Newsletter Updates for the Week of February 2nd

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Monday, February 2nd—Groundhog’s Day

-Wed., February 11th—Student Count Day

-Thursday, February 12th—Valentine’s Party (pm)

-Thurs., February 12th—PT Conferences 4:00-7:00

-Friday, February 13th—No School

-Friday, February 13th—Homecoming

-Mon., Feb. 16th—No School—Presidents Day

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Avallina Evans. Avallina enjoys playing outside, as well as inside with her dolls, toys, and her tablet.  Her favorite place to go is to her Uncle Harold’s and when she grows up, Avallina aspires to show her artistic flare and become a painter. Congratulations to Avallina on being Student of the Week!

READING FOLDERS:  

This week students will begin bringing home ‘Take Home Reading Folders.’  In their folder will be a ‘good fit book’ that your child has selected.  The book will be at their ‘instructional level’ which means it should be a little challenging for your child, but not too hard.  Students must bring their reading folders & book back in order to check out a new one.  They will bring them home about 3 times a week (M, W, F).  It has been my experience that students who consistently read at home, and practice their skills faithfully, really take-off with reading!  You will also find some other things in their reading folders:

-Reading Log—please write the title & initial

-Beanie Baby Strategy Sheet—to remind them of their strategies and share them with you:)

-Sightword Fluency Sheet—to practice sightwords

-ABC Chart—to practice letters & sounds—speed

-Number Fluency Chart—to practice #’s—speed

-Nonsense Word Fluency Chart—they have to be able to read nonsense words for Dibels quickly:)

-Raz Kids Log-In Card—You can keep this in their folder OR post it by your computer/tablet. 

READING: 

*This week we will focus on the Vowel Ee and the sightwords are & had. 

*Beanie Babies—We will use Chunky Monkey to read and write words with the en, ell, ed, & et word families & use Flippy the Dolphin to read and write words with the short & long e sounds.

*This week our class will be reading stories about how living things, such as trees, change as they grow. Your child will learn to name the parts of a tree, such as the trunk, bark, branches, leaves, and roots.

*Vocabulary: develop & amazing

WRITING:  

This week we will edit our January Journals & bring them home to share.  The students will also bring home their I Can books about things they can do outside in the wintertime, watch out for the ‘twist at the end!’  This week we will read some pattern books that follow a question & answer structure and write our own books following this type of structure.

MATH:  

This week we will continue to practice writing and building our teen numbers using base 10 blocks. We will continue learning about 3-D/Solid Shapes, reinforcing cylinders, cones, & cubes and introducing spheres.  Students will be introduced to Attribute Blocks this week and practice different rules for sorting.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  

We will being our week by learning about Groundhog’s Day; we will check in with Punxsutawney Phil to see if he did OR did not see his shadow and what that means for the upcoming weather forecast.  We will focus on Nutrition and Health this week, as we learn about ways to keep our bodies clean and healthy and the importance of good nutrition and healthy choices.

 Please be sure to return your child’s library book on or before Wednesday!

Please return your January Book-It Calendars!!

Class List for Valentines

Girls                      Boys          

Grace                   Jack

Brooklyn             Mason

Avallina              Clayton

Olivia                  Andrew

Maisie                 Xander

Akira                   Landon

Carlee                 Joshua

Aubrey               Wesley

Anna                   Reese

                           Charlie
                           Chance                  

Valentine's Party Sign-Up

Valentine's Party Sign-Up 24 Bowls—Maisie 24 Napkins—Gracie 24 Spoons—Mason 1 Carton of Vanilla Ice Cream—Wesley 1 Carton of Vanilla Ice Cream - Gracie Chocolate Syrup—Akira Carmel Syrup—Chance Strawberry Syrup/Topping - Josh Sprinkles—Avallina 1 Can of Redi-Whip—Brooklyn 1 Can of Redi-Whip—Clayton Parent Volunteers—Thursday, February 12th (afternoon) Amanda Gilde                              Sheri Grames  Heidi Heuker                                Alexis Snoderly

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 26th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, January 30th—Smokey the Bear Visits

-Monday, February 2nd—Groundhog’s Day

-Wed., February 11th—Student Count Day

-Thursday, February 12th—Valentine’s Party (pm)

-Thurs., February 12th—PT Conferences 4:00-7:00

-Friday, February 13th—No School

-Friday, February 13th—Homecoming

-Mon., Feb. 16th—No School—Presidents Day

REPORT CARDS & SURVEYS:  

You should have received your child’s report card on Friday. As indicated on the report card, a √ means they ‘meet the standard’ and any skills that your child received a — or a √— are skills they need to work on.  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! With your report card, you should have received a Purple Parent Survey to fill out, with a note explaining the purpose.  Please take a few minutes to fill it out; you may send it back in a sealed envelope if you wish to remain anonymous.  The class with the most returned surveys will earn a sledding party!

READING: 

*This week we will focus on the Letter H and the sightwords my & at. 

