Tips for working with your child at home

We are working on fine motor skills.  These activities can also be done at home!
Spooning beans one at a time into a container.

Putting toothpicks into a salt shaker.

Using tongs to move animals from one bowl to another.

Stringing beads.

Using tongs to fill an ice tray with pom poms.

Stacking tiny blocs and using tongs.

Putting beads on pipe cleaner.

When I introduce letters, we spend time talking about the lines and how to form the letters correctly.
You can refer to the names of the lines as I have marked them on the whiteboard.

I have written some alphabet books to review the letters, sounds and introduce sight words and reading.

We talk about one page at a time. We highlight sight words and use one to one correspondence
by touching the dots under the words as we read.  Practice this at home!

These books are an excellent way to begin reading.  I highly recommend you get a shoe box or container to keep all the books that we do at school.   Have your child practice them at night before bed or part of homework.  Ask about the highlighted words and check for one to one correspondence by touching the dots.

We are working daily on rhyming words.  Say two words and ask your child if they rhyme.  Mix it up, sometimes saying rhyming words and sometimes don't say two words that rhyme. i.e. Does dog rhyme with log?  Does cat rhyme with clock?  Later you can say a word and ask your child to give you a word that rhymes with that word.
i.e.  What rhymes with red?

Another lesson this week, was how to handle a book.

Here are the first day of school pictures!

Thanks for returning your beautiful squares.  We will have them up for a while, then I will put them in a scrap book in the class library.

First Week of School

We had an exciting and fun first week of kindergarten/ transitional kindergarten!
Busy and engaged in our activities. Working on being a peacemaker and making good choices.
Thanks for all your help and support! I am enjoying your beautiful children.

Playdoh, working on fine motor skills.

Making good choices.

Fun Friday - building blocks. Learning how to share and work with others.

Working on our cutting skills!  Practice at home too.

Building puzzles and working with others.

We want to be peacemakers.

Building with three dimensional shapes.

Alphabet puzzle.

Practicing name writing.

Cutting skills.

Loving the train set.

Project from the story, Oh, David!

Cutting and more cutting.

Classroom library after the listening post.

Welcome to my new Kindergarten and Transitional Kindergartens!

I am excited to start a new year of fun and learning

and can't wait to meet all the children and families on Orientation day.

Early bird kindergarteners are invited to come at 8:00 a.m. on August 12th.

Later gator transitional kindergarteners are invited to come at 9:00 a.m. on August 12th.

We will meet each other and see our classroom and campus.

I have prepared a little talk for the parents while the children go on a school tour with some of our

Mariposa students.

I have been teaching for many years and I love my job!

I teach kindergarten because of the music, singing, dancing, reading stories and all the excitement of five and six year olds and especially enjoy teaching reading and writing.  I love animals and weaving science and social studies into my thematic teaching.  Oh, I also love teaching math.

I want to introduce you to the most important people in my life.

This is my daughter Heather, her husband Travis and our beautiful 1 year old granddaughter Harper.
Heather is also a teacher. She will be teaching fourth grade at Smiley School in Redlands. 

This is my husband Steve and I visiting our son Wesley, who lives on Maui.

This is Toby, he is a Cavalier King Charles.

This is Molly, Toby's sister.  They keep us busy and entertained.

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