Welcome to Kindergarten!

Welcome to Mrs. MacRitchie's Kindergarten!

I am so excited to be a part of the St. Joseph Catholic School community. After receiving my bachelor’s degree and completing the master’s program at St. Mary’s University in Minnesota, my first teaching job was here at St. Joseph Catholic School, where I taught kindergarten. I taught at St. Joseph for seven years and then stepped away from teaching after the birth of my first child. 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. In 2024, 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 19 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

Today in STEAM we worked on making 2-D shapes.

This week we have been learning about the first Thanksgiving. Today we learned and wrote 3 facts about the Native Americans.

We had a nice time with our seventh-grade buddies at Mass today.

Today we learned the sound the letter l makes. We made a ladybug, a leaf, a ladder, a lion and a log.

Week at a Glance November 2nd - November 5th

Math Objectives: The students will be able to compare shapes to understand patterns. The students will describe objects using the names of shapes and their relative positions. The students will be able to put shapes together to make new shapes. The students will be able to identify, describe, extend, and complete simple repeating patterns.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to name the four seasons and describe at least two key characteristics of each season, such as the weather, typical clothing, or changes in nature

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, g, d, s, e, r, p, j, l, and h. Continue blending learned sounds to make words. To identify the correct initial sound in words. The students will be able to read the first trimester sight words. To be able to observe, wonder, and ask questions while reading. The students will be exposed to King Tut’s tomb and learn about the artifacts on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in this week's reading book, Treasures of King Tut.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will be able to identify the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans as the two main groups at the first Thanksgiving and describe 3 facts about each group.

Religion Objectives: The students will deepen their knowledge of Jesus by learning that Jesus heals us when we are sick or sad.

Writing Objectives: The students will continue to work on writing complete sentences and understand that adding an adjective (color word) can make them better writers.

There is no school on Friday, November 5, 2026.

Today in STEAM we made spider webs with marshmallows and toothpicks to introduce early engineering, review our geometric shapes and to help develop our fine motor skills.

We finish our pumpkin investigation today by cutting open table 4 pumpkin and identifying all the different parts of the pumpkin. For Bennett’s show and tell today we got to see a very cool dinosaur skull that he printed on a 3-D printer.

Today in writing we talked about the difference between creative coloring and realistic coloring.

We started Chapter 11 Two-Dimensional Shapes in math. Today we learned about the square and rectangle.

Week at a Glance: October 26th to October 30th

Math Objectives: The students will be able to identify, name, and describe squares and 2D shapes: squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, and hexagons.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to identify and describe the physical characteristics of a pumpkin. Students will explore math concepts like counting, weight, and measurement using a pumpkin. To be able to name the 4 seasons and provide descriptions of each season.

Reading Objectives: The students will be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, g, d, s, e, r, p, and j. The students will continue to work on blending the sounds they have learned to form words. To identify the correct initial sound in words. The students will be able to read the first trimester sight words. To be able to observe, wonder, and ask questions while reading.

Religion Objectives: The students will understand that Joseph is Jesus’ father on earth and that Joseph said yes to God and is part of the holy family. The students will be able to identify All Saints' Day as a day to remember all the people who live with God in heaven.

Writing Objectives: To develop the ability to write a complete sentence and understand that adding an adjective (color words) can make you a better writer.

Friday is our classroom Halloween party. The kindergarten students may wear a costume to school, but please no masks, weapons, or inflatable costumes. Please keep in mind that they will have gym and recess on Friday, also.

We had so much fun at the Pumpkin Patch today!

This week in science we are doing pumpkin investigations. Monday we estimated how many ribs we thought our table’s pumpkin had and then we counted the ribs to see how many ribs it actually had. Today we estimated how many cubes tall we thought our pumpkins would be then we stacked the cubes to see how many cubes tall our pumpkins actually were.

Week at a Glance

October 19th to October 23rd

Math Objectives: The students will be reviewing and assessed on all the objectives taught in Chapter 2, Numbers to 10.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to identify and describe the physical characteristics of a pumpkin. To explore math concepts like counting, weight, and measurement with a pumpkin. To be able to name the 4 seasons and provide descriptions of each season.

Reading Objectives: The students will be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, g, d, s, e, and r. To continue to work on blending the learned sounds to make words. To identify the correct initial sound in words. The students will be able to read the sight words red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black. The students will work on being able to identify the setting for a story.

Religion Objectives: To be able to pray the Sign of the Cross Prayer and the Guardian Angel Prayer independently.

Writing Objectives: The students will be able to explain that the “setting” is where and when of a story. The students will be able to identify the setting of a story by using evidence from the story. The students will create a setting for a story.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will continue to develop communication and problem-solving skills. The students will be exposed to the discovery of King Tut’s tomb and how some of the objects found in the tomb are on display in museums.

There is no school on Thursday, October 22, and Friday, October 23. I look forward to talking with all of you at conferences.

Everyday the students whose participation exceeds all the other student during Heggerty, our kindergarten phonemic awareness lesson, gets to sit with Heggie the Hedgehog. Congratulations to Lily todays winner. In reading we traveled to China to learn about a farmer who was working on his farm in 1974 and accidentally discovered the over 2,000 year old Terra-Cotta Army. Our day ended with Nora using her story selector coupon to pick the books we would listen to as we waited to be dismissed at the end of the pay.

Today we had two first. Bennett saved 25 tickets and brought our first show and tell of the year and Maeve saved up 50 tickets and bought lunch with the teacher.