Summer Writing Challenge

 What a treat!  Today Mrs. Kerr and Mrs. Hoyt had lunch with some of our former students.  First graders who completed our summer writing challenge joined us for a visit in Room 103.  

Each shared a sample of their writing, talked about how different the room looks for this year and shared what fun they are having in First Grade!  

Each was invited to select a book to keep.

Way to go friends!

Successful Kindergarten Orientation!

 

Successful Kindergarten Orientation!

Thank you to all the families who joined us at our Kindergarten Orientation today. It was wonderful to see everyone and meet our new students for the first time. We know we will have an amazing kindergarten year! We look forward to learning, playing and working together this year to ensure that our students have a super Kindergarten experience.

Here is the link to the packet that we went over this morning.  Note that you will find the orientation information at the top of this blog throughout the school year so you may reference it at any time.

School Time

 

Today is the first official day for students in grades 1-5.  Kindergarten teachers are working hard to get ready for orientation on Wednesday!

Meet Room 103

Enjoy this slideshow of our class members. Hopefully this tool will help our community get to know each other. Let's see how many members you can recognize on the first day of school. Do you remember any of your classmates names?

Save The Date

Pine Glen Kindergarten Open House Night

To be held on Thursday, September 22, 2022.

Kindergarten Orientation will help you learn the logistics of how we will function.  Open House will help you learn about our curriculum and what we will be learning this year.

Mrs. Hoyt will be in touch about logistics and will share the meeting details.

If your family has translation needs, please reach out so we may make arrangements to help with communications.

Photos, Forms and More

   Hello Kindergarten Families - 

Please be sure to note all the tasks requested in my recent communication.  Follow up information will be sent with a reminder for the Orientation meeting.

Photos to email to Mrs. Hoyt(khoyt@bpsk.org) - please send a.s.a.p

• Introductory photo and comment for the blog

• Student photo for bulletin board(Send by August 29)

• Head shot for the Meet Room 103 booklet

• Family photo that we can print and have available for our kindergarten students to see while at school.

Forms to Complete

1 - About My Child and Our Family - online

Sign Ups and Meetings

1 - Listening Conference with Mrs. Hoyt - Sign up Genius link was emailed

2 - Orientation Meeting - Sign up Genius link was emailed

All About Me Papers

  

Hello kindergarten friends! I cannot wait to officially meet you. Here is a picture of my All About Me paper that I will share with all of you soon!  Please fill yours out and have it ready to share are our class meets.  I will invite a different friend or two to share their paper each day. 

All About Mrs. Hoyt!

Hello Room 103 Friends,

 I can not wait to meet you!  Here is a picture of my All About me paper(created a few years ago).  Please fill out yours and bring it when you come to orientation.  

Time To Bloom

  

Did you attend kindergarten orientation at Pine Glen in  the spring?  If so did you plant a sunflower seed?  By now you should have a tall plant and hopefully a beautiful sunflower!  Send Mrs. Hoyt a picture to share with classmates on our blog!

This is an extra opportunity.........if the flower did not grow, or you did not make it to the open house, do not fret!

2015 flower is all yellow and has a smaller head.

2014 was a much taller plant with a touch a brown in the flower!

They are all beautiful!  Unfortunately Mrs. Hoyt did not have great sunflower success this summer.

Books For All

 

Mrs. Hoyt and Mrs. Kerr love putting books in students' hands!

 One of our goals during the coming school year will be to encourage and foster a love of books and reading.  Our class will have a Scholastic Book Club membership in which families may purchase books and our classroom  collection will grow as well.   Teachers also purchase books for students through this resource.  Information about book purchases will be sent home in  September, but you can go to this link now if you are eager to look!

 

Both Mrs. Kerr and Mrs. Hoyt are big supporters of putting books in the

hands of our students to have and keep as their own.  Throughout the year we

will be gifting books to the children.

As a loyal supporter of the Scholastic book clubs, our classroom is usually given the

opportunity to purchase books on sale.  Scholastic is currently running a program

allowing me to purchase a book of the week for $1. 

We would welcome your support.  If you would like to sponsor a class prize,

we will purchase a book for the class ($20 - per book sponsored).  When

the book arrives we will place a sticker on the inside noting your gift and

will award it to the entire class.(Each student to receive their own copy!)

If you would like to participate, please send $15 cash and

send a note indicating the donor name(s) we should include on the sticker.

Questions? - Contact Mrs. Hoyt

Here is how! 

*During the 2021 - 2022 school year students were the recipients of nearly 25 books thanks to generous donations from many sources!

Due to a generous family from the previous school year, we are already prepared to send the first 3 books home!

Read Aloud Tips

 

Read Aloud Tips

We are big believers in the benefits of reading aloud to children.  Please make time to read with your son/daughter daily.  Below are some tips from the PBS show "Between the Lions".

* Read to your child every day.  If you can't ask someone else to be your child's designated reader.
* Try to find a regular time and quiet, comfortable place for reading together.
* Turn off other distractions, such as the radio or television.
* Read slowly enough so that your child has time to take in the story and look at the pictures.
* Children may enjoy holding the book or turning the pages.  Invite your child to point to words on the page or help you read the words.  Explain unfamiliar words.
* Encourage your children to ask questions about he characters, pictures, and words.
* Talk about the story with your child.  Did he or she like it? Why?
* Your child may want you to read the same story over and over again. after several retellings, ask your child to tell you the story.
* Older children enjoy reading aloud, too.  They can read their favorite parts, or you can take turns reading chapter books.
* Visit the Between the Lions website (pbskids.org/lions) for more on children and reading.

Blog Translation Available

 

This blog is available with translation.  Click the button on right and select the language you would like to view the blog in.  We hope this is a helpful tool to our students' families.

Tips: Preparing Kindergartners For School

These ideas are intended to help students be more independent,

• Practice shoe tying or wear shoes without laces.
• 
  
• Practice opening snacks, food and drink containers. 
• Practice hand washing.
• Practice using a tissue to blow your nose.
• Practice with buttons, belts, etc for toileting and dressing for out of doors.

Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten!

 A kindergarten colleague assembled some thoughts to help prepare for kindergarten:

 A lot of parents want to know how to prepare their kids to start school for the first time. My  advice is to skip the flash cards for now and teach them the below things.

Self-Help
- How to open and close containers. Specifically the kind you’ll put in their lunch boxes.
- How to pinch and tear packaging. (Pre-packaged snacks, ketchup packets, etc)
- How to put a straw into a Capri sun pouch.
It will take your child’s teacher a long time to circulate around the lunch table to assist. That means less time your child has to eat. 

- How to take off a jacket so that the sleeves don’t get pulled through. How to fix the jacket if the sleeves do get pulled through. How to zip it up.
- How to zip and snap or button pants.
- Your child will be the holy grail of their class if they can tie their shoes.

Personal Care:
- TO GO TO THE BATHROOM WITH THE DOOR CLOSED. 
- How to pump soap. How to properly wash their hands. To turn the sink off and dry their hands.

Social:
- How to wait and take turns.
- How to share. How to compromise.
- How to listen and follow 2 step directions. (First, take your jacket off. Then put it on the hanger) If you want to get crazy - try 3 step!

Language:
- Build vocabulary with them! Talk to them. Use big words. Explain that they mean. When they start to learn to read, it’ll be much easier for them to identify a word that is already in their vocabulary.
- Help them build their own language and memory by reflecting. Tell them what you need at the grocery store. When you get there, ask “What did we come to the store for?”
- Help them ask a question! Don’t let them say “I’m thirsty” and hand them a glass of water. You are being their problem solver, rather than having them find their own solutions. Teach them to ask for what they need. “Can I please have a glass of water?”

Coping Skills:
- Talk very intentionally about strategies to deal with emotions.
- “When you’re feeling scared, let’s try doing box breaths.”
- “If you’re feeling sad, what’s something happy that you could think about to cheer you up?”

Help your child to get ready to learn.  All the academic stuff will come! Just work with them in developing as a young human