The MItten

Hello Families,

Last week we read the book "The Mitten" by Jan Brett.  We did quite a bit of writing with it and some projects.

We made a class book, wrote about what we would do if we only had one mitten and wrote about what animals would fit in our mitten!

We are really starting to focus on writing.  That includes a capital letter at the beginning, 2-finger spaces in between words, ending punctuation and sound spelling.  They are doing fantastic with it!

On Friday we made a sequencing activity using a paper bag and pictures of the animals.  Your student enjoyed making it and being able to put the animals in the glove in the same order as the book!

We also visited the computer lab for the first time! It was a big stressful as they were all trying to log in.  However, we will keep practicing in our classroom and at the computer lab.  We will be going every other Friday at the end of the day!

There aren't a lot of pictures because I was doing a million things at once this week! I will try to take more next week!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

Mrs. Leopold

Learning Dynamics

Happy Tuesday!

As you know, our school is piloting a program for our district called Learning Dynamics.  I am so excited for this program because it was created by teachers over a 17 year period.  It is age appropriate and the students LOVE it! :)  There are quite a few parts with it and I wanted to take time to let you know what all the pieces are and what is expected of students and families.

This program relies quite a deal on family help.  :)

If your student is have a little trouble remembering letter names and sounds then they will be bringing home this sheet:

One they have mastered all the letter names and sounds then they will be bringing home books.  The amazing thing about this program is that the students get to keep the books! They will end up with a whole set of books by the end of the year!!! :) The books look like this:

With the book they will be bringing home a sheet that looks like this:

They are to read the book 1 time a night as part of their homework.  Every time they read a book they get to color 1 picture in.  When all the pictures are colored in (they read the book 5 times) they can return it to me for a special prize. 

I will meet with them once a week (I am still figuring out my times) and I will read the previous book with them.  If they pass the book, they will get a new book.  If they struggled with the words or blending in the book they will get a new sheet and work on the same book for another week.

On top of all this, they will also be bringing home a CD! The students LOVE the songs and will beg you play the songs.  Please play it as often as you can! This will help them remember the sounds the letters make! I will apologize ahead of time because these songs WILL GET STUCK IN YOUR HEAD! I know! :) But, the kids truly love them! The CD looks like this:

Let me know if you have any questions! I am so excited to see how the programs helps our students.  It once again does rely an awful lot on parent/family involvement.  Please take 2 minutes to read the book with your student each night! It will make a HUGE difference!

Have a fantastic evening,

Mrs. Leopold

Catching up....

Hello families!!!

I must once again apologize for the space between all my posts!!! December was crazy but it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of the fun we had.... 

We used our Gingerbread Men to show a way to make 5!

We had some parent volunteers come in and help us make Reindeer Cupcakes!!! 

 

The Grinch Day was a success! They thoroughly enjoyed all the green grinchy things we did!

I hope you guys were able to enjoy the break with you kiddos! I am sure you were plenty busy, but I truly hope you able to spend some quality time with your family and friends!

I had a blast on my break! Here are some of my pictures...  

       

I got to feed a giraffe!!! I was so excited!

 

        

My friend Adrienne (a teacher in Yuma)  came and spent the holidays with me and my husband.

                 

I climbed a mountain! It was quite amazing!

 

I am going try and post once a week again! Hopefully with the crazy holiday season over life won't be so hectic! 

Have a great week,

Mrs. Leopold

Picture Overload!

Hello families,

Here are quite a few pictures of the things we have been doing! Enjoy!



In early October we hosted an event called
"Read A Book, Get A Cookie".  We
paired up with an 8th grade class.  It was
fun to see how the "big kids" interact with
our Kinders.  They loved reading to them
and listening to stories.  

They were able to get to know their 8th grade buddies,
and even got switch and meet different buddies. 

We also had our Perfect Attendance Assembly.  We were also able to recognize some of our "Character Counts" kids.  It was hard to pick just 2 students...but I will have 3 more chances to pick several more students.







I had a few parents willing to try out "Group Conferences".  I only had one group conference, but it was fun!
















