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Archive for September, 2009

Wow! This week went by fast! Today the kids learned about KidPix, a really fun computer program for making pictures and writing stories as we opened the Computer Station. They also checked out new books from the library. We are all anxiously awaiting the long day on Monday. We will be touring the cafeteria in the morning and doing a dry run of buying a lunch, buying milk, and where we will sit so they will be prepared before the chaos begins at 11:25! We are also planning to have a bit of quiet “down time” following recess when we will listen to a chapter book on tape and re-energize for an afternoon of learning. Please help your child gets lots of sleep this weekend…they will need it! Have a great weekend!

My daughter has croup! She has been home with a fever since Monday evening. My mother-in-law came to the rescue Tuesday, Wednesday Mr. Monteiro stayed with her, but since she is still running a fever, today must be my day to stay home with her. Thankfully Mr. Monteiro has already agreed to take Friday duty, if necessary, so I’ll only have to miss one day this week. While I’m happy to be home taking care of her, I really dread missing school, especially this early in the year when we are just beginning to establish routines. To be honest, I dread writing substitute plans at any time of the year as it is so much easier for me to just come in and teach than it is to explain to someone else what needs to be done! Thank God for Mrs. Holbrook is all I can say! I’m sure the kids will be in good hands in my absence.

They will be introduced to the ABC Center today and they will continue to make choices around the room. Ask them which centers they went to. Also, ask them if there was a center they wanted to go to but didn’t have time. Remind them how lucky they are to be staying for long days next week so they will have so much more time to get to those centers they didn’t have time for on the short days! They will also be going to Phys. Ed. with Miss Cook. I wonder what they will do there today?

I am putting together a bulletin board in the classroom that will help illustrate the seasons and will also help the children to take pride in all they learn and how much they grow over the course of the school year. As the children were not in school in the summer, I need your help in gathering pictures of the children participating in summer activities that can be hung on the bulletin board. Please send in 1 or 2 pictures of your child doing something “summery” from this past summer.

If you can not find any, I will try to get some pictures of them on the playground before the end of the month. Thank you very much for your help with this project.

Today’s post is coming before school starts for the day because after the kids leave, I have limited time to eat my lunch before running to another building for our afternoon of professional development…

I want to start by thanking everyone who has sent me emails this past week complimenting me on this blog. It really is a fun way for me to keep in contact with families since I don’t get to see you all each day. I did want to mention a few things about it though. If you have a question or comment about something I post, and it is not something child specific that needs to be kept private, you are more than welcome to click on the “No comments/1 comment/etc.” link at the top of each post (right under the post title) and post a comment right to the blog rather than sending me an email. Your question may be a question other parents have as well and if I can answer it once, that would be great. Also, it can be a nice open dialogue between all of us about things happening in the classroom. Don’t be surprised though it your comment doesn’t post immediately as I have to approve them in order to keep our comments spam free! The other thing I wanted to mention about the blog…while I have really enjoyed posting daily during these 2 short weeks, I will most likely have to cut back once the kids begin staying until 3:10 next week. With only a 30 minute special each day (and meetings being scheduled during some of those specials), my planning time is almost non-existent! My goal is to post once or twice a week. And if I slack and more than a week goes by without a post…you have my permission to email me a reminder to get on it!

 Today, assuming all goes well , we will open the Dramatic Play center. The children did such a great job making choices of their own yesterday that we will continue to do so again today. We will also finish our class name chart. Have a great day!

Today we opened up the Blocks Center. As you can imagine, the children were thrilled to finally get their hands and bodies involved in an area of the classroom that they have been drooling over since day one! We also introduced the process of making choices of their own during Activity Time rather than rotating through centers as assigned by the teachers. The rules right now are that we all stop, clean up, and make a new choice at the same time so that we can be sure no one is monopolizing one center and that they are all having a variety of experiences. It also gives them practice at cleaning up the materials in various centers which promotes independence. As more and more areas of the classroom open up and the children become more and more independent at using and cleaning up materials, Activity Time will morph into 2 distinct parts of our day beginning next week. The more “academic” stations (ABC station, Writing station, etc.) will be open during our Readers’ Workshop in the morning for the kids to work on more focused literacy activities while Mrs. Holbrook and I work with small groups. The other centers (Dramatic Play, Blocks, Sand Table) will be open for a free Choice Time each afternoon.

Just a reminder, all of the children in Kindergarten will have the option of getting lunch in the cafeteria FREE OF CHARGE on Monday! You may certainly choose to send a lunch if you would prefer and/or buy just a milk but if you want to try of the food in the Sheehan cafeteria, Monday would be the day to do that! We will be taking the kids on a tour of the cafeteria on Monday morning in advance of lunch so that they understand how to go through the lunch line to purchase lunch, how to purchase milk, and where they will be sitting. They will all have an assigned seat to reduce their anxiety about being in that loud cafeteria! There will be adults as well as 5th grade helpers at lunch each day to help the kids open packages, etc.

Tomorrow will be the first day that the Kindergarten children will be dismissed with the entire school because it is an Early Release Day for grades 1-5. Kindergarten bus students and Extended Day students will be riding their bus home (or to Extended Day) with the rest of the school. If your child is a “walker” you will see many more parents waiting on the playground. Please feel free to come a little closer to our blue door so that your child can easily find you in the crowd! Also, we will be bringing the K “walkers” outside 5 minutes prior to the bell in order to send them with the proper adult before the chaos of the rest of the school being dismissed ensues!

Each morning we count the number of days we have been in Kindergarten. Ask your child if they remember what day today was!