Halloween Party Sign Up

Here's the sign up for our Halloween Party that I shared with you on the first day of school:)

Thanks so much!

October 1st - Newsletter Updates

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Wed. Oct 3rd—Student Count Day

-Wed. Oct 10th—Picture Retake Day

-Fri., Oct. 12th—K Progress Reports Home

-Mon. Oct. 15th—Delayed Start

SURVEY:

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to fill out the Parent Survey, so that we can get feedback and plan programming to meet your needs.  You can find the link on my blog or on the homepage of McBain’s website.

ITEMS NEEDED: 

Please send in a full roll of toilet paper for your child to make a keep-sake pumpkin  (by this Wednesday) and a gallon milk jug (empty and rinsed out) for our milk jug Jack-o-lanterns, which we will begin making next week.

COINS FOR KIDS: 

Starting Monday October 1st, McBain Elementary, in partnership with Pizza Hut, will be collecting spare change through the month of October. This year the funds will benefit “The Literacy Project” to work in conjunction with “Book-It” - inspiring students to develop a love of reading!

READING:

We’ve quickly made it through introducing ALL of the letters of the alphabet and now we will slow our pace a bit and focus on one letter each week. This week our reading lessons will focus on the letter Mm and we will introduce a new sightword—the. Our focus story is What About Bear? Which we will use to practice building our listening and comprehension skills. This week we will introduce 2 new beanie baby strategies: Questioning Owl who reminds us to stop and ask ourselves questions about the story while we are reading and Spinner Spider who helps us remember to ‘make connections’ as we read.

WRITING: 

We will work on creating a small moment based on our Gingerbread Day, as we practice the process of writing a story together. We will use our imaginations to create a couple of fun class books based on Mercer Mayer’s books There’s an Alligator Under My Bed & There’s a Nightmare in My Closet.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will continue learning about Weather, as we chart our daily weather and collect data. We will also continue reading and talking about the changes that occur in Fall. We will have a special visit from Scrappy the Squirrel who will tell us what he’s up to this time of year AND we will conduct a fun experiment with acorns.

MATH:

We will practice counting and comparing quantities. We will also play some simple addition and subtraction games with manipulatives and work on graphing our names, as well as M & M’s.

 · Please be sure to return your child's blanket for rest time this week:)

School Pictures are Here!

School Pictures are Here!

I prefer NOT to send them home in backpacks, so that your pictures stay in good condition:)
I know many of you drop off or pick up - so if you can, please stop in and get your child's pictures if you are making the trip to school already.  I'll hang onto them for a few days and then send the ones I have left home in backpacks as carefully as I can:)

Thanks,
Sherry

September 24 - Newsletter

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Fri., Sept. 28th—Fun to Be Fit @ 1:30

-Wed. Oct 3rd—Student Count Day

-Fri., Oct. 12th—K Progress Reports Home

-Mon. Oct. 15th—Delayed Start

FUN TO BE FIT:

Our annual Fun to Be Fit event is this Friday afternoon. Families are welcome to come and join in the fun (strollers work well for pushing younger siblings around the track). Please park in the big parking lot and meet us up at the track around 1:25, as the event begins at 1:30. Please watch the weather and dress your child accordingly (shorts/pants, jacket, tennis shoes, etc) It does tend to be windy up on the track. You might also want to send a waterbottle. You are welcome to come back to the classroom with us and sign your child out if you choose. If your child ordered a t-shirt, they will be receiving them on Thursday. If they did not order a shirt, please dress them in their gray kindergarten shirt or other Rambler wear.  Hope to see you there!

ITEMS NEEDED: 

Please send in a gallon milk jug (empty and rinsed out) and a full roll of toilet paper for your child to use for a couple of Fall art projects—we are excited to begin decorating our hallway and classroom for Fall!

READING:

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters S, T, U, V, W, X Y, & Z as we wrap up our quick introduction to the alphabet. We will introduce another new beanie baby—Lips the Fish—who reminds us that when we come to a word we don’t know, we need to look at the first letter of the word and get our lips ready with that sound to help us figure out the word.

