October 29-November 2

We hope the students enjoyed a few extra days off and will return to school refreshed and ready to continue working hard.  We cannot believe it is nearly November and we will soon be meeting you for conferences.  The link to sign up for a conference time went out through Campus messenger last week, please let us know if you have questions about signing up.  Also, the PSC is in need of help on conference nights, check out the sign ups below. 

Important Dates and Reminders:
October 31: Wear Orange and Black
November 8 & 13: Portfolio Conferences
November 15: Packer Wear
November 16: Half Day
November 19: Veteran's Day Concert
November 21-25: No School

Fall 2018 Teacher Conference Meals

Fall 2018 Teacher Conference Meals

Fall 2018 Book Fair

Fall 2018 Book Fair

Here is a peek at the week:

Math: Mathematicians will learn all about numbers 6-10 and how using a five group can help us to see and build those numbers quickly! We will use different tools to build these numbers and make equations to match. Mathematicians will also explore equal and not equal by comparing both digits to objects and objects to objects.  

Reading: This week in reading we will continue to read unknown books and learn more strategies to do so.  One thing readers will learn to do is take a picture walk by checking the cover and then looking at all the pictures to get an idea of how the book might go.  We will also pay attention to how many words are on a page and then try to match what we say to that (ex. if there are four words on the page, try to say four words).  Lastly, we will work on rereading books again and again using a smooth voice.

Writing: Writing this week will focus mainly on sentence writing!  Writers will learn that sentences are a way to share more information than labels.  We will be using the high frequency (or as we call them snap) words to create sentences in patterns across pages.  The snap words we have learned so far are: and, a, come, here, have, is, I, like, me, the, this, we.   These are words that your child can practice at home by writing them or finding them in books.

Science: This week we will begin an exploration of weather.  We will become "weather watchers" and will learn important things to be on the look out for when studying the weather.  We will be spending time outside to observe and write about the weather and will begin to discuss how the weather impacts people and the things they need.

October 22-25

What a fun and exciting week in Kindergarten!  Check out the creativity students displayed when creating props and acting out to tell their old favorite storybooks!  We also had a blast decorating pumpkins!  Thank you for all of the donations of materials!

Important Dates and Reminders:
This week is Red Ribbon Week
10/22: Wear sweats or team apparel
10/23: Wear crazy socks
10/23: Family Night 6-7pm
10/24: Wear Red
10/25&10/26: NO SCHOOL

Math: On Monday we will take our Unit 1 math test.  This week we will meet with each of the students to go over their test and celebrate the parts they were successful with and then talk about what (if any) mistakes they made and how they can grow from those.  This is part of a growth mindset and embracing mistakes as a way for us to recognize where we have room to improve!

Reading: This week we will start a new unit in reading that will take us one step closer to conventional reading.  We will explore different types of books and work to understand the way the we can use both the pictures and the words to really read.  Starting Friday, we will begin assessments to see exactly where students are at with reading skills so we are able to meet them right where they are at.

Writing: This week in writing we will move from writing about our favorite objects to writing about our favorite places.  To do this work we will write across the pages of a book by thinking of the parts of the place we love.  We will continue work to be brave spellers and try to add at least 5 labels to each page.  Writers will also learn that they can make decisions about the words and pictures on their page and will look at the work of other options to inspire them.

Social Studies: As a culminating activity for our school study unit, students will pick a topic and present what they've learned! Here are a list of some topics they may choose: 

• What problems do we have a school at school and who could help fix them? 
• A map of our school helper offices and important places in school 
• Choose one school helper and teach about their jobs and tools

After choosing a topic, students will create a poster or book to present about their topics. I can't wait to hear them present about what they have learned!

October 15-19

Our field trip is Friday! We will be outside exploring at Heckrodt; please dress your child accordingly.

We are still collecting socks for Kid President's Socktober!   Please send in new pairs of socks you wish to donate by October 31!  Our school goal is to collect 500 pair as a school to donate to Homeless Connections of Appleton.

Upcoming Events: 
10/19:  Heckrodt and Fire Station Field Trip--Please send back form if you have not already done so!
10/25&10/26: NO SCHOOL

Reading: As we wrap up our "Old Favorite" books unit, students will be acting out the books that they know and love! We will start the week off by creating puppets and thinking carefully about how those characters look, act, and feel. Then, we will think about where the story takes place and create settings. Readers are encouraged to think about the problem in the story and how it is resolved in the end when acting out. Acting out stories is a great way for early readers to develop comprehension skills.

Writing: Wow! The Kindergartners have been LOVING our new writing unit. They are so motivated to write about things they love. This week, writers will be encouraged to try their best to write words on the page, even if they know the words are not spelled exactly right! They will also work with writing partners to make their writing even better by asking questions and adding more. Finally, we will decorate pumpkins and write about our pumpkins.  The pumpkins were donated by a Kindergarten family...Thank you! If you are able to donate any foam stickers or fun things to decorate our pumpkins with, we would appreciate it! Please send donations to school by Wednesday.

