A Fabulous First Week!

I could not have asked for a more fantastic first week of Kindergarten! We spent the week reviewing our classroom and school rules and practicing routines.  Our daily schedule is moving at a more efficient pace every day.  We had our first fire drill, our first marble jar party, and our first bucket party.  It was a very FUN and BUSY week!  Understandably, some of you have had questions about some things.  I am going to take a few moments to touch on some things that you've had questions about.  As always if you have any other questions, please just let me know.

• We will have P.E. and Music every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday.  Please make sure your child wears appropriate footwear on these days.
• Your child will bring home a blue, weekly progress page in their folder.  This shows you how many buckets your child has earned and may include a short note about your child's behavior.  Please sign and return this page each day.  
• R&Rs are a type of reading homework your child will begin soon.  Please don't worry about completing this until you get an update from me. 
• On the first day of school we talked about how to be bucket fillers.  This concept revolves around being respectful and showing kindness and compassion to those around us.  Each kindergartner has the opportunity to earn 10 buckets for the week, for their good behavior.  These buckets are little, bucket-shaped cards kept on a ring in their cubby.  At the end of the week, those students who have earned 10 buckets get to attend our bucket party.  This week, I am proud to say, every kindergartner in Room 5B was able to attend our bucket party!  We had so much fun playing with shaving cream for our party!  For more on bucket filling, please see the Kindergarten Bear book that you received at your child's transition meeting.
• We will have lunch at 11:00 am each day.
• Thursday is our day to check-out library books.  Please make sure they return the book they checked out last week by Thursday of this week so they can check out a new book.  The kids loved meeting our librarian, Mrs. Wait, and playing fun games in the library!
• This week we were also introduced to our classroom para-educator, Mrs. Putnam.  She is a wonderful help and so excited to work with your kindergartner!  

It was a very busy week and I'd like to apologize for the tardiness of this update.  Going forward, my goal will be to update this blog every Friday.  On another note, this will be the last public post on this blog.  Starting with next week's blog, this site will be available by invite only.  Look for an invitation to this blog in the inbox of the email address you gave me at your kindergartner's transition meeting.   If you do not regularly check that address, or if there is another address you'd like me to use please email me, or put a note in your child's Ware Bear folder.

This week we will begin learning our letter sounds, so look for some homework coming home in the Ware Bear folder.  Also we will start sorting in math.  Sorting toys, coins, crayons, or other small items, will help build these skills at home.  It's going to be another great week in Room 5B!  Thank you for your continued support!

The first day of kindergarten was FANTASTIC!  What a great day we had!  We learned the rules of the classroom, read a story, sang and danced to a silly song, played, and had a lot of fun.  Here are some pictures from our first day together:

Our Classroom, Room 5B

Coloring on our first day of school.

Staying inside the lines and coloring carefully...we are already coloring so neatly!

Look what I did!

Hello!  Having fun in the dramatic play lab!

Reading stories in the library lab.

Math fun with Mr. Briscoe.

Playing with the dollhouse.

It was great to spend the day together as a class!  These kindergartners are amazing kids and this is going to be an incredibly fun group to work with.  Make sure you check your child's Ware Bear folder this weekend, there are some important things in there (including some homework!).  Return the folder in your child's backpack on Monday.  Have a wonderful weekend with your family and I will see your kindergartener on Monday!  

-Mr. Scruggs

Welcome to Kindergarten!  It is my esteemed pleasure to welcome you and your child to Room 5B.  Kindergarten is an exciting year of important milestones and I am so glad to be a part of it!  This year will be my ninth year at Ware Elementary as a kindergarten teacher.  I have a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and a masters degree in Educational Leadership from Kansas State University.  I absolutely love what I do and I strive to create a caring classroom environment where children feel safe and where they love to learn.    The intent of this blog is to provide you with the most current, up-to-date information about the goings on in our classroom.  I plan to update this blog each week with our current learning objectives and pictures of our kindergarten adventures.  As always if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my email address or school phone number.  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work with your child this year, it's going to be great!

Yours in Education,

Mr. Scruggs