CLICK HERE FOR FREE BLOGGER TEMPLATES, LINK BUTTONS AND MORE! »

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

December

Every month I say "Wow! I can't believe we are on to a new month already!" And here we go...it's really December. We only have a couple of weeks to get through all the great things we are going to learn about this month.

Literacy: We are working hard in Power 1/2 Hour learning all the letters, sounds, blends, digraphs, and blending and segmenting words. We will also bring home sight word list 4 to learn.

Math: We are counting past 60 and learning to count by 5's and 10's. We're learning a lot about patterns, and even about place value. We are practicing writing numbers to 10 (and will soon need to know to 20 and even 30!)

Writing: We are working hard in our "Drawing and Writing" Books. I'm seeing some great story telling and I am impressed with where we are headed in Writer's Workshop. We are starting to label the pictures in our stories and will soon add more text to help the reader better understand our 'writing'.

Social Studies: We will talk about Christmas, holidays, and winter. We will work towards "hibernation" and "bears" in January.

Our last day of school in December is Friday, December 16. We will resume school on Monday, January 2. Have a great, safe holiday break!
Our next Dibels (reading assessment) is the week after we come back from Christmas break. We will need to work hard on letter naming, oral blending, segmenting and nonsense words.
Our next Kindergarten assessment will be two weeks after the break-whew! We have a lot to practice before then. Some of the test items are: recognizing and writing all the uppercase and lowercase letters, and know their sounds. Writing last names; writing a sentence with uppercase at the beginning, spaces between the words and punctuation at the end; writing numbers to 20; simple addition; read 10 sight words; beginning sounds of words. We will also retest any items not passed on the preassessment. Remember to keep reading during the vacation so we don't lose any of our skills!
Remember to send back the reading calendar. Students can earn a personal pizza from Pizza Hut if they meet the reading goal.
We are making a special secret Christmas gift. Each student needs to earn $1.50 (due by Thur. Dec. 8). Please give your child a small job to earn the money they need.
Please send backpacks and folders daily.
Remember jackets now the weather is colder (If your child is missing one we have about 8 in our classroom no one will claim).
Library is on Wednesday, classroom take-home books need to come in on Mondays.

We are still welcoming any volunteers that can come to our room for about 30 minutes on Mon, Tue, and Fri, at 10:45 or 2:45.

Finally, at this time of thanksgiving I am so grateful to you as parents. Thank you for all you do to help your children, and support them in and out of the classroom. I am grateful to know you and your darling Kindergartners. I love that I can spend every day with them. I smile when I think of them, I miss them when we are not together, and I look forward to each new day. Thank you for blessing my life by sharing them with me. I have the best job in the world!

PS, thank you for the VAST improvement in homework. I am impressed!

I teased my classes when we came back from Thanksgiving. I think they ate some kind of magic turkey. They came back nicer, smarter, and harder working than I've ever seen. I told them they might have to skip on to 1st grade, but then I would miss them too much so I guess I'll keep them til summer!

As always, please be sure to call or email if you have questions or concerns.

Look what we've been doing....

We read A My Name Is Alice and made self portraits using alliteration.



We learned a lot about the Pilgrims, Indians and the first Thanksgiving.
Here's our cute books.



Addison, Ansley, and Haven making Thanksgiving books


Shaun


Now we are working as hard as Santa's elves to get ready for Christmas.

Izzy and Cason

Allison
Yolanda
Parker

Aidan
Elliot
Kate
Justin

Sunday, November 6, 2011

The Issue of Homework

Let me climb up on my soapbox for a minute. I want to talk about the issue of homework. (can you hear the frustration in my voice?)
  • Homework is on Monday and Wednesday each week and is to be returned the following day. The exception is if there is a holiday and it will be the next day.
  • Homework is for the sole purpose of practicing best handwriting, writing the letters correctly, and learning how to use the lines and spaces. I cannot work with every child individually each day on this. That's your responsibility.
  • Students need a clean, quiet place to work.
  • They should have an adult with them to monitor their work.
  • Students should sit up straight, use their free hand to stabilize their paper, and have plenty of light.
  • Homework should be done in pencil.
  • Their name is part of homework. They students should write it themselves. It should be the neatest thing on the paper because they have so many opportunities to write it.
  • And finally..... EVERY letter, EVERY time should start at the TOP!!! That's part of what you are monitoring as they write. Remind them to sing the song (they all know it well).
The tune is "If you're happy and you know it"

Where do you start your letters?
At the top.
Where do you start your letters?
At the top.
If your gonna write your letters then your better, better better,
You better start your letters at the top, top, TOP!

Whew!
Lastly, thank you for what you are doing. I know everyone is so busy and sincerely doing the best they can. I appreciate your efforts. I am asking for a little bit more.
Thank you for sharing your adorable children with me. I truly love them, I care about how they are doing in school. I want them to succeed, to feel confident, and have pride in a job well done.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Fall Festivities

I have to back up to Halloween. Roxanna did a FABULOUS job planning our a.m. Halloween party. Thanks Roxy!! We had a ton of parents in the morning and afternoon come in to help. You guys are amazing! The kids had so much fun and we ate Halloween treats for the rest of the week.

Here are some pictures from the party, and from our "bus fieldtrip" the following day.


Alec with his many spider rings


Bingo game


Painting ghosts

Eating donuts

party time

Kate and Keida and all their loot!


Alvin enjoying his treats


Cougar


"Barney" the talking bus

We know we have to stay "arms distance" away from the bus.
It's called "the danger zone".

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

November Sight Words

as
his
we
are
she
they
from
do
had
one