A Little Sporadic

For those of you that have taken a look at my blog, you will see that it isn't exactly updated very often. I would like to be able to change that this year, but I'm not making any promises. I do my very best to keep everyone in the loop via our class newsletter that comes home each week, buy since I'm human, there are things that will occasionally slip through the cracks and get missed. I will be using the remind app to get reminders out the night before big events and activities as much as possible.

Here is where I will try to share pictures and fun things that we have been working on in class.

I meant to share a few links last week, but the first weeks of school tend to be a little hectic. So, I'm going to update you now.

The first week of school we spent learning our rules. We met some new friends and read some great books to help us out! One of the books was Howard B. Wigglebottom learns to listen. Go check out www.wedolisten.org and click on the books/animations tab on the right. Click on howard learns to listen and see the story for yourself!

We also read the Pout-Pout fish! Here is a super-fun puppet show that tells the story.



We talked about ways we can help people at school feel better when they are sad (no kissing-of course)! We showed how we can turn the "drearie-wearies" into "cheery-cherries" and made pout-pout fish of our own. Don't you love our awesome pouts?! We turned them around super-quick.

We have been learning our color words and have been singing a new song each day to help us learn them. Here is the link to a list of all of the songs. You can watch them and practice at home! I hope you are all doing well and I am looking forward to lots of fun learning this week!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

October

Wow! Time sure flies when you are having fun!!

We have been so busy that I have completely forgotten to post on the class blog. Oops! I will try to be better at this.

We will be starting our real centers rotations (not practice anymore) next week. I have sent out the volunteer schedule in an email. If you didn't get it, please let me know, so that I can update my email addresses.

We have lots of things going on and coming up fast. Our parent-teacher conferences are November 11th and 12th. Please mark your calendar and watch for more information to come home.

We will also be having our Thanksgiving Feast on November 24th. More information for this will follow as well.

I truly appreciate your patience as I adjust to the new climate and culture here at Hayden Peak. There have been lots of changes and I am doing my best to acclimate to them all quickly. I think we are getting into a great routine!

Please make sure you are reading with your child DAILY, and marking your minutes on the pumpkin sheet. They are due on MONDAY. Also, the sight words stars game I sent home is a great starting point to get your child reading. Many of your children already recognize several of the words on that list. Feel free to make up your own games and activities to go with the stars. We would love to hear about anything fun you come up with!!

Thank you again for all you do for your children. They truly are amazing because of you!!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Fall is here

I can't believe I missed a week! Oh dear!

Let's see if I can get everyone caught up. :)

We learned the rest of our color songs and the songs will be at the bottom of the post.

We are halfway through learning our alphabet and moving right along. If your child is struggling with remembering the letters and sounds here are some ideas that should be helpful.

Starfall.com is a great place to go play games to help learn letters and sounds.

Leap Frog has a video called "Letter Factory" that we have watched and used in class. Each letter has a song and action to go with it. Here is a sample, have your child show you the actions for the letters in the video.

Also, there is an app called Letter School that we use in class to help teach how to write the letters and numbers. The kids love it!

I know there are a lot of other tools out there, that are fantastic, but hopefully, those will give you a good place to start. Feel free to comment and share any others that you have used or know of, there are many who could use them!


I AM looking for volunteers. I would like to have a permanent volunteer schedule up and going by next Monday. Thank you for your patience in this area, as I have been working hard to establish a routine with our class before we introduced parent helpers into our classroom.

I am looking forward to another week with your amazing children!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Week Two

We had another fun week in Kindergarten! We learned about letters and sounds and colors and numbers. We also got to explore apples! What a fun time we had!

We have been learning songs about each of the colors, to help us remember the color words. Here are the songs we have already learned so that you can practice them at home!









This week we will be learning the colors blue, purple, black, brown, and pink. Watch for the songs in next week's blog post!

Don't forget to wear blue on Monday, purple on Tuesday, black on Wednesday, brown on Thursday and pink on Friday.

