Our class has earned another 10 stars for SUPERSTAR BEHAVIOR! They have worked together to S.O.A.R. in the hallway, specials, classroom, and playground. I am SO PROUD of them! The class voted on having a SPORTS DAY! So, your Kinder is invited to wear their favorite sports gear for a fun sports-themed day on Friday, May 14.
May 3 – 7
May the 4th be with you!: We had lots of fun having a special May the 4th be with you snack, brain break dancing and a fun coloring page.
Popcorn Words: by, my, one.
Math: This week the Kinders worked hard on finding equal and not equal groups, adding, subtracting numbers, and making groups even by either adding or subtracting objects. It has been so amazing to see the Kinders grow in their Math skills. We have some budding Mathematicians in our classroom!!
Literacy/Phonics: The Kinders did a GREAT job this week exploring our sight words from the week, building their independent skills by working hard during our literacy center time, also working in small groups. We focused on our H brothers more and had fun making a TH and PH literacy craft.
Writers Workshop: We worked hard on building our skills of writing a Small Moment story this week. The Kinders started by thinking of a story that was true and all about them. They played the story in their minds like a movie, remembering every detail. Then they told their story to a friend. Telling a friend the beginning, middle, and end of their story. We used sticky notes to do a quick sketch of our stories. Then the kinders used a writing packet to transfer this information, drawing all the parts of their story adding as many details as they could remember to their pictures. The Kinders loved making a cover, beginning, middle, and end page. It was fun to see them retell their stories to each other and then work excitedly on writing it in their writing packets.
Readers Workshop: The Kinders worked on making connections to Characters in books. We looked at how the Characters looked and felt, were they happy, sad, mad, or glad? Then we asked ourselves if we had ever felt that way before? The Kinders also made connections to characters by thinking about if they have ever acted the same way. We got to hear lots of stories of connections that Kinders felt. This week we enjoyed making connections to characters like Piggy and Elephant, Little Critter, Pete the Cat, and Froggy.
Star Students of the week:
Paige had LOTS of fun getting Buttons ready for day!
Kalysta LOVED playing with Buttons!
Nixon had Buttons all dressed in his sports jersey for the day!
Kenzie C. had a blast with taking care of Buttons!
Jaxon did a GREAT job taking care of Buttons!
Birthday Celebrations of the week:
Kenzie L. is celebrating her birthday May 8!
Caroline celebrates her birthday on May 8 also!!!
Mystery Readers of the week:
Cute as a bug: The Kinders did a GREAT job making their ladybug crafts!
Thank you: Thank you for all of the gifts and such sweet expressions of Teacher appreciation this week!! I am such a lucky, lucky teacher! Thank you for sharing your child with me!!!
Happy Mothers Day! May you all enjoy the moments and times together!! Your Kinder has a special gift for you, be sure to check their backpack for a manilla envelope.
Upcoming Dates:
Reading is NO JOKE!
Tomorrow we will be celebrating our hard work with reading! Kinders are welcome to bring in jokes to keep us reading and rolling with laughter all day!
April 26 – 30
Popcorn Words: have, on, of
Math: This week the Kinders continued to work on teen numbers, adding, subtracting, finding missing partners, and filling in Math mountains. The Kinders also worked on making two groups of objects equal. They added more to the group with less to show equal groups. These Kinders have grown SO MUCH in their Math skills!
Literacy/Phonics: The Kindergarteners worked hard on figuring out which hard working vowel was missing in words. They especially loved figuring out which vowels were missing in their classmates’ names! They also practiced finding this week’s popcorn words in our easy readers and practiced writing these words. The kinders loved creating CVC words in their literacy centers, practiced their reading in small groups, and worked on writing sentences.
Writers Workshop: This week the Kinders worked on their “on-demand/test” All About Cows book. This is when the Kinders show me what they can do all by themselves. The Kinders worked very hard on these books. They were engaged in revising, editing, and doing all they could to make their books the best they could. I am VERY proud of them!!
Readers Workshop: We focused on learning all about characters in books this week. The Kinders enjoyed picking new books for their book piles that are all Fiction books. We found characters in our books and explored many different aspects of these characters. The Kinders got to know Froggy from the book, The Worst Playdate by Jonathan London. We practiced discovering more about Froggy by looking at other characters in the book, looking at how he was illustrated, and even used our own voices to copy Froggy in this book.
