Happy birthday, Carson!!!

Happy Holidays!

Some students brought board games to play during center time. Board games are great for teaching turn taking and playing by the rules. Students watched Madagascar Christmas with Mrs. Hanson's class. We talked about the characters, setting, and the problem and solution in the story. We had a great turnout for our sign performance this afternoon. You are an awesome group of parents! Thanks for bringing all the delicious treats and thank you all the wonderful gifts! Have a safe and happy holiday break! See you in the new year.

Your child may bring a board game to play at school tomorrow IF...you think they can keep up with the game pieces and they can teach the game to a few classmates.

Thanks so much for attending the concert yesterday. I thought the students did an incredible job. They didn't look nervous at all. At 9am there was a rehearsal, so after performing their two songs, the class got to sit in the audience and watch the rest of the performances. I know that they enjoyed it because they told me I was "the best teacher ever" (just for taking them to the assembly, I guess). If you were able to get some photos, will you please share them with me? I wasn't able to get into a good position to capture them all.

Check our the links section below. I just added a new math site for practicing all the math skills taught in kindergarten. It has games that a parent may have to help the students get started on.

Today was a great day! Students decorated gift bags and wrapped their ornaments. In math, we estimated how much capacity a variety of containers had. In writer's workshop, students had the choice to either add more pages to their "All About" book or to write a sentence in their journal. I was impressed that most chose to continue writing their books. They turned out so cute! I hope you'll dig it out of your child's backpack and ask them to read it to you. Remember, they use phonetic spelling--you might have to "sound it out." If you can figure out what it says, praise, praise, praise. Tomorrow is the music program at 1pm. I hope you are able to attend. It will be very crowded so come a little early.

We had tons of fun today! Students wrote their first "My Book About _____." They worked mostly independently and did a great job. For science, we ended our study of the planets by pairing students to create a 3D model of a planet. They used our science books as reference for their planet's size and appearance. Each pair also labeled their planet. All of them will hang from our ceiling. I took photos of the groups as they worked, which I will post tomorrow along with our finished display, provided that I find the time to hang everything.

Students did a great job of estimating and measuring how many 1 inch squares it would take to cover a certain area. In Writer's Workshop, students brainstormed 4 topics they know a lot about. Tomorrow they will choose just one topic and write a fact about that topic. It is so fun in kindergarten right now because students are beginning to notice words within words and are sounding out words they see written around the room. All of the pre-reading skills they've been taught are coming together suddenly and it's so fun to witness.

What's Happening the Week of Dec. 13?

This is Riley’s VIP week! Students will be working hard to recall events, remember images, and retell stories. We’re working on using complete sentences, so when you ask your child a question, please encourage them to answer in a complete sentence. For example, if you ask what kind of pizza they like, they should answer, “Pepperoni is my favorite pizza,” instead of, “pepperoni.” Students will be estimating and measuring. We are reviewing the letter O this week. We will practice the vowel song, which reminds students that the vowels make 2 different sounds. In Writer’s Workshop, students will choose a topic of interest and write two facts about that topic. We have an all-school music performance on Thursday at 1pm in the gym. It will be crowded, so please arrive at least 10 minutes early. Stay tuned to the blog and read all your newsletters during this busy time so you don’t miss out on anything. Have a great week!

As part of our lesson on telling the order of events (what happened 1st, next, last) we played a game in which 1 student had to give verbal step-by-step directions to a blindfolded student to get them to a specific destination. It was good practice for remembering left versus right and some crazy mishaps occurred when students forgot that the other person couldn't see as they simply said, "Go over there." Students enjoyed being the boastful little gingerbread man, saying his refrain "Run, run, fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" as I re-read the story.

Christmas Stoll Tonight!

During sign language, students learned signs for the song "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." It will be the opening song for our performance on the 21st. If you're confused about all of the upcoming performances, don't be embarrassed. I have to keep checking my calendar, too. Next Thursday at 1pm is the school music department's show for parents. It involves all grades. Monday, Dec. 20 4:15 at St. John's is the Sign Club performance. Wednesday the 22nd at 1:30 in the gym is just the two kindergarten classes performing in sign language for families.

Students painted their dough ornaments today. They desperately wanted to take them home but we are planning more surprises for our families so they have to wait. We enjoyed 2 more Jan Brett stories today: The Three Snow Bears and Hedgie's Surprise.

Today we had fun with an art project. Students rolled out dough, cut shapes such as gingerbread men, candy canes, trees, etc. I will bake the shapes tonight and hopefully students can paint them tomorrow.

Pen Pals

Today we received an envelope from Toronto, filled with pen pal letters addressed to each student in our class! Students used journal time to write back to their pen pal. To see the letter your child received, look in their backpack.

Happy birthday Aaron! Thanks for sharing the yummy cupcakes with us! After introducing the letter of the week (i), students were able to tell me words with the short i sound in them. They are great word detectives. In math, students quickly proved that they understood the difference between small, medium, and large. In social studies, we continued our lesson on family by having students put the faces of each of their family members onto a heart cut-out. At the very end of the day, my son Wes and his dog Lucky visited.

Sequencing Events

This week students will be practicing sequencing events. Here is a web site with sequencing games. You might have to help your child get started, but they will get the hang of it quickly. Copy and paste this link http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/storyscramble/scramble.html This is Mia's VIP week. We will be reading many stories by author Jan Brett, including Gingerbread Baby. Shhh...don't tell...each child will receive a bag of homemade gingerbread play dough tomorrow. There's an even bigger surprise for our art project on Wednesday, but I'm keeping it under my hat for now. Check out Jan Brett's web page for fun activities at http://janbrett.com.

