Gingerbread Houses!!!!

We had soooooo much fun today decorating our Gingerbread Houses! A huge thank you to all of the children and parents for sending in all of the supplies we needed! Another huge thank you to the wonderful parents that helped build the houses yesterday and came in today to help us decorate and navigate the world of icing bags. Ha! Ha! Look at our slide show and see how much fun we had! I believe if you click on the slide show it will enlarge and you can see the pictures better.

Miss Parsons

Hello again!
Well haven't these been the craziest weeks? Halloween was so busy and then testing for report cards and parent/teacher conferences and then Thanksgiving! Okay, we can all breath again for awhile...and then it's Christmas!
The next few weeks we are doing activities based on "The Gingerbread Man". As a wrap up we will be decorating Gingerbread Houses in class on December 13th. I have written up a volunteer paper and a supply list. They will be sent home in our Friday Folder's this Friday! Fun, fun, fun!
Please keep studying our sight words, letters and sounds with the children. It really helps when they can practice at home too. Thank you!
Andrea Parsons :)

Pumpkin Patch Fun!

Hello from Canada!

I wanted to post these adorable pictures from our annual Hunter's Pumpkin Patch Field Trip!!!
The children and adults, including the teachers, all had so much fun. Thank you to all of the great volunteers. We couldn't have done it without you!

I will see you next week with more of an update. I have a beautiful new niece named Scarlett that I am meeting for the first time! She is way too cute.

Bye for now,
Miss Parsons (Auntie) :)

I'm back!

Sorry for the absence in updating my blog but I have been very busy! So far we have learned the sight words- I, see, we, will, like, and can. This week we are learning "a", usually pronounced /uh/ but I tell them both ways. Next week's word is "in". We continue to learn our numbers to ten and count objects and explore patterns. Last week and this week we are learning about pumpkins. We learned that pumpkins grow from a seed, into a sprout, a vine, a flower and then into a little pumpkin. They seem to really love science! Next week we start our journey into farm animals.

We have worked hard on getting a baseline of your child's skills in letter recognition, sounds, numbers, and shapes. As soon as they are complete I will send home an unofficial progress report before the official one in November! If you could help your child practice the skills they need it would really help him/her. Remember, this shows you what they did for us in class and maybe they do more at home but we have to have them produce at school too. :)

Our Pumpkin Patch field trip is this Friday! If you haven't returned your child's permission slip with their $5.00 please do so as soon as possible. Also, if you wanted to volunteer and didn't get a volunteer paper on Monday (10th) then email me to let me know you want to come. I have to have you on my approved list before you can be a volunteer. I really need more parents for the afternoon trip! Thank you!

Many of you have expressed an interest in volunteering in our classroom. I hope to have a schedule out soon. We just got our official assistant's schedule last week and I am working on how best to use the time for your children. I will be out of the class next week and have a terrific substitute but don't want to start volunteers when I'm not there! Thank you for your patience!

Don't forget this is our first late start on Wednesday (12th) and there will NOT be school for the morning class and the afternoon class will start at 10:15 a.m. The children will be eating lunch at school and will need a lunch from home or be signed up to receive hot lunch at school. If you have already been approved for free/reduced lunch you won't have to do anything. Remember that the children don't have access to a microwave or refrigerator. If you have any questions about his just email me or call the office.

Thank you,
Andrea Parsons :)

Here is a little alphabet song I found on youtube through another blog:

Hello again!

This week we worked on the two words "I and See" and reviewed "We and Will". We are still learning all of the Zoo Phonics animals names, sounds and signals. The children are beginning to get more confident with the Zoo Phonics song! If you notice your child is not catching on to our sounds and signals please practice with them at home. I included a sheet in your information packet during orientation but if you have misplaced it email me and I will send home a new one with your child.

I introduced the numbers 1-8 this week and will finish 9,10 next week with lots and lots of review on how to write the numbers. Keep practicing at home.

Most of the children are still having difficulty writing their name on their papers. Please, please, please, practice their name at home often. It helps them out a lot because you can do it one on one. Remember initial letter is a capital and then all the rest are lower case. Thank you in advance!

Our first book order was placed this weekend! It usually takes about a week for it to arrive. I will send the books home in your child's backpack unless you have told me otherwise. Thank you for all of the online orders. They earned us a lot of free books. Yahoo!

The children are getting better every day with behavior. There have been a lot of smiles for good work done and a few tears for those that have forgotten the rules. I am hoping for more smiles this week. :)

We got to watch this cute little video as a reward. It is about letters and the kids loved it! I thought I would share it here. I downloaded it from our ESD Library. Here is Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom!






Thank you!
Andrea Parsons

Introduction to Kindergarten Newsletter

Introduction to Kindergarten

A Week and a Bit

Wow! We have been having so much fun this first week and a bit of school! The children are making great progress learning the routines we have at school. We have been so busy that I didn't even have time to take some pictures. Next week I hope to put some new photos on the slide show!

