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!