Miss Hutchison's Class Blog

Here are some highlights from our third week of school!

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OUR LEARNING:

Behavior – We wrapped up our “Cool Tools” activities this week. Our kindergarteners now have a “toolbox” full of problem-solving and friendship strategies. We will be practicing using our cool tools throughout the whole school year! 

Popcorn Words – Our popcorn words this week were “I,” “see,” and “yellow.” We sang songs about the color yellow, learned about our friend Yasmine Yellow, colored with yellow crayons, made a yellow school bus craft, and wore lots of yellow to celebrate our learning! We also searched for the words “I” and “see” in morning messages and books throughout the week. 

Math – This week, we got to draw our own math “scenes” for the numbers 2 through 5. For our scenes of 2, we drew 2 trees, 2 houses, 2 cats, etc. This helps students to get a good grasp of each number! We also continued learning how to write our numbers this week, by writing #4 and #5 on whiteboards and in our number writing books. 

Writing – We started putting our pencils onto paper during writing this week! We’ve begun by drawing sketches that tell a story. For example, we drew a picture and added details of a school bus to tell the story of our special bus tour! Students are also learning how to add labels to their sketches to tell the reader what they drew. 

 

Reading – We began our reader’s workshop this week by learning what our jobs are during reading time. I have some special jobs, and so do our kindergarteners. 🙂 We also learned that we can be a reader ANYWHERE! We can read words all around us, not just in books. We practiced this by finding things we can read around our classroom: the word wall, our name tags, the bathroom signs, and more! Additionally, we’ve continued our shared reading with poems for Cc and Dd. 

 

Bus Tour: On Tuesday, our class got the chance to learn all about bus safety! We learned how to get on and off of the bus, how to sit Bottom-to-Bottom and Back-to-Back, and how to behave when we’re on the bus. We even got to go for a little drive on the school bus. Thanks so much to our bus drivers for always keeping our kids safe!!

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CELEBRATIONS:

Top Frog – We loved having Gabe as our Top Frog this week. Next week’s top frog is Kayla! Your child will have a chance to be our top frog soon, too. 

Outstandings – Our kindergarteners did an amazing job during our tornado, fire, and lockdown drills this week! We earned 3 “Outstanding” awards from Mrs. Reagan for our super behavior during these drills!

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Notes for Parents:

• Would you like to be a mystery reader in our classroom this year? Follow this link to sign up for a date to surprise our class. 
• Remember to send in two snacks with your kindergartener each day. We have hungry bellies, and these snacks give us energy to keep learning! 
• Please make sure to check your child’s FROG folder every day.

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 17 – STEAM
• Tuesday, September 18 – Music, Library, Micah’s birthday!
• Wednesday, September 19 – P.E.
• Thursday, September 20 – Art, PTC Meeting 
• Friday, September 21 – Music, Wear BLUE
• Thursday, September 27 – Picture Day

YELLOW

Wear yellow tomorrow (Friday) to celebrate our color of the week! 

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EARLY RELEASE

Friday, September 14 is an early release day.  Students will be dismissed at 12:15 p.m.

• On early release days, and often every day, our parent pick-up students are walked to the meeting area by the office at least 5 minutes before our dismissal time.  Promptness often eases little one’s fears. 🙂
• Lunch is eaten at home on early release days.
• If you need to order a sack lunch from our Food Service for your child to eat tomorrow, PLEASE let me know by the end of TODAY….THURSDAY!  Please email me at ahutchi@hpseagles.net.  Sack lunch is the available lunch choice for all students.  If your child will be ordering one, please indicate the milk choice of white or chocolate.  These sack lunches will be sent home with your child.

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TWO SNACKS

Please ensure that you are sending two snacks with your child every day. My big tub full of extra snacks is already almost empty after only ten days of school! I know this routine is brand new for your kindergartener, so we have been talking in class about knowing where your snack is, eating only one snack in the morning and one in the afternoon, etc. It would be so helpful if you could reiterate this at home, too! Thanks so much for your support. 

Can you believe we are already through our second week of school?! Time is flying! Here are some highlights from our week.

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OUR LEARNING:

Behavior – We have been practicing many procedures this week, including sitting at the carpet, walking quietly in the hallway, and more. We also talked about the kinds of choices we should make during the school day (green choices), and ones that we should never do in school (red choices). Additionally, our class works each day to earn smile points (for green choices) and frown points (for red choices). If we have more smile points than frowns at the end of the day, we get a class win! Ten class wins = a party!!! 

Popcorn Words – Our popcorn words this week were “red” and “a.” We sang songs about the color red, learned about our friend Randy Red, colored with red crayons, made a red book, and wore lots of red to celebrate our learning! We also searched for the word “a” in morning messages and books throughout the week. 

Math – We have been learning all about numbers 1-10 this week! First, we read a special counting book to introduce us to “number scenes,” which are pictures that have a specific number of objects (3 buildings, 3 people, 3 birds, 3 bridges, etc.) We used foam tiles to represent different numbers. We are also practicing writing our numbers with whiteboards and with our number-writing books. On Friday, we played some fun math games to reinforce our learning! 

