Three Ways to Read a Book

This week during the Daily 5 I taught the children the three ways to read a book. They are: Read the Pictures, Read the Words (listen to someone read you the words), Retell the Story. We review these three ways daily and the children are building stamina by practicing reading to self. We are up to three minutes and the ultimate goal by the end the year is thirty minutes. I think we are off to a great start. Each child has a personal book bag with five appropriate books. Next week I will be adding three more books to each bag. I wish that you could all be a fly on the wall during Daily 5 to observe your child sitting still and reading their books. Today one of the children brought back her library book and she told me that she read the book to her Mom. When I asked how she read her Mom the book she replied "I read her the pictures Mrs. Catton." A wonderful kindergarten moment! Use these three ways to read a book with your child at home when you are reading with our child.

Daily 5

• Read to Self
• Read to Others
• Listening to Reading
• Word Work
• Writing

Another Great Day

We had another great day in  room 23. The day  started with a prayer and a song about the Multiple Intelligences. The smart we focused on today was People Smart. We read a great book about teamwork and had a wonderful discussion about the times we have used teamwork in school as well as home. We then signed our names to a card that we made for Mrs. Parsons thanking her for taking time to tell us about the school theme of Keeping the Light of Jesus lit. We are building stamina during the Daily 5and the children are loving their book bags. Tomorrow we will see who is Self Smart when we go to church.
Thanks for letting me have your children. I am really enjoying this class!
God Bless,
Mrs. Catton

Daily 5

What a great day in kindergarten. The children were introduced to the multiple intelligences this morning and we will be focusing on one intelligence a day until all eight have been introduced. Today was Word Smart. It went along great with our focus today during the reading block.  I  introduced the children to the Daily 5 which is a structure that will help students develop the daily habits of reading, writing, and working with peers that will lead to a lifetime of independent literacy. The focus lesson was Reading to Self.  Today I introduced two ways to read a book. One, read the pictures and two, read the words. Tomorrow I will introduce the third way to read a book which is to retell the story. These are terms you will be hearing your child using as you read to them and they read at home. Looking at the pictures and talking about them is reading for a kindergarten child.  Encourage your children to look at the pictures and talk about what they see and think about the story. We are off to a great. I was so proud of the children as they came in today and remembered to get their things out of their backpacks and they had a lot to be responsible for.  I believe you teach a child how to do something and then get out of their way and let them do it. :)

God Bless,
Mrs. Catton

Fantastic First Day

WOW! We had a great first day. I know that the children must be tired because I am worn out. We had a full day of getting to know our new friends and visiting with old friends. We learned procedures for the classroom, hallway, lunch, restroom and recess. The children did a great job and I was very proud them. We even earned some compliments from other classroom teachers. Don't be surprised if they are moving slow tomorrow AM. Feel free to walk them in but start the process of encouraging independence of walking in on their own. Tomorrow we will walk out to carpool at 2:30 and then on Wednesday we will begin to walk out at regular dismissal time with the rest of the school. PLEASE remember to send in a snack for your child everyday. DO NOT send in drinks as they can get a drink from the drinking fountain in the hallway. The children who were so excited to show me their bag of snacks for the week. PICTURES are on Friday and I sent home the order form in your child's backpack today. I think it is going to be a great year and I am excited about the possibilities.
God Bless,
Mrs. Catton

Meeting

Dear Parents,
Thank you to all of you who attended the orientation meeting. I really enjoyed speaking with each of you and I am so excited to start on Monday. Please call me if you have any questions before Monday.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Welcome to Kindergarten

Welcome to Room 23! I am so excited about the possibilities this school year.  In conjunction with the Olympics, our school wide theme is Faith in Action Winning With Team Spirit. Our "torch" is the light of Jesus and we will keep our flame lit by Doing The Right Thing - Treating People Right. We will talk frequently about how our words and actions can either pass the torch or blow out the torch. In kindergarten we will be Exploring God's World. This theme fits nicely with our religion standards and  the Indiana  core standards.
God Bless,
Mrs. Catton