August 30-September 3, 2010
The kindergarten newsletter will be posted next Friday. Here are a few items of importance to the Redbird classroom this week.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAYDEN! Her 5th birthday was on Tuesday, August 31st!
Look at the home page for information about the field trip to Pioneers Park on Tuesday, September 28th.
Star of the Week
Each week a student will be featured as the Star of the Week. This week I am the Star so I can model this weekly activtity. My favorite color is red and my favorite animals are dogs. I love to eat mashed potatoes and my favorite season is fall. I love many books, but my favorites are Anne of Green Gables and The Golden Apple. I am like others because I have a smile on my face and I have short hair and I am different because my 2 daughters, Amy and Carrie, were born on the same day!!!
Little Books
Every week we make one or more little books. We color them and then we read them, using our reading pointer finger to point to each word as it is read. We jump over the spaces between words and we like to find the words that are the same on each page of the book. Please read this book with your child or let your child read it to you. Be sure to save this book, so your child can build a collection of little books to read at home!

New Word Wall Words
I, boys, girls
WOW Words
detail, talent, illustration, palindrome, strut, ellipse
A palindrome is a number or a word that is the same forward and backward. We learned about palindromes on the 11th day of school because 11 is a palindrome! Here are the words on our Word Palindrome List… wow, dad, mom, Bob, pup, race car, pop
We will continue to add palindrome numbers and words to our palindrome lists.
An ellipse is a punctuation mark. It is 3 periods (…). When you see an ellipse, you slow your voice down and stretch it out. This is always a favorite kindergarten punctuation mark!

August 18-27, 2010
These are additional items for you to know about our Redbird classroom. WE ARE THE REDBIRDS! Please read the kindergarten newsletter on this website to find out information on all the Riley kindergarten classrooms.
Helpers
Every day we have 2 helpers. They have many important jobs to do each day. They take the attendance and the lunch count to the office, they do the calendar activities, they answer the math question of the day, and they make many important decisions for the class each day through collaboration.
Q-Bear
Q-Bear began his nightly visits this week. Thank you for helping your child with this important literacy skill. Q-Bear is such an important friend in our kindergarten community and he helps us build important social skills, especially respect and responsibility. Please remember to read the instructions in your child’s Q-Bear journal and remember to return all items in the bag. There is a checklist to help you do this.

Sign Language
We will be learning sign language this year. This week, we learned to count to five and how to say, “yes” and “no.” We will also learn to say the alphabet in sign language.

WOW Words
As we read books, we discover big words that are new to us. When we hear these words, we say, “WOW, I wonder what that word means?” Kindergarten children love using big words, and when these words are explained and used frequently, they understand how to use them in their daily vocabulary. As we discover these words, we add them to our WOW Words chart. Building a strong vocabulary is an important kindergarten skill!!!
These are our WOW Words from the first two weeks of school: author, illustrator, focus, collaborate, return sweep, exclamation point, period, fragile, plural, vertical, horizontal, diagonal

Class List
Alia Zuheri
America Del Angel Sanchez
Avery Noden
Brisa Odenthal
Brittyn Schutz
Bryson Steinbach
Caden Ropte
Dylan Rutt
Faith Walkenhorst
Harry Guan
Hayley Dean
Jackson Rathje
Jacob Milburn
Jayden Hamel
Jessica Ramirez
Katlyn Showers
Lily Ratliff
Ramon Mora
Tanae Day