Goodbye Ms. Kembel

Sadly, today was Ms. Kembel's last day with us. She has completed her practicum hours and will student teach next semester. Each students made a card for her. We also had a special treat for the occasion.

The Scholastic book order arrived today and I was able to distribute the books while the students were in music. If you placed an order, please check your child's backpack. Thanks to you, I was able to add 4 books and CDs to our listening center. I know the students appreciate having new books to listen to.

Ms. Kembel taught a lesson about cooperation this morning. We also made stress balls, using the pop bottles (that you wonderful parents sent to school) to fill balloons with flour. The kids were so excited about them, but I had them keep the stress balls at school until Friday so we can finish the lesson by talking about ways to deal with stress and how to use the stress ball when they feel stressed. Thanks so much to Ms. Kembel, Nicole and Tracy for pulling off such a fun project!

Can you believe how much snow we got? In November?!? Only a small portion of the playground was plowed, so students without snow pants had to stay on the plowed area to keep their clothes dry. I have been testing students to see who knows their letter names and sounds and I am very impressed with how well everyone is doing! With our focus on families this week, we read some fun stories about different kinds of families and we talked about how "it takes a village to raise a child." Your child should be able to explain what that phrase means. Please turn in your child's reading minutes tomorrow. I will total everyone's minutes to see who has met our monthly goal of 300 minutes. Those who have met the goal will receive a Pizza Hut coupon.

Be prepared!

Snow will not keep us from going out for recess. Don't forget the snow pants, snow boots, hats and gloves!

This is Aaron’s VIP week! Our theme this week is family. We will add the words mom and dad to our word wall. The letter of the week is G. We’ll be using the interactive whiteboard a lot this week to practice putting numbers in order on a calendar, to learn about probability with an interactive spinner, and to play some literacy games. Students will use the words who, what, when, why and how in their journal writing. In science, we are studying the planets and their positions relative to the earth. As a family, you might enjoy going to NASA’s website to explore our solar system.
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=SolarSys

There's no school for the rest of the week. I hope you have a safe holiday. Eat lots of turkey and take many long naps. See you on the 29th!

Plastic Pop Bottles Needed

If you think about it over the Thanksgiving holiday, please save your plastic pop bottles. We are making a special project next week and will need several 2 liter or smaller plastic pop bottles for filling balloons with sand. Okay, I'll tell you, but don't tell your child yet -- it's a secret! We'll be making stress balls. I already have the balloons but haven't purchased the filtered sand yet. Does anyone happen to have any?

It was fun to have snow on the ground today. Students had to learn the two main rules for snow: no throwing snowballs and only get off the paved area if you're wearing snow boots. We played the game, Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? I changed the bulletin board outside of our classroom to say "We are thankful for..." Students wrote what they are thankful for onto colored leaves and attached their leaf to the tree in the center of the board.

The little darlings were so good today that they earned another "link in the chain." We're trying out a new system in which students earn a slip of paper (chain link) for good behavior, positive comments from other staff members, and for showing care and compassion with their peers. The chain hangs from the white board. When it reaches the floor, students will earn a reward of their choice (popcorn party, extra recess, movie, special game, ??).

Paper Chains Group Project

Each table worked as a group to build a chain with 30 loops. They had to decide who would be the "counter" and each member of the team cut strips of paper to contribute to the group's chain. Although noisy, they did a great job and really seemed to have fun with the project. I will combine each group's chain to make one really long chain that will hang in the classroom.

Milan also shared some fossils with the class.

We had some visitors this morning from Educator for a Day. They watched the combined classes sign some songs. We are getting really good at Frosty the Snowman and just learned Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer today. I'll mention this again because it may be helpful--you can watch "how-to" videos of both songs on the Rose Park Sign Club blog. Access it either by the link below and to the right or from the Rose Park web site. Yesterday, I started testing students to see if they knew all their letter names and sounds. I was impressed and pleased by the number of students who passed with flying colors. If they did pass, they brought home a paper award. Students learned to put the _ed ending on action words that happened in the past. Students watched a Magic School Bus video about outer space as an introduction to our space unit in science. We will be learning the names and positions of the planets. I told them that we live on the 3rd rock from the sun.

It is Joe P.'s VIP week. He shared powdered donuts with the class at snack time. He also shared his poster of favorite photographs. We learned a difficult concept today--counting by 2s and by 5s. It is something that makes more sense the more it is practiced so please practice with your child at home. We read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel this afternoon. I stopped reading the book at the point where Mike Mulligan and Mary Ann are in the bottom of the cellar and the town wonders how to get them out. I asked students to brainstorm a way to get them out, which they wrote in their journals. They had some fantastic ideas, including using a conveyor belt, digging a tunnel, and using a giant magnet to pull Mary Ann out. Compared to their ideas, the story was a let down. The solution of the townspeople was to leave Mary Ann there to become the furnace and for Mike to be the janitor of the new building.

We read some fun counting books this morning. One of them was about huge numbers, such as a billion and a trillion. The book said it would take a person 23 days to count to a billion! Students learned about the food pyramid and had several opportunities to put foods into categories. Ms. Kembel sent them home with information about the new food pyramid and a link to a web site where you can find out how much of each type of food you should be eating.

We talked about Veteran's Day briefly and students are bringing home a flyer about a veteran who lost part of his leg in a war and who uses a working dog. Mrs. McSweyn presented the personal safety lesson to students who were allowed to participate. They have a pink sheet in their backpacks explaining what they learned. We played an interactive math game in which I called out a number and students had to get into a group with that many students. If there were not enough students to make a 2nd group, the "extra" students had to sit. They had fun with it, but they got really wound up!

Ms. Kembel taught a great lesson about shapes this morning. Students saw some Native American patterns that used shapes. Each student used pre-cut shapes to create a pattern on a paper quilt square and the pieces were put together to create a class "shape quilt." The class voted to hang it in our classroom. In math, students practiced counting to 16 and 17 and writing numbers 14-17. Our vocabulary words today were average, nutritious, and revolting. Freak your child out by using one of those words and watch them react. I told them to try to freak YOU out, so please let me know if they use one of those words this week by commenting on this blog. We got to see Riley's guinea pig at the very end of the day. So cute!!

In kindergarten sign time, we started learning Frosty the Snowman. If you are interested in learning the song too, or your child wants to practice at home, see the sign club web site under "How-To Videos" (there's a link to the sign club site on the right side of this screen). Students practiced writing numbers 11 and 12 today. Our science lesson was about things you would do or see during the day versus at night. Students made a "foldable" book showing the differences. They also practiced repeating patterns on a sheet of stars by continuing the pattern until they ran out of stars. We read the book Honk! Honk! about geese migrating. Each student made a goose and I hung the whole flock from the ceiling in a V formation. Tonight is Papa John's pizza night. If you order a pizza, be sure to tell them you're from Rose Park.

Today students went to the library for vision screening. We started a new chapter in math. Your child will be learning to recognize and write the numbers 11-31. Our letter of the day was J and we read a poem about taking a journey. During writer's workshop students wrote, "We can go to _____." They had to write the name of a place to which they would take a journey. For social studies, we learned the name of our city and made 2 pages for a book about our place in the world.

Daylight Savings!!!

Don't forget to change your clocks on Saturday night!

Yesterday we started a night unit in science so today we read some books about an animal that hunts at night -- the owl. Students made construction paper owls with movable wings (brass fasteners hold the wings to the body). They are hanging in the hall. Tomorrow we will interactively write a sentence about one of the owl facts we learned today. Did you know that owls eyes are so big that they cannot move them and that is why they turn their heads around so far?

Early out for the rest of the week!

Students earned a reward today so we watched a video of Make Way for Ducklings, which is also our book of the week. In math, students learned about growing patterns. An example of a growing pattern is ABAABAAABAAAAB... Students had to find what grew each time and continue the pattern. They did an amazing job! Students had free choice at writing time. Afterward, everyone got a chance to sit in the author's chair and read their favorite piece of writing to the rest of the class. We tried the math board game again today with much more success -- hardly any fighting. Conferences tomorrow. See listing on the right.

We put 3 new words onto the word wall: big, in, and will. Those words will be in our shared reading pieces this week and are words your child needs to look for when you are reading to them at night. We read Where's the Fly, which introduced the concept of examining where we are on a grander scale: in a school, in a neighborhood, in a city, in a state, in a country, in the world. We also used Google Earth to zoom from outer space to our school. (We also zoomed to some places mentioned in the new Knuffle Bunny book, Knuffle Bunny Free.) Students wanted to to zoom to their own homes, but very few of them knew their home addresses (something to be working on). Students previewed the Book Fair. They found lots of cool books and circled their wishes on a flyer that went home today.

Each day for letter review, students echo read a predictable book (only 1 word changes per page. I read it and then they read it as I point to the words. Today, students wanted to do it on their own. I read the classic book The Runaway Bunny and a Halloween "copycat" version called The Runaway Mummy. At journal time, students thought about their own "copycat" version and wrote where their character would run. I saw an excellent one called "The Runaway Ghost," in which the ghost ran away to a graveyard. In math, we learned about number lines and how they only show some numbers--the arrows at each end mean there are more numbers in both directions. Students completed a dot-to-dot. Students played a math game similar to Candyland, in which students had to take turns, spin a spinner, and move their game piece. It quickly became clear that we need to word on cooperation. We had a little time to kill between recess and library so we played a quick game of Duck Duck Goose. Mrs. Waples gave students a preview of some of the books available at next week's book fair. Ms. Kembel made some fun treats for students that they received at the end of the day and I gave them a coupon for a free Wendy's frosty. Have a fun weekend!

No Halloween Costumes!!

In case you were wondering, students are not allowed to wear Halloween costumes to school--school policy. If your child is wearing a costume, you will have to bring them a change of clothes. Thank you.

This morning Ms. Kembel taught a math lesson on graphing. She gave each student a cup of candies from a pot of "Witch's Stew" that they put on a bar graph. We reviewed the letter Yy, learned some new vocabulary words, and played the game BANG. After lunch, Ms. Kembel read Diary of a Spider to the class. For writer's workshop, students wrote a list of the ingredients in Witch's Stew. We made a torn paper pumpkin craft. In the afternoon, we went to Mrs. Paulson's room to watch the first graders perform a pumpkin play.

Oh my gosh are the pumpkins cute! I will post a slide show of all of them later tonight, when I get to my home PC. In sign language, we learned the signs for a poem called "Trick or Treat" that will go into the poetry binders. Students practiced showing nine and ten counters in a 10-frame and practiced writing the numbers nine and ten. We read the Ww book and brainstormed words that begin with W. We did a new activity today in which students had to identify what part of the word a letter sound occurred--beginning, middle, or end (the /t/ in bat is at the end). I thought they did very well with it! Students who turned in disguised pumpkins filled out a form today that said, "I am not a pumpkin, can't you see? I am a _____ so don't carve me!" I put the forms beside their pumpkins in the hall. Riley was the musical chairs champion. Yay, Riley!