*This week our class will be focusing on plants and what they need in order to grow, such as water, food, and air. Children will read stories about gardens.

*Vocabulary: require & plant. Help your child understand that plants need water, food, air, and sunlight to grow.

*This week is also exciting because the students will begin shopping for their own ‘good-fit books’ to add to their book boxes.  They will learn what a ‘good-fit book’ is, as well as how to shop for/select ‘good-fit books.’ Students will then practice building their stamina and using their accuracy strategies while reading during ‘Read to Self' time.

*Beanie Babies—This week we will introduce a new Comprehension Strategy—Repair Bear.  Repair Bear reminds us to stop while we are reading and check to see if we are understanding what we are reading, if not, we need to go back and reread.

WRITING:  

This week we will complete a couple of journal entries on hibernating animals, snowmen, and what we like to do on a Snow Day.  We will also read some mentor texts that have a see-saw pattern and create a class book that follows a see-saw pattern.  Students will each have an opportunity to read their I Can books to the class during Author’s Chair.  This is my favorite time of year because the students' abilities and confidence for writing just seem to blossom!  It is so exciting to see them begin to be more independent as they apply what they know and have learned—sounding out words & using their sightwords while reading and writing!

MATH:  

We will reinforce 2-D/plane shapes and work with 2 new manipulatives—tangrams & geoboards.  We will also begin learning about 3-D/Solid Shapes, beginning with cylinders, cones, & cubes this week.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  

We will continue our study of Winter this week—as we read some narrative and information texts related to Polar Animals.  Smokey the Bear will be visiting us on Friday to teach us about Fire Safety & Prevention.

Sledding Pictures

I tried to get as many of the students as I could, in between giving pushes down the hill:)  

I wasn't able to get all of the kids outside because they were scattered throughout the hillside, 

but a good time was had by ALL! 

 All bundled up and ready to head outside!

 Akira

 Chance & Clayton

 Grace

 Carlee & Brooklyn

 Olivia

 Brooklyn & Carlee

 Maisie & Charlie

 Josh

 Gracie & Mom

 Akira & Grandpa Dave

Grace & Aubrey

Newsletter Updates for the Week on January 19th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, January 23rd—Report Cards Home

-Wednesday, January 21st—LIBRARY

-Friday, January 30th—Smokey the Bear Visits

SLEDDING PARTY:  

We had an awesome day for sledding!  Special thanks to Mrs. Bronkema & Grandpa Dave for  joining us outside and also to Mrs. Southwick, & Grandma Shelly for preparing our delicious hot chocolate!  I will be posting some pictures on my blog this week.

IT TAKES A COMMUNITY: 

We are blessed to have access to wonderful and caring staff at McBain; we have many who come in throughout the day to provide services and support to our students.  While many of them come in to focus on specific students, they interact with all of the children.  I wanted to take a minute and introduce them to you, as you might hear your children mention them:

-Mrs. Rodenbaugh (Title 1 Teacher)

-Mrs. Klunder (Special Education Teacher)

-Mrs. Sluiter (Special Education Teacher)

-Mrs. Hubbard (Speech Therapist)

-Mrs. Mickelson (Occupational Therapist)

-Christina (ISD Consultant)

-Mrs. Bronkema (Title 1/Kindergarten Parapro)

-Mrs. Goodrich (Title 1/Kindergarten Parapro)

-Mrs. Roby (Special Education Parapro)

-Mrs. Heuker (Special Education Parapro)

**This week Miss Trager will be starting in our classroom.  She is a High School Senior who is dual-enrolled and receiving college credit.  She will be working in our classroom 3 afternoons a week, as she prepares for a career working with children.

READING: 

We will wrap up the Letter D on Tuesday and then spend a few days reviewing the letters and sightwords that we’ve learned so far.

Running Records—This week I will meet with each of the students individually and listen to them read different leveled books, in order to determine their independent and instructional reading levels.  Once these are complete, next week students will begin ‘shopping’ for their own ‘good-fit’ books, so that they can begin bringing books home to read—so exciting!

Beanie Babies—This week we will introduce a new Comprehension Strategy—Digger Dog who reminds us to dig for the ‘big idea,’ most important details, and  the author’s purpose in the texts that we read.

WRITING:  

This week we will take some time to write about something in the world that we would like to change (I have a dream), and begin writing a new pattern book about the things that we can do in the Winter time in Michigan.  We will look at some mentor texts that have a surprise ending and then create surprise endings in our own books.

MATH:  

We will work on creating patterns using pattern blocks and play several patterning games.  We will practice counting on from any given number, work on beginning addition skills, and learn how to use a calculator.  The students will also be reassessed on AIMSWEB to monitor their progress in math.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  

We will continue our study of Winter this week—as we learn about the different things animals do during the Winter months.  We will also take some time to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to promote equality, fairness, & justice—values we embrace today!

Please be sure to return your child’s library book

on or before Wednesday!