October 25, 2008

Dear Families:
Well our blog has received good reviews. Thank you for that. Our homework poll ends this week...so if you want to weigh in, you still have time. So far, only one parent voted against homework in Kindergarten!

We had an extremely busy week so I will try to break it down. After our Publishing Party, we have continued with more personal narratives and have been really concentrating on sounding out the words that we want to put on paper and trying hard to write the letters that we hear. The children have been doing an amazing job and their writing has been getting better and better everyday. As I advised you, the only words that we want the children to be able to spell correctly in their writing pieces are their "word wall words." These are the sight words that the children have been learning weekly. We have been practicing them everyday, so they should know how to spell them. The words that they should know and spell correctly in their writing pieces are ... "the, and, a." We have been practicing putting the words into sentences so the children are familiar with how to use them correctly. Our new word this week is "in".

We are reading our emergent storybooks and the children love the series. The books we have read so far are Corduroy, Will I Have a Friend, Where the Wild Things Are, The Snowy Day. The books that we will be reading next week are The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Little Pigs. We read the new "Star Books" everyday for a week so that the children become very familiar with the text and the illustrations. At the end of the week, the children shop for these "star books" and because they are so familiar with the words and pictures since they heard the book a number of times, they actually can read the book - first to themselves and then to their reading partner. They may not get all the words correct but they comprehend the story and are able to retell it by looking at the illustrations. I was amazed when Marcelino remembered something in the story - Corduroy - that I forgot and was able to tell me that Corduroy - one of the characters in the book thought the escalator was a "mountain." I had to look back to make sure that he was correct!!! He was!!! It is great to see this in class and that is the reason why we need several copies of the "star books" so that we can give them to as many of the children as possible to read. (See DONATION sidebar)

Our math is improving everyday. We are in the middle of assessing the children's math ability for the first time in Kindergarten and boy...it takes quite a long time with each child because they really know so much. We make math interactive in Kindergarten and work a lot on math problems.

Our science curriculum is great. Two Kindergarten classes have Science in the actual Science Room with Ms. Gaimboi on the third floor (the big kid's floor) and Class K-207 is one of the classes having this opportunity. The children have been learning all sorts of things but I sat in on a class where they learned about wood and wood shavings and had the opportunity to actually sand down a piece of wood to make the shavings. They loved it. The children also receive Science/Literacy with Ms. Rosen and are having so much fun looking at plants, leaves, etc.

The children receive Computer instruction once a week in the Computer Room with Ms. Patterson. This is the first time a Kindergarten class is receiving instruction in the Computer Room. I feel fortunate that our class has received this benefit. The children absolutely love it. I am sure that they talk about this at home.

Our Social Studies inquiry study is well underway with "Our Beautiful Stuff." Thank you so much for helping the children find their many treasures.

For Art, the Kindergarten classes build on the developing skills and art concepts that the children explored in Pre-K. Kindergarten will be making abstract paintings -exploring line and color mixing concepts. Ms. Kelly is working on making an accordion "book" with an under the sea theme using tempera and collage. Art is on Monday at 2:10. I know that Ms. Kelly would love to have parent volunteers at this time, so if you would like to help out during Art, please let me know.

Our Music Program is also on Mondays and the children are really enjoying the new songs and dances that they are learning.

Gym is at 9:30 on Tuesdays with Ms. Varrile. They love what they are learning and playing sports. Please remember to have your child wear sneakers on that day.

As you can see, our curriculum is very full and rich. Your children are really thriving and are such a pleasure to work with. I love working with them and watching them grow everyday. You are all doing a great job. You should be very proud.

Please note that there is a slight lice problem in our classroom. I encourage all girls to wear their hair in ponytails or pigtails. When my daughter was in Kindergarten, she got lice and it is a nightmare. So...I feel that I am a lice expert. Please, if your child has lice, the lice shampoo is not enough! You must go through his or her hair everyday with a fine comb to make sure that all nits are taken off the hair!!! A nit is an egg that will hatch eventually. All sheets, comforters, stuffed animals, clothing, hats, must be washed in very hot water. Stuffed animals should be put into a large plastic bag for at least a month. Please encourage your child not to share hats, brushes, etc. with each other - even family members. My personal suggestion - does not work for everyone - is change your shampoo to Tea Tree Oil Shampoo and Conditioner. You can buy this at the health food store. There is something about the scent. We really want to stamp out the lice epidemic in schools. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

To give you a heads up.... On Friday, October 31st, PS 154 will be having a school-wide pajama party. This is the day, where all teachers, staff and children will be wearing pajamas in school and reading sleepy time books throughout the day. We will be having milk and cookies for snack time. This will be a fun day.

