Letter to Kindergarten Parents from Mr. Croff

9/7/10

Dear Parents/Guardians of Kindergarten Students,

As you are likely aware our kindergarten classes this year are extremely full and well over state accreditation. Due to our large class sizes I am excited to announce we will be adding another kindergarten classroom to help reduce teacher to student ratios. The teacher in the additional classroom will be Mrs. Natasha Norby and I can assure you that not only is she very qualified, but she is a genuinely kind, friendly and caring individual.

We will be transitioning approximately four students from each existing classroom into Mrs. Norby’s room. The new kindergarten room will begin Monday, September 13^th and I will personally contact parents this Thursday or Friday if your child is selected to be in Mrs. Norby’s room. Initially, I will be taking parent requests to transfer into the new room and then we will be selecting students from our existing rooms. If you would like to volunteer to have your child placed in the new kindergarten room, please contact me at 281-6213.

As a parent myself, I can certainly understand any apprehension that you may be experiencing, but I can confidently state that I would be willing to place my own daughter in our new classroom. I assure you that this decision is being made on the premises that it is best for the children and that they typically are much more resilient than we give them credit for. I am thrilled that we have this opportunity to reduce our classroom sizes to help our students. I encourage you to email, call or set up a meeting with me to address any questions or concerns you may have. Sincerely, Kevin Croff, Principal

Wednesday

What a great Wednesday! I just want to tell your kids thank you for all the birthday wishes that they gave me. It was so nice of them! Our day went fast! They had a chance to work on coloring and reading the coloring words with Mrs. Clapper. They had a chance to complete centers and even pretend read/read to their bear that they brought to school. We read Goldilocks and the Three Bears today as well. If you have another version of the book sit down and read it to your child and have them tell you what is the same or what is different about the book. In Math we reviewed above, below and left and right. We worked on giving and following directions. This is something easy to practice with them as well, at home. There is an important letter from Mr. Croff that you all need to read. I will post it on the blog as well. PLEASE CHECK THE LOST AND FOUND. Already there are jackets and lunch boxes piling up. Take the time to check and see if there is anything there that is your child's. Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! ~Mrs. Hansen

Terrific Tuesday

       WOW, it was a Terrific Tuesday today !!!

We had so much fun getting reacquainted with our new friends and getting back into our school routine.  We worked on sorting in math and got to play with some wonderful attribute shapes.  We had some nursery rhymes and started a project in conjunction with the rhyme "Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick"   Rhyming is a pre-reading skill that we will be working on all year.  Help your child find rhymes, make up rhymes and listen for words that rhyme in books you read at home. We discovered that quick, stick, brick, tick, pick, lick  and trick all rhyme!  Our career student from West High, Kelsey Komar, helped us write our names in the poem instead of Jack.  Kelsey will be joining us from 9:05 - 9:50 every morning and is a wonderful help while she is learning to be a teacher someday! 

  The only part of our day that was not terrific was when one  of our boys got stung by a bee at lunch recess and later there were 2 bees in our room.  We will start closing the windows earlier in the day and hope they stay away. 

  Right before dismissal, I reminded the children that tomorrow is BEAR DAY!  Please help your child remember to bring a bear.  It can be any size or color, theirs or borrowed from a sibling or parent!  We will be doing activities all day with them.  Please do not go out and buy a bear just for the day.  I have a few extras that I said I could lend to the children who were worried about not having one.   Thanks for your updates about daycare arrangements.  I was a little late getting out today and will try to be on time in the future.  The front door dismissal worked well for all 3 Kindergartens! 

  Looking forward to a Wonderful Wednesday! 

  (Or should I say a BEARY GOOD Wednesday?)

   Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Great Friday!

What a great Friday! The kids did great and we were able to fit in a LOT of things today. The students started off the day reviewing same and different from the Math the day before. We went on in Math and completed the sorting of objects by one attribute. For Reading we retold the Little Bus story as a class using the amazing words for the next two weeks, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth. The students did very well in retelling. We then created a class graph of how each student gets to school. We also discussed characters in a book. They then had the chance to draw their favorite character from the story and try to label it. We completed calendar time today and reviewed the letters A,B, C, D, E. We began Science today for the first time. The students had a great time with the Science lesson. We are discovering our five senses and how that relates to the study of Science. I placed bags on their tables and they recorded in their Science journal what they felt and saw in each bag. The students also had the chance to do centers at the end of the day. Overall it was a great day! Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! ~Mrs. Abigail Hansen

P.S. Please remember that our dismissal will be at the front entrance to Meadowlark at 2:20 p.m. starting September 7th. Have a GREAT Labor Day weekend!! :-)

After Open House

Thanks for coming to the Open House! For those who couldn't make it, we missed you but don't worry because you will get all the information we covered (and more because I never seem to cover it all!) in the Thursday folder we saved for all the handouts pertaining to both Open House and September. I hurried to get the calendar ready for Open House and accidentally gave September 31 days. I meant to put Oct. 1st on the last Friday of the calendar to include everyone in our Show-and-Tell list. I also forgot to get the blog site address along with our emails. But if you are reading this you've already GOT IT!

One other note, I sent home their bear name tags the other day because we have found that they were uncomfortable for some of the children and others were chewing on them or playing with them. So we sent them home for good and Mrs. Hansen made some new clip on name tags that work better for P.E. and Music. Since they have lunch tags on when they go to Library, Mrs. Treglown can tell who they are without tags at all.

We hope you enjoy a nice 3-day weekend. And remember Tuesday, Sept. 7th we will dismiss out the front (west) door at 2:2o.

Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Thursday

Thursday, what a great day! The kids did very well. They are still walking through procedures and routines and trying to get them down, each day is better and better. Today we read in our buddy books the story, "Who am I?" We got to read it together and then they tried on their own. We worked on our Reader Writer Notebooks and they did well trying to write out their "A's and B's". Math was working on Same and Different. The class brought up these words throughout the day. We worked with manipulatives and they had to try to match the pattern that I placed on the ELMO. We also worked in centers again and everyone had the chance to use the computer lab and use starfall. Over all it was a great day! Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! ~Mrs. Abigail Hansen

P.S. Don't forget about open house!!

Wednesday

What a great day the kids had! It was Mrs. Clapper's birthday so the class was able to work on a dot to dot happy birthday card for Mrs. Clapper and even enjoy a special birthday treat! The class was again able to work in centers again today and I was pleased to see them choosing new things to explore. Making patterns, painting and even working with matching up dominoes. Math has been fun. We are working on right and left and which hand is which. I placed a sticker or a stamp on their right hand and we played the hokey pokey to practice right and left. The students had calendar time and we went through the new month and day. They have been learning to read the words "I" and "am". The students also had Library today. Overall it was a great day! Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! ~Mrs. Hansen

REMINDER- Open house is tomorrow night!! :-)

It begins at 6:30 in the commons with Mr. Croff.

20 minute classroom presentations begin at 7:00 and one more at 7:30 if you need to go to 2 classrooms. The open house is for parents only. Hope to see you there!