Halloween Photos

Here are a few photos from our Halloween Party.  Thanks for all the great snacks and for the extra hands helping with costumes, preparing food, and cleaning up:)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 26th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, October 30th—Halloween Party—pm

-Monday, November 2nd—No School—PD Day

-Tuesday, November 10th—Title 1 Family Night

-Book Fair—November 10th-18th—11:30-3:00 & November 19th—1:00-6:00

-Friday, November 13th—Report Cards Home

-Monday, November 16th—Delayed Start

-Thursday, November 19th—No School—Parent Teacher Conferences 1:00-8:00

-Monday, November 23rd—Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities—am

-Tuesday, November 24th—Making Friendship Soup—am

-Wednesday, November 25th—The Feast—pm

-Thursday, November 26th—Thanksgiving Break

HALLOWEEN PARTY: 

*Please send your child’s costume to school in a bag (labeled with their name). Students will change into their costumes after lunch.

**Please DO NOT send any make-up or toy weapons (guns, swords, knives, etc) to school.

***Parent volunteers—please plan to arrive by 12:15 to help students get into their costumes.

SCHEDULE:

12:15-1:00—Change into Costumes/Activities

1:00-1:15—Photos

1:15-1:45—Parade Downtown

*K will NOT be visiting the 4th grade Wax Museum.

1:45-2:00—Halloween Snacks

2:00-2:20—Change out of Costumes

2:25—Recess

READING: 

This week our class will be focusing on the tools people use every day to help them work, play, cook, and do their chores. Children will also be reading about tools such as utensils to eat, a calculator to add, and a shovel to dig holes.

Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing.

· Vocabulary - tool, discover - Invite your child to hunt for different kinds of tools and tell what each one is used for. Make a list of the tools and read it together when you’re done.

· High-Frequency Word - a - Write simple sentences and leave a blank in each sentence to represent the word a. Have your child write the word a in the blanks. Then read each sentence together.

· Category Words - colors 

· Phonics - Letter Pp Invite your child to hunt for household objects that begin or end with the letter p. Write each word on a sticky note and have your child circle the p.

WRITING: 

This week we will finish up our October Journals by writing about what we will be for

Halloween.  We will also finish our Pumpkin booklets and make a class book titled: There’s a ___ Under My Bed.  We have created several class books so far this year, which you will be able to check out at conferences in a couple of weeks. I will also save their October Journals to share with you at conferences.

MATH: 

This week we will practice arranging and counting collections of objects using different strategies.  We will continue our investigation of shapes—focusing on squares and rectangles.  We will also incorporate several Halloween activities into our math

stations as we focus on number ID, & counting.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will read several stories related to Halloween & Pumpkins. We will carve our jack-o-lantern together, and with elections just around the corner, we will exercise our ‘democratic right to vote,’ as we vote on what kind of mouth to give our jack-o-lantern.

COINS FOR KIDS: 

This is our final week—so keep sending in those coins! :)

School Pictures

If you ordered a package for School Pictures, they are in.  I don't like to send them home in backpacks, so if you are able to, please stop in sometime and pick them up:)  If you ordered a yearbook, they are delivered later in the year - usually around May:)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 19th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, October 30th—Halloween Party—pm

-Monday, November 2nd—No School—PD Day

-Tuesday, November 10th—Title 1 Family Night

-Book Fair—November 10th-18th—11:30-3:00, November 19th—1:00-6:00

-Friday, November 13th—Report Cards Home

-Monday, November 16th—Delayed Start

-Thursday, November 19th—No School—Parent Teacher Conferences 1:00-8:00

-Monday, November 23rd—Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities—am

-Tuesday, November 24th—Making Friendship Soup—am

-Wednesday, November 25th—The Feast—pm

-Thursday, November 26th—Thanksgiving Break

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Caelyn Torry.  Caelyn is 5 years old and likes to eat fruit.  She enjoys riding horses, playing with friends, and going to water parks. One of Caelyn’s goals is to take care of horses when she gets older. Congratulations to Caelyn on being Student of the Week!

