Today in sign language we reviewed the Pledge of Allegiance and the manual alphabet, as well as learned the "Red" song. We will be working on colors all week. If you happen to see a sign with the word "red" when you and your child are out running errands, point it out and ask them if they know what it says. (I'm thinking of Red Robin.) Our star of the day was Houston. Houston has a 1-year old brother, likes salmon and shrimp, and is very fond of his black and white robe that he wears after his bath. His favorite stuffed animal is a very large polar bear and his favorite place is Chuck E. Cheese. Oh, and guess what his favorite color is...red!

Sennett was our Star of the Day. He has 1 brother, 1 cat, likes hot dogs, choclolate and vanilla ice cream and the color blue. The students asked him tons of questions, such as, "What's your favorite shirt?" and "What's your favorite tatoo?" I love that they're really getting into it now. I'd love to hear if your child talks about Star of the Day.

I'm keeping it short tonight because I'm getting home late after my daughter's open house. (It's past my bedtime!) Today was Joshua G.'s birthday. He shared cupcakes with the class and brought his pet hamster for show and tell. Alexander was our star of the day. Alexander has 1 brother, 2 dogs, and 1 cat. He likes the color blue, mac and cheese, motorcycles, Transformers, and tigers.

We had our first sign language lesson with the other kindergarten class today. We will meet together every Monday and Wednesday. Today we reviewed the manual alphabet and each student was given a small sheet of paper showing how to sign each letter of the alphabet. We also did a song that required knowledge of the sign language alphabet. Next week we'll learn a color song. Today's Star of the Day was Jacqulyn. Jacqulyn has an older sister, is wearing new shoes, likes the colors pink and purple, and can paint her nails. She enjoys mac & cheese, playing dress-up, and eating vanilla or chocolate ice cream. I love how brave the students are getting now -- they are giving us lots more information about themselves! The class set a kindergarten record today: they earned 4 links in their "good behavior" chain IN ONE DAY!! Woo hoo! Keep up the great work! I've added a link to a patterning game.

Mark your calendars if you would like to come along with us to the fire station on Thursday October 13 at 9am. Both kindergarten classes will take a walking field trip to celebrate fire safety week. Can't wait! This is Joshua G.'s VIP week but he was sick today. Hope you feel better soon, Joshua! Our star of the day was Aleah. Aleah has 2 cats, 1 older brother, likes the color pink, macaroni, vanilla ice cream, and playing dress-up. We started a science unit on the five senses so we went outside to experience the playground through our senses. In the grassy area, students took off their shoes and felt and smelled the freshly mowed grass, saw butterflies and blue sky, and heard birds singing. Tomorrow is library day so don't forget to send those library books back in the morning.

The fire drill went very well. I was so proud of the kindergartners! Now that they have that under their belts they won't worry about subsequent drills. Thanks for prepping them for it! Our letter of the day was Nn. Our star of the day was Taylor. Taylor has a younger brother, likes the colors pink and purple, loves pepperoni pizza and loves movies about Ariel (the mermaid). As we've been practicing classroom and school rules, I told the students to ask you, their parents, about rules that you have to follow at your jobs. I want them to know that we all have to follow rules in order to keep society running smoothly. Remember that we do NOT have school on Monday. Thank you for all your Scholastic book orders! I will enter them right now. It will take about 7 business days for the books to arrive and then I will distribute them to the students who ordered. Enjoy your 3-day weekend and I'll see you Tuesday!

Today we studied the letter Ii, found it in the names of 7 of our classmates and fed sound muncher some items such as an igloo, and iguana, ink, and an inchworm. For math, we talked about things that come in 2s such as eyes, ears, shoes, and earrings. Each student was given a magazine to find pairs of things to cut out and glue to a sheet of paper. Your child brought this page home so maybe you could extend the lesson by looking around the house for other things that come in 2s and talk about it with your child. We clapped syllables in the names of our classmates and discovered that sometimes names that have few letters still have a lot of syllables! Luciana was our star of the day. We learned that she has a 1 year old sister, likes cats, the color pink, jewelry and pizza. The whole school will be practicing a fire drill tomorrow morning. Please let your child know that there's not really a fire and that we'll be okay -- we've rehearsed what to do.