Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 31st

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Monday, October 31st

             -Bat Presentation in the morning

             -Parade & Party in the afternoon

-Tuesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 4th—Report Cards Home

-Thurs. Nov. 10th—1/2 Day/Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-4:00 & 5:00-8:00

-Friday, November 11th—Half Day/Veteran’s Day

-Tuesday, November 15th—No School/Deer Day

HALLOWEEN: 

*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, knives, swords, etc) to school.

***Parent volunteers, please plan to arrive by 12:15 to help get students into their costumes. The parade starts at 1:00 and families are welcome to watch us parade downtown—we would love an audience to cheer us on.

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

BOOK-IT: 

I’ve attached the November Book-it Calendar so that you can keep track of your child’s reading for the month of November. Please be sure to return your completed October Calendars so I can award Pizza Hut certificates.  Also, attached to the newsletter you will find an additional Pizza Hut coupon for participating in Coins for Kids.

BOOK FAIR:

The book fair is wrapping up on Monday, October 31st. If your child bought a book, but didn’t bring it home, no worries—it is on order and should be arriving within the next couple of days:)

READING:

This week our class will be focusing on different kinds of bugs and how they move. Children will also be reading about a variety of bugs they see in nature. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—curious, observe—Go outside and have your child observe different bugs. Have your child draw a picture of the bugs in a notebook and then label each one.

· Sightwords—review—the, we, see, a, I & like—practice reading and writing these words and looking for them in books.

· Category Words—movement words—say simple riddles that describe the different movements made by animals or insects. Have your child guess the animal or insect.

· Phonics—Review letters—m, a, s, p, & t—Give your child words that begin with these letters and have them practice identifying the sound and writing the beginning letter.

· Beanie Baby Strategies—This week we will introduce Iggy the Inferring Iguana who reminds us to make predictions and inferences as we read and then validate and adjust our predictions as we read. We will also introduce Pop the Weasel who reminds us to look for sightwords while we are reading—these are the words we know, they POP into our heads and out of our mouths!

WRITING: 

This week we will be observing, drawing, and writing about leaves as we practice writing like Scientists. Please send in a couple of leaves for us to use for writing this week:)

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will read several stories related to scarecrows, harvest, and vegetables. We will read Stone Soup to help us prepare for our upcoming Friendship Soup project.

MATH:

This week we will practice different ways to represent numbers (ten frames, fingers, tally marks). We will also play several hands-on games to help us identify and write our numbers.

Have a safe and spook-tacular Halloween!

A couple of reminders :)

Just a reminder that we will be visiting the book fair tomorrow to purchase materials. IF you'd like to purchase any books, please send your child's wishlist back along with a check or cash (please remember to include the tax)  :)

Also, we had a lot of wet and cold kiddos today after recess - I know it's early, but it is cold and wet! Please be sure to send your child to school with all of their winter clothes to keep them warm and dry:)  Unfortunately, today was just a small taste of what's to come :(

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 24th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-October 21st-31st—Book Fair

              -Monday, October 24th—We Shop

              -Friday, October 28th—We Return to Buy

-Tuesday, October 25th—Picture Retakes

-Monday, October 31st

              -Bat Presentation in the morning

              -Parade & Party in the afternoon

-Tuesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 4th—Report Cards Home

-Thurs. Nov. 10th—1/2 Day/Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-4:00 & 5:00-8:00

-Friday, November 11th—Half Day

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Wyatt Grill. Wyatt enjoys spending time with his Dad and he loves recess! He likes to eat chicken nuggets and pancakes. He loves to play with Legos and his favorite movie is Ninjago. A couple of his goals include learning to read books and becoming a Knight—both well within his reach! Congratulations to Wyatt on

being our Student of the Week!

HALLOWEEN: 

*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, knives, swords, etc) to school.

***Parent volunteers, please plan to arrive by 12:15 to help get students into their costumes. The parade starts at 1:00 and families are welcome to watch us parade downtown—we would love an audience to cheer us on.

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

READING:

This week our class will be focusing on the shapes we see in nature and in our neighborhoods as we read about the shapes we see around us. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—materials & nature—Invite your child to hunt for shapes found in nature or on materials. Then invite them to draw pictures of each item.

· Sightword—like—Write the word like on paper and have your child trace it. Then say sentences and have them write like each time you say the word.