 

Writing – During writing workshop, we began learning about the importance of oral language development. We want to be able to tell great stories before we begin writing! This week, we practiced telling details to each other as Peanut Butter & Jelly partners. Students told their partners about their favorite foods, favorite sports, and things they ate for breakfast this week. 

Reading – Our class has been practicing our reading skills by doing shared reading each day. Shared reading is a time when the students and I all read a poem or story together at the same time. This helps build fluency and some important concepts of reading for our little ones! This week, we read poems about the letter Aa and the letter Bb. We also were detectives when we searched for those letters in our shared reading poems! 

Play Time: Our kindergarteners love play time in the Frog Room! Every afternoon, each child gets to pick what they want to do during play time: kitchen, Legos, blocks, cubes, shapes, play-doh, and more! 

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CELEBRATIONS:

Top Frog – Next week’s top frog is Gabe! Your child will have a chance to be our top frog soon, too. 

Birthdays – We loved celebrating Harper’s birthday on Tuesday!

Lego Gift – Nathan and his family decided to do a “random act of kindness” for our classroom by providing us with two bins of Legos AND a hand-crafted Lego board for us to build upon! Thank you so much for your kindness…our kindergarteners absolutely love building with our new Legos! 

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Notes for Parents:

• Would you like to be a mystery reader in our classroom this year? Follow this link to sign up for a date to surprise our class. 
• Remember to return your child’s library book by Tuesday so he/she can check out a new book! 
• Please make sure to check your child’s FROG folder every day.

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Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, September 10 – Kayla’s birthday, STEAM
• Tuesday, September 11 – Music, Library
• Wednesday, September 12 – P.E.
• Thursday, September 13 – Art, Jet’s Pizza Night
• Friday, September 14 – Music, Wear YELLOW, Early Release Day @ 12:15

Remember to wear RED tomorrow!! We have been learning about the color word “RED” this week and want to celebrate tomorrow by wearing RED!

We took our first trip to the school library today! Mrs. Vandenberg reads us a special story every time we visit.

Then, we get to pick out a book to bring home for the week.

Each child’s book is coming home in their labeled library bag.

Please return the book in it’s library bag by next Tuesday so we can check out new books. Thank you & happy reading!!

WOW! What an amazing first week! These kindergarteners are ROCKSTARS and have worked so hard this week. Check out what we’ve learned so far:

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OUR LEARNING:

Morning Routine – We are practicing using our lockers, taking care of our FROG folders, making our lunch choices, and starting our morning on the right foot. Here is a picture of your child’s morning routine here at school.  

Using Supplies – We have so many awesome tools that we get to use at school! This week, we became crayon, scissor, and glue stick certified. We put our certification into practice by making some shoes for Pete the Cat! The kindergarteners did a great job of cutting and gluing the shoe pieces together. 

Choice Time – Our frog friends have been exploring lots of different playtime choices that we have in our classroom: cubes, blocks, kitchen, shapes, and more! 

Bathroom Buddies – We are learning all about how to use the restroom quickly and keep our bathroom clean. Here is the chart we made that helps us remember what we should/should not do in the bathroom. 

Hopes & Dreams – This week, we read a book called “BIG PLANS.” Just like the characters in the book, our class also has big plans for what we want to learn in kindergarten. Here are some of our “Hopes & Dreams” for our kindergarten year! 

Cool Tools – I have a special toolbox full of “Cool Tools” that help us learn about many social aspects of school. Every day, we read a story and do an activity that teaches us about a cool tool.

First, we read Rainbow Fish. We learned that we need to be like an ERASER and forgive ourselves for mistakes that we make and learn from them. We also need to forgive others too who may say or do hurtful things to us. We colored a picture of a rainbow fish…and even got a shimmery and shiny scale to put on it! 

Next, we read Chrysanthemum. learned that words spoken hurt other’s feelings and are impossible to take back, like toothpaste. We learned that we are all special and unique and then “brushed” away hurtful words with real toothpaste.

End of the Day Buddies – We love our fifth grade buddies from Mr. Cooley’s classroom! They help us get on the bus and go home every day. 

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Notes for Parents:

• Please send in two snacks for your child each day. It works wonderfully if these snacks are in a spot in their backpack and not in their lunchbox; this saves kindergarteners any confusion about what they should be eating for snacks and lunches! 🙂 
• Please make sure to check your child’s FROG folder every day.
• If your child will be ordering milk with their cold lunch, please put a note either on their lunchbox or in their FROG folder. This really streamlines our lunch process!
• Information about classroom birthdays came home this week. This document is also linked on this page of our blog
• Our September calendar came home on Thursday. It can also be found on this page of our blog. Find popcorn words, important dates, and more on this calendar!  

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Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, September 4 – STEAM, Library, Harper’s birthday!
• Wednesday, September 5 – MUSIC
• Thursday, September 6 – P.E.
• Friday, September 7 – ART, Wear RED (we will learn about red all week, so this is our little celebration)!
• Friday, September 14 – Early Release @ 12:15 pm

We had an AWESOME first day together full of playing, exploring our school, and learning a little about what we will do this year in kindergarten! Here are some pictures from our day:

Morning Time

On Our “Pete the Cat” Scavenger Hunt

 

Lunch Time

Play Time

Thanks again for all of your enthusiasm for this school year! Your kindergarteners are SO special, and I can’t wait to spend 180 more days learning with them!

~Miss Hutchison

If it is raining tomorrow morning when school starts, what will we do?

• When the buses arrive, the children will be escorted into the building and into my classroom. If you are following the bus you can feel free to come in the outside door “K” nearest to my room (walk around by the bus loop to find this door!). 
• If you are driving your child you are welcome to come to door “K” and see your child into school.
• If you prefer to walk him/her to the school lobby and say good-bye, you may do so! Then, your child will be walked down to our classroom by staff in our building.

Thanks for your flexibility! I’m looking forward to a great day tomorrow! 🙂 

Due to student allergies, our classroom is a NUT FREE ZONE. What does this mean for your child’s snacks and lunches here at school?

SNACKS: Since our classroom is a smaller space with a great chance for cross-contamination, we ask that all snacks be peanut and nut free. I’ll have a few extra snacks on hand in case we need to swap out any snacks that may have nuts, but it would be a huge help if you check snack labels at home before sending them to school! Here is a link to a website that shares some great nut-free snack options. We do our best to clean our hands and tables before & after each snack, but with an active kindergarten classroom, we’d rather be safe than sorry! 

LUNCHES: We offer special accommodations in the lunchroom for students with allergies, and the lunchroom food areas are thoroughly sanitized before and after every meal. Therefore, your child MAY pack peanut and nut products to eat during lunch time! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are welcome. 🙂 

RECAP:

• Nut products in snacks? No, thank you.
• Nut products in lunches? SURE!

Thank you so much for partnering with us to keep our kiddos safe!! Again, please contact me with any additional questions. 

Your child’s first day of kindergarten is this Tuesday, August 28! How exciting! I know this post is long, but it has lots of important information, so please take a few moments to read it thoroughly.

First, thank you so much for taking the time to come to open house and check out our classroom! I know you were given a lot of information in your child’s blue FROG folder and the yellow envelope that came home with you.  The yellow envelope contains many school forms that need your attention.  Please read through these forms, complete them, and return them with your child THIS WEEK. Thank you to those who donated extra supply items, too. Kindergarten is definitely a busy place, and it is amazing to have these supplies on hand to begin our year!!  

Here are a few reminders for things to bring on Tuesday: 

• Send your kindergartener to school wearing one of the name tags that I put in their blue FROG folder. Those are for day 1 and day 2 of school. This will help us make sure every kinder gets to the correct classroom. 
• Send your kinder’s “ME Bag” with 2 items in it to help us get to know a little something about them.  Be sure to write their name on the bag.
• Send a note for end of the day plans IF they are different than what you stated on your parent survey or in the confirmation email from me.  
• Gym shoes, a cuddle buddy, an extra set of clothes, and a family photo (if you haven’t brought them in yet).
• A lunch from home OR make sure your child knows what hot lunch choice they will be having.  There are 2 hot lunch choices each day (blue or white). Here is the link to the August/September menu for lunch options.  If needed, check out the Hudsonville Food Service website for payment information and information about setting up a hot lunch account. If your child will be having home lunch but ordering milk, please attach a small note on the outside of their lunch box or in their FROG folder for the first few weeks of school. This helps me (and them) remember they would like milk.  They will get to choose from chocolate or white milk inside the cafeteria. Lunch ordering is brand new for most of our kindergarteners.  I will be helping them learn the process, and soon they will be professional lunch-orderers!  It will greatly help me and them if you could have some discussion on what they are having for lunch daily (home lunch, blue or white lunch choice).  Often times a note telling me which lunch choice your child would like can help, too, until your kiddo gets used to the routines.
• 2 healthy snacks for your kindergartener.  We will have a morning snack time and an afternoon snack time every day.  
• Any completed paperwork that you have from the Open House packets. Please put this in your kinder’s blue FROG folder.  I will be sure to deliver the papers to the correct places! 

Upcoming Dates: 

• Tuesday, August 28 – ME Bags, MUSIC, First Day of School! 
• Wednesday, August 29 – P.E. (Make sure your child has gym shoes at school by this day!)
• Thursday, August 30 – ART
• Friday, August 1 – NO SCHOOL
• Monday, September 3 – NO SCHOOL
• Tuesday, September 4 – STEAM, Harper’s Birthday!
• Wednesday, September 5 – MUSIC
• Thursday, September 6 – P.E.
• Friday, September 7 – ART, Wear RED!

Remember, at this age, these little ones often get their cues from parents and adults around them.  If we get emotional and cry….they will too.  The more excited and reassuring you can be with your child, the better.  I truly LOVE what I do, and I will definitely be here to calm any fears that may happen, whether it be with a loving hand to hold, a distraction, or hugs of reassurance!

I can’t wait for our first day of kindergarten together! As always, be sure to email me if you have ANY questions. Thanks again for sharing your amazing child with me this year!!

See you soon,

Miss Hutchison