Owl Ways Learning. . .
Reviewing Routines
Coming back after a vacation is the perfect opportunity for reviewing routines. We practiced how to arrive into the classroom, how to greet your friends, how to walk in the halls, use the bathroom, and even how to clean up after snack. One of our newer routines is during our morning arrival, where students are asked to practice writing their first and last name using the Fundations formation. Once students complete this task 3 times correctly, they get to move onto going straight to free-play. Don't worry. . .Every students gets time to play in the morning! Look out for some name writing awards in your child's folder. Once you see this...you know they have attained their goal.
Resolutions
We read Squirrel's New Years Resolutions along with other New Years books to kick off our New Year's Celebration. We learned that a resolution is something you hope to improve upon or something you are already good at that you could teach/help someone else with. We brainstormed a list of resolutions and selected our own to write about! We even made a class promise to improve our classroom and signed it to show our commitment to making it an even better year!!
Reading
Guided Reading groups will begin next week!!!
Your child will be participating in guided reading instruction, where he/she will receive 15-30 minute lessons in a small group, weekly. This groups are facilitated during regular center time in the classroom with myself, Mrs. Miri, or Mrs. Kelly (Our RTI tutor).
During the guided reading lesson, your child will learn reading strategies, and will increase his/her reading and comprehension skills.
Sometimes, your child will bring home a "Take Home Book", which is a copy of a book already read in school. Your child is to read the Take-Home book to you, an older brother/sister, or other caregiver the same night it is sent home and returned back to school the following day. You will find your child's Take Home Book in your child's communication folder. Enclosed with the book you will find your child's book tag which helps initiate conversations and keeps track of books leaving the classroom. Please return Take Home Books & your child's book tags the following day back in your child's communication folder. We ask that you please take care of the books!
It is our hope that your child will build his/her reading strategies, reading fluency, and reading comprehension by reading their take home book. Please remember to enjoy your time with your child reading, writing, and discussing literacy together!
Teacher Talk. . .
"I Can Club"
Speaking of resolutions and goals we set for ourselves and our students; Room 5 has been inducted into the I CAN CLUB!
The I Can Club is something I have developed to help myself and our students stay on task, promote a classroom community, enforce positive behaviors, and celebrate our academic accomplishments.
Here's how it works:
Once a month, myself and Mrs. Miri and Ms Beauchesne will sit the class down to award each student with academic and social "badges". These badges and goals are based on our classroom objectives. Students are understanding their role as a student and becoming more aware of our classroom objectives. These objectives could be:
I Can.... count to 100 by 10s.
I Can. . . show an understanding of letter/sound relationships
I Can . . . use time effectively
I Can. . . use a safe body.
Once the student achieves an objective we celebrate their success with a "ceremony" awarding students their newest badges. Each student will earn 1-3 badges a month. Our first ceremony was exciting! Student received their rings to hold all their badges on and their first 2 badges! Please ask your child which badges they received. As each badge is individualized to each and every child. The rings and badges will stay in the classroom until later in the year but are on display in the classroom as a reminder.
Prize Eggs
To keep our students interested and motivated to display positive behavior in the classroom; our prize box now has PRIZE EGGS! What are prize eggs? They are plastic Easter eggs which hold reward coupons for your child to use in class. Some examples include: bring a stuffed animal to school, lunch date with another kindergarten class, or line jumper. Students will be sent home a small slip letting you know when and if they earned a reward coupon. We've already had plenty of eggs selected and can't wait to earn more!!
Notices & Flyers
Please make sure to double check your child's folder in the next coming weeks for flyers and notices. There are a lot of upcoming events, celebrations, and VERY important academic routines upcoming this month and I do not want anyone to miss out!
*See upcoming Events for more info**
Star Student Shares
We've transitioned from individual shares to group shares during our morning meeting. To kick off our new student shares, we learned about adjectives and words which describe a person. The student who is first for the day comes to the Touch-It board and listens to his/her classmates share adjectives about them! I write the adjectives on the board and snap a photo. Each child will get a turn and a picture to take home. It's a great way to build the classroom community, strengthen the bond of our class, and boost everyone's confidence! Here's some of our first shares:
Upcoming Events. . .
Mystery Reader
On Thursday, Students were sent home with information about opportunities for you and your family to visit and be apart of our classroom. If you have any questions please let me know!
Sight Words
There is an important notice about sight words going home Monday along with your child's own sight word booklet. I will post more about sight words next week.
100th Day & Valentine's Day
These two special events take place the week before February vacation and usually end up a day or two within each other. Just to give you a preview about these two events:
Valentine's Day
Will included a small classroom celebration with a special snack (Party in a Bag.) Students will receive a list of students' names in Room 5 for valentine exchange for those who would like to participate. For the early shoppers. . . Valentines need to be FOOD FREE!!! NO CANDY!!
100th Day
100 Days of school is an accomplishment! Especially for a Kindergartner! How else do we recognize accomplishments but to celebrate them... Superhero Style!! Again, more information is to come but I want to give you a sneak peak of what's to come in the coming weeks/months!!
Happy New Years Countdown!!
