September 16 – September 27, 2019

These Weeks We . . .            

·      were introduced to 4 letters, Ii, Uu, Mm, and Nn. We practiced their sound and how to write them, we talked about vowels and why they are special letters 

·      read the book “Lunch” and “I Like” added “like”, and “to” to our word wall, ASK MEto read my copy I brought home to you and let’s find a special place to keep all my books I bring home

·      used magnetic boards to find the sounds we learned and practiced putting our letters in ABC order

·      worked hard on learning the meaning of numbers 0 to 5, we practiced making sets, writing them, 3 ways to represent them with objects, the number itself and the word and used counters to solve problems  

·      talked about the seasons and welcomed Fall

·      at Reader’s Workshop– we sing a special gathering song, and then go to the rug for a mini-lesson where we learn something new to help us with learning to read. We learned you read starting with the cover and go to the next page, then the next till the end and we learned about rereading our books to discover more interesting information and it is always good to add a “pinch” of you to a story

·      Heard the story of Chrysanthemum, we compared how many letters in our name, and her name and heard why we got our name. Used rip art to make a big chrysanthemum flower. 

·      started our science unit on Trees and Weather, we went outside and observed the trees in our schoolyard then illustrated what we saw, learned about the parts of a tree and what they are for and wrote them in our science notebook.We adopted a tree to watch all year to see how it will change during the seasons and then we will illustrate it in our science notebooks

·      had Computers with Mrs. MacKenzie and played the refrigerator game and practiced click and dragging to spell our name

F.Y.I.

     * Field trip on Monday, pack a regular snack and lunch for the day, please dress your child appropriately

   * The cost of ice cream is $1.25 not $1.00

It was great to see everyone at our Open House; I hope you had a great time and a good guide for your school tour. Thank you for sending in all the classroom helper supplies.

                                                                                                         September 3 – September 13, 2019

These Weeks We . . .              

·      were introduced to 3 letters, Bb, Ff, and Tt. We practiced their sound and how to write them, play at home, find things that start with Bb, Ff or Tt

·      learned some new chants - “Good Morning to . . .” “Welcome Children”,  “It’s Kindergarten a Wonderful Place To Be” and “Our Gathering Song”

·      learned to be a 5 star listener on the rug and many of our daily routines; calendar,  started our “How many days has school been open” count, ASK ME how many days!

·      colored a kid to look like me - true life color hair and eyes

·      had our 1st whole school practice fire drill, we did great!

·      heard many great stories: Alphabet Adventure; Alphabet Mystery; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Creak Goes The Bed, and Alphabet Rescue and many more

·      made a Chicka, Chicka, Name, Name tree and then added the letters in our name to it

·      read the book “School” and added “I”, “school” and “see” to our word wall, ASK ME to read my copy I brought home to you, play word search at home, look for these words in newspapers, books or magazines

·      worked hard on learning the meaning of numbers 0 to 5, we practiced making sets, writing them, 3 ways to represent them with objects, the number itself and the word

·      played Letter School on IPADs and found Bb, Ff and Tt on magnetic boards  

·      started Reader’s Workshop – we sing a special gathering song, then go to the rug for a mini-lesson where we learn something new to help us with learning to read – did you know, “We are readers!” We looked around the school to discover words we could read. We learned about 2 different kinds of books “learn about the world” books and “story books”

·      started Writer’s Workshop – we met “mat man” and practiced drawing “sausage people”; they help us to draw people that don’t look like aliens; then we practiced drawing some.

It has been a great start to our Kindergarten year, very busy. The students have worked hard to learn and follow all the new rules (there are a lot of them to learn) and met many new teachers. I hope they can relax and enjoy their weekend!  See you Thursday night for our Open House, don’t forget your child! 

Kathy O’Shea

* LOOK FOR IT - Coming home today is a little homework on why you choose your child’s name.

* Also don’t forget to return 3 pictures of things that start with your child’s letter

                                         September 18 – September 29, 2017

These Weeks We . . .                    

