St Jude Kindergarten Kiddos: Leaves, Dd's, Reading, and dancing!

     Another great week is under our belt! We are really starting to see these kiddos get the hang of holding their pencils correctly, unpacking and packing up quickly, and remembering to tuck in their little shirts (and tuck in their chairs!) Kindergarten involves so many of these little things that add up to one big learning experience... how to deal with life! It is so much fun to see so many little lightbulbs turning on in their heads on a daily basis... and boy, do they love to share with us when they finally accomplish something that they've been working hard on since day one! For instance, shoe tying! Some kiddos are able to tie their shoes already, which is very commendable! Others are trying so hard to tie their own shoes each day. If you haven't checked out the little shoe tying video located in the bar to the right (as long as you aren't viewing this blog on your smart phone) then, please do! It shows an alternative to the traditional methods of tying shoes. I think alternative methods are great when it comes to things like shoe tying. One way may not be the best way for your child, and it's all about finding what works best for your child.
     Now as for pencil holding... that's a whole other story! Speaking from a former First Grade teacher's point of view, please, please, please make sure your child is holding their pencils, crayons, etc correctly! If they don't do it in Kindergarten, it becomes ten times harder to instill this habit in them in First Grade (hard to break bad habits). Pinch and rest! If their thumb is crossing over the pencil, then they aren't quite getting it yet. When I show them my example on the document camera, we always point out that we can still see some pencil showing through between my thumb and my finger. This method is the method used in First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade... it will help your child with their printing, and then, in the future, with their cursive. It also helps them hold their utensils at the dinner table correctly (bonus!)

Speaking of dinner, or food for that matter, we want to thank everyone for donating lunches to the homeless! It sounds like a lot of kindergartners actually got involved with the lunch making, which sounds like they really enjoyed the experience of helping others! God must be smiling! Christian Service is a big part of attending a Catholic School, so look for more opportunities to help out our less fortunate brothers and sisters in Christ.

    Ok, now on to some fun stuff! We had a great week again! This week we examined leaves, read books about leaves, and had a visit from Mrs. Eckley, our school's Science teacher, to teach us a little about chlorophyll. We thanked God for the gift of leaves, we participated in a leaf rubbing activity, and we learned that we can find information from a leaf... like what kind of tree the leaf came from! Here are some photos of us working on leaf activities...

Mrs. Eckley showing them some leaf features

Mrs. Eckley teaching them about chlorphyll


Kiddos coloring our "Thank you, God" leaf wreaths to hang in the room! We stuck with Fall colors...

We had another great story-time with Mrs. Doyle, the librarian. She read her favorite Halloween story to the class:

The kids had a great time acting out the different parts of the story! Here are some photos of them listening and acting... too bad I didn't video tape them!

Mrs. Haas, our music teacher, was using an oldy, but a goody, with the class to teach pitch and to work on their motor skills. How many of you used to sing "Down, Down, Baby?" Remember? "Down, down, baby, down by the roller coaster..." Well, here they are trying some hand motions with a partner, singing that song:

While we're on the topic of singing, we have been singing a new song each week that correlates with our story of the week. Last week we read a story about riding the bus to school. This week, our story was

Your kiddo now knows how to spell proud, which means they can also most likely read it! Ask them to sing/spell proud... hint, use the same tune for B-I-N-G-O... They also know how to spell October, September, sunny, rainy, windy, and possibly cloudy. We sing those songs each morning, and those that participate are really learning how to spell pretty quickly! Don't stress if they can't... these are just added bonuses! Anyhow, the book this week focused on America, and we learned about cooperation, preparation, parade floats, guides (teachers), and being proud! Here are the kids marching around our room in their own little parade to the song of the week:

Speaking of reading, your child should be extremely familiar with two words by now- I and am. Those words have been our focus sight words for a few weeks now, we've located them in our morning message, we've read them in little readers, and we've seen them on some worksheets! We introduced them to the words see and can, and next week we will introduce them to two new words. Sight words are words that your child will be exposed to through out the year. Later in the year, your child will bring home sight word flash cards to practice for homework. They are so excited to be able to read these words! Here are some photos of the students reading with me at centers. We use pointers to help us focus on one word at a time:

We aren't forgetting about learning our letters- don't you worry! We spent some time playing that Catholic traditional game... Bingo! But this was no ordinary Bingo game... this was alphabet Bingo! Luci joined us for this activity, right after we made some fun Halloween ghosts with our 5th Grade Study Buddies! If you want to check those out, stop by our school library, where they are "hanging out". Here is our class playing Alphabet Bingo:

We were so proud of the whole class- no one had tears just because they didn't win Bingo! For that, we all earned some stickers on our pumpkins!

This upcoming week, we will participate in a school-wide rosary, especially since this is the month of the rosary. Tuesday, at 2:15, we will gather with our School Families, walk over to the Church, and participate in a living rosary. You are welcome to join us in the Church for this experience. We encourage your family to say the rosary this month, too! Sometimes an entire rosary is a bit lengthy for a young child, but a decade a night would definitely be a great experience!

Speaking of lengthy...this blog has gotten a bit longer than I expected, so I will leave you with some photos from the week- some from centers, some from Math tubs, some from dancing in the morning to our Months Macarena... enjoy!