Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 30th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, October 31st—Halloween Parade—1:00 - Downtown McBain OR Middle School Gym

-Wednesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 3rd—Report Cards Home

-Friday, November 3rd—Shop at the Book Fair

-Friday, November 3rd—Family Movie Night @ 7:00

-Wednesday, November 8th—Buy at the Book Fair

-Thursday, November 9th—1/2 Day—Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-8:00

-Friday, November 10th—1/2 Day

-Wed., November 15th—No School—Deer Day

HALLOWEEN: 

Here’s a little info regarding 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 and 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.  Clifford will be joining us for our parade.

*****PLAN B—RAIN or SNOW—We will parade through the middle school gym—families may come and sit in the bleachers to watch. Mrs. V will make the decision Tuesday morning and post to the McBain Elementary Facebook page.

**** K will NOT be visiting the 4th grade wax museum; we will party in our classroom after the parade.

NOVEMBER CALENDAR:

We have many special activities planned around the week of Thanksgiving.  I’ll have sign up sheets for supplies and volunteers out at conferences, but please look ahead to some of these dates and check your schedules to see if you might be available to help out.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES: 

You will be getting an orange letter with your scheduled time, please return it ASAP, so I can make the necessary adjustments. I’m looking forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s progress and their next steps.

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 them draw a picture of the bugs in a notebook and label each one.

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

· Category Words—movement words—Play Simon Says using different movement words.

· Phonics—Letter Review—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 Strategy—This week we will learn about 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. We will be editing our October journals to share with you at conferences.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We will talk about Halloween Safety as well as continue to discuss and practice ‘respect.’ We will read several stories related to scarecrows, harvest, and vegetables.

MATH: 

This week we will practice different ways to represent numbers (ten frames, fingers, tally marks, beads, etc.).

BOOK-IT:

I’m attaching the November Book-It Calendar so that you can keep track of your child’s reading for the coming month.  Please be sure to return your October Book-it Calendar.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 23rd

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, October 27th—Picture Retakes

-Tuesday, October 31st—Halloween Parade—1:00 Downtown McBain

-Wednesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 3rd—Report Cards Home

-Friday, November 3rd—Shop at the Book Fair

-Wednesday, November 8th—Buy at the Book Fair

-Thursday, November 9th—1/2 Day—Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-8:00

-Friday, November 10th—1/2 Day

-Wed., November 15th—No School—Deer Day

HALLOWEEN:

Here’s a little info regarding 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 and 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.  Clifford will be joining us for our parade.

**** K will NOT be visiting the 4th grade wax museum; we will party in our classroom after the parade.

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 around the house. 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—Play ‘I spy’ using shapes you see around you.

· Phonics—Letter Tt—Play ‘I spy’ using objects around your home that begin or end with t (I spy a table or 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:

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. We will also begin a new informational unit on List, Observe, & Label. We will read several informational texts related to Fall and then work together to create our first informational class book on Fall.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We will read several narrative and informational stories related to Halloween and we will learn about Trick-or-Treat Safety.  Our new character trait for this month is RESPECT which we will learn about through videos, books, and lots of opportunities to practice:)

MATH:

This week we will continue our study of shapes and practice making shapes using ropes, geoboards, our bodies, 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.

Family Night Reminder

Hi - Just a reminder that tomorrow evening (Thursday, October 19th) is our annual Title 1 Family Night.  Dinner will be served at 5:30, with activities in the classrooms from 6:00-7:00. Hope to see you there!!

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 16th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thursday, October 19th—Title 1 Family Night

-Tuesday, October 31st—Halloween Parade—1:00 Downtown McBain

-Wednesday, November 1st—No School—PD

-Friday, November 3rd—Report Cards Home

-Thursday, November 9th—1/2 Day—Parent Teacher Conferences from 1:00-8:00

-Friday, November 10th—1/2 Day

-Wednesday, November 15th—No School—Deer Day

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Sadie Roberts. Sadie enjoys painting and coloring; she is always making and creating masterpieces to give to her friends:)  She likes to eat bananas, fruit snacks, and Fruity Pebbles and her favorite movie is Snow White. Saidie aspires to continue to be a good big sister to her twin brothers and to have a great year at school! Congratulations to Sadie on being our Student of the Week!

FAMILY NIGHT:

Our annual Title 1 Family Night is this Thursday, October 19th. We are asking families to RSVP by October 17th so that we can plan for food. In addition to dinner being served, each teacher will have learning activities set up in their classrooms, as well as handouts and materials for you to take with you to practice important skills at home.  We hope to see you there!

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

· Vocabulary—tools & 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 letter p.

WRITING:

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 our 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:

We will continue to learn about our 5 Senses and use them to explore pumpkins this week. We will read several narrative and informational stories related to pumpkins, as we learn the lifecycle of a pumpkin and how it grows.  We will also wrap up our unit on Fire Safety.

Halloween Party Sign Up

Newsletter Updates for the Week of October 9th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, October 13th—Mobile Dentist, Fire Safety Presentation & Scholastic Book Orders Due

-Monday, October 16th—Delayed Start (10:00)

-Thursday, October 19th—Title 1 Family Night

FAMILY NIGHT:

Our annual Title 1 Family Night will be Thursday, October 19th. Attached to your newsletter you will find your yellow invitation will all of the details. We are asking families to RSVP by October 17th so that we can plan for food. In addition to dinner being served, each teacher will have learning activities set up in their classrooms, as well as handouts and materials for you to take with you to practice important skills at home.  We hope to see you there!

READING: 

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letter Ss and we will introduce a new sightword—see. Our focus stories 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 & 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:

For 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. On Friday, we have a special fire safety presentation brought to us by some local fire fighters and Kindergarten dads.  October is Fire Prevention Month; please be sure to check the batteries in your smoke detectors at home as well as discuss and practice an escape plan with your family.  In Science we will begin learning about our Senses and how important they are in exploring the world around us. We will also read several informational texts about Spiders and learn some interesting facts.

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.

VOLUNTEERING: 

Our milk jug jack-o-lanterns are completed; special thanks to Mrs. Johnson for coming in last Friday to help us with that! This Friday, my good friend Grandma Linda will be in to make toilet paper pumpkins with the students.  I’ll soon be working on the November calendar, so if you know a day you’d like to come in and help out in the classroom, please let me know.  The week of Thanksgiving we have several special projects planned for Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Also, I’m looking for parents and grandparents to help with the book fair Nov. 2-3, & 6-10.