·      were introduced to 4 letters, Ii, Uu, Cc, and Oo. We practiced their sound and how to write them, we talked about vowels and why they are special letters

·      read the book “Lunch” and “I Am” added “like”, and “am” to our word wall, ASK ME to read my copy I brought home to you and let’s find a special place to keep all my books I bring home

·      used magnetic boards to find the sounds we learned and practiced putting our letters in ABC order

·      worked hard on learning the meaning of numbers 0 to 5, we practiced making sets, writing them, 3 ways to represent them with objects, the number itself and the word and used counters to solve problems 

·      talked about the seasons and welcomed fall on Friday

·      at Reader’s Workshop – we sing a special gathering song, then go to the rug for a mini-lesson where we learn something new to help us with learning to read. We learned you read starting with the cover and go to the next page, then the next till the end and we learned about rereading our books to discover more interesting information and it is always good to add a “pinch” of you to a story

·      talked about friends and friendships, read many stories about friends, and made a “I See My Friends” class book, ASK ME whose picture I put in it

·      Officer Plympton came and talked about bus safety and we made a class “Bus Safety” book ASK ME what my rule was

·      Heard the story of Chrysanthemum, we compared how many letters in our name, and her name and heard why we got our name. Used rip art to make a big chrysanthemum flower.

·      started our science unit on Trees and Weather, we went outside and observed the trees in our schoolyard then illustrated what we saw in our science notebook. We adopted a tree to watch all year to see how it will change during the seasons and then we illustrated them in our science notebooks

·      had our first AIMM’s (Art, Integrated Technology, Music and Movement) meeting, all the kindergartener’s were together with our “Special” teachers learning and having fun, ASK ME how it was and who was the best dancer.

More on the back -

F.Y.I.

     * Monday, a conference sign up will be sent to you via email, please send me your correct email if it has changed recently.

     * attached is information about an upcoming field trip

It was great to see everyone at our Open House, I hope you had a great time and a good guide for your school tour. Enjoy your weekend! GO PATS!

                                                                                                                          September 5 – September 15, 2017

These Weeks We . . .              

·      were introduced to 5 letters, Bb, Ff, Tt, Mm, and Nn. We practiced their sound and how to write them

·      learned some new chants - “Good Morning to . . .” “Welcome Children”,  “It’s Kindergarten a Wonderful Place To Be” and “Our Gathering Song”

·      learned to be a 5 star listener on the rug and many of our daily routines; calendar, “How many days has school been open” count

·      colored a kid to look like me - true life color hair and eyes

·      had our 1st whole school practice fire drill, we did great! We also practiced a fire drill if we were in cafeteria

·      heard many great stories: Alphabet Adventure; Alphabet Mystery; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, The Carrot Seed, and Alphabet Rescue and many more

·      added the letters in our name to our Chicka, Chicka, Name, Name tree

·      read the book “School” and added “I”, “school” and “see” to our word wall, ASK ME to read my copy I brought home to you

·      used magnetic boards to find the sounds we learned

·      worked hard on learning the meaning of numbers 0 to 5, we practiced making sets, writing them, 3 ways to represent them with objects, the number itself and the word     

·      talked about the seasons and welcomed fall, created our own fall tree picture

·      at computers we used the IPADS to play letter school with Mr. Pizzi

·      started Reader’s Workshop – we sing a special gathering song, then go to the rug for a mini-lesson where we learn something new to help us with learning to read – did you know, “We are readers!” We walked around the school to discover words we could read. We learned about 2 different kinds of books “learn about the world” books and “story books” from Mrs. O’Connor.

·      started Writer’s Workshop – we met “mat man”; he helped to show us how to draw people that don’t look like aliens; then we practiced drawing some.

It has been a great start to our Kindergarten year, very busy. The students have worked hard to learn and follow all the new rules (there are a lot of them to learn) and met many new teachers. I hope they can relax and enjoy their weekend!   Kathy O’Shea

These Weeks We . . .                         May 8 – 26, 2017

·      Finished our beautiful Mother’s Day gift, we hope you loved it

·      Had weekly guided reading groups with Mrs. O’Shea

·      Practiced dictation writing on dry erase, we wrote trick words, CVC words and sentences - we are doing awesome!!!

·      Challenged ourselves to spell out animal’s names, not just the beginning and ending sound – we tapped the words slowly to see how many sounds we could hear – we did an awesome job!

·      Counted animals in the zoo picture and used the numbers to make number sentences

·      At Writer’s Workshop we have been writing informational books, ASK ME what my topic is; and at Reader’s Workshop my group chose a topic to learn about and continue being an “avid reader”

·      We had a spectacular trip to Southwick Zoo, thank you Mrs. Mastro, Mrs. O’Brien, Mrs. McKillop and Mrs. Bostrom for being our chaperones

·      Went to a wonderful Grade 2 production of The Wizard of Oz

·      Discussed the meaning of Memorial Day and had a whole school assembly by the flagpole

·      Colored a “Happy Memorial Day” flag, ASK ME to sing the song on it to you

·      In math we have been learning how to write, read and model the teen numbers

·      Discussed what bullying is and what we should do if we are bullied or see someone being bullied. Had a fun visit from our Grade 5 friends, they came over to read and discuss with us a story on bullying, then we traced our hand for a poster

