BEE Binder and Important Information

I am very excited to implement the BEE Binder. It is my first year doing a binder like this and am hoping it works out amazing! :)

Yesterday I put together all the BEE Binders for our class.  The BEE Binders will go home every day and need to be signed by a parent or guardian.  This will help hold your student accountable for their BEE Binder and you will know how your student did in school that day.

This is the cover of the BEE Binder! (I made it myself and am quite proud of it!)  Your child's name will be on the line.

When you open it up you will see a Pencil Pouch.  This will hold any money (for lunches, our field trip in March/April, and anything else money is needed for) and it will hold permission slips or any papers I need signed and returned to school.

Next is a calendar.  This calendar is used to show you what color your student ended the day on. They will color the square around the date what color they ended on. There is a key showing you what that color means.  If you student has to move down, I will write why they moved down.  I want the your student to be able to tell you what they did to get on the color they did.  Having you initial each date will let your student know that we are in communication and you know how they behave in school  This is usually a very good incentive to only move up!

The next paper you will see is the lunch menu.  I will put the new one in there every month. This way you will know what is for lunch in case you would like to send a lunch with your student instead.

Next is your parent signature for the homework. Just sign it each day so I know your student did their homework.  Remember, it is only Monday through Thursday. The BEE Binder will come home on Fridays, but only for the behavior communication.

Following the paper for you signature is the homework paper for you student.  This month it is only handwriting and for you to read them a story.  As we go along, it will be more difficult.  We really want them to practice writing their name and making sure it is their FULL name and not a nickname.  I am not concerned with last times at this time-that will come later.  Please make sure to help them write it using proper formation (I will be adding a paper about this tomorrow) and using the lines.  If you have any questions about homework please don't hesitate to ask.

This is a two pocket divider.  The first pocket will be homework.  The other side will be papers for you to keep at home or to sign and put in the pencil pouch.  Please make sure to empty it every night so we don't cram the folder full.

The last section of the BEE Binder is the P.S.S. Communication Log! I will add notebook paper behind the cover.  This will be a place for you to write me a note or questions.  It is just a way to communicate when I might not be able to see you at dismissal.  I will also write notes to you if there is something I want you to be aware of! I love positive attention and look for ways to praise positive behavior.  One of those ways is to let you know how well your student did during a lesson or with an assignment.  Be sure to check it often!

There will be a paper in the back of the folder which will also explain what everything is.  This will help if you have a question and cannot get a hold of me immediately. I will be making that later today and putting it in tomorrow.

The BEE Binder is place that we will keep everything. Make sure to empty it and take good care of it.  If you student happens to lose it you may replace the binder, pencil pouch and 2 pocket folder and I will supply all the papers or we can use a paper folder. That will be up to you. 

Make sure your student has it every day. Starting in September if they do not have it then they will automatically flip their clip to a warning.  I am a believer in making them responsible for their items and start teaching that the first day of school. 

Some changes that will be happening starting tomorrow:
1-Your fast pass is expired.  You will need to give your ID to the office staff in order to enter campus.
2-We are starting to pick up outside in the grass area to the right of the blue gate (by the preschool playground).
3-I am starting the Baseball Behavior Plan that was outline in the Welcome Letter (if your student on or after the first day of school and you did not get one-please let me know! I have lot of copies and want you to know how our classroom is run).  I will start implementing the positive incentives and punishments.
4. Your child NEEDS their ID every day. Starting in September if they do not have it, they will not be able to play at recess.  This is, once again, a way to help them be responsible.  If they lose it, you will need to replace it. You can order a new one in the office. It is $5 for the ID, lanyard, and plastic cover.

If you have any questions or concerns please let me know! 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

Mrs. Leopold

The First Week!

We survived the first week of school! It was a busy, crazy and fun week.  I was not able to take as many pictures as I had originally wanted, but I did get some!

We read several books about the first week of school, books about school and a book about what we do when we miss our families! It was great to see how independent all the students became even after just the first week. 

We have learned many things already.  We learned about the rules of our school, classroom, and the  playground.  We learned how to walk in a line, sit on the carpet and follow directions. 

Academically we have learned how to write our name (we will be continuing to work on this for quite some time), we practiced cutting paper, write lines to help with letter formation, glue, color, and the sounds of letters! Personally, zoophonics is my favorite time of the day! :)

On Friday, we did a roll and color for the book "The Kissing Hand".  They had a picture of a raccoon that had numbers on it. They had to roll a dice and color in the corresponding number.  Some students struggled figuring out what the numbers on the dice looked like in written from, but eventually that will be an easy task to do!

We also practice tracing vertical lines.  This is a pre-writing skill that we practice at the beginning of the year so that they are ready to write letters that include vertical lines.  We will also practice horizontal, slanted and circles throughout the next week.

For math we had a number worksheet that had numbers 1-5.  The students were to color the pictures of the raccoons and then put the number of raccoons by each number.  1 to 1 correspondence is a task that we will be continuing to work on for several months.  Some students understand it right away and some take a little more time.  Either way, they will all learn it! :) They enjoyed being able to cut the paper, although that was a tough task in itself! 

That is a summary of the first week of school! I hope your child enjoyed their first week of school as much as I did! I will be posting tomorrow about the BEE Binder along with some changes to our dismissal routines for those that don't already know!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me or call me (emailing is better than calling over the weekend). 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Mrs. Leopold

Meet the Teacher Night

Thank you for coming out to meet me (or just see our classroom if you I met you for Jumpstart)! It was an amazing turnout! I am so excited for Monday to get here!

Remember to read through your purple Welcome Letter and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to me and ask any questions! I will not be at school this weekend, but will be checking my email periodically throughout the weekend.  I caught an error in the purple letter. My email has changed to sleopold@gesd40.org.

Remember to make sure to bring your student to our classroom (room 24) on Monday.  On Tuesday we will have you drop your students off at the Kindergarten Playground. You will see me out there at 7:45 with all the other teachers.

We are doing dismissal in Room 2 (the office staff can help you find it if you are unsure of where it is) and do not forget your "Kinder Fast Past".  This will only be happening for the first week of school and then we will transition out to the front of the building. 

Enjoy your last weekend of summer break! I hope you come in on Monday refreshed and ready for an amazing school year.  If there is anything I can do, or any concern you have please let me know so I can make this year the best year for you and your student.

Have a great weekend,
Mrs. Leopold

Thanksgiving Fun!

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Happy Thanksgiving (Late!)!!! I hope you and your family had a great holiday and were able to spend with the people you care about! Over the past few weeks we have been talking about what we are thankful for and making a turkey!

Our bulletin board is a turkey and the on each feather a student wrote what they were thankful for! I forgot to get a picture before I left on Wednesday (I will post one later).  But, I did get pictures of students working on their feather! We went through the writing process (write, proof, edit, final draft).  I helped them proof and edit but they wrote the final draft on their own. 

Can you see how he is already using spaces?! :)

She is thinking about what she needs to do next.

These two girls were working really hard to get their feather just perfect.

I was so proud of her! I have never seen her work so focused! 

The next thing we did was make a turkey using our shoes and hands.  The students thought it was hilarious that we were tracing our shoes! They were more than eager to get their shoe off and get to work!

She was trying to figure out how to trace it so she could fit both feet on!

These two work so well next to each other.

She couldn't quit giggling about tracing her shoe!

Then we had to trace our hands! That was a huge project! Many students got frustrated because they cut a finger off (on their paper).  It took a lot of patience and practice.  Eventually, we all got there!

You can see the concentration on her face!

Our friend is hard at work cutting his hands out.

As you can see, they had to cut their hands out in multiple colors!

Some do their best work standing!

We have one making his turkey body using the feet and the other one is cutting her hands out!

She was so happy to have her red hands done! She only had one more set to do!

I wanted to get a picture of all of them with their turkey but our school day was done and they were eager to get home and start their long break!   It was a fun week.  I am looking forward to December.  It was one of my favorite months because there is so much fun crafts and learning to be done!! :)

I will see you all on Monday!

Morning Dancing!

As I am getting into the swing of blogging, I have realized that you don't know what a day in our Kindergarten classroom truly looks like! So, I have decided to start taking pictures so you can see what your student does! 

Every morning we do our calendar.  We say the month we are in, count the days in our month, count to 70 (it goes up every few weeks), talk about the weather, do some phonemic awareness, making 5 and then we DANCE! We dance to get the students moving, wake them up a little bit and just to have some FUN.  We have some pretty awesome dancers in our class! So, here are some pictures of us dancing to "Freeze!"

These 2 boys are constantly dancing and they are not shy about it! :)

The girls love to dance, especially when they get to go into the middle of our circle!

These girls are a bit shy, but they love to dance when the camera isn't on them!

That is just a glimpse of the beginning of our day,  Through out the rest of my blog posts, I will try to capture our day in bits and pieces!

Making 5

During early release Wednesdays, I have Professional Development sessions.  I have decided to take a class called "Constructing Knowledge".  This class focuses on ways that the students are able to make discoveries on their own and share what they have learned with the class.  Right now, we are focusing on using constructing knowledge in math.  Math is a subject that students can quite easily develop their own learning. 

I have asked Mrs. Zinsli, our Math Achievement Adviser, to come in and team teach "Ways to Make 5" with me.  I wanted her expertise to help me to become better at teaching with constructing knowledge.  We have been introducing tools and manipulatives along with the 5-frame.  Each student gets 2 different tools (bears, tiles, sea animals, dinosaurs, cubes, etc).  They get five of both tools they select.  They then create different combinations in the five frame and tell their partner what they have.  For example: I have 1 sea animal and 4 bears and that makes 5.  This is helping the students to add numbers between zero and five fluently-one of our math standards.

The students have been having a fun time exploring with manipulatves and the 5-frame! It is awesome to see how they think and to see their face when they make a connection. 

They are listening and thinking carefully as Mrs. Zinsli asks them questions.

We are discussing what a 5-frame is.

Reflection is a huge part of constructing knowledge.  We always talk about what we discovered while working with tools and 5-frames.

It has been such a fun experience for me to see how they learn when we let them explore on their own.  They end up teaching each other and it is so awesome to see! It is always more fun to learn through exploration than worksheets! Ask your student what they know about 5-frames and tools and ways to make 5.

Veteran's Day

Well, we are two week into November and we have celebrated Veteran's Day.  Last week, we discussed Veteran's Day and what it is and who it celebrates.  I have two brothers who are active duty in the military and one brother who was in the military.  Veteran's Day is a huge celebration for me. I try to incorporate that into our classroom.  In honor of Veteran's day, we made cards for my brothers!

Many students were being very diligent and asking what color hair and eyes my brothers have.  They wanted to make the pictures look as much like them as they could.

She is thinking what she wants her card to say.

You can see just how carefully he was concentrating on his artwork.

We brainstormed what we could say in our cards to Mr. Bladen and Mr. Bladen! They came up with awesome things like "thank you for keeping us safe" and "you are doing a responsible thing" (from our 3 B's!) and "thank you for helping us".  They were very excited to be able to make cards for them.  I have sent them out and have asked for a return letter! Our class is a very caring class and this shows just how caring we are.  My brothers will be very grateful for these cards!