Almost Done.......

We are almost done with school! I know everyone is so excited, but please hang in there with me for 20 more days!

For the next few weeks we will finish our unit on whales and mammals. In math we are working on adding and subtracting within 10. For writer's workshop we have been working hard on writing sentences to go with our stories. Remind your children of three things good writer's use: uppercase, spaces, and punctuation.

As we are going into testing time it would be good to practice uppercase and lowercase letter writing, recognizing all the letters, and the sounds of all the letters, first and last name, shapes (2-D and 3-D), adding and subtracting within 10, writing a sentence with uppercase, spaces and punctuation (this is a sentence that is dictated to them. Spelling is not tested). Students also need to pass off at least the first 3 sight word lists.
We are working on all of these testing items in class. Most students are doing well. Our testing window will end after next week. Make sure your child is here during testing time. It is difficult to make up testing. Some of the testing is online and when the window closes they cannot make it up. Students should have plenty of rest, a good breakfast, and be prepared for testing each day at school.

We had a great time at our Easter Candy Hunt fieldtrip. Thank you for all the candy and for all the help. Pictures will post below.

Since the weather is getting warm we are asked to remind parents about the school dress code. If you have any questions please refer to the code you were given at the beginning of the year, or you can access it on our school website. As a reminder, no flip-flops, no tank tops (shoulders must be covered) no tummies showing, no short shorts.

As we wind up the last few weeks of school check to make sure ALL books are turned in including library, book in a bag, and our class take home library (Dr. Seuss bag). There is a fine attached to any missing books.

We have a busy schedule for the rest of the year. Please note the calendar items. If you have any questions let me know. I will try to keep you well-informed.

Monday, April 28 Fireman is coming to talk about fire safety.
Friday, May 2 DIBELS testing for our class
Tuesday, May 6 Fieldtrip to Cedar High to practice for our program. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING THAT DAY (8:55-11:40)
Wednesday, May 7 Last day of library. ALL books are due back by that day.
MAY 12-16 PM STUDENTS WILL ATTEND MORNING KINDERGARTEN THE ENTIRE WEEK! (8:55-11:40, Wednesday is 8:55-10:55)
Monday, May 12 Program practice at school with entire Kindergarten (this is just a outline of our schedule. Parents don't need to do anything for our school practice days).
Tuesday, May 13 Program practice at school with entire Kindergarten.
Wednesday, May 14 Dress rehearsal for school studentbody.
Thursday, May 15 School Walk-A-Thon. OUR PROGRAM WILL BE THAT NIGHT AT CEDAR HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM 7:00. STUDENTS SHOULD WEAR "SUNDAY BEST" AND BE IN THEIR SEATS READY TO PERFORM BY 6:50. More information will come about the program. Please put it on your calendar and plan to attend.
Friday, May 16 Field Day. Students are encouraged to wear clothes that can get wet. We will be having some water games. Students are also asked to bring FILLED water balloons. We will have a water balloon fight at the end of field day.
Tuesday, May 20 5 Buck Pizza Field trip. Students are asked to bring $1. donation. A.M. class will go at 9:15, P.M. class will go at 2:00.
Wednesday, May 21 Read-a-thon. Students need to bring their books with the purple "schoolhouse stamp". We will also have a cleaning day that day. We will discuss the possibility of wearing pajamas that day:).
Thursday, May 22 Reward movie for students who have earned it. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING.
Friday, May 23 Last day of school. Awards assembly. PM STUDENTS WILL COME IN THE MORNING. School will be over that day (for Kindergarten) at 10:55.

Have a great, safe summer!

Thank you for the support this year. I have enjoyed working with you and your cute children. I have a lot of mixed emotions as I say good-bye to Kindergarten after 10 years. I am looking forward to 1st grade as it has been a dream of mine for many years. Hopefully I will see you around town and get to say "hi". I appreciate your help, your generous donations, your time, effort, and consistency as we work together to make school a positive, successful, safe place for children.

April

April is upon and we have lots left to learn about! I love seeing the writing that's going on in Writer's Workshop. We will be pushing hard for our last assessment and getting ready for 1st grade!

Some of the things we are working on now and for the month of April:

Math:  Adding and subtracting to 10,  Decomposing patterns, counting by 10's and 5's to 100.
Writing: Writing at least 3 sentences (which include uppercase, spaces and punctuation). Writing all the sounds we hear in words, using editing tools (carats, crossing out, rereading to make sure it makes sense).
Social Studies: penguins (ask about some of our impressive vocabulary like: blubber, rookery, nursery, tobogganing, waddle, downy feathers, southern hemisphere, the globe, equator). We will start next week on whales, ocean, mammals, spring, and Easter.
Language Arts: blending sounds to make words, digraphs (two letters that make one sound "th"), syllables, rhyming, using expression when reading.

Tuesday, April 1 will be our LAST DAY OF CENTERS! I can't believe we are already to that point but school will be over soon. Thank you so much to all the parents, grandparents, and volunteers that have come to help in our classroom. We cannot have centers without you.

During the time we had centers we will be practicing for our KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM! More information will be coming but please save the date. Thursday, May 15, 7:00 p.m. at Cedar High School Auditorium.

For the week of May 12-16 the P.M. KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WILL NEED TO COME TO SCHOOL WITH THE A.M. STUDENTS. School is from 8:55-11:40, and 8:55-10:55 on Wednesday. We will be practicing our program, performing for the school, and going to CHS to practice in their auditorium. We will also have the school walk-a-thon that week on Thur. morning, and field day on Friday morning. I will send home much more information but please start planning ahead.

Also looking ahead:
Friday April 11 School Talent Show 10:00
Tuesday April 15 Kindergarten Easter Egg Hunt fieldtrip to Canyon Park (students are asked to bring a bag of wrapped candy). Wear your class T-shirt!
Wednesday April 16-Friday April 18 Spring Break-No School.

Several students have not returned their reading folder for weeks.(the vinyl bag with books from our class take home library. The books should have my name inside the front cover). Those should come in every week on Monday. I am concerned when books don't come back to school that students aren't reading at home...which is the whole point of sending books. Please follow through and stick it out until the end of school.  Find lost books and bring them back to the classroom.  There is a fee associated with lost books/bags.

Our final Kindergarten assessment and DIBELS test will be in one month. We will be practicing in class to prepare as well as have homework practice pages to help get ready. I want all the students to show what they know and be prepared to go to 1st grade!
Thank you for your support and hard work. I appreciate you and adore your children. This is one of my favorite times of the year for teaching. The students have many more skills than at the beginning of the year, they know the routines, schedules, rules and expectations. They are so much fun to be around. I love seeing them read and write.

Keep up the good work!

February

This has been a busy month! We have been testing and reading and writing and testing and reading and coloring and reading and writing and learning........whew!

For the next couple of weeks we will finish up our Patriotic Symbols unit, talk about the weather (graphing lion/lamb weather), St. Patrick's Day, and Dr. Seuss.

Spring is just around the corner and students are already getting antsy---maybe the teachers are too! We have a lot of fun things planned and many more that we're trying to get to.

In math we are still working on numbers to 20, adding one more, lesser, fewer, greater, more than equal to. I hope to finish chapters 3 and 4 next week. I will send home the practice-at-home pages that go with each chapter we have finished so far. They can stay at home. They are just for reinforcement and don't need to come back to school.

Centers are going great! I am so appreciative of you parents that are willing and able to come in and help. We couldn't have centers without you. We have some fun Dr. Seuss activities planned after next week. It should be a great time in centers!

Spring Pictures will be on Friday, March 14. Only the students that pay for a packet will have their pictures taken. As always, if the students want to bring one to me I love to hang them in my office window!

We haven't had much success with our news this year. Students have assigned news days. They are asked to bring in something they can share with the class. If it is printed off the computer or cut out of the newspaper (or written/illustrated by the student) it's great. It gives them something to look at as a prompt for sharing their news as well as something we can hang on our "Good News" board to reference. DON'T THINK IF YOU DON'T HELP THEM THEY AREN'T SHARING!!!!!! Students want the opportunity to have their "5 minutes of glory". They will tell all kinds of things (that you probably don't want them to say) if you aren't helping them be prepared for their news day. Please make an effort to follow through with news days. They are assigned as follows according to FIRST names:
MondayA-C
Tuesday D-J
Wednesday K-M
Thursday N-S
Friday T-Z

As you know, next week is our SEP week. Teachers have coordinated together as much as possible to put siblings appointments back to back. I will try desperately to stay on schedule, however, with 51 students I have 14-16 a day! Please try to be on time. They are only 15 minutes and when I get behind it throws off other teachers as well. Several students have not returned their note confirming the appointment. I am assuming unless I hear otherwise that you are coming. If you need to reschedule text me or email so we can set a date.

I am really looking forward to meeting with each of you. I have spent several hours this last week preparing for the conferences. As I pull out each child's folder and look at each student's work I get a smile on my face. They are unique and special. I love every one of them. I am so pleased and impressed with the growth I have seen this year. I love to hear them read, I love to see their writing. They are confident, happy, and smart! We have a great classroom community and I enjoy watching their friendships, problem solving, and developing skills each day. I consider myself so blessed to be able to spend my day with them.

Looking ahead.........
Tuesday, March 11  Dr. Seuss Day-Much more information will come home about this special day, however, we will read Dr. Seuss books, wear pajamas, and have several activities that day to celebrate.
Friday, March 14 Spring pictures and end of 3rd term.
Monday, March 17 St. Patrick's Day- Don't forget to wear green! This will be another day of celebrating with special activities and a fun art project.
Tuesday, March 25 KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION  12:00-3:00 if you know anyone with a kindergartener next year please let them know. It is important to get as many incoming students registered as possible. It really helps in planning for the upcoming year.
Thursday, March 27 Science Fair/Art Show 6:00
Friday, March 28 AR assembly. Many students will receive awards for ABC Club, Sight Word Reader Club, and Number Club. To qualify students must have passed those sections on the last assessment. We will continue to assess and add new students each month. Our goal is to have 100 % of the students in each club! We can do it!

We have had an outbreak of pink eye in our school. If your child has any symptoms (redness, itchiness, gritty feeling, swelling) please have them checked. It is highly contagious and we are trying to squash it!

Thank you so much for all you do. I am so blessed to work with such amazing students and I appreciate your help and support. I look forward to visiting with each of you next week!

Here's a look back on the last month:

Happy, happy 100's Day!

counting, sorting, counting, eating, counting.....

Passing out Valentine's during our class party.

A visit from the Dentist

self portraits of 100 year olds! 

January

We have all settled back into school. Mrs. Hofeling has been here student teaching and we love her! She is doing a great job and we are learning a lot!
 We have finished our DIBELS test. The scores will come home next week with the mid-year progress reports. I am happy to report that every student showed improvements this time. I am looking for even more growth for our final assessment.
Our Kindergarten mid-year assessment will start this week and continue through next week. Students are asked to identify/write all uppercase and lowercase letters,  and know the sounds. They need to write numbers to 20 (without reversals) and add and subtract within 5. They should be able to write their first and last name, and write a sentence including: uppercase at the beginning, spaces between the words, and punctuation at the end. They also need to draw a picture to a story. They should be able to read at least the first sight word list without mistakes or prompts. They will need to identify beginning sounds in words, and generate sets of rhyming words. Whew! It's a lot to know but I am confident they will be fine!

Every year at this time students start to slack in their work. They are getting faster, more confident, and sloppy! I spend many hours preparing, grading, and recording homework. Please help by monitoring your child's work at home. All homework should be done in pencil. I expect their BEST handwriting on every assignment. Homework is assigned Monday and Wednesday each week. It is due back the following day. Thank you for your help providing positive reinforcement for a critical study habit.

I am sending the January and February book orders together. They are due back no later than Tuesday, January 28. There are many good choices and some fun incentives to order this month.

This month we are talking about:
Social Studies: winter, bears.
Math: shapes-including 2 dimensional and 3 dimensional; square, circle, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, cube, cone, sphere, cylinder. Vocabulary includes: vertices (the corners), sides, angle, even, uneven. Adding and subtracting within 5. Writing numbers to 20.
Language Arts: ending sounds, syllables, all uppercase and lowercase alphabet recognition, writing and sounds; tapping or chopping words to read the parts, and putting sounds together to make whole words.
Writing: writing all the sounds we hear. Penmanship-using our best handwriting, starting every letter at the top, writing with lowercase letters except the beginning of a sentence or a name. Oral story telling for writer's workshop.

Reminders:
*If your child is absent please call the office 586-2840. I would appreciate if you could let me know as well. Text or email works great.
*Reading folders are due each Monday. Our reading goal in Kindergarten is 15 min. a day 4 days a week=4 hours a month.
*Library is on Wednesdays.
*PE and Music are on Thursdays. Gym shoes are best for PE activities.

Upcoming Schedule:
Thurs. Jan 30: Curriculum/Multi-Cultural Night 6:00-7:00
Fri. Jan 31: 2:00 AR assembly (I will notify parents of students getting an award)
                  We will celebrate Groundhog Day on Friday since the holiday is on Sunday. Watch for a  special homework to see if the groundhog can see his shadow.

Thur. Feb 6: 100 day! I will send a note about this special day. We will be counting to 100, making a self portrait, making a book, and eating special 100 day snacks (I need a few parents to bring a dozen doughnuts for that day)
Fri. Feb 7: Dad's and Doughnuts 8:00 AM. Students can come with their dad (or another male adult) and have doughnuts in the gym.
Fri. Feb 14: Valentine's Day. We will have a party in class. Students are encouraged to bring valentines to share with their classmates. I WILL ASK THEM TO WRITE NAMES ON THE VALENTINES FOR HOMEWORK THE WEEK BEFORE. WATCH FOR A CLASS LIST. It is also Mrs. Hofeling's last day in our class. We will miss her!

Thank you for all you do to help your child and me be successful. We are having a fun year. It is going by so fast! I love seeing the light come on as they learn each new concept. They are cute friends and great students.

Some pictures from this month's work: