Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 29th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Fri., Feb. 2nd—Smokey the Bear Visits, Groundhog Day, & Homecoming Game

-Wed., Feb. 7th—100’s Day

-Wed., Feb. 14th—Valentine’s Party—pm

-Thurs., Feb 15th—K JR4H—10:00-11:00

-Fri., Feb. 16th—No School—Professional Dev.

-Mon., Feb 19th—No School—President’s Day

-Thurs., Feb 22nd—1/2 day—PTC 4:00-7:00

-Fri., Feb 23rd—Dental Health Presentation

AND THE PACE QUICKENS:

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to look over your child’s report card and assessments. Overall, I’m very pleased with the students’ progress. We’ve established some great routines and foundational skills. Now the pace quickens a bit. We will still be adding 2 new sightwords each week, learning a total of 51 sightwords this year; and instead of 1 letter a week, we will be focusing on 2 letters a week. I am beefing up my interventions at school for those students who need some extra practice and support with skills. You can help as well by reviewing these same skills at home. Now that we have many strategies in our toolboxes for reading—you should be seeing your child grow as a reading. I’ll send home take-home reading folders a couple times a week and they can do Raz-Kids at home as well. Please let me now if you have any questions or concerns related to your child’s progress in Kindergarten.

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about the kinds of fresh foods grown on a farm. Your child will be identifying different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—fresh & delicious—talk about the fresh fruits and vegetables you buy at the grocery store or farmers’ market.

· Sightwords—he & with—Have your child practice writing these words and using them in a sentence.

· Category Words—fruits & vegetables—Write the names of fruits and vegetables on index cards. Have your child draw a picture to match and then invite them to sort the cards into different categories (size, color, shape, etc.)

· Phonics—Letterss Ff & Rr—Play ‘I Spy’ with your child using beginning sounds. “I spy something that begins with the /f/ sound.”

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will wrap up our Science Unit on Forces & Motion.  Students may bring in a toy from home that moves in some way for our lesson on Tuesday.  We will also learn about the different things that animals do during the Winter—hibernation, migration, & active.  We will check in on Punxsutawney Phil on Friday to see if he does or does not see his shadow and learn what that means for the upcoming weather forecast. Friday, we will also be visited by Smokey the Bear who will teach us how we can be good citizens and help prevent forest fires.

WRITING:

We’ve completed our Pattern Book Unit and will be celebrating by reading our stories to the class. We will begin our next unit of study—Small Moments—by reading several small moment stories and discussing the qualities. This week we will complete a couple of journals—one about hibernating animals, and another about a groundhog.  This is an exciting time of year because the students’ abilities and confidence for writing just seem to blossom.

MATH: 

This week we will learn about the addition symbol and play several games involving addition. We will learn about Spheres and practice arranging 2D shapes into different combinations.

Please be sure to return your January Book-It

Calendar & send in an empty cereal box.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 22nd

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Mon., January 22nd—Dibels Testing

-Tues., January 23rd—NWEA Testing—Math

-Fri., January 26th—Report Cards Home

-Fri., Feb. 2nd—Homecoming Game

-Wed., Feb. 14th—Valentine’s Party—pm

-Thurs., Feb 15th—K JR4H—10:00-11:00

-Fri., Feb. 16th—No School—Professional Dev.

-Mon., Feb 19th—No School—President’s Day

-Thurs., Feb 22nd—1/2 day—PTC 4:00-8:00

-Fri., Feb 23rd—Dental Health Presentation

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:  

Our student of the week is Adrian Paxtor Vasquez.  Adrian likes to play outside and watch cartoons. His favorite movie to watch is Lego Ninjago and his favorite food is ice cream. This year Adrian wants to learn all of his letters and sounds so that he can read and write—which he is doing! He is also going to have a little baby sister arriving soon! Congratulations to Adrian on being our Student of the Week!

SLEDDING PARTY: 

Hopefully we can rebuild a nice snow base on the playground and reschedule our sledding party. We’ll just have to wait and see what the weather has in store:)

REPORT CARDS: 

Report cards will be coming home this Friday. As you look over your child’s report card remember that anything with a 3 is a skill that they need to work on, also be sure to look ahead to what their upcoming goals are for March. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s progress, please feel free to contact me. Students will be completing their DIBELS testing this week as well as finishing up their NWEA testing, so I’ll be sharing these results with you a little later.

READING FOLDERS: 

I’ve completed a running record with each student to determine their independent level—which you will find on their report card. This week we will begin Take Home Reading Folders. The books they are bringing home are at their instructional level—which may be a little challenging, so they may need some adult guidance and support. There will be an informational letter that explains how to make the best reading routines at home, as well as other materials for your child to practice building their skills at home—sightwords, abc chart, numbers, nonsense words, Raz-Kids log in card, etc. Please be sure to fill out the Reading Log and send back the folder, book, and all the materials, so that they can select a new book to bring home. Students will bring their reading folders home 2-3 times a week.

RAZ-KIDS:

Raz-Kids is a fabulous resource for students to practice reading ‘good-fit’ books; since the school generously pays for the subscription, it is free to our families. As they read books, they will move up levels. An important rule that I teach the students is that they have to listen to the book twice, then read it independently twice, and finally take the quiz—we call it the ‘5 finger rule’—Listen, Listen, Read, Read, Quiz (for those on levels with quizzes).  Also, as an incentive, they earn stars to build their rocket ship and robot. I don’t let them spend their stars at school, BUT this is something they CAN do at home with the stars they have earned.  If you have any issues logging in or navigating the site/app at home, please let me know.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will continue our Science Unit on Forces & Motion as we investigate position, direction, and simple machines. Our character trait for this month is Integrity.