Math:  At the end of the week, students will take the unit 1 assessment. As a culmination of this unit's big ideas, mathematicians will be rotating through centers based on adding and subtracting, subitizing, number order, and number identification.  Here are some pictures of what the centers will look like:

This bingo game support subitizing. Click here to download. 

A great way to practice number identification.
Click here to download. 

Social Studies: Students will finish our centers to dig even deeper and apply the knowledge they gained about our school helpers and school community. Later in the week, we will read about maps to figure out what they are and why we use them. Finally, groups of students will illustrate one room of our school and we will put them together to create a large map.

October 8-12

We kicked off our CREATE Kindness challenge on Thursday at our all school assembly!  We are collecting socks for Kid President's Socktober!   Please send in new pairs of socks you wish to donate by October 31!  Our school goal is to collect 500 pair as a school to donate to Homeless Connections of Appleton.

Upcoming Events: 
10/11:  PSC Family Event at Skate City
10/12: Scholastic Orders due
10/19:  Heckrodt and Fire Station Field Trip--Please send back form if you have not already done so!
10/25&10/26: NO SCHOOL

Reading: As the Kindergartners work toward more conventional reading, we will be working on learning "snap words", or words that appear frequently in books but are not easily sounded out. Our current snap words are I, is, and, the, & me. Another strategy for beginning readers is to look at the picture, think about what would make sense, and then read! If you have any pattern books at home, give your child the pattern on the first page and then watch as they use the pictures to read the rest! 

Writing: We will wrap up our very first writing unit and celebrate by having everyone edit a piece of writing, fancy it up by illustrating, and then reading it to the class. Students will bring home their writing work from the unit. If you are able, look through it with your child. They worked really hard! We begin a new writing unit on Wednesday and I believe it will be extremely exciting for the kiddos! The  unit is called Show and Tell. Look for a note and Ziploc bag to come home early in the week so that students can bring ONE thing in to show, tell, and write about! 

 Math:  We will work on number order this week, especially how to find missing numbers in a series.  We will also review the shapes and work on seeing numbers in various ways.  We will work with a new game called Tiny Polka Dots.  The cards for the game show numbers in a variety of ways and we will work together to sequence numbers in a variety of ways.  This would be a great game to purchase for home as there are SO many things you can do with the cards to promote math thinking.

Social Studies: The students love interviewing our school helpers! It is great to visit the different offices in the school to learn about what our school helpers do.  After introducing the new social studies centers, students will have a chance to work in each center this week. Students will create building block structures of where our school community helpers work. We will create webs that describe the work of the school community helpers. Finally, students will look at an assortment of pictures, determine the problem, and decide which community helper(s) could be called to fix the problem!

October 1-5

Important Dates and Reminders:

This week is homecoming week in Kaukauna, see dress up days below:

Monday-PJ/Comfy Clothes
Tuesday-Superhero day (just a t-shirt or parade, doesn't need to be a costume)
Wednesday- NDLC Wear for the parade
Thursday-Sports Team Wear
Friday-Kaukauna Spirit (wear black and orange)

10/11:  PSC Family Event at Skate City
10/12: Scholastic Orders due
10/19:  Heckrodt and Fire Station Field Trip--Please send back form if you have not already done so!
10/25&10/26: NO SCHOOL

Check out the October lunch menu.

This October students at New Directions will CREATE Kindness as they collect socks for Kid President's Socktober sock drive.  Look for more information to come home with your child on October 4.  Check out the link below for more information on Socktober!

  http://soulpancake.com/socktober/

We look forward to making a difference as a school!

Reading: On Monday, we will have a celebration to mark the end of our first reading unit. The readers will choose their favorite book to carry around during our reading parade through the school. Stay tuned for a video!  Students have worked so hard to learn to retell their old favorite storybooks using the exact words from the book, sounding like the characters, and using connecting words to keep the story going. As we continue to work in these "Old Favorites" in our next unit, we will learn to use the pictures and words to really think about how the character might be feeling and what they are thinking. These colorful stories provide a great base to begin that comprehension work with our emerging readers!

Writing:  Students will learn to plan their story across pages, add more details in pictures and words, and add speech bubbles to their writing. At home, you could help your child generate ideas to write about! Practice telling the story orally and asking questions to add more details. This helps students to write more vivid stories. Oral storytelling is a key component in the writing process and will help students to get their ideas on to the page. Here is how Kindergartners are taught to think about the writing process:

 Pretty amazing work for these young writers!


Math: This week, mathematicians will work on adding and subtracting using pictures. We will continue to work writing numbers 1-5 and seeing numbers of objects in a group. Students will work on number order using dot to dots.

