Mrs. Olsen's Blog: October 2013

Friday, October 25, 2013

Kindergarten News in Mrs.Olsen's Room!

Happy Fall, even though it felt like winter this week!!

Reading

We read the story I Was So Mad this week. It is about a little creature who is not allowed to do anything that he wants at home. His parents and grandparents won't let him do anything fun! The students learned some new vocab words this week to go with the story- allow, frustrated, decide, and practice. We have been using the words during the day a lot, please continue using them at home as well. :) We also continued to do our daily 5 rotations. I have been able to meet with each of the students one-on-one or two-on-one during this time twice a week. I am able to read books with them and have them read words to me as well. It is great! We also have a mom coming in during this time twice a week to read to the kids as well instead of them listening to the stories on CD. So, we are getting a good routine going with the daily 5. :) We learned a new poem this week called Jack-O-Lantern. Our poem books are looking great! Next week, we will try to get in 2 Halloween poems.

Jolly Phonics

We added the letters "l" and "f" this week to our sounds we learned. Ask your child what the actions are that go with the sounds. We added two new popcorn words as well- "up" and "run". Keep practicing your popcorn words at home. Point out the popcorn words in stories you read to your children as well. Then, when they are reading to self during daily 5 they will recognize those words and be proud that they can read them.

Handwriting

We practiced some more letters this week in our handwriting book. Capital W and X, and we finished our numbers to 10. Please practice these at home.

Math

We did 2 days of centers this week. The children practiced finding and counting numbers on pictures and writing them as tally marks, on ten frames, and as just numbers. We also made a Fall number book and a Bat number book. These books are added to our "book bags" that the students use to read to self during daily 5. So, you won't see these books for a little while. We add books we make all the time to our book bags for the children to read. But as we make more books we send them home eventually.

Writing

We wrote and drew a picture about Jack who was our star student this week. We also made a Frankenstein head for Halloween! I also read some Frankenstein books. :)

**Remember snack should be healthy , such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, or crackers. If you are sending a juice, make sure it is 100% juice.** Thanks!

Dane will be our star student next week!

Remember next week on Halloween the parade starts at 1:40. Parents are allowed to come and watch but only the parents who are signed up for the Halloween party will be allowed into the school. It is too crowded and warm if we have too many people in the room during the party. The students will change into their costumes after lunch, so please send whatever is needed to put on or change into in a bag for your child.

My phone line has been set up in my room and the number is 783-5218. Email I will get to the quickest if you need to reach me. jolsen@ccsd66.org

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Some great websites for the students to do at home are:

Friday, October 18, 2013

Kindergarten News in Mrs.Olsen's Room!

Happy Fall!!

Reading

We read the story When Sophie Gets Angry this week. It is about a little girl who gets very upset and angry and has to leave her house. She then calms down and comes back into her house to be welcomed back by her family. The students learned some new vocab words this week too- furious, snatch, comfort, and welcome. We have been using the words during the day a lot, please continue using them at home as well. :) We also continued to do our daily 5 rotations. The students are now able to get to the computer lab each day for about 15 minutes to do istation. They love going there. Thanks to the moms helping out each morning in the computer lab too! We learned a new poem this week called The Scarecrow. Our poem books are looking great!

Jolly Phonics

We added the letters "o" and "u" this week to our sounds we learned. Ask your child what the actions are that go with the sounds. We added two new popcorn words as well- "my" and "like". Keep practicing your popcorn words at home. Point out the popcorn words in stories you read to your children as well. Then, when they are reading to self during daily 5 they will recognize those words and be proud that they can read them.

Handwriting

We practiced some more letters this week in our handwriting book. Capital U and V, also numbers 8 and 9. Please practice these at home.

Math

We did some pumpkin counting activities this week. We did a little more practicing counting and writing numbers up to 20. Some of the children needed a lot of help writing numbers over 10, please practice those numbers at home. The teens are the hardest group to recognize and write.

Writing

We did a journal this week about something that makes us angry or upset. We then shared them with the class. We also made some cool ghosts that are hanging in the room!

**Remember snack should be healthy , such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, or crackers. If you are sending a juice, make sure it is 100% juice.** Thanks!

We have gym every day, so please make sure your child has on gym shoes or brings gym shoes to school to wear for gym class.

We have art once a week on Tuesday with Ms. Smeltzer.

We have library twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. The children can check out 1 book at a time each day as long as they have returned their book.

We also have music twice a week on Thursday and Friday. Ms. Wyse is a lot of fun.

Remember- next Thursday, October 24 is an early dismissal day. The students will be released at 12:00. They will not eat lunch here.

Jack will be our star student next week!

My phone line has been set up in my room and the number is 783-5218. Email I will get to the quickest. jolsen@ccsd66.org

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Some great websites for the students to do at home are:

Friday, October 11, 2013

Kindergarten News in Mrs.Olsen's Room!

Happy Fall!!

Reading

We read the story Whistle for Willie this week. It is about a boy who can't whistle and is determined to do it so he can call his dog to him. The students learned some new vocab words this week- whirl, scramble, determined, and proud. We have been using the words during the day a lot, please continue using them at home as well. :) We also continued to do our daily 5 rotations. The students are now able to get to the computer lab each day for about 15 minutes to do istation. They love going there. Thanks to the moms helping out each morning in the computer lab too! We learned a new poem this week called Falling Leaves. Thanks for everyone bringing in the binders- they all have poem books now. :)

Jolly Phonics

We added the letters "d" and "g" this week to our sounds we learned. Ask your child what the actions are that go with the sounds. We added a new popcorn word as well- "big". Keep practicing your popcorn words at home. Next week we will start adding 2 words to our popcorn book. Point out the popcorn words in stories you read to your children as well. Then, when they are reading to self during daily 5 they will recognize those words and be proud that they can read them.

Handwriting

We practiced some more letters this week in our handwriting book. Capital H, K, and L, also numbers 6 and 7. Please practice these at home.

Math

We are continuing with practicing counting numbers, as we have been. We did some partner games this week, we worked on counting with ten frames, and did some dice activities too.

Writing

We did a journal this week about something that we enjoy doing. We also wrote and drew something we like about Addison- our star student. :)

**Remember snack should be healthy , such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, or crackers. If you are sending a juice, make sure it is 100% juice.** Thanks!

We have gym every day, so please make sure your child has on gym shoes or brings gym shoes to school to wear for gym class.

We have art once a week on Tuesday with Ms. Smeltzer.

We have library twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. The children can check out 1 book at a time each day as long as they have returned their book.

We also have music twice a week on Thursday and Friday. Ms. Wyse is a lot of fun.

I also wanted to let you know that the students will be bringing home any papers on Friday that they did not finish during the week. So, if they have a few unfinished papers in their keep at home part of their folder they are morning work or activities they did not finish during the week. I told them to bring them home and they can finish them at home. They do not need to come back to school.

Progress reports were sent home with your child today. Please look over it, sign and send back to me so I know you received it.

Remember there is no school on Monday, October 14 in observance of Columbus Day. Enjoy the long weekend!

I would also like to thank everyone for the beautiful flowers and card for my birthday! I was not expecting that at all- I assumed they were from my husband. :) So thank you very much!!!

Addison was our star student this week and did a great job! We learned some neat things about her! Her Nana came in to read to us as well. :)

My phone line has been set up in my room and the number is 783-5218. Email I will get to the quickest. jolsen@ccsd66.org

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Some great websites for the students to do at home are:

Friday, October 4, 2013

Kindergarten News in Mrs.Olsen's Room!

Happy Fall!!

Reading

We are busy in reading learning all sorts of new words that the children love to use in class! Ask your child what enjoy, gooey, container, and scrumptious mean. :) We also added computers to our daily 5 rotation. The children go into the computer lab in the morning 1-2 times a week to work on the program i-station. They listen to stories and are asked questions about the stories. So far the children enjoy going to the computer lab. We will continue with that same routine next week. It gives Mrs. Riadi and I a chance to do do some small group reading activities as well while the students are at computers, reading to self, working on word work, or listening to a story on CD. We also read and worked on a poem called Apples, Apples. If you did not send in a binder yet for your child for the poetry book, please do so so your child can put together his or her poetry binder. Thanks!

Jolly Phonics

We added the letters "r" and "m" this week to our sounds we learned. Ask your child what the actions are that go with the sounds. We added a new popcorn word as well- "see". Keep practicing your popcorn words at home. Point out the popcorn words in stories you read to your children as well. Then, when they are reading to self during daily 5 they will recognize those words and be proud that they can read them.

Handwriting

We practiced some more letters this week in our handwriting book. Capital N and M. Please practice these at home.

Math

We are continuing with practicing counting numbers, as we have been, however, we did all our activities this week having to do with apples! Mrs. Riadi and I set up some games that we rotated the children through. They had a good time. We also talked about tally marks and how to count using tally marks. The children think this is pretty cool!

Writing

We did not get to much writing this week, any that we did had to do with our popcorn words in some popcorn books we made. We did a neat apple art project as well during this time. We will do more writing next week.

**Remember snack should be healthy , such as fruit, vegetables, cheese, or crackers. If you are sending a juice, make sure it is 100% juice.** Thanks!

We have gym every day, so please make sure your child has on gym shoes or brings gym shoes to school to wear for gym class.

We have art once a week on Tuesday with Ms. Smeltzer.

We have library twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays. The children can check out 1 book at a time each day as long as they have returned their book.

We also have music twice a week on Thursday and Friday. Ms. Wyse is a lot of fun.

Some students brought home star student posters to work on. I gave the students who will be star student their posters to work on for the month of October. Please return the posters as you finish them. I will send home a bag with other stuff in it the Friday before your child is star student. We will have our first star student next week- Addison! :)

I also wanted to let you know that the students will be bringing home any papers on Friday that they did not finish during the week. So, if they have a few unfinished papers in their keep at home part of their folder they are morning work or activities that they did not finish during the week. I told them to bring them home and they can finish them at home. They do not need to come back to school. Today, we did not get to get them in their folders, so they will be coming home on Monday instead.

My phone line has been set up in my room and the number is 783-5218. Email I will get to the quickest. jolsen@ccsd66.org

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Olsen

Some great websites for the students to do at home are: