Newsletter Updates for the Week of September 18th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Thurs, September 21st—NWEA Testing—Reading

-Friday, September 22nd—NWEA Testing—Reading

-Monday, September 25th—DIBELS Testing

-Thurs. September 28th—NWEA Testing—Math

-Friday, September 29th—NWEA Testing—Math

-Friday, September 29th—Progress Reports Home

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Sarai Paz Garcia. Sarai enjoys singing, dancing, and running. Her favorite foods include sandwiches, eggs, and hot dogs; her favorite movie is My Little Pony. One of Sarai’s goals is to ride her bike; keep practicing Sarai and you’ll get it! Congratulations to Sarai on being our Student of the Week!

READING:

This week our reading lessons will focus on the letters S, T, U, V, W, X, Y & Z. 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 Kindergarteners Can which we will use to practice building our listening and comprehension skills.  This week we will introduce two new beanie baby strategies: Lips the Fish who reminds us to look at the first letter of the word and get our lips ready with that sound to help us figure out the words while we are reading, and Jabber the Reteller who reminds us that good readers can build their comprehension skills by recalling and retelling key elements from the story.

MATH:

We will focus on identifying and writing the numbers 6-9. We will practice describing and sorting shapes, as well as identifying and extending patterns.

WRITING:

We will wrap up our unit on Speaking & 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:

Last week we released our butterflies and sent them on their long journey to Mexico. We also took a walking fieldtrip to the Butterfly Garden on Thursday and did some exploring of living things. This week we will continue learning about what living things need to survive and grow and we will also begin reading and talking about Fall and all of the changes that will be occurring.

VOLUNTEERING: 

I’ve tried to make contact with all of the parents who indicated on their surveys that they would like to volunteer in the classroom. I’m working on setting up some special projects in the coming weeks, so please let me know if and when you are available to come in and help out:)

Newsletter - Week of September 11th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, September 12th—K-2 Picture Day

-Monday, September 18th—Delayed Start (10:00)

-Friday, September 29th—Progress Reports Home

PICTURE DAY: 

Our picture day is tomorrow—Tuesday, September 12th. 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 Tuesday morning. Don’t forget your SMILE!

TESTING:

We will be completing our beginning of the year screeners and assessments over the next couple of 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 DIBELS testing and a Number Words and Numerals Assessment one-on-one with the students. This will allow us to identify students who might need some extra supports at home and school. I’ll be sharing their 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 I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q & R. 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 learning apps on their ipads and are enjoying starfall.com on the computer each day. 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 & Listening as we talk about ‘things we know and can do.’ We will also learn about questions words and practice using them—who, what, when, where, why, & how, as well as prepositional phrases (positional words) - on, under, between, over, etc. We will complete a couple of journal 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 2, 3, 4, & 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:

This week we will release our butterflies so that they can migrate to Mexico—the students have been so excited to watch this process! We will continue our study of Living Things as we learn the 7 Traits of Living Things—eat, move, breathe, sense, reproduce, excrete, & grow. We will also begin learning about the things that living things NEED in order to live—air, water, food, space, & shelter. In Social Studies we will wrap up our Unit on School Rules by learning some fair ways to make decisions in a group. We will also read  the book: Have You Filled a Bucket Today? which has a wonderful message about spreading kindness to others.

THANK YOU: 

I just wanted to say a big ‘Thank You’ to all of you for being so generous in providing supplies for our classroom. It is great to have the cupboards stocked and ready for a great year of learning and fun! Thanks so much!

Newsletter - Week of September 5th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, September 8th—Book Orders Due

-Tuesday, September 12th—K-2 Picture Day

-Monday, September 18th—Delayed Start

We had a busy first week getting to know each other and beginning to establish our classroom routines. It will take a few weeks to get the routines down, but this group is doing a fantastic job! Thursday was an especially busy day as we chased the Gingerbread Man all around the school. We visited many places and met several important people who work at our school. We finally found our Gingerbread Man back in our classroom and we quickly gobbled him up before he could run away again. The students were very excited; I hope you had a chance to hear about it.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Kyran Boersma. Kyran is ‘bubbly’ & kind and loves building & creating with Legos. A couple of his favorite movies are Minions & Paw Patrol and he enjoys eating hot dogs & chicken nuggets.  One goal Kyran has for this year is to work on being more patient, which is a great goal for us all. Congratulations to Kyran on being our Student of the Week!

READING:

The next 3 weeks we will be focusing on learning our letters by studying the letters in our names; we will also introduce 2 letters each day and do several activities with the focus letters. 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, G, & H. 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.

BOOK BOXES:

We will begin reading our own books from home by the end of this week—so please bring in your 5-8 books if you still need to.  We will learn 3 ways to read a book—reading by looking at the pictures, retelling a familiar story from memory, & reading the words. Our goal is that students will begin seeing themselves as ‘readers.’

WRITING:

This week we will complete a couple journals about ourselves—a self-portrait, what we like to do at school, and our friends at school. Students will be practicing writing their names, handwriting the letters A-H, and writing simple sentences using the sightword I. When practicing writing your child’s name with them at home, please be sure to begin with an uppercase letter and use lowercase for the rest of their name.  Also, when forming our letters, we always stress starting our letters at the top:)

MATH: 

This week we will go on a Number Hunt, looking for numbers around our classroom and the school. We will be learning how to write and represent the numbers 0 & 1. We will also practice counting items using one-to-one correspondence.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will continue to read many books about starting school and what it means to be a ‘good friend.’  We will also learn about the American Flag and learn the Pledge of Allegiance. In Science, we will  begin our unit on Living and Non-Living things; our Monarch caterpillars are now safe inside their chrysalises and we will be watching and waiting for them to emerge as butterflies.

Gingerbread Day - Tomorrow

Hi - Just a reminder that tomorrow is Gingerbread Day.  Please dress your child in their gray K t-shirt:)  We are looking forward to another fun day together!

We Had a Great Day!

Parents,
I just wanted to quick post and let you all know what a great first full day we had together!  As always it will take time to learn the routines, but I am pleased to report that we made it through the day with NO tears.  Additionally, they are all safely on their busses and ready to come home to you.  I am certain they will be tired though.  Thanks for sharing your children with me; I look forward to a great year!

Mrs. Brinks

Welcome Letter & Supplies

Final Newsletter

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tuesday, June 6th—1/2 Day, Dismissal @ 11:55

-Wed., June 7th—1/2 Day, Last Day of School

   Awards Assembly @ 10:00; Dismissal @ 11:55

-Thursday, June 8th—Summer Break Begins

THANK YOU:

Phew! It has been a busy couple of weeks!  A  special thanks to all who came out for our concert last Tuesday—the students did an amazing job!  Also thank you to all of the parents who came along on our fieldtrip—it was a perfect day to be outside and I couldn’t have done it without you!  And thank you as well to those of you who came out to cheer us on for Track and Field Day—another perfect day to be outside!

REPORT CARD/GOODIES:

Last week I sent home a large baggie with all the contents of your child’s book box so they can keep reading over the summer. You can expect many ‘goodies’ to come home this week.  I’ll try to send a few things home each day so that it isn’t so overwhelming. Please be sure to check your child’s backpack each night for materials from the classroom. Here are a few things you can look forward to receiving:

-Writing Folder

-Student of the Week Poster

-Portfolios with Writing Samples and Keepsakes

-The Very Hungry Kindergartner Booklet

-Report Card with End of the Year Assessments, Dibles, Aimsweb, and NWEA results

-Summer Homework Packet

-Kindergarten Memories DVD

READING:

As you make plans for summer fun, I’d like to encourage you to continue to build time for reading, writing, and math into your child’s day. Research shows that students can lose a lot of academic growth over the summer.

-SUMMER READING PROGRAM— Attached you will find info regarding the Summer Reading Program at the library. They have a lot of great events planned to promote reading, learning, and fun! I would encourage you to post it on your refrigerator so you can keep track of the upcoming events.

-RAZ-KIDS—I will be sending home your child’s Raz-Kids login card. Your child has access to it all summer long and can continue to read ‘good-fit’ books.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

What a great year! It is hard to believe that the last week of school is already here! In many ways it doesn’t seem possible, yet when I look at the students—their growth and the transformations that have occurred—I know it is time to send them on. Thank you for entrusting me with your precious children and for your support this year! I feel truly blessed to be able to do what I love each and every day! Have a safe and fun-filled summer!

Blessings,

Sherry Brinks