September in Review

First of all.....SHAME on me for not writing since Labor Day. Poor form, Mrs. Eckenrode. My excuse? At the end of every year I reflect back on the past 12 months and realize I never remember specifics of the
month of September! haha

• Did I go back to school? - yes
• Am I teaching kindergarten again? - yeppers
• Maddy doing well in school? - overall, absolutely
• Does my voice sound like a mouse? - you betcha (this one always baffles my hubby - "Really? I know why you lose your voice every year, but I still don't quite know why. You talk alot the other 11 months out of the year, yanno! LOL oh, but still not as much as I do when it comes to start off a year with a brand new bunch of kindergarten munchkins)
• Are all my hazel chores & errands now shoved off to the weekend? - for the most part

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent wasn't it? haha
This year I would like to sing praises to the month of September - I was quite apprehensive about starting the school year off with 25 kiddos, but they are really overall a great group of kids. Props to all of you the parents too! I have only been with them the past month, you did the prep work of the past 5 years for me :-) They have manners (a must in life), can write their names, use scissors, use nice touches (with their friends, myself, and materials/manipulatives around the classroom), are good friends already with the boys and girls in our class, and make good choices on a daily basis

In the month of September, we have

1. begun exploring the math manipulatives ("toys" to the kids hehe) that we are going to need to become better math students throughout the year
2. worked our way through the majority of the alphabet (one letter a day)
3. started writing in our journals
4. learned our friends' names and starting making awesome friendships

and so much more.......
Looking forward to October with the beginning of fall, more blog entries, and more learning :-)

Rain, rain, go away

Rain, rain, go away, we want to go out to play!
Here are some awesome ideas to do with your kids while it continues to pour outside:

• build a fort in the living room with your couch cushions and a giant blanket (then climb inside and read a book together)
• have a family movie night (a good recommendation: Rio)
• have a scavenger hunt for shapes
• practice writing letters with fun items such as noodles, pretzels, shaving cream (the bathtub is a great place for this), play doh, and SO much more
• take a trip to your local library (ask for a Pigeon book by Mo Willems)
• make homemade popsicles by pouring juice into ice cube trays, cover with foil, then poke toothpicks or popsicle sticks through foil into each square
• draw a picture
• dig out all that new school clothing and put on a fashion shoot/show
• make a rainbow craft by gluing fruit loops onto paper
• play on the website Starfall

First week of school

Oh my, just as fast as the first day of school flew by, so did the first week!
Everyone who donated items, I appreciate all of it SO much :-)
Thank you parents who took your time (and tired hand muscles hehe) to fill out all the paperwork that was sent home this week. (I know personally a personal joke in my family is when Maddy comes on the first day of school and always says "I don't have any homework today, but here is your stack Mom! lol)

I really think that our first week together was wonderful. Our kindergarten class this year has good manners, polite words, are good friends to each other, and already has a fantastic beginning grasp of our rules, procedures, routines, and classroom environment.

Just one heads up, on your weekly newsletter it says that on Friday, I will be sending home child's beginning of the year reviews (or how ever I have worded it). This form will be very similar to the one I had you, as the parent, fill out for me to get to know your child better. It will have observations on it about what I think your child may be struggling in and need to start working on and also what kinds of strengths I already see in place.

I hope everyone has a great holiday weekend and I will leave you with a class photo taken earlier in the week (unfortunately, two students are missing because they were absent that day, but I will get a new one in the near future)

Luke's ASL "I love you" in the front row in BEYOND cute. I wonder now if he knew what that meant or if he was going for a "rock on" approach