Fall Frolic!

Many thanks to our parent volunteers for making our Fall Fun day so much fun! We explored pumpkins in many different ways- weighing pumpkings, exploring the inside of pumpkins, reading pumpkins stories, doing pumpkin math, and watching the bookflix "Where the Wild Things Are".

A Visit From Deputy Ray

Thank you Deputy Ray for talking to our class about Stranger Danger and Halloween Safety. We really appreciate you taking the time to teach us how to be safe!

The Daily Five

Each day students can make a choice on which literacy activity they want to work on independently. The choices are: Read to Someone, Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listening to Reading. During the choice sessions, the teacher is pulling different groups for either guided reading or word study.
We love encouraging kindergarteners to read. When a student brings back a library book, they can immediately checkout a new book that day. The book checkout is included in the Read to Self choice.

In the beginning of the year, students use dry erase boards to work on writing. They love to copy different words and practice making letters. Later in the year, they will have the chance to work on their Writer’s Workshop writing during The Daily Five.
Listening to Reading is the most popular choice. During this choice students listen to books on the computer through the Virginia Beach Public Library. Students can also listen at home. Please check the library website for more information.
Word Work provides students with a chance to review their word study sorts and also practice different ways to spell words.

Read to Someone is also very popular. Students can tell each other the stories by reading the words, reading a familiar book, or telling the story from the pictures.

Calling all Mystery Readers

Are you interested in volunteering to be our class mysery reader?  Students love it when they have relatives come and read to our class.  Please send me an email if you would like a mystery reader form.  Thanks!

We Love Mrs. Law's Lessons!

Thank you Mrs. Law for some great whole group gifted lessons on creative thinking and spatial reasoning. The kiddos loved both lessons.

Thank You Parents!

Thank you parents for all your support this week. All of my kindergarten friends seemed to be happy and excited about the new school year. Please email me if your child is feeling any type of anxiety. Sometimes the little things that are scary for kindergarteners are so easy to fix if I know about it.




Just a few little bits of information:



~The kindergarteners are very thirsty this year! Please feel free to send in a resuable water bottle for your child to keep at their seat. If you are sending in a juice boxes for your child for snack that is totally fine, however, only water bottles will be allowed to remain on the tables all day. Also don't worry if you forget to send water one day, we will also incorporate water fountain breaks during the day.



~This week an information sheet will be sent home about mystery reader. If you are interested in participating, please send the sheet back with desired dates. Please wait for confirmation from my assistant for your dates before assuming what date you have. Thanks!



~Another paper will be going home that gives permission to provide your child's name, and/or address, and/or phone number for our class directory. This directory will be used by our room mothers to organize volunteers and in the past, the directory has been used for birthday invitations by other parents. IF YOU DO NOT WANT ANY OF THIS INFORMATION RELEASED, DO NOT SEND BACK THE FORM. If you want just your child's name and not address or phone number- no problem, please be specific on the sheet on what you want.



Don't forget to follow our class on twitter for daily updates on our class activities!

Thank You Fort Story Volunteers!

Many thanks to our Fort Story volunteers who stayed in our class all week! Always willing to jump right in and help with anything, Mrs. Rose couldn't have made it without them. Thank you so much! We will miss you greatly!

Happy First Day of School!

We have had such a great first week! It was so nice meeting all of my new students. It is going to be a great year. I still have to wait to upload pictures on my website of our daily activities until all our paperwork is processed, but I did include a first day of school picture of my son. He is the littlest in his class and ready to take charge!

Thank you Anna!

commMany thanks to our awesome middle school volunteer Anna who helped Mrs. Rose during work week. Anna created the book baggies for our kindergarten friends, reorganized our math books, and created our first week packets plus many more things that greatly helped our class. Anna is also a former JBD student who attended JBD kindergarten through fifth grade. Thanks again for all your help Anna!

What is Balanced Literacy?

Balanced Literacy is centered on the idea that kindergarteners need to engage in a variety of reading and writing activities. In our class we do shared, guided, interactive, and independent reading and writing. In Mrs. Rose's class balanced literacy consists of The Daily 5, Guided Reading, Writer's Workshop, Reader's Workshop, Read Alouds, and Word Study.
The Daily 5 is an awesome way to organize literacy instruction. The format is described at length in the book The Daily Five: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Each day students will make choices on which activities they want to engage.
During the session students work independently on their chosen activities and the teacher meets with reading groups for guided reading. Guided reading provides a conference time in which the teacher can emphasize reading strategies, sight words, concepts of print, and reading comprehension. The reading groups are fluid and change with individual students strengths and needs.



Writer’s Workshop is when students become authors! Kindergarteners love writing and keep monthly journals.

Word Study is a program that provides students with the essential knowledge and skills on spelling patterns in the English language. The lessons for word study came from a graduate class taught at the University of Virginia. Word study will begin in October.

Reader’s Workshop helps students develop meaningful reading comprehension. The Reader’s Workshop lessons are developed from the book Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller and by the program Making Meaning.


Read Alouds are one of my favorite parts of the day. I read my kindergarteners a variety of books including chapter books such as My Father’s Dragon, Because of Winn Dixie and Mr. Popper’s Penquins.