WRITING: 

We will begin learning about ‘small moment’ stories this week. We will investigate how writers use uppercase and lowercase letters to make words and complete a picture, letter, and word sort. We will write about what the trees are doing in Fall and go outside and draw the weather—as we practice being Scientists.  We will also edit our September journals and get them ready to share with you at conferences in October.

MATH:

We will practice describing and comparing shapes, as we focus on triangles. We will also play several games with dot cards as we practice identifying and matching different quantities of dots, as well as comparing which card has more and which card has less dots.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will be reading and talking about the changes that occur in Fall. We will also begin learning about Weather, as we chart our daily weather and collect data.

 * I will send home blankets this Friday;please wash and send them back for rest time next week.  :)

Survey

Hi Parents,
Would you please take a minute and fill out the short family survey:)

Thanks a bunch!
Sherry

Volunteer Opportunity - Book Fair

Dear Parents/Grandparents/Community Members:

The McBain PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) is looking for volunteers to help with the upcoming Book Fair. They are seeking volunteers to help students browse and purchase books on these dates/times:

 

-Monday, October 22 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

-Tuesday, October 23 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

-Wednesday, October 24 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

-Thursday, October 25 – 9:00-11:30 & 1:00-7:00 for conferences 

-Friday, October 26 – 9:00-11:30 

-Monday, October 29 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

-Tuesday, October 30 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

-Wednesday, October 31 – 9:00-11:30 & 11:30-3:00 

 

They are also extending the hours on Thursday, October 25, so that families & community members can browse and shop during Parent-Teacher Conferences. The Book Fair will be set up in the Library, and students will walk through with their entire class - so the more volunteers there are, the smoother it will go!

 

If you would be willing to help out with the Book Fair, please contact Heather Smith at bookfair@mcbain.org or call (231-942-2280).

 

Thanks for helping your school and supporting your PTO!

September 17 - Newsletter

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Mon., Sept. 17th—Elem. Fundraiser Due

-Mon. Sept. 17th—Delayed Start

-Fri., Oct. 12th—K Progress Reports Home

STUDENT OF THE MONTH:

Our first Student of the Month is Rolan Bautista-Santiago.  Rolan is a hard worker and is always willing to lend a helping hand to others, without being asked:)  Rolan’s favorite color is blue, he enjoys reading books about Legos, and his favorite food to eat is French fries. Congratulations to Rolan on being our September Student of the Month!

READING:

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters N, O, P, Q, R, S, & T. We will also review the sightwords I & can and practice identifying rhyming words in songs and nursery rhymes. Our focus story for this week is Kindergartners Can which we will use to practice our listening and comprehension skills.  We will introduce a new beanie baby—Jabber the Reteller—who reminds us that good readers can build their comprehension skills by recalling and retelling key elements from the story.

WRITING: 

We will wrap up our unit on Speaking and Listening as we talk about ‘things we know and can do.’ This week students will come up with their own story idea, practice picturing it in their minds, rehearse it by telling it to a partner, and then draw and write about it. We will be talking about the importance of including colors and details and we’ll practice this by drawing a detailed picture of Mrs. Brinks.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

We had a beautiful afternoon to walk to the butterfly garden last Friday—special thanks to Mrs. Bronkema for coming along and taking some up-close photos. This week we will continue learning about what Scientists do we will practice wondering and using our 5 senses as we explore some mystery boxes. In Social Studies we will learn about feelings and talk about how we can fill each other’s buckets, one good deed at a time.

MATH:

We will focus on identifying and writing the numbers 6-8. We will practice describing and sorting shapes, as well as identifying and extending patterns. We will also go to the computer lab on Wednesday and Friday to take our NWEA Assessment for Math.

PROGRESS REPORTS:

As I mentioned on the first day, the Kindergarten assessment schedule will look a little different than the rest of the elementary.  Instead of sending home report cards home 4 times a year, we will be sending them 3 times a year—November, February, & May.  This will allow us to spend more time on instruction and interventions with our students. Therefore, we will be sending Kindergarten progress reports home on Friday, October 12th.  Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me and I will do the same.

