Miss Hoppes' Kindergarten
Weekly Update
August 26th through August 30th
Hello Friends!
We have been very busy in Kindergarten this past week! The students are learning many new words, how to "stretch and snap" new words to sound them out, how to think through the steps of writing a sentence (ask them what a sentence includes), how to reason through the concepts of inside, outside, left and right and we have been discussing the Creation Story in religion class. We really couldn't be any busier! On top of all of our classroom learning, the students are learning so many new things in all of their specials as well. Before Labor Day weekend starts, I just want to run through some bits of information with you.
The math papers that are sent home at the beginning of each new topic (I believe they say home school connection) can stay at home. We do not complete those at school. You may do them if you wish, but please keep them at home.
All of the other math papers that are completed need to stay at home once they are sent home in the green folder. We do one almost every day, so please empty out the green folders on a daily basis. It gets very difficult for the students to maneuver their folders when they are full of papers that need to be left at home.
I have created an account at www.spellingcity.com It is a great resource! It is totally free for us to use. All you have to do, is create your own account and search for me "Emilia Hoppes" as your teacher and my spelling lists will appear. This is a GREAT way to practice sight word skills. It is fabulous that the students can read the words, but we also want them to be able to spell the words effortlessly.
Last night I had my first class (of my last semester :) ) of grad school. For my action research project, I will be researching how I can enhance meaningful vocabulary development through the use of story books with kindergarten students. Your sweet children will be my test group. I will be using confidentiality with all work that your students produce. The gist of what I will be doing is I will using Imagine It!'s storybooks that are pre-determined vocabulary words and building more meaningful activities off of those words and stories to enhance your children's vocabulary. On our word wall, green and yellow words are sight words and pink words are vocabulary words from the stories we have read. See the picture below to see what this looks like on the actual board. Your children already can define or gives examples of the words: almost, crafts, fancy, glance, lonely, pack, practice, photo, snapped, supplies, twirl, treasures. How exciting! Now, this is where your part (which is GREATLY appreciated) comes in. Anytime that you see any of these words in print, or your child uses them correctly or notices them in their environment, please just make a note of it or send in the piece of text and I will keep a file folder for each student with these notes. This will help us to see their progress. It's great to know words, but it's a thousand times better to USE them. I would like our word wall to be interactive. So, anytime that your child finds a vocabulary word in any piece of text and they bring it in for me, we can hang it on our word wall. This is a double edged sword, but I am hoping that we run out of room on our board by December! Thank you in advance for all of your help, assistance and understanding regarding my final project.
On Thursdays, please have your child at school by 7:45. I know this is earlier than the other days, but we leave the classroom for church at 7:50. I do not want any students to be hanging around by the classroom door after we have left for church and they do not know where to go. If you are later than 7:45, please park and walk your child into the church. Their backpacks are more than welcome to be placed in the pew behind me. Let's try to stick to this routine for the next couple of months until the students are more accustomed to the Thursday routine and are able to get to church on their own if they are late. Thank you very much for your understanding. Our principal and the rest of the staff and I always want to ensure that our students are safe.
Please continue to look in the agendas every day for your child's behavior progress. Mrs. Imbriani and I are marking every day what color they end the day on (green, yellow, red).
Please remember to send in green folders, agendas, a snack and a rest towel on Tuesday when we return from the weekend :)
Have a fabulous weekend!!!