Phonics:  Fundations as our phonics program. This program focuses on foundational skills necessary for successful reading and writing.
To help your student be successful, you can practice letter formation at home! Check your child's backpack for:

• A copy of the verbalizations to form each letter  
• Handwriting paper in a page protector. 
• You can use this with a dry erase marker so that it is reusable! Socks make great erasers:)

Social Studies: This week, we will begin our School Study unit. Throughout the unit, we will be exploring who the community helpers are in our school and conducting interviews to learn more about what they do! We will be learning about interviews and planning what kinds of questions we are going to ask our school community helpers. We will be conducting interviews with a few school helpers this week and some more next week!  We are excited to start this project!

September 24-28

We are very proud of how well the students handled all of the safety drills we practiced last week.  They were very understanding when they were explained and brave when they practiced.  Of course, we hope we will only ever have to practice these things, but if a situation of any type (weather, fire, intruder) comes up we will be prepared.


Important Dates and Reminders:
September 25th:Family Night 5:30-7:00
September 26th:  Picture Day (send envelopes if you wish to order on before this day)
October 19th: Heckrodt Field Trip

Math: In math this week our focus will shift from showing number quantity to comparing number quantity.  We will learn about a new math tool called a comparing mat that will help us to distinguish numbers as greater than and less than.  We will also be exploring and classifying shapes.  We will also revisit and practice addition and subtraction and begin working with number formation.  Also, please watch your child's folder this week for a packet of math games to play at home that will reinforce seeing numbers as quantities and taking numbers apart and putting them together.

Reading: It was very exciting to move into "reading" old favorite storybooks last week.  We were so excited to be able to open these new "gifts" of reading!  One way to support this work at home is by reading stories that are familiar to your child over and over and over again until it becomes a story they can 'read' on their own. 

We are continuing our work in storybooks in the classroom as well, trying to say even more on every page to make our words match the text and connecting pages to make our reading sound even more grown up by using phrases like "and then" and "after that."  We will even be looking for and reading words we know and see again and again.

Writing: This week we will be learning to write true stories! This means we will be taking an event from our lives, telling that story and then working to show it in pictures and words across three pages. We will practice this work as a class by writing a few class “true stories” together.  As true story writers we will need to do ALOT of story telling to help us say what happened first, next and last.  We will also use our writing folders to help us generate ideas for our true stories.  We will also work  on showing details in our drawings and will be pushing ourselves to write many letters in words we stretch out.

Social Studies: Check out our published rules!!

This week we will learn and practice taking positive  time outs for times we need to refocus our learning and think about the rules.  This is a part of our approach to community and discipline called Responsive Classroom.  Here is the Responsive Classroom definition of time out: Time-out in a Responsive Classroom is a positive, respectful, and supportive teaching strategy used to help a child who is just beginning to lose self-control to regain it so they can do their best learning. An equally important goal of Responsive Classroom time-out is to allow the group’s work to continue when a student is misbehaving or upset. Giving that child some space from the scene of action where they can regroup while still seeing and hearing what the class is doing accomplishes both of these goals.

September 17-20

Hi K Families! We hope you have a wonderful weekend. Enjoy the nice weather!

If you are able to donate extra snack for the days when someone doesn't have one, we would appreciate it! Our healthy snack keeps our brains ready for learning:)


Upcoming events:
September 21: NO SCHOOL for students

September 25: Family Night, Hot Dogs and How to Help--more info to come soon!
September 26: Picture day-- you can send envelopes to school on or before this day!
October 19:  Field Trip to Fire Station and Heckrodt (more info coming soon)

Reading: This week we will be starting a new bend in our reading unit, meaning the focus shifts a bit. We have been reading learn-about-the-world books (informational texts) to practice rereading and thinking about how pages go together. This week, we will begin to focus on reading old favorite storybooks. We have been reading books such as Mrs. Wishy-Washy, The Carrot Seed, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff throughout the last couple of weeks. Now, we can “read” by retelling the story using the character’s voice and saying more and more of the story. Have your child practice reading a familiar book at home! They are great storytellers!

Writing: In writing, we have started to create books! Students are using packets of three or more pages to write about things they know about. First, they plan what they are going to write about by pointing to the page and talking through their book. Then, they draw and write! Later this week, we will be working with writing buddies that will ask questions about our writing; this will help students to look over their writing and start to think about revising. Finally, we will continue to stretch out words to label our work.

Math: Mathematicians will learn about adding and subtracting this week. We will also discuss the partners of a number. Partners are any numbers that work together to make another number (i.e. 3+1 and 2+2 are partners of 4). We will build numbers using many different materials including our purple, blue, and red tiles
   Here are what they look like!



Social Studies:  Each person in our classroom has now chosen and illustrated a hope and dream for the school year!  We then created rules for our classroom that will help us reach those hopes and dreams.  This week we will practice what it looks, sounds and feels like to follow these rules and will also discuss what happens when we forget to follow the rules (which will happen, of course).  Our hope for this is that students take greater ownership over the rules and grow to understand how to help one another follow them and to also understand how to fix or change things when we forget to follow a rule.