Planting Seeds for Success

Wow! This first week flew by--it was a wonderful chance to start getting to know all of you wonderful families and kids with whom I get to learn and grow this year! Our first two days were spent mostly learning what a day in kindergarten will be like! We start each morning with a Morning Meeting, complete with greeting each other, sharing something about ourselves, an activity to get some wiggles out, and a morning message. Next week, we will also add our "calendar time" to the morning routine, complete with a "Days of the Week" song, and we'll also start to keep track of how many days we've been in school.

We learned how to circle up with our "Time for us to Circle up" song, how to sit in our "Rug Rows", and how to use quick, quiet, and safe feet to line up or come to the rug. So much of kindergarten is about learning how to follow directions quickly and quietly to set the stage for success in the rest of their school careers! I can tell these students were proud of their accomplishments when they were able to follow directions; they all especially seem to love the "Freeze Game"--if you want to have a special school conversation, have your child tell you about that this weekend!

I think our favorite times this week were snack, recess, and when we got to explore math counters and read the story Red, about a blue crayon whose name is Red. After reading the story and connecting with the character,
students used crayons to draw 5 different objects, just like Red did when he found out his special ability to draw BLUE things!



Thank you again for a wonderful week, and for entrusting me with these young minds! This week I got a glimpse of the gifts, knowledge, and uniqueness that each student brings to our classroom community, and I loved getting to see that. That's my favorite part of my job--uncovering the talents and individual abilities each child brings, and encouraging them to grow and develop over the year. Have a fantastic and relaxing weekend, and I'll see you all bright and early at 8:30am on Tuesday next week!

Growing our kinderGARDEN

As we get started this year, I will soon get to know your students. So, I thought I'd give you the opportunity to learn more about me as a person and as an educator. My name is Maryn Feyereisen, and with two years' experience as an elementary educator, I have grown to love the process of learning. As humans, we never stop learning and growing, and I can't wait to experience both of these with your students throughout this year. Kindness and cooperation are key traits of becoming successful, and as such, I take every opportunity possible to incorporate these themes into our learning community.

My personal view as an educator is that education is all about instilling a love for learning in students and giving students plenty of hands-on opportunities to practice the process of learning and growth. Because that's what learning is--it's not always about the end product; it is about the process and the journey and who we become on the way to reaching the end goal. 

Since I value the process of learning and have a passion for learning myself, I hope to discover what your students' passions and talents are. Hopefully, as these gifts surface, we can all celebrate and express our individual and collective successes as a classroom community! I am excited to start this year and to watch how your students' growth and development in kindergarten will create a solid foundation for future learning!