This week in Room 2

Here are some highlights for the week of 9-29.  October brings lots of different things.  Be sure to read at the bottom for more information.

Writing
Writing the sounds we hear
Using Finger spaces between words
Adding a period at the end of a story

Reading
Review letters Tt-Zz
Words the and little (week 2)
Theme Book: Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip

During this week, we hope to meet with all reading groups at least once; many reading groups will meet 2-3 times.

Math:
Shapes: square, circle, triangle, rectangle and hexagon (with teacher Iris)
October calendar -- learning about months of the year & more

Art: 
Final visit with Mr. Duffy (Monday)
Multi-cultural art with Ms. Rodhe,
Line art with Ms. Lopez.
Shape Monsters with Teacher Iris

Science:
What is a scientist with Miss Forst.

More:
Weekly Song: Home on the Range
Poem: October

Upcoming events in October:
October 7 OMSI magnet Class at Chapman
October 9  Field Trip to Kruger's Farm
October 10 Statewide Inservice Day -- No School
October 15 Late Opening Wednesday.  School starts at 10:00
October 21  Walking field trip to Macleay Park (rain date - October 23rd)
October 22nd  Picture Retake Day
October 24 Teacher Iris' last day at Chapman
October 28 Grandparents & Special Friends Day
October 29-30th Conferences - No School
October 31 No School

Our Room Parent Robyn

Be sure to say hi to Robyn, who has volunteered to be the Room 2 Room Parent.

Mr. Duffy's last class

Our young scholars have enjoyed the stories, games, and life lessons that Mr. Duffy has shared with us over the last few weeks.  Monday morning at 9:00 is Mr. Duffy's last visit.

Feel free to come in for the final session!

Apple tasting

Thank you Food Front

Wednesday morning in kindergarten

School pictures

Hi all:

Yesterday's school pictures went very well.  Here is a little more information that might answer some questions.

• All students were here, and everyone had their photo taken.
• If you did not order prints it is not too late.  I will put directions at the bottom of this post.
• If the photo you receive does not reflect your child's inner beauty, picture retake day is October 22nd.  You should receive pictures before then.  Make sure you let me know that you want a retake (by returning your child's pictures).

If you did not order pictures yesterday email me for an access code and go to

www.lophotos.com

Click on Order School Photos Here

Enter the access code

Sign in and order photos.

Let me know if you have questions.

This week in Room 2

Here are some highlights for the week  of September 22nd:

• Picture day -- Today was picture day; the kids looked wonderful.
• Apple Tasting Thursday -- Food Front will be bringing a variety of apples for us to taste
• Swift Family Run -- Saturday is the Swift Family Run.  Fun for all, even if you are not a runner.
• Shapes -- As a student teacher, Iris has to do a "Work Sample"; a series of carefully documented lessons.  Her work sample is on shapes.  The students will be focusing on shapes throughout the next two weeks or so.  Today the young scholars went on a shape walk around the school.

More information about the week:

• New words: "the" and "little"
• Letter Focus " N-S 
• Art shapes and more...
• Song: "I've Been Working on the Railroad"

Wonderful News

This morning we had Shari Bruno join us as our Educational Assistant in Room 2.  Shari previously worked in the office, where many of you may have met her.  She is very excited to work directly with young students; we are thrilled to have her.

Her hours will be from 8:30 to 12:00 each morning so many of you may not get to say hi as you drop off your children; rest assured, she will be a major part of classroom life.

Next Week

Picture day is Tuesday, June 23rd.  Have your child dress as you want to remember them.

The Swift Family Run is Saturday the 27th.

Bernie Duffy will be back in the classroom Monday and Wednesday.

A number of children are eating breakfast in the classroom.  We want to insure that every child who needs a breakfast gets one.  Some years, a few kids figure out that they can grab a second breakfast when they get to school, and nobody will be the wiser.  Our hope is that everyone who needs a breakfast gets one, and everyone who doesn't need one doesn't get one.  Feel free to ask your child about this, and feel free to let me know if you have questions.

Iris should begin teaching her math work sample early in the week.  She is also teaching random lessons throughout the day.

Line caterpillar art

Roundup Assembly Tomorrow

Tomorrow is our first indoor Roundup Assembly.  We will meet in the auditorium on the floor near the stage.  The kids had a chance to learn where they were sitting today.  Look for Teacher Iris (and Mythandra).  I am on the Roundup Committee and may be running around the auditorium helping with last minute details.

This Week in Kindergarten

It was great to see so many of you at Back to School Night last Thursday!

Please note that Wednesday, September 17 is a late start day.  Everything (buses, bells...) will be two hours behind schedule.

We continue to focus on building routines, learning names, and understanding the way kindergarten works.  This week should include a Tuesday visit from artist in residence Mr. Duffy, a late opening, and our first Friday morning Roundup in the auditorium.

Look for your child to continue to be tired from the long days of learning and new routines.  This should  ease as your child gets more and more used to the rigors of the kindergarten lifestyle.

Thank you to everyone who has packed lunches for your children.  This will be another challenging week as we merge cafeteria lines with first grade.  My sense is that lines should be much smoother next week.

Here are a few highlights of the week:

Song: The Sunny Side of the Street
Weekly Theme Book: "Fix it Duck"
Letter focus: review F-N
Phonemic skills: rhyming, syllables, counting words
Writing: Introducing writing
Math: Counting, probabilities, new games and routines

Math with teacher Iris

Back to School Night

It was wonderful seeing so many of you at Back to School Night.  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule (and for somehow finding parking) to attend.  If you missed it, I will be sending home the Back to School Night packet in your child's backpack.

I have extra packets available for anyone who needs one.  Please stop by and ask me.  I will  recycle these sometime next week.

Photos and privacy

I am updating a blog post from last September about photos and privacy on the blog.

I enjoy posting photos; however this brings up a quandary.  As you may have noticed, I have taken some pains to be sure that the photos I have posted are not close-ups of individual students.  Before I post close-ups, I want to have a discussion of how parents felt about having photos of their child on the blog, which is available to the wider web audience.  My sense is that the best photos really show children learning, working and enjoying friendships, however I am not ready to post “identifiable” photos until I have checked in with parents. 

So… my hope is to begin posting photos of students sometime in the third week of school (probably around the 17^th).  These photos would not have names attached (look over last year's blog for a better idea of what this would look like).  However I will not post photos of your child if you let me know that you do not want their image on the web.

So please shoot me an email if you do not want pictures of your child used on the blog.  Feel free to email or respond on the blog if you otherwise have strong feelings on this subject.  

Back to School Night

Tonight is back to school night.  I am really hoping to see someone from every Room 2 family.

Here is a quick picture of what the evening will look like.

The evening starts at 6:30 in the auditorium and will begin with an introduction of staff, and then lots of information about Chapman.  Around 6:55, families will be dismissed to classrooms.

I will be giving two presentations, one at 7:00 and one at 7:30.  There are two separate times so that families with more than one child can visit multiple classrooms.  I usually make the first presentation a formal and comprehensive overview of classroom life as well as "things parents need to know".  The second presentation covers a few highlights of the earlier presentation but is more informal and allows much more time for questions.

There is childcare available for your kindergartner, but not for younger siblings (it helps to arrive early - there is usually a crush of families around 6:25). I look forward to seeing you there!

Mr Duffy telling a story

This week in kindergarten

This is a busy week in kindergarten.  Our most important item is introducing the routines of the classroom so we can focus on learning throughout the year.   We are also working hard on learning names - names of friends and names of the adults in our lives (Mythandra seems to be a tough one for the young scholars).

Here are some of the unique things that are happening this week
-- Our Artist in Residence, Bernie Duffy (Mr. Duffy to the students), starts today.  He will be teaching about friendship and feelings through storytelling and acting.  He will be in twice each week for the next three weeks.  This is a wonderful part of our year!
-- We got on a school bus yesterday in order to learn about bus safety.
-- Yesterday we had our first Mandarin class (Monday and Wednesday mornings) and our first music class (Tuesday and Thursday afternoons).  Students can look forward to P.E. (Wednesday and Friday mornings), Library and Guidance on Thursday afternoons and Reading Buddies on Friday afternoons.  I will be giving out a full schedule at Back to School night on Thursday.
--Our first Friday Roundup will be on Friday on the Steve Brand Field (the turf field in back of the school).  Your child should go directly to the field in the morning.

Here are some of the academic highlights of the week...
--Reviewing the letters A-E
--Working on Phonemic Awareness Routines
--Beginning to learn the kindergarten writing process
--Getting to know the math materials
--Beginning our Worktime Centers routines

Our song of the week is "This Land is Your Land"

Four major requests:
--If your child rides the bus -- please always make sure I know of any changes to the afternoon routine.
--Please be sure your child is here on time.  The late bell is at 8:00 and your child is considered late after the bell.  If you arrive after 8:10 please go to the office first to get a late slip.  This will insure that the attendance program is updated and you don't get a call saying that your child is missing.
--Be sure to check the blog often:  I should be sending out updates soon about student pictures on the blog (and privacy concerns), more information about back to school night, and lots of pictures of life in Room 2.
-- Finally, please, please, please be sure to attend Back to School Night on Thursday, beginning at 6:30 in the auditorium.  Childcare is available for your kindergarten student!

Fist Mandarin class

First day reflections

We had a great first day of kindergarten.

We learned a song (This Land is Your Land), we read several books including It Looked Like Spilled Milk and Good Dog Carl, we made self portraits, enjoyed some quiet reading time and had a great time during our two recesses.

It seems like a great group of kids.  It is always a joy to see kids starting to make friends and get to know one another.

Have a great weekend.  Help your child get lots of rest as they brace up for the first full week of kindergarten!

Thank you to everyone who packed a lunch.  My sense is that the lunch line should be much quicker within a week or two.

I look forward to seeing everyone on Monday.

First day of school - quiet reading time

Ready for tomorrow