Dear Parents,

Our class is participating in the Limeades for Learning program that Sonic Drive-in funds every school year. I have created a project for our classroom to receive new technology and wobble seats that will enhance our learning. However, I need your help!

Please take time each night to vote or bring us stickers from Sonic Drive-in. When you go to Sonic Drive-in, let them know that your child is in a “Limeades for Learning” class. They will give you stickers that count as extra VOTES! Ask for as many stickers as they will give you. Send the stickers to school and I will be happy to put the votes in for our project.

Voting begins tomorrow, October 1^st!

1. Go to www.limeadesforlearning.com
2. Click on “EXPLORE” tab at the top of the website.
3. In the search box, type “mellissa stagner”
4. Vote, Vote, Vote for our project: *Iteach Kindergarten*
5. Create an account, set an alarm on your phone and VOTE everyday!
6. Please share this with all of your family and friends!

You could also type this link into your browser: https://www.limeadesforlearning.com/projects/3597790

This project is an exciting experience for all the students as we work as a team to earn something special for our classroom. Many of the neat supplies in our classroom have been given to us from previous projects throughout the years. (math manipulatives, art supplies, wobble chairs and more!) Help us continue our tradition of adding fun supplies to our classroom that your child can enjoy as well as future students.

Thank you for ALL that you do!

Mellissa Stagner

Happy Sunday! I have enjoyed spending time with my relatives in Midlothian this weekend. It was nice, and relaxing. I hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Here is a look into our upcoming week of learning:

Morning Activities:

-Sight Word Reader: Animals at Night (highlight sight words)

-Journal: My Favorite color is _________.

-Writing Reference Folders: Use word wall and write sight words

-Journal: In the fall I can see a ______. (use picture)

-Sight word bingo

Morning Routines:

-Brain Gym

-I love you ritual: Humpty Dumpty

-Well Wisher/Safe Keeper Box

-Review our general rules:

We will use watching eyes, listening ears, kind words, gentle touches, and walking feet

-Make Commitments

-Practice breathing strategies (balloon, pretzel, S.T.A.R, drain, bunny breathing, breathing arms and snake breath).

-New Sight Words: Begin practicing color words: red, blue, green, yellow, orange

-Letters: Review all previously learned letters.

Morning Message:

-Number/Alphabet Practice incorporating color words

-What begins with an Mm?

-Daily News/review lowercase and capital Ll.

-Dailey News/Fill in missing words or beginning sounds

Reading Anchors:

– Review: What are Characters, what is a setting, reading is thinking, making connections, predictions

New: Create a class character and setting poster using notecards.

Read Alouds:

Rainbow Mouse

Trick or Treat

It’s Pumpkin Day Mouse

Hippo is Happy

Alligator is Angry

Fall/Halloween Books and Fall, Fall What Do You See?

-We will also review the 3 Ways to Read a Book and practice:

*Reading Experiment: Reading is Thinking using baking soda and vinegar

Poems:

Colors

Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Orange color poems/songs

*We locate capital letters, punctuation, rhyming words, sight words, and match sight words/letters.
Centers:

Busy Bee Center Rotations (See literacy stations blog post for more details of the centers that we will be doing this week)

Interactive Writing:

• Using our Five Senses to create a class book.
• Example: Jaxon can see a shark.

*We also focus on fundamentals such as starting sentences with a capital letter, finger spacing between words, puntuation, etc..

 

Writing Anchors: What Gets a Capital?

 

-What Writer’s Do:

-Review: Some letters are tall, small and fall

-Sentence Frames

Writer’s Workshop Activities:

-Fall/Halloween word bank

-Use sentence frames to help us write

-What is a writer?

-We Write About Things We know and Love!

