Educational Website

I put a link on my blog to a great educational website - abcya.com.
Check out the Kindergarten Literacy & Math games - fun & easy to play, plus these are the same skills we are working on in class.  :)

**Thanks for sending your children to school with all of their winter clothes - they are loving the snow and they are doing a great job of getting dressed and undressed at recess!  Please be sure to send along shoes for in the classroom :)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of November 26th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Wednesday, December 5th—Book Orders Due

-Monday, December 10th—Elementary Christmas

             Concert @ 7:00 (K-4)

-Monday, December 17th—Delayed Start (10:00)

-Thursday, December 20th—Christmas Party (pm)

-Friday, December 21st—Sing-a-long

Whew! It was a couple of busy weeks for us in Kindergarten!  Thanks to those who provided supplies and food for our Friendship Soup and Thanksgiving Activities!  A big thank you to Mrs. Hill, Ms. Cornell, & Aidan’s Grandma for helping us on Monday; to Mrs. Christie & Ms. Cornell for helping us cut up our veggies on Tuesday; and to Mrs. Sprague & Mrs. DeWitt for all of your help with the feast on Wednesday!  Truly, I couldn’t have done it without all of your help!  Here is a group photo of our feast!

 

 

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM: 

New this year . . . the Kindergarten will take part in the Elementary Christmas Program on Monday, December 10th @ 7:00 pm.  Students should plan to arrive by 6:45 and dress up for the event.  I will keep you posted as more information comes my way!

 

LIBRARY BOOKS: 

The students are excited to be able to bring home their library books for the first time today!  Please help your child find a safe place to keep their library book at home.  We have library every 2 weeks, but I have a tub in the classroom for students to put their books in for safe keeping until our next visit to the library.  Students MUST return their library books in order to check out a new book.  Our next visit to the library is Friday, December 7th.

 

READING: 

Our focus text for this week is Dinner at the Panda Palace, which we will use to work on comprehension, vocabulary & predicting.  We will also use several texts to introduce cause and effect.  Our focus letter for the week is Cc, and we will introduce the sight words like & am.   We will introduce another new beanie this week, Stretchy Snake; he is an Accuracy Strategy that we use to s-t-r-e-t-ch out the sounds in words while reading and writing.

 

WRITING: 

This week we will finish up our November Journals as we write about how to be a good friend and the family members that we like to visit.  Students will also complete a Type 3 Writing about their families.  We will wrap up our Writing Unit on Small Moment Stories this week, and discuss the use of ‘voice’ in several of the books that we read.

MATH: 

This week we will introduce dominoes and play several games involving dominoes.  We will also continue to practice reading and writing numbers 0-20.  Those teens are tricky, so please take some time and work on number identification at home—playing I Spy is a great way to pass the time while riding in the car or waiting in line.  I know it’s often easier to hand your child an electronic device, but sometimes we forget the oldies but goodies that we grew up with! :)  We will learn a new game called Monster Squeeze that you will be able to play at home to practice number recognition and order as well.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will be reading several books related to families, since the Holidays are all about spending time with families and caring for each other.

 

I will be sending home the December Snack Calendar & Book It Calendar later in the week.  Please be sure to return your November Book-It Calendar at the end of the month. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Updates for the Week of November 19th

Due to the short week, I am not sending home a complete newsletter this week. 
We have many special activities planned for the week:

Monday, Nov. 19th: Thanksgiving Activities

· We will rotate through all of the Kindergarten classrooms to do several Thanksgiving-related activities.  This is the day that students will be trading our surplus of onions, celery, & cabbage for the other ingredients that we need.

