"P" Week, Papa Piccolo and a tour of Italy

Week of September 2-4

Sound of the Week - P

Book of the Week- Papa Piccolo

Habit of the Month- Habit of Obedience

Mom of the Month – Jan Reynolds

The students jumped right into a regular routine last week with "F" week.  I was thrilled to see how well they adapted to the Handwriting Without Tears program and enjoyed our Book of the Week.  We loved having Megan Grubbs read to us on Wednesday!

We also loved having Mr. Scott visit and read The Glorious Flight.  He even joined us when we flew our paper airplanes off the balcony in the main foyer!  Have you made paper airplanes at home this weekend?

This week's book, Papa Piccolo by Carol Talley is truly a kindergarten favorite!  It is a wonderful story of a stray cat living on the canals of Venice, Italy who is adopted by two little kittens and becomes "Papa Piccolo".  Adoption is a logical topic and in class we will talk about God adopting each of us into His family as His children.  We will be discussing a father's love and care for his family, handling disappointment and asking forgiveness.  

Our study of "P" and Papa Piccolo will include many of the same daily activities with phonics, handwriting and hands on math activities.  Thursday will be one of our favorite kindergarten "special event" days - our Tour of Italy!  Thank you Mom of the Month, Jan Reynolds for coming to help us make our own mini-pizzas, take a "gondola" trip throughout the Canal of Venice, paint the flag of Italy and enjoy other "P" activities.   Your child can bring a stuffed cat on Thursday to ride with them on the gondola, just like Papa Piccolo.  Please be sure to read our Book of the Week and return it to school the next day.  Someone else will be waiting for their turn to take it home.   

Fun P things to do at home include:

Invite a pal for a play date.

Have a picnic in the park.

Make pancakes for breakfast (or even supper!).

Eat some peaches, pineapple, popcorn, pizza or pasta.

Have a blessed week!

Beginning with the letter "F"

Week of August 25-28

Tuesday:

Principal’s Orientation 6:25-7:15

Campus Meeting 7:30 in the Sanctuary

Habit of the Month- We will continue to review the P.E.A.R.L. Rules and begin talking about our Habit of the Month for September, The Habit of Obedience

Book of the Week- The Glorious Flight

Sound of the Week - f

Mom of the Month – Meghan Grubbs

I am enjoying our days together!  Your children are truly precious!  We are learning about our friends, learning to practice Politeness, Example, Attitude, Respect, and Listening and growing to be beautiful PEARLS every day!  We've been finding our right hand, learning to hold a pencil with a proper grip, forming numerals, sharing, reading, laughing and learning together!  This week we will begin memorizing Psalm 23.  Join us!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing their Wonderfully Made book last week and their Friends book this week.  The children are becoming friends as they learn about one another, how to accept one another, and to think about everyone around them, not just themselves.  They did an amazing job with their watercolor paintings of Amber's mountain.  Each child recited the PEARL rules and celebrated by making a PEARL keychain to attach to their backpacks.  

Monday we will begin our Sound of the Week Celebrations with the letter "f".  This week we will be using feathers, finger painting fish, moving fast and slow, jumping like frogs, and folding and flying paper airplanes.  We so enjoyed our PEARL rule fruit salad that we may even enjoy some more fresh fruit this week!  Fun "f" activities you might enjoy at home would include: inviting a friend over, Family Fun Night, visiting a pet store to see fish and freezing fruit juice to make popsicles.

Our Book of the Week, The Glorious Flight, by Martin and Alice Provensen is a Caldecott Book set in the early 1900s in France and tells the true story of Louis Bleriot (pronounced "blair-yo") and the first flight across the English Channel.  As we read and discuss the book our topics will be family, methods of transportation, France, England, inventions, inventors, righting a wrong and perseverance.  God is the ultimate creator, inventor, so take time this week to notice and praise Him!  For our special event on Thursday we will fly our paper airplanes from the balcony in the Main Entrance!  

Just a couple of reminders regarding snack:

If your child brings something potentially messy for snack, (and what food is not potentially messy in the hands of a 5 year old?!) yogurt, something packed in fruit juice, something that sticks to your fingers, please send a napkin in their lunch box or snack container.  We generally eat snack outside, weather permitting, so we don't have ready access to napkins when - not if ;) - we need them.  However, we never know when weather or simply our schedule will require us to eat snack inside and the church has requested that our rooms in the basement remain a nut-free zone.  Also there are children in our kindergarten who are seriously allergic to nuts.  Therefore, please do not ever send any kind of snack containing nuts. 

Looking forward to “F” week with your children!

Here are a few pictures of this week’s fun!

working on our PEARL rules

finding roly-polies

and even though "F" week isn't until next week…we found FROGS!

Yes, we wash our hands after recess!  :)

On to Week 2!

Week of August 18-21

What an awesome start we had last week!  Your children are transitioning wonderfully.  I am incredibly blessed to be your child's teacher!  We have already begun to build many wonderful memories and to move into a routine.

Thank you for your cooperation at carpool as we learn the routine and make safety the number one priority!  Our wonderful parapros, Michelle Ginocchio and Amy Maiwald, will be greeting the children at 8:00 am and the teachers will come up to the Main Entrance at 8:15.  If you would like to meet us on the sidewalk after school, please be there by 12:00.  We will start loading cars at 12:10. 

This week we will finish the P.E.A.R.L. Rules.  These 5 words - Politeness, Example, Attitude, Respect and Listen - will form the foundation of our class.  We will be joining with the other classes to enjoy PEARL fruit salad on Thursday as well as making a PEARL keychain.

Our Book of the Week for this week is Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnston.  This delightful book is about a little girl in rural Appalachia who doesn't have a school.  A girl comes to the mountain who can read and the girls inspire one another to learn many important things including reading.  We'll be discussing friendship, family, roles, handling disappointment and perseverance.  We'll also read Rumplestiltzkin this week to compare his response to disappointment to Amber's.

Your child will be bringing home our Book of the Week one night.  Please read it with your child and return it to school the next day.  On Thursday, your child will bring home their Book of the Week journal to draw a picture and tell you about something they remember from our book.  Write down what they tell you.  Send the journal back Monday morning...we read everyone's journal on Mondays!

This week's theme will be "friends".  We'll continue to learn more about each other, the routines of school, and a little about the aspects of perseverance necessary for learning.  We will continue to work on numbers, counting the number of days we're in school and learning about the number that corresponds.  This week we'll focus on 5-8.

Here are some pictures of the fun we had this week!  

Our first day of Kindergarten!

Mat Man

Working on pictures

Leggos in the free centers room

Fireman Jude

Concentrating!

We love blocks!

Blessing Mrs. Crist on her Birthday

Mrs. Jernigan's son, Ben, came to read to our class

I pray you are having a blessed weekend and I can't wait to see your children on Monday!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Week of August 11th-14th

Welcome to our class blog!  This will be my weekly format for sharing information about the upcoming week and also pictures of the fun things that happened the previous week. 

It has been my privilege to pray for your children by name as I put their names on their baskets and put up their pictures in the classroom.  I have enjoyed meeting them, and you.  I believe God placed us together for an incredible school year to learn and grow.  We will enjoy nature walks, building, painting, cooking, daily digging into wonderful books, playing games, math activities and discovering the world of language.  We will enjoy our awesome playground and lake that is full of tadpoles and other neat creatures.  We will also study God’s Word that will prayerfully become a part of your child and their story!

Book of the Week - I Like to Be Little by Charlotte Zolotow

Sound of the Week - N/A this week

Habit of Month - (will practice PEARL rules in August and begin 
                                Habits in September)

It was a pleasure to see most of you Friday morning at the Meet and Greet!  The
children seemed very comfortable and jumped right into classroom activities. 

Please take note of these important details for Monday and Tuesday:

Please walk your child to our classroom on Monday morning.  Plan on arriving around 8:15 a.m.  Please take many pictures!  Around 8:25, we will take a class picture and then jump right into classroom activities. 

Please pick up your child in the regular noon carpool on Monday.  We have been asked to only release children to parents on the sidewalk outside the main entrance (not in the hallways).  This is now a policy throughout the Lower Elementary.  Kindergarten will arrive at carpool a few minutes early on Monday to navigate the hallways before the crowd!  If you wish to walk up to pick up your child please be at the sidewalk “pick up area” at 11:50.  If you are not there as we exit the building, we will bring them to you when we finish loading our class into cars that pull through the car line.  We will talk more about carpool on Tuesday night.   

Please send your child with a healthy snack (fruit, crackers, yogurt, veggies, etc.)
on Monday (and every other day!)  Please send a water bottle as well.  Please send water rather than juice.  We have a spill or leak in kindergarten almost every day and even clear juice is sticky!

Beginning Tuesday morning, all kindergartners will begin our normal morning routine.  Please drop your child off at the Main Auditorium entrance.  Adults and safety patrol students will be there to assist your little ones in getting safely into the building.  Once inside, the kindergarten teachers and parapros will be there to greet your child and show them where to wait.  Your child may be dropped off beginning at 8:00.  Prior to 8:00, no adults will be there to monitor your child.  

Our first parent meeting is Tuesday evening (August 12th) in our classroom.  We will begin at 7:00 and end at 7:50.   Our time is limited, so your punctuality is appreciated! 

Wednesday will be a late start day.  School will begin one hour later than normal.  All late start days are also jeans days.  Students may wear jeans with their regular dress code shirts for a suggested donation of $1 for our school missions fund.

I look forward to replacing the photo of our names above with our first day class photo!

I will be praying for your sweet little ones this weekend!  I appreciate your prayers as well!  

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. Jernigan