· Category Words—shapes—Say simple riddles that include different shape words and have your child guess each object.

· Phonics—Letter Tt—Invite your child to play a game of “I Spy.” Say sentences and have your child find objects whose names begin or end with the letter t, such as I spy a table. I spy a pot.

· Beanie Baby Strategy—Picturing Penguin—He helps us visualize or picture the story in our minds while we are reading—a hard skill for kindergartners who are surrounded by lots of visual stimulation in our world:)

WRITING:  

This week we will build a sentence buddy to put in our writing folders to use as a tool to help us while writing.  We will finish up our October journals by writing about what we are going to be for Halloween.

MATH:

This week we will continue our study of shapes and practice making shapes using ropes, geoboards, and a new geoboard app.  We will also practice following directions using positional words as we maneuver through an obstacle course in gym class. We will do some measuring of longer & shorter and continue to practice counting and writing our numbers.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will read several narrative and informational stories related to Halloween. 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.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 17th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-October 21st-31st—Book Fair

              -Monday, October 24th—We Shop

              -Friday, October 28th—We Return to Buy

-Monday, October 31st

              -Bat Presentation in the morning

              -Parade & Party in the afternoon

-Tuesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 4th—Report Cards Home

-Thurs. Nov. 10th—1/2 Day/Parent Teacher Conferences

-Friday, November 11th—Half Day

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.

· Sightword—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 continue to practice sketching and labeling small moment stories as we learn several strategies for spelling words. We will also be learning about verbs and incorporate 'action words' into or writing.  The students will complete a Type 3 about a Jack-o-Lantern and self assess using a rubric.  We will also be creating a sequencing booklet about how a pumpkin grows, which will have several of our sightwords in it.

MATH:

This week we will focus on different strategies to solve number stories. We will also create a graph using pattern blocks and practice interpreting the data.  We will also play a 'spill the beans' game where students will determine different combinations to make 10—8+2, 5+5, etc.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will read several narrative and informational stories related to  pumpkins as we get ready for Halloween.  The students will learn the lifecycle of a pumpkin and how it grows.

Picture retakes will be on Tuesday, October 25th.  

If you would like your child’s picture retaken, please send in their package and let me know so I know to send them down:)

Toilet Paper Reminder

Hi - just a reminder  - if you haven't sent in a roll of TP for your child, please send it in tomorrow.  Mrs. Taylor is coming to do a fun project with the class in the morning:)

Thanks so much!

Halloween Sign Up

Here is the sign-up for Halloween that I passed around on that first day of school - seems like a long time ago:)  I'll have sign-up sheets for Thanksgiving, Christmas, & Valentine's Day out at Conferences in November.  Thanks so much for your support!

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 10th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, Oct. 11th—Title 1 Family Night 5:30-7:00

-Monday, Oct. 17th—Delayed Start

-October 21st-31st—Book Fair

              -Monday, October 24th—We Shop

              -Friday, October 28th—We Return to Buy

-Monday, October 31st

              -Bat Presentation in the morning

              -Parade & Party in the afternoon

-Tuesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 4th—Report Cards Home

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is León Smith. León enjoys playing with Legos, as well as with his friends. He likes to eat pizza, mac-and-cheese, tomatoes, and McDonald’s chicken nuggets.  He has a flare for super heroes as his favorite movie is Avengers and his favorite book is Superman. One of León’s goals this year is to make new friends at school, which he has successfully done! Congratulations to León on being our Student of the Week!

FAMILY NIGHT: 

If you RSVP’d for Title Night, we are looking forward to seeing you and your family Tuesday evening.  Dinner starts @ 5:30 with activities in the classrooms to follow; each teacher will have specific learning activities set up in their classrooms, as well as handouts & materials for you to take with you to practice important skills @ home.

READING:

This week our reading lesson 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: 

This week we will complete a journal about a fire truck and create an Itsy Bitsy Spider class book together. We will also work on writing our own small moment stories—following the writing process of thinking about a story, picturing it in our heads, saying it to ourselves, sketching it on paper, and then adding labels.  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 and more confident. As they learn more sightwords, they will also add more words that they know how to spell from memory to their repertoire.

MATH:

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

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

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

Please Send In—a Full Roll of Toilet Paper—

for your child to use for an art project this week!