MATH: 

This week we will play several games involving teen numbers, practice our problem-solving skills as we use different strategies to solve number stories, and learn about the equal symbol.

WRITING:

We will complete a pattern book that has a question and answer sentence structure and complete a journal page about motion.

Please send in an empty cereal box so that we can begin preparing for Valentine’s Day and be sure to return your library book on or before Friday:)

Sledding Postponed

We are postponing our sledding party that we had planned for this Friday. The playground does not have a good snow base and many rocks are showing; therefore it isn't safe conditions:)

We will reschedule once we get a good snow base built up!

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 15th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Wed. Jan. 16th—Jump Rope for Heart Kick Off

-Thurs., January 18th—1/2 Day—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Fri., Jan. 19th—1/2 Day—Kindergarten Sledding Party??—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Mon., January 22nd—Dibels Testing

-Fri., January 26th—Report Cards Home

SLEDDING PARTY:

We are tentatively planning our annual sledding party for this Friday, January 19th. We’ve lot most of our snow on the playground, but we’ll see what this week brings; I will post on my blog later this week to let you know if it is a go or not. As of right now, Mrs. Johnson & Mrs. Klunder are coming to help out, as well as Grandma Linda.  We will go outside around 10:30, sled for a half hour, and then come inside for some hot chocolate before heading home at 11:35.

VALENTINES PREP:

I know Valentine’s Day is a month away, but for Kindergartners it can take some time to get all of their valentines filled out:) Filling out valentines is a great opportunity to practice handwriting and also a good ‘snow day’ activity:) I’m attaching a class list for you to use. Also, please send in an empty cereal box, which we will be decorating to collect our valentines.

READING:

Do to our snow days, I’m a couple days behind, so we will finish up our Reading lessons from last week and then begin the new lessons on Thursday. We 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 a trunk, bark, branches, leaves, and roots. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—develop & amazing—draw a picture of a tree and encourage your child to tell facts about trees.

· Sightwords—are & had—Have your child practice writing these words and using them in a sentence.

· Category Words—tree parts—Have your child draw a tree and label the parts—roots, trunk, branches, leaves, etc.

· Phonics—Letter Ee—Have your child think of words that have the short e and long e sound and make a list of each.

· Beanie Baby Strategies—This week we will use Chunky Monkey to read and write words with the en, et, ed, & ell word families & use Flippy the Dolphin to read and write words with the short & long e sounds. We will introduce Helpful Kangaroo who reminds us that if we are trying to figure out a tricky word it’s okay to ask for help after we’ve tried all of our strategies.

· Raz-Kids—The students have been reading ‘good-fit’ books on their ipads in the classroom. I’ll be sending a letter home with information about how you can access it at home—it is a great resource for young readers!

WRITING:

We will finish up our see-saw pattern book and then begin a new pattern book that has a question and answer sentence structure. We will also be writing our own “I have a dream . . . .” page in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will continue our Science Unit on Forces & Motion and conduct some hands-on experiments involving bowling pins and learn about the force of air.  We will read several informational texts related to freedom and equality in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

MATH:

This week we will work on writing and building teen numbers using ten frames and base 10 blocks and play some fun games involving 2D & 3D shapes.

Valentine Party Sign Up/Jump Rope for Heart Sign-Up

Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 8th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Mon, Jan. 15th—Delayed Start—Theme—Integrity

-Thurs., January 18th—1/2 Day—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Fri., Jan. 19th—1/2 Day—Kindergarten Sledding Party—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Mon., January 22nd—Dibels Testing

-Fri., January 26th—Report Cards Home

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Dayana Ugarte Gonzalez.  Dayana’s favorite movie is Frozen and at school she loves to imagine and play in the dramatic play area. Her goals for Kindergarten include learning how to spell words and make friends—which she is doing each and every day! Congratulations to Dayana on being our Student of the Week!

SLEDDING PARTY:

We are tentatively planning our annual sledding party for Friday, January 19th,  but I am NOT telling the students until it gets closer in case the weather doesn’t cooperate.  We will go outside around 10:30, sled for a half hour with the other Kindergarten classes, and then come back inside for hot chocolate before going home at 11:35. I am looking for a couple of parents, or grandparents, who would be willing to come in around 10:15 and help. I could use a couple people willing to go outside and push kids down the hill AND at least 1 person to stay inside and prepare our hot chocolate. Please let me know if you are willing and available to help out!

READING:

This week our class will be focusing on plants and what they need in order to grow, such as water, food, and air; we will read several stories about gardens. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—require & plant—Talk about things that living things need/require in order to live and grow.

· Sightwords—my & at—Encourage your child to say sentences using the words my and at. Record the sentences on paper and leave a blank where the words should be. Then have your child write the words in each space.

· Category Words—size words—Take turns describing things according to size and/or practice sorting household items according to size.

· Phonics—Letter Hh—Play a rhyming game; for example, what word starts with h and rhymes with pen? (hen). Provide clues as needed.

· Comprehension—Character, Setting, & Events—Have your child think of a favorite story. Then ask questions about the main characters, where the story takes place, and what events happen at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

· Beanie Baby Strategies—This week we will introduce a new comprehension strategy—Repair Bear—who 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:

We will create a snowman using punctuation marks and also work together in teams to cooperate to build snowmen using rhyming words.  We will begin writing a new pattern book that has a see-saw structure.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will be reading several narrative stories about snowmen. We will also begin our Science Unit on Forces & Motion and conduct some hands-on experiments involving gravity, pushes, & pulls.

MATH:

This week we will be reviewing 2D shapes and begin learning about 3D/solid shapes (cube, sphere, cone, rectangular prism, etc.) We will also continue to work on writing and building teen numbers using ten frames and base 10 blocks.