Here is the information for tonight’s  football game:

Reading Workshop

This week’s shared reading were a few lines from our star reader books.  We are touch reading them as we work on one to one matching.  We look closely at beginning sounds, short and long words, spaces between words, and even periods.  We are becoming great beginning readers!!!!

Pictures of GUIDED READING GROUPS:

Writers Workshop

This week in writers workshop we focused on learning that when writers have problems and do not know what to do they, solve the problem and do the best that they can!  We are continuing to learn that we do not waste precious time in writing, we continue to do our best and try, try and try!!!  The students are doing a wonderful job of putting this into practice and working the whole time during their writing workshop time.  Students were teaching us all about their bedrooms in these pieces:

Popcorn Words

Popcorn words are words that most often pop up in books we read.  Every week your child will be introduced to new popcorn words.  Last week the popcorn words added to our word wall were I, a, and the.  (we learned about digraphs th-sh-ch too)This week they were go, stop, yes, and no.  Kids should be able to read and write these words!  Throughout the week we found them in a word search and practice writing them on white boards!

Math

Currently in the middle of unit #1.  Your child should be able to recognize, write, and understand numbers 1-10…complete a dot to dot 1-10…draw a circle, triangle, square, and rectangles.   We started to learn about addition by finding partners of 5.  Kids love our new math program and particpating in number corner and workplace learning everyday!

Field Trip to Post Family Farm:

We had such a great time on our field trip!  We ate pumpkin donuts and enjoyed apple cider, we went on a hay ride and picked out a pumpkin to take home, we met the farm animals, went on a pumpkin train,  and played on the playground.  It was so much fun!

Important Dates & Reminders

**Football Game: Friday, October 10**

We have had the opportunity of having Luke Waterman, a member of the Varsity Football Team, join our class on Friday afternoons.  The kids look forward to their time with him and have enjoyed having him help us learn and grow!

As the football season wraps up, Luke and the football program would love to honor the students who have taken part in this program.  To do this they will be giving each class tickets so the students get free admission to Friday’s game.

This is such a fun opportunity for our class and I hope you can make it!!!!

If you child is able to attend the game, here are the directions for Friday Night:

They ask that everyone enter from behind the home side of the field by the tennis courts.  Once the teachers and students arrive they will organize by school and class north of the field in the grassy area where the field events for track are held.  I will meet the class there.  I will have a sign that says “DeSmit” and we will gather in that area.  They ask that we arrive and are organized by 6:30.  The football team will come through shortly after to give hugs and high-fives to us and to thank us for hosting them this year.  The team will go into the locker room after this and then come out shortly after.  The kids will line up and form a tunnel for the football players to come back down onto the field.  Once players head out to the field to start the game, you may pick up your child and find a seat in the bleachers to enjoy the game.

**We are currently through letter Kk on our daily letter focus.  Be sure your child can recognize, write, and know all the sounds of the these letters.   In addition to your daily homework, spend time reviewing these letters!!!!****

***Don’t forget HOMEWORK is due every Tuesday and Friday*** Please keep it in the black binder and send it to school EVERY T & F!

YELLOW FOLDERS:  Please get in the habit of taking out your kinder’s yellow folder each night and removing the papers, art work, etc.  Please place any notes back inside the folder.  That is the best place for me to find them.  Thank you!

Field Trip: POST FAMILY FARM

Field Trip is scheduled for TOMORROW (Tuesday, September 30)!

*PLEASE have your child dressed for a day at the farm.  Please consider the weather.  It may be muddy on the farm, but sure looks like we are going to have great weather!

*Please have your child eat breakfast at home if possible!  We have to load the bus just before 9 and sometimes the kids that eat breakfast at school run a little late.

*We will board the bus to head out at 8:55 a.m.

*If you signed up to join us, please plan to meet us at Post Family Farm!  I would get their shortly after 9.  Our tour begins at 9:15 sharp!  Tour last 90 minutes.   We plan to be back to school before lunch!

LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT DAY!!!!

PETE THE CAT DAY WAS A BIG SUCCESS!!!!!

We read Pete the Cat Books by looking at the picture!  Kids Looked at the picture…thought about what is on the page….and then read it like a storyteller!  WOW!!!!  They couldn’t put these books down!  They wanted to keep reading and reading!!!  Students are getting a sense of story and understanding that pictures can help us read!!!!!

We had a Pete the Cat snack!

We also colored the pictures and touch read a predictable Pete the Cat Book!  We colored each picture to match the words!!!  Have your child TOUCH read it to YOU!!!!!!!!

We dictated a sentence about our favorite color!  “I love my blue shoes.”  We cut up the sentence and glued it back together in the correct order!  We touch read our sentence and colored our picture to match our sentence!  Have your child TOUCH READ their sentence to YOU!!!!!!!!

We wrote Pete’s name and drew a picture of him.

Played a Pete the Cat Dice game!!!  We can see the dots on a dice and subitize the number.

Field Trip: POST FAMILY FARM

Field Trip is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30!  PLEASE dress for the weather.  I believe we will go rain or shine.   If you signed up to join us, please plan to meet us at Post Family Farm!  I would get their shortly after 9.  Our tour begins at 9:15 sharp!

*COLOR RUN – October 3!!!

This is an amazing event….YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT :)!  You won’t regret it!!!

Guided Reading Groups 

30 minute Guided Reading Groups began last week!!!   The class gets broken into groups and intensely working on phonics, phonemic awareness and beginning reading skills.  As we begin groups we will focus on letter identification/sound, rhymes, beginning sounds, and word segmentation.  

Writing Workshop:

Kinders are thinking of something they know a lot about and are drawing and writing about it.  We are working on adding to our picture and words.  We are being brave and labeling and attempting to write a sentence.

Math:

Students are focusing on numbers 1-10.  Students should recognize and write all numbers to 10.  We are having a great time during workplace learning playing math games and exploring with math manipulatives.  Students have an opportunity to explore in partnerships and alone.

*Wednesday, September 24 – School Picture Day! A picture packet was sent home.  Please fill it out and send it in with your child if he/she chooses to get school pictures this year!  Feel free to send it in on picture day or any day before.

Friday, September 26 we will be having Pete the Cat Day! xoxo

Friday, September 26 – Early Release day!  12:15 Dismissal!

*COLOR RUN – Oct. 3

This is an amazing event….YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT :)!  Sign up now!!!!!!  You won’t regret it!!!

***Attention Parent:  We have our class prize box open every Friday for students to exchange their SOAR tickets that they have earned in for a small prize of choice.  If you would like to contribute any small trinket or candy to our prize box, I know the kids would love it!  A wide variety of choices is so fun and keeps them motivated to SOAR!!!!!  Thank you so much!!!

Parents,

Homework officially starts today!  The kids are actually very excited!!!!  The directions are taped down on the inside of your child’s black folder.  Please follow the directions carefully.  Homework needs to be signed and returned EVERY Tuesday and Friday!!!  I will not collect the binders early so be sure to send them in ONLY on Tuesdays and Fridays!  If your child is unable to finish HW, please send the binder in anyways so they can get the new HW!  I hope you find homework beneficial, it is such a great way for you to see what your child is learning at school.  Thanks for your support!!!!

Wendy DeSmit xo

p.s. Baggy Books will not begin until mid October!

Also….I typically send new homework on Tuesdays and Fridays, but not on early release days!  With the shortened day, I just don’t have the time!  

DO NOT FORGET TO GET ALL YOUR PLEDGES IN FOR THE COLOR RUN!!!!  It is such an amazing event and a great fundraiser for our school!!!  *COLOR RUN – Oct. 3 (Fundhub)

I hope to see you all there!!!!

Library Checkout: EVERY THURSDAY

We had a wonderful visit to our brand-new library THURSDAY! Everyone selected a book to take home. Please establish a routine of having your child return their book every Thursday, so they can check out a new one! We are excited to make great memories in our new library!

PATRIOT’S DAY WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!!

We Learned the Pledge of Allegiance!

AND…

We learned a Flag song!  Sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle!

 

We made flags by coloring, gluing, and painting!!!!

 

We enjoyed a red, white, and blue snack!

Top Frog

Meet Zayden! He was top Frog this week!

Reading Workshop & Writing Workshop:

We gather at the carpet as we sing our “We Are Gathering” song.  As soon as we are all sitting quietly I will put my Minnie Mouse ears on to begin teaching my workshop “Mini Lesson”.

When students see my minnie mouse ears they know I have a few jobs and they have a few jobs!

Reading Workshop:

We learned that we are all readers!  We can walk through the world seeing, thinking, reading, and learning!

We enjoyed reading words around our classoom and words in our environment.

Phonics: 

Did you hear about our new classmate????  I hope so!  Her name is Mabel and the kids adore her.  She is a very cute elephant and LOVES letters!!!!  She cheers us on and encourages us to take risk during our phonics learning time.  We are thrilled she joined our class and are looking forward to learning with her!!!!  She shared marshmellows with the class and gave each student a Mabel keychain for their backpack!!!  I think the kids are in love!!!

Guided Reading Groups

30 minute Guided Reading Groups will begin next week!!!   The class will be broken into groups and intensely working on phonics, phonemic awareness and beginning reading skills.  As we begin groups we will focus on letter identification/sound, rhymes, beginning sounds, and word segmentation.  

Here are some important dates and reminders:

Wednesday, Sept 24 – School Picture Day!  Packets were sent home last week!  – Please fill it out and send it in with your child if he/she chooses to get school pictures this year!  Feel free to send it in on picture day or any day before.

Friday, September 26 we will be having Pete the Cat Day! xoxo

Friday, September 26 – Early Release day!  12:15 Dismissal!

COLOR RUN – This is a fun event for Park Families and I encourage you to participate!!!

Color the Park: October 3 (5 p.m.)- It’s too late to pre order a t-shirt but if you would like to participate see the following information:

Keep working on fundraising to receive incentive prizes and for a chance to win our amazing raffle prizes. If your child registered through our FunHub for online donations, they will be receiving a registration incentive today. For them to receive this incentive, you need to sign up for online fundraising. We use this to keep track of all of our schools fundraising.

Kids can still earn their incentive prize when you sign up on Fundhub for fundraising. Volunteers to help with the event can sign up here. We’re so excited to run and enjoy time together as our sweet Park community.

***Attention Parents:  We have our class prize box open every Friday for students to exchange their SOAR tickets that they have earned in for a small prize of choice.  If you would like to contribute any small trinket or candy to our prize box, I know the kids would love it!  A wide variety of choices is so fun and keeps them motivated to SOAR!!!!!  Thank you so much!!!

Spirit Week: Next week (Sept 15-19) in honor of Homecoming, we will be having a spirit week here at Park!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!!!!  xoxo

Letter Practice:

Started our zoo-phonic letter practice.  Every other day we hunt through our names to find the letter of the day, practice writing the capital and lowercase letter, sound and signal of the letter, and we do an abc dot to dot of our zoo phonic animal.  Please be sure your child can recognize, say the sound/do the signal, and write these letters.

Purposeful Play:

In the beginning of the year, we participated in centers around our room or we enjoy ourselves out on the playground.  Students are asked to experience all the fun things in our room or on the playground.  Some choices are legos, blocks and cars, kitchen area, dot to dot markers, writing center, cubes, puzzles, geo boards!!!!  We are making so many friends!!!

Hudsonville Footbal Player:

We also had a visitor on Friday.  Luke plays on The Hudsonville Football Team!  He will be spending some time in our classroom at the end of the day on Fridays during his season!  This is such a fun experience for our class.

TOP FROG Begins this coming week!!!!

During our first round of TOP FROG, I will choose a new student every two days until we rotate through the whole class.  The TOP FROG will be announced at the beginning of every school day and he/she will get to be the TOP FROG two days in a row!  The TOP FROG will be my helper all day.  He/she will be first in line, take part in an activity in front of the class, and be my right hand woman/man all day!!!  This month, when your child is chosen for TOP FROG, the class will be cheeering, spelling, and writing the letters in his/her name.  We will begin TOP FROG on Wednesday!!!

Mrs. DeSmit was our TOP FROG this week.  We enjoyed learning her name and drawing a picture of her!  We put her name on our WORD WALL!!!!!!

SOAR TICKETS:

This week we started to earn and collect SOAR tickets.  All students at Park Elementary are expected to SOAR!

Be Safe!

Own It!

Act Resonsibly!

Be respectful!

Congratulations to all!!!!  We are getting our routine down and seem to be loving kindergarten!  I know I am!  I can’t tell you how good it feels to be back in the classroom, spending time with the best 5/6 year olds!!!!  Nothing better!!!!!!  xoxoxo

Hope you had a great WEEKEND!!!! Mrs. DeSmit xo

Here are some additional pictures:

We are doing a great job in Kindergarten and having lots of fun too!!!!!!!

Important Dates & Reminders…

Thursday, September 11 – We will be celebrating Patriot’s Day!!!  Please have your child wear red, white, and blue.  We will learn the pledge of Allegiance and a Flag song to the tune of “Skip To the Lou My Darling”!  We will paint a flag too!!!!

Tuesday, September 16 – Homework will begin…Look for a black three ring binder!  Get into a HW routine.  Please assist your child when necessary, sign it, and have your child return it in the black binder every T and F!  Kids will be working on responsibilty and parents will be able to see the things we are working on in kindergarten :)!

A Special Thank You…
…For donating snacks and supplies!  We will use these things throughout the year and appreciate your contributions!  Thanks so much!

…for returning your child’s Home Folder to school everyday!  Please get into the habit of looking in your child’s folder every night, cleaning it out, and returning it the next day!

This week in Kindergarten we…

…sang lots of fun songs!

….had towel time! We laid on our beach towel and rested, watched PBS kids, and/or finished our lunches!

….Read Pete the Cat and did all kinds of Pete the Cat activities!!! Pete had us go on a scavenger hunt all around the school looking for him! We did not find him, but we did not WORRY!!!! We played a math dice game, did a Pete the Cat art and craft, and sang Rockin in my School Shoes!!!! We love PETE!!!!

…went to art with Mr, Johnson, music with Mr. Bouwman, gym with Mr. Beimers, and STEAM with Mrs. Teuscher!!!

…participated in some hands on centers including:  lego building, writing center, puzzles, cars, dot paints, geo boards, and blocks.

…watched Mrs. DeSmit write the class a letter everyday. We counted how many words were in the letter and looked for big words and little words.

…enjoyed snack time. Thanks for sending in 2 snacks to share with the class. We sure enjoy the special treats you have sent in!

…enjoyed playing on the playground with the other kinder classes. We are making so many new friends. 

…practiced writing our names with the first letter capitalized and the rest all lowercase. We are learning to start at the TOP when ever we write any letter or number. Please encourage this at home as well!

…listened to Mrs. DeSmit read many wonderful books like Froggy Goes To School, The Kissing Hand, Miss Nelson is Missing, Teacher From the Black Lagoon, and Pete The Cat!

…started our number books. This week we worked on numbers 1 and 2. We learned a catchy song that goes to the tune of “Skip to the Lou my Darling”. 1: Come on Down and thats a one 2: Make a half a heart…STOP…turn to the right!!!!

…Played This or that to get to know our classmates better.

…became familiar with our class rules, expectations, and procedures!!!!

…Learned about the check signal in our classroom. The check signal is to give our friends a friendly reminder to check their behavior and make a change before Mrs. DeSmit has to talk to them.

…started assessing students on letter recognition, letter sounds, rhymes, and segmentation. We will use this information to begin Guided Reading Groups.

….started assessing math skills: counting by 1s to 100, number recognition to 20, and number writing to 20. We will use this information to begin Guided Math Groups.

…reviewed procedures like coming into school in the morning, walking in the hall (Park Perfect 10 line), sitting at the carpet, sharing materials, walking to the bus, etc…I think we are getting it!!! Please encourage your child to be respectful and make good choices!!!

…started unit 1 in math. We graphed our shoes by coming up with an attribute to sort them.  We talked about which group has more and  less.  We reviewed shapes, worked on drawing shapes, and talked about objects that are alike and different.

…We learned how to be a book lover and enjoyed the many books in our classroom.

I have really enjoyed getting to know your kids!!! We are off to a great start!!! In the beginning, these full days are pretty long for your kiddos! I know they come home very tired!   Hang in there, they will adjust very soon to this full day schedule. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns!!! I have been so pleased with their stamina and effort!!!!! 

Meet Mrs. VanderLaan!  She is a para pro and spends time in our room everyday!  Feel so blessed to have her teaching and loving on these kids!!!!  xoxoxo

Also Mrs. Stefanich came in to our class and read us a story and taught us all about the power of YET!!!

Hope you had a great WEEKEND!!!! Looking forward to seeing my favorite little kids tomorrow!!!  Mrs. DeSmit xo

First Day News!!!!  

We did it!!!  We made it through our first day of kindergarten!!!  

We had a wonderful day!!!!  I am so thankful to be working with such a fabulous group of parents and kids!  It is going to be a great year!

• We made Toads…because kindergarten is TOAD-ally AWESOME!!!!!! 

• We drew a self portrait! 

• We sang some fun songs together!!

• Played outside for recess!!! 

• Met lots of new friends!!!

• Read Froggy Goes to School!

• Got lots of hugs from Mrs. DeSmit!!! xo

• Met Mrs. Stefanich!

• Played with hands on manipulatives!

• Even our superintendent, Dr. VanderJagt and our Curriculum Director, Ami Taylor came to visit!

• Met my daughter Josie!  She will be heading to college tomorrow and she definitely wanted to meet my new class before she left!!

It was a very exciting day!!!! 

Couple of reminders:

• Your little sweet one will be tired!!!  Stay positive and try to get to bed on time!  Second day may bring more tears then first day, just a heads up!  I promise to love on them and make them feel safe and comfortable :)!

• Black binder homework will not begin for a few weeks!  I will send home a note the day it begins!

• We will not begin SOAR tickets until our class rules are established!  I want kids to understand our classroom expectations and procedures first!  

• Be sure to clear out their yellow homefolder tonight and send it back to school tomorrow emptied, unless you have something you want to give me…like lunch money or a note!  

• If your child has not brought in a towel yet, please do so soon!  Thanks so much!!!!

• I am sure pick up will improve as the days go on!  The staff was pleased with how things went for the first day! We appreciate your patience!

• Busses will get better each day and arrive when they are supposed to!  Be patient, it will get better!

Looking forward to tomorrow!!!  xoxoxo Mrs. DeSmit

Here a are few photos to enjoy! 🙂

We even had a visit from our principal, Mrs. Stefanich!