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Mrs. Jennifer MacRitchie » Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome to Mrs. MacRitchie's Kindergarten!


I am so excited to join the St. Joseph Catholic School community. After receiving my bachelor’s degree and doing the master’s program at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota my first teaching job was at St. Joseph Catholic School teaching kindergarten. I taught at St. Joseph for 7 years and then stepped away after my first child's birth. When my children were in school I returned to teaching at a public school in Geneva, working with children with special needs. After 6 years in the public school system, I decided to return to the Catholic School Community and started teaching kindergarten at St. Mary School in Elgin. This summer I moved back to the northern suburbs and feel so blessed to be back at St. Joseph Catholic School.

We are fortunate to have a full-time instructional kindergarten aide, Mrs. Graziella Bosco, working in our classroom this year. Mrs. Bosco has been a kindergarten aide at St. Joseph School for 17 years!

Together, we will develop a caring classroom community that will foster growth and develop a love for learning. We are both very excited to work closely with each student to ensure a successful Kindergarten year!

 




 

Posts

Congratulations to Emerson and the Jennings family as they welcomed a new baby boy into their family this week. Emerson handed out It's a Boy bracelets to all the kids in class today!

Week at a Glance February 24th - 28th

Math Objectives: The students will decompose numbers 11 to 15 using concert objects and drawings to show a group or 10 and some more. The students will be able to make a table to solve problems. The students will compose numbers 16 to 19 using concert objects and drawings to show a group of 10 and some more.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to identify and describe the key differences between daytime and nighttime, including the appearance of the sky (sun vs. moon and stars).

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write (upper and lowercase), and produce the correct sounds for all 26 letters. To continue to work on blending the learned sounds to read and write words. To identify the correct initial sound and ending sounds in words. To be able to read the 22 sight words. The students will practice being able to identify and produce words that rhyme. The students will work on identifying how many syllables they hear in a word. To be able to observe, wonder, and ask questions when reading.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will be able to identify and verbally explain basic differences between “now” and “then”, demonstrating an understanding of how things have changed over time. The students will be introduced to Black History Month and Simone Biles to help them understand, celebrate, and remember the achievements of Black Americans.

Religion Objectives: The students will be able to define the sacrament. The students will be introduced to the 7 sacraments we celebrate throughout our lives. The student will be able to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Writing Objectives: The students will continue to work on developing writing skills: starting with capital letters, stating a complete thought, using the correct punctuation, and adding spaces between words. The students will work on writing a narrative story about a birthday party. The students will continue to work on being able to write a five-sentence paragraph.

Today, we learned all about Keith Haring, a street artist who used bold lines and bright colors. Then, we got to try making art like Keith Haring with chalk on black paper. Thank you very much, Mr. Hutchinson and Mrs. Duprey, we had so much fun doing Art in the Box with you!
Today was a buddy Mass, and the 7th grade brought up the gifts. Josie and Hadley got to join their 7th-grade buddies in this great honor.  Colin brought a "hot potato" to school for show and tell and a lot of us got to play hot potato for the first time. 

Week at a Glance February 18th - 21st

Math Objectives: The students take the Chapter 6 unit test on subtraction. The students will start Chapter 7 Compose and Decompose Numbers 11 to 19. The students will compose numbers 11 to 15 using concrete objects and drawings to show a group or 10 and some more.

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write (upper and lowercase), and produce the correct sounds for all 26 letters. To continue to work on blending the learned sounds to read and write words. To identify the correct initial sound and ending sounds in words. To be able to read the 22 sight words. The students will practice being able to identify and produce words that rhyme. The students will work on identifying how many syllables they hear in a word. To be able to observe, wonder, and ask questions when reading.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to identify and describe the key differences between daytime and nighttime, including the appearance of the sky (sun vs. moon and stars).

Social Studies: The students will be able to identify basic facts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and understand that Presidents Day is a day to celebrate our country’s important leaders.

Religion Objectives: The students will learn that Jesus teaches us to pray and gives us the Lord’s Prayer.  

Writing Objectives: The students will continue to work on developing writing skills: starting with capital letters, stating a complete thought, using the correct punctuation, adding spaces between words, and forming the letters correctly. The students will work on writing sentences about what they would do if they were the President.

This week as we prepare for Valentine's Day we are talking about friendship and love. In the spirit of this upcoming holiday, we got together with our 7th-grade buddies to celebrate the special friendship we have formed with our buddies and make books about all the things we love. It was a wonderful afternoon we lots of smiles and laughter!

Week At A Glance February 10th - 14th

Math Objectives: The students will use concert objects to show how many are left. The students will be able to write number sentences to solve subtraction problems.

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write (upper and lowercase), and produce the correct sounds for all 26 letters. To continue to work on blending the learned sounds to make words. To identify the correct initial sound and ending sounds in words. To be able to read the 22 sight words. The students will practice being able to identify and produce words that rhyme. The students will work on identifying how many syllables they hear in a word. To be able to observe, wonder, and ask questions when reading.

Religion Objectives: The students will be introduced to Saint Valentine and his belief in the concept of showing kindness and love to others.

Social Studies: The students will be introduced to Saint Valentine and learn about the history of Saint Valentine and why we celebrate Valentine’s Day.

Writing Objectives: The students will continue to work on developing their writing skills: starting with capital letters, stating a complete thought, using the correct punctuation, and adding spaces between words. The students will work on writing a narrative story about getting ready for school. The students will be introduced to writing a five-sentence paragraph.

Our last two 100-day posters, Josie created a beautiful poster with 100 paint dots and Jack made a big heart out of 100 conversation hearts. Thank you for all the wonderful 100 day projects we had so much fun seeing all of them!