Mrs. Bruggink’s Kindergarten Blog

Dear Parents,

On Friday, Dr. Iverson and several of his staff members visited with the kindergarten students. It was a fun program. Each student was given a toothbrush and calendar to record brushing. At the end of the month, you can turn in the calendar for a prize at Dr. Iverson’s office.

We continue to work on our Weather Books. I hope the student’s finish this week and I will work on putting them together. We’ve also made rain with Mrs. Hardin’s class. In math, we are learning about money. Our focus is identifying a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. In reading, this week we will study the words “as” and “be”.

We are busy learning songs for our Kindergarten Program in spring. Each child will also have a speaking part. I’ll let you know more as we get closer to the program.

We began writing in journals last month. It’s exciting to see the growth as the students beginning to understand how to write a sentence. As we finish the journals, I will send them home.

Have a great week. Mrs. Bruggink

Hi Parents,

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks in kindergarten. The Valentine’s Day party was awesome! Thank you to all the parents who helped. I will soon have a slideshow for you to see. The Halloween slide show is finished. We have some great pictures.

Everyone enjoyed celebrating the 100th day of school. We counted to 100, took 100 steps, wrote to 100, and shared our bags of 100 items.

On Wednesday, we had a snow party. I found ten old buckets in my garage along with a chewed up shovel. The students used these to build some fun snow castles. We finished our party by eating snowballs. The party was so much fun. Thanks, parents, for sending the extra clothing for the party.

We are going to be studying weather for the next four weeks. The students are going to make a weather book. I also have special stories and activities planned. Our new sight words for this week are “do” and “this.” In math, I introduced telling time. This next week, we are going to discuss calendars and money.

Please remember to turn in the Road to Success minutes each week. Thank you. Mrs. Bruggink

Parents,

Valentine’s Day update- We have a total of 28 students for the party on Friday. Thanks.

Dear Parents,

I did it!! The first two times I created a slideshow, I had help from the technology staff. Today, I created two slide shows by myself. I hope you enjoy them. I will have pictures from the Halloween Party soon. Now, if the slideshows disappear, I apologize and will try again next week.

We have a busy schedule in February. Our Valentine’s Day Party is Friday, February 12 at 10:30. Please have your child bring his/her Valentine’s to share with friends on the day of the party. In order to make passing out the Valentine cards easier, please only have your child write his/her name on the card (as the person that the card is from.) Thanks.

Tuesday, February 16th will be our 100th day of kindergarten (I can’t believe it!). To help celebrate this fun day, we are asking that every student brings 100 small items to share with his/her classmates. Please send the 100 items to school in a bag/container with your child’s name on it. These items need to be small, easy to pass out, and something that can be given away. Here are some ideas: cotton balls, q-tips, stickers, toothpicks, pennies, uncooked beans, grains of rice, paper clips, etc. Please help your child count these 100 items so that they can have some practice with one-to-one correspondence and counting to 100. Thanks!

We will be having a Snow Day on Wednesday, February 17th. On that day, please have your child bring all of his/her snow clothes in a bag with his/her name on it. This includes: snow pants, gloves/mittens, snow boots, hat, warm coat, etc. It helps if some of the articles of clothing are labeled with your child’s name in case something gets misplaced here at school. We will be staying outsdie for a while so please make sure that your child has warm clothes.

Reading Buddies I really enjoy watching the students read with their 4th grade reading buddies from Mrs. Tatton/Frost and Mrs. Montgomery’s classrooms. Both the kindergarteners and their buddies take this reading time seriously. Each kindergartener is given a book to read three times with his or her buddy. Then, the student must pass off the book by reading it to a teacher.

Here are our current sight words: A, can, go, have, I, is, like, play, see, the, to, we, are, for and you.

In gym class, we have learned several new dances including the Bunny Hop, Hokey Pokey, Chicken Dance, and Do You Know the Muffin Man. Next week will be our final week of dance.

We went to the computer lab for the first time this week. Mrs. Hardin’s class came along too. We had first grade students help the kindergarten students log into the computer and find the math game to work on. We hope to visit the computer lab each Wednesday.

Scholastic Book orders are due Friday, February 12. I received 4 free books with the last order. New books are always exciting. Thank you to those parents who placed orders!

Parents, don’t forget to send your child’s Road to Success minutes to school on Monday or Tuesday. I encourage you to read each night with your child. Or have your child read to YOU!

Mrs. Bruggink

Hi!
I want to give everyone a list of our sight words. Each child should know these words: A, can, go, have, I, is, like, play, see, the, to, & we.

If you are interested in Scholastic books, the last day to order is Friday. Let me know if you have any questions.

Beginning this Thursday, we will read with our fourth grade reading buddies. Each kindergartener is paired with a fourth grade student to practice their reading skills. This is new to me, so I will be able to tell you more next week. That’s what I know so far.

We will be busy testing this week. The end of the quarter is on Friday.

Have a great week. Mrs. Bruggink

Happy New Year to everyone!

Just a few reminders. Tomorrow is gym day. Each student needs to wear appropriate shoes.

Library day is on Tuesday. If your child forgets his/her book on Tuesday, they may also visit the library first thing each morning.

We will be busy testing the next few weeks. The end of the second quarter is coming soon (January 15).

I love teaching kindergarten. My students are beginning to read! It is so exciting.

Hi Parents,

I missed all my students over the Thanksgiving holiday. When they returned on Monday, Christmas was on their minds.  As we were working on our calendar activities, someone asked, “When is Christmas?” I responded with the answer “December 25.” Another student commented that Christmas is REALLY close. I was a bit puzzled, 25 days is a long time for a kindergartner.  Before I could ask, someone said, “Yeah, look at all those numbers on the calendar.” I had to break the news to them that the month was still November. The following day, they would return to find only one number on the calendar. They were little disappointed!!

Today, we got a new student. Maria joined our class. We now have 26 students again.

I was teaching the class our sight word for the week, “to.” I introduced the word, we said the letters, we read the word, and I gave several examples. I was ready to move on when one student pointed out that their is another word, “two”. I agreed and we discussed all the differences between the words. I never imagined that another student would bring up the third word, “too.” So, I continued our discussion. Wow! I have a smart class!

Parents, thank you for all the wonderful goodies for our Thanksgiving Tasting Party. Also, thank you to the moms that helped. We had a great time and tasted many good foods. We had our party from 9:00 to 10:00. I was surprised at 10:30, when one student asked “When is snack time?”

For the first time, we checked out library books today. The books are due each Tuesday, since we visit the library on this day.

Enjoy the holiday season. Mrs. Bruggink

Dear Parents,

This year, I am most thankful  for my job as a Kindergarten teacher at Valley Elementary. It is a privilege to work with your child. I love teaching kindergarten. Every day is rewarding.

My two daughters, Stephanie(age 16) and Sierra(age 12 going on 16) decided we should focus on Italian food for our Thanksgiving feast. We had lots of yummy dishes picked out but I will miss the turkey and stuffing.

We are focusing on the first Thanksgiving on Monday and Tuesday. We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving Feast (tasting party) on Tuesday morning at 9:00. We will also see the first grade program on Tuesday morning.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! Mrs. Bruggink

Hi Parents,

I enjoyed meeting with all of you during conferences. Thank you for taking the time to stop in and talk with me. The students experienced tremendous growth during the first quarter. I was excited to share this information!

Now that the weather is cooler, I need to remind everyone to dress their child warmly. We will go outside for recess as often as possible. Also, it would be helpful if parents could label hats and mittens. That will help me find the correct owner for missing items.

In reading, we are studying a unit on transportation both past and present. The class is eager to share their experiences. Our currently sight words include: go, a, can, I, like, see, the, and we. This week is a review week, we will not have a new word.

In math, our current unit is Matching and Counting. Last week, we covered numbers that are the same, more and fewer. This week, we will learn about the number 11 and review shapes. We will also learn about the term equal and one more.

I will send home a note about our Thanksgiving Feast this week. Our Feast will take place on Tuesday, November 24.

I completed the Scholastic Book Order over the weekend. I hope the books will arrive right after our Thanksgiving break. Thanks for your orders.

Have a great week. Mrs. Bruggink

Hi!

Just a short note and a few reminders. This week in reading, we are talking about friends. In math, we are working on patterns. We are also discussing bats.

The class earned a popcorn party. We will eating popcorn and watching the DVD, Stelluna, tomorrow.

Reminders
Conferences will be November 11 and 12, I will send home your conference time on Monday (Oct.26).
October 27 is Picture retake day
October 30 is our Halloween Parade and party, be in the gym around 9:00 for the parade