Announcements
iReady Testing: Next week our crew will be doing iReady testing in reading and in math. This is a diagnostic tool that our district uses to measure growth at the beginning, middle, and end of year. This test is done on iPads. We know the attention span of our kindergartners, so we spread this assessment out over the week and only test in 15 minute blocks of time. Results of diagnostic testing will be shared with parents at fall conferences.
TS Gold- Colorado Achievement: Additionally I will be collecting some information based on the following.
Colorado’s Achievement Plan for Kids requires all students in a publicly funded kindergarten be assessed using a state approved school readiness assessment in the first 60 days. The purpose of the school readiness assessment is to inform the development of an individual school readiness plan in order to provide a responsive learning environment for each child. It supports teachers in looking at the whole child as they observe children in the areas of Social Emotional, Cognitive, Language, Literacy, Physical, and Mathematics. Please see the following flyer. Readiness Plans will be shared with you in November.
Rainjackets: Please make sure kids have a rainjacket everyday. Some Colorado days start with sun and then the rainclouds arrive in the afternoon. We will go outside even if it is rainning. Please help your child be prepared for Colorado weather. Thanks! :)
From Ms. Staci: We are collecting colorful plastic bottle caps for a fun upcycle art experience at our upcoming RAD day (October 6th). Please send in colorful, clean, washed caps to the art room.
Repeated from Last Week: Scholastic Book Clubs:
If you would like to purchase books through Scholastic Book Clubs:
You can choose to have your books shipped to your home or delivered to me with our class order.
With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS).
Class Order Due Date: 08/27/23 - Orders due Sunday if you are interested
Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/YCRBR
Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/kindergarten
Please share the Class Page link to extended family and friends.
***All orders also earn FREE Books for our class. I love that our crew library grows from every order that is placed! Thank you for your support!
Class Code: YCRBR
Repeated for Reference: Volunteers Opportunities
-Classroom Volunteers: I need volunteers for filing Take Home Folders, plugging in iPads, and doing take home projects. Here is a sign up for those jobs. Thank you helping out our crew!
-Rug Washing Volunteers: Everyday, we use green mats for solitude. At the end of the week, I need volunteers to take the tubs of rugs home to wash and roll. If you would like to sign-up for this at home volunteer opportunity, please sign-up here. -Upcoming Volunteer Opportunity: Kindergarten teachers would like to start having volunteers in the classroom to help with letter formation in the mornings, starting in September. Ms. Bethany and Ms. Lauren will be hosting training sessions if you are interested. We are opening this volunteer opportunity up to ALL Renaissance parents.
In this training, we will go over how, what, and why we do letter formation in a particular way. Please feel free to bring your child along as the perfect partner to practice during the training. We ask that you attend a training before you sign up to volunteer.
*9/13 Wednesday 1:15-1:45
*9/15 Friday 8:00-8:30
We plan to offer 2 volunteer slots per classroom from 8:30-9am on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, starting Monday September 18th. More information is available on our online portal.
Calendar
September 1: Community Reading 8:30-9am
September 4th: Labor Day- No School
September 15th: Ms. Lauren's Crew Picnic at Bison Park 5-7pm
Crew Highlights
In phonics, we are looking at capital and lowercase letters. We have been working on learning Zoophonics, which connects a movement, sound, and word association for each letter. This has helped increase letter knowledge. We have added see and a to our sight word list. Continue to practice the following words at home in reading and writing: I, can, see, and a. We continue to identify rhyming words in nuresy rhymes such as Litte Miss Muffet and Hey Diddle Diddle. We have started our phonics booklets, which are part of our Benchmark curriculum.
*Hint at home: Find rhyming words in your nightly reading. Be a word detective for the word see or a. Count the words in a small sentence.
In reading, we have focused in on nonfiction text. We have noticed the text features of nonfiction text to include a table of contents, glossary, index, title, picture with captions, and real facts. It has been exciting to learn interesting facts about animals as we read nonfiction text together.
*Read a nonfiction book at home. Have your child tell you about some of the features of a nonfiction text. Giving your child time to vocalize and explain their thinking helps reinforce this learning.
In writing, students have been experimenting with different kinds of writing and the paper that goes with different kinds of writing. Students can choose to write a story, a list, or a letter. We use blue folders to organize writing, so that a page goes in the front if you are still working on it and in the back if it is all done. This allows students to come back to work on a writing piece the next day. Additionally, we practiced how to share a compliment with a partner about writing. How fun to see our crew share their writing and learn how to give/receive compliments about their work. Each day, we debrief and reflect on how time in writing went. It is such a warm, positive tone as they celebrate their risks that were taken and the goals they have for next time.
*Help students think of things to write about. Over the weekend and in your everyday life, point out "wow- that would be a great thing to write about!" This helps plant ideas in their head for new topics to write about.
In expedition, we are learning about Crew. This week, we have focused on how we treat our crew with kindness. We read Have You Filled a Bucket, Be Kind, and Hands Are Not for Hitting. We have had some great conversations about how to show kindness in the classroom and at home. Kindergartners are learning the social boundaries of how we play together at school, which is different than how siblings or cousins might play together. There are a lot of things to learn in kindergarten!
*In addition to asking how your child's day was, ask how your child was kind today.
In math, we finished our lesson on length and height. Students gained more comfort in using the words taller, longer, and shorter (rather than just saying bigger and smaller). We did a variety of measuring activities to provide hands-on learning opportunities as we explored the length and height of different objects in the room. Also, we used math manipulatives such as connecting cubes to compare the size of each others' cube towers.
Here are some snapshots of learning from our week:
On Wednesday, we met Ms. Erin, our wonderful school librarian.
Our crew was thrilled to check out books. We talked about finding a special place at home that school library books can be kept and will not be lost or spilled on.
Please help your child to remember to always return their books on Wednesdays. This will be our official library day all year long.
Did you know we celebrate birthdays with a book?
This week, I modeled a birthday celebration, since my birthday was at the begining of the month. How fun to celebrate with the crew!
Writers sharing compliments. What a warm, supportive group of learners we have!
Math is everywhere!
During Morning Meeting, we voted on the chart to show our favorite color. Then I prompted students to "read" the graph to see which color had the most and the least votes.
On Thursday, our crew found out about their 4th grade buddy!
I will be sharing buddy pictures on Seesaw soon.
How fun to see buddies getting to know each other through All About Me books and by reading together.
The words fiction and nonfiction are getting confused, so we made a visual display for reference. Help your child identify examples at home.
Here are some of the great books we read this week to talk about how we treat our CREW with kindness.
Writers had three choices of writing paper.
Check out writing samples on Seesaw, posted on Friday.
We did a practice quiz to see if students could write these words independently. Please continue to practice sight words at home. I will be doing regular assessments with students to make sure they are mastering the sight words that we learn together as a crew.
Have you heard of poke-pin? Students used a push pin to poke the black line of their name, word, and image. This strengthens finger muscles for writing and helps develop fine motor skills.
The finished product! Be sure to hang your child's poke pin in the window! :)
What a fantastic week of learning!Warmly, Ms. Lauren
