Mrs. Diemer’s Website!

Happy New Year friends and families!!  I hope you had a wonderful vacation and enjoyed time with each other.

January is a busy month.  There are tons of assessments for the kids that need to be completed.  So if your student comes home exhausted, it’s understandable.  These assessments are used for report cards and conferences (coming in February), and to help me see how successful the strategies I am using in the classroom are.

We have started our 5 Senses Unit in Science.  That has been really exciting.  Yesterday we used hand lenses (aka magnifying glasses) to explore objects around the classroom.  We learned that tools can help enhance our senses to help us learn about the world.  Today we will go on a walk around the school with our hand lenses and see what else we can learn.

The reading curriculum has gotten to the point where it starts to pick up the pace.  I cannot stress enough that words that are introduced in class need to just pop into their brain.  Using flashcards, exercises, writing them over and over, making up sentences that use the words, will help them become engrained and therefore, automatic.  So in the beginning of the year, the students were learning one word a week, that is now bummed up to two.  If the kids have the opportunity to have them reinforced at home, that would make a big difference.  We will also begin to introduce the short o sound in words.  Blending and reading words like cot, mop, lock, fog will be practiced.  Our reading curriculum theme is currently weather.  Hopefully, snow will come soon!!!

In the dramatic play area, the kids are pretending they are at the hair salon!!  (In high school, I worked at one and somehow ended up with mannequin heads! ha) But don’t worry, the kids know that the combs are only for pretend play, we cannot share combs and brushes.  The conversations at the salon are very rich!  It is an opportunity to use new vocabulary and expressive language, which is CRUCIAL to early reading.

Measurement, combining quantities and seperating quantities are the key concepts we will be covering in math for the next few weeks.  We have been tracing each other’s feet and measuring them.  Frank’s too–even though he was less than cooperative.  Then we will start with the very basic steps of combining and seperating numbers.  It is a slow process, but once the kids understand the concept, knowing their math facts (2+4=6, 5-3=2, etc.) will be another way for parents to help at home.  I have some measuring pictures I need to post so you can see just how we do it using non-standard measurement (i.e. not a ruler).

Here are some dates you might want to put on your January calendar:

Monday, 16: Martin Luther King Jr. Day-no school

Thursday, 19: PTA meeting, Parent Math Training

Friday, 20: Tropical Day

Friday, 27: Staff Development Day-no school for kids

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The countdown to Winter Break has begun.  As of right now we have 5 school days left.    Enjoy the vacation and time with your family! I have made packets for you to work on at home with your student (optional, but encouraged).  I would highly recommend working on reading the sight words quickly and sounding out short i and short a words to keep fresh! Check the page for high frequency words that have been introduced this year.  Don’t forget to READ every day!

Friday is our winter  concert.  We will be performing “5 Little Snowmen.”  All families, friends and neighbors are invited.  It is really so sweet.  The concert starts at 11:45.  If you are unable to attend, I will post footage of our class singing on Flickr.  This group is FABULOUS at projecting their voices, let me tell you!  They were crystal clear when we practiced today in the Multipurpose Room on the stage.

Check the Flickr site for pictures from Gingerbread Night.  It was such a good time and the treats were delicious!  Those and some other recess pictures have been posted recently.

In our sand table, we have flubber.  It is hysterical seeing the kids squeal while playing with it.  Sometimes the reminders of using small voices inside just isn’t quite enough though… Our dramatic play area has a bakery in it that the kids love.  After the vacation, we will see what the kids are interested in setting up next.  I will keep you updated on the decision.  Puzzles, legos, computers and blocks are regular favorites at play time.  I just wish, I could allow them to play more.  Kindergarten is serious business these days!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, warm and restful break.  I will miss my 22 little buddies in the mean time!  Enjoy the time with family and friends. Happy Holidays B1!

“May you have warmth in your igloo and peace in your heart.” ~Eskimo Blessing

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It was a nice break with beautiful weather!!  Did you like the placemats we made?

Storybook Character Day was a hoot!  In our class you could have seen Jasmine, Fancy Nancy, Santa, David, Mickey Mouse, Ariel, and more.  I was Madeline, Ms. Schumann was the Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie, Ms. Moglioni was Corduroy and Mrs. Pinder was the big, bad Wolf.  We rotated from class to class all day long doing activites like making puppets, Smart Board lessons, and sequencing.  It was lovely (but exhausting too!).  I took some pictures, but the day was busy, I wish I took more.  :/

In class in the upcoming weeks we will be working on Holidays Around the World.  That is when we do an activity and learn about the way people all over celebrate throughout the year.  Holidays such as St. Lucia Day, Chanukkah, New Years, Christmas (in Mexico and the Netherlands), Kwanzaa are covered during Social Studies.  You are more than welcome to come in and help me teach if there is a holiday you know a lot about or think I need to add one to my list!  Please email me!