-I can draw/color a 3 Star picture

-modeling writing about personal experiences

-Begin writing using heart maps and begin Author’s Chair (share time)

-Writing using Halloween and Fall stickers

Feeling Buddies:

Tuesday: Feeling Buddies, Strong Emotions

Make Feelings Bottle (red food coloring with water)

Sing #15 In My Body

Talk about how strong emotions feel in our bodies

Looks like (face, hands, arms)

Sounds like (voice)

Review what angry says: I’ll rant and I’ll rave. Something’s bugging me! Nothing will change until I breathe. (show feelings bottle, shake up)

Review being a STAR

Repeat and discuss when feeling Scared

Sing #23 Solutions

Practice breathing by smelling a flower and blowing out a pretend candle

Thursday: Feeling Buddies

Belly Breathing

Sing Breathe #2

Discuss when a feeling gets ahold of you, 1st step is go to the safe place, then step #2 is to choose a way to calm down (breathing or calm down choice)

Today we are going to talk about belly breathing.

Put hands on bellies close to belly button, inhale through nose while belly goes out and exhale through mouth and belly goies in

Pass out a small book for each child to use have student lay on floor in circle with feet out, place book on belly, then practice breathing so book rises up and down

Sing breathe #2

Create anchor chart

Have students create their own star wand to help them remember to be a STAR

Star cut out, popcicle stick

Math:
Number Corner:

-Calendar, months of the year, days of the week, counting forward/backwards and by tens, 1 more/1 less, days in school
Number Talks:

Rekenreks

What Does Not Belong?

Dot Cards: Peek and Build

*We will continue to practice hand signals and use number talk vocabulary

Problem Solving:

Who Has More?

Math Fun:

-Continue incorporating The Counting Jar (counting items in a jar in 2 different ways and then creating that quantity using other items)

-Measurement Anchor:

 

-A ______ is Heavier Than Me!

 

-Math by Myself Options:

-Halloween Centers

-Any Shape Games

-Any Number Sense Game Taught (five in a row, roll and build, etc….)

-Counting w/Play Doh

-QR Code Math

-Large #line game

-Magnetic Number Game

-Subitizing puzzles

-Make shapes with geoboards

 

-Math with Someone Options:

My foot is this long (measuring using square tiles)

 

Introduce Games: Race to Ten and Race to Twenty

Math in Writing:

Journaling: Finish How Many Apples Tall are You? And Ten Frames

Social Studies: Five Senses

Read My Five Senses

-Brainpopjr: Five Senses

-Five Senses Song

-Smelling Jars

-What’s in the Shakers? (hear)

-Read The Listening Walk

Go on a listening walk throughout the school/outside. Chart what we hear.

-Touch Bags

-Taste: Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter
Penmanship:

Reviewing all previously learned letters and the strokes to create the letters. We will also continue to work on proper grip using a pencil. 

Numbers: 6-10
Fun Friday:

Free Centers!
We are going to have an OUTSTANDING week! 🙂

 

I just love the Fall and everything about it! I can’t wait for the much cooler weather! Here is a list of our Literacy Centers that we will be doing next week:

What a rainy weekend! I love to stay in my pajamas and snuggle with my family while we watch movies on rainy days! I hope you all have found some fun things to do this weekend also!

Here is a peek into our upcoming week of learning:

Morning Activities:

-Journal: I see a (color word) leaf. (using pictures)

-The Colors of Fall Book (circle sight words/capital letters and puntuation)

-Journal: We go on the _______. (use transportation picture)

-Sight word rubbings

-Sight word bingo

Morning Routines:

-Brain Gym

-I love you ritual: Three Nice Mice

-Well Wisher/Safe Keeper Box

-Review our general rules:

We will use watching eyes, listening ears, kind words, gentle touches, and walking feet

-Make Commitments

-Practice breathing strategies (balloon, pretzel, S.T.A.R, drain, bunny breathing, breathing arms). We added the snake breath this past week!

-We have continued to learn about solving our conflicts in a calm way by using our class time machine.

-New Sight Words: we, go, at

-Letters: Mm, Nn, Rr

Morning Message:

-Stretching CVC Words

-Write the Number Word

-Letter M What starts with it?

-Letter N What starts with it?

