Mrs. Schondube's Kindergarten: Feels Like Fall

Hello Families,
I am loving this cool, crisp fall weather.....much better than the 95 degree classroom we started the year with! I hope you found the classroom directory that was sent home in your child's red folder on Friday. The directory can come in handy when planning birthday parties or play dates.
Our letters of focus last week were m and n. We learned a monster chant, read several books with monsters as the main characters, practiced forming those letters with playdough and on our dry erase boards and identified words that started with those letters. I realized on Friday that I forgot to send home the m and n letter practice paper....I will add that to the red folder the next time it comes home. This week coming up the letter focus will be c and a...our first vowel. Along with letter practice, we are learning to retell stories, identify character and setting in a story, putting words together to form a sentence and creating our first classroom book all about us.
During Number Corner, we will be finishing up our shape pattern on the September calendar as we move into October. The children have been sorting shapes, identifying shapes by their attributes and making shape projects. I introduced the 5 frame and the 10 frame as a way to show quantity and recognize a number quickly on a frame. With the 5 frame right now, the children are noticing what numbers go together to make 5. And we love to learn new games to practice our math skills, like Rondo, Count the Beans and Hi Ho Cherry-O.
I would like each child to bring in a plain, white t-shirt for a class tie-dying project. I enjoy having the students choose their design, help create it with rubberbands, then dunk it in the bucket to soak. There are always a lot of ooooh's and aaaaah's when the bands come off and we do the big reveal! I like having the shirts here at school for field trips and special school events. Then your child will bring it home at the end of the school year. When shopping for a t-shirt, go for a size that your child can grow into, as we wear them all year. Also, if you buy a pack of shirts and would like to donate the extras to the class, they are always used and appreciated. Thanks!
Lastly, our first Early Release Day is Tuesday, October 2nd. Students who ride busses leave around 12:45 and walkers/pick ups head out around 12:55. Please have plans ready for your child to leave early that day...if his or her plan is different than usual, please send in a note with the dismissal plan for that day. And now for some pics.....