·      In science learned about worms and wrote about it in our science journals, ASK ME about them

F.Y.I. - Mark your calendars

~ Please don’t forget to send back the 2 sheets for your child’s memory

  book

     ~ Kindergarten Memory Show, Monday, June 12^th, 1:45

     ~ Last day of kindergarten, Tuesday, June 13^th, a full day

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend

These Weeks We . . .                         April 24 - May 5, 2017

·      returned from vacation and wrote about and illustrated in our journals about something fun we did over vacation

·      continued writing new poems and learning new poems

·      celebrated our Earth throughout the week. We learned about ways we could make a difference in taking care of our earth, ASK ME what we can do at home

·      had a whole school Earth Day assembly in the back of the school by the Kunde Forest, kindergarten sang “Hello World”, ASK ME to sing you a little

·      met with our Guided Reading groups, boy are we becoming great readers!

·      Our whole class went down to the office and read a poem over the loud speaker, ASK ME which poem we read

·      finished poetry month (April) with a wonderful “Poetry Party”, thank you to Mrs. Rizzo and Mrs. McKillop for organizing all the goodies and to all the Moms and Dads that sent things in, we hope you enjoyed the party!

·      had “Reader’s Workshop” where we became “Avid Readers”, and played pretend with our partners, acting out our books, ASK ME who I played with and what book I acted out

·      started to write “informational” stories, ASK ME what I am writing about

·      practiced sentence dictation and tapping CVC words on the magnetic boards and dry erase boards, used the digraphs; wh; ch; sh; th and ck in words

·      had jump roping expert Mark Rothstein come to school and teach us how to jump rope and showed us some awesome tricks, thank you P.T.A.

·      in science we learned a lot about bees, Mr. and Mrs. Clough brought some of their bees to show us and teach us and we also got to spin some honey

·      in math we have been learning about subtraction and finding different addends in our subtraction number sentences

F.Y.I. - Mark your calendars

~ Southwick Zoo Field Trip, Friday, May 19^th; don’t forget to send in your permission slip and payment, let me know if you are interested in being a chaperone

         ~ Kindergarten Memory Show, Monday, June 12^th, 1:45

         ~ Last day of kindergarten, Tuesday, June 13^th, a full day

                                                                                                   March 27 – April 7, 2017

These Weeks We . . .

·      Played many math games – Rainbow Math, Die Plus 2; Tic Tac Toe; Guess my number

·      Learned a lot about rainbows, heard some great books about rainbows and some new songs

·      Heard the stories Chameleon Colors; A Color of His Own; and Rex then water colored a chameleon, ASK ME which book I liked best and why

·      We made some big rainbows with tissue paper for our classroom windows

·      Read and illustrated the story “Can You See It?”

·      Talked about how we have so many colors in our life and showed them in the paper “I am a rainbow”

·      Welcomed April which is “National Poetry Month” and have been hearing and learning lots of poems – our class recited “Shout It” over the loud speaker for the whole school to hear – we did a great job!

·      Had Reader’s Workshop where we became “Avid Readers”, and learned how much fun it is to read poems

·      Had Writer’s Workshop where we finished our persuasive writing and shared them with the class and started writing poems

·      Heard the story Planting a Rainbow then made a class book we had teams working on different pages, ASK ME what color page I worked on and who was on my team

·      In math we are decomposing numbers to 10, discovering different ways (number pairs) to make them

·      We had a visit from Liz a dental hygienist from Walpole Dental who spoke to us on taking care of our teeth

·      In science we changed old paper into new paper, ASK ME how I did that

·      During Open Circle we discussed expressing anger appropriately, using deep breaths to calm down

F.Y.I. – Mark you calendars

     * April 27 – class “Poetry Party”; 1:45-2:30

       * May 19 – class field trip to Southwick Zoo

       * June 12 – Kindergarten Memory Show; 1:45-2:30

       * June 13 – Last day of Kindergarten – full day

These Weeks We . . .                           March 13 – 24, 2017

·      saw the Pumpernickel Puppets they were great – thank you TPA for the presentation

·      practiced hearing and filling in the middle vowel sound for CVC words

·      in Open Circle we talked about how you can see what people are feeling and body language

·      at Writer’s Workshop we are working on persuasive writing – writing “to change the world”, ASK ME what mine is about

·      finished adding words to our word wall, attached is a list of all our words, ASK ME to read them to you

·      had reading group with Mrs. O’Shea and Independent Reading, ASK ME what I am reading about, we added “extra strength” power to our reading super powers and talked about what it looks like and is to be an “avid” reader as opposed to a “blah” reader