Newsletter - September 10

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Mon., Sept 10th-Fun 2 B Fit Shirt Orders Due

-Fri., Sept 14th—Elementary Fundraiser Due

-Fri., Sept 14th—Library

-Mon. Sept. 17th—Delayed Start

TESTING:

We will be completing our beginning of the year screeners and assessments over the next 2 weeks. We will visit the computer lab to take the NWEA Map Assessment—a computer-based assessment for both Math & Reading. We will also be completing the DIBELS screener one-on-one with the students. This will allows us to identify students who might need some extra supports at home and school. I’ll be sharing the results with you so that you can be an active part of your child’s success!

READING:

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters G, H, I , J, K, L, & M. We will also introduce the sightword—can. We will continue to work on recognizing, naming, and writing our letters during literacy stations. The students have learned a couple of fun letter apps on their ipads and this week we will begin starfall.com on the computers. They are also doing a nice job of reading from their book boxes during ‘read to self’ time after lunch. This week we will introduce Eagle Eye who reminds us to look at the pictures for clues to figure out the words while we are reading.

WRITING:  

We will continue our unit on Speaking and Listening as we talk about ‘things we know and can do.’ We will also learn about question words and practice using them—who, what, when, where, why, & how, as well as prepositional words—on, under, between, beside, over, etc. We will complete a couple of journals pages about butterflies and our families, as we practice adding colors and details.

MATH: 

We will be learning how to identify and write the numbers 3-5. We will also practice counting items using one-to-one correspondence and work on building numbers using different manipulatives. We will create and interpret data with graphs this week; we will graph our birthdays and our ages.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

Last week we released 4 butterflies and we have 1 more to send on their migration journey to Mexico. This week we will be learning about what Scientists do and we will take a walking fieldtrip to the Butterfly Garden where we will practice being Scientists—using our 5 senses. In Social Studies we will wrap us our Unit on School Rules by learning some fair ways to make decisions in a group.

MCBAIN RAMBLERS APP:

The Tech Dech has just released a new app that is available for download in the App Store where you can get school information, announcements, lunch info., etc - be sure to check it out!

September 4 - Newsletter

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Wed., Sept 5th—Picture Day—K-2

-Fri., Sept 7th—Book Orders Due

-Mon. Sept. 17th—Delayed Start

Gingerbread Day was a success!  We chased our Gingerbread Man all around the school. We visited many places and met several important people who work at our school. Special thanks to Mrs. Roberts for coming in to bake for us, and several parents who we met along the way—Mr. Mulder, Mrs. Bronkema, & Mr. Wissner.  We even met up with Sheriff Bosscher in the hall who was able to help us in our search! The students were very excited; I hope you had a chance to hear all about it!

PICTURE DAY:

Our picture day is Wednesday, September 5th. ALL students will be photographed for the yearbook and library cards. If you’d like to purchase pictures, please be sure to send in your payment and completed envelope by Wednesday morning. Don’t forget your SMILE!

READING:

The next few weeks we will introduce 1-2 letters each day and do several activities with the focus letter(s). Once we’ve made it through the entire alphabet, we will then start an in-depth study of each letter, spending a week on each letter. This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters A, B, C, D, E, & F. We will also introduce our first sightword—I. We will spend time learning the parts of a book and practice tracking print from left to right, as we read and recite familiar nursery rhymes.

WRITING: 

This week we will complete a journal about our friends at school and a class book about things we love as we introduce nouns. We will also continue to practice correct formation of the letters in our names, handwriting the letters A-F, and writing simple sentences with the sightword I.

MATH:

This week we will go on a Number Hunt, looking for numbers around our classroom and the school. We wil lbe learning how to write and represent the numbers 0, 1, & 2.

SCIENCE:

This week in Science we will be learning about our 5 Senses and how they can help us explore our world. I’m hoping that our Monarch Butterflies will emerge this week so that we can release them to migrate to Mexico—it’s always exciting for the students to watch this process!

SOCIAL STUDIES:

In Social Studies we will continue to learn about Rules at home and school. We will also learn about the American Flag and practice reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.