Also coming up...K-207 will be going on a trip to the Prospect Park Zoo on Monday, November 10th at 9:30 a.m. Hopefully, it will not be too cold. If the weather is nice, we will be eating lunch there. Since we are the only class going, I can take as many parents who would like to come. We should be back by 11:30. I will send more information about this trip next week.

Also I am excited to say that as part of the PTA sponsored Meet the Author Illustrator program, our class will be having an author visit with a famous author - Nina Crews - who just finished her new book entitled The Neighborhood Mother Goose. When I opened the book, to my surprise, was an illustration of my house on Ninth Street. It's a small world! Her new book is a modern Mother Goose tale, where Ms. Crew's uses computer tools to combine photos of joyful kids in her (and our) Brooklyn neighborhood with all kinds of scenarios realistic and wild. Ms. Crews is one of my favorite children's authors and I am so excited for her to come to our class. Her visit is scheduled for Monday, November 17 from 9:45 to 10:25. We will be sharing the visit with Ms. Hanson and Ms. Rios's class - K-204.

Parents as Enrichment Partners is on Friday, November 7. Please come by the class and read with your child!

Have a wonderful week,

Fondly,
Ms. Graham

Monday, October 20, 2008

Dear Families of K-207,

I am attempting to create a blog for our wonderful Kindergarten class. I am excited! Even though I am really not sure of what I am doing, I thought that this would be an excellent way for us as a community to interact with each other. I know how sad it must be for all of you to not know every move your young five year old is making throughout the day. So I am going to attempt to fill in some of the spaces. I am sure that as time goes by, this site will get better and better. As your child's kindergarten teacher, I am deeply aware of how the quality of the family/teacher/child partnership impacts a student's successful year. I believe that one of the greatest factors affecting student success - that cuts across all boundaries of race, religion, economics, culture and ability - is the level of appropriate parent involvement. I think a great deal about family/teacher/child partnerships. One of my main objectives as a teacher is to have strong partnerships with all of our class families, and to involve families in the daily life of our classroom and school. I hope this blog will help a little.

Today marks our 31st day of school and the day of our first "Publishing Party" for our personal narrative writing. Thank you to the many parents who attended and who read with all the children. When we talk about publishing, we want the children to pick a piece of writing that meet three criteria: (1) they love it, (2) they can "read" it and (3) they can make it better. The children revised their writing by adding to the pictures, adding to the words and coloring it in! As you can see from our publishing party today, the children accomplished these tasks and shared their work with the Mrs. Concannon's First Grade Class on Friday and with all of you today. It is a very exciting time. The children were so proud and are now authors. As a working parent, I know how hard it is for many of you to come into the class for an event first thing in the morning. Don't worry. The children read their personal narratives to many of the parents who were here in the classroom today and got a big kick out of the comments that the parents wrote in their books. Even if you missed the celebration, their writing will be posted outside our classroom in the hallway on the second floor. So when you have a moment, you can read it any time.

Thanks to our wonderful Parent Teacher Association, Kindergarten has been receiving chess instruction on Friday!! We are already into our second class and the children are wonderful. Our chess instructor's name is Jairo and he is wonderful and an excellent teacher. Even I am learning chess for the first time. Jairo has been teaching chess at PS 154 for several years. He is very talented and supportive. Our chess class takes place on Fridays, from 12:15 to 1:00. If you would like to join us for a session, please let me know. I would like to thank Lucas' mom who supplied us with four brand new chess games for our class to use. The children love to play chess and there is something to be said for the correlation between chess and a child's studies.

Some news for the week:

Shared Reading Poem: J K and L Poem

Star Book for he Week: The Snowy Day

Writing Workshop: Continuing with Personal Narratives

Reading Workshop: Reading our Emergent Story Books

Math: Patterns all around

Science: Plant Exploration

Have a wonderful week. Please feel free to post a comment. I would love this to be an interactive site for our classroom community.

Ms. Graham

PS: Now I have to learn how to post the great pictures I took of your children!!!