Buttons and his Star Students of the week:
Mackenzie C. LOVED dressing Buttons in his many outfit changes.
Alex REALLY enjoyed getting Buttons comfy in his comfy dog bed.
Kenzie L. had A LOT of fun playing with Buttons in our Camping Free Choice.
Carson LOVED building Legos with Buttons.
Mya LOVED teaching Buttons all about our classroom and getting him in just the right outfit.
Mystery Readers:
Meeting Julia: Over the past few months I have had the pleasure of working with a Hudsonville high school student, Julia. Julia is a Teacher Academy student at Careerline Tech Center. During her class, she has created many creative and interactive materials for our classroom. Julia has done an AMAZING job collaborating with me throughout these months. It was always so fun to see what Julia would create for us and fun to get the Kinders interacting with her creations. From fun bitmoji classrooms to interactive slides with maps and animal facts. On Friday, we were finally able to “meet Julia” through a zoom chat. The Kinders were so excited to show her our classroom and play a fun game of “guess what it is.” Thanks, Julia for all of your hard work!! You will make an AWESOME teacher!!
On a Personal Note: Our family was SO EXCITED to celebrate our oldest son, Josh, and his graduation from Kendall College of Art and Design this weekend. He graduated this winter with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration.
Upcoming Dates:
April 19 – 23
Popcorn Words: Come, Some
Math: This week the Kinders continued to explore Unit 5 in our Math curriculum. They worked to write number sentences that matched our math night sky pictures, found groups of 10, and then some more. They also worked on counting objects and then discovering which groups have less in them. The Kinders also worked on partners of 6, noticing that number partners can switch spots in a number sentence. For example 1 + 5 = 6 and 5 + 1 = 6. We worked hard at adding and subtracting number sentences too.
Literacy/Phonics: The Kinders worked hard this week at working independently on their literacy centers. They have enjoyed finding and making words, exploring the H brothers, reading books with their whisper phones, discovering popcorn words of the week, and working in small groups with Mrs. Stutz or one of our Kindergarten para-professionals. We are continuing to work hard to reach our D-level reading goal by the end of our year. I am VERY PROUD of all of the Kinders for their hard work!! Thank you for all you do at home to support your Kinders progress as well!! This year looks a lot different with support in the classroom, so every little bit has really helped your Kinder grow!!
Writers Workshop: This week we continued our All About writing genre. The Kinders are really becoming so independent with this genre. I had them “teach me” this week on how to write an All About Chickens book. First, we made a list of everything we knew already about Chickens. Then we did some research on Chickens. We watched some videos, looked at books, and listened to books, putting all that we could on our have, can, are graphic organizer. The Kinders did a GREAT job explaining this process to me! Then they wrote their own All About Chickens book. They did a WONDERFUL job!! Next week we will be doing our “on-demand/test” of our All About writing genre. The Kinders will independently write their own book on a topic that I give them. A hint of what they will be writing about? Moooooooo!
Readers Workshop: The Kinders looked at books that were about the same topic this week. They learned that some books on the same topic have things that are the same and different. The Kinders first compared books on the same topic with a reading partner. We then tried to find the key elements of a Non-fiction book in the books we had. Did our books have bold words? a glossary? table of contents? heading? photographs? drawings? It was fun to see the differences in the Non-fiction books we all had. We also loved making our own settings and characters for our retelling of the Fairy Tale, The Little Red Hen. We are really becoming avid readers of both fiction and non-fiction books!! Check out these little readers!
Earth Day: We LOVE our Earth! The Kinders read about Earth Day in their easy reader. They also loved making an Earth Day Craft using recycled materials. It was awesome to hear all of the things they would do to help keep our Earth “healthy.” From picking up trash that we see to maybe walking or riding our bikes to a place nearby.
Show-n-tell Star Students of the Week: We will begin our last round of Star Students this coming week. Each Kinder will get a day with our furry classmate, Buttons. He will get to spend the day with them at school. Buttons will be cleaned nightly for the next days’ Star Student. Your Kinder will bring home a drawing of their favorite part of their day with Buttons.
Paige brought in her adorable, cuddly bunny.
Nora shared her sweet, loveable puppy.
