After School Program

Today is the last day for the Kindergarten After School program!  I will miss working with the kindergarteners on Tuesdays and Thursdays!  I know they will miss spending time with their friends from the other classes, having Megan come for 4-H, reading Junie B. Jones, singing crazy songs, and learning lots!  They have made great progress and worked really hard!  They will do a great job in 1st grade! :)

Reading Books

Your child has been bringing home their guided reading books!  These are for you to keep at home and for your child to use as practice!  They are making such great gains with their sight words, sounds and visual cues, it is awesome to watch them read their new story!  They are always excited to get a new story every day!  They also feel very proud when they can read it to friends and others that come to visit the classroom.  Hopefully your child is showing this enthusiasm at home when they are reading to others and to you! :)   Thank you for supporting your child in their reading this year!  I really appreciate it! :)

Winter, Winter Go Away!

Even though it is almost April, there is still snow on the playground!  Please send your child with appropriate clothing until further notice!  That includes snowpants, boots, hat, mittens, warm coat!  When we go out to recess it is still in the 30's!  It is chilly for them!  They also still seem to find the snow, mud and water! :)  I will let you and your child know when winter gear is not needed any more! :)

The Leprechaun!

I am sure that you have heard by now that a little green leprechaun visited our room for St. Patrick's Day!  The kids were very excited and on the lookout all day long for the Leprechaun!  He visited our room twice that day!  He had a lot of fun and made huge messes!!!  In honor of this special day, we also graphed Lucky Charms marshmallows.  The kids worked on sorting, counting and graphing their marshmallows!  Of course they got to eat them when we were all done!  :)

Ms. Schoneman's tongue was a tongue twister!

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday on Wednesday, March 2.  We read many Dr. Seuss books!  I had some kids bring in their favorite Dr. Seuss books and I read them!  I also had some Dr. Seuss books!  Boy some of those books get going with the rhyming words and it is hard for my tongue to keep up!  The kids were laughing and having a great time! :)  Some even went to library and checked out Dr. Seuss library books to take home!  Hopefully your tongue isn't as tied in knots as mine was! :)

Rhyming-we will get it?

We have been working hard on rhyming words!  This concept seems to be a struggle this year.  I have been working on it in small group and during whole group.  The kids think that rhyming words need to start with the same letter.  We are working on listening to the ending of the word to see if it sounds the same.  Please help at home with rhyming words!  We are starting to get it, it is just taking its time this year!

We are counting maniacs!

We have been working very hard on our counting skills!  The skills we are working on are counting by 1's to 120, 10's to 100, 5's to 100 and 2's to 30.  We have just started counting by 2's at the beginning of February and most are catching on!  I have four friends that are at 100 already!  WOW!  Once your child has reached their Kindergarten goal, I will have them move on to work on the 1st grade goal.  The first grade goal is counting by 10's to 100, 5's to 120 and 2's to 50.  Hopefully we will keep working on it and your child will be ready for 1st grade math! :)

Spring Concert!

We have a date set for our spring conference!  April 19th in the afternoon will be our time to perform for everyone!  I am not sure of the time, but as soon as I find out I will let you know! :)  The kids are getting excited for this, even though it is over a month away! :)

Report Cards

There has been a lot of testing happening in Kindergarten!  I am working on report cards this weekend and they will be ready to go home on Friday!  They are making huge growth and gains and I can't wait to share it with you!! :)  Your child's report card will be going home on Friday in their folder, so be looking for it.  Please sign the envelope and return with your child to school!

Iktomi Play

This past Thursday, we had the privilege of going to the Marian Ross Theater to see students from Minnesota State University-Mankato perform Iktomi.  Iktomi is based on Native American Dakota stories of a spider-trickster spirit and is a symbol of chaos in the Dakota culture.  Iktomi is known for his outrageous adventures, inventions and his stories provoke laughter and head shaking in Dakota culture because he never learns his lesson.  The performance of Iktomi incorporates live music and audience interaction and is a modern interpretation of familiar Iktomi tales.  The Iktomi tales we saw were Iktomi and the Ducks, Iktomi and the Buzzard, and Iktomi and the Buffalo Skull.  Please ask us which one was our favorite, as well as what it was about!  Check out the pictures of our trip (Thanks Mrs. Rassler)!