Supplies for Thanksgiving Activities – Monday November 19^th

1 Bag of Red Apples (10-15) – Maisie

1 Bag of Red Apples (10-15) – Jazmine

1 Bag of Colored Marshmallows – Lauren

1 Bag of Colored Marshmallows – Aidan

1 Box of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix - Henry

1 Box of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix – Daniel

1 Package of Pipe Cleaners – Casey

 

**Parent Volunteers - Katy Hill & Megan Cornell

Tuesday, Nov. 20th: Cutting up our vegetables

 

**Parent Volunteers - Megan Cornell

Wednesday, Nov. 21st: The Feast (afternoon)

 

Supplies Needed for our Feast – Wednesday, November 21^st

24 Plates – Henry

24 Spoons – Jazmine

2 Liter of 7-Up – Makayla

2 Liter of 7-Up – Makayla

1 Package of Oyster Crackers - Teagan

**Parent Volunteers - Stephanie Sprague (am) & Kathy DeWitt (pm)

 

Students will be bringing home flyers with information about the upcoming PTO Craft Show this coming weekend and the Canned Food Drive.

 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break!!

 

Fire Department Photos

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Wednesday), dismissal is at 11:00.
Also, students are bringing home a pink order form today if you'd like to order any Rambler Wear clothing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have individuals of all of the students sitting in the fire truck which I will print for their portfolios. :)

 

 

Newsletter Updates for the Week of November 12th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, November 13th—Conferences 4-7

-Wednesday, November 14th—Half Day

                          Dismissal @ 11:00

-Thursday, November 15th—No School

-Monday, November 19th—Delayed Start &

                          Thanksgiving Activities

-Thursday, November 22nd—Thanksgiving

-Friday, November 23rd—No School

-Saturday, November 24th—PTO Craft Show

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Henry Baas.  Henry enjoys camping with his family, playing baseball, riding dirt bikes, and riding his four wheeler.  His favorite place to go is Monster Jam.  When he grows up, Henry would like to be a firefighter. Congratulations to Henry on being Student of the Week!

 

THANKSGIVING/STONE SOUP: 

Next week will be a very busy week for us.  One of the concepts that we need to teach in Kindergarten is the idea of a ‘fair trade’ in a market economy.  To address this standard, we will be making stone soup/friendship soup.  All of the Kindergarten classes will bring in 1 or 2 of the ingredients needed for the soup.  Then each class will have to ‘trade’ some of their surplus ingredients with the other classes, in order to obtain all of the ingredients needed to make the soup.  Our class is responsible for bringing in onions, cabbage, & celery.  I will send a note home with you child tomorrow indicating which ingredient they need to bring.  Here’s what we have planned for each day next week: 

Monday, Nov. 19th: Thanksgiving Activities

· We will rotate through all of the Kindergarten classrooms to do several Thanksgiving-related activities.  This is the day that students will be trading our surplus of onions, celery, & cabbage for the other ingredients that we need.

Tuesday, Nov. 20th: Cutting up our vegetables

Wednesday, Nov. 21st: The Feast (afternoon)

 

 

CONFERENCES: 

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet for conferences.  I firmly believe that parents and teachers working together is what brings about student success!  I look forward to meeting with the rest of the parents tomorrow evening.

 

READING: 

Our focus text for the next 2 weeks is Growing Vegetable Soup, which we will use to work on comprehension, vocabulary & predicting.  Our focus letter for the next 2 weeks is Tt, and we will introduce the sight words can & at.   We will introduce another new beanie this week, Iggy the Inferring Iguana.  Inferring is a comprehension strategy that we use when we use the information that we know, to predict what we think will happen next in the story.  We will practice predicting with several of our stories this week.

 

 

WRITING: 

This week we will complete a couple of journals related to Thanksgiving.  We will be drawing and writing about turkeys and we will also write about what we have learned about the Pilgrims.

 

MATH: 

This week we will create patterned placemats and macaroni necklaces.  We will also spend time practice writing our numbers correctly and identifying ‘the biggest number’ in a set.

 

 

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we celebrate the results of our classroom election; we will have popsicles for a special treat on Wed.  We will revisit Eddie Eagle and reinforce what to do if we ever find a gun.  We will also read several informational texts about Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving; we will track the Pilgrim’s Voyage on the Mayflower as they traveled across the sea.

