Valentine's Party Sign Up & Class List

As part of our Valentine’s Party, students will be able to exchange

valentines.  We have 19 students in our classroom (10 boys & 9 girls). Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to practice writing names.  Below is a list of classmate’s names for filling out your valentines.

Girls - Alaysia, Paige, Maisie, Lauren, Jazmine, Karly, Lydia, Makayla, Anna

Boys - Henry, Teagan, Max, Aidan, Daniel, Ashton, Dayvi, Aaron, Casey, Dominick

Valentine’s Party

24 Plates - Alaysia

24 Napkins - Jazmine

24 Cups - Dayvi

2 Liter Bottle of Cherry 7-Up - Maisie

2 Liter Bottle of Cherry 7-Up - Alaysia

Veggies & Dip OR

Cheese & Crackers  - __________________

(a big hit at our Christmas party)

Finger Jell-O (Sugar Free) - Alaysia

Cookies - Teagan

Parent Volunteers—Thursday, February 14th (pm)

Megan Cornell

___________________________

___________________________

**Please plan to arrive by 12:15.  You are welcome to come early and have lunch with your child.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 28th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thursday, January 31st—Visit from Smokey the Bear

-Friday, Feb. 8th—Homecoming

-Monday, Feb. 11—Theme Basket Drawing

-Wednesday, Feb. 13th—Student Count Day

-Thursday, Feb. 14th—Valentine’s Party (pm)

-Friday, Feb. 15th—No School—Professional Dev.

-Monday, Feb. 18th—No School—President’s Day

PTO THEME BASKETS:

Thanks to all who brought in items for our Ice Cream Sundae Basket!  The baskets are all

together and ready to be raffled—there is a nice variety and selection!  Stop by the elementary office and check them out; tickets can be purchased from Mrs. Hill in the office.  

WINTER CLOTHING:

Last week was a long week of inside recess, but we are looking forward to getting outside again this week!  Please be sure that your child has ALL of their winter clothing for recess.  Many are coming to school without their mittens/gloves and my extra supply has dwindled!  I always put their mittens on the heater to dry between recesses, so they

always have dry mittens.  Also, please be sure to pack shoes for the classroom.

SMOKEY THE BEAR:

Smokey the Bear is coming to visit our classroom this Thursday, January 31st.  He will be here to talk about Fire Safety/Prevention and the importance of taking good care of our wildlife and natural resources.

MATH: 

This week we will learn about subtraction and practice acting out subtraction stories using manipulatives.  We will also practice sorting by different attributes (color, shape, size, etc.) and practice identifying sorting rules.

READING: 

Our focus text for this week is Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes; we will also be reading some other books by this same author. Our focus letter for the week is Pp, and we will introduce the sight words yellow & green. We will continue to practice both of our new Comprehension Strategies: Repair Bear— monitoring as we read & Digger the Dog— digging for the ‘big idea,’ important details, and the author’s purpose in the texts that we read.  At stations we will continue to work on reading and writing our sight words, rhyming, retelling, word study, and writing.  Students are becoming more and more independent during stations, which allows me to work with small groups to build literacy skills.  Please continue to practice sight words at home; I sent along the next group of flashcards with their report cards; we will learn 50 sight words this year in Kindergarten.

WRITING: 

Last week we wrote pattern books with a surprise ending or a twist; we went through the entire writing process of thinking of our ideas, thinking of a pattern, and then transferring our ideas to paper.  On Friday, we worked on adding a Title and a ‘WOW’ cover.  I have to say that I am very impressed with the results!  These students are building their confidence for writing and developing a positive attitude towards writing and it is so exciting to see!  This week they will conference with a friend and with me in preparation for ‘Author’s Chair.’  This week we will also begin writing a new pattern book—with a see-saw pattern.  They will also complete a Type 3 Writing about 3 things they can do in Michigan in the Winter time.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We will continue learning about the importance of good nutrition and healthy choices.  We will read several narrative and information texts related to polar animals, and on Friday, we will talk about Groundhog’s Day (February 2nd) and predict whether or not we think he will see his shadow.

Menu Change for Thursday

There is a menu change for tomorrow - Thursday, January 24th
Lunch will be:
Hamwich or Fishwich
Taco Salad
Mandarin Oranges
Fresh Veggies & Dip
White/Chocolate Milk

Also, many students have been coming to school without their shoes and gloves/mittens.  I do have a few extras to borrow, but it is becoming a habit for many.  If we would have had outside recess today, I would NOT have had enough extra mittens for all those who were missing them.  Please be sure to send your child with shoes for the classroom and ALL of their outside clothing! :)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 21st

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, Jan. 25th—Report Cards Home

-Thursday, Feb. 14th—Valentine’s Party (pm)

-Friday, Feb. 15th—No School—Professional Development

-Monday, Feb. 18th—No School—Presidents Day

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Dayvi Mondragon-Macedo.  Dayvi enjoys playing sports and gaming on his DS.  His favorite place to visit is Game Stop and he would like to be a professional football player when he grows up!  Congratulations to Dayvi on being Student of the Week!

REPORT CARDS:

Report cards will be coming home with students this Friday.  At this point in the school year, Kindergarteners are expected to recognize and name all of their uppercase and lowercase letters and know 80% of their sounds to be at grade level.  We have introduced 15 sight words so far and students who have mastered 80% of those are at grade level.  As indicated on the report card, a  √  means they ‘meet the standard’ and any areas that your child receives a  —  or  √—  are areas that they need to work on.  I am always happy to discuss your child’s progress with you, as we won’t have a chance to ‘formally’ meet for conferences until the end of February.  :)  It is absolutely amazing to see their progress thus far and so exciting to look ahead to all we have yet to learn in Kindergarten!

**Please note: you will be receiving your child’s DIBELS and AIMSWEB results in a few weeks, as they are still finishing up with assessing the students.

LIBRARY: 

We will visit the library again this Friday, February 25th.  Please help your child return their book on or before Friday, so that they can check out a new book.

READING: 

Our focus texts for this week are The Three Little Kittens & Kitten’s First Full Moon, which we will use to practice summarizing.  Our focus letter for the week is Rr, and we will introduce the sight words little & have. We have two new beanie babies to meet this week, both for Comprehension: Repair Bear is a strategy that reminds us to monitor our comprehension as we read and if we realize that we aren't understanding what we are reading, we need to stop, go back, and re-read to try to figure it out.  Digger the Dog reminds us dig for the ‘big idea,’ important details, and the author’s purpose in the texts that we read.  We will be practicing both of these strategies this week during whole group reading and read-to-self time.

WRITING: 

We will celebrate the completion of our I See booklets by reading them to Mrs. Green’s Jr. Kindergarten class, and then bring them home to share with our families.  We will continue our study of pattern books, as we explore pattern books that have surprise endings.  Students will begin writing a new pattern book this week, using all of the strategies that we have learned so far.  They will also complete a journal page about what they like to do on a snow day.

MATH: 

This week we will practice building the teen numbers using base 10 blocks, practice identifying missing numbers, work on representing addition stories using manipulatives, and review symmetry.  We will also be introduced to some new and exciting math

materials—calculators, geoboards, and tangrams.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We will continue our study of winter this week—as we read several stories about snowmen.  We will also begin learning about ways to keep our bodies clean and healthy and the importance of good nutrition and healthy choices.  We will take some time to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to promoting equality, fairness, & justice—values that we embrace today.

**Reminder—Every Friday is Cookie Day—students can purchase a cookie @ lunch for 25¢.

Pajama Day & Sledding Party Reminder

Pajama & Sledding Party Reminder

We WILL have our pajama party tomorrow, Friday, January 18^th.  Students are welcome to wear their pajamas to school and bring slippers or shoes for the classroom.  The sledding party may or may not happen.  Our playground has been very icy and dangerous this week and we have very limited amounts of snow to slide on.  In addition, it’s difficult to say what the temp/wind chill will be.  I probably won’t know until Friday (late morning) if we will sled or not.  But we have a back-up plan that I think will be just as much fun!

Plan A (Original Plan)                               Plan B (No sledding)

12:30-1:00     Sledding                               12:30-1:05     Games in the classroom

1:10- 1:40      Hot Cocoa & Movie         1:10-1:40       Hot Cocoa & Movie

1:45                Dismissal                                1:45                Dismissal

**Parent volunteers are still welcome; we will need extra help whether we sled or play games.

**Students are welcome to bring in a favorite game from home to play with their friends – Uno, Candy Land, etc.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 14th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thursday, Jan. 17th—Early dismissal @ 1:45

-Friday, Jan. 18th—Pajama Day, Sledding Party, Early Dismissal @ 1:45

-Friday, Jan 18th—Theme Basket Items Due

-Monday, Jan 21st—Delayed Start

-Friday, Jan. 25th—Report Cards Home

SLEDDING PARTY/PAJAMA DAY: 

