Mrs. Jennifer MacRitchie » Welcome to Kindergarten!

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 18 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 15th 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 is referring to an amount that is one larger. The students will be assessed on all the objectives taught in Chapter 1, Numbers 0 to 5. 

Science Objectives: The students will develop foundational science skills of observation and making predictions to understand how the sun warms the Earth. The students will be introduced to a thermometer. The students understand how shadows happen and 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. 

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 a 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 work on the illustration process to help them build confidence in the writing process. They will explore how they can use shapes to make buildings and animals as well as people. The students will work on being able to identify characters in a story and recognize their character traits.

We went to the library today and got to check out a book.  Please make sure you look in your child's backpack for their new book from the library and look in their DOT Book for a letter from Mrs. Hoglund.
Today, we welcomed Madeline to our classroom family.  We are so happy to have Madeline as a new student in our classroom. 

Week at a Glance September 8th to September 12th

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 develop foundational science skills of observation and prediction to understand how weather impacts daily life. The students will build basic weather vocabulary. The students will focus on the sun’s role as a provider of heat, light, and energy.   

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 explain that God creates people and how He loves and cares for all people.

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

I am sorry I posted this on Friday; for some reason it did not post.

Week at a Glance September 2nd to September 5th

Reading Objectives: To be able to recognize, write, and produce the correct sounds for the letters t, b, and f. To identify the correct initial sound in words that start with t, b, and f. To be able to sing the color songs for orange. To work on observing, wondering, and asking questions when reading. The students are working on being able to define the roles of the author and the illustrator of a book.

Math Objectives: The students will understand the relationship between numbers and quantities when using objects and illustrations to count 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The students will recognize and write the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 and represent a number of objects with a written numeral. The student will use one-to-one correspondence to determine whether groups are equal to each other. The student will use one-to-one correspondence to determine whether one group is greater than another group.

Writing:  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.

Science Objectives:  The students will be able to identify and describe different types of weather (sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, rainy, snowy) by observing and recording daily weather.  The students will understand how the weather affects people’s clothing and activities.

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

Religion Objectives: The students will work on being able to correctly make the Sign of the Cross and be able to recite “ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit while touching their head, chest, and shoulders. The students will understand that prayer is talking to God.

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.  At this point, only about ½ of the class has them.

We did an awesome job predicting what would happen when we added food coloring to the water of white plants. We have been amazed observing how fast some of the flowers changed colors, and also how long it is taking the carnations to change. Science is so cool!