As we begin to have cold weather, just a reminder to dress your child for the weather. We WILL go out for 3 recesses each day unless it is raining or the temperature drops below zero. If your child has lost a coat, there is quite a collection of unclaimed coats in the gym, hanging below the stage. If they are not claimed by the end of the month, they go to the rescue mission.

Today we received a few "disguised" pumpkins and are they ever CUTE! They will be displayed in the hall until Friday, when I will send them home. If your child has an especially heavy pumpkin, you might want to help them carry it home on Friday or make arrangements to pick it up another time. We read the book Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews. Students had to cut out 10 black dots to create a picture similar to what the author did. After reading Dinner at Panda Palace, students imagined that they had their own restaurant and drew foods that they might serve and labeled the pictures. We played musical chairs in the afternoon and I've gotta say that this group was very well behaved throughout the game. Have a great evening.

Bus Trip Pic

We had a fun "short day." We played "teacher versus kids" in which I point to words in a book. If they read the word correctly, they get a point. If they get it wrong, I get the point. Thankfully, the kids won! (I don't mind losing at this game.) We practiced spelling all the words on our word wall on mini whiteboards. Ms. Kembel read a pumpkin book to the class which talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin. For art, students traced a leaf template, drew vein lines on their leaf, which created several sections on the leaf. Next, students drew a different pattern in each section, and then colored each section a different color. They look really great and I wish I had a picture to show you. Morgan's mom brought her dogs for a quick show and tell at the end of the day.

I just placed the Scholastic book order. Thanks again for your orders! I was able to add $20 worth of books to the classroom library. Have a relaxing 4-day weekend. I'm headed to Missoula to watch my daughter perform in the All-State Band concert.

Students used highlighter tape to find the word the in a poem. We read My Cc Book and students decided to add a new page to the big book, which they will write tomorrow. In sign language, we played a giant game of concentration in which students received a picture card. We went around the circle and students signed the picture. Students had to remember who had which card and they could claim the matching card if they were correct. In math we learned the number 8 and several ways to make 8. We chose 4 and 4 by making a spider with 4 legs on each side of its body. Students made a scarecrow puppet that will "sing" the alphabet. Have them practice if they are having a hard time identifying letters. Morgan brought birthday treats this afternoon. Thanks, Morgan!

Tomorrow I'm sending home a note about a special "homework" assignment that your family can complete over the long weekend. Everyone will disguise a pumpkin to save it from being carved. No carving allowed--decorate your pumpkin so that it looks like something else. The pumpkins will come to school on Oct. 26 so we can show them off and I'll send them back home on the 29th, in time for Halloween.

Our VIP, Morgan, brought some family photos that she got to share on the big screen (using our document camera). We reviewed the letters L and U, comparing the shapes of the letters to other letters. In math, we learned that 6 is 1 more than 5, 7 is 2 more than 5, etc. We also talked about taking away numbers and used the phrase 1 fewer. To make the concept more fun, 5 students at a time got to be 5 little monkeys jumping on a bed. I read the book New Shoes For Sylvia and we discussed some new vocabulary words. During centers, I tested more students on letter recognition. We finished the Junie B. Jones book after lunch. I think most of the students really enjoyed it. Our social studies lesson was about people having different preferences and how people can try to do things that their friend prefers to keep things in balance. By the way, one of the students noticed a typo in the Ll Book that went home today. On the lollipop page, it says "lollilop." I thought that was so cool that they were paying such close attention!

Backordered Scholastic Book

Someone who placed a Scholastic book order last time received a gift certificate because your book was on backorder. The book has arrived, but they didn't give me the customer name. If you ordered Polite as a Princess, please let me know--I have your book.

Our bus safety trip was fun. Our driver, Mr. B., took us to the parking lot at Amend Park to practice emergency exits out the back of the bus, crossing the street to get aboard the bus, and taught students to sit with their backs against the back of the seat and their bottoms on the seat bottoms. We got back to school in time to have the playground to ourselves for 10 minutes before center time. Thanks to Mr. Cunningham and Mrs. Dodge-Millroy for assisting us! After lunch, I read a few more chapters of the Junie B. Jones book I started the previous day. Ms. Kembel read the Leo Leonni book Swimmy to the class, and then had students trace, cut, and color a fish. All of their fish were glued together onto a background to create one large fish just like in the story.

Please remember to turn in the dark pink sheet with your preference for a conference time as the staff will make the schedules on Wednesday. I also need the yellow permission sheet for your child to participate in the personal safety lesson by the counselor. Don't forget about the early out on Wednesday and no school Thursday or Friday due to teacher convention.

Your child will be bringing home another letter book. Please ask them to read it to you, pointing to the words as they read. This helps them to recognize the words. I am testing students on their letter recognition so I can report that information to you at the time of your conference. If you feel that your child needs work in this area, make some alphabet flash cards out of index cards. Most of them know uppercase letters pretty well, but many of them need to work on recognizing lowercase letters. In sign language, students learned to sing and sign the "green" song. Students received writing journals today. Their first entry was, "I have a ____." and they sounded out one word. They had to make their picture match their sentence, begin with an uppercase letter, and end with punctuation. I will show you their journal at your conference. I will mail our penpal letters to the class in Canada this afternoon. We enclosed 2 postcards, one of the view of downtown Billings from the Rims and a general "beauty shot" of the mountains. Tomorrow is our Bus Safety lesson and bus ride!

We practiced letter recognition through an alphabet BINGO game this morning. Several weeks ago, I met a kindergarten teacher in Ontario, Canada and she and I agreed to become class pen pals. Today the letters arrived from her students. They were in the format, "I am ____. I like ___." I read all of the letters to our class and then they wrote similar letters. I will enclose a post card of Montana and then send our letters to Canada. It will be fun to see how this progresses throughout the school year. Students made some very cute robots out of rectangles and recycled materials. Thanks you Nicole and Tracy for your help!

