September 29, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

It's hard to believe that we have reached the end of September and that October will be here next week!  We have finished most of our apple projects and will be starting our unit on mammals and other zoo animals soon in preparation for our field trip to the zoo on October 12th.  More info about this trip will be going home the day before the trip.  Please don’t forget to send the $5 to cover the cost of the trip this week, for both students and chaperones.

As always, we have been working very hard in Room 115.  The children are working on a class book, Apples Up on Top and will be starting another one, Room 115 Likes Reading next week.  All of our class books have started circulating to your homes.  Make sure to have your child read the book with you before you return them the next day. Please try to return them the next day so someone else can bring them home to share!

The children are finishing up their September writing journals and will bring these home next week.  They wrote their words in their best guess spelling.  We help them by saying the words with them and accept the letters they hear.  You will be able to see tremendous growth as the year progresses.  I would encourage you to keep their September journals so you can compare them to their journals at the end of the year! The students have finished their Brown Bear innovations and will bring them home as soon as they read them to the class.  Make sure to save these and all the individual books they take home.  These books are great for them to read and review often.  The small alphabet books they have been working on in class can also be kept and reviewed often.

We started learning about cross-section diagrams today.  We looked at pictures of many different kinds of fruits and what they look like after they have been cut in half.  The students have drawn pictures of whole apples and what they look like cut in half and will be labeling the parts next week.  I would like to assign some OPTIONAL homework for this weekend and coming week.  The next time you are at the grocery store, I would encourage you to buy some pieces of fruit that you can cut in half at home.  Ask your child to make observations of what they see and maybe even encourage them to draw and label the different parts!  The best part is sampling all the different fruits at the end!  If students do any drawing or labeling, I would love to see them!

I will be sending home some number writing homework very soon.  Students should complete them at home with pencils and then return them the next day.  Hopefully the extra practice will help students learn their numbers better!  They aren’t always easy for those 5 and 6 year old hands!  I would also recommend students practicing letter and number formation in other ways too.  They can write letters and numbers in sand, salt, rice, and even shaving cream!

We went to the library on Wednesday.  Students may keep the books for two weeks.  The due date is Wednesday, October 11th.  We had a special visitor on Thursday.  Dr. Shoudt is one of our guidance counselors.  He did a lesson on our first life skill and will continue coming in to do lessons during the next few weeks.  We are working on the skill:  When someone says your name, stop, look, and say “yes.”

We will start having parent volunteers come into the classroom to help from 9:45-10:20am this week with our art projects.  I sent a volunteer calendar home to parents who emailed that they were interested in helping.  I will send an email towards the end of the month asking for volunteers for the month of November.  You can respond with the days and how often you are interested in helping.  Volunteers just need to check in at the office to get a badge and then you can come down to the classroom.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS… It would be tremendously helpful if you could help your child practice putting on sweatshirts/jackets, turning them right-side out, and zipping them.  We don’t mind helping them but would like them to become more independent as the year goes on.  Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated, especially now that the weather will be getting cooler.  Thanks!

September 22, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We can safely say that we had a wonderful second week in Kindergarten!  The children are learning to listen to and follow directions.  They are learning to use materials and put them away.  The children walk in a safe and caring line and are learning one another’s names as we greet one another at meeting time.

The students have begun their first of many innovations.  This one is following the predictable words of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr.  They have also learned poems, participated in shared reading, and have listened to many stories.  They are doing a great job rotating around to their daily work centers and have been enjoying all the painting, gluing, and coloring!

We have started making letter/alphabet books.  We are going in the order that the letters are presented in Fundations.  The students have completed the T and B books and will start their F books next week.  I would encourage you to put these books and other books that your child makes in a shoebox or on a special shelf so that they can find them and read them often.

In math, the children are practicing counting, representing, and writing numbers 1-5.  I hope the math papers that are coming home are helpful for you to see what they are doing in math.  The homework sheet is optional but would be a great tool for you to use with your child for further practice.  I would encourage you to practice writing the numbers 1-5 with your child during the next couple of weeks to make sure your child is getting lots of practice with them.  Feel free to get creative with it...they can write the numbers in sand, salt, or even shaving cream!  During calendar time, the students follow patterns and practice counting and have been working on learning the days of the week.

Our first field trip will be Thursday, October 12th.  We are going to the Franklin Park Zoo!  The cost of the trip is $5.  Checks need to be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten and should be in by Thursday, October 5th.  I ended up pulling names for chaperones.  Mrs. Tedesco, Mrs. Rawding, and Mrs. Miminos have been selected.  If you were interested in going but didn’t get selected for this trip, I will put you on a waiting list in case a spot becomes available.  I wish I could bring everyone!

The students completed their first class book.  Similar to the face project many of you completed at the Open House, the children drew and colored their faces for their friends to guess who they were.  All the pages got put into a class book that has started circulating around to homes.  Please read and enjoy the book with your child when it is his/her turn and send it back into school on the next school day so another student may borrow it.  You will know it is a class book because it has our class list on the back and is full of work completed by all of the students.

I’ve included pictures of all the artwork we have done so far.  The students are hard workers and are off to a great start!

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS… School Photos will be this Wednesday, September 27th.  The order forms were sent home today.  Please be sure to return them with the payment by Wednesday if you would like to order pictures.

Also… We will be going to the library this Wednesday.  Students should return their books from our last visit so they can borrow another one.

September 15, 2017 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

The first week of school has come and gone and your children seem to have adjusted well. We have spent the week doing "guided discoveries" which are focused, purposeful, and playful ways to introduce materials, areas, and activities in the classroom.  This helps in the use and care of the materials and also promotes independence at cleanup time.  Our expectations are clear and encourage students to keep a kind, caring, and safe classroom.  This is all part of Responsive Classroom and will be continued next week.

We have read many stories, which we call "read alouds".  The children have read our morning message and have answered questions in morning meeting.  We have sung songs, done activities, and read poetry.  We are also getting to know one another better every day.  We have completed three days of work centers.  The students have a job list to complete each morning and will eventually rotate through their jobs independently (although they need quite a bit of support at the beginning of the year).  They have improved each day!

The nurse would like to remind parents to make sure all medical forms are turned in ASAP.  Please send them to school with your child in his/her blue folder and we will make sure they get to the nurse.

Our Parent Back-to-School Night is scheduled for this coming Tuesday night, September 19th.  The schedule was sent home today in your child’s folder and was also emailed from our main office earlier in the week.  It is a great opportunity to learn more about the curriculum and what we do every day at school.  There will be a time to ask general questions but it is not intended to be a personal conference time.  I have a fun project for parents to complete that I know your children will love!  I am looking forward to seeing you all there!

Please don’t forget to complete a CORI at the Central Office at the back of the High School if you are interested in volunteering at all in the classroom or on field trips.

Mrs. Sullivan and I are both enjoying our time with your children and are excited about working with them for the remainder of the year.  We are looking forward to working with all of you too!

We hope you enjoy the pictures below.  They capture small glimpses of some of what we did during our first week of Kindergarten!

Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan

Please don’t forget to send in the $5 to cover the cost of the field trip t-shirt.  You can send either cash or a check made out to Francis Wyman Kindergarten.  Thank you!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome to Room 115!  Our names are Mrs. Duncan and Mrs. Sullivan and we are excited to start our year with you in Kindergarten!  Take a peek at the pictures below to see different parts of our classroom!