 

Please check out my Blog later in the week for photos from the Cadillac Fire Department.  I've found it is much easier to upload them at school than from home.  I will try to post some soon.  Special thanks to Mrs. Sprague, Ms. Cornell, Max’s Grandpa, & Daniel’s Grandma for coming along and helping us stay safe and on task.

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Halloween Photos

Henry & Max

Lydia & Karly

Paige & Jazmine

Lauren & Maisie

Aaron & Casey

 

 

 

Halloween Photos

Our Halloween Party was a success! 

Special thanks to the volunteers who helped our day run so smoothly:
Stephanie Sprague, Katy Hill, Erin Koetje, Megan Cornell, Trisha Ufer, Lisa Warner, & Meg Grabendike.

Also, a big thank you to all of the parents who donated food and supplies!!

Here are a few pictures from our day! 
I will have more on display at parent teacher conferences.

Group Phhoto

Alaysia, Ashton, & Makayla

Aidyn & Aidan

Daniel & Dominick

Aaron, Teagan, & Dayvi

 

 

I will upload the rest of the photos at school where the Internet is faster :)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of November 5th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thursday, November 8th—Conferences 4-7

-Friday, November 9th—Fire Dept Fieldtrip 12:30

-Tuesday, November 13th—Conferences 4-7

-Wednesday, November 14th—Half Day

                          Dismissal @ 11:00

-Thursday, November 15th—No School

-Monday, November 19th—Delayed Start &

Thanksgiving Activities

-Wednesday, November 21st—Friendship Soup

-Thursday, November 22nd—Thanksgiving

-Friday, November 23rd—No School

-Saturday, November 24th—PTO Craft Show

 

FIELDTRIP TO THE CADILLAC FIRE DEPT: 

We are planning a fieldtrip to the Cadillac Fire Department on Friday, November 9th.  Our class is scheduled to go in the afternoon, we will be leaving school at 12:30.  I am looking for a few parent volunteers to help out that afternoon.  We can take up to 5 parents on the bus, or you are welcome to drive and meet us there.  Let me know if you are available and willing to attend!

COINS FOR WORLD HUNGER:

Thanks for all who brought in coins to help end world hunger.  Our class brought in $80.54 and the entire elementary brought in a total of $2,643.27.  Way to go!!

 

Please be sure to return your October Book-It Calendar!

 

READING: 

Our focus text for this week is Raccoons and Ripe Corn, which we will use to work on comprehension, retelling, setting, & plot.  Our letter of the week is Gg, and we will introduce the sight words it & but.   We will introduce a new beanie this week, our first fluency beanie: Pop the Weasel; he reminds us that the sight words we know ‘pop’ out when we are reading and help us read fluently.  This week students will begin using Successmaker on the computer.  They each have a username and password and the program tracks their progress throughout the year in both reading & math.

 

 

WRITING: 

This week we will spend a couple of days writing ‘small moment’ stories and a couple of days working on our November Journals, writing about what we are thankful for.  We continue to work on adding details to our pictures and stretching out our words when we write.

 

MATH: 

This week we will introduce symmetry and practice identifying things that are symmetrical.  We will also ‘vote’ for snack and graph the results on a bar graph.  We will continue to practice identifying and ordering numbers 1-20.

 

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will read several informational texts about America, Presidents, and the electoral process.  With the opening of deer season right around the corner, we will be talking about Gun Safety.  We will meet Eddie Eagle who teaches children what to do if they ever find a gun lying around: Stop, Don’t Touch, Leave the Area, Tell an Adult.

 

 

REPORT CARDS & CONFERENCES: 

You should have received your conference notice last Friday.  Please be sure to return the bottom portion ASAP, to let me know your availability.  I encourage you to try to arrange your schedule, so that we can meet to discuss your child’s progress.