This week we worked a lot on the zoo phonics animal names, sounds and signals. We started to learn our zoo phonics song and soon they will be singing it to you. :) We also learned our first two words "we and will". I think they really liked looking through the little books and highlighting the words. In math we concentrated mostly on the circle and of course our counting and days of the week during calendar time. We will be working on the numbers 1-5 next week. We keep running out of time for all of the things we want to do.

If your child has been talking about moving his/her "worm" let me explain. I have three colored apples on the board- green (on task behavior), yellow (warning), red (miss recess), off red go to the principal's office. If they are following our rules they will stay on green and so on. We talked a lot about staying on green and how this happens. We will continue to talk a lot about behavior and what the expectations are for kindergarten. So far I am very impressed with how quickly they are catching on. Hurray!!!!!!

Our morning class was able to see an assembly on Friday morning that included the entertainers Cowboy Buck and Elizabeth. They asked the kindergarten team to come up and help with a little disco number. I have included the link to youtube for this so you can see us totally embarrassed but having fun. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_4IM3J7Q5k&feature=share

www.youtube.com

Oh and let us not forget the wonderful performance of our leader...Mr. Williams, the P.E. teacher Mr. Thummel and awesome second grade teacher Mrs. Ryckman in the Polar Bear Penguin Dance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_-K_ldaG4&feature=share

www.youtube.com

Our first homework went home this week. Remember it is due next week on Thursday. If you have any questions email or call me.

Thank you,
Miss Parsons

Welcome new kindergarteners!!

I am so glad you are all going to be in my class!!! I spent a lot of time this summer looking at other really cool blogs and finding wonderful ideas for our classroom. I made a lot of games that will help you learn more about reading, writing, math, science and other interesting things. I think you will love kindergarten. You might be a little nervous on your first day but you will soon see how much fun we have. We have lot of rules to learn but that is just so you will stay safe and learn lots!
I hope to see you all at our Open House night on August 29th from 5:30-7:00. I have a fun scavenger hunt for you to do with all of your supplies. I won't have too much time to talk to everyone but at least you can meet me and have a look around our wonderful classroom!

Bye for now,
Miss Parsons :)

Good-bye for now...

Hello all!
Well here is to a wonderful kindergarten year! We learned a lot, had fun, made some friends and released some beautiful butterflies into the world! I loved being your teacher all year and hope to see you pop in next year to say hello and tell me how your summer went.

Have a wonderful and fun-filled summer everyone!!!

Miss Parsons, Bella, Sophie, Coalie and Taz

Our caterpillars have arrived!!! We have five little caterpillars that will transform into beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies in about 17 days. The children are so excited! We have been keeping a class diary about our little fuzzy friends. We have named them...Captain Jack Sparrow, Anabella, DeeDee, Karly, and Herbie. We gave each one a unique voice and characteristic which has been very entertaining. We are reading books about butterflies and insects and watched a really cool song/video about Metamorphosis. I hope the children are sharing their new knowledge about insects with you. They seem to be soaking up the science!
If you have a chance to go to the public library and check out some books about insects, especially butterflies, I bet your child would be thrilled!

Happy Insects!

May

Can you believe it is already May? The children and I are hard at work learning lots of things we will use in first grade. Thank you for working so hard with your children on their homework! The extra practice really helps them and it is showing.
Many of the children have been asking to take AR tests and get on the computer to do Math Facts in a Flash. They are sooooo excited! It is great to see their enthusiasm. The rule for AR is you have to read the book twice, at home to an adult, then you may bring the book in and we will get you on the computer as soon as possible to take a quiz. If your child is not ready for this please don't push too hard, they will have lots of opportunities to take AR tests in First Grade. Remember...not all children learn at the same rate. :)
Math Facts in a Flash is a computer program that helps children practice their math facts with a time limit. In order to do this they have to be able to add facts up to ten at a reasonable rate. Counting on fingers is acceptable. If your child can do simple addition flash cards with you at home at a reasonable rate then they are probably ready to go on the computer. If your child tells me they are ready I let them take a "trial practice test". If they get almost all of them wrong I tell them they need to practice more at home with flash cards and we will try again. I have flash cards available at school to practice with when they are finished with their other work.
I am trying to keep their enthusiasm at a high!!!! Thank you for your help. :)

Happy reading and adding!!!

2011

WELCOME 2011!

I hope the children had a wonderful and fun filled break! Everyone will come back refreshed and ready to learn! I was fortunate enough to go to Calgary, Alberta to visit my family for Christmas. My nephew is 1 year old and starting to talk. I am sure his first word was Auntie but maybe that is just my hearing. Ha! Ha! We had a lot of fun, walks in the snow pulling the toboggan and watching the dog run after the Frisbee while sliding in the snow, ending up of course with a fire in the fireplace and a hot latte.

We will start our first week back with the theme of Winter! Look for lots of snowmen coming home. Homework will be sent home on Friday as usual.

Miss Parsons