Finally, we did our Pumpkin Unit! We explored pumpkins, did math with pumpkins and had fun! (I forgot to take pictures of friends that were dressed up for Halloween.  It was a crazy day!)

Sorry it took me so long to get these up! I have been taking lots of pictures still.  I will be sharing more soon!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Leopold

Long Overdue!

Hello families!

I am so sorry that I have let the Blog go on the back burner over the past few weeks.  I am writing this last minute to let you know about what is happening tomorrow/this week! I will be updating with pictures (I have a lot to share) this coming week. Look for posts!

Tomorrow is RED, WHITE, and BLUE day! Please send your student to school wearing all or some of these colors to pay tribute to Veterans. 

NO SCHOOL on Tuesday  in honor of Veteran's Day. 

Veteran's Day is very important to me as I have many Veterans in my family. We will be writing thank you notes to Veteran's on Monday and also making a craft to do with Veteran's Day.

Once again...look for more posts over the week. :)

Have a good week,

Shannon Leopold

Conferences

Hello families,

Conferences are going to be here before you know it.  I wanted to get the sign up list out before Thursday, but I was not able to because I had to finalize everything going on that week.

I am going to be trying something new this year.  I got this idea from a fellow teacher (who happened to be teacher of the year at our school last year) and fell in love with it!  Instead of doing individual conferences-I am going to do group conferences.  Don't panic...it will be awesome!  :)

During our conferences I will NOT speak specifically about your child in front of other parents.  Instead, I will group your students with other students who are at their same level. I will have a folder with your students name on it.  In that folder will be data on your child.  I will go over what the data means, and averages for the data.  This will really help you understand exactly what I test, what I expect and where your student stands in school.

After we go over the data, I will have a "make and take" portion.  Where you and your student can make a game(s) or activities to do at home that will help them in specific areas. Of course, if you have any further questions I will be available to discuss them with you afterwards.

The sessions will be schedule for 45 minutes.  If we get done before that-then by all means, you are able to leave.  However, I will be there for the complete time.  I will send home a sign up sheet tomorrow (Thursday) with your student.  The sooner I get them back the sooner I will be able to schedule and let you know when your conference is. I will available on email throughout Fall Break if you have any questions after Friday.

If you are uncomfortable with this method please don't hesitate to talk to me.  I am more than willing to do independent conferences.  I just want to build a community within our classroom among parents as well as students. Once again, if you have any further questions or concerns just give me a call, or an email or stop in to talk.

Have a great evening,

Shannon Leopold

Apples, BBQs, and puppets

Hello Families,

This week was a fun week learning about apples! We got to make an apple puppet, taste test apple items and learn about Johnny Appleseed!

On Friday we had a Western BBQ.  The students ate outside around the planter and some parents were able to come spend time with their student! Here are some pictures of them enjoying their BBQ lunches.

We also got to make Apple Puppets! The students had a blast making this and a few of them even told me that it was "the best day ever!"  Which of course was adorable and I loved hearing it! :)  They are getting very good at cutting and came to show me how well they had improved with cutting on the line.

We also had our 2nd grade reading buddies come down and read with us! They love being able to spend time with their reading buddies and show them our room.  It is so fun to see the 2nd graders helping them with reading and sounding out words.  They are like little teachers when they are in our room.

Last but not least, we had our apple taste testing snack! You were so generous with all your apple donations that we will be eating healthy apple snacks for the next week!

We had a great week learning about apples! :)

This week in Kindergarten...

We will be learning about the Fall/Autumn season.  I have to be honest-my favorite time of year is October-January! I love everything about fall and winter.  I love the holidays and the fun stuff we get to do with it.  

I will also be sending home the first scholastic reading order from home.  It will be due in 2 weeks! If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

Library is on Monday.  Please make sure your child's library book is in their bag so they can get a new book this week!

I am still assessing for report cards.  I hope to have it all done before fall break.  Please make sure your student is at school every day so they can be assessed.

Next week (October 6-10) is fall break.  

Have a great Sunday!

Shannon Leopold