-Shapes

Reading Anchors:

– Review: What are Characters

-What is a Setting

-Reading is Thinking

-Making Connections

-What is a Prediction

Read Alouds:

Animals at Night

Trick or Treat

At School

I Went Walking

*Fall Books

-We will also review the 3 Ways to Read a Book and practice:

Poems:

I Go

We See Leaves

What Do Kids Like?

*We locate capital letters, punctuation, rhyming words, sight words, and match sight words/letters.

Centers:

Busy Bee Center Rotations (See literacy stations blog post for more details of the center that we will be doing this week)

Interactive Writing:

– (Continue_Recalling sight words from books Frog Food and My Home. Then writing about something they like. Example: I like sprinkles on my cupcake.

-Fall Writing

*We also focus on fundamentals such as starting sentences with a capital letter, finger spacing between words, puntuation, etc..
Writing Anchors: What Gets a Capital?

-Finsih: How to Make Applesauce:

 

-What Writer’s Do:

-What is a Label:

-Review: Some letters are tall, small and fall

Writer’s Workshop Activities:

-fall word bank

-labeling a fall picture

-finishing how to make applesauce

-writing sentences using sight words

-I can draw/color a 3 Star picture

-Making a list of what we can write about

-modeling writing about personal experiences

-finish writing folder covers

Feeling Buddies:

Tuesday: Going to the Safe Place – teach children to go to the safe place when a feeling gets ahold of them to give them time and space to remove the upset feeling

Sing #5 Choose to Be a STAR

Point out times you have seen students choosing to be a STAR when anger gets ahold of them.

Call on volunteers to share when they were powerful enough to control their upset by choosing to be a STAR. After sharing celebrate w/ chant: “That was helpful so we all can get along.:”  Point to words on sent. strips.

Discuss what safe place is used for (help us keep the classroom safe and will be the home for our Feeling Buddies)

A place we can go when anger, sadness, or scared gets ahold of us

It is a place you can go to take off being upset and turn thinking brain back on by breathing and other activities there.

Act out scenarios and how to go to safe place

If time make chart:

Thursday: It Bugs Me When

Teach children to become more conscious of people and situations that trigger our intense anger

Sing Buddy Helper Song

Talk about times this week when you have seen kids go to the safe place to calm and regain control

Review It Bugs Me when poster and class book previously made

Pass around It Bugs Me When book and allow children to share additional situations that trigger intense upset within them

take a picture of each child holding angry feeling buddy and making an angry face, use to add to the Our Bug Crazy Class Book.

Math:

Number Corner:

-Calendar, months of the year, days of the week, counting forward/backwards and by tens, 1 more/1 less, days in school

Number Talks:

Quick Images

Ten Frame

Rekenreks

Dot Cards

Connecting Cubes

*We will continue to practice hand signals and use number talk vocabulary

Problem Solving:

Who Has More?

Math Fun:

-Review The Counting Jar (counting items in a jar in 2 different ways and then creating that quantity using other items)

-Math by Myself: Ten Frame Write the Room/Choice of Game previously taught

-Math with Someone Options:

–any apple games

-shape games

-number sense memory

-magnetic numbers/match quantity

-mimio: sorting

-Subitizing Memory

-QR Code Ten Frames

-Counting with Play-Doh

-Large Number Line Game

-Meet with the Teacher:

Introduce Games: Five in a Row and Roll and Build

Math in Writing:

Journaling: Decompose 4 (decompose means to break apart a # or set to show 2 groups that equal the same number)

and How Many Apples Tall are You?

Social Studies: Share Class Mascot and Birthday Book, School is Fun Magazine, Nature Walk (collect items to bring back to class), Listening Walk, Leaf Rubbings, Leaf Art
Penmanship:

Introducing Mm, Nn, and Rr and teacing the appropriate strokes to create the letters. We will also continue to work on proper grip using a pencil.
Fun Friday:

Sidewalk Chalk Outside!

We are going to have an AMAZING week! 🙂

 

Our center rotations are in full swing and the kiddos are doing GREAT! I am so proud of each one of them. They are also enjoying bringing their books/reading logs home every night to show you what they have learned. Please remember to send the book back each day and sign your child’s reading log! Thank you!