Kyla introduced us to her super soft Dolphin stuffy.
Birthday Celebration of the Week:
Happy Birthday to Ethan!!
Mystery Readers: It was SO FUN to have a former student, Keaton Gainey, a 2nd grader here at Georgetown, ask to be a Mystery Reader for our classroom! It was fun to see some of the Kinders recognize him. It was such a treat to have Keaton read us the story If You Give a Dog a Donut. Thank you for reading to us Keaton! He will forever be a Kindergartener in my heart!!!
Another former student, and 2nd grader here at Georgetown, Henry Schut also asked to be a Mystery Reader for our classroom. Many Kinders recognized him as well. Henry read us the book, Should I Share My Ice Cream?. Thanks so much for reading to us Henry!! Another forever Kinder to me!! It was such a treat to have former students remember about Mystery Readers and want to come back and visit!!
Reminders:
Classroom Needs:
Upcoming Dates:
April 12 – 16
Popcorn Words: these, they
Math: This week we continued our work in Unit 5 of our Math curriculum. The Kinders worked hard exploring teen numbers, wrote numbers all the way to 100, drew and wrote number sentences to match story problems. The Kinders loved played the missing partners game as well with a partner.
Writers Workshop: The Kinders wrote an All About Goats book this week. First, working together to list all of the things they know already about Goats, then finding out more and listing it on our Have, Can, Are graphic organizer. Next, the Kinders organized this information into their own book. We added a fourth page to our book this week, a diagram of a Goat. The Kinders did a GREAT job! They really enjoyed watching the funny videos of Goats, especially the “screaming” Goat video recommended by one of our classmates. Pretty hilarious!!
Readers Workshop: This week the Kinders continued to discover Non-fiction books, finding features in books, and exploring new words they might not know. We added these words to a Class Vocabulary Chart. It was REALLY exciting to see Kinders notice these new words in other books! The Kinders also revisited the Fairy Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff. They loved making their own setting and characters. It was really fun to see them retell the story to their friends. Some of them even wanted to act the story out at free time!
Literacy/Phonics: The Kinders worked hard on hearing single sounds and combined sounds. Noticing that “s” makes a single sound and that when we add the “h” sound it makes a new sound “sh”. The Kinders found several “sh” words in books they read. They also recalled what they have learned already with our “h brothers.” H brothers are the letters that when they combine with an H make a new sound, “wh”, “th”, “sh”, “ch” and “ph”.
Mystery Reader: The Kinders were SO EXCITED to see Connor S. and his mom zoom in as our Mystery Readers on Friday! Mrs. Smith read us the book, The Berenstain Bears Go To The Doctor. The Kinders LOVED this story. Thanks for reading to us Mrs. Smith! We all were so THRILLED to get to chat with Connor, and big brother Mason!!!
Show-n-Tell Superstars of the week:
Ethan shared his super soft and cuddly Tiger stuffed animal.
Kenzie shared her colorful new stuffed animal horse she got on vacation.
Mackenzie C. shared her adorable look-a-like American Girl Doll with us.
Thank You: Thank you all SO MUCH for the amazing gifts we were able to give to our classmate Makenna! It was awesome to be able to stop in and see her Friday to give her our “basket of love.” Makenna and her family were THRILLED to receive these special gifts. A HUGE thank you from Makenna and her family to you all!!! Can’t wait to have her back at school on Monday!!
Reminders:
Upcoming Dates:
3/29 – 4/1/21
Popcorn Words: him, jump
Math: This week in Math the Kinders helped put together our “Math Night Sky.” They were given posters that have 10 stars on each poster. Each poster has a combination of purple and yellow stars making the ten stars. The Kinders helped organize these posters and added number sentences to match the stars on each poster, making a 100 “Math Night Sky.” The Kinders also found groups of ten and extra ones in their workbook pages. They LOVED helping puzzled penguin fix his writing of teen numbers, remembering a teen number has a 1 first, 1 group of tens, and then some more.
Writers Workshop: The Kinders continued their Informational Writing Genre. This week we wrote an All About Brown Bears book. First, we talked about what we know about bears. Then, we gathered more information on bears. Next, we organized our facts on our “have, can, are” graphic organizer. Last, we put all the information we gathered into our own book. Also, editing details along the way. The kinders are doing a GREAT job with this writing!
