Week of August 24

Monday is the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! :) Friday is School Spirit Day.  (Wear lots of blue and yellow!!)Mrs. Pitts and I will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks for the class. 
**Any parents wanting to sign up for Fun Friday Snacks, please email us letting us know what date you would like and we will type your child's name in next to that date. We do not need to know what snack you will be providing. That can be a surprise for all of us. :) Here are some snack ideas: cookies, chips, popsicles, popcorn, apple slices. Please provide enough snack to feed 36 students.**


This week we will be focusing on Rituals and Routines!! :)  ~What students need to do when entering the classroom, how we transition from table to carpet and vice versa, how we line up and walk through the hallways, etc.~ (By Friday we will see a class full of amazing Kindergarteners!!)

We will be discussing and reviewing our school wide behavior management program... CHAMPS. (We use the set pictures above.) It is an acronym that stands for:

• Conversation - can students talk during this activity?
• Help -how can students get assistance during this activity?
• Activity - what are students doing?
• Movement - can students move during the activity?
• Participation - what does active participation look like?
•  Success - what did I do that made me successful?

 We CHAMP out everything so students know exactly what we expect. The most important part of CHAMPS to me (This is Ms. Finocchiaro by the way) is the C. C is for Voice Levels and they are big throughout our school!!
 

Handwriting/Writing:
We will be practicing letter formations for our first and last names. Along with letters Aa, Cc and Mm. (No worries if your child is unable to write their name- :) we will be practicing a lot! )
We will also be drawing self portraits and discussing how every picture tells a story. Here is one of the letter video's we will be watching. Go on youtube and check them all out, they are made by Story Bots. They made a short video for every letter of the alphabet! :) :
 
Math:
We are going to be discussing numbers and counting. We will discuss the rules for Centers in Math and stress how they are tools for learning and not toys. :) We love to watch number and counting video's in Math. Here is one of our favorites!! "Count to 100" with Jack Hartmann.

 
Science:
We are discussing germs and how we will work to stop the spreading of them. We will discuss the ways we wash our hands at school. How we use a tissue and clean our hands afterwards if we need to. We will read the book Germs! Germs! Germs! by Bobbo Katz.
We will also discuss our CHAMPS signs for a tissue or bathroom emergency while we are at the carpet in a lesson. (For example: One finger raise tells the teachers you need to use the bathroom.)

Reading:

We will discuss the letters in the Sight Words blue and yellow. (Be ready for your child to start talking about Sight Word Money... we have our sight words on little dollars. They are about the size of Monopoly money and the students end up loving them! )
We will be reading many books and nursery rhymes this week. My favorite book this week is The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. My favorite nursery rhyme would have to be a tie between Jack & Jill and One Two Buckle My Shoe. :) The students will be asked questions about the key details in the nursery rhymes and asked vocabulary questions.

Here is a Youtube video of The Kissing Hand for you to enjoy with your child. :)