Homework, Math, Conferences, Donations, Owl of the Week

It was a busy week in Kindergarten last week! With Constitution Day and picture day and finishing up our social studies unit on American symbols we have been working non stop!

I have talked to lots of parents about how excited their kids are to learn all about the United States! I'm so excited that they love learning about new things! We wore red, white, and blue for Constitution Day, had red, white, and blue popsicles and did lots of crafts including a bald eagle and an American flag!

Please remember to keep reminding your child that is is their responsibility to do their homework! They are learning to take care of their own things and turn their homework in every day! Every morning I remind them to take out their homework folders and anything else they have that they may need to turn in (lunch money, Wednesday folders, or notes for me). It is so great for them to be practicing such great responsibility and they are getting very good at our routines! We are getting ready for our math test at the end of this week, so there isn't much coming home for homework!

Here was a math activity we did where we drew self portraits and made a graph of our classroom!

Just a few things..

• Conferences are October 1st - October 3rd. If you have not sent back the yellow half sheet of paper signed confirming your conference, please remember to do so as soon as possible!
• If anyone would like to come read to our classroom, let me know! We have lots of spots open and would love to see some of you!
• We also could use some more donations for our room if you are up for it! We are quickly running out of lots of items! If you would like, we could use anything from the list below
• Crayons
• Markers
• Colored Pencils
• Clorox Wipes
• Skinny Expo (Whiteboard markers)
• Kleenex
• A lot of you are bringing box tops to school! We do need a first and last name of your child on EVERY box top. I know this takes quite a bit of time, but it does help our school out a lot!
• Those of you that ordered from the book order, THANK YOU! You earned our class ten free books so we get to have a lot more variety in our classroom. We earned quite a few point too that I can use to purchase more books from our classroom as well! 
• Picture Day went great and those should be arriving in a few weeks!
• Flappy the Owl had a great weekend with Jeter this weekend picking apples. Someone new will take Flappy home this Friday, so I hope he has a blast again!
• We are starting an Owl of the Week to get to know more about our students in our class! Ms. Schlegel is the Owl of the Week this week. If it is your turn, you will get a sheet to fill out, and some instructions on what to do! The kids LOVED the picture of Ms. Schlegel in Kindergarten!

We have started Science and are learning about our five senses now! They were so excited to use the word epidermis when they got home to show you how much they have learned!

Thanks for bringing such great kids to school every day! I can't believe it is almost the end of September, it's flying by!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Hi there!

I had so much fun meeting all of you at Open House! It was such a good turn out and it felt great to finally see all of my new Kindergarteners!

As a few of you know, this is my first year teaching, so this class is a special one for me :) These kiddos are my first group ever and I'm so excited to be a part of your child's year! We get to do our first year of school together and I know that helped a lot of the students feel a little less nervous at Open House when they know their teacher gets to do the first day of school with them too!

Just a few reminders about next week:

• We will be lining up on the Kindergarten playground near the West gate.
• Feel free to drop your child off or wait in line with your child. But please encourage them to stay in line with their class. It is so important these first few days and weeks of school to keep consistent routines so they can learn all of the things they will be doing every single day!
• When it comes time to walk into the school, please tell your brand new Kindergartener goodbye with a hug! It will be an emotional few minutes for everyone and I know they will be nervous, but please reassure them that you will be back to get them, they will be okay, and they will have so much fun in Kindergarten!
• Please remember to either load money into your child's lunch account, send lunch money with them, or send a cold lunch to school with them. We will be practicing lunch room procedures in the morning on Tuesday so they will know what to do when it's time for lunch!
• I know a few parents were concerned with the fact that there aren't bathrooms in our rooms. We will be going over bathroom procedures right away on Tuesday and will take a few group bathroom breaks during the day, as well as eventually reach the point of going to the bathroom with a buddy and a pass on their own! If you want to keep a change of clothes for you child in their backpack every day, that would be a great idea as well!
  
• When you pick up your child on Tuesday afternoon, our class is going to be in the same line that we meet at in the morning. Children will need to pick up something from me before they go with you so I can be sure they are leaving with the right person. Also, so I can start placing kids with the right parents and getting to know you as well! Please discourage your child from running out of line to you! I know they will be so excited to see you, but I need to be sure I have a count of all children!

See all of you on Tuesday! I'm so excited to start the year!