The Quad Cities River Bandits Book Buddies program started today! We are going to record one of our favorite stories each day for four weeks. As we read towards first base we must complete five books. At the end of the week the boys and girls will receive a ticket to ride the carousel at Niabi Zoo! As we read round second base we will earn a free admission to the Family Museum in Bettendorf. Rounding third base we will receive a kids meal from Chick-Fil-A. When we slide into home base after reading twenty books, we will earn one ticket to the River Bandits baseball game. We have adapted this program to fit our needs at the Kindergarten level. Reading if fun!!! Go River Bandits!!
Reading Program
February 9th, 2009 by jknuthNutrition Program
February 9th, 2009 by jknuthThe University of Illinois has a wonderful nutrition program for our Kindergarten students. We are fortunate to have Miss Green Pepper visiting our classroom once a week for six lessons. She will cover the basic food groups and talk about the importance of heart healthy foods and proper choices when eating. The boys and girls will get to sample a food each week from a special food group. Today we learned about the Grain food group. We found that grains give us energy so we can run, jump, think and play. The boys and girls sampled popcorn today! Yum! Yum!
Valentine’s Day
February 9th, 2009 by jknuthOur Valentine’s Day party will be this Friday, February 13th at 10:30. The boys and girls will pass our their valentine cards in the morning and will open them at the party. Mrs. Elliott has a couple of games for the students to play, a snack and then it will be time to go home. Friday is an 11:45 early dismissal day. When helping your child with their valentine cards please make sure that they write a few valentine cards each evening. The cards are little and require tiny print. Please do not write in cursive for your child. They are unable to read the cursive writing.
Counting Objects
November 3rd, 2008 by jknuthThe boys and girls have been working on counting objects 1-10 making a one to one correspondence. Â We are checking to see how many different ways we can build a number. Â We are also working on recognizing and writing our numbers to 20. Â Take time to count objects through ten at home. Â Have your child count 10 socks, shoes, beads, jelly beans etc. Â Next, ask your child to count six beads. Â Then ask them to put the beads into two groups. Â They could have 1 in a group and 5 in another group. Â Write that combination down and have them try a different way to make six using the beads. Â Continue this practice with different numbers through 10. Â
Nightly Reading Bag
October 3rd, 2008 by jknuthBeginning second quarter the boys and girls will self-select a book to bring home on Monday through Thursday evenings.  Please take time to read the book to your child.  Share the title and have your child take a “picture walk” through the book.  They will look at the pictures and tell you what is happening on each page. Begin to read by  tracking left to right.  Please model this  by using your pointer finger to touch each word as you read.  Your child may want to repeat what you read using their pointer finger.  We call this their “reading rocket finger”.  They can identify sight words within the sentence, count the number of words, search for letters and notice word families.  Your child may help you figure out the unknown words by using the picture clues and beginning sounds in words.  Thank you for taking time to read with your child each evening.
Thank you for your support
October 3rd, 2008 by jknuthI would like to thank all of my Kindergarten families for their participation in our student led conferences.  The boys and girls did a fantastic job of sharing their first quarter data!  Setting goals each quarter will help the students to realize  their strengths and what they need to focus on to reach their goals.  Thank you for taking time to work with your child at home.  The extra practice will help build their self-esteem and confidence level as we begin our second quarter adventure!
Student Led Conferences
September 23rd, 2008 by jknuthThe first quarter of school is almost over! The boys and girls are preparing for their student led Kindergarten conference. They are recording their data on their graphs and setting goals for the second quarter of school. Your child will have the first five minutes of the conference to share their wrting sample, name and data graphs. The next fifteen minutes will be parent/teacher time. Please make sure you bring your child to the conference so they can share their progress with you. I will have one conference at a time. If you see a family in the room please wait in the hallway until they have completed their conference time. I will try to stay on schedule and respect your time.
Making Connections
September 12th, 2008 by jknuthThe boys and girls have been listening to stories and making connections. We have discussed the text to text connection. This is a connection that a child might make after listening to a story. The story characters, setting and problem may remind them of another text. We have made many text to self connections while listening to stories. The children will relate to a character or an event and it may remind them of something they have experienced. Have your child make connections when you are reading. You may want to share a text to self connection yourself. Enjoy making connections together!
Fun Website
September 12th, 2008 by jknuthThe boys and girls will begin to go to our computer lab with our classroom volunteer on Tuesdays. They will be working with letters and sounds on the Starfall.com website. The program is a great tool that can help many children make a connection with letters and their special sounds. Feel free to try this website at home! We pick the ABC section and follow the twinkling stars with our mouse. It is an easy and fun way to reinforce letter recognition. My son is in Kindergarten and is on this website a couple of times a week. I know your child will enjoy it as well.
Beginning of Kindergarten
September 12th, 2008 by jknuthThe boys and girls are getting use to the rules and routines of our classroom. We have been working on identifying our letters and letter sounds. We are looking at the uppercase letters as well as the lowercase letters of the alphabet. The boys and girls have been sorting, graphing and working on number sense 0-10. I have been interviewing one student each day. We cheer their name, count the letters, look at the capital/lowercase letters, search for little words in their name and repeating letters. Each child gets a chance to put their name back together after I mix up their letters. Their name then goes on our word wall with their picture above it. A picture booklet will come home on their special day! We are having fun learning about each other.