Terrific Week 3

Monday, September 08, 2014
Last week, in reading, we began discussing how to pick "Just Right" books for us. My kinder friends learned the "five finger rule" for deciphering if books are too difficult for them. We read Dog in Boots and Goldisocks and the Three Libearians.We read independently and started graphing our "reading stamina". I'm very proud of the way my students have grown as readers, in just the third week (our whole class read for FIVE MINUTES)! I am so excited to see where they are at the end of the year!





We also discussed the letters b, c, and f (capital and lowercase) and the sounds the letters made. At this point, we have discussed the following letters and the sounds they make: a, t, m, s, b, c, and f. Please be sure to be going over these letters with your child, as it is very important for them to know their letter sounds, especially as we begin to set up reading workshops and beginning to work on reading. Here are two links to YouTube that have been big hits in our class! We love to practice our letters and sounds using these fun songs!






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Tuesday, September 02, 2014

I hope all of you had a wonderful labor day weekend. I am sorry this blog post is a little late but its full of information about this past week and this upcoming week in Ms. Fortner and Ms. Roper's class!


We celebrated college colors day last Friday. It was a lot of fun and we are truly "a class divided" :) (GO TIGERS)

Last week, we also began launching math stations for students to begin working cooperatively in small groups to prepare for the Daily 5 model we will be using for both reading and math. These stations were a big hit!!! These stations have been reinforcing the number sense in the numbers 1-10 that we have been practicing in whole group math lessons. 








Friday was also Mason's birthday! We celebrated Mason's special day by singing happy birthday to him, and eating special snacks his mom sent in. What a fun day!!







This week, we are diving in to exploring families and what makes each of our families different and equally special. We will be comparing what families used to be like a 100 years ago, to what our families are like now. We will also be studying the author, Eric Litwin (Pete The Cat) this week in writing. Lastly, we will be exploring the numbers 6-10 and discovering different ways to represent and see those numbers. We have a lot of fun things going on this week! I hope your child is as excited as I am!











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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
What a fun two days! I am so proud of my kinder friends and how far they have come since last Monday and Tuesday. I am already seeing a huge difference in the way my friends are excited to come to school and learn, and this is only week 2! I can't wait to see how they continue to progress throughout this year.

This week, we have been studying my personal favorite children's author: Mo Willems. On Monday, we practiced doodling like Mo does in his books Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. We also watched an interview with Mo Willems and learned more about him as both an author and an illustrator.





We take REGULAR brain breaks throughout the day (kindergarten is hard work, y'all!). To make sure that we have all our wiggles out and that our brains are ready for our next lesson, we regularly use one of my favorite sites, GoNoodle, for our wiggle breaks. Here is a picture of my kinder friends practicing yoga with Maximo the magnifico. They LOVE it!!! And I love getting to take the breaks with them. What fun!


During reading, we have been discussing the 3 different ways to read a book. (There is never a reason any of my kinder friends should ever say "I can't read".) We talked about reading the pictures, reading the words, and retelling the story. We used the story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears to practice these three methods of reading. This picture is of my friends watching the pictures of the book, but not reading the words yet. We were practicing reading the pictures. We then re-told the events of the story. 


Today, we came up with our own "pigeon" stories. We brainstormed silly things the Pigeon did like in Mo Willem's stories we read, and my friends got to draw pictures of their Pigeon being silly and finish the statement, "Don't let the Pigeon..." I loved hearing my friends' answers and the great things they came up with. They worked so hard and I am so proud!






During math, we have been exploring numbers. We have been creating anchor charts for "All About Numbers 1 and 2". We will create anchor charts for numbers 3 - 5 for the remainder of the week. My friends have been independently recording their charts in their math journals. Here is a picture of my friends working hard on their math journals. They make me one proud teacher. 




I am having the best time growing and learning with your children, I already can't wait for school tomorrow, and I hope your child feels the same way!


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Fantastic First Week!! (And a peek at next week)

Saturday, August 23, 2014


All I can say is... WOW!!! What a GREAT first week!! I am astonished by my kinder friends and everything they learned this week.


