North Tama Kindergarten News 2005 - 2006

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

September 2, 2005

September 2, 2005
Dear Families,

This has been a monumental week for kindergartners at North Tama! We’ve now experienced one full week of school! We are still working on classroom routines, classroom rules, and school rules. Things get better each day!

The breakfast bell rings at 8:00, and kids eating breakfast are allowed in the building then. Other students should not come in until 8:10. If your child does not ride the bus, and he/she arrives early, he/she should go to the playground.

Along with learning the many important school rules, we have worked on shapes, colors, and following directions. The kindergartners worked in their reading workbooks. We will send the pages home after we finish both sides. (We are not going in order.) On Thursday we reviewed shapes by taking a “Shape Walk.” (If the weather was inclement, we had to skip the outside walk.) We looked at buildings, cars, and natural items and discussed the shapes found in them. We then returned to class and made our own shape creatures and items using colorful shapes, glue sticks, and crayons. Most days we do some kind of math work. The boys and girls will bring home worksheets that have “homework” on one side. We want families to look at these math worksheets and work with your kindergartner on the homework side. Children that do their homework and return the paper to school get to pick out a sticker from the sticker box.

The children had a chance to meet and work with Mr. Estes the gym teacher, Mrs. Betts the art teacher, Mr. Shay the music teacher, Mrs. O’Meara the guidance counselor,and Mrs. Vokoun the media teacher. Mrs. Vokoun sent media notes home with the children. Read over those media notes carefully so that you know when your child’s book needs to be returned to the school so that he/she can check out a new one.

Next Thursday, September 8th, the elementary school will have an Open House/Book Fair. The classrooms will be open for families to tour from 6:00 - 7:30. The Book Fair will be held in the multipurpose room from 6:00 - 7:30. There is a supper in the lunchroom beginning at 5:30. We hope to see many families at the Open House on Thursday, September 8th!

Lunch has gone well with the majority of students being willing to try new or unfamiliar foods. We will not make the children eat all of the food on their plate, but we will encourage them to try each food and then eat enough to get them through the afternoon. If your child needs to buy a milk to drink because they brought their own lunch, then 30 cents will be subtracted from your family’s hot lunch account.

During our full days of school we have rest time. We try to rest about 30 minutes each day. We feel rest time is important and necessary. We are playing soft, relaxing music and the lights are off.

Our classroom schedule was sent home last week. Look at this schedule carefully so that you can help your child dress appropriately for gym class day. Sharing is on this schedule. We will not start sharing next week. We will let you know when sharing will start. Don’t forget, we will not have school on Monday, September 5th.

This year Mrs. Howard is trying to keep copies of the newsletter on the internet! The address is http://northtamakind.blogspot.com. Families may add this address to the home computer’s bookmarks or favorites areas. You can also find a link to this blogspot by going to the North Tama web page. The North Tama web page can be found at www.n-tama.k12.ia.us.
We look forward to another week of school with this enjoyable group of children! We know that things will improve and run more smoothly each day!

Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, and Mrs. Herink

Thursday, August 25, 2005

August 26, 2005

August 26, 2005

Dear Families,

Every week we send home a newsletter telling you what we have done during the week. We also let you know of upcoming events so that you can plan accordingly. We normally send the newsletter home in the kindergartners’ folders on Fridays. Please check your child’s bag for these important papers every week.

We get to have another teacher work with us in the kindergarten room part of each day. Her name is Mrs. Tammy Herink. Mrs. Herink is a graduate of North Tama and has three children in the North Tama district.

We read the book called Timothy Goes to School. In this story Timothy was teased by Maude everyday about the outfits he wore to school. The boys and girls worked on a paper that put Timothy’s outfits in the order that he wore them to school. This week we began working with colors and shapes. We will continue to work on colors and shapes next week.

Next Thursday morning we hope to take a walk in Traer. We walk around a block close to the school, and we look for different shapes on our walk. If the weather does not cooperate, the walk will be cancelled.

Believe it or not, there are days that school is dismissed early because of heat or bad weather. We want to know each family’s plan of action for if/when this happens. If you haven’t already filled out the green form from registration, please do so immediately or fill out the bottom portion of this sheet and return it to school. The sooner that we get this information, the better. The phone numbers will help us in case we need to contact you when you are not home.

We have a student in kindergarten that has a weaker immune system. It is EXTREMELY important that you keep your child home when he/she is sick. It is also VERY important to call the school when your child is sick in order to let the nurse know about the illness that your child has. Please keep us informed!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, and Mrs. Herink


Name ___________________
This is our plan for an early dismissal due to bad or hot weather:
(Examples: “John will ride the bus home as usual.” “Call Jill’s mother at work before sending Jill home on the bus.” “Suzy will go home with her big brother.” “Send Billy to his daycare provider”.)




Home phone number _______________________
Dad’s work number ________________________
Mom’s work number _______________________
Cell numbers _____________________________

Friday, August 19, 2005

August 24, 2005

My First Day of
Kindergarten!


I had a good first day of school! The day went by very quickly! If I couldn't come to school on Tuesday, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Herink helped me put my school supplies in the right places, and they told me where I would be sitting for the first nine weeks of school. Please ask me to tell you my table number. We talked about the rules we have in our class that help things run smoothly for everyone. These rules are written on the next page, and the teachers would like you to read them over with me .

Also today we had a Welcome to School assembly, recesses, lunch, rest time, and afternoon milk and snack. We learned a couple of action fingerplays and listened to some stories about the first day of school. Mrs. Howard's class went to art with Mrs. Betts and music with Mr. Shay. Mrs. Owens' class went to art with Mrs. Betts. We wrote our names on a paper for our teachers to save until the end of kindergarten so we can see our improvement. Here is how I wrote my name.



Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Howard, and Mrs. Herink have several more important things to tell you about my kindergarten class. They want you to watch for the notes I'll be bringing home during the school year. They also say to feel free to send a note or call if you have any questions or concerns.

It is also very important to send a note if I am to leave school with someone different, or if I am to go somewhere other than where I normally go.

I think kindergarten will be a fun place to learn!
I bet you can't believe I 'm really old enough to be in school now!
____________________
Kindergarten Class Rules

1. Be kind to each other
2. Be helpful to each other
3. Listen when someone else is talking
4. Raise your hand to talk
5. Share
6. Take turns