Readers Workshop: This week the Kinders learned that Non-fiction books can have different endings. Some books might ask you a question in the end, some might wrap up the idea of the whole book and some might just end. We also discovered that Non-fiction books have many different features. The Kinders worked together as partners to discover these many different features in Non-fiction books. They also loved exploring more Non-fiction books learning more and more about topics. The Kinders also loved rediscovering the fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They loved making their own story retell pieces and retelling the stories with partners.
Literacy/Phonics: We added another tool to our reading skills, a vowel shield! We learned that hard-working vowels can often change their sounds. Do we give up when we don’t know the sound? Goodness no! We use all of our reading superpowers and try to change the vowel sound to another sound to figure out a tough word. The Kinders practiced hearing the different sounds that vowels can make by listening to and reading a book with me, Dinah Likes to Eat.
Super Star Students of the Week:
Reagan shared her special and adorable unicorn stuffed animal she got from her Grandma.
Kalysta shared her fuzzy, furry friend Bubbles with us. The Kinders were amazed to see it was a puppet too!
Nixon shared his special super cool wolf he got from his sister. Go Lions!
Sam shared his super soft and stuffed animal dinosaur.
Donut Day and April Fools Day Fun: I am SO PROUD of these Kinders! They worked so hard, AGAIN and earned their Behavior Superstars to have another fun day. They LOVED having a Donut Day! I tried to trick them first with saying the bakery had no donuts. I mean it was April Fools Day!! Our 5th grade buddies delivered our donuts later, ha ha! The Kinders REALLY LIKED fooling their buddies with a “brocolli sucker.” A fun, tricky, and tasty day!!
Mystery Readers:
Egg Hunt: We LOVED having an Egg Hunt! Our 5th grade buddies hid 2 eggs for each of the Kinders in our classroom. After we went to special we came back and found our yummy filled eggs! It was A LOT of fun!
Upcoming Dates:
Other Pics From the Week:
We had a really cool visitor to our back door this week! A male and female Mallard duck came right to our door! I’m sure they wanted to come join our Kindergarten fun! The Kinders LOVED this random, special visit! It led to a GREAT discussion on Spring nests we may see and how to respect nature and give these amazing creatures space.
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AND 
WOHOOOOOO! Our classroom earned another special day for superstar behavior, we are S.O.A.R.-ing!! The Kinders picked “Donut Day!” So…….on Thursday, April 1 we will be having P.J.’s/Comfies day (this is a DATE CHANGE-prior date was Wednesday, March 31) along with Donut Day!!
3/22/21 – 3/26/21
Popcorn Words: as, has.
Math: This week the kinders worked hard on finishing up Unit 4 in our Math curriculum. They practiced identifying 3-D shapes, adding and subtracting number sentences, finding partners of numbers up to 7, and solving story problems. We finished our week by taking the Unit 4 test. These tests will come home next week.
Writers Workshop: The Kinders dove into a new writing genre: All About writing! We started by first gathering all the information we know already about a topic: Pigs. Then we found more information that we wanted to know about them and learned new things. The Kinders learned how to organize this information into a graphic organizer, or a “can, have, are chart.” We then took this information and wrote it into a book called, All About Pigs. The Kinders did a GREAT job!!
Readers Workshop: This week the Kinders explored Non-Fiction and Fiction books. Noticing that Non-Fiction books can teach us about topics so that we can become experts on a topic. We practiced looking at many Non-Fiction books and asked questions about what we saw in these books. The Kinders also enjoyed teaching others about topics they read about by sounding like a reporter. Practicing saying things like, “This just in, the book I read was mostly all about….” It was fun looking at many different Non-fiction books and reporting on what we learned.
Fairy Tales: Along with our Non-fiction reading we also explored the fairy tale of The Three Little Pigs. Learning about the different versions of this fairy tale, even one from the Big Bad Wolf! It was fun to see the differences and explore Non-Fiction and Fiction books this week.
Literacy/Phonics: This week the Kinders explored more word families. They sorted picture cards onto our Word Part Chart. The Kinders are getting really good at being able to predict the words in Dr. Seuss-style books that Mabel has written for us. They enjoyed her The Bug Hug and her Hop Book, guessing all the rhyming words that would be next in her sentences.
Show-n-tell Star Students of the Week:
Jaxton brought in a glow-in-the-dark puzzle ball.
Ruby shared her very special snuggle bunny.
Makenna shared her magical Unicorn cuddly stuffed animal.
Alex shared his very special stuffed animal Tiny.
Aryana shared her special cuddle buddy Owl.
Mystery Readers of the Week:
Celebrating MiRM: Thank you to all of the Mystery Readers we have had during our March is Reading Month!! If you, a relative, or a sibling is interested in reading to us please email me at jstutz1@hpseagles.net and I would LOVE to set something up!
Hoedown: On Friday, the Kinders were treated to a visit from Mrs. Elders, a para-pro and fun dance teacher!!! In celebration of our “western theme” for our reading month, Mrs. Elders taught us a super fun Funky Cowboy line dance. We had SO MUCH FUN having her visit!!! Thanks for celebrating our reading Mrs. Elders!!
Reminders:
Upcoming Dates:
3/15 – 3/19/21
Popcorn Words: could, would, should
Math: This week during math, we practiced finding number partners for numbers 1-10. We also practiced more equations and tried solving many of them on our own. We finished the week learning more about cones and cylinders.
Writers Workshop: The Kinders wrote another persuasive writing paper. The topic they chose was lining up for specials quickly and quietly. They gave reasons why this is a problem and then gave a solution to the problem. They finished the week by drawing a hand over a heart to pledge that they will all do their best to line up for special quickly and quietly. This will wrap up our Persuasive writing genre. Next week we will dive into writing All About books.
Readers Workshop: This week during our reading time, we became copycat poets! We listened to the poem Brother John and then made up poems that sound like that one…they had the same tune. We made up songs about several things we love, scorpions, rainbows, cats, dogs, etc. Each kinder used their own poetry book and practiced reading familiar poems in the book.
Literacy/Phonics: During our literacy and phonics time this week, we practiced many different skills. We focused on listening for the middle sound in CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. We changed the vowel in the word to make new words on whiteboards. We also practiced words in different word families.
Birthday Celebration of the Week:
Show-n-tell Star Students of the week:
Caroline shared her adorable bunny!
Connor Y. shared his amazing spy pen!
Carson showed his super cool backpack decoration!
Kenzie L. was so excited to share her special unicorn wood carving done by her Pip.
Mystery Readers:
On Monday the Kinders were so SURPRISED to see Mr. Rob, our school custodian, walk through our door as our Mystery Reader! Mr. Rob was SO KIND and bought our classroom a book that was on Mrs. Stutz’s wishlist from the book fair, Lambslide by Ann Patchett. Thanks so much for reading to us Mr. Rob!!!
Paige was THRILLED to see her Mom zoom in as our Mystery Reader on this week! Mrs. Dunbar read us the book, The Littlest Bunny in Michigan by Robert Dunn. Thank you SO MUCH for reading to us Mrs. Dunbar!!
Kenzie C. was SO EXCITED to see her big brother Karsten (a 3rd grader at Georgetown Elementary) walk through our door as Mystery Reader this week! Karsten read us 2 books, I Am Invited to a Party by Mo Willems and Fruits in Suits by Jared Chapman. Thank you for reading to us Karsten!!!
Connor S. was SO SURPRISED to see his brother Mason (a 3rd grader at Georgetown Elementary) pop in as our Mystery Reader. Mason read us The Foot Book. Thank you for reading to us Mason!
St. Patricks Day Fun: The Kinders were greeted with a message and mess from Lucky the Leprechaun. They had LOTS of fun creating their own Leprechaun traps with their table teams. Then we went on a scavenger hunt searching for Lucky. We came SOOO CLOSE to catching him! He was so nice and left behind his pot of gold for us! We were SO EXCITED to each get a set of sparkle crayons, a necklace, bracelet, and green coins. Thank you Lucky!
Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month: This month is not only March is Reading Month in Kindergarten. It is also March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. Today, our class was gifted a book about disabilities from the Fountain Family called Just Ask by Sonia Sotomayor. Our classmate, Nora, has a big brother (a first grader here at Georgetown) who was born with Down Syndrome. As we continue to celebrate Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month we thank the Fountain Family for helping us all become more aware and celebrate all of our differences.
Reminders:
Upcoming Dates:
