Hello! Happy Catholic Schools Week!! We've got lots of fun things planned for this week to celebrate our wonderful school!! It's sure to be an exciting week. The kids have been getting really excited with all the activities we have planned!
Monday:
Dress as your favorite movie/book character day!
For Language Arts, the Kindergarteners are going to focus on Jan Brett's story of 'The Mitten'. We will read through it and point out the beginning, middle and end. We will also be practicing to act this story out. We will have headbands with the different animals and other props to help us. We'll be practicing this all week and finally doing for an audience during the Variety Show on Friday!
The afternoon fun will be gathering together with other classes to watch a movie in the library!
Tuesday:
(will run with Wednesday's normal schedule)
Red & White Day!
Mass with the Bishop at 10 AM...please feel free to join us for this wonderful occasion!
Wednesday:
(will run with Tuesday's normal schedule)
Crazy Hat Day!
Language Arts:
We'll continue to practice 'The Mitten'. We'll also be reviewing our sight words and our word families and writing in our journals.
Religion:
We'll be focusing on learning about Jesus as a storyteller and teacher. We'll listen to many stories from the bible that guide us in learning how Jesus wants us to live our everyday lives. The big lesson this week will be: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR!
Thursday:
Spelling Bee Day!
Happy Groundhog's Day!
We'll be hearing stories of Phil the Groundhog and what the whole meaning behind this day is. The children will pretend that they are groundhogs and decide if they would want to see their shadow or not and write about why they would choose what they did. We'll also do an groundhog art activity in the afternoon to go with this.
In the afternoon, we'll go to the Social Hall to watch the Jr. High students do the Spelling Bee!
Friday:
Favorite Team Sports Day!
We'll have a final practice for 'The Mitten', as we get ready for the Variety Show in the afternoon. The Variety Show is at 1 PM, in the Social Hall. All are welcome to join us...we hope that you can make it!
Saturday:
Home & School Bake Sale
Sunday:
All School Liturgy at 10 AM Mass
Pancake & Sausage Breakfast by the KC's...benefits go to support our school!
That's all for now!
Thanks for stopping by!!
~Mrs. Westlund =)
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
January 23rd - 27th, 2012
Hey All!
Hope the 2012 is treating everyone well! The year is moving right along and we're off to a great start in this new year! The children have really enjoyed a new song I found for our mimio board about the 12 months of the year...ask them to sing it for you...it's a great tune!
Here's what's happening this week:
Language Arts:
We'll meet our new alphafriend for the week: Fifi Fish! She'll teach us all about the letter/sound of Ff! We'll revisit some of our stories that we've been reading - all counting stories! We'll compare/contrast them and talk about what we liked and didn't like. Our strategy focus this week is on asking questions during a story to check for understanding. Our reading comprehension focus will be on recalling the beginning, middle and end of the story.
We'll review our sight words that we've learned so far and we'll also review our word families: -at and -an. The children are really moving right along with their reading progress! I have just completed all of the children's Guided Reading levels and they are all doing so so well...well on the way to being ready for 1st grade!
Math:
We have finished up our section on numbers 0-10 and are taking a break for numbers for awhile to work on GEOMETRY! =) We'll review shapes and then go onto harder ones...sphere, cone, cylinder and explore some other early concepts to geometry.
Religion:
We'll finish up our section on learning about God's wonderful gift of our world and how it is our duty to take care of it. I can't wait to see the posters they will make about caring for God's world. We'll then move onto learning about Jesus as a teacher and how he teaches us many lessons through stories from the bible.
Science/Social Studies:
We'll learn all about the Chinese New Year (celebrated on Monday, Jan. 23rd) and make a dragon puppet during Center times with helpers Mary Jane Grande (on Monday) and Mary Jo Gingras (on Wednesday).
We'll be learning about Polar Animals...focusing on the Polar Bear and the Penguin.
I'll be working with them in Centers to learn about Polar Bears from their National Geographic for Young Explorers magazine.
The 2nd Grade have buddied up with us to learn about Penguins. We'll be doing a penguin book with them on Tuesday and a Heart Shaped Penguin Art Project on Thursday.
Please keep your eyes open for FEBRUARY Snack & Center Calendars and also information concerning Catholic Schools Week.
Last year the Kindergarteners and I decided to to a short little play for the Variety Show and I'm planning on doing that again (different story this year.) Hope you can plan to attend this!
Keep those Movie Themed Items coming! We've got a good start on our basket...thanks for your donations for our Silent Auction basket!
Have a wonderful week!
Thanks for stopping by!
~ Mrs. Westlund =)
Hope the 2012 is treating everyone well! The year is moving right along and we're off to a great start in this new year! The children have really enjoyed a new song I found for our mimio board about the 12 months of the year...ask them to sing it for you...it's a great tune!
Here's what's happening this week:
Language Arts:
We'll meet our new alphafriend for the week: Fifi Fish! She'll teach us all about the letter/sound of Ff! We'll revisit some of our stories that we've been reading - all counting stories! We'll compare/contrast them and talk about what we liked and didn't like. Our strategy focus this week is on asking questions during a story to check for understanding. Our reading comprehension focus will be on recalling the beginning, middle and end of the story.
We'll review our sight words that we've learned so far and we'll also review our word families: -at and -an. The children are really moving right along with their reading progress! I have just completed all of the children's Guided Reading levels and they are all doing so so well...well on the way to being ready for 1st grade!
Math:
We have finished up our section on numbers 0-10 and are taking a break for numbers for awhile to work on GEOMETRY! =) We'll review shapes and then go onto harder ones...sphere, cone, cylinder and explore some other early concepts to geometry.
Religion:
We'll finish up our section on learning about God's wonderful gift of our world and how it is our duty to take care of it. I can't wait to see the posters they will make about caring for God's world. We'll then move onto learning about Jesus as a teacher and how he teaches us many lessons through stories from the bible.
Science/Social Studies:
We'll learn all about the Chinese New Year (celebrated on Monday, Jan. 23rd) and make a dragon puppet during Center times with helpers Mary Jane Grande (on Monday) and Mary Jo Gingras (on Wednesday).
We'll be learning about Polar Animals...focusing on the Polar Bear and the Penguin.
I'll be working with them in Centers to learn about Polar Bears from their National Geographic for Young Explorers magazine.
The 2nd Grade have buddied up with us to learn about Penguins. We'll be doing a penguin book with them on Tuesday and a Heart Shaped Penguin Art Project on Thursday.
Please keep your eyes open for FEBRUARY Snack & Center Calendars and also information concerning Catholic Schools Week.
Last year the Kindergarteners and I decided to to a short little play for the Variety Show and I'm planning on doing that again (different story this year.) Hope you can plan to attend this!
Keep those Movie Themed Items coming! We've got a good start on our basket...thanks for your donations for our Silent Auction basket!
Have a wonderful week!
Thanks for stopping by!
~ Mrs. Westlund =)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
December 12-16
Hard to believe we've started the third week of Advent already and have gotten to our pink candle on our advent wreath! The students add a paper 'flame' to their individual wreaths that they made at the beginning of advent that are hanging on their lockers. We're all anxiously waiting to celebrate the birth of Jesus!
Here's what we'll be doing in school this week:
Language Arts:
Last week we started with our first word family! How exciting!!! We will continue to work with the -at word family this week. We will also learn a new sight word: 'to'. Our Alphafriend this week is Vinny Volcano and we'll learn all about the consonant Vv! Now that we've started word families we've begun to talk about our 'helper letters', the vowels. Use the words 'consonants' and 'vowels' when talking with your child at home about different letters.
Our story will be "My Dad and I" and will focus on the friendship we find in our families. We've been talking about friendship last week and will continue it through this week and next in all of our stories. We've also discussed character, setting and plot/problem in stories and are continuing to do so when we read new stories. Predicting is also something important to do to help understand and inquire about what's happening in the story. Encourage your child to predict what may happen next while you read stories at home.
Math:
We're continuing with our numerals and number words! Keep practicing these at home! We'll continue to work with numerals 0-9 this week and with the number words 0-9! Have them practice writing their numerals and number words at home...remember to remind them to start from the top when forming numbers and letters!
Religion:
We'll focus on the story of Jesus' birth and on learning about the Holy Family. We'll compare the Holy Family with our family and become more familiar with this important bible story. Later in the week we'll be making finger puppets for this story. At home, encourage your child to retell the story of the birth of Jesus at home!
December 13th is also a special day this week...it is the feast day of St. Lucia. We will be partnering up with the 2nd Grade to make special St. Lucia crowns and traditional biscuits as we celebrate and learn about this very special lady. (She is also the patron saint of vision, she holds a special place in my heart for my gift of sight!)
Centers:
We will be having Centers on Monday and Wednesday. Lisa (Hannah's mom) is scheduled for Monday, but I still have an opening for Wednesday afternoon. Let me know if you're interested!
Other Partner Activities this week:
On Thursday we'll partner up with the 4th Grade and decorate gift bags for the Christmas Store!
That's all for now!!! Have a very wonderful and blessed week!
~Mrs. Westlund =)
Here's what we'll be doing in school this week:
Language Arts:
Last week we started with our first word family! How exciting!!! We will continue to work with the -at word family this week. We will also learn a new sight word: 'to'. Our Alphafriend this week is Vinny Volcano and we'll learn all about the consonant Vv! Now that we've started word families we've begun to talk about our 'helper letters', the vowels. Use the words 'consonants' and 'vowels' when talking with your child at home about different letters.
Our story will be "My Dad and I" and will focus on the friendship we find in our families. We've been talking about friendship last week and will continue it through this week and next in all of our stories. We've also discussed character, setting and plot/problem in stories and are continuing to do so when we read new stories. Predicting is also something important to do to help understand and inquire about what's happening in the story. Encourage your child to predict what may happen next while you read stories at home.
Math:
We're continuing with our numerals and number words! Keep practicing these at home! We'll continue to work with numerals 0-9 this week and with the number words 0-9! Have them practice writing their numerals and number words at home...remember to remind them to start from the top when forming numbers and letters!
Religion:
We'll focus on the story of Jesus' birth and on learning about the Holy Family. We'll compare the Holy Family with our family and become more familiar with this important bible story. Later in the week we'll be making finger puppets for this story. At home, encourage your child to retell the story of the birth of Jesus at home!
December 13th is also a special day this week...it is the feast day of St. Lucia. We will be partnering up with the 2nd Grade to make special St. Lucia crowns and traditional biscuits as we celebrate and learn about this very special lady. (She is also the patron saint of vision, she holds a special place in my heart for my gift of sight!)
Centers:
We will be having Centers on Monday and Wednesday. Lisa (Hannah's mom) is scheduled for Monday, but I still have an opening for Wednesday afternoon. Let me know if you're interested!
Other Partner Activities this week:
On Thursday we'll partner up with the 4th Grade and decorate gift bags for the Christmas Store!
That's all for now!!! Have a very wonderful and blessed week!
~Mrs. Westlund =)
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving to all! I hope that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Break as much as I did! It was so nice to spend time with family and friends!
Here's what we'll be working on this week:
Language Arts: We'll revisit some of the stories that we've been reading in this past section all about families. We'll focus on characters, setting, noting details, compare and contrast, evaluating and classifying. We'll also learn about our new alphafriend: Nyle Noodle! Please be sure to look for him and his song on the newsletter going home this week!
Math: We'll be working with numbers and counting and making graphs this week! We'll start to learn some of the number words, so keep practicing them at home!
Religion: We have started the season of Advent! It is the beginning of a new church year. We'll learn about preparing ourselves for Jesus' birth, to be celebrated on Christmas Day! We'll also be learning about prayer. There are so many different ways to pray and things to pray about. Our focus will be on prayer as 'talking' to God. It is important for the children to understand that God hears them and will listen to them whenever and wherever they are!
Science: We'll be starting to learn about our senses! We'll do an activity where we sort out and organize a variety of items, and then we will graph them into which senses we could use to identify them and we'll identify the properties of each object. We'll also talk about how our senses help us.
Social Studies: We'll be learning about a different culture; that of the Eskimos. We will hear a story about the eskimos and how they live and compare/contrast on how it is different from where we live. We'll also try our hand at building some sugar cube igloos!
Centers: Monday & Wednesday:
Center One: The children will make wreaths using green paint hands and red thumbprints. They will each make 2...one to take home and one that we will be sending to the Senior Center in town.
Center Two: Shiny Ornaments! We will use light corn syrup to 'paint' over ornaments cut from tag board. After they are dry we will secure a ribbon on each and they will be sent home to be hung on your tree!
That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!
~Mrs. Westlund
Here's what we'll be working on this week:
Language Arts: We'll revisit some of the stories that we've been reading in this past section all about families. We'll focus on characters, setting, noting details, compare and contrast, evaluating and classifying. We'll also learn about our new alphafriend: Nyle Noodle! Please be sure to look for him and his song on the newsletter going home this week!
Math: We'll be working with numbers and counting and making graphs this week! We'll start to learn some of the number words, so keep practicing them at home!
Religion: We have started the season of Advent! It is the beginning of a new church year. We'll learn about preparing ourselves for Jesus' birth, to be celebrated on Christmas Day! We'll also be learning about prayer. There are so many different ways to pray and things to pray about. Our focus will be on prayer as 'talking' to God. It is important for the children to understand that God hears them and will listen to them whenever and wherever they are!
Science: We'll be starting to learn about our senses! We'll do an activity where we sort out and organize a variety of items, and then we will graph them into which senses we could use to identify them and we'll identify the properties of each object. We'll also talk about how our senses help us.
Social Studies: We'll be learning about a different culture; that of the Eskimos. We will hear a story about the eskimos and how they live and compare/contrast on how it is different from where we live. We'll also try our hand at building some sugar cube igloos!
Centers: Monday & Wednesday:
Center One: The children will make wreaths using green paint hands and red thumbprints. They will each make 2...one to take home and one that we will be sending to the Senior Center in town.
Center Two: Shiny Ornaments! We will use light corn syrup to 'paint' over ornaments cut from tag board. After they are dry we will secure a ribbon on each and they will be sent home to be hung on your tree!
That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by!
~Mrs. Westlund
Sunday, November 13, 2011
November 14th-18th
Hello! What a gorgeous weekend! Ben and I were able to join some neighbor friends down at the Mason park on Saturday for some fun...we sure aren't going to have many more days as nice as that one! Looking ahead, it's hard to believe that Parent Teacher Conferences are this week already, Opening Gun Hunting Season starts this weekend and Thanksgiving is next week!
Here's what we've got planned for the week ahead:
Language Arts:
We are continuing to focus on families. We will read 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', 'Shoes from Grandpa' and 'Baby Bear's Family'. Our new alphafriend is Benny Bear and we'll be focusing on the letter Bb! Try to ask your child to come up with words that start with the 'b' sound! We'll also continue to practice our sight words: I, see & my. We'll also add to that list of sight words this week with the new word: like. We'll be writing in our journals at school during small group time and practicing these new words with the sentence "I like my..." I'll help them with filling in the blank. I often do this by writing the word that they've dictated to me on a little post it note, and they just copy it onto the page to complete the sentence and then add an illustration.
Religion:
We're starting a new chapter on prayer. We will learn about talking to God and learn about how prayer can be recited with the prayers we memorize, but it can also be just simply talking to God. We'll also talk about how God can hear our prayers always.
Math:
We're continuing with counting! We're practicing counting to 100 at school...practice this (and higher if you can!) at home too! We're also learning about numbers that show more and less.
Science:
We'll have a special treat this week...Brad Gingras (Bradan's dad) will come in on Tuesday afternoon to show us his various animal skins and preserved animals and talk about Hibernation, Migration and animals that 'tough it out' during the winter.
Social Studies:
We'll be continuing to learn about life way back when the first Thanksgiving happened. We've read stories about the Pilgrims coming to the Americas and how the Native Americans helped them to live off the land. We celebrate the different gifts that God has given us and how we can all share them with each other. We'll read a simple story called 'Pilgrim, Pilgrim'. There are some of our sight words in this story, so we will be identifying them, as well as trying to sound out some of the tougher words as we read together. Your child will be bringing this home on Thursday...be sure to read it through with them, they are so excited to be able to read new words every day!
Centers:
No Centers on Monday because of the Early Release Day.
Centers on Wednesday will be with Mary Jo Gingras and I. Together we will be helping the children to make Native American Headbands. Also, earlier in the week I will be making Pilgrim hats with each of the children in small groups. The children will be able to choose which hat they'd like to wear down to the All School Thanksgiving Luncheon!
Parent Teacher Conferences!!!
Thursday ~ After school!! Please let me know as soon as you can if you're not able to make it that night. I will do my best to accomodate you and find a time that works for both of us to get together!
Here's what we've got planned for the week ahead:
Language Arts:
We are continuing to focus on families. We will read 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', 'Shoes from Grandpa' and 'Baby Bear's Family'. Our new alphafriend is Benny Bear and we'll be focusing on the letter Bb! Try to ask your child to come up with words that start with the 'b' sound! We'll also continue to practice our sight words: I, see & my. We'll also add to that list of sight words this week with the new word: like. We'll be writing in our journals at school during small group time and practicing these new words with the sentence "I like my..." I'll help them with filling in the blank. I often do this by writing the word that they've dictated to me on a little post it note, and they just copy it onto the page to complete the sentence and then add an illustration.
Religion:
We're starting a new chapter on prayer. We will learn about talking to God and learn about how prayer can be recited with the prayers we memorize, but it can also be just simply talking to God. We'll also talk about how God can hear our prayers always.
Math:
We're continuing with counting! We're practicing counting to 100 at school...practice this (and higher if you can!) at home too! We're also learning about numbers that show more and less.
Science:
We'll have a special treat this week...Brad Gingras (Bradan's dad) will come in on Tuesday afternoon to show us his various animal skins and preserved animals and talk about Hibernation, Migration and animals that 'tough it out' during the winter.
Social Studies:
We'll be continuing to learn about life way back when the first Thanksgiving happened. We've read stories about the Pilgrims coming to the Americas and how the Native Americans helped them to live off the land. We celebrate the different gifts that God has given us and how we can all share them with each other. We'll read a simple story called 'Pilgrim, Pilgrim'. There are some of our sight words in this story, so we will be identifying them, as well as trying to sound out some of the tougher words as we read together. Your child will be bringing this home on Thursday...be sure to read it through with them, they are so excited to be able to read new words every day!
Centers:
No Centers on Monday because of the Early Release Day.
Centers on Wednesday will be with Mary Jo Gingras and I. Together we will be helping the children to make Native American Headbands. Also, earlier in the week I will be making Pilgrim hats with each of the children in small groups. The children will be able to choose which hat they'd like to wear down to the All School Thanksgiving Luncheon!
Parent Teacher Conferences!!!
Thursday ~ After school!! Please let me know as soon as you can if you're not able to make it that night. I will do my best to accomodate you and find a time that works for both of us to get together!
Monday, November 7, 2011
November 7th-11th
Hello!
We're having a great time in Kindergarten and the children are learning so much! They are such good readers and helpers throughout the day! They are very proud of their ability to read some of the stories, calendar words, etc!
Last week we ended our Reading theme on Colors. We are now into the theme of Families! Last week we also finished up our Patterns and Movement section of Math. We're moving right along and doing well!
This week:
Reading ~ We will introduce a new theme and a new Alphafriend: Tiggy Tiger! We are learning lots of new words. So far we've focused on I & see; this week we will add 'my'. Not only are the children excited about reading these words, but also incorporating them into their writing. In writing, we're also working on letter sounds and trying to 'sound out' words to figure out how they are spelled. If a child uses inventive spelling to figure out a word, at this level...it's FINE! =) 'Sound spelling' is completely appropriate for the Kindergarten age level. For instance, if a child spells 'city' with 'sity', they have used the knowledge that they know that the first sound in 'city' can be produced by the letter s. Later, as they get older, they will work on remembering the 'correct' way of spelling the word. If a child asks me if they spelled that word ('sity' or others with sound spelling) correctly, I simply tell them 'I like the way you sounded out the word!' I never want to hinder a child's desire to write, so I hesitate to correct them with their inventive spelling.
All sight words, however, should be spelling correctly...in their writing I will correct them on the sight words simply by calling their attention to it and having them write it over correctly. We have a wonderful word wall in our classroom, and the students know that they are free to go up and use it at any time during their writing. It is color coded, so if a child asks me "How do I spell 'see'" I can easily tell them, "It's under the letter 'S', it's the train track that is red." All of the letters are on train cars, so the words below them are on different colored train tracks.
Math ~ We are on to Counting and Matching. One to one counting can be challenging for a child, so this Chapter is very important. At times children may count too fast or miss a number. This Chapter will focus on the one to one counting; on which number shows 'more' or 'less'; and on rote counting (1,2,3,4...). We've been adding a number to our line every day that we've been in school and have been practicing counting to 100! The children do a great job and are excited for the 100th day of school, which will come sometime in February! =)
Religion ~ We're working on learning about God as our Father in Heaven. The children have enjoyed talking about special people in their lives. We learn about God's love for us through the many gifts that He gives us. The special people in our lives are one of those gifts...and our families are very special people! (This ties in SUPER with our Reading Chapter!)
Science ~ We continue to learn about living things. This week we'll learn about Sea Otters with our National Geographic Young Explorers. Our interactive whiteboard is not quite ready yet, so we'll travel to the 1st Grade room to view the interactive lesson there.
Social Studies ~ We're learning about life 'way back when' in Colonial Times and how it compares to life now. If the children have a chance, visiting with Grandma or Grandpa or another older person and asking about what life was like for them would be a great activity to tie into this!
This week we celebrate being Drug Free! All week the children will wear red wrist bands to remind them of this and Mr. Bell will call off names each day...if the names that he calls off are wearing their bands, they get to come to the office for a prize!
Also...Friday, Nov. 9th we will celebrate Veteran's Day. The Veteran's Program will start at 2 PM, please join us if you can!!
That's all for now!
Thanks for stopping by!!!
~Mrs. Westlund
We're having a great time in Kindergarten and the children are learning so much! They are such good readers and helpers throughout the day! They are very proud of their ability to read some of the stories, calendar words, etc!
Last week we ended our Reading theme on Colors. We are now into the theme of Families! Last week we also finished up our Patterns and Movement section of Math. We're moving right along and doing well!
This week:
Reading ~ We will introduce a new theme and a new Alphafriend: Tiggy Tiger! We are learning lots of new words. So far we've focused on I & see; this week we will add 'my'. Not only are the children excited about reading these words, but also incorporating them into their writing. In writing, we're also working on letter sounds and trying to 'sound out' words to figure out how they are spelled. If a child uses inventive spelling to figure out a word, at this level...it's FINE! =) 'Sound spelling' is completely appropriate for the Kindergarten age level. For instance, if a child spells 'city' with 'sity', they have used the knowledge that they know that the first sound in 'city' can be produced by the letter s. Later, as they get older, they will work on remembering the 'correct' way of spelling the word. If a child asks me if they spelled that word ('sity' or others with sound spelling) correctly, I simply tell them 'I like the way you sounded out the word!' I never want to hinder a child's desire to write, so I hesitate to correct them with their inventive spelling.
All sight words, however, should be spelling correctly...in their writing I will correct them on the sight words simply by calling their attention to it and having them write it over correctly. We have a wonderful word wall in our classroom, and the students know that they are free to go up and use it at any time during their writing. It is color coded, so if a child asks me "How do I spell 'see'" I can easily tell them, "It's under the letter 'S', it's the train track that is red." All of the letters are on train cars, so the words below them are on different colored train tracks.
Math ~ We are on to Counting and Matching. One to one counting can be challenging for a child, so this Chapter is very important. At times children may count too fast or miss a number. This Chapter will focus on the one to one counting; on which number shows 'more' or 'less'; and on rote counting (1,2,3,4...). We've been adding a number to our line every day that we've been in school and have been practicing counting to 100! The children do a great job and are excited for the 100th day of school, which will come sometime in February! =)
Religion ~ We're working on learning about God as our Father in Heaven. The children have enjoyed talking about special people in their lives. We learn about God's love for us through the many gifts that He gives us. The special people in our lives are one of those gifts...and our families are very special people! (This ties in SUPER with our Reading Chapter!)
Science ~ We continue to learn about living things. This week we'll learn about Sea Otters with our National Geographic Young Explorers. Our interactive whiteboard is not quite ready yet, so we'll travel to the 1st Grade room to view the interactive lesson there.
Social Studies ~ We're learning about life 'way back when' in Colonial Times and how it compares to life now. If the children have a chance, visiting with Grandma or Grandpa or another older person and asking about what life was like for them would be a great activity to tie into this!
This week we celebrate being Drug Free! All week the children will wear red wrist bands to remind them of this and Mr. Bell will call off names each day...if the names that he calls off are wearing their bands, they get to come to the office for a prize!
Also...Friday, Nov. 9th we will celebrate Veteran's Day. The Veteran's Program will start at 2 PM, please join us if you can!!
That's all for now!
Thanks for stopping by!!!
~Mrs. Westlund
Thursday, October 6, 2011
October is here!
Hi! Hard to believe that September slipped by so quickly! The Kindergarteners are off to a FANTASTIC start of the year!
Last week we studied APPLES!! On Monday we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's Birthday!! Thank you to Becky, Lahaela's mom, for helping us on this day. We celebrated with hearing the story 'The Little Red House With No Windows, No Doors and a Star Inside'...we then made our own colorful star prints with the apples. To finish up we had some cider and apple slices with caramel. The kids loved it! Earlier that day we watched 'Johnny Appleseed' by Disney (an old favorite of mine from my childhood) and learned the song 'The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord...for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseeds. Oh the Lord is good to me!'
Later that week we traveled north to Bayfield, WI to visit the Bayfield Apple Company. It was an overcast rainy day in Bayfield, but we all piled in the vehicles and went. We were able to tour their facility, watch how they make apple cider and got some fresh apple cider of our own to take home with us. We ended up skipping going to the Coastguard Park in Bayfield because of the weather. We returned home and had a nice picnic lunch on our ocean carpet. We all really did have a fun time that day!
Last week we also received our first letter from our pen pals in Proctor, MN. We will be pen pal-ing with Mrs. Meredith Salus' Kindergarten class at St. Rose Catholic School in Proctor, MN. Mrs. Salus is a good friend of mine and we have both enjoyed this project very much. We did this for the first time last year and it was a HUGE hit. The first couple of letters we send our 'class' letters....the children dictate to me what to write and we make one large letter all together. St. Rose's letter to us is posted in our hallway if you ever want to pop in and take a look. Then, we will break them up into pairs or small groups (she has a slightly larger class than we do). The children, with my help, will write individual letters to their friends at St. Rose. At the very end of the year, we meet each other as both classes come together at the UMD Planetarium for a Space Exploration Field Trip and have lunch together at Playfront Park. I'm so excited to start this again with a new class. I know that they will enjoy it throughout the year!
October 3rd - 7th:
We've been continuing to work on recognizing and writing our letters. We are learning about starting our names with capital letters and writing the rest of our name in lowercase. Also, we've been focusing on reading and writing going from our left to our right.
In Math we have been working on classifying and putting things into groups based on different attributes such as color, shape and other similarities. We are now starting patterns and the children are having a really fun time with this using different items and colors. We'll also be exploring our left and our right, which I'm confident will go well because I notice that when we all stand for the Pledge of Allegience that our right hands are where they should be! =)
I've really enjoyed doing Science with the children. We've just started our new National Geographic for Young Explorers and the kids were eager to look through them. October's issue has three themes...A Tree's Life, Spiders, and Animals that Columbus Saw. The pictures are amazing AND National Geographic has interactive whiteboard lessons to go with their magazines. As of right now, we don't have one in the Kindergarten room (but please help us raise money for this during our Pancake Breakfast on October 16th after Liturgy!)
In Social Studies we've been learning about our families and our friendships. This months core value is Respect, which ties in nicely with our Friendship theme. We'll soon be talking about Christopher Columbus and what life was like a long time ago. A couple of weeks ago now we celebrated Native American Cultures and had a special Liturgy. The Kindergarteners really enjoyed seeing the Native attire that was worn during this Liturgy and we were able to watch a couple of nice videos on some different dances...the jingle dress dance and the hoop dance. We talked about traditions that we have in our own families and traditions that others may have.
In Religion we've been learning about God as our Creator. We've read the story from Genesis about Creation and shared the things that God has given us that we are the most thankful for. We also discussed our many talents and gifts that we have and how we can and should share them with others.
***If you have a special talent or hobby, please let me know. I'd love to have you come in and share during some time throughout the year.
This upcoming week we have TWO days off. Monday, October 10th ~ Teacher Inservice at our school AND Wednesday, October 13th ~ Diocesian Inservice at Rice Lake.
On Tuesday, October 11th, we'll be learning about Christopher Columbus. We'll also get to do an October activity with the 4th graders. We've worked with them before...in September we worked together to make our Apple Core mobiles and both the Kindergarteners and the 4th Graders did a great job and had a wonderful time!
We'll finish off that week (Thursday and Friday, October 14th and 15th) by learning about Fire Safety. Friday, October 15th we'll get a Fire Safety Presentation from our local fire department. The children will get a goody bag of Fire Prevention items to take home. One will be a map for an escape plan for your home...make sure to go over what to do and where to go if there would ever be a fire in your home!
Later this month, we'll be traveling to Don's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze with the 2nd Graders. This will be on Friday, October 21st. Please watch your child's folder for more info.
The following week we will have a "It's the Great Pumpkin" night with Kindergarten and 2nd Grade. We'll be doing Pumpkin Math, having pumpkin treats and end with some pumpkin carving (with mom and dad's help, of course).
That's all for now!!! Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by!
~Mrs. Westlund =)
Last week we studied APPLES!! On Monday we celebrated Johnny Appleseed's Birthday!! Thank you to Becky, Lahaela's mom, for helping us on this day. We celebrated with hearing the story 'The Little Red House With No Windows, No Doors and a Star Inside'...we then made our own colorful star prints with the apples. To finish up we had some cider and apple slices with caramel. The kids loved it! Earlier that day we watched 'Johnny Appleseed' by Disney (an old favorite of mine from my childhood) and learned the song 'The Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord...for giving me the things I need, the sun and the rain and the appleseeds. Oh the Lord is good to me!'
Later that week we traveled north to Bayfield, WI to visit the Bayfield Apple Company. It was an overcast rainy day in Bayfield, but we all piled in the vehicles and went. We were able to tour their facility, watch how they make apple cider and got some fresh apple cider of our own to take home with us. We ended up skipping going to the Coastguard Park in Bayfield because of the weather. We returned home and had a nice picnic lunch on our ocean carpet. We all really did have a fun time that day!
Last week we also received our first letter from our pen pals in Proctor, MN. We will be pen pal-ing with Mrs. Meredith Salus' Kindergarten class at St. Rose Catholic School in Proctor, MN. Mrs. Salus is a good friend of mine and we have both enjoyed this project very much. We did this for the first time last year and it was a HUGE hit. The first couple of letters we send our 'class' letters....the children dictate to me what to write and we make one large letter all together. St. Rose's letter to us is posted in our hallway if you ever want to pop in and take a look. Then, we will break them up into pairs or small groups (she has a slightly larger class than we do). The children, with my help, will write individual letters to their friends at St. Rose. At the very end of the year, we meet each other as both classes come together at the UMD Planetarium for a Space Exploration Field Trip and have lunch together at Playfront Park. I'm so excited to start this again with a new class. I know that they will enjoy it throughout the year!
October 3rd - 7th:
We've been continuing to work on recognizing and writing our letters. We are learning about starting our names with capital letters and writing the rest of our name in lowercase. Also, we've been focusing on reading and writing going from our left to our right.
In Math we have been working on classifying and putting things into groups based on different attributes such as color, shape and other similarities. We are now starting patterns and the children are having a really fun time with this using different items and colors. We'll also be exploring our left and our right, which I'm confident will go well because I notice that when we all stand for the Pledge of Allegience that our right hands are where they should be! =)
I've really enjoyed doing Science with the children. We've just started our new National Geographic for Young Explorers and the kids were eager to look through them. October's issue has three themes...A Tree's Life, Spiders, and Animals that Columbus Saw. The pictures are amazing AND National Geographic has interactive whiteboard lessons to go with their magazines. As of right now, we don't have one in the Kindergarten room (but please help us raise money for this during our Pancake Breakfast on October 16th after Liturgy!)
In Social Studies we've been learning about our families and our friendships. This months core value is Respect, which ties in nicely with our Friendship theme. We'll soon be talking about Christopher Columbus and what life was like a long time ago. A couple of weeks ago now we celebrated Native American Cultures and had a special Liturgy. The Kindergarteners really enjoyed seeing the Native attire that was worn during this Liturgy and we were able to watch a couple of nice videos on some different dances...the jingle dress dance and the hoop dance. We talked about traditions that we have in our own families and traditions that others may have.
In Religion we've been learning about God as our Creator. We've read the story from Genesis about Creation and shared the things that God has given us that we are the most thankful for. We also discussed our many talents and gifts that we have and how we can and should share them with others.
***If you have a special talent or hobby, please let me know. I'd love to have you come in and share during some time throughout the year.
This upcoming week we have TWO days off. Monday, October 10th ~ Teacher Inservice at our school AND Wednesday, October 13th ~ Diocesian Inservice at Rice Lake.
On Tuesday, October 11th, we'll be learning about Christopher Columbus. We'll also get to do an October activity with the 4th graders. We've worked with them before...in September we worked together to make our Apple Core mobiles and both the Kindergarteners and the 4th Graders did a great job and had a wonderful time!
We'll finish off that week (Thursday and Friday, October 14th and 15th) by learning about Fire Safety. Friday, October 15th we'll get a Fire Safety Presentation from our local fire department. The children will get a goody bag of Fire Prevention items to take home. One will be a map for an escape plan for your home...make sure to go over what to do and where to go if there would ever be a fire in your home!
Later this month, we'll be traveling to Don's Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze with the 2nd Graders. This will be on Friday, October 21st. Please watch your child's folder for more info.
The following week we will have a "It's the Great Pumpkin" night with Kindergarten and 2nd Grade. We'll be doing Pumpkin Math, having pumpkin treats and end with some pumpkin carving (with mom and dad's help, of course).
That's all for now!!! Have a great week! Thanks for stopping by!
~Mrs. Westlund =)
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