We are planning a pajama day for this Friday, January 18th—students are welcome to wear their PJ’s to school in the morning and bring either slippers or shoes for the classroom.  The kindergarten classes are also planning a sledding party for the same day.  PRAY FOR SNOW!!! We will enjoy a time of sledding together from 12:30-1:00 and then come inside and warm up with some hot cocoa and a short movie before heading home.  Parent volunteers can plan to come around 12:15 to help us get dressed or come a little earlier and have lunch with your child.  Please be sure to send your child to school with ALL of their outside gear.  Also, if your child has a roll-up or soft foam sled, they may bring it to school on Friday—no hard sleds are allowed on the playground.  Please be sure to label it with your child’s name.

ASSESSMENTS: 

This week I will finish up assessing the students for report cards.  I will have a sub Tuesday afternoon so that I can meet with each student one-on-one to finalize their assessments.  Students will be assessed this week Wednesday on Aimsweb (math) and next week on Dibels (Reading).  Report cards will be sent home on Friday, January 25th.

LIBRARY: 

We are finally going to the library this morning (Monday)!  So your child should be bringing home a new book to share.  Our next library visit is scheduled for Friday, January 25th so, they should have plenty of time to enjoy their new book.

READING: 

Our focus texts for this week are Ginger & Kitten’s First Full Moon, which we will use to practice determining ’cause and effect’ relationships.  Our focus letter for the week is Ii, and we will introduce the sight words do & not. Since our letter of the week is a vowel, we will be using Chunky Monkey to practice reading and writing words with the ip, in, ig, & it chunks.  We will also learn that ck makes the /k/ sound with short vowels and we will introduce a new Accuracy Beanie Baby—Flippy the Dolphin.  Flippy reminds us that vowels have both a long and short sound and if we come to a tricky word, while we are reading, we can ‘flip’ the vowel sound and try both the long and short sounds and see which one makes sense.

WRITING: 

We will continue to work on our I See . . . Pattern Books as we practice editing and adding to our books this week.  We will also read several mentor texts that require us to make some inferences (predictions).  Students will complete a journal page about hibernating animals and another one on what they wear outside to play in the snow.  We will also work on following directions as we ‘Draw a Rhyme Snowman’ together on Friday.

MATH: 

This week we will practice rolling 2 dice, counting, and graphing our results.  We will continue to work on creating patterns and practice identifying missing pieces to patterns.  We will also be building the teen numbers using base 10 blocks, and practice ‘counting on’ from any given number.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We have read several books related to Winter and the different things that people do during Winter. This week we will begin learning about what the animals are doing during the Winter months; we will be reading several informational texts, discussing Author’s Purpose, and then we will create a graph using stuffed animals— sorting the animals into 3 groups—hibernating, active, or migrating.

 PTO Theme Basket Fundraiser

Dear Families,

The PTO is planning a “Theme Basket” fundraiser which will be held during the month of January and we would like your help!  Our PTO plays a very important role in your child’s education.  They help out with many school projects like field trips, playground equipment, family nights, etc.  Now they are asking you to help them raise money for these projects by supporting our “Theme Basket” raffle. 

Our class has been asked to choose a theme and collect items to fill a “Theme Basket”.  The baskets will be on display during home basketball games on 1/25, 1/31, 2/5, 2/7, and 2/8.  Members of the community will be given the opportunity to purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win the “Theme Basket” of their choice. The winners will be drawn on February 11.

Our basket’s theme is “Ice Cream Sundae”.  We are asking you to donate new items that could go into our theme basket.  Feel free to send in any items that you feel would go well in this basket.  Some suggestions are:

§        Ice Cream Toppings/Syrups – Carmel, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Strawberry, etc.

§        Ice Cream Toppings - Maraschino Cherries, Nuts, Candy, Sprinkles, Coconut Shavings, Chocolate chips, Gummy Bears, etc.

§        Cones – Waffle, Sugar, Regular

§        Sundae Bowls/Glasses

§        Spoons

§        Ice Cream Scoops

§        Decorative Bowls for Toppings

§        Ice Cream Décor – Dish Towels, Napkins, etc.

Please send your donations to school on or before January 18.  Then, don’t forget to purchase your raffle tickets.  We thank you in advance for your generosity!

Mrs. Brinks