I introduced two new centers today. In one, students must spell their classmates' names. In the other, students sort plastic Halloween toys. They can sort by color or by type of object (spiders, bats, etc.). As a class, we graphed colored cubes and then students did the same thing independently. In sign language, both classes worked together to perform "Five Little Pumpkins." Mrs. Hanson videotaped them and then we watched their performance. I will try to post the video this week. Students were asked to write about what they do before they go to sleep. I was hoping to read such things as, "I brush my teeth." "I listen to a story." or something similar. Instead, most students simply copied my example sentence. In science, we discussed the characteristics of living things.

BOOK FAIR

The Scholastic Book Fair will be in the Rose Park Library during Parent-Teacher Conference Week.

The short version:
Students and their families are welcome to shop at the Scholastic Book Fair in the Rose Park Library before and after school on Tues., Wed, & Thurs., Nov. 2,3, & 4. Profits from the Book Fair will benefit the library collection.

The details:
Tuesday, Nov.2nd: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Wed., Nov. 3rd: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 12:00-4:00 p.m. (Early Out for kids)
Thurs., Nov. 4th: 7:30-8:15 a.m. and 12:00-6:00 p.m. (Early Out for kids)

I hope you have checked your child's Monday envelope. It contains a lot of important information. As always, please try to return important papers in that white envelope on Tuesdays since it is the safest way to ensure they get back to me. I wanted to let you know that I am the co-facilitator of the Sign Language Club -- I help Mrs. Wheeler, the instructor for the hearing impaired. The Sign Club puts on a couple of performances, including a Christmas program and an end of the year program which we invite parents to attend. Please re-read the letter O book with your child. I apologize--I think I waited too long to post tonight and I cannot think of anything specific we did today.

plea for craft supplies

Do any of you have scraps of fabric, ribbon, buttons, sequins, etc. that students could use for an art project on Wednesday? Students will be making recycled robots and will decorate them with odds and ends. Thanks in advance!

Wow! This is the first time I've been 24 hours late posting. Yesterday, I divided students into 4 reading groups and met with them separately during center time to review letter names and sounds and to practice reading the high frequency words that are on our word wall (am, blue, can, like, is, red, and yes). Students brainstormed things that are red and then wrote the sentence, "A ____ is red." and drew a picture to illustrate their sentence. We are working on sentence structure -- a capital letter at the beginning and punctuation at the end, as well as spaces between the words. Students formed the numbers 1-5 out of clay and we played a review game in which I rolled a die, students identified the number, and then they built a tower with that many cubes. Thanks to the parents who helped yesterday!

We added a new dimension to the BANG game today. As they pulled letter sticks out of the cup, students had to say the name of the letter and the sound it makes. As they returned their sticks to the cup at the end of the game, they had to say something that begins with that letter sound. At story time, I read Goodnight Moon and Goodnight Goon and we compared the two stories. For Writer's Workshop students wrote a sentence about an animal that they like (I like ___.) The class did a great job of cleaning up at the end of the day. Your child brought home another mini book (My Nn Book). Please have them read it to you, pointing the the words as they read them. Keep the book and have your child re-read it often.

Scholastic Book Orders

The Scholastic Book Order arrived! Yay! Thanks to your orders, I was able to add 13 new books to our classroom library, so thank you very much! Check your child's backpack to find the books.

Fire Station Field Trip

We had a totally awesome time at the fire station! Mrs. Bykonen and her friend Tracy, Ms. Kembel, and Mrs. Rolfson accompanied us. Students got to get inside the fire engine, watch a fire safety video, and watched a firefighter put on his turnout gear, air mask and all! They thought he looked like an alien. One of the firefighters climbed to the top of the fully-extended ladder on the ladder truck. He also showed us how the ladder rotates around and how it can go up and down. We got back to school shortly before lunch and had some recess time. Ms. Kembel read Knuffle Bunny to the class and we compared the story to Corduroy. I read the book Go Away Big Green Monster and then students created their own monsters (see photos). They turned out REALLY cute!

Picture day went smoothly and they got us early, before snack or recess, so everyone looked really nice! Students got a popcorn party today as reward to whole-class good behavior. Students learned signs for the poem Five Little Pumpkins and in science, students learned the life cycle of a pumpkin. Tomorrow is our walking field trip to the fire station. Make sure your child is dressed for the weather.

Reminders

Turn in your child's reading minutes for the past week. Tomorrow is picture day!

We have now been through the alphabet one time and starting today, we are repeating it. By now, your child should be able to recognize most of the uppercase letters. We are working hard on writing and recognizing lowercase letters. It is my goal to get your child writing his/her name in lowercase letters (except for the first letter, of course). We are also working on counting and recognizing numbers. Our Star of the Day was Riley. Riley has a twin brother in the other kindergarten class, an older sister, and a pet guinea pig. He likes macaroni and cheese, monkeys, the letter R and the number 6, as well as toy sharks. Since everyone has had their turn as Star of the Day, we are now moving on to writing during that time. Today, students drew a picture of themselves in their Halloween costume and labeled the picture. I will send them home after I make copies. Don't be alarmed by the spelling--they were told to write the sounds that they hear. For example, Cinderella may be spelled sindrla. That's fantastic in my eyes because it means that they know their letter sounds!! Yay! We won't worry about spelling for a while, and mostly for the high frequency words that are on our word wall.

