What a great long weekend! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did visiting family and friends. This is my favorite weekend because I see old friends, have special traditions (Black Friday shopping!) and enjoy going home. 🙂 Everyone came in with smiles today sharing the things they did over the weekend. What a fun time of year for little ones!

Ms. Purdin and her friend Emily before the event with Shalane on Saturday.

Ms. Purdin did “run” into someone famous over the weekend, NYC Marathon 2017 winner Shalane Flanagan at the “Back the Track” event in Marblehead. Fun Fact: Ms. Purdin and Shalane were in the same high school class! it’s awesome to see her achieve a dream she’s had for a long time and to come back to do some good in our hometown.

Now that we are back to school, we have a month to finish the alphabet, work on math and do my favorite literature unit – The Gingerbread Man! We are also working on kindness during the month of December. I saw this great idea on Facebook, and if a certain Elf you might know is looking for something to do try this! Kindness Elves.

One last thing…Report cards come out on Friday and I am looking forward to meeting with you all next week at parent conferences. We are changing the report cards this year and they will look different from past kindergarten report cards. Please bring your questions to our meeting.

Here’s what we are learning this week:

English Language Arts

• Fundations week 10 Ww, Vv
• Mrs. Wishy-Washy: Emerging reader skills (pointing to words, picture clues)
• Sight words: the, said, I
• Writing a sentence

Math

• Introduction to Teen Numbers
• decomposing shapes

Science

• Animals in Winter

Social Studies

• Native American culture

Share this:

Here are twelve school related things I am grateful for (besides my 12 wonderful students!): 

1. Our fantastic, hard working and caring paraprofessionals – especially Mrs. Howard. I love having her in the classroom with me.
2. Our new P.E. teacher Ms. Brett and our new STEM teacher Ms. Cahill who always put the kids first.
3. The school suppling crayons to us this year and not having to put them on the supply list!
4. A clean classroom that’s toasty in the winter! Thanks Mr. Ted and Mr. James
5. Seeing my students from past and present each day all around the school.
6. Knitting and Finger knitting – It’s nice to have a warm scarf and hat for door duty in winter months that I made! (And we are making progress in our finger knitting skills!)
7. Kindergartners who like to sing, play and be imaginative.
8. The ability to learn new things and use them in my daily teaching practice. (Have you tried Rose, Bud, Thorn at home yet?)
9. Mrs. Peever, my next door classroom neighbor and supportive colleague.
10. The office staff and lunchroom staff – Ms. April, Mrs. Katso, Mrs. Shena – they all make the school day run smoothly.
11. All those new and beautiful library books for the picking!!! We are so lucky!
12. The Johnson School community for continuing to be open to new ideas and practices and being supportive of our students.

Have a great Thanksgiving break with your family and friends!

Sincerely,
Ms. Purdin

Share this:

This week we are learning about animal habitats in science and the first Thanksgiving in Social Studies. It feels like we are winding up our learning at the first trimester comes to an end. Today was the 50th day of school – where does the time go??

We are having our Term 1 Coffee Chat on Wednesday, November 22 from 7:50 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. in our classroom to see all the work we have done this term. I will be sending out a formal invite tomorrow – but put it on your calendars! You don’t want to miss it!

Here’s what we are learning this week:

English Language Arts

• Fundations Unit 1 Week 9 h, l, k
• Introducing the “tools of good readers”
• Writing an opinion

Math

• Finishing up Unit 3
• shapes and attributes
• counting by 10s t0 50
• number writing

Science

• Animal Habitats
• Our first Northeastern University Marine Science Visit

Social Studies

• History of Thanksgiving
• Gratitude

Share this:

Children built ramps to see how far an apple could roll.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween last night!

We had a very pleasant and fun day yesterday full of Halloween inspired learning activities. With the help of our room parents, we were able to have our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) activities for a Halloween celebration. Children worked cooperatively to build ramps to see how far they could make an apple roll. They also decorated pumpkins and played math number and shape recognition games. In the morning, we  had some spooky literacy centers and read some favorite Halloween stories!

Please note, I know it’s hard to believe, but the end of the first trimester is coming to a close at the end of November. More info on report cards and parent conferences will be coming out soon!

Here’s what we are up to for the rest of the week…

English/Language Arts

• Fundations week 8 Ee and Rr
• Parts of a book (title page, front cover, back cover)
• Counting words in sentences

Math

• Number writing 6-10
• Number comparisons
• November calendars

Science

• finishing up pumpkins and seed unit

Social Thinking and Social Studies

• Expected and Unexpected behaviors
• What makes a neighborhood?

A Friendly Reminder…no Halloween candy at school!

Thank You!

Share this: