Marching on......

                                 

 March is almost gone and April will be here soon. We just finished the 3^rd quarter. Progress reports are coming home. Look them over with your child and sign and return the attached note.

Time is flying by and we still have so much to learn.

Some of the things we are trying to catch up on that we haven’t got to yet, and the new things we will be learning about are:

Math: Counting to 100 by 5’s and 2’s, adding, subtracting, odd and even, telling time to the hour.

Social Studies: Penguins, globe, mammals (hopefully whales, ocean).

Writing: Writing all the sounds we hear, remembering uppercase, spaces, punctuation, sentences in Writer’s Workshop.

Reading: Kindergarten sight words and anything else we can! Digraphs, blends, silent and magic “e”.

With warm weather coming students are leaving jackets and coats at school. Please remind them to check (or come in yourself and look) for missing items. We have a lot in our classroom and nobody will claim them. They will soon go to DI. Also, remember to follow the district dress code: no tummies showing, no shoulders showing, no short shorts, no flip-flops.

Remember:

Mondays: Reading folders

Wednesdays: Library

Thursdays: PE (dress for it)

If your child is going to be absent call the office to have them excused.

Upcoming Schedule:

March 26: Easter Fieldtrip to Canyon Park

March 27-31: Spring Break
April 5: Talent Show

April 16: Clifford Day

April 22: Testing for DIBELS and Kindergarten Assessment begins

Looking farther ahead….. Our Kindergarten Program is scheduled for Thursday, May 16 at 7:00. (We are trying to move it to Tuesday, May 14) Keep both those days in mind.

To prepare for our final test I will send homework practice packets. In the meantime, read, Read, READ every day! Have your child write each day as well ie: your shopping list, a thank you note, wish list, what he/she did on the weekend, at school, for Easter, etc. Don’t spell for them. I don’t want them to get hung up on spelling correctly. Accept their phonetic spelling and encourage them to write all the sounds they hear.

Thank you for all your great help and support. I appreciate each of you so much and love your children. This has been such a fun year.

 read-a-thon or eat-a-thon!

 A visitor from the North Pole

 Learning about Dental Health

 100's Day Fun

100 year old portraits

 Valentine's Day

 These 2 handsome devils dressed up for the day!

 Passing out valentine's and eating cupcakes

 Caribbean Steel Drum Band Concert

 Cute in orange!

 

 What the teacher who loves her students does on a Saturday!

Wrestling in Parowan at 8:00 a.m. then a cowgirl birthday party at 11:00. Time out for lunch with the hubby then on to Kanarraville to a wedding reception.

I feel so blessed to have each of them in my life, and lucky to be invited to be part of theirs.

 Abe and George for President's Day

 CAL Ranch fieldtrip

Painting Easter Eggs (the paper variety)

    

February

We have a lot of things going on this month and a lot to learn about!  As we look ahead here is our schedule:

Reading: students should be working on sight word BONUS list 1. I won't send it home to practice until other lists are mastered as they are bonus words. We are also focusing on ending sounds in words and rhyming words.

Math: counting to 100! Adding sums to 12. Graphing and telling time to the hour. We are celebrating 100's day on Thursday, February 7.

Social Studies: we will finish bears and hibernation. Next we are talking about penguins, the globe, equator and hemispheres. We will also squeeze in the holidays for the month and learn about patriotic symbols.

Writing: remembering 3 things good writers use (uppercase, spaces, punctuation), practicing our best writing every time especially on our name. In Writer's workshop we are labeling pictures and adding words to tell a story.


Dibels test scores look really good overall.  We are finishing our Kindergarten assessment this week and both test scores will be sent home next week.

February calendar items:
2 Groundhog Day. (for homework  students were to look outside and see if the groundhog could see his shadow. Then record what they saw and return on Monday)
4 Dr. Albrecht's dentist office will come visit to teach us about dental health.
7 100's Day! Each student needs to bring 100 small items. We will count, sort, etc. that day. I would also like to have some parents supply donuts that day for our 'Zero the Hero' treats. I only need 2 or 3 from each class to bring 1 dozen then we should have plenty.  Students can wear pajamas that day.
14 Valentine's Day! We will have a class party. Students will have a homework assignment on Feb. 11 to address their valentines to classmates. As part of our party on Thursday they will read the name to pass out their valentines.
18 President's Day. We will not have school that day.
22 we are going to the Heritage Theater to see the Caribbean Band Orchestra.

We are finishing our  kindergarten mid-year assessment. Most students did well.  I will send home the printout next week. After out testing window closes we will identify the student who qualify for our class 'clubs'. We have an 'ABC Club' for students that passed all the upper and lowercase letter recognition, sounds and writing. 'Numbers Club' for students that passed off recognizing and writing numbers to 30. And a 'sight Word Readers Club' for students that have mastered at least 25 kindergarten sight words. Those students earn a certificate and will write their name on our class poster. They will also be recognized at our next school flag ceremony.
Remember monthly skills sheets and reading calendars are part of homework.
Make sure students are dressed for the cold weather. If they are missing a coat or jacket we are getting quite a collection in our classroom.

Welcome Back!

It may sound crazy but I am SOOOOO excited to be back to school. I love the routine, the curriculum, the lightbulbs that I see go on in little minds and of course, the students! I have missed them terribly and am so excited to see them.
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I hope you feel renewed and energized with this opportunity to start a new year with new adventures awaiting.
Thank you so much for your generosity towards me during the holidays. I appreciate so much the thoughtful gifts, the tasty treats and kind thoughts.
As we move into a new month there are a lot of things going on:

literacy: Reading sight word list #5. Beginning sounds in words. ASL (American Sign Language) for alphabet letters.
math: writing numbers to 20. Counting up to 100. Computing, comparing, and reasoning. We started math journals which is a new thing for me this year. I like documenting students work and seeing the way they come up with solutions, as well as realizing their progress as we go along. I went to Core Academy this summer and math journals was the big push for our new common core.
social studies: bears, winter, hibernation. We learn a lot of new vocabulary in this unit and I love hearing the students use it. Watch for their new "big" words!
writing: we have (finally) started our writer's workshop. I love hearing the stories, seeing the illustrations and guiding them through writing. It's in it's infancy still, but I am confident we will see great things as the year progresses. One thing to note: in writer's workshop I NEVER spell for the students. I want them to work to figure out the words themselves. I know they will not spell everything correctly, and I'm pretty sure they know that too! However, I want them to understand that what they write is great, I'm not worried about correct spelling at this point. I realize they are only 5 and of course they don't know all the words (why would they be in Kindergarten if they did?). We talk about it a lot. I don't want them hung up on spelling. So, as they write for you at home, please encourage them to write the sounds they hear, accept what they write for you, praise their efforts, and cherish the work they are doing. It is seriously one of my favorite things! I think you will love it too.

Our mid year assessments are coming up. We have our DIBELS (literacy test) the second week of January. I will send home a practice packet for the test. Don't let it scare you! It really helps the students just going over the sheets so they feel comfortable with what the test is about. We will practice it in class as well. They should do fine, I'm not worried. However, sometimes just having a timed test makes them nervous. If you have any questions about the practice packet please call me. Our Kindergarten assessment will be the following week.

We are planning a parent "lunch and learn". It is a fun time to come to eat lunch with your student and listen as the Kindergarten teachers present on ways you can help your child with reading and writing. We are just finalizing the plans for it so watch for more info to come.

With the frigid weather, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately. They should have their name inside their coats.

If they are sick, please keep them home. I hate for them to miss school, however, I also hate spreading all the germs around.

January 21 is MLK holiday. There will be no school.

Remember reading folders are due each Monday. Library is on Wednesday. Homework days are also Monday and Wednesday.

This week (Jan. 7-11) is our "Special News Week". It is the ONLY time students can bring toys to school. Please help them carefully select what they want to share for news this week.