Week of September 12-16

 We are continuing to settle into our routines and build our classroom community! It has been super sweet to see the kids starting to really care for each other and show kindness to others. It is so important to me to create a community of learners where everyone feels a strong sense of safety and belonging. Understanding each other and what makes us the same and different is the beginning of this work. I am already seeing it paying off and it is a beautiful thing! 

We are starting and ending our days outside and you can't beat this time of year! In the morning we play with Mr. Deyo and Ms. LaBerge's class just out back of the classrooms. In the afternoons we go for a walk out to a forest classroom and the kindergartners are really finding their place in the wild. The beginning days were calm and there was lots of observation and quiet. Already they are jumping into some fun imaginary play, using their bodies in different ways, and working together to do things like pull out the roots they are tripping on in this new space. :) We even got to try out the puddle pants on a rainy day!

Inside we are beginning some of the curriculum pieces, doing social/emotional learning lessons from the Second Step program (learning how to listen and what it means to focus attention on something), we started our phonemic awareness program (Heggerty) where we are rhyming, listening for beginning and ending sounds, and breaking words apart by syllable. We also sing lots of songs and do greetings at morning meeting that incorporate these skills. Ask your child about "Hickety Pickety Bumblebee" and "Silly Willy Spider". We are making some class books that incorporate some of these skills along with children's names.

On Friday we started some math stations by exploring some different math materials. We will start with shapes, oral counting, and numbers 1-10. The group as a whole does a really amazing job during station time, working with different groupings of students  and being engaged!