Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome!

Summer vacation has flown by, and it is so hard for us to believe that we are about to kickoff another school year at Douglas.  We have so many exciting times ahead.  Lots of laughter and learning is about to take place for your kindergartener, and we can’t wait for it all to get started!

In the coming weeks, if you have any questions about Meet & Greet, staggered entry, Kindergarten Open House or anything at all, please contact our front office at 919.881.4894. 

We look forward to meeting you all very soon and working together to make your child's first year at Douglas fabulous! 

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner & Mrs. Camel

Read Across America Week!!!

We had such fun during Read Across America week in our classroom!  What a wonderful celebration!!  We spent the entire week reading classic Dr. Seuss books including Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Wacky Wednesday, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, What Was I Scared Of?, The Sneetches and Hooray for Diffendoofer Day.   The kids had such fun reading these stories, and we had some great class discussions.  The messages found within Dr. Seuss’ books are so powerful, and I loved listening to your amazing children latch on and embrace their themes. 

We also had some spectacular guest readers stop in this week and read to us.  I truly cannot thank each of them enough for taking the time out of their busy schedules to visit our classroom.  The kids had an absolute blast, and they have already requested return visits!!!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Dr. Kinsey-Barker

Dr. Kinsey-Barker is our area superintendent.  The kids loved having her in our classroom.  In fact, the minute she left, they were begging for me to schedule a return visit!  

Mrs. Taylor 

Mrs. Taylor taught me 4th and 5th grade!!  She is now the assistant principal at Brooks Elementary.  Hands down, Mrs. Taylor was the best teacher I ever had!

Mrs. Bruner

My Mom

I was thrilled that my Mom was able to stop by this year to read, and the kids really enjoyed having her visit.  Hope she can come again soon!!  

Mrs. Roberts 

My Aunt 

It was such a treat to have my precious aunt visit our classroom!  She certainly enchanted the kids!!

  

Mrs. Herb

4th grade teacher at Douglas

Mrs. Herb's class is our book buddy class this year.  The kids had a blast with her!  She is such a wonderful teacher and friend!

Mrs. Spickard 

Magnet Coordinator at Douglas

Mrs. Spickard drops by with her tour groups quite a bit.  It was so incredibly sweet of her to come read to our class.  Like everyone else, they just adored her!  

Mrs. Ramsay

Instructional Resource Teacher at Douglas

Mrs. Ramsay was a huge hit with your children!!  She is one of my absolute favorite people, and she quickly became one of the kids' favorites too!  

To wrap up our celebration, we spent the afternoon making Oobleck!!  And, I must say – what a mess!  But, it was such a fun mess!!  Luckily, my sister, Miss Elizabeth, stopped by to help out! Unfortunately, we didn't get a class picture with Miss Elizabeth, but if you look closely you can spot her in the background in one of these photos.  

As always, thank you so much for your continued support!

Educationally Yours,

Ms. Bruner

February Was a Blur!!

February was such a busy blur despite all the snow days!  There have been so many exciting things happening in our classroom – Valentine’s Day, 100^th School Day, Music/Dance Informance and so much more Kindergarten fun!!!

The 100^th day of school was such a celebration in our classroom!  We made 100^th day Fruit Loop necklaces, crafted 100^th Day hats, drew a 100 year old version of ourselves; and, wrote about what we will be like when we are 100.   Their responses cracked me up!  Some said they would live in a big house, drive a motorcycle, tell jokes, wrestle sharks and one even said she would be feeding her pet fish! 

The kids also had their first Informance ever at Douglas!  They were so precious, and it was such a treat to see what they had been working on in music and dance.   Thank you to all the parents who were able to join us for that celebration! 

Waiting for the Informance to Start!

Sing About Martin!

We have also been finishing up our weather unit in science.  We have learned about thermometers and how to properly read them, made rain gauges and have studied different types of clouds.  One of our classmates has even decided that he wants to be a meteorologist when he grows up! 

Reading Thermometers!