We read the book, Have you filled a bucket today? and discussed different ways to fill up our friends' buckets.


We also discussed drawing pictures to tell a story. We learned that we are all authors... and that authors can write about ANYTHING. We told our own stories, titled them, and even shared them with the class. (One of my favorite parts about doing this was my kinder friends thinking my pitiful artwork was "THE BEST EVER!!" :) 

We took time each morning during our morning to share scrapbook pages sent in. Our friends loved sitting in my special sharing chair and getting to talk about their pages. We bound all the pages up into a book and placed it in our classroom library. I have already seen my friends when they have a chance to explore our library pulling out our classroom scrapbook.

During math this week, we asked, "What is Math?" We recorded our discussions in our math journals (we decided math includes A LOT of different things!), we looked at different ways to sort in our learning clubs, and we looked at our names and talked about who in our class had the longest and shortest names. What a fun week in math!!






We also created our "class promises" this week. We read character building books during our family meeting leading up to the creation of our promises. We made a big list of what we would like to see in our "dream classroom" and compiled it into a smaller list of classroom promises we could all remember. We all signed our name on our promises, and we have promised to follow them. Our promises are now on display for all to see in our classroom.




I had so much fun this week, but I am even more excited for next week! We will be diving in to an author study of my favorite children's book author, Mo Willems! On Wednesday, we will be bringing our favorite stuffed animals to class and reading my favorite book by Mo Willems, Knuffle Bunny. 

Here is the link to my lesson plans for this week: Week 2

Our sight words for the upcoming week are: a, it, my. Please make sure you are reviewing these with your child nightly! Can't wait to see all of my kinder friends bright and early on Monday morning after a restful weekend!



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Terrific Tuesday- August 19

Tuesday, August 19, 2014
What a fun day today! We continued practicing our routines (we're going to be a well oiled machine by the end of this week :-) ), went to computer lab, and we took a tour of the school! On our tour of the school we stopped by the front office, Dr. Patterson's office, the nurse's office, the guidance counselor's office, the library, the computer lab, the gym, the cafeteria, the music room, and the art room. We had a blast learning where everything is in the school! We also read Pete the Cat: Rockin' in my School Shoes and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

I also showed my friends my blog, and my "All About Ms. Fortner" page. Much like I do, my kinder friends LOVED seeing my puppy, Tilley, and wanted to know all sorts of details about her. :)






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First Day Fun!!

Monday, August 18, 2014
What an awesome first day of school! 


We practiced our routines, read aloud First Day Jitters, The Kissing Hand, and Do Unto Otters. We also discussed some ways to be kind to our friends in our classroom (the beginning of our class promises to each other). During math, our friends were given a pile of starbursts and asked to divide them evenly among themselves. (My friends did a great job of sharing and making sure the amount of starbursts everyone had was fair. I was so impressed!)




We had so much fun today! This teacher sure is tired. I can't wait to see these sweet faces again in the morning! 

And as an extra bonus, here is a copy of my lesson plans for the week as well as our current daily schedule (as the year progresses and I get to know our class more, the daily schedule is subject to change by a few minutes)



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It's that time again.... :)

Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Whew, I don't know about ya'll, but this summer has been a WHIRLWIND for me! From graduating from the BEST university in the state (Go Tigers!), to training my new puppy, and organizing resources for my first year teaching, I definitely haven't had an excuse to be bored! :)

I've been working endlessly in my classroom to ensure that your child has a fun, comforting and positive environment to learn in this year. It has been a BLAST creating my dream classroom to share with your child!

The beginning of the year is quickly approaching, and I'm so excited to teach (and grow with) your student this year!

Here are two links you may find useful in the upcoming weeks leading up to school. One contains information about registration, and the other is the school supply list for this year.

OES 2014 School Supply List
Spartanburg District 2 Registration Schedule

I hope to see you at 'Meet the Teacher' on August 13 from 1:00 to 6:00 pm!


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