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

Week At A Glance September 28th to October 2nd

Math Objectives: Students will name, recognize, and count a quantity of 8 using concrete objects and illustrations. Students will recognize and write the numerals 6, 7, 8, and 9 and represent a number of objects with a written numeral.

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, and g. The students will be able to identify the correct initial sound in words that start with t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, o, a, and g. The students will be able to sing the color songs for purple. The students will begin to blend individual phonemes (sounds) of a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word to say a whole word. The students will work on observing, wondering, and asking questions when reading. The students will be able to identify the main character in a story and recognize some of their character traits.

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.

Religion Objectives: The students will be able to identify that green is the color of Ordinary Time and that this is a time to learn Jesus’ teachings and how to be a good disciple, and that it is a season of thanks and praise. The students will be able to identify St. Therese as the “Little Flower” and, with prompting, explain that we can show love to Jesus through small, everyday acts of kindness.

Writing Objectives: The student will be able to identify characters in a story and describe their characters’ traits.

Social Studies: The students will be able to identify John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) as an American historical figure who planted apple trees and describe one fact about his life. While reading this week's story, “A Day at the Market,” the students will be exposed to the Ver-o-Peso market in Belém, Brazil, and learn that most of the goods for sale at this market come from the Amazon River, one of the longest rivers in the world.

Today our final group of students got to go over to the church garden to harvest vegetables and take them over to the food pantry. What an incredible experience this was for our kindergartners. In the spring we will plant some new vegetable seeds and take them over to plant them in the garden.

Today we learned the sound the letter o makes and made things that start with o with our Play-Doh. In science we have been learning about the 4 seasons and made season wheels. During dismissal we love to watch Storyline Online while we wait to leave.

Today, Father Conrad taught us all about adoration.

Happy Birthday Bennett! It was so much fun celebrating Bennett today! Happy Birthday!

Week at a Glance

September 21st - September 25th

Math Objectives: The students will name, write, recognize, and count a quantity of 6 and 7 using concrete objects, illustrations, and drawings.

Science Objectives: Students will understand how shadows form and that shade creates a cooler space. 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 the lowercase letter, and produce the correct sound for the letters t, b, f, n, m, i, u, c, and o. The students will read the story A Day at the Market and will practice identifying the correct initial sound in words that start with the letters m, i, and u. The students will be able to sing the color songs for blue and identify the sight words red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. The students will work on observing, wondering, and asking questions when reading.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will be able to identify John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) as an American historical figure who planted apple trees and describe one fact about his life.

Religion Objectives: The students will begin to comprehend that the Father sent Jesus to be our Savior. The students will understand that Jesus helps us stay close to God. The students will attend Adoration and demonstrate reverent and respectful behavior. The students will learn that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist (inside the monstrance) and that He is a loving friend who listens.

Writing Objectives: Students will continue working on the illustration process to build confidence in the writing process. They will continue to explore how to use shapes to help them create a person. They will explore how different facial expressions and hairstyles can help them create more impactful illustrations for their writing. Students will work on identifying characters in a story and recognizing their character traits.

There is no school on Friday, September 25.

In religion today we talked about ways to stay closer to God. We came up with many ideas on how to do this, one of which was to help others. We talked about how when we go to the garden and harvest the vegetables we grew in preschool and take them to the food pantry we are helping others and staying close to God.

What a busy day we had in Kindergarten. Charlie B used his tickets to buy a dance party to start our day. Then we learned that the letter u has 2 sounds and we made things that start with the u sound like an umpire, unicorn, umbrella or a UFO out of our Play-Doh. In our Directed Drawing writing unit we practiced making people with different facial expressions and hairstyles.

In science we have been learning about what shade is and why it can be helpful. We talked about shade structures and why we need them. We had fun thinking about lots of different shade structures, and make our shadows do cool things.

Today we had the pleasure of celebrating Olivia’s birthday. On your birthday or 1/2 birthday for our summer birthdays you get an out of uniform day, a birthday crown, card, sticker and treat and of course no homework. Happy Birthday Olivia we loved celebrating you today!🎂🎈

Week At A Glance September 14th to September 19th

Math Objectives: The students will be able to identify numbers from 1 to 5 in sequence, understanding that each successive number name referring to an amount that is one larger. Students will be assessed on all objectives taught in Chapter 1, Numbers 0 to 5.

Science Objectives: The students will learn that when an object or structure blocks the sun's light, it makes shade. The students will understand that shade creates a cooler space.

Reading/Phonics Objectives: To be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, f, n, m, i, and u. To identify the correct initial sound in words that start with f, n, m, i, and u. To be able to sing the color songs for green. To work on observing, wondering, and asking questions when reading. The students will use illustrations as visual clues to help them make predictions and understand a story.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will work on being able to work together by showing kindness, sharing, and cooperating.

Religion Objectives: The students will understand why we have rules and that when we make bad choices, we disobey God’s rules. The students will continue to work on saying the Sign of the Cross and the Guardian Angel Prayers.

Writing Objectives: The students will continue to work on the illustration process to help them build confidence in the writing process. They will continue to explore how to use shapes to help them create illustrations. They will explore how facial expressions can help them create more impactful illustrations for their writing.

Five more students got the chance to go over to the garden and harvest the vegetables they planted in preschool. They also watered the garden and took the vegetables to the St. Joseph Catholic Church Food Pantry.

Today in writing we learned how to use simple shapes to drawl a girl.

Today in Fundations we learned the sound the letter m makes and made something with our Play-Doh that began with the letter m!

Week at a Glance September 8th to September 11th

Math Objectives: The students will use one-to-one correspondence to identify a group that is greater than and a group that is less than another group. The students will use one-to-one correspondence and counting to compare groups and determine which group is greater than, less than, or whether the groups are equal to each other.

Science Objectives: The students will be able to identify that the sun provides heat, light, and energy to the Earth. The students will learn that when an object or structure blocks the sun's light, it makes shade, and it is cooler in the shade.

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, f, n, and m. To identify the correct initial sound in words that start with t, b, f, n, and m. To be able to sing the color songs for yellow. To work on observing, wondering, and asking questions when reading.

Social Studies Objectives: The students will work on being able to work together by showing kindness to everyone.

Religion Objectives: The students will be able to recite the Guardian Angel prayer and explain that a guardian angel keeps them safe.

Art: The art teacher has asked that each student have one oversized T-shirt to keep in their locker and wear as an art smock. If you have not sent them in, please do so, as we will start using them on September 14, 2026.

Thank you to everyone who made it to Curriculum Night. If you were unable to attend, I sent home a yellow folder with some kindergarten information and have posted my PowerPoint on my classroom web page. Please contact me if you have any questions.