I forgot to post the information from last week:

Week of December 7-11

Last call for November calendars to get a Pizza Hut coupon! 

Attached to this note is a Pizza Hut coupon as a thank you for participating in donating money to feed the children.

Dates to remember:

*December 17 Wear a Christmas sweater or shirt. 

Thursday, December 17 we are having our Christmas party in the afternoon.  I will send reminders of the things you said you could send in for the party. 

At our party, we will do a gift exchange.  We are asking each child bring a gift—girls bring a girls gift and boys bring a boy gift—between $3.50-$4.00.  Please send it to school by Tuesday December 15 wrapped.

 Indicate on the package  

TO:  a girl or boy  FROM: Your child’s name. 

Please do not indicate another child’s name in the “to” spot as we will be drawing numbers to pick a gift.

Please try to have the gifts to school by Tuesday December 15.

FRIDAY December 18—LAST day of school before Christmas break.  PJ day!  The children can wear in their pj’s, but please make sure they have an extra set of clothing in their backpack in case they want to change.

READING:  This week we read stories about places we go in neighborhoods or communities.

LETTER:  Cc

VOCABULARY:  routine,

HIGH FREQUENCY:  go & in

While reading stories we will be looking at the characters and setting.  As you read at home you can ask your child who or what is the story about and where is the story taking place as well as what is happening in the story.

WRITING:  We are writing in our December journals every day.  We will also begin talking about pattern books like Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  We will be writing our own book using a pattern.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  We will continue reading about families and celebrations as well as our senses. 

MATH:  Math work this week is shape attributes.  We will be sorting according to size, color, thickness, shape etc.  We are going to see what everyone’s favorite color is and graph it.  Then we will be learning about calculators using our calculator app on our Ipads.  We are counting daily, practicing to 50.  The children like the YouTube clip Counting with a Leprechaun (by Harry Kindergarten Music).  The Leprechaun counts by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s.  It’s a catchy song!

Sight words they should know by January:

I can the we see a like to it and but go in you on

This week’s Student of the week is Jayce.  He is 5, rides horses, pigs and sheep.  Loves to ride tractors and play with tractors.  He is a frog catcher!  Likes to watch How to train your dragon 2!  Jayce wants to learn how to read and learn more about fish.  His favorite book is Night House Bright House.

December….this school year is flying!

Thank you again for coming to conferences and all your donations for our Stone Soup festivities!  They are still talking about it!

Here are some dates for December to remember:

Thursday December 17 we are having our Christmas party in the afternoon.  I will send reminders of the things you said you could send in for the party. 

At our party, we will do a gift exchange.  We are asking each child bring a gift—girls bring a girls gift and boys bring a boy gift—between $3.50-$4.00.  Please send it to school by Tuesday December 15 wrapped.

 Indicate on the package   TO:  a girl or boy  FROM: Your child’s name.  Please do not indicate another child’s name in the “to” spot as we will be drawing numbers to pick a gift.

Friday December 18 is our last day before Christmas break—It is PJ day in Kindergarten!  The children can either bring or wear their pj’s to school!  If they wear them, please make sure they have a set of clothes in their backpacks incase they want to change!  We have a sing along in the morning and will watch a movie in the afternoon. 

I’m so excited to see how fast and independent the children can dress for outside play!  Thanks for sending in appropriate clothing for the various weather conditions!  What a crazy fall/beginning of winter we have had!  Please make sure they have shoes every day!  I do not let them wear boots in the classroom as we are on the floor a lot and it’s miserable to sit in a wet spot!  Plus boots are so warm and clumsy!

Please send in folders everyday too.  It really helps the children keep their papers organized to get home to you!

We are on the letter Nn, new sight words are and & but.  Vocabulary words are listen and volume.  Our category words are sound words.  We listen for different sounds.  What sounds do you hear at your house, in the store, outside, in the car, etc.?

They have all brought home their November writing journals.  I hope you are enjoying reading through them!  What treasures for you! 

Social Studies will be around families and holidays.  Science we will be exploring the 5 senses.

Math we are working on number games, (putting numbers in order).  We will be learning Monster Squeeze, (this game involves finding a mystery number on the number line) which they can also do on their Ipads with a friend.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

*November 10th-18th—11:30-3:00 & November 19th—1:00-6:00  Book Fair—

*Friday, November 13th—Report Cards Home

*Monday, November 16th—Delayed Start 10:00

**Thursday, November 19th—No School—Parent Teacher Conferences 1:00-8:00

*Monday, November 23rd—Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities—am

*Tuesday, November 24th—Making Friendship Stone Soup—am

*Wednesday, November 25th—Stone Soup Thanksgiving feast—pm

*Thursday, November 26th-Friday November 27—Thanksgiving Break--No school

CONFERENCES:  Please return your yellow conference note as soon as possible.  I have half of them back so far!  That's awesome!  Thank you!

BOOK ORDER from SCHOLASTIC:  Due on Friday November 13

BOOK IT:  We had 13 of 24 Book-It calendars from October come back!  Thank you! Everyone has their November calendars!!! I spoke with Jeff at Pizza Hut last week.  He asked me to remind you that you don't have to make any other purchase.  Just take your child to Pizza Hut as a reward for reading or being read to and get their little pizza!  I can tell you this group loves to be read to and they are loving reading!  I have had some 3rd graders earn time to come and read to children in this class and I've had our students read to them!  They love it!!!  

BOOK FAIR:    Wednesday (November 11) we go to the Book Fair to 'shop" for our wish list.  You can send in money for our buy day on November 18 or you can go to the Book Fair on conference day and purchase if you choose.

READING:

This week we will be reading about bugs and how they move.

We are reviewing the letters Aa, Mm, Pp, Ss, and Tt.

We are reviewing the sight words I, a, can, the, we and added like.  We met POP the Weasel beanie baby--he tells us that our sight words should POP out of our mouths!

Vocabulary:  curious and observe

MATH:

In math, we are continuing to work on numbers and writing them correctly, measuring, and following directions using positional words (below, on top, behind, etc).

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will begin our talk of market economy--wants, needs and making  a fair trade.  We will be reading STONE SOUP and making stone soup later in the month.  We are also reading about patriotism in observance on Veterans Day.

With deer hunting season approaching we will be watching a video on gun safety.  Eddie Eagle teaches the kids to STOP!  DON'T TOUCH!  LEAVE THE AREA and tell an adult  if they see a gun.

We are watching our Jack-O-Lantern decompose!  You will hear words like decompose, rot,  decay, mold, mush!  

Our Student of the week is Franklin!  Franklin just turned 6 in October!  He likes pizza, has a dog, cat and a quad!  HIs favorite movies are Lego and Batman.  

Happy Halloween!

Dates to remember:

This is the final week for Coins for kids Hunger

*Friday, October 30th—Halloween Party—1:00 pm

*Monday, November 2nd—No School—PD Day

*Tuesday, November 10th—Title 1 Family Night 5:00-7:00

*November 10th-18th—11:30-3:00 & November 19th—1:00-6:00  Book Fair—

*Friday, November 13th—Report Cards Home

*Monday, November 16th—Delayed Start 10:00

**Thursday, November 19th—No School—Parent Teacher Conferences 1:00-8:00

*Monday, November 23rd—Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities—am

*Tuesday, November 24th—Making Friendship Stone Soup—am

*Wednesday, November 25th—Stone Soup Thanksgiving feast—pm

*Thursday, November 26th-Friday November 27—Thanksgiving Break--No school

Halloween Party:

Please send your child's costume to school in a bag with their name on it.  Please no weapons, makeup or high heel shoes.  We will change in to our costumes at 12:30.  Parent volunteers may arrive at 12:30.  The parade begins about 1:00 with the older classes going through the wax museum first.  We will not be going, but we will follow at the end of the parade and join the school Halloween parade downtown and back.  Once we arrive back we will get out of our costumes and enjoy our snack and pass out any treats friends  have brought to share.  We will enjoy a Halloween movie before going to recess and then home.

READING:

We are focusing on tools this week.  Our letter is Pp and sight word 'a'.

Vocabualry words are tools and discover.  Our category words are color words.  We have been working on color words in some of our activities.

Writing:

We will be reading Go Away Big Green Monster.  We will make our own Go away Big ___________   _____________ class book

This is our last week for our October journals!

MATH:

This week we continue number id, counting, shapes--square and rectangle and I have some Halloween things to count, sort and pattern.

Science/Social Studies:

We re planning to make applesauce to have at our Halloween party.

This week we will also highlight Halloween fun.  This will also include a discussion about voting as we will be voting on our favorite face for our pumpkin as we turn it in to a Jack-o-lantern.

Kindergarten news the week of October 12-16

DATES:
Delayed start Monday October 19.


COINS FOR KIDS:  We are continuing to collect money.  Our class collected $41 the first week!

Book fair is coming.  If you are available to volunteer, please contact Mrs. S. Brinks 825-2021 or sherrybrinks@gmail.com.  The book fair will be here November 10-13, 16-18 and during conferences November 19 from 1-6.

Please return the concusion form and the Home language survery as soon as possible.

READING:
Letter Aa
Sight word we
We will be reading the story Pouch! and Baby Animals on the Move.  As we read these stories through out the week we will be practicing listening and comprehension skills.

MATH:
We are continuing to learn to recognize the numbers 0-10.  We are working on counting and determining quantities, also sorting.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:
October is Fire Safety month.  We will practice stop-drop-roll, practice getting safely out of the school and learning how to call 911.  The children will be asking you about how to get out of your home and where your families meeting place will be.  We will also discuss smoke alarms and needing to change the batteries every year.

Week of September 28-October 2:

COINS FOR KIDS begins October 1.  Send in any spare change you feel you can part with and we will put it in our class bucket.  The bucket will be collected by Pizza Hut.  Money goes to World Hunger Relief Coin drive to help end hunger.

READING:
This week we will finish up the letters Ss-Zz.  We are reviewing the sight words I and can.  We are working on rhyming words as we read nursery rhymes every day.   As we read we are using beanie babies to remind us of strategies we can use.  EAGLE is our eagle eye that reminds us to look at the pictures when trying to figure out a word, LIPS the FISH reminds us to use those letter sounds and sound out the words, the PARROT who is JABBER THE RETELLER reminds us to listen to the story so we can be able to comprehend (I tell the kids --remember) parts of the story so they can recall and then retell the story.  Our story focus this week is Kindergarteners Can!  We will learn to listen and use the comprehension skills.

WRITING:
We are writing our first name.  Those that are ready are practicing their last names.  We are using the WRITE MY NAME ap on our Ipads.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:
We will be working on learning about the changes that happen in the fall.  We are going to taste and then graph (a math project) which apple we liked the best...Delicious, Golden Delicious or Granny Smith!
Our science unit will be focused on living and non-living.  The butterflies have been a great activity to talk about living!  We had one butterfly not completely form its wings and unfortunately it died.   All of the butterflies have been tagged and released.

MATH:
This week we continue our journey through the numbers 6-9.  The children have enjoyed making their number hats.  Have them tell you about their hats!  There should be a coordinating number of smiley faces, tally marks, 'dice' and ten frame representation for the number we are working on!  The hat also has the number on it so the children are learning the number writing poem to go with it!  We also will be exploring shapes and working on patterning.

There was a question about the Math homework.  Anywhere on the sheet is fine to put your families answers on--front or back, then return the homework the next day as we discuss their findings at our math group time.

HEALTH:
Just want to let you know that we have had some pink eye in our class.  I have talked to the children about keeping their hands off their face and if they do to please wash.  I was at my eye dr and asked about pink eye.  Some forms of pink eye are more contagious than others, so getting to the dr to get checked out is a good idea.  I've had it before and it's very uncomfortable!  Can be itchy or feel like your eyes are stinging, not to mention all goopy.

COMPLEMENTS:
I get complements daily on how awesome this group is when we are traveling anywhere--either down the hall or to the bus!  They watch for ME and they follow so nicely!  :)

SAVE THE DATE:
Halloween party October 30
Title 1 family night November 10
Parent Teacher Conferences November 19

Week of September 21..

Monday September 21 is our first delayed start.

Remember Tuesday and Friday are our gym days, children need to have gym shoes on those days.

When sending in lunch money, it is helpful if it is in an envelope or Ziploc baggie with your child's name on the outside.

We have worked on the letters Aa-Hh.  This week we will work on the letters Ii-Rr.  Our new sight word is can.  The children are using the computer to work on www.starfall.com.  They have been introduced to Write my name and Letter School on the Ipads.

We introduced our first beannie baby--Eagle eye.  The Eagle is to remind the children to look at the pictures to figure out the words when they are reading.

We have been writing in journals every day.  Some days there is a topic to draw/write about, other days it's their choice.  I am encouraging the children to listen to the first sound of the word they are trying to write.  For instance, if they drew a tree, I would ask them to listen to the word and see if they can say /t/ and write a t.  We sound out the word together.

Math we are learning to read and write the numbers 3-6 this week, as well as practice counting.  We will also be graphing our birthdays.  Later in the week we will taste different apples and graphing the one we like.

Science we are learning about butterflies.  They know that a Monarch caterpillar spins a chrysalis. They have been taught to identify male or female by looking at the hind wing.  The male has black spots on its hind wing.  They have also been taught to look for the 'mitten' shape on the butterfly wing.  That is where we put the migration tag.  So far we have tagged one male butterfly!

Social studies we have talked about how each one of us is special.  We have also gone through the school rules and practiced them.  Walking in the hallway, being quiet in the hallway, asking for things to be passed at our tables, group time rules, etc.
I have been eating lunch with them to help with lunch routines.  They have done a great job telling Mrs. Kroes their name as they go through the line!
We have had a great start to our year!

YEA!  What a fantastic first day!  They did a great job!  So many rules and routines to learn!  We will keep practicing them every day!

I learned all their names over night!  WHEW!!!!  SO glad to have those pictures last night!!!

Please turn in any papers that were on the right side of the folder I gave you as soon as you can!  Especially the tan one (parent/student survey). 

Please send in 3-4 small books from home to go in their book box for a few weeks!  Make sure their name is inside!

I tried to get through all backpacks, if I overlooked something, please send it again tomorrow!  Today went FAST!  I will send home a note tomorrow if I still need anything from you!  Thanks for being so awesome about getting things in to school!! 

Everyone should have a folder that goes from home to school, one folder that stays here and a 1” 3-ring binder for their scrapbook.

Please send a set of extra clothes in a zip lock bag.

If you are dropping off in the morning, please remember that drop off time is 7:45 and if you are here before 8 they put their folder in their mailbox, backpack in their locker and head outside for recess. 

Friday is our gingerbread day—have your child wear their kindergarten t-shirt they got at orientation in the spring!

I forgot to tell you all yesterday that I hope you are comfortable enough to address me as Melissa!  The kids have to call me Ms. Thompson, but I’m good with first name basis with you!  Some kids have known me as Melissa and I’ll work through that with them!  When I taught preschool, I went by my first name with the kids too, but now that I’m in kindergarten the school asked me to use the formal…Ms. Thompson!

Thanks for sharing your kiddo with me this year!  It’s going to be an amazing year!!!