A Snapshot of Kindergarten in Room 8

It was so nice to see those who attended Curriculum Night.  Those that did not attend Curriculum Night, it is totally understandable, so no worries.  I did not hand out anything during that night, so those who didn't make it to the presentation, don't count on anything coming home.  However, those who did not attend will need to sign up for a Conference.  I will be sending the open times to all the families who did not come to curriculum night, tomorrow.  Please email me back with your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.  I will do my best to accomodate everyone.  I have gotten permission from all families except for 1 to post pictures of the children.  I will do my best to keep this child out of the pictures until i get full permission.  So, enjoy the pictures of your children working hard in Kindergarten.

Also, please remember that tomorrow, Monday, is the last day to place orders on my scholastic website.  The directions on how to do this are in the post previous to this one.  Check it out!  Great books for great prices and I will be able to get more books for our library with all the bonus points.

Lastly, I have put together a page of kid friendly websites.  These sites are perfect for Kindergarten age children.  They are both academic and fun.  If your child is looking for an interesting site, bring up this page I am about to share and they can choose from a dozen sites.  Click on the web address provided below!

http://www.tizmos.com/sara.e.zakar

Here are some pics to give you an idea of what is going on in my classroom.  ENJOY!

Scholastic Book Order Information

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS

CLICK HERE FOR BOOK ORDERS! 

They also have best picks per grade and the book wizard to find 

books that are just right for your child!

HERE ARE DIRECTIONS FROM THE SCHOLASTIC SITE

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: HD64Z
Please place your order by: 
Monday, September 24th 

Dear Parent,

Please take some time to explore the flyer with your child. Make your selections and return the order form to me, along with your payment.

Or, give online ordering a try!

It’s fast, easy, and you get instant access to thousands of additional titles plus online-only specials and discounts. Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and log in using your user name and password.

If it’s your first time ordering online, use the Class Activation Code shown above to get started.

Online ordering offers you several advantages:

• Larger selection: Choose from thousands of titles, and more detailed product information than in the printed flyer.
  
• Exclusive online-only offers: Enjoy discounts available only on our Web site.
  
  
• Easy payment: Use your credit card! No need to worry about printed forms or sending checks to school.

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs now to get started.


Thank you,

A great start to a new year~

Hello everyone,

    Welcome to my blog for the school year 2012-2013.  Although my web address is still talesfromak-1classroom.blogspot.com.  I am no longer a k-1 looping teacher.  I am now a Full Day Kindergarten teacher.  This year has started with a bang.  Thank you to all parents who attended Curriculum Night.  I hope that you enjoyed my presentation, and I hope to find a way to put my presentation on this blog.  We have been very busy in room 8 this past week.  We are getting to know each other, learning each others name, and learning the rules and expectations of my classroom.  This is something we will work on for the next couple of weeks.  The children are all very excited to earn "Dazzles"  This is a while group positive reinforcement system that I use to shape our classroom behavior.  The children earn dazzles when I catch the entire class doing the right thing,  The other day, one of my students asked me how they could loose a "Dazzle"?  I told him, "I will NEVER take a dazzle away!"  "We all make mistakes and we are learning to make good choices, so when we are doing the right thing, I will recognize our class by giving us a Dazzle."  This made them very excited.  As of right now, we have earned 7 dazzles.  We only need 3 more dazzles to earn our "Dazzle Vote"  This is where the kids vote to get a special surprise.  Some of the past choices were; pajama day, crazy hair day, movie day, stuffed animal day, board game day, etc.  The kids are very excited to earn their last three Dazzles.  I am sure we will be able to achieve this during the week.

     I have many pictures of the children during the first week.  However, I need each parent's permission to show their child on my site.  I am planning on sending an email out asking permission.  I will ask you to email me back saying Yes! or No!.  I do have some pictures of the classroom that I would love to post.  Those parents who were not able to attend curriculum night, this is a sneak peak of the classroom.  I also want to let you know that those who didn't attend,  have to sign up for conference.  I will be sending home the open times this week!

     So, I hope you enjoy these pictures of our classroom and I can't wait to see all of you at conferences.  Oh, and one last thing;  During the classroom visits, I had a Play Dough sign up!  This meant that the parent would make home made play dough.  I still have NOT received September dough.  I am positive that a parent has signed up for this.  So, if you signed up, please send in this play dough as soon as possible.  The kids would be so appreciative.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend, and stay tuned for more pictures of your children learning!  Happy New Year!  L'Shana Tova!

Kindergarten Curriculum Night 2012

Tomorrow at 6:15, please join me at Beal School for Kindergarten Curriculum Night.  You will start in the gym with all of the families from Beal and then you will proceed to my classroom, which is Room #8.  I am upstairs and all the way to the right!

In the classroom you will get a chance to see a "Day in the life of a Zakar Kindergartener".  I will talk about a typical day and I have some great pictures of your kiddos during all the parts of our day.  So I hope to see you tomorrow night.  There will be a chance to sign up for volunteering and you will also need to sign up for a conference!  I hope to see you there!

Welcome back to school...

