Hello!  How quickly these first few months of school have gone.  We wrapped up our 1st quarter with a wonderful field trip to Bob and Susie Thomas' (Abby's grandparents) where we were able to make apple cider, peel, slice, and dry apple slices, and do some pumpkin math.  It was a great time for all!
It was great also to catch up with many parents at our first fall parent/teacher conferences and most recently at our classroom awards ceremony last Wednesday.  Thanks so much for supporting your students!  Below are some pictures of our field trip.  We had some helpers that made it even more fun.  Thank you!

Just a reminder or notice for those of you who had students missing picture day or desire a retake picture, photo retakes will happen on Tuesday, October 21st.  Thank you!

My goodness, where has this quarter gone?!  Here were are, just around the corner from our first parent/teacher conferences on October 30th and 31st.  Please look for a conference schedule sheet to come home with your student on Monday, October 20th.
This past week our class made our own narrative story and it was a lot of fun. These kids have some imaginative ideas!  They were very excited to create their own story and wanted to make it into their own book, so that is exactly what we did.  Other things we continue to work on are reading skills, recognizing/writing sight words ("I" "like" "and" "a" "the" "see" are just some of them), counting, writing, comparing numbers, recognizing solid shapes, using touch points on numbers and so much more.  We will have some fun science activities coming up.  A field trip to Bob and Susie Thomas' (Abby's grandparents) is in the works for October 29th.  They have an apple press and some fun activities will ensue, along with some pumpkin fun as well (Mrs. Greif graciously grew some pumpkins for us to use for our learning activities!).  Let me know if you would like to come and help with our activities there.  I will have more specific information on that soon coming home.  Thanks again for all of your home support.  Don't forget to keep working on those take home books and your October homework.  Every bit makes a difference!  Below are some pictures of our class working on their narrative story books.

Parents,
Believe it or not, we are quickly coming up on the end of the quarter and Parent/Teacher Conferences are around the corner on Thursday, October 30th and Friday, October 31st.  Conference sheets will be coming home for you to sign up for a time to see how your student is progressing.  Please review the Kindergarten I Can statements on this blog site to see what skills your student is working on.  Also look for take home practice books to come home starting tomorrow for you to read with your child.  This practice makes such a difference in your child's reading success!  I am looking forward to sharing your child's successes with you in the weeks ahead.  Happy Fall!

Tomorrow, Monday, September 15th is picture day!  Don't forget to send your picture packages. :)

As we are entering our third week of school, we are shifting from assessing, tweaking schedules, and explaining expectations to being able to start more instruction and work time, focusing on our 1st quarter goals.  We have started learning about apples and will start a unit focusing on families this week.  We have been continuing to work hard on learning about rhyming, syllables, writing letters and numbers, learning letter sounds, counting, reviewing shapes, and understanding number quantity.  We have learned to read in three different ways (words, pictures, retelling familiar story) and will focus on how to grow our stamina in reading on our own.  We are learning how to use ipads to practice reading and math skills and are starting to express ourselves with writing.  We will be focusing on vocabulary in math and reading.  We will be using position words in math and pulling words out of our reading to study and expand our understanding. That's a lot of learning!  I am also starting to individualize student learning to help each student work at their own level.
Some things you can work on at home are the same things we are working on at school: practice recognizing and writing letters/numbers/shapes (including hexagon) and their sounds/quantities/sides and read books together!  If your student knows their letters and sounds, encourage them to use that knowledge to write down their thoughts and ideas.  They can sound out and write their own words and sentences, even if the spelling isn't conventional, it is a huge step in writing and reinforces their budding reading skills as well.  Thanks for all of your parent support and have a great week!

Monday, September 8th:
Hello Everyone!  I am finally updating my blog this week.  As we are settling into Kindergarten, there are a lot of adjustments.  Your students will be tired and rightfully so!  They may need a little extra care and rest when possible.
Right now, there is a lot of assessment going on to help figure out where your student is in meeting goals for Kindergarten. Assessment allows us to see exactly what they need to be learning to meet their goals.   As we get that assessing done, we will be focusing more and more on the goals we are working towards.  Please look at my learning goals section to see what we are working on for the year.  At this time of the year, we are working on letter recognition/sounds, writing letters, rhyming, using syllables, recognizing beginning sounds, counting, number writing, number recognition, sharing ideas and opinions orally and in writing/drawing, and learning about the world around us, utilizing our new skills while doing so.  We will be learning about apples in the weeks to come.
Some safety issues have been brought to my attention, so I would like to share them with you.  Please DO NOT park in the circular drive for drop-offs or pick-ups.  There are parking spaces available to use, but stopping and getting out in the circle is prohibited and can be dangerous, as others try to pass the parked driver and may not see children walking.  Please make sure our students stay safe by following this rule.  Thank you!
If you ever need to contact me, you may call Stella Mayfield at 541 437-2321 or on my personal phone after or before school hours at 541 263-1315.  I do text if that is more convenient for you and something comes up during the school day.  I usually check my phone during lunch.  I am enjoying your students very much!  Please feel free to let me know if you wish to volunteer in some way, whether it be helping with parties, chaperoning field trips, or helping with classroom learning somehow.  Here's to a great year!