Well, we've now reviewed all the letters of the alphabet and will be moving on to putting letter sounds together to read and write words. So far on our "word wall" (list of words students should be able to recognize and spell) we have am, can, like, and yes. I will add a list of the words your child needs to practice to the right side of the blog. My suggestion is to write the words on index cards and quickly review them with your child once a day. Thomas was our Star of the Day. Thomas has one sister, a cat, a dog, and a bike. He likes the colors black, red, and blue, steak, Superman, the number 100 and the letter T. Have a great weekend!

We reviewed the letter X, practiced writing the letter J and interactively wrote action words. Students each wrote an action word that they can do (I can __) for a class book. Riley brought a praying mantis to show the class. In sign language, we reviewed signs for the red song, the blue song, and ""I Can Read Colors."Evan was our Star of the Day. Evan has 2 brothers, likes the colors blue and green, the number 6, and Sunday is his favorite day of the week. Evan's favorite shirt says, "Go wrestle a gator." Students played Top-It with a partner for math centers. In music, they learned a different vowel song than the one we sing in class. Everyone got a prize at the end of the day for doing such a great job of cleaning our room! They ROCK!

Picture Day

Picture day is next Tuesday Oct. 5th. Picture order forms were sent home in your child's backpack yesterday. The easiest way to turn in your order form and payment is to return it on Tuesday morning inside the "Monday" envelope. If you're like me and you're afraid you'll forget about it by then, you can send it tomorrow or Monday, but please remind your child to tell me because I won't have time to search through all 24 backpacks.

Today we met Ms. Kembel, who spent the morning with us. A skill we practiced today was sequencing. We read the poem "Jack and Jill" and then students cut pictures to sequence the events. We learned some vocabulary words from Harry the Dirty Dog and also read a new book by the same author called No Roses for Harry. Aaron was our Star of the Day. We learned that Aaron has 2 brothers, 2 fish, likes macaroni and cheese, the color blue and the number 6. Students painted a backdrop for an airplane shape that they traced and cut out. They glued cotton clouds to their pictures. I taught students to play the card game "War" (we call it "Top-It" at school so it doesn't sound so violent). Thanks so much to all the parent volunteers who came in today. Everything went so smoothly thanks to all of you!

I just placed the Scholastic book order. We should have them by the end of the week! Thanks for your orders, which enabled me to order 4 new books and CDs for our listening center.

Thanks for sending all the fun foods for our Five Senses unit. The students had tons of fun tasting things, and many of them learned that they like plums (apparently something they hadn't tried before). What a cool way to discover new foods! I learned today that the kindergartners WILL NOT be attending the assembly on Friday so we WILL have library after all. Yay! Tomorrow we have someone new joining us. Her name is Ms. Kembel, who is a Junior Field (a college student studying to become a teacher). Ms. Kembel will be with us Monday mornings and most of the day on Wednesdays. We look forward to meeting her. Amari was our Star of the Day. We learned that Amari has a baby brother, her favorite letter is F, her favorite number is 11, and her favorite color is purple. Amari likes Hannah Montana and rides a bike. Today we learned about verbs (action words) and made up some actions for everyone to try. Later in the week, students will write/draw verbs of their own that will be compiled into a class book that I will send home one family at a time.

Today started with handwriting practice of the letter B. Next, I introduced the letter K. Our two new sight words for the week are am and can, which students recognized inside the book I read in the afternoon, Eric Carle's From Head to Toe. Students added another poem to their Poetry Binder called See You Later Alligator. It's the poem we sign and say at the end of each day. Carson was our Star of the Day. Carson has a dog, no siblings, likes the color blue, the number 5 and circles. His favorite foods are hamburgers and hot dogs. I wanted to pass along a message from Mr. Goudy, the PE teacher. He reminded students to wear sneakers on Mondays since they do so much running. Don't forget to send 24 pieces of something to taste for science tomorrow.

We reviewed the letter V today and I read the book Verdi, about a little snake who doesn't want to grow up to be boring, to the class. We worked on patterns and identifying the part that repeats. Students learned 3 more vocabulary words so this week they learned: crisp, gentle, noticed, soared, communicate, and eager. We talked about how our pets communicate with us through their actions since we don't speak the same language. Work with your child to identify the words is, like, and yes in print. We read the book Powwow's Coming after lunch. It gave us information about Native American culture and it had lots of rhyming words and beautiful pictures. In the afternoon, we played Bingo as a way to practice number recognition. Natasha was our Star of the Day. We learned that Natasha has no brothers or sisters, and no pets. She likes macaroni and cheese, the color blue, and the number 3. Have a great weekend and I hope you are able to go to Saturday Live.

Happy birthday, Sal! Thanks for bringing birthday treats! We reviewed the letter B, fed sound muncher things like a basketball, a bird, and a book. Students added a sunflower poem to their Poetry Binder and illustrated it. In sign language, we reviewed the Pledge of Allegiance, the "Red" song, and learned the "I Can Read Colors song." Students finished the "Cat's Colors" rt project that we started yesterday. The finished product is hanging in the hall. Thank you, parents, for being on time picking up your children today. Tomorrow is a normal day.

Today was super fun because we got to paint! Thanks so much to Mrs. Bykonen for helping with the project! We played a new game called "Bang" in which students pull sticks with letters written on them out of a can, say the letter, then pass the can to the next person. There are sticks with the word "Bang" on them, and if you get one, you have to return all the sticks you've collected to the can. The person with the most sticks at the end wins. We had 4 or 5 people tie, so all of them got to stand up and do a victory dance. We used my new technology tool, the Mimio interactive white board, to practice patterns in math. Albert was our Star of the Day. Albert has a brother and a sister, likes cats (but not dogs because a dog bit him one time), and he likes the color blue, macaroni and cheese, and Sponge Bob. Tomorrow is early out.

Busy day as usual! We practiced reading our new sight words. We learned to sign and sing The Red Song (I think I have a link to the words to the color songs). Students tried to match color words to the appropriate colors. We fed Sound Muncher things that begin with the letter G. In math, we determined what would come next in a pattern. We had a fire drill in the afternoon and the students were PERFECT!! Everyone got a poetry binder today and students put their first two poems in the binder--Popcorn and The Stop Light Poem. Reading from their poetry binder will be a new free time activity for those who finish their work early. Morgan was our Star of the Day. Morgan has 3 sisters, 3 brothers, 2 dogs, and 3 rabbits. She likes chicken nuggets, the number 10, and the color purple. I just got off the phone with the fire department, setting up our tour of the fire station. We will go to the fire station on Wednesday, Oct. 6 at 10am. I will be calling those of you who expressed interest in helping with field trips. I'm so excited for our first field trip!

Sorry for the late post on yesterday's activities. We learned the letter Y and the sight words is, like, and yes. We are learning to spell and recognize color words this week, and will continue for quite a while. We will also learn the signs and finger spelling for the colors. Sal was our Star of the Day. He has a baby brother, a Play Station 3, a 4-wheeler, and a dog and a lizard. Sal's favorite number is 7 and he likes macaroni and cheese. For those of you who signed up to volunteer, I learned that we have to do background checks before you can help in the classroom. If you returned your form to me, I turned it in to the office. I inquired about them yesterday and was told that Human Resources has not returned the results yet. I'll keep checking because I'd like for you to be able to help!

Today was Constitution Day. We don't get into too much detail in kindergarten, but we did talk about the Constitution giving us the right to vote. Students listened to the story Duck for President then they used ballots to vote for their favorite animal to run the farm. Cow was the winner. We sequenced events from a story and made color patterns. Our Star of the Day was Bram. Bram has a dog and a puppy, likes to eat hot dogs and drink strawberry-kiwi juice boxes, likes the color red and his favorite superhero is Spiderman. Have a relaxing weekend.

The letter of the day was L. Several students have an L in their name. We had more sign language fun today with Mrs. Hanson's class. In math we worked on putting information into a graph. Students flipped a two-sided chip and graphed the results. Our Star of the Day was Neveah. She had a brother, a hamster, likes macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets. Her favorite superhero is Superman and she likes to watch Dora the Explorer. Star of the Day has been a great way for students to learn about their classmates and to recognize names. I realized this when 2 students were handing out the name tags before the music teacher arrived. They were able to correctly read their classmates'names! Don't forget to send your child's library book to school tomorrow so they can check out a new book. Have a great evening!

We had a FANTASTIC day!! We tried out a new song to learn letter sounds. It's to the tune of Who Let the Dogs Out, but it's called Who Let the Letters Out? Very fun! We did a letter dance in which students used their bodies to form letters. Your little smarties now know the following vocabulary words: bickering, defiantly, harmony, recognized, desperately, and selfish. We enjoyed more Robert Munsch stories after lunch. Our Star of the Day was Christian. Christian has 1 sister, 2 dogs, rides a bike, and likes the color blue. His favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla and his favorite super hero is Batman. (I love that students are thinking of more creative questions to ask!) In math, we talked about the difference between columns and rows. In their math journals, students drew two rows of balls and drew lines to connect them. Our art project involved tracing and cutting 9 circles of different colors! Those who finished early were generous enough to help those who were a little slower. Way to go, guys! Believe it or not, students finished the project in 45 minutes, although we were a few minutes getting out at the end of the day because of the clean up. I've gotta say that your children are fantastic cleaners. Everyone chipped in to get the room back to normal. See you tomorrow!

Today we learned the letter C and fed Sound Muncher things like caterpillars, candles, cards, and cake. In math, we compared groups of items to determine which had more/fewer. The other kindergarten class came in after recess to learn sign language with us. We learned the Pledge of Allegiance and signs for many foods including pizza, celery, bread, ketchup, pineapple, and meat just to name a few. Our Star of the Day was Sofia. Sofia has a brother and a sister, a wiener dog, rides a bike, likes to watch Dora and loves macaroni and cheese. For science, students shared the sound bags that they brought. Some of them were really tough to guess, so they had to show us what it was. Morgan's sound was candy, which she shared with the class afterward. Tomorrow we have art in the afternoon, so I will be taking down the self portraits that are in the hall and sending them home. I get to see my son and his fiancee tonight so I'm very excited! Have a great evening!

Our letter of the day was Uu. We learned that Lauren is the only one in our class with a u in her name. Students highlighted Us in the poem "Little Umbrella." As a review of last Friday's letter Oo, students completed a worksheet in which they had to find pictures of things with the short o sound. In math we talked about patterns. Not everything we see is a pattern -- it's not a pattern unless it repeats. We created a movement pattern in which students made up a movement and we repeated it around the circle. For example, jump, wiggle, clap, jump, wiggle, clap... We read the book It's Mine and learned the vocabulary words bickering, defiantly, and harmony. Our Star of the Day was Joe R. We learned that Joe has 3 cats, 1 dog, rides a bike, likes lizards, and likes the colors blue and green. We played BINGO as a review of number recognition 1-10. Students had gym class and then they had a hearing screening. If your child seems to have any hearing problems, you will receive a follow-up letter in the next week or two. We read 3 Robert Munsch stories and thought they were really funny! Busy day, huh?! Thanks to Gwen and Jodi for helping during centers today!

