Week 1

     Arrrrrgh you ready for kindergarten?  I am excited to begin a new year with you and your family!  Thank you for coming to meet the teacher this week.  It was great to meet you and begin to put faces with the names on our roster!  As I said in our meeting, feel free to email us with any questions or concerns you may have as we jump into the 2015-2016 school year.  I wanted to give you a few reminders before I give you our weekly overview.  Please remember to send a 4x6 of your family to be added to our family tree.  We are also in need of a class snack to be shared in case someone forgets theirs at home one day.  Remember to pack your child's snack and pop-top water bottle when packing their tote.  To prevent leaks you may want to put the water bottle inside a large Ziplock bag.  Review the blue chevron note for other important reminders.  Please check your child's homework folder on Monday; we will have several important papers inside, including a name activity that is due Thursday.  

   Our first sight words are: I, am, & can.  Please review these words with your child each night.  We will practice identifying these words in class and they will be checked on our first assessment.  There are several activities listed in the homework folder to help practice sight words.  We will be learning about our names by counting, comparing, and identifying the letters in our names.  An activity that you may want to try at home for extra practice that incorporates our sight words, name work, and writing for the week is to have your child draw a picture of their self doing something they are good at, then write "I can___."  Don't forget to have them sign their name to their masterpiece before displaying it on your refrigerator!  In reading, we will complete activities that correlate with the books we read each day.  Be sure to ask your child what books we read and see if they can retell their favorite story.  I encourage you to check out some of their favorite books from the library this school year.  Students always enjoy getting to share school experiences with their families.  We will be learning about math through counting, graphing, and problem solving.  Have your child practice counting objects in your home, such as how many chairs are at your table.  Our first writing will include using details, illustrations, and labels to communicate a thought.  We will also spend time each day learning about school rules, procedures, and expectations.  As you can see it is going to be a busy week!  Get plenty of rest and I will see you early Monday morning!  

Welcome to Kindergarten!!!

    Hi! My name is Mrs. Watson. I look forward to setting sail with you and our kindergarten crew very soon! This will be my thirteenth year teaching. I have been teaching kindergarten at OES for eleven years. Prior to teaching at OES, I taught 1st grade in Cherokee county for two years. I have a Master's degree in early childhood education from USC Upstate. I have been married to Mr. Watson for 18 years. We have two daughters, Becca is in  7th grade and Abigail is in 2nd grade at OES. We have 2 dogs, named Kensley and Sam, and a rabbit named Thumper. You will hear lots of stories about my family and pets this year because I like to write about them when we write in our journals. 
     We are very fortunate to have Mrs. Ward share our classroom with us. I have worked with her every year that I have been at OES. She is an excellent teaching partner! Mrs. Ward has been at OES for eleven years. Prior to working at OES, she was a 4 year old kindergarten teacher. Mrs. Ward also has a Master's degree in early childhood education. Mrs. Ward has been married to Mr. Ward for 22 years! They have four children, two girls and two boys. Mrs. Ward's children have all graduated from OES. She has a dog named Jake and a brand new puppy. You will also hear lots of stories about Mrs. Ward's family and pets this year.

   We look forward to sharing our classroom with you! We will have a great year together!  We have been busying planning lots of fun and exciting learning activities for you. Get ready to set sail with us on a 180 day journey!  See you soon!

Duck Dynasty

We are officially on the countdown!   We should begin hatching in 28 days!  Our eggs were placed in the incubator this morning.  We have to turn them twice a day and maintain a 100 degree temperature.  Today we took the feathered friend pledge with Dr. Patterson promising to take good care of our ducklings!  We will keep you posted!

Welcome Back!

     Welcome back!  I hope you had a wonderful spring break and were able to spend lots of time with you family.  It is hard to believe we only have about 7 weeks left!  This year has zipped by in the blink of an eye! 
     We are beginning our unit on egg hatching.  We will be researching all about how to hatch duck eggs and how to care for them after hatching.  This is always a fun time of year as we eagerly await our new arrivals.  We will be getting our eggs tonight and begin the incubation countdown tomorrow.  The students will be so excited and will be ready to tell you all about it! 
     We will be reading informational texts as we research egg hatching.  We will be identifying important features found in informational texts.  We will begin making our own informational book based on our egg hatching experience and research.   In math, we will be reviewing our unit on addition and subtraction before taking our assessment this week.  We will begin our new unit on measurement next.  In science, we will begin documenting the changes we notice in spring compared to winter. 
     Don't forget to check back to learn more about our egg hatching fun.

Week 26

     A couple of important notes for the week.  Remember to sign up for Boosterthon, our spring fundraiser.  Information went home last week about this fundraiser.  Also, we have a field trip planned for March 6th.  Be on the lookout for  permission slips and cover letters tonight in homework folders.  Another change you will notice this week, students will have homework in their folders.  Homework will be due by Friday each week. 
     We will be finishing plans from last week due to the inclement weather.  Our sight words this week will be: want, lots, of.  We will continue learning about matter.  In math, we will be continuing our addition unit.  One way that you may help at home would be by providing math story problems and having your child solve them with counters, such as cereal, then write a number sentence to match.  For instance, have them combine  3 blue Fruit Loops plus 4 red Fruit Loops then write 3+4=7.  We are reading books by Laura Numeroff and learning about cause and effect.   We are also comparing and contrasting texts.  We are writing non-fiction texts to go along with our matter unit.  As you can see we will be having a busy week!

Week24

We will begin learning about different types of matter this week including paper, wood, metal, and cloth.  We will be reading books by Laura Numeroff to better understand cause and effect through her circular texts.  We will also be learning about alliteration.  We will use her stories as a guide for writing this week too.  As you can tell we will be very busy in language arts this week!  I'm also excited about digging deeper into our new math unit on addition.  Remember to use your logins and passwords to access the learning odyssey from home; this is a great resource for improving MAP scores.

Week 23

We are finished with our study of winter and its effect on people, plants, and animals.  We will spend this week learning about American symbols and famous Americans.  We will begin learning about addition.  Our sight words will be: will, had, & that.  We will be reading and writing about America.