Remember that our Monday Mailers come home the first day of the week with all of the flyers and information from the school. They need to be emptied, initialed and returned to school the next day.

Friday Folders come home each Monday containing our class newsletter. The homework assignments are listed on the newsletter. Please complete the activities during the week and return the completed activities in your child's Friday Folder on Friday.

Also, go check out our new Star Student page! It will give you all of the information you need to help you complete the star student activities when your child is the star student! It also has a calendar so you can keep track of when your child's turn is coming up.

Here's to another great week in kindergarten!

Love,
Mrs. Newman :)

Hayden Peak's first week

I can't believe it! The first week has come and gone already. Wow!

I know it was a little crazy with the first day of school and picture day and a fire drill, but I want you to know that your kiddos did fantastic!

We spent the majority of our time this past week focusing on our classroom rules. We learned a lot about listening and following directions.

One of my favorite friends that helps remind us to use our listening ears is a rabbit named Howard. You can learn more about him here. We will be talking about Howard all year long. If you go to Howard's homepage, the We Do Listen Foundation, you can find some fun games and activities to work on at home. Please watch the video "Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen" with your child and have them tell you why it is important to listen both at home and at school.

We also got to rock in our school shoes with Pete the Cat.



Our Friday folders will come home tomorrow. They contain a newsletter explaining which activities your child is responsible for completing this week. Please return the folders on FRIDAY with the completed activities inside.

This week we are going to begin learning to recognize our color words. Wear RED on Tuesday, orange on Wednesday, yellow on Thursday and green on Friday.

We will also be starting to learn letters and numbers this week, as well as attending our specials rotations. It's going to be a busy week and we are excited to start digging into our curriculum.

Don't forget our AM class pick-up spot has been changed to the North side of the school building on the grass near the kindergarten and 1st grade doors.

Here's to a great week!

Love,

Mrs. Newman :)

December Information

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out for our parent-teacher conferences a few weeks ago. I appreciate you taking the time to come in and meet with me to discuss your child's learning.

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend.

We are jumping in to December and Benchmark testing at the same time. It's going to be a busy week, and it is important that your child arrives on time after getting a good night's rest and a good breakfast. It's much easier to learn when you aren't tired and hungry!

Tomorrow, I will be sending home a Family Traditions Journal for you to complete WITH your child. Please return it by MONDAY, DECEMBER 15th at the very latest. We will be sharing them in class and your child will be responsible for explaining the information in his/her journal. We will be using these traditions to discuss differences in families and customs, as is part of our social studies curriculum this year.

We are also going to begin our holiday unit, which is going to be centered on the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" by Dr. Seuss. We will be reading it in class, and completing math, writing and social studies activities that all tie together with the storybook. Watch for more information to come!

I am looking forward to another wonderful month of learning with your kiddos. Thanks for supporting your child's learning!!

Love,
Mrs. Newman

Too Fast

Wow! That break sure went fast!

Well, back to work it is.

We have parent teacher conferences coming up soon, so we are going to be busy, busy for the next week or so. I look forward to meeting with you all.

I will be sending home a newsletter with some great information on Monday, so watch for that.

I sure hope you enjoyed your break and I look forward to seeing you all again on Monday.

Love,

Mrs. Newman

It's a short week!

Wow! What a whirlwind this first track time has been! I can't believe we have been in school for nearly 8 weeks.

So far, here are the sight words we have learned:
a, and, for, go, here, have, I, is, like, my, play, see, said, to, the

You child should be able to read the sight words on command, without having to think about it for very long. That's why we call them sight words, so they can read them "on sight."

This week is a short week. Remember WEDNESDAY is early-day and we have no school on Thursday or Friday.

I have noticed a vast improvement in the excitement of our students since I last wrote about changing some things in class. We have been reviewing the rules each day and have started working on some new activities that the class seems to really enjoy.

