Samsula Kindergarten: Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

Welcome to Kindergarten

There is a wonderful sense of home when you walk through the front doors of Samsula Academy. We deeply believe that your child will find our school to be a warm and friendly place. We are very proud to be a part of the Samsula Academy School family. Once you have opened those doors you are a member of our family too.

We wish to welcome you to Kindergarten. Kindergarten is a new and exciting time for you and your child. It’s a time of change… new beginnings, new friends, new challenges and exciting discoveries! We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation for allowing us to be a part of your child’s life during this precious time of growth and discovery!

This is our honor to welcome you and your child into Kindergarten and into… our life. We will do our best to make this year in Kindergarten enjoyable but also filled with academics. Our motto is: “The seeds we plant today will blossom into a flower tomorrow.” It will be our pleasure and privilege to watch your child’s personality and learning abilities blossom and unfold day by day.

We run a very effective classroom which is well structured but allows for fun and growth. We hold high expectations for all my students. Furthermore, we strongly believe in differentiated instruction. Research reveals that all students learn differently. Therefore, we plan my lessons to meet the needs of all students. It will be our honor to expand the growing minds of tomorrow and encourage them to become the great leaders of the new generation.

You will find very useful information on this blog. I will update it with events that are happening in our classroom, student work, and other related events. If you have any questions, you may contact us at cgibbs@readingedgeacademy.org or sbowden@readingedgeacademy.org

-Mr. Christopher Gibbs, M.Ed
-Mrs. Shannon Bowden

Monday, September 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed!

We began doing our own form of team teaching this week. The students in both classes are split up based on reading ability. It has already been very benefical to several students. We worked with with the sight words in, is, it, jump, little. Every student in Mr. Gibb's class mastered this set and Mrs. Bowden's class also did well. We will be moving on next week. Remember to always go back and review all words. We also learned the letter Oo and Ff this week. We will learn Dd and Hh this coming week. We are beginning to read harder sentences. You should be so proud of your child.

In math, we reviewed all concepts and did several activities that involved apples. We read a book Ten Apples on Top and completed a craft learning about the order of numbers. We also patterned with apples and did several problem solving activities. We also learned how to recognize and write numbers to 20. We are going to be working on recognizing and writing numbers to 25 next week. We will also begin a unit on patterns this coming week.

In social students, we began our community unit. We learned about homes and familes. In Mr. Gibbs' class we built our own classroom community. As we learn new topics about our community we will add them to our town - "Gibbstown." We all made our house and already placed it in our community. Students are very excited about this and just wait till it is all completed!

We also went to the library this week. We had a great time learning how to use the library, and checking out books. We also watched a video on homes. We are truly, 21st century learners!

Our theme was apples. We completed several apple workshop crafts and even made applesauce on Friday in honor of Johnny Appleseed. We had a lot of fun this week!