Skills for the 1st Nine Weeks

Each nine weeks we will be learning new skills in kindergarten. Every nine weeks we will update you with the skills we are learning. It is great to know these skills so that you can practice them with your child at home.

Math
Names numbers 0-10
Places numbers in order 0-10
Matches numerals with groups of objects 0-10
Counts orally 1-25
Can accurately answer the question "How many?"
Names 2-D shapes (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, oval, rhombus)
Names colors

Communications
Names letters
Uses phonics and decoding skills to recognize letter sounds
Spells first name verbally
Writes first name
Reads sight words without hesitation (I, see, a, the, can)
Asks and answers questions about stories read aloud
Reads independently
Recognize/create words that rhyme

Writing
Generates his/her own topics
Includes drawings that support the meaning of their stories
Writes daily (pictures or words are done neatly and legibly)
Speaks to adults in complete sentences (this includes states and responses to adults)
Working toward meeting the elements of the Narrative Writing Standard

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Emails: We need your emails to keep in touch. Please email either Ms. Hines at hinesa1@duvalschools.org or Ms. Hawas at hawass@duvalschools.org with your email. This will be an extra way for us to communicate.

Supplies: If you have not brought in supplies, please bring them in as soon as possible. We are still in big need of primary journals.

Red Homework Folder: Every day your child will bring home a red folder. If for some reason you do not receive it one day please email one of us. These folders will contain weekly homework and important papers. We do not want them to get lost. They are also a way for you to see what color card your child received at school for that day. If there is an asterisk on the calendar that means that day is an Early Dismissal Day. This means that your child will get out of school at 1:20 pm.

Lunch Money: If you need your child's student number please contact the office. You need their student number to be able to put money into their lunch account. If you are sending lunch money to school with your child it needs to be put in an envelope with their name and teacher's name in case it gets lost. Please put the envelope in their red folder because these get checked every morning.

Change of Dismissal: If you need to change your child's way of getting home, you must write a note. We can not take the word of your child telling us they are not a bus rider one day because of safety reasons. Safety first!!

Allergies: We have a couple of friends in our classes with allergies. If you are ever thinking of bringing in a treat for our class please contact one of us first to make sure it is ok. Thank you!

Our First Day of School

Just in case you are wondering who David is...

Looking everywhere for David. Where can he be?

Happy to be at school. :)

We can build or make a pattern with linking cubes.

Learning how to use linking cubes. Counting to 100!!
This is how we walk in the hallways.
This is how we enter the media center.

Wow!! We had such an amazing first day. Everything was perfect. We started the day by drawing a picture of what we did over the summer and shared our pictures with our new friends.

Both classes joined to read the story David Goes to School by David Shannon. This book helped us learn the rules at school. We learned the rules for the media center, walking to the office, playground, hallways, and cafeteria. We went on a tour of the school and looked for David (stuffed animal). We had so much fun looking for David. Our classes ended the tour with a juice box and cookie for following the rules and not acting like David.

In writer's workshop we are working on adding details to our pictures. We heard the story What I Like About Me and drew a self portrait. In skills block, we sang songs to learn our alphabet and letter sounds. In math workshop, we explored how to use linking cubes and charted our answers on chart paper. We sang math songs and learned how to use a calendar. In our unit study, we talked about what school is and why we go. We also heard the story First Day Jitters which helps students to see that the teacher feels just as nervous as they do when they meet new people.

Enjoy the pictures! What was your child's favorite part of their first day of school?

Meet the Teacher :)

IT "MINT" SO MUCH TO US THAT YOU CAME TO ORIENTATION. :)

Wow!!! We had such a great turn out for orientation. Thank you so much for coming to school and taking the time to meet us. We are so excited for Monday. If you have any questions please contact one of us at hawass@duvalschools.org or hinesa1@duvalschools.org.

Thank you to those of you who already brought supplies. If you have not, please bring them on the first day of school. We need these supplies to get our classrooms prepared.

Remember you are more then welcome to come in on the first day and take pictures but at 8:20 am we ask that you leave. We ask this so that your child can get used to the fact that the teacher will be the only adult in the classroom. Don't worry we will be updating you with everything that we are learning in the classroom.

Survey Time!!

Thank you so much for checking our blog already. We love getting comments. :)
We will have a survey every month for a chance for your child to win something (book, treat, treasure box, etc). The survey may ask questions from information in our monthly newsletters or from what we post on the blog. The survey also may just ask you to leave a comment. You never know when the survey will happen so make sure you are checking the blog regularly.

For our first survey, we are wondering how your little one feels about starting kindergarten. Is your child nervous, scared, sad, happy, or excited? We are super excited and ready to meet all of you.

Leave a comment and you will win a BOOK for your little one. Directions for how to leave a comment are on the right sidebar. It's ok for you to mention the name of your family or tell us the name of your child. Just remember that when we post pictures of students in our class to not post their name with their picture. You have until August 21st to leave a comment for this survey. Thank you!