100 Days Smarter

Today was the 100th day of school!  We celebrated by reading 100 books, writing 100 words, doing 100 exercises, finding 100 Hershey Hugs and Kisses in our classroom, weighing our 100's day collections, and laying with our eyes closed for 100 seconds!  All in all, it was a great day to celebrate! 

Pumpkin Jack

This week we have been reading the book Pumpkin Jack.  It is an awesome story about a boy and his jack-o-lantern.  This morning we created our own Pumpkin Jack! The students worked hard to dig all the guts out of the pumpkin, then they separated the seeds so Mr. Laue can bake them.  After separating the seeds, students designed a face for our pumpkins.  The students voted on which pumpkin faces we should pick.  They picked Cami's unicorn design and Thomas's face.  This afternoon we learned all about the life cycle of the pumpkin.  We had a great time today and the students are excited to try the pumpkin seeds later this week!

Kinder Days

Red Day!

Mrs. Kuperus comes to visit with ICARE Cat to teach us about how to be a good friend!

Orange Day!

This week we had shape relay races.  The kids had a lot of fun cheering on their friends and ringing our new special buzzers. 

Thank you to Aaliyah's mom for sending in card stock and sidewalk chalk for us to use.

The Jog-A-Thon was fun and exhausting all at the same time.

Look for lap counts to come home in today's folder!

We can't wait for more kindergarten fun next week!

August 25, 2017

This week we were super busy learning all sorts of different things!  We began learning about shapes and sorting in math and we learned the letter t and f during our phonics lessons.  Now that the kids have been taught the appropriate way to write the letter t and f, we will expect them to form them correctly each time!

Next week we will learn some more letters and continue to work with shapes.  We will also begin our color unit with the color RED!  We will learn all about the color red and different things that are red.  We will also be making applesauce next week on Thursday, so please send in an apple or two BEFORE Thursday!

We will be MAP testing Friday morning at 8:10 for Math and Tuesday, September 4th at 8:10 for Literacy.  Please make sure your child has gotten plenty of rest the night before and they eat a good breakfast the morning of testing.

Don't forget!! If you have not yet signed up for Remind 101, please do so!  I will keep sending home notes with those who have not signed up until everyone is accounted for!  It is super helpful for reminders about things happening at school and in our class!

We made it outside this afternoon for some extra recess!

First Day 2017-2018

We had an amazing first day of school!  

As you can imagine, beginning kindergarten is tough work.  It is a whole new world for the kids.  We learned a lot today.  We talked about what makes each of us special and spent a lot of time getting to know one another.  We also talked about some important school rules and why they are important.  A few of the rules we discussed today were the no touching rule, which is that we do not touch our friends, and we keep our hands and feet to ourselves.  We also talked about keeping our hands out of our pants and out of our noses!  If you could help remind your children at home to use a kleenex and not stick their hands in their pants, that would be super helpful!  We also learned about hallway manners.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the students did in the hallway.  We will continue to practice the new rules for kindergarten! Many students will need to be redirected, and that is okay at the beginning of the year!  Once we settle into a routine, I suspect most of the students will have no problem following our classroom rules!

Here are a few pictures from the back to school photo booth this morning!

We did go out to see the Solar Eclipse this afternoon... it was a little sketchy at first, but it did finally pop through and the kids got to see a little bit of it.  We did not stay out for long because the kids began getting antsy.  Here are a few pictures from the solar eclipse photo booth.  I have a few from when they were outside as well, I will post those in the upcoming days!

I am looking forward to getting to know each of the students better!  We have some fun days planned for the rest of the week! Check back often to see what we are up to.  If you have not yet signed up for Remind101 please do so soon.  I will be sending home a new form with anyone who has not yet registered in Thursday's communicator.  You can also join, by clicking the join class button on the right hand side of this page!  

It's A New Year!!

I hope you have all had a great summer!  My girls kept me very busy, but we had a lot of fun!

I am so excited to start the new school year!  I love teaching Kindergarten and am looking forward to helping your child learn and grow throughout the school year.  

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Here are a few documents that you will be receiving at Meet the Teacher or on the first day of school.  You can fill them out ahead of time and turn them when you come, or I will have copies available to you that day to fill out as well.

Color Days

Mrs. Laue's Discipline Plan

Website Permission

Click here to check out the Elementary Schools Facebook Page!

**Important... Paint shirts were left off of the supply list on accident.  Please make sure you bring a paint shirt on the first day of school!

Classroom climate is very important to me.  I have had many themes throughout my teaching career, but I am so excited to have an emoji themed classroom this school year.  We spend a lot of time in kindergarten learning about feelings and how they effect our behavior so I thought this was the perfect theme for our room.  I also want your child to be comfortable while learning.  We have a variety of options for seating.  At the beginning of the school year all students will sit and work at a table.  They will have the option of sitting on a chair with a bounce band, a chair without a bounce band, a hokki stool ( allows them to rock while working) or the option to stand.  Once the students learn our routines and procedures, they will also be able to work around the room where they are comfortable.  We have low to the ground beach chairs, floor cushions and carpet squares where students may work with a clipboard.  While I feel it is important for students to be comfortable when learning,  I am a firm believer that they have to master working in a designated work space first.  We will transition to free choice seating as the students are ready for it.

Here are a few pictures of our classroom.  It is missing a few finishing touches, but is almost ready for students!  Bring on the new year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Unfortunately, I was out yesterday with a sick kiddo so I did not get to see the leprechaun traps before the sneaky leprechaun came into our room looking for gold.  This morning when I arrived,  it was a DISASTER!

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Don't worry though, the students were not too sad about the mess, the leprechaun left gold coins on all of the leprechaun traps and threw rolos all over our classroom!  He also put confetti and glitter EVERYWHERE!!  The sneakly little fellow also got into our paint supply and had green feet prints all over the place.  He must have been running around like crazy in here. It took a while, but we got the classroom cleaned up and back to normal.   Hopefully we have better luck catching him next year. 

We have started our shared research project.  This is a project that will be done in school with the help and support from myself and the para's that work in my classroom.  We are researching and writing about the state of Illinois.  The kids are working really hard on them and I can't wait to share them with you soon.  The reason we are researching Illinois, is because we are part of a post card exchange where we will be sending a postcard to 49 states and they will be sending us one.  So far we have received 6 post cards.  We can't wait to check the mail every day and learn about all the different states!

We can't wait for our map to fill up!