·      in math we finished Chapter 12 and did great on our Chapter test which was about sorting and displaying the information in graph form

·      started Chapter 5 in math, we will learn how to show, and act out addition

·      in Science we learned how they make paper and looked at 10 different kinds of paper then explored them to see if they would be good for folding or writing on

·      Welcomed Spring with a book and a new song

·      celebrated St. Patrick’s Day and had a visit from Harneys Dance School and saw some marvelous Irish step dancers, we heard many leprechaun stories then made our own leprechaun face

·      heard the story of rainbow fish and made one of our own, ASK ME what rainbow fish had that every other fish wanted

·      some students have asked to do the Lexia – Core 5 computer game at home, it is on the schools student page, they  know their password for it

Mark your calendars, more information will be coming on these special events -

* Spring Parent/Teacher Conferences will be on March 28^th (afternoon) and March 30^th (evening), those are both ½ days and I look forward to seeing you at your scheduled time – end of day pickups will be in the gym due to the book fair

*Thursday, April 27th 1:45-2:30 our class will be having a Poetry Party and you are invited

* Last day of kindergarten will be Tuesday, June 13^th it will be a full day; our Kindergarten Memory Show will be on Monday, June 12^th, at 1:30PM.

These Weeks We . . .                   February 27 – March 10, 2017

·      illustrated in our journals something we did over vacation and wrote about it, ASK ME what I wrote about

·      played snap word hunt with our reading partner

·      practiced lots of rhyming with different activities

·      practiced hearing and filling in the middle vowel sound for CVC words

·      celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday with many fun activities

·      read many of his fun and silly rhyming books

·      learned a new “Good Morning” song in his honor

·      the whole school “Read Their Socks Off” in the hallway, Dr. Seuss’s birthday - ASK ME who was dressed like Cat in the Hat

·      made a “Cat in the Hat” T.L.C.

·      used our magnetic alphabet boards to spell CVC words, and had a spelling bee for our Word Wall Words on our dry erase boards

·      at Writer’s Workshop we started “persuasive writing”, ASK ME what I am trying to change

·      had science where we saw a video on how plywood is made and then made some and wrote and illustrated it in our science notebook

·      in math we finished Chapter 12 which is about sorting and displaying the information in graph form and started Chapter 5 which is on how to show addition

·      at Open Circle we talked about how to react to annoying behavior and recognizing differences

·      practiced our “math facts” addition facts to 5

·      had reading groups with Mrs. O’Shea, and Independent Reading, ASK ME what I am reading about, we added “extra strength” power to our reading super powers and continue to bring home our book bags so we can practice reading everyday at home too!

F.Y.I.

         * Thank you to anyone who helped the PTO put on a delicious lunch on Wednesday, March 1st for the teachers – it was much appreciated!

         * Attached is notice on your scheduled Spring conference time.

                                                                                          January 30 – February 17, 2017

These Weeks We . . .

·      have been doing a lot of reading during Reader’s Workshop reading the books in our book bin; new books introducing Word Wall Words, Guided Reading Groups with Mrs. O’Shea and of course reading from our book bags with you and filling in our BEAR paws.

·      read “I Had to Look” and “Valentine’s All Around” and added “look”; “was”; “one” and “for” to the Word Wall

·      in math we finished Chapter 11 on measurement and are now working in Chapter 12 on sorting and classifying

·      have been playing many math games in class

·      have been using IPADS in our classroom to do Lexia and Reading A to Z

·      in science we have been discussing wood and answering the questions, “Where does wood come from?; What is made of wood?; and “How can you change the shape of wood?” in our science notebook

·      have had many celebrations - a great Patriots Super Bowl Championship!!, our 100^th Day of School and Valentine’s Day

·      missed two days of school due to snow but having lots of fun playing in the snow at recess

·      discussed President’s Day and how important the job is and learned about two great President’s George Washington and Abraham Lincoln; ASK ME who was our 1^st president

·      practicing verbally and on paper tapping, sounding out and writing CVC words

·      have been sending in our BEAR paws, the first week we read 80 books, the second week we went up to 105!

·      Had Open Circle where we talked about “Double D Behavior” (dangerous and destructive), ASK ME what I should do if I see someone doing “Double D Behavoir” and how we should deal with annoying behavior

F.Y.I.

* The week after vacation is last week for BEAR

*  Don’t forget to send in your Read Across America raffle tickets if you

    want to buy them

*  Wednesday, March 1 is a ½ day of school

Enjoy your February vacation, stay safe!