Dear Parents,
We had a wonderful "Snow Day" last Friday-- thank you! It seems that for the past 3 or 4 years, Snow Day is always on one of the warmest days in January-- last Friday was no exception! But the kids had fun with their snowball fight and enjoyed a chilly treat and some fun art projects.
This week's share is 100 Day collections. Please have your child bring in 100 items that they'd like to show on his/her share day. This is a fun counting activity at home, plus a fun way to see the many ways 100 can look. I will probably ask your child how they counted out their items (by 1s, 10s, 5s, etc.), so have him/her prepared to talk about the process. Remember that it can be as simple as 100 cheerios-- whatever your child has 100 items of that s/he would like to share. If they want to glue down the 100 items and make a picture out of them, that's fine, too.
The 100th day of school is this Thursday , and we will have lots of fun projects and activities in class in celebration of the day! We have 180 total school days, so we are more than half-way through the year. Spring conferences are rapidly approaching (March) and I sent out those sign-ups in a separate e-mail. Thank you to so many of you for already returning your time selections. As in the Fall, you can either print out our schedule and write in your time preferences & send it back with your child this week, or you can e-mail me with your three time preferences.
This week's letter is Kk, and our Alphafriend is Keely Kangaroo. We will be learning a new word this week, here. Last week, we learned a new vowel, Ii, and met the Alphafriend Iggy Iguana. Now we can read and spell CVC words with both short a and short i. We will begin a new chapter on numbers 20-30 in math.
Our art activities this week will continue to center around our snowy theme, the 100 day theme, and penguins. We will also continue with our social science unit on mapping & location words.
On Tuesday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class. Just a reminder (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for Valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution MUCH easier, since many kids cannot read the names. So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank. Please send in 23 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!
Please send in your child's blue bag tomorrow, and remember to include January's "Reading is Cool" totals, as the month is nearly over. To make it easier for me to report to the Sharks, please total up your child's page count and write it on the front of your form(s).
Upcoming Events:
2/2: 100 Day
2/14: Pass out Valentines to the class
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
3/12-3/20: 2nd Trimester Parent-Teacher Conferences
3/28: March's Wacky Wednesday
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Week of 1/15
Dear Parents,
We hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Blue Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's blue bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many blue bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
We have a new letter this short week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab on the right to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players. The link to this site is also on the right.
We will begin our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up last Friday, and many children had a hard time with it.
This week's share will be Song, Poem, Nursery Rhyme. Monday children can share any other day this week. Please have your children choose a song, poem, or nursery rhyme that they wish to recite for the class. As always, alphafriend songs and songs & poems in other languages are wonderful to hear. We will also continue with wintery-themed art projects this week.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/27: Snow Day (dress up in snow clothes & have a paper snowball fight with K1!!)
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break 2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
We hope you are enjoying some fun family time on this long weekend!
Of course, we have tomorrow off school in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On Tuesday, it will be very important to return the Blue Bags on time since we only have a day to turn them back around. So please put them by the door or wherever you will remember them Tuesday morning :) Please remember to check your child's blue bag to be sure that it includes the journal, the book, and the homework folder. Many blue bags have been returned recently that are missing one item. Thanks!
We have a new letter this short week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab on the right to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players. The link to this site is also on the right.
We will begin our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up last Friday, and many children had a hard time with it.
This week's share will be Song, Poem, Nursery Rhyme. Monday children can share any other day this week. Please have your children choose a song, poem, or nursery rhyme that they wish to recite for the class. As always, alphafriend songs and songs & poems in other languages are wonderful to hear. We will also continue with wintery-themed art projects this week.
We look forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/27: Snow Day (dress up in snow clothes & have a paper snowball fight with K1!!)
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break 2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Week of 1/8
Dear Parents,
I hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. My goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let me know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. We will continue to work on subtraction in math. Continued reinforcement with iPad/Smart Phone apps such as Math Bingo and Math Puppy (any other recommendations? We just got an iPad for the classroom and I'd love to have recommendations of good apps, especially free ones!) would be excellent. This week's sharing is Book Share-- please have kids prepared to tell the title of the book, a brief summary, and a favorite page should be bookmarked. We continue to do winter-themed art.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
We continue to have SPARK P.E. on Fridays. Please remember to send your children in sneakers, and let's also wear our class t-shirts (with a shirt underneath for warmth)!
Upcoming Events:
1/11: Dining for Dollars @ Round Table, 5:00-9:00
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/27: Snow Day (Dress up in snow gear & have a paper snowball fight with K1!)
