We Heart Bookflix!

I am in the process of finishing up the final draft of the grant to renew our school's Bookflix subscription which is due in the beginning of October. I would love to include some quotes from parents on how much you love using it at home with your child. Please email me your quotes and I will include them in the grant. Our subscription to Bookflix will expire the end of November if the grant is not awarded. A subscription to Bookflix is over 1,000 dollars (I don't think we have any other extra money in our school to buy a subscription) Please keep your fingers crossed that the grant is awarded! Thank you so much for all your support!

October Newsletter

This will be sent home on Thursday, but here it is in electronic form.

Calling All Mystery Readers!

I would like to invite any parents, grandparents, relatives, older siblings, or any other special people to surprise your child by being a “Mystery Reader” this year in our classroom. Students love having their family, friends, and relatives visit our classroom to share in our learning by reading a favorite story aloud to our class. Mystery Readers will visit us on Tuesdays at 8:20-8:50 and 1:05-1:35. Readers are asked to bring a book to read. Readers may also bring materials for a quick craft or a small snack that goes along with their book. Please remember to stick to the time frame (Passing out supplies takes time!) 

Please sign up to be a Mystery Reader for the 2010-2011 school year by emailing our wonderful assistant Mrs. Greene at ambergreene@vbschools.com or myself at rebecca.rose@vbschools.com. This is on a first come first serve basis. I will make sure that very one who has volunteered to be a Mystery Reader has the opportunity to read.
Please indicate at least two Tuesday dates (if possible) that will work for you, so that I can accommodate everyone. You need to return to me in a “top secret” envelope the bottom portion of this letter to school with your child. I will get back to you as soon as I can to confirm your official Mystery Reader date.

Remember, you are a mystery reader to the class, so try not to tell your child when you will be coming! We will provide you a clue form to fill out about yourself when we set the date. I will share this with the class, so that they can use these clues to infer who our reader may be.
We can’t wait to meet our 2010-2011 Tuesday Mystery Readers!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Green

More Information on Word Study

Word Study: A New Approach to Teaching Spelling

The link above is an excellent article describing the program of word study that we do each week. Enjoy!

Cute Educational Songs!

Many parents have asked me about the songs we sing in class and during calendar. About half of the songs are from Jack Hartmann. I just went on his website at http://www.jackhartmann.com and discovered he has a bunch of new cds that I didn't know about. Wow! Mr. Hartmann cds are so fun for young kids and teaches skills in a fun way.
The other educational songs are from Dr. Jean- more information is at http://www.drjean.org/
For writing time and snack time we also listen to the Curious George soundtrack arranged by Jack Johnson.

Parent Connection

In Partnership with Virginia Beach Parent Connection
Kohl’s Cares Family Forum and CHKD Present:

The Five R’s of Resilience –
Helping Children Work Through Grief
Children face losses, such as the death of a pet, deployment of a parent,
divorce or death of a family member or friend. Learn how to talk about grief
with children so they can process the powerful experiences of loss and change in their lives.
Dr. Sally Downham Miller will provide ways to help
children who experience a traumatic event and will identify the skill set needed
for developing the Five R’s of Resilience.
September 30, 7-9 p.m.
CHKD, Brickhouse Auditorium, 2nd floor
601 Children’s Lane, Norfolk
This event is free but registration is required.
Register on-line at www.chkd.org/classes or call 668-7500.

Our Schedule

Monday- Guidance Lessons with Ms. Booth

Tuesday- Library Lessons with Mrs. Hardesty

Wednesday- P.E. Lessons with Mr. K

Wednesday- Music Lessons with Mrs. Gordon

Thursday- P.E. Lessons with Mr. K

Thursday- Gifted Lessons with Mrs Law

Friday- Computer Lab Lessons with Mrs. Carroll

Tumblebooks!

Today at our grade level meeting, I found out that the school system has purchased a subscription to "tumblebooks" which my students use during listening to reading in our classroom. I know many of you emailed me to get the login/password for bookflix, but tumblebooks is another wonderful resource with many books and the kiddos love using it in class. If you would like to have the password for tumblebooks, please email me. The tumblebook subscription will last all year, but the bookflix subscription will expire in November unless I receive the grant again. Thanks!

Exploring our Five Senses

This week we are exploring our five senses. Yesterday we explored our sense of sight.

Spirit Night!

Fall Into Reading

It’s Falling into reading with Mrs. Rose’s Kindergarten Friends

Dear Parents,
It is so important that children be exposed to books and reading each day in order to develop a love of literature and reading skills that will last a lifetime. In an effort to kindle the spark for September and October, our classes will be participating in a reading nightly for twenty minutes as we are “Falling Into Reading with Mrs. Roses Kindergarten Friends”.
The goal is for each child to read twenty minutes per night with an adult. You can read to your child, your child can read to you, or you can do a little of both. We are asking that you record our child’s reading on the reading log. Once your child has completed his or her reading log please return it to school in their folder and he or she will be awarded with a reading leaf for their efforts, and a new reading log will be sent home. The success of this program would not happen without our wonderful parents. Thank you again for your continued support of your child’s reading habits. It is truly wonderful to see their excitement grow as they become more self-confident with their reading.

Happy Reading,
Mrs. Rose and Mrs. Greene

What we are Doing in Class

We have had a very exciting month so far! Things are going great in class. We are working on the following:
-Counting by 5s to 100.
-Recognizing and writing the sight words a, like, my, can, I.
-Practice reading a book idependently by looking at the pictures, reading the words, or reading a familiar book.
-Learning and exploring our five senses.
-Recognizing coins and coin values

This week we will begin using letter sorts in class and in the beginning of October your child will have word study homework.

Community Resource Fair

Guidance Lessons

On Mondays, we have guidance lessons with our wonderful guidance counselor Ms. Booth.

Sight Words

Please continue to practice the sight words that were sent home in your Open House packet. I will update which words we are working on with twitter (usually every 2 weeks- or until the majority of the students have learned them). If you are not following our class on twitter- no worries, you can read twitter updates on the right side of the our blog in the twitter box or search "mykindergarten" in twitter to read updates.

What a Great First Week!

This is my little one and he was one tired school boy on Friday night. Thanks for a great first week parents. I love having your children in my class and I can't wait for all the exciting things we are going to do this year.

Parent Connection

Our First Day

We had a great first day! I really enjoyed meeting all of your sweet children. Today we had a little surprised- we went on a scavenger hunt to look for the dish and the spoon- they ran away (smile). Luckily we found the dish and spoon in the library reading a book. Stay tuned to find out where we look the dish and the spoon for the rest of the week. Tomorrow is P.E., please wear sneakers.

Open House Video