I do want you to be aware that parent-teacher conferences will be coming up shortly after we return from our off-track time. I will be working with the students at school to learn about what we call our "data notebook" so that they will be able to lead our conferences when the time comes. It is important for our children to see the progress they are making in order to encourage them to continue to work hard. If you hear about this at home and have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Thank you all for all of your support of your child's learning!

Love,
Mrs. Newman

The BIG Three

I can't believe I missed getting a post up this week. Wow! It's been busy!!

We have had all kinds of stuff going on. We completed our 1st Literacy Benchmark this week in addition to our first Math benchmark. We had lots of testing going on and things may not have felt like a typical week at school. I am looking forward to getting things all back in order next week, as I'm sure the kids will be too.

I am sure many of you are aware of Oquirrh Elementary's "Big Three," but just in case you aren't, I wanted to share them with you.

1. Be Safe
2. Be Respectful
3. Be Responsible

Today, we had a class "Pow-wow" to discuss how we thought we were doing in these three areas. Many of the students mentioned being "distracted" at school by too much talking going on around them. We discussed being "responsible" for our own choices, and taking care of ourselves by keeping our voices off during work time. Please follow-up on this discussion at home with your child.

I still need some extra hands during our power-hour time. If you are able to come in once a week from 8:45-9:45 and help students practice sight words, letters, writing, etc., please let me know ASAP!

We are going to start our sight words testing next week. Each Friday, I will have the students read the sight words from the week to me. PLEASE, remember to practice with them at home.

We have watched "The Letter Factory" in parts over the past few weeks to learn our letters and sounds. We are nearing the end of the alphabet introduction, and will have learned the entire alphabet by the end of next week. You can watch part of the movie here to see how we have been learning and practicing at school. Have your child show you the actions that go with each letter of the alphabet!

Underway

Yes, it's true, our year in Kindergarten is up and going! We have started to get into the groove of things too!

I could really use some extra volunteers from 8:45-9:45 each day for our power hour time. It would help immensely if you would be able to come work with students and help students complete activities during this hour.

Thank you to all who have returned the BRIGHT green information sheet. It has made my job MUCH easier.

Also don't forget to wear the "walk tall" shirts on Fridays.

This week we will be jumping headfirst into our math program, since we now should know what the numbers 1-10 look like AND how to write them and count them. Please continue to practice writing numbers and letters at home!

Speaking of practice, we have been using a wonderful app in class called Letter School. The kids love it and it helps them remember where to start when writing the letters and numbers (which is a really hard thing for us right now). You can go check it out here. If you happen to be letting your little ones play on your phone or tablet, this would be a great investment into their education that they can play AND LEARN at the same time. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Help!

I know, I know, you have filled out more than your share of information documents already this year. Unfortunately, I have several discrepancies between the documents I have on file and I need a final, for sure, solid paper with certain information. PLEASE, fill out and return the lime green information sheet AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. This is the document I will use to contact you with any questions or concerns I have during the year. Thank you so much for your understanding and patience with this situation.

This week we begin our Power Hour rotations from 8:45 to 9:45. I am in need of some parent volunteers that would be willing to come in and help with a group during this time on a regular basis. If you would be willing to help with this please let me know quickly.

We are also going to be reviewing the rules and consequences as our class has been having a difficult time with keeping our hands and feet to ourselves and focusing on our own work. These are hard skills to learn and in kindergarten it is of vital importance. I am looking for some donations for our prize box to use as a motivation tool for our class. If you have anything you wouldn't mind donating to that prize box, that would be wonderful. Please know this is NOT something that you have to do, but only if you want to and your child will still be allowed to choose from the prize box even if you do not send in a donation.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your help and support already this year. I appreciate all that you do for your children.

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Frog Folders

Attention Parents:

I have noticed that there is a lot of confusion about Frog Folders and homework, and I would like to clarify.

Please keep the homework packet and reading calendar AT HOME until the end of the month. Then, you can return the entire packet at the same time. This makes grading and collecting papers much more efficient for me.