Observing the Clouds!

Making Rain Gauges!

In math, we have been working on solving addition and subtraction word problems.  The kids have done a fantastic job with this!  They have really enjoyed creating their own math stories and working collaboratively to solve each other's story problems.   

Please remember to practice your child’s sight words at home each night.  And, as always, READ, READ, READ!  Again, thank you for all you do to support your child at home! 

Educationally Yours, 

Ms. Bruner 

P.S. Let’s hope spring comes early!  Keeping my fingers crossed that the snow days are done! 

February is Here!

Hard to believe that February is here!  I am so glad that January (our month of assessments) is FINALLY over.  The kids were wonderful and so patient as we worked to complete all of our MClass testing.  Report cards as well as your child’s MClass reading results will go home on Monday, February 3.  Please review that information, and feel free to e-mail me at sbruner@wcpss.net with any questions. 

As I’m sure you heard from your child, I was missing for several days this month.  I took a quick trip to NYC with my sister over the Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend, and I wound up getting stuck in a blizzard.  They had 12 inches of snow!  

The kids were fabulous for Mrs. Camel during my absence.  While I was gone, they read the story Miss Nelson is Missing.  Then, they wrote about where they thought I was during my absence.  Some of their responses were hilarious.  Who knew I was so adventurous with sharks?  And, some proved that they know me a little too well (i.e. my shopping addiction and my love for my dogs).  

We have been busy, busy, busy in reading!  We have been working hard on applying decoding and comprehension strategies.  This week in your child’s green folder, you will receive some handouts to support your child as they read at home.  These handouts are posted on my Web site as well at sarahbruner.weebly.com.  The only way your child is going to grow as a reader is to actually engage them in reading!  They should be discussing text with you and reading books on their level.  I can’t emphasis that point enough!!!  If you do one thing each night with your child, it needs to be READING!!

In math, we have been working on comparing shapes as well as positional words, and we are about to begin learning various strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems.  We have begun our big weather unit in science as well.  So far, we have learned about wind and made wind socks.  Currently, we are learning about thermometers and temperature. 

As always, thank you so much for all you do to support your child’s learning at home.  And, remember – READ, READ, READ!!!

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner

P.S. Thought you all might enjoy watching your children learn a new dance during one of our Wiggle Breaks!

New Year & Loads to Do!!!

Wow, can you believe that 2014 has already arrived?  Like many of you, I always start off the New Year by making several resolutions both personal and professional.  One of my professional resolutions is to update this blog at least once a month.  Here’s hoping that this is one resolution that I can keep! 

Before the holiday break, we had such a fun day celebrating!  We read and watched The Polar Express, had pajama day, made shortbread cookies and also created reindeer ornaments.  The kids had an absolute blast!  They were smiling from ear to ear all day long!  Thank you to all the parents who made our celebration possible!  Thank you for volunteering your time, energy and also for donating the supplies.  I have truly been blessed this year with an amazing group of kids and parents!  I am certainly one lucky teacher! 

Two days back, and we are already back to work in our classroom!  In reading, we will continue to work on segmenting and blending CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, asking and answering questions about fancy words; and, also identifying the characters, setting, and major events in a story.  In writing, we will begin working on crafting our own how to pieces.  At this point in the year, your child should be using upper and lowercase letters correctly in their work, making sure to use finger spaces between words, spelling common sight words correctly; and, writing the dominant sounds of words.  In math, we have begun studying both 2D and 3D shapes, and we will begin studying weather in science.  Like always, we are busy, busy, busy!   

Over the next several weeks, your child will be participating in mclass assessments in both reading and math.  And, at the end of the month, you will receive their second quarter report card as well as the results from the mclass assessments.  Also, I urge you to continue to practice your child’s sight words at home each night!  Sight words are so important for your child’s reading development and success.  I truly can’t emphasize that point enough!  Also, I am happy to provide you with more sight words, if you feel your child has already mastered the yearlong list sent home by the kindergarten team.    

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner