Welcome to Kindergarten!

There is a wonderful sense of home when you walk through the front doors of Samsula Academy. I deeply believe that your child will find our school to be a warm and friendly place. I am very proud to be a part of the Samsula Academy School family. Once you have opened those doors you are a member of our family too.

I wish to welcome you to Kindergarten. Kindergarten is a new and exciting time for you and your child. It’s a time of change… new beginnings, new friends, new challenges and exciting discoveries! I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for allowing me to be a part of your child’s life during this precious time of growth and discovery!

This is my honor to welcome you and your child into Kindergarten and into… my life. I will do my best to make this year in Kindergarten enjoyable but also filled with academics. My motto is: “The seeds I plant today will blossom into a flower tomorrow.” It will be my pleasure and privilege to watch your child’s personality and learning abilities blossom and unfold day by day.

I run a very effective classroom which is well structured but allows for fun and growth. I hold high expectations for all my students. Furthermore, I strongly believe in differentiated instruction. Research reveals that all students learn differently. Therefore, I plan my lessons to meet the needs of all students. It will be my honor to expand the growing minds of tomorrow and encourage them to become the great leaders of the new generation.

You will find very useful information on this blog. I will update it with events that are happening in our classroom, student work, and other related events. If you have any questions, you may contact me at cgibbs@readingedgeacademy.org

-Mr. Christopher Gibbs

Another 'TACKY' Week! :-)

This was a very busy week for us in kindergarten. We are learning so many new things. This week, we learned about the –et word family. We also ready Tacky the Penguin and learned more about story sequencing. We played more with solid figures, wrote another class book, and even had time to learn about maps. This was a fun filled week!

Children are becoming very fluent in their ability to read basic words. Words (such as –et) are becoming easy to the children. Children are beginning to understand how to substitute initial sounds to make new words. I am very proud of them. We are almost finished with our primer sight word list. We have about two weeks left. I am asking that you practice all pre primer and primer words with your children nightly. Your child is expected to know both lists by mid February. This will help your child become a more fluent reader. We read Tacky the Penguin this week. We are working very hard on identifying the beginning, middle, and end in our stories. Have your child retell the story to use. Remember to remind them to name the characters and locate the setting. Also have them identify the problem and state the solution. Children will need to be able to retell a story with mastery by the end of kindergarten.

Mastery includes: retell a story from beginning, middle, to end stating the characters. Students will name the setting, and also state the problem and solution. Students will use words like then, and, next. Words like first, second, third, etc… should be used to transition from beginning, middle, to end. Finally, the teacher will not be prompting the student.

In math, we continued learning about solid figures. We learned the different ways they move. We learned that the cylinder can roll, slide, and stack. We also learned that the cylinder is the only solid figure that can do all three. Review the names of the four basic solid figures with your child. Create a map and sort as to whether they can roll, stack, or slide. Next week, we will learn more about solid figures. We will focus on identifying the shapes made by the solid figures.

In social studies we learned about maps. Students were excited when Gibbstown was brought out of the file cabinet (Gibbstown was our community project at the beginning of the year). We learned the difference between a picture and a map. We also learned how to identify key things on a map using symbols. Have your child draw a map of their community or home. Mrs. Shannon and I would LOVE to see it and display it in the classroom.

In science, we learned about penguins! “We read a weekly reader,” said Olivia. Children love reading the weekly readers. Weekly readers are social studies and science magazines at which children can read independently. This week it was all about penguins. We learned a lot! In afternoon workshops, we laced a penguin to work on our fine motor skills. We also made a penguin paper craft and a snow globe.





Parents, we are currently working on behavior with our class. We have had some issues throughout the past three weeks of following directions. Please enforce the rules at home and continue to state the importance of following them. Thanks!

I almost forgot to tell you! Have you asked your child what book they are reading? We have started literature circles this week. Each group is reading a different book. We will read it to understand it and create a project when finished. The two books we are reading are: Green Eggs and Ham and Frog and Toad Together. Ask your child what one they are reading!




Agenda for Feb 1 – 5: We will be learning about shadows as we study Groundhog Day! We will also review all short e word families. We will continue to learn about solid figures and finally, we will celebrate the 100th day of school on Thursday!!!! Remember to bring in your 100 day of school special snack!

Our student of the week was Cole. Way to go! Cole is in the following picture next to our newest addition - a reading playhouse!

0 comments:

Post a Comment