The red folders with a frog sticker is your child's homework folder. It should be coming home DAILY. It also needs to be returned to school DAILY. Since your child loads his/her own folder, many of the papers will often not be placed in the "keep" or "return" pockets properly. This is ok. Please check your child's folder each night and keep any papers that we have done that day at home.

If there is a paper that you need to fill out and return, please place it back in your child's frog folder. If papers that are meant to stay at home are left in the frog folder, it becomes confusing for the students to know which papers are for me, and which ones are for them. This makes loading our backpacks at the end of the day much more difficult and time consuming.

Also, if your child has other activities from daycare or home, please help them to place those activities into a separate pocket on his/her backpack. Many of the students are bringing notebooks from home that they like to draw in and they try to turn them in to me each day. It is very frustrating for them, when I ask them to put the activities back in their bags. 

Thank you so much for your help in this. I know there is a lot of information coming home at this point and a lot of it you get several times over again, but I appreciate your patience and support in helping your child learn.

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Howard B. Wigglebottom

Meet Howard B. Wigglebottom!

He is a friend of ours, both in Kindergarten and soon-to-be preschool as well. You may have heard from your child that we have been struggling in Kindergarten, to remember to use our listening ears, and so we met Howard.

We made listening ears to be just like him and got to wear them home today.

If you would like to learn more about Howard, please come visit him here! Click on the first picture and watch the story for yourself. Talk about why rules are important with your children (to keep them safe) and why we need to follow them at school.

Thanks so much for your help and support!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

P.S. Enjoy Howard's other books too! I sure do!! :D

Oquirrh Elementary

Hello Parents and Students!

I am so excited to be joining the Oquirrh Elementary Kindergarten team, and am so excited to be able to work with you!

I love teaching Kindergarten and I am looking forward to a wonderful year of growth and learning!

Our first two days of school went very well. We learned what our name looks like, practiced writing it with different tools and even got to decorate our name to hang in the hallway at school! We also learned about rules and how to follow directions in class. Ask your child about "happy monster" and "grumpy monster" choices!! (Don't forget to have them make the faces for you too! We had a lot of fun learning about our class rules.)

Next week will be full of new learning opportunities for our class. We will start learning the alphabet, learn some new poems and begin learning about numbers. We will also be reviewing our rules EVERY DAY, just to make sure we have them memorized.

We also have back-to-school night on Wednesday at 6:00, so mark your calendars now! Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you all again on Wednesday!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Thanks!

Parents,

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for coming to Parent-Teacher conferences. I appreciate all of your help and support and all that you do to support your child's learning!!

Love,

Mrs. Newman

Happy Halloween!

I wanted to share some of the amazing things we have been doing in class!

Last Monday, we learned the poem "Five Little Pumpkins."

Tuesday, we each got a portion of the poem on a sentence strip and helped to rebuild the poem for all of us to read.

Then, on Wednesday, we got to rebuild the poem as groups. Check out the awesome work we did working together with our friends! (The words don't match exactly, but the song I found was different from the words I had copied. Oops! Great opportunity to teach word matching though!)

We also made spooktacular spiders as we learned about our senses.

Thank you so very, very much for all of your help.
Love,

Mrs. Newman

Parent-Teacher Conferences

With Parent-Teacher conferences rapidly approaching, I wanted to give you some information about what will be reflected on this first report card.

Here is a list of the skills your child should have mastered by this first report card time. A copy of the following information will come home with your child's report card as well. If you have any questions or concerns about what you see here, please let me know.

