Jr. Kindergarten News

Wow!  We had a really busy week.  It started out with a birthday celebration on Monday.  Happy birthday Ailish.

       

 

On Wednesday Kitty Jones from the Temple Fire Department came to school and taught us some safe ways and places to walk.  Always walk on a sidewalk and cross streets only at the corner using the crosswalk.  If you have to walk at night you should wear light colored clothing and reflective vests or strips and carry a flashlight.

On Thursday the students used their five senses to explore the garden during a Science lesson.  We used our tongue to taste our snack before going outside and....

Friday brought a bright change of pace when three of the girls spent almost the whole recess on the swings singing a song.  Listen carefully to hear them sing, "Aaahhh, aaahhh, sing a happy song".   They repeat these phrase over and over while they swing.  They were sooooo cute I just had to share.

We began a new lesson in reading and have a new sight word.  I and like are the words were are learning.  While you are reading with your child let him/her read along and see if they can pick out these words.  We are working on creating flash cards that will include all the sight words for the year as well as some other ones like the color words.  When these are finished they will be sent home so that you can help your child review them.

Mrs. Keever

Jr. Kindergarten News

Despite our short week our days were full of learning and fun.  We celebrated with Teddy as he told us about his first trip of the year, we celebrated our 10th day of school and had a special visit from Zero the Hero.  He sent his puppet and a special Zero Treat to help us learn the importance of the number zero.

We also began our first unit in language, "Friendly Faces" and started making a book about ourselves, All About Me.  Our sight word for the week was "I".  Next week we will be introduced to the word "like".  We will be making flash cards of our sight words (plus a few more that I feel they need to be familiar with)  to take home so that we can practice our new words each week.  You can help your child learn them by reviewing them each night.  This should not be to time consuming if you practice just a couple of words everyday.


Next week we will be welcoming a new student into our class as well as celebrating a birthday and will have our first visit from Kitty Jones - our Safety officer.  She is a member of the Temple Fire Department and will teach the students once a month about different ways to stay safe.  


I am looking forward to another great week.


Mrs. Keever

Jr. Kindergarten News

Hello Everyone.

     We made it though the first full week of school!!  Hurray!!  We had a lot of fun reading about Chester Raccoon, by Audrey Penn.  The Kissing Hand, A Pocket Full of Kisses, Chester Raccoon and the Big Bad Bully and Chester Raccoon and the Acorn Full of Memories are just a few of her books.  Feel free to reread any or all of these books with your child.  They can tell which one they like the most and share what they liked about it.

     In math we have been working on our numbers, how to hold a pencil, counting and creating graphs.  In Language we have been learning our Alphabet Chant (some of you have mentioned that your child is singing around the house), name recognition, printing our names, rhyming words and syllables.  Our handwriting lessons are teaching how to sit properly, paper and pencil position and correctly forming each letter and number.  The children have learned how to draw a vertical line and a horizontal line.  These are the beginning strokes in printing.  Please continue to work with your child on his/her handwriting.

 

     Don't forget that this is a three day weekend and that next week we do not have school on Monday.  We have two more lessons in our Welcome to Kindergarten reading program.  Starting on Thursday the students will begin learning sight words, and start reading pre-decodable books that will come home for them to keep and practice.  It is a good idea to put these in a place where they can find them but will also be safe.  Pre-decodable books do not have words in them but the children should be able to tell a story by looking at the pictures.  We will practice this is class prior to the books coming home.  We will also be reading out of the leveled readers and these might also come home.  These are full color books that MUST be returned to school upon completion.  There is only one copy of each book and it is very important that each student have a turn with these books.

 

     I have several moms that have indicated interest in being our room parent this year.    Christina Marshall, Kelly Parmer, Cindy Scott, and Heidi Belson (once her schedule at work changes). Please feel free to contact these ladies if you have any questions about school or classroom activities. I feel very blessed to have so many parents interested in what we do here at school.  I do know that Mrs. Marshall and Mrs. Scott have also volunteered for another child's classroom so having several moms will help ease the load.  Barbara Johnson said that she might be available to do some volunteer work in the classroom from time to time.  I do have some art projects that I would like to do and would love to have several parents come in for an hour or so on these days and help the children paint, glue, cut out, etc.  I will send out more details later about specific times and dates.   If at that time there is anyone who could help they can let me know via email. 

 

     I will email a September calendar to you.  I have not found away to attach a document to this blog.

 

Thank you to all,

Mrs. Keever

Sweet!

It's going to be 106 today...why not cool off with some Gogo's Frozen Yogurt and Cupcakes and support CCS at the same time? We will earn 10% of ALL SALES! Tell all your friends to meet you there, or better yet, just round them all up and take them with you!!!!! Spirit night is from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday! See you there!

Gogo's is located at 2668 South 31st St., Temple, TX 76504 next to Schlotzky's.

End of the First Week

Well, we made it through the first week of school.  The students worked hard and had a lot of fun too.  We went over classroom and school procedures and rules.  We went to music and Spanish and played at recess.  We began our math and reading lessons and even made our first class book.  This will start coming home next week.

We will have our first Chapel of the year  this coming Wednesday.  As we continue our reading lessons, the students will start learning our Alphabet Chant which helps them learn the sounds that each letter says.  We will continue to practice proper handwriting techniques while the students review their letters, numbers and name recognition.

The class bear, Teddy, will start coming home soon.  If you have a special activity planned over a weekend, that you would like to share with Teddy, please let me know the dates.  I will try to send him home with your child at that time.  Also,  the "Can You Guess" bag will be coming home.  Remember that whatever your child chooses to put in the bag must fit all the way inside, must remain a secret, and must have three clues written and put inside.

See you on Monday,
Mrs. Keever

Welcome to Jr. Kindergarten

Welcome to a new school year and to Jr. Kindergarten.  My name is Julie Keever and I will be your child's teacher this year.  I taught Pre-K last year here at CCS, however, I am looking forward to a great year in Jr. K.  

Meet the Students in our class.

Our language/reading curriculum is called Texas Journeys for Kindergarten.  It is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is being used by several of our local school districts as well.  The First two weeks we will be "Getting Ready for Kindergarten", a unit that reviews some basics that include: Rhyming, recognizing names, book handling, distinguishing between letters and numbers, letter names and Environmental print.  For Math we will be using Saxon Math for Kindergarten.  The first few lessons will included familiar with the tools we will be using during our lessons.  Some of these include: Counting Bears, Pattern Blocks, Pictographs for Graphing and Linking Cubes.

   Throughout the year we will have lessons in Science and Social Studies.  During August and September we will look at What makes us Special, Families, Johnny Appleseed, and The Five Senses.  

  I will send out a monthly calendar to give you an over view of the many activities we will be doing throughout the year.  The first one for August is attached below.

OPEN HOUSE

We had a great Open House.  Everyone was excited about the start of a new school year and we had fun exploring the room while going on a Scavenger Hunt.  I really enjoyed meeting all the parents and the wonderful children that will make up Jr. Kindergarten this year.

Check out our class room.