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
I hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. My goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let me know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
- Writing should always be in PENCIL.
- Above the writing, in the blank box, children should draw a neat, (at least) four-color picture.
- Encourage your children to spell high-frequency words that we've introduced correctly.
- Please DO NOT copy a sentence from the book.
We have a new letter this week: Gg. The Alphafriend is Gertie Goose. We also have a new high frequency word: go. We will continue to work on subtraction in math. Continued reinforcement with iPad/Smart Phone apps such as Math Bingo and Math Puppy (any other recommendations? We just got an iPad for the classroom and I'd love to have recommendations of good apps, especially free ones!) would be excellent. This week's sharing is Book Share-- please have kids prepared to tell the title of the book, a brief summary, and a favorite page should be bookmarked. We continue to do winter-themed art.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
We continue to have SPARK P.E. on Fridays. Please remember to send your children in sneakers, and let's also wear our class t-shirts (with a shirt underneath for warmth)!
Upcoming Events:
1/11: Dining for Dollars @ Round Table, 5:00-9:00
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/27: Snow Day (Dress up in snow gear & have a paper snowball fight with K1!)
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Week of 1/1
Dear Parents,
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper pieces of the costumes at the paper party, to applying the make-up and helping them get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks again to all of you. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. I have been so touched by how giving this class is, and I appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 16th.
We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will also begin our math topic on subtraction. Again, plenty of at-home reinforcement is appreciated on this topic, as it can be quite difficult.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be attached to the journal this week. Please read that letter and leave it in the homework folder for your reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the red bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
We still have an opening in the SPARK schedule. SPARK helpers come every other Friday, weather permitting. It is from about 2:00 to 2:30, and we provide a copy of the lesson that we'll be covering and usually send it home in the Wednesday envelope for your perusal. Feel free to add more to the lesson or change it as needed! Please let me know if you'd be available to add to the schedule.
Enjoy your final days of vacation!
Upcoming Events:
1/2: Inservice Day
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a wonderful vacation & are rested and ready to get back into the swing of things!
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for all the help I received with the Nutcracker performance. From making the paper pieces of the costumes at the paper party, to applying the make-up and helping them get dressed, to photographers-- every job was covered! The kids did a wonderful job and they all looked so cute! We had a great cast party afterward, thanks again to all of you. Finally, a huge thanks to everyone for their generosity and thoughtfulness with all the wonderful gifts I received. I have been so touched by how giving this class is, and I appreciate it so much.
We have a pretty academic month ahead of us with no breaks other than the observation of Martin Luther King's Birthday on the 16th.
We will start right in with a new letter-- Pp-- and a new word-- and. The Alphafriend's name is Pippa Pig. We will have centers all this month. Art projects will revolve around the theme of weather, especially snow! We will also begin our math topic on subtraction. Again, plenty of at-home reinforcement is appreciated on this topic, as it can be quite difficult.
Our sharing this week is toy in a bag to give the children a chance to show off all those favorite holiday gifts!
Blue bags will go home on Wednesday, of course. Remember that from now on, the blue bags will contain a journal component. Very specific directions about our expectations with the journal will be attached to the journal this week. Please read that letter and leave it in the homework folder for your reference. Basically, your child will use the journal to respond to the book that's in the red bag. Children need to write at least one sentence about the book-- what they liked/didn't like, who their favorite character was, etc. We DO NOT want children to copy a sentence from the book or copy a sentence that you have written for them. This is their chance for developing writing skills, which will help their confidence when we take our first writing assessment in February. A sentence written: "I like the fune got" for "I like the funny goat." is great and is what is expected from them at this time. If you would like to go over spelling with them once they are done, you can pencil it in underneath their words and show them what the conventional spelling looks like. However, do not make them correct their writing at this time. We want to encourage them in their thinking before we start focusing on the mechanics.
We still have an opening in the SPARK schedule. SPARK helpers come every other Friday, weather permitting. It is from about 2:00 to 2:30, and we provide a copy of the lesson that we'll be covering and usually send it home in the Wednesday envelope for your perusal. Feel free to add more to the lesson or change it as needed! Please let me know if you'd be available to add to the schedule.
Enjoy your final days of vacation!
Upcoming Events:
1/2: Inservice Day
1/16: MLK Holiday
1/25: January's Wacky Wednesday
2/20-2/24: President's Week Break
2/29: February's Wacky Wednesday