In Math, we will be starting to decompose and recompose patterns–breaking patterns into their units.  We are taking patterns to the next level! Wooo!

This week in reading, we introduced the word “come” and are working on short i words.  The skill that smart readers use is drawing conclusions and we will start to, too!  Just today we divided the children into 4 groups to really support the early readers in the kindergarten grade.  You may hear your student telling you that they are going to another teacher, that is true.  Each day they will have one half hour of intensive reading instruction geared toward them and other students on their level specifically.

And the great news is, today, we worked on making lower case letters!  (I know, exciting, right?!?!)  I will be stressing the importance of writing on the lines and making letters properly.  Letters like y, j, q, p and g need to be lower than the rest and t, l, k, h, f, d, and b need to be taller.  I have stated the KINDERGARTEN CHALLENGE to write their names using one capital and the rest lower case letters.  At home, please reinforce this for their first, middle and last names.

In the dramatic play we have the vet’s office set up still–have you seen the pics? So cute!!  Next Monday, our bakery will go up with the help of the kids.  That will go along with our Gingerbread Night and reading extensions.    In the sandbox, I have packing peanuts.  Computers are becoming even more popular as the kids are becoming more savvy using software and my linkable.  (www.linkable.com/lisabf10)

Thank you Mrs. R for the candies for the treasure box!  It was certainly appreciated.

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On December 8th, the DelCastle High School Culinary Arts department comes to our school at about 6:30.  The kids will come in pajamas, listen to the Gingerbread Man story, then make gingerbread cookies, houses, drink hot cocoa, make snowmen out of marshmallows and make holiday cards right in our cafeteria!!  All kindergarten students and their families are invited.  It is completely free, but the DelCastle students ask that we bring canned goods in exchange.  It is such a great time, mark your calendars now!!!  I will be there (sans the pajamas–shhh)!

Other events:

Well you know Storybook Character Day is Tuesday, November 22.  Parents are welcome between 9:30 and 10.   Students are encouraged to dress up like a storybook character.

Picture Re-Take Day is November 29.

Wednesday, December 21 is Polar Express Day.  The whole school wears pajamas (again, I avoid pajamas by dressing up as the conductor!!!) and reads The Polar Express and does extension activities around the book.  It is super fun.  Hot cocoa and cookies, train tickets, and such go in my planbook!!

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The tree outside our classroom has FINALLY been identified.  It is a WILLOW OAK tree.  Phew.  (Audubon let me down, I have to say.) But I can sleep now that I know exactly what is growing on our playground.  ha.  We love that tree.  Seriously, it gets hugs on a regular basis.

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Hey everyone!  I have to say it was wonderful getting to talk with you during conferences.  Your children are so special and everyone of them is so important to make up the fantastic group that I have this year.  If you have any questions, need clarification, etc. regarding conference conversations or classroom activities, please do not hesitate to call, email or stop in.

This week we have started learning about Thanksgiving.  It is really heart-warming to hear all of the students share what they are thankful for.  Aside from family members…recess comes up a lot! But we have been talking about how the Pilgrims came over in the Mayflower a long time ago.  The Wampanoag tribe helped the Pilgrims by teaching them how to fish, plant crops, and hunt.  They used different tools a long time ago.  To celebrate a successful harvest, the two groups had a feast.

We have also been participating in a canned soup drive.  My challenge for the kids was to collect one can for each person in the room.  We have one more day of collecting and currently we have 19 cans.  I hope the kids will learn the importance of helping others at an early age and become empathetic, caring individuals as they grow!

Storybook Character Day is Nov. 22!  I am going to be Madeline.  I cannot wait.  This year, all of the kindergarten teachers will rotate from classroom to classroom and do a read aloud activity that goes along with their costume.  For the past five years, I have been the Gingerbread Man.  It feels good to switch things up. But I will have to read The Stinky Cheese Man to the kids soon, it’s my all time favorite book!

I have been posting some pictures on the Flickr site so you can see the patterns the kids are making.  They have also been playing in the Dramatic Play area of the classroom that was recently set up as a Veterinarians’ Office.  It’s amazing to hear the students use new vocabulary when role-playing.  Mr. Ostheimer dropped off his bear today, the kids were able to cure him of his cough.  Love it!  I hope to take some video footage and post that as well.  Things are crazy at the moment, but I promise to try. 

If I don’t post again before Thanksgiving, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  I hope that you travel safely and eat tons!  Read with your child, I am sure they will amaze you by pointing out words they can read or sound out some consonant-vowel-consonant words (i.e. MAP, DOG, SIT).  These kids are sponges and are soaking up everything I am teaching (–makes life so much easier for me!) but it is truly a wonderful time to witness and be a part of.  Happy Thanksgiving B1 Families!!!

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