Yes, I have been MIA for the last couple of months.  This is because I work at an overnight camp for the whole summer.  We are a technology free camp and have campers from the ages of 8/9-16.  I have been going to camp for 20 summers.  I am now in charge of the entire girls camp and I have been doing that for 7 years.  I started at camp in 1990 as a camper.  I missed two years (1996,1997).  I then started working for camp in the summer of 1998 and I have not missed a summer since.  Click on this link to check out my camp's website!  I call it my second home, so though this was an appropriate link name!  

My Second Home

So that is what I have been up to all summer. But now I am back and ready for a new school year!  I had to change the name of my blog because I am no longer a looping k-1 teacher.  Because of the budget, I had to take a full day Kindergarten position with no chance of looping.  Although I have more experience in first grade, I will do my best to make this kindergarten experience AMAZING for your children.  My goal this year is to update my blog at least once a week.  So please come and visit my sit any time you want.  I also will be sharing a ton of FREEBIES that you could always download and use as practice.  This blog also serves as a teaching resource for other teachers, so there will be many posts about materials I have created or ideas that worked/didn't work!  So, to my parents of 2012/2013, WELCOME TO MY WONDERFUL BLOG!!!  I will be sending home a permission slip to use your child's picture on my site.  The children love seeing themselves online and I know you will too.  Many times, I will post video as well.  However, I know that their are some families that just do not want their child on the Internet.  If that is the case, please let me know.

Now, I bet you are all wondering what we have been up to these past two weeks.  Well, it has been a wonderful start to the new year.  We have been spending a ton of time learning about procedures and expectations.  We have already talked about our classroom rules and they will be signing them and (fingers crossed)  hopefully following them.   They have learned about Morning Meeting and they learned that each student will be able to participate in "sharing" 1x a week.  I will be sending a letter home and posting it on my blog tomorrow, so that the kids know when their sharing day is.

So, this first post is just to welcome all my new parents and any teacher who follows me.  You will get an insight about what goes on in Full Day Kindergarten as the year goes by, so continue to follow and check my blog often.  If you sign up to get an email notification when I post, you will always know when there is new information.

Last but not least, I know that some parents signed up to help with cleaning supplies and play dough donations each month.  I have not yet received our monthly play dough or cleaning supplies.  If you signed up for September, please make sure you send those materials in ASAP, as we really love to use the play dough and we want to stay healthy by cleaning the room.

WELCOME TO MISS ZAKAR'S FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN BLOG.. stay tuned!!

Author's Celebration- Celebrating two years of learning

WOW!!  First off, I know I have been slacking on updating my blog, but it has just been a crazy couple of months.  It is so unreal to me that we have 2 1/2 days left of school.  It feels like just yesterday that I met your wonderful Kindergarten kiddos.  It has been an amazing two years (for most of you) and an amazing year for those I just met in September.  The amount of growth that I have witnessed your children make has been unreal.  I am sending them all on to 2nd grade with confidence that they are prepared.

So tomorrow, Monday. June 11,  the Zakar's will be celebrate our year of wonderful learning.  At 2:15, the children will be sharing their PUBLISHED writing workshop stories, along with all their writing from the year.  They will also be sharing their Weekend Update journal, which they write in every Monday (or after every weekend). 

In addition, Miss Goulet, my wonderful student teacher, colleague, and friend, has put together an amazing video presentation.  This will outline the amazing learning that has taken place over the last two years.  Not only has Miss Goulet created our video this year, she has prepared a sneak peek trailer (just like a movie trailer) of what is to come tomorrow.

Enjoy this preview and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at 2:15 in my classroom.



Zakar

Summer Enrichment

Hi Zakar Families!
It's Miss Goulet, guest posting here on TFAK-1C! I feel very fortunate to have been able to continue at Beal after my practicum was over because I have been able to stop in and visit your amazing kiddos frequently :) I love checking in and seeing all of the great work they are doing and have been lucky enough to be invited to a couple of lunch gatherings in the cafeteria ;-)

Mrs. Dumphy (another Zakar class favorite...) and I are running a few camps at the Floral Street summer enrichment program and we have a couple of spots still available in two of our camps. If your child is interested in art or in scrapbooking, we would LOVE to see them at our camp for a fun filled week of being creative!

June 25-28 12:00-3:00 pm 
#259 Monet, Matisse and Me
We'll be painting, sketching and creating in the styles of famous artists, creating our own masterpieces and exploring different art techniques! Just wait until you see the museum worthy creations that come from these budding artists!


July 16-19 8:30-11:30am
#258 Scrapbooking for Kids  
Have fun documenting vacations, events and wonderful memories! Your child will create fantastic projects that capture memories of some of the most special times they have in their lives. The finished projects are great for sharing with others.

Spots are going quickly so if you would like to sign your child up for camp, then please email Jean Brunell at jbrunell@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us for online registration. We hope to see you there!!

Warmly,
Miss Goulet :)

P.S. Miss Zakar will be blogging later this week with important information and dates about the end of the year.

Some New Math FREEBIES

Hello,
I know it has been a long time.  I have been busy giving DRA's for the past week or so.  I will be back on track with my blog starting next week.  I just wanted to give some FREEBIES away.   Here are my latest math paper and pencil choices. Enjoy!