Helpful Links for Incoming Kindergarten families 2020-2021 school year

Here is an old post with a typical class schedule, they tend to stay pretty similar from year to year with the exception of the specials (Physical Education/PE/Gym, Art, Music & Library) those tends to get switched up different days/times every year. We still have not heard any updates about what our classroom/schedule will look like post/during COVID-19.

Here are some important forms I will provide a hard copy of when school starts. The forms posted are from this past year they may change for this upcoming school year due to COVID-19 and us not knowing exactly what school will look like but they still may be helpful to look at and may answer a lot of your questions!

Here is a post about games and fun activities you can do at home. This was a resource I compiled together this past March when we first started to do remote learning.

Tools of the Mind I Have, Who Has? games to play on the iPad at home (we will learn a lot more about these games in school!)

Here is a post about the apps we typically use in school on our class set of iPads

Here is an old post about the different types of seating I have in my classroom. I have flexible seating. I have added a few more options since this post. We have donut cushions, scoop rockers and swivel chairs too.

Here is a link to my Amazon Idea List with some amazing books in case you were looking for some great books to add to your shelf at home. Lots of great diverse books!

Arlington After School Program at Peirce Elementary School

I thought I would post the link to the after school program that is on site at Peirce. They also do a before school program as well. They are truly AMAZING and each one of the staff is so wonderful with the students. It is a fantastically run program. I believe they start at 7:15 or 7:30 Peirce After School Program (PASP) As of right now they are full and there are about 25 kindergarten families on the waitlist. They do anticipate some movement as some current families may have to rearrange their days/ may not need after-school due to covid-19 and the unknown schedule that the Arlington Public Schools will have in the fall. Other after-school programs in town that have a van or bus that will pick up students from Peirce (depending on if there are enough students signed up to get picked up from Peirce but there usually always is!) are Fidelity House, Arlington Boys & Girls Club and Ready, Set, KIDS!  I have heard wonderful things about each of these programs too!

Distance Learning Resources

Hello K families,
           I will continue to add links to resources here if you are looking for more things to do at home with your child.

Literacy:
          CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant words) activities:

• CVC word memory/concentration
• CVC Short a Puzzles
• CVC Short e Puzzles
• CVC Short i Puzzles
• CVC Short o Puzzles
• CVC Short u Puzzles
• Spring CVC, Sight Word, Word Pattern/Word Families, Rhyming Activities - You can type in a customized list of sight words
• Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt- pgs. 13-15 pick a board! Don’t have a printer? Screenshot and click “edit” then “markup” and you can digitally draw write on the worksheet with your phone/device!

Author and Illustrator of the Captain Underpants books, Dav Pilkey is creating weekly videos for kids (and adults!) who might want to try their hand at drawing

Word Wall Word/Sight Word activities:

• K Word Wall Words/Sight Words bubble letters some ideas on what to do with these are: rainbow write in them, put stickers in them, paint them, cut them up and tape around your house to practice reading, you could line up cheerios or small beads inside the letters to practice fine motor, etc.
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• Word Wall Word/Sight Word Memory Rain drop memory game
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• Make a Square game Make a square with word wall/sight words, make a square with addition and subtraction facts within 5, roll and circle groups. The class LOVES these games!
• I Spy on the Word Wall The page 2 has the Kindergarten sight words and pages 4-7 are the first grade sight words
• Editable Super hero board game -- you can customize the words on the board and type right in the words your child is working on I have a list if you want to know what words they're working on)

STEM:

• At Home Stem Bins Choice Board
• FREE Recycling Sort craft
• Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt-  pgs 4-9 pick a board! Don’t have a printer? Screenshot and click “edit” then “markup” and you can digitally draw write on the worksheet with your phone/device!

Virtual Field trips for Kindergartners

Math:

• Spring Addition Puzzles
• Number Formation Rhymes
• Popcorn Addition to 10
• Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt- pgs. 10-12 pick a board! Don’t have a printer? Screenshot and click “edit” then “markup” and you can digitally draw write on the worksheet with your phone/device!

Class Schedule

Please click here to view the class schedule

Forms to fill out!

Hello K families!
           I am attaching a copy of all of the forms that will be going home in your child's mailbox on Tuesday. If anyone would like a digital copy or a chance to fill them out in advance here they are!

Parent Packet---This is an important one and will probably answer a lot of your questions! Find out about arrival/dismissal procedures, lunch, snack, birthdays, etc!

Class Schedule

Class Blog permission slip

Class Twitter Account Permission Slip

CORI form Must be filled out and submitted to the office secretary with a copy of your drivers license for EVERYONE who is going to volunteer in the school, whether it is for a field trip or even just to be a mystery reader or help out in the classroom, even if it is just a one time thing.

Scholastic Book Order Information

Kindergarten Countdown!

As of today, Monday, August 12th, we have 25 days until our first day of kindergarten (with the whole class!!) I can't wait! I made this countdown calendar to help you get excited for kindergarten! Each day is a different activity for you to do to get ready for kindergarten!

Welcome Class of 2032!!

I am so excited to meet my new students!! Welcome Aidan, Aquinnah, Arielle, Ashwin, Cayden, Charles, Charlotte, Clyde, Gabriela, Kailey, Kayla, Leo, Mira, Nolan, Nora, Remington, Ruth, Skylar, Vivian, Yuming & Zachary! I can't wait  to start school in just a couple weeks!! In your mailing that you should have received by now from the school it listed your half hour time slot to come visit the classroom on Tuesday, September 3rd. It also included whether your child is scheduled to come to school on Wednesday, September 4th or Thursday, September 5th. (The town started kindergarten a little differently starting 3 years ago... as a way to help ease the kindergarten students into the new school year only half of the class will come for the first day and then the full class will come on Friday, August 6th. Half of the class will come on Wednesday for a full day of school 8:10-2:30 then those kids will NOT come on Thursday and start back for good on Friday with the whole class together for the first time. The other half of the class will come to school on Thursday 8:10-2:30 and NOT Wednesday and come again on Friday.) It's a little confusing so if you have any questions please feel free to email me at clloyd@arlington.k12.ma.us Check out our class twitter page to see some pictures of us in action and see some fun things we learn!! @MrsLloydsKdg

Apps we use in school on the iPads

A few parents have asked for a list of apps that we use in school that they would like to download for their child to use at home. Below is a list of the apps we have used so far in school. I also have a big list of educational apps (most that are free) that I have used in years past and plan to use some of them again this year you can find here

So far this year we have used these apps:

epic! Great app for listening to stories, some books have a "read-to-me" option others you'll have to read to your child or have them read to themselves if they are already reading

Drawing Pad - we use this app the most to write our messages in the morning, during write along and to write our tongue twisters. It has a ton of cool things to use; stamps, stickers, fun paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils, paint, etc.

Geoboard- we use this as a center in math to practice making shapes on the geoboards with the rubber bands.

Raz Kids- This is a great app that has a bunch of books on your childs independent reading level. After they are done reading the story it has a few comprehension questions about the story and they can build a robot at the end. Each child has an account with a password. Email me and I can give you the teacher class name and your childs password

Osmo- This is an app you have to purchase, there is a stand and an attachment you clip on over the ipad's camera so it will reflect what you are doing on the tabletop to the camera. There are several different Osmo apps, Osmo words where you use the letter tiles on the tabletop that will come once you order the game to build the words shown on the screen, Osmo tangram shapes where you have to use the tangram blocks that will come with the game once you order it to copy the shapes/animals/designs on the screen. The mirror attachment you will place on your iPads camera will allow the app to know if you have placed the shapes correctly and it will give you live feedback to flip a shape over, if it's the wrong shape, etc., Osmo Newton where you can solve creative physics puzzles by drawing lines on a piece of paper on your tabletop to create a type of "pinball machine" game where there's a ball on the iPad screen and it will appear to fall down the screen but if you draw a line in it's path on your paper it will bounce off of that line and deflect in a different direction or you can place objects on the table top  Osmo masterpiece where you use a blank piece of paper and look at the iPad screen and it will show an outline of a drawing for you to "trace" in real life on your paper with a pencil/marker, etc.

QR Code Reader- we use this to have the students scan QR codes that will take them right to a specific website we want them to use.

I'm happy to announce that I will be a Multicultural Children's book day book reviewer!

I'm so happy to share with you all that I am going to be a Multicultural Children's Book Day book reviewer! The book that I will be reviewing is "We Are Grateful" by Traci Sorrell.

I have had this book on my radar so I was so happy to hear that I was one of the reviewers for this book!! Check back in a few weeks to hear all about the book! I can't wait to receive it in the mail! :o)

Progress Reports/Report Cards

Kindergarten has 2 progress reports that will be sent home this school year. The first one will be sent home in your childs folder on November 30th and the second one will be sent home on the last day of school in June. This differs from the other grades who have 3 report cards that go home. Kindergarten however, has 2 parent-teacher conferences; one in December and one in May/June. The other grades will only have 1 parent-teacher conference in December. 

You can browse through a sample progress report for kindergarten here to see all of the kindergarten benchmarks

You can browse the rubrics that we use to score each student below:

English Language Arts Reading Rubric 

English Language Arts Writing Rubric

Mathematics

Science & Technology

Social Studies

Welcome Class of 2031!!

I am so excited to meet my new students!! Welcome Aarna, Aishah, Bennett, Cham, Desmond, Estella, Eva, Faith, Grayson, Hannah, Holden, Iris, Keagen, Lucas, Malcolm, Maren, Nathan, Omar, Piya, Sanaya, Timothy, Virginia, Victoria and William! I can't wait  to start school in just a couple weeks!! In your mailing that you should have received by now from the school it listed your half hour time slot to come visit the classroom on Tuesday, September 4th. It also included whether your child is scheduled to come to school on Wednesday, September 5th or Thursday, September 6th. (The town started kindergarten a little differently starting two years ago as a way to ease the kindergarten students into the new school year with half of the class at first and then the full class. Half of the class will come on Wednesday for a full day of school 8:10-2:30 then those kids will NOT come on Thursday and start back for good on Friday with the whole class together for the first time. The other half of the class will come to school on Thursday 8:10-2:30 and NOT Wednesday and come again on Friday.) If you have any questions please feel free to email me at clloyd@arlington.k12.ma.us Check out our class twitter page to see some pictures of us in action and see some fun things we learn!! @MrsLloydsKdg

Incoming Kindergarten meet-ups/playdates

Hello families,
     If you are interested in meeting other future Peirce kindergartners and their families please check out the Arlington Family Connection website. This group arranges meet-ups at different playgrounds throughout the summer and sometimes even playdates

*NEW* Class Schedule

This is our latest class schedule as of 9/12/17.

Welcome Class of 2030!!

Welcome Alice, Amy, August, Aurelia, Claire, Dani, Declan, Devin, Edwin, Emmy, Geoffrey, Holden, Jack, Jay, Jeremiah, Johan, Kilian, Leila, Matt, Maya, Naomi, Shae and Violet!! I am so excited to start school in just a couple weeks!! In your mailing that you should have received by now from the school it listed your half hour time slot to come visit the classroom on Tuesday, September 5th. It also included whether your child is scheduled to come to school on Wednesday, September 6th or Thursday, September 7th. (The town started kindergarten a little differently starting last year as a way to ease the kindergarten students into the new school year with half of the class at first and then the full class. Half of the class will come on Wednesday for a full day of school 8:10-2:30 then those kids will NOT come on Thursday and start back for good on Friday with the whole class together for the first time. The other half of the class will come to school on Thursday 8:10-2:30 and NOT Wednesday and come again on Friday.) If you have any questions please feel free to email me at clloyd@arlington.k12.ma.us

25 Days until Kindergarten!!

Today marks the start to our "Kindergarten Countdown" check out the calendar above for a fun activity for your child to do each day up until our first day of school (the visitation day on Tuesday, September 5th). Can't wait to see you all in just a few weeks!! 

Japanese Tea Ceremony

We have been learning all kind of facts about Ancient Japan, Ninjas and Japanese Tea Ceremonies this week. Last week, when we came back inside from recess the students had to prepare to enter our "tea room" (classroom) We learned all of the rules for the Japanese Tea Ceremony; Rule #1: All guests must wash their hands before entering the tea room. Rule #2: All guests must take off their shoes before entering the tea room, since everyone sits on the floor it is important to have a clean space. Rule #3: All guests must bow to the host to show respect. Rule #4: Only the host makes the tea. No one touches anything until the host gives them their tea cup!

We had some mixed reviews about the green tea (decaffeinated of course!) We learned that the guests ALWAYS had to say that the tea was delicious, even if they didn't like it because it was the polite thing to do!

Scaffolded Writing Codes

A lot of parents are wondering what the little letters at the top right hand corner of their childs writing means. That is a way for the teacher to assess and scaffold each childs writing.

I will circle the level that your child is able to do all on their own with no help and I will "x" the next level where I helped challenge them to try and practice getting more sounds to get to the next level, which they aren't  quite consistently doing independently yet. The "P" means if your child can draw a picture about the given topic, "M is if your child can verbally tell the teacher their message (not yet ready to write themselves), "L" is if they can draw one line for every word in their message. "IS" is if they can write down the initial sounds in the words in their message. "ES" is if they can write down the ending sounds for the words in their message. "MS" is if they can write down the middle sounds for the words in their message. "AP" is if they have the alphabetic principle- they are writing more than the beginning, middle and ending sounds in the words in their messages and "WP" means is they can write words patterns in their words in their message (like -ing, -oat, -er, -ow, -ee, etc.)

Childrens writing will go in this sequential order, by the end of the year we would like them to be closer to the right hand side at "AP" and "WP"

Flexible Seating

I am trying out a new type of seating in the classroom. We are trying "flexible seating" which means I have a variety of different seating options available for the students to choose from. Research shows that this type of seating is great for creativity, "...using up excess energy, increased motivation and engagement, creating a better oxygen flow to the brain and improved core strength and overall posture."

We have the traditional tables and chairs...

wobble stools...

bean bag chairs and a pea pod (looks like a blow up canoe sort of)...

I have a table that I lowered to the ground where the students can sit on a cushion or a small rug to work on...

yoga balls...

and I have a crate full of small rugs that the students can use to lay or sit on if they want to work on the floor somewhere...

September 16, 2016 Newsletter

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