anchor charts came in handy during the following chapter of addition.  We still refer to these anchor charts when we are working on subtraction as well!  They are a very helpful tool!