Our scholars have done an amazing job learning how to sit, stand and walk in Scholarly Position. This is the expectation for all scholars at our school. For sitting we have a chant we say: Feet flat Hips back Back straight Head high Hands clasped I say the first word and scholars say the underlined words while doing the action. When walking we walk facing forward, voices off, and hands behind our back. Standing in scholarly position consists of standing straight and tall, hands behind our back, and voices off. Ask your scholar to demonstrate scholarly position and I'm sure each child will do a fantastic job showing you what it looks like and sounds like! Thank you very much to everyone who attended Curriculum night. If your family was unable to attend please don't hesitate to contact me and I will provide you with a copy of the materials I passed out to parents. We have two books that Kindergarten teachers pull History, Geography, Science, Music, and other core curriculum to support Common Core achievement. I mentioned that night I would post the titles of these materials: What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and John Holdren and Kindergarten Core Knowledge by E. D. Hirsch, Jr. adn Souzanne A. Wright. Please let me know if you desire any additional resources and I will do my best to accommodate your request! Spalding Clinic will be held Wednesday, September 21st. This will be a wonderful opportunity to learn how to correctly do the phonogram cards at home daily with your child. At this time, if your child is having difficulty staying focused or reaching frustration level while saying the sounds or writing the sounds please limit your practice to 3-5 sounds. As your child practices writing the sounds please make sure you are having your child say the sound before and during writing and not saying the letter name. We are focusing on the sounds a letter makes and not the name of the letter. This will be very important as your child begins to read and write words! The sounds we have been learning and practicing in class as of today are: a, c, d, f, g, o, s, qu, b, e, h, i, j, k, l, m, and n. If your child is comfortable practicing all sounds then please continue to do so. Unfortunately, we have been unable to have our scholars recite Whole Duty of Children this week - we ran out of time! Always so much to accomplish and so little time! We had vision and hearing testing this week as well as, our free time for our huge accomplishment of learning all 9 virtues. We will begin Tuesday, September 6th! This will allow each scholar more time to prepare! Homework begins Tuesday, September 6th! The packet will be sent home every Monday (or Tuesday in the event of a holiday) in your child's red folder and is due every Friday. However, please return homework daily to be checked by myself or Mrs. Houlihan. Thank you so much for supporting your child in completing their homework neatly, accurately, and timely! Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Tuesday: Art Wednesday: Music Thursday: Music Friday: PE
0 Comments
Our class experienced assessments for the first time this week! I assessed each scholar identifying 8 letter names, reciting phonogram sounds, identifying the beginning sounds of words, and sorting and classifying objects! I pull each student to our horse shoe table individually and assess their knowledge in these areas. I will give verbal prompts and scholars are able to self correct if they make a mistake. The purpose of our assessments is to identify what each child knows and areas that I may need to reteach whole group or within small groups. This type of assessment will occur bi-weekly and I will send home a copy in your child's red folder for your review. I will try to make it clear what your child knows, what they said/did incorrectly, and anything special I want to note. Please initial at the top, return to school, and I will return it back to you on Monday. Also, please feel free to ask questions on the paper if you'd like. I will be sending home your child's name again to practice daily. Please have your child practice his/her name 3-6 times daily. Depending on the length of his/her name will determine how many times he/she practices! All I ask is that each child do his/her personal best to hold their pencil with a scholarly grip, angle their paper to the left if right-handed and to the right if left-handed, and form the letters as precisely as possible. Their pencil should never leave the paper while they are forming each letter. Beginning Monday each child will be writing his/her name at the top of the daily phonogram writing paper during class. Beginning Tuesday, September 30th we will be reciting Whole Duty of Children poem individually. Each student will be asked to recite the poem in front of his/her friends standing in scholarly position and projecting his/her voice toward their audience. We have been practicing our poem daily during calendar and everyone has been doing a fantastic job memorizing the title, author, and body of poem. We have also been singing Baa, Baa, Black Sheep as our daily song. Please don't forget to mark you calendars for our K-2 Curriculum Night from 6:00-7:00 on Tuesday, August 30th. I look forward to reviewing our curriculum and classroom expectations, as well as, sharing some of our amazing accomplishments during our first few weeks of Kindergarten! Next week I am going to send home a letter in your child's red folder regarding the virtues stapled to their homework log. I hope it will make more sense to all our families! Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: PE Tuesday: Art Wednesday: PE Thursday: Music Friday: PE It has been a fabulous second week of Kindergarten! We have been reading a picture book each day that exemplifies our core virtues. This week we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom because learning the alphabet takes wisdom. The Very Busy Spider was an exciting story about a spider showing perseverance while creating his web. My personal childhood favorite, Are You My Mother? was about a baby bird showing courage. Your child is learning through literature what our core virtues look like, sound like, and feel like. Each child is creating a Virtue Packet filled with beautiful coloring! During our third week of Kindergarten we will have our first Singapore math unit assessment on Matching and Sorting. Also, I will assess each child on the first 8 phonogram sounds, first sound recognition, and same as, not exactly the same, and extending a pattern for a bi-weekly assessment. This assessment will go home in your child's red folder by Friday, August 26th. I will write notes on the assessment including, growth, strengths, and areas needing additional practice. Our first fire drill occurred Friday morning. I was overcome with pride as our Kindergarten scholars did an amazing job lining up, exiting the building, walking to the back field, and waiting for the next direction. Each scholar was calm, orderly, and responsible while conducting a fire safety drill. We discussed that it was only a drill, but we must practice being prepared to keep everyone safe at all times. I also want to thank every parent for all our classroom donations! All of your generosity is greatly appreciated. Our class is very lively in the morning playing games and constructing puzzles waiting for our day to begin at 7:50. Everyone has been very responsible with picking up the pieces, putting our games away, and being ready to begin the day in a timely manner. I am very proud of all our scholars demonstrating our virtues of friendship and responsibility. I will be making a checklist of consumables brought in by your child. If your child is missing a literature book, Singapore book, or Spalding pink notebook I will contact you individually by email. Also, you should have bought the Spalding Phonogram Cards. These are to be used at home to practice the phonograms we have learned in class. Since beginning this school year we have learned: o, a, s, c, f, qu, d, g. Please practice only these phonograms at this time. Several all of these phonograms have more than one sound. Please have your child practice at home nightly without stretching the sound out. When you receive your child's bi-weekly assessment you will know exactly which sounds they have mastered and which need additional practice. We will be having a Spalding clinic night on Wednesday, September 21st to discuss best practices of the Phonogram cards. Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: PE Tuesday: Art Wednesday: Art Thursday: Music Friday: Music Each morning we recite the above followed by our class rules.
Our Class Rules:
Our Kindergarten class had a fabulous first week learning rules and procedures, making new friends, sharing experiences, and participating in class. I am very proud of each scholar for their readiness and excitement to walk through the door each morning ready to be a part of a community of learners. We have learned how to sit in scholarly position in class and walk in scholarly position to recess and specials. We read the story "The Crayon Box that Talked" and had a discussion on the virtue of friendship. This week we practiced holding our pencil in Spalding position so please ask your child how this is done! This can be difficult for students because they may have learned to hold a pencil a certain way and now I am asking them to adjust their grip. As a class we will continue to work on our pencil grip and forming our letters. If your child comes home with work that you don't feel is neat please be patient and supportive as we persevere in learning our Spalding grip and forming our letters. I am positive that learning handwriting with the Spalding grip will be extremely beneficial for all scholars. We discussed "the same", "not the same", and "almost the same" in Singapore math as we matched similar objects that belong to the same set. We also learned our calendar routine which includes singing songs about the months in the year and days of the week. Calendar also includes discussing our daily weather, our seasons and keeping track of how many days we have been in school. The excitement for calendar each morning is a joy to watch. Reminders:
Specials: Our specials rotate weekly!
Tuesday: PE Wednesday: Enrichment (this week we will learn procedures for playing board games then play a game with our friends) Thursday: Art Friday: Music Dear Kindergarten Families,
Welcome! I am Mrs. Lisa M. Picazo and I will be your child’s Kindergarten teacher. I am looking forward to a wonderful year of building relationships, fostering conversation, and guiding exploration within our learning environment. I have a Master’s Degree from Northern Arizona University in Multicultural and Bilingual Education and a Post Baccalaureate certificate in Elementary Education from the University of Phoenix. I am entering my seventeenth year of teaching and I have taught first, second and fifth grades as well as Kindergarten through eighth grade reading interventions in a public school district. This is my first year within Great Hearts and I am very excited to be an integral part of your child’s learning. Mrs. Houlihan will be the teacher assistant in our classroom and will also be teaching K-1 music. She served last year in the founding of ATE as a teacher assistant in the 3rd grade and also taught Kindergarten music. Mrs. Houlihan’s music degree is from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee where she focused on music theory, music performance and sound engineering. Before joining the team here at ATE, Mrs. Houlihan taught for 12 years as a homeschool mom. Throughout the year your child will be immersed into a community of learners seeking truth, beauty, and goodness. Your child will develop friendships, explore mathematics, and have meaningful conversations in all content areas. I will support and encourage your child as he/she develops an engagement and love for his/her learning. I am positive that your child and I will have a rewarding and successful year as we mutually engage in our sense of wonder and pursuit of truth. In the next pages you will find specifics about classroom policies, procedures, and guidelines. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] Sincerely, Mrs. Lisa M. Picazo |
Schedule7:45 Morning Message Archives
August 2018
Reminders
|