 

**LITERACY**

Speaking & Listening

SL. K. 1(b)	I can carry on a conversation with multiple exchanges!	Y      N
SL. K. 2	I can ask & answer questions about a story I have been read or something I have been told!	Y      N
SL. K. 4	I can describe things that are familiar to me!	Y      N
L. K. 1(b)	I can use frequently used nouns & verbs properly!	Y      N
L. K. 1(c)	I can form plural nouns by adding “s” or “es” correctly in spoken words!	Y      N
L. K. 1(d)	I can understand and use question words!	Y      N
vocabulary	I can use new words I learn in conversation!	Y      N

Concepts of Print

RL. K. 5	I can identify the front/back cover and title page of a book!	Y       N
RL. K. 6	I can tell you what the author & illustrator do!	Y      N
RF. K. 1 RF. K. 1(a) RF. K. 1(b)	I can show you how print works! (top-bottom. left-right, page turning, spoken words can be written)	Y      N
RF. K. 1(a)	I recognize and can name 14 or more upper and lowercase letters!	Y      N

Phonemic Awareness

RF. K. 2	I can recognize and make more rhyming words!	Y      N
RF. K. 3(a)	I can correctly identify the letter when given a letter sound! (At least 6 letter/sound relationships)	Y      N
L. K. 2(c)	I can write a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds!	Y      N /26

Phonics

RF. K. 1(d)

I can recognize and name 14 or more upper & lower case letters!

Y      N

Fluency

I can read a book with appropriate speed!	I am not reading at a level B or higher yet.

*fluency is graded on a student reading a book independently

Read/Write High Frequency Words

I can read these high frequency words!	I, a, it, is, the, she, said, like, see, you, in, and, he, we, me, be, to, do, my, by, look, for
	/22
I can write these high frequency words!	I, a, it, is, the, she, said, like, see, you, in, and, he, we, me, be, to, do, my, by, look, for
	/22

Comprehension

RL. K. 2	I can retell a story using key details!	Y         N
RL. K. 7	I can tell you why a picture is important to a story!	Y      N

Informational/Opinion/Narrative Writing

narrative	I can use pictures and some letters/words to tell a story!	Y      N
opinion	I can use pictures and some letters/words to tell my opinion!	Y      N
informational	I can use pictures and some letters/words to tell something I learned!	Y      N

Handwriting Rubric

Objective	Example	Always	Mostly	Sometimes	Rarely
Letters sit on the line	abcd	4	3	2	1
Tall letters touch the top	bfhklt	4	3	2	1
Tails hang	gjpqy	4	3	2	1
Small letters fill their space	aeimrosz	4	3	2	1
Circle letters are closed	aegobd	4	3	2	1
Letters are formed correctly (top to bottom)		4	3	2	1

*Remember that the overall score is NOT an average, but a score that describes the child’s work according to the indicators above.*

Language Components

L. K. 1(a)

I can print many upper and lower case letters

uC        /26 LC        /26

**MATH**

Counting and Cardinality

CC. K. 2	I can count forward beginning from any number instead of having to start with 1!	Y    N
CC. K. 4	I can say numbers in order and match each number with one object as I count!	Y    N
CC. K. 5	I can count to answer “how many” questions! (up to 10)	Y    N
CC. K. 6	I can tell whether a group is greater than, less than or equal to the amount of objects in another group!	Y    N
CC.K 7	I can compare two numbers between 1 and 10 when they are presented as written numbers!	Y    N

Operations and Algebraic Thinking

OA. K 4	I can find the number to make 10 when given any number from 1 to 9! (by using objects or drawings)	Y    N
OA. K. 5	I can add and subtract up to 5!	Y    N

Numbers and Operations in Base 10

*Not applicable term 1!*

Measurement and Data

MD. K. 2	I can compare two objects with a measurable attribute! (more/less, bigger/smaller, taller/shorter. etc)	Y    N
MD. K. 3	I can classify objects into categories and count the number of objects in each category!	Y    N

Geometry

G. K. 1	I can describe objects in my environment using shapes!	Y    N
G. K. 1	I can use positional word to describe where things are! (above, behind, next to, beside, below, etc.)	Y    N
G. K. 2	I can correctly name shapes no matter how big or what direction they are facing!	Y    N