Lions and Tigers and Kindergarteners . . . Oh My!

We are having such a great time learning all about animals.  We began by talking about living and nonliving things.  Then we introduced some great vocabulary including:  similarities & differences, size, and appearance.  Exploring different animals to see how they are alike and different is so fun!  We have sorted animals by their coverings:  fur, scales, feathers, smooth skin.  We have also sorted by how they move (crawl, slither, hop, fly, walk…) and where they move (sky, ground, water).  We have read some fun books, too:  Do Bears Buzz?, Do Frogs Have Fur?, and Do Goldfish Gallop?.  You can pick up a copy at the local library to share at home. 

We have been making predictions about stories.  We read Tops & Bottoms.  It was a very silly story about how a hare outsmarts a bear.  We began by looking at the front cover of the book and making predictions about what would happen in the story.  Try this at home with books that you share.  It’s fun when we can giggle about our predictions if they’re not right and exciting when our predictions are correct!

We added a couple fun math links this week.  We played Counting Game and Splat Square  during our math lessons.  The kids had great fun!  Make sure to turn the sound on when you play.  Splat Square has great a great sound effect!

We LOVE Reading!

An interesting vocabulary word in Kindergarten is VORACIOUS (vo*ra*cious).  Yes, that seems like a very large word for a Kindergartener, but as we create little readers, voracious is quite popular.  The children have learned that good readers increase their vocabulary by reading...and reading...and reading, thus becoming a voracious reader. 

We help students with this strategy by encouraging them to choose "good-fit" books.  We remind them of practicing "I PICK": 

I =  I look at the book

P = Purpose - What is the purpose for reading this book?

I =  Interest - Are you interested in this book?

C = Comprend - Do you understand what you read?

K = Know - Do you know most of the words?

You can help your child with this strategy at home by reading.  You can read to your child.  Your child can read to you.  You can read beside your child (you read your favorite book/magazine/newspaper - your child reads his/her own book).  Sharing a common love for reading will help to create a voracious reader in your child, and you may have time to become a voracious reader again yourself!

Great Week!

What an incredibly busy and fun week we had! Thanks to those of you who were able to attend our Open House. The kids had a great time showing off their classrooms. We really enjoyed sharing the happenings in Kindergarten with you. If you have any questions about things going on in our classrooms, you can always email us (click on your child's teacher on the left side of our homepage). You can also write a note in your child's daily folder.

Homework for September will be distributed this week. Your child can complete the homework nightly and return it at the end of the month. Please help your child practice the sight words listed each week. If your child knows the words, he/she can practice writing sentences using the words.

We had fun learning about Labor Day and community helpers. We learned about the various tools used and the importance of the jobs of a police office, fire fighter, doctor, farmer, teacher, mail carrier, baker.

We will continue to roll out The Daily 5 this week. We have practiced with Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Word Work. This week, we're looking forward to learning about Listen to Reading. If you want to explore Listen to Reading at home, you can use some of the links shown on "Websites to Explore" on our homepage.

Coming Up

We hope you'll be able to join us for Open House on Wednesday, September 5th at 6:30pm. First there will be a brief PTSA meeting in the cafeteria. Following the meeting, you are invited to visit our classrooms. There will be many important things that your child's teacher will discuss with you. You will be able to ask questions and discuss procedures that will make this a smooth and wonderful year for your little sweetie.

We look forward to having you visit! See you on Wednesday!

Busy in Kindergarten

We are so excited that Hayes Elementary is one school again. We are one big, happy family. Our administrators are Mrs. Teressa Watson (principal), Ms. Chris Michael (assistant principal) and Mrs. Angela Whitehead (assistant principal).

We are having such fun getting to know each other in Kindergarten. We have been learning about school & classroom rules and have been excitedly making new friends.

We've been exploring letters and their sounds. We are enjoying singing songs about the alphabet. The Daily 5 is one of our favorite parts of the day. We are learning to build stamina for reading (Read to Self) and writing (Work on Writing). We are writing letters and words to label our pictures as well as sentences about events.

Our little mathematicians have been counting...and counting...and counting. They are counting quantities to match numbers. Our Number Talks are helping us look at the way we see numbers. The purpose of Number Talks is to get students to think about numbers…not in the addition or subtraction sense…but it the ability to take numbers apart, to know what “five” or “six” or “ten” is.

It has been a busy beginning of the school year...and we're just getting started!

Back to School

Welcome to Hayes! Hayes Elementary is such an exciting place to be, especially in Kindergarten! We're looking forward to the most wonderful year!

Check back often for updates about all of the fun happenings in Kindergarten at Hayes!

Here are some important back to school pieces of information:

• Please make sure that your Kindergartener is in the classroom by 7:50. He/she can either ride the bus or you can drop him/her off at the front of the school. Please do not walk your child to the classroom. If you have information for the teacher, please write a note and include it in the daily folder. Thank you!
  
  



• The front lanes are fire lanes. If you park in the fire lane anytime other than AM/PM carpool, you risk being ticketed by the fire marshall. ASP parents, we suggest that you park in the parking lot and walk in to get your child.





• We will have our fall Open House for grades K-2 on Wednesday, September 5. More information will come soon!