COINS FOR KIDS: 

We are collecting all through the month of October—so keep sending in those coins! :)

READING: 

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letter Ss and we will introduce the sightword—see. Our focus stories for this week are Senses at the Seashore and A Feast of the Senses, which we will use to practice building our listening and comprehension skills.  We will also introduce Poetry as we read and listen to some poems related to senses.  Our new Beanie Baby for this week is Stretchy Snake—who helps us read new words by stretching out/saying the sounds to figure out the word; we will put this strategy to good use throughout the year while reading and writing.

WRITING: 

Last week we created an informational class book about Fall complete with page numbers, a Table of Contents, a title, and a cover—awesome teamwork!  This week students will be using their senses and scientific skills to observe and investigate leaves.  We will be drawing the leaves we investigate, paying close attention to detail.  Then students will be labeling their drawings and writing sentences about their leaves.  We are learning that in Kindergarten we “write the sounds that we hear.” This is hard for some students, as they want me to tell them how to spell words, but as we learn more phonics sounds, the students will become better writers—more independent & more confident.  As they learn more sightwords, they will also add more words that they know how to spell from memory to their repertoire.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will focus on studying some seasonal things for Science, as we learn about Spiders, Bats, & Pumpkins.  We will read several informational and narrative texts as we learn some interesting facts about Spiders, Bats, & Pumpkins. 

MATH: 

This week we will continue to study the attributes of shapes—focusing on circles.  We will also be reviewing five frames and then move on to ten frames. We will continue to work on identifying and writing numbers, as well as oral counting.

This week we will have gym on Tuesday &

Thursday due to the Community Blood Drive on Wednesday:)

Lunch Menu Change

I just received this email notification:

CHANGE OF MENU!
Tomorrow, October 13, we will be having Pizza, cottage cheese, corn, fruit and milk. 

On October 14 we will be having Hamburgers with tomato, lettuce and pickles, baked beans, romaine salad, fruit and milk. Sorry for the inconvenience

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 12th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, October 16th—Book Orders Due

-Monday, October 19th—Delayed Start

PLEASE SIGN & RETURN: 

Last week you received an envelope with some information from the office; included were 2 forms that need to be signed and returned: a Concussion Form and a Home Language Survey.  Please be sure to return these ASAP, as we are required to keep them on file in the elementary office. :)

BOOK FAIR: 

The PTO is sponsoring our annual Book Fair November 10, 11, 12, 13, 16,17, & 18.  I am

currently working on organizing the event and am seeking parent/grandparent volunteers to help run the fair during school hours (11:30-3:00), as well as Thursday November 19 during Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-6:00.  If you, or someone you know, is interested in helping out please contact me at sherrybrinks@gmail.com.

COINS FOR KIDS: 

Great job sending in those coins—Keep up the good work!!

ITEMS NEEDED—PLEASE SEND IN:

-Each student needs to bring in 1 full roll of

toilet paper for an upcoming art project:)

READING: 

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letter Aa and we will introduce the sightword—we. Our focus stories for this week are Pouch! and Baby Animals on the Move, which we will use to practice building our listening and comprehension skills. This week we will practice using Eagle Eye and Lips the Fish during Read to Self time, as we ‘read’ some ‘good-fit’ materials from our book boxes. We will also begin ‘partner reading’ where we will practice building our accuracy, fluency, and comprehension skills while reading with a friend. The students are doing a GREAT job with our new expanded literacy stations and are working on so many foundational reading skills each day—letter ID, sounds, rhyming, handwriting, retelling stories, computer skills, sightwords, & listening to stories on CD/ipads.

WRITING: 

This week we will be writing about Fall.  We’ve been learning about the qualities of Informational Texts and will put what we know into practice; we will work together with a partner to observe, draw, and label a page for our class book about Fall.  We will also draw and write about a fire truck, including as many details as we can.

MATH: 

This week we will play several math games involving counting and determining quantities. We will continue to practice identifying and naming numbers 0-10 and spend a couple of days working on sorting by various attributes.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will focus on Fire Safety and Prevention. We will read several informational texts related to fire safety and watch several video segments to spark our discussions. October is Fire Prevention Month; please be sure to check the batteries in your smoke detectors at home & discuss and practice an escape plan for your family.

A special thanks to the Peterson Family for blessing us with a special ice cream treat last week!:)