Thanks for coming to Open House last night. It was nice to see many of you again. Seeing you on the day before school started and then again last night helped me to put names and faces together. I didn't post last night, so I'll just give you a quick update on yesterday. Elian was the Star of the Day. We learned that he has 1 older sister, has a cat, and likes the color black.

Today we had our popcorn party for good behavior! Students watched a video of some Eric Carle stories while they ate popcorn. It was also the day that we introduced the letter o and our poem of the day was called "Popcorn." How handy is that?! Today's Star of the Day was Milan. Milan has 1 older brother, 2 cats, 1 dog, likes the color green and the number 12.

Students who have stayed on a green card for 10 days got a prize out of the prize jar. If your child didn't get a prize today and was devastated, let them know that they are probably only a day or two away from getting their prize. When they have 10 days of being on a green card, they, too, will get a prize. EVERYONE will eventually get a prize, although some will get them more frequently because they never have to pull a card. Please call me if you have questions. I do keep a tally.

We had a fantastic day in kindergarten! We did all kinds of sorting activities in math, sang some songs, and started a self-portrait art project that we'll finish tomorrow, just in time for Open House! If you haven't sent an old adult-sized shirt for your child to use as a painting shirt, they will need it tomorrow morning. I have some spares, but probably not enough. Peyton was our Star of the Day. He rides motor cross bikes, has 3 dogs and a cat, has a baby brother, and likes rice. If your child came home today with their Monday envelope still inside their backpack, please remind them to hand it to me in the morning. It won't be long before it's a habit, but they might need a gentle reminder at this point. See you tomorrow evening!

Changes to VIP Schedule

I made some changes to the VIP schedule to accommodate our new students. Please check the list again and jot down the date of your child's VIP week as it may have changed.

A big, warm welcome to Albert who joined our class today. We worked on the letter and sound for R. In math, students sorted blocks by one attribute (all yellow, all circles, etc.). We read Sheila Rae the Brave about a mouse who becomes not-so-brave when she gets lost on her way home from school. Our Star of the Day was Joe P. Joe has one brother, some cats, loves beef Top Ramen, and likes the colors blue and pink. I forgot to mention it in the newsletter that went home today, but if you want to order any books from the Firefly order form and don't want to order online, please send the paper form and cash (no checks) to school. I want to hold onto the order for about a week to see if we can accumulate a $200 order.

Video Added!

Scroll to the very bottom of the screen for a video demonstration of how to sign the Pledge of Allegiance.

Christian was absent today. We hope you feel better, Christian! We will get another new student on Tuesday--Albert! Welcome, Albert! My husband had to use a saw to chop down the sunflower I promised to bring today. The flower was so tall that it wouldn't fit across my backseat. Funny story...It had bugs on it, so I didn't want it sitting in my car overnight so I laid it on the garage floor, behind my car. You guessed it - I backed over it this morning! I brought just the head of the sunflower and each student was able to take home a seed. We learned the letter N, checked to see who had a letter N in their name (11 students did), and fed Sound Muncher pictures of things that start with N. We talked about same and different in math. We looked at all the pictures on our ABC Phonics Chart and tried to find ways in which pictures were the same. For example, someone pointed out that the gorilla, alligator, and monkey are different animals, but they have four legs and a tail. Students drew story problems for fellow students to solve. Ellie was our Star of the Day. She has 5 people in her family, 1 cat, and 2 fish. She likes the color pink and loves to eat Hamburger Helper. Students checked out library books today, which made them very happy and proud. Please remember to return the book any time before next Friday so that your child can check out a book again next Friday. Have a wonderful 3-day weekend! See you on Tuesday!

I'm not sure why, but today was an extremely LOUD day! I had a difficult time quieting the class. We learned the letter S today, discovered who has an S in their name and learned the poem Sunflower Children. I told students that I would bring the sunflower from my yard tomorrow. It's taller than I am and it's stem is the diameter of the trunk of a baby tree! In math, we talked about left and right. I wrote an R on everyone's right hand and we played the Hokey Pokey. It was funny because Mrs. Summers wanted to do the Hokey Pokey during music and was trying to teach about left and right and one of the students asked, "Is the right the one with the R?" Jared was our Star of the Day. We learned that he has a sister and a dog, likes to eat shrimp, and rides a bicycle.

I felt like the class improved dramatically in their hall behavior today. Keeping the noise level to zero is very difficult, but they proved they are capable. The music box is also helping with the noise level in the classroom. Our letter of the day was A. There are lots of students with As in their names! Our math vocabulary words were top, bottom, and middle. We read the book Tops and Bottoms, about a rabbit that grows a vegetable garden and tricks a bear by always offering him the worst parts of the plants. Lauren was our Star of the Day. We learned that she has a dog, no brothers or sisters and likes chicken nuggets and French fries. We had a lesson on empathy and identifying people's feelings by their facial expressions and body language. I had a student request that I video tape the signs, in slow motion, to the Pledge of Allegiance so they can practice at home, so I will try to post that video soon.

Because our letter of the day was I (our first vowel), we learned a song about the two sounds that vowels make. We played I Spy, using our math vocabulary words over, under, and on. Students also learned signs for each of those words. We started a Science unit of the five senses. Aliza was our Star of the Day. She has a younger sister and an older sister and no pets. Because it's been so loud during center time, I started using a music box to quiet the students. I wind up the music box at the beginning of each day, open it to play music to signal students that they are too loud. As they get quiet I close the box. If there is any music left at the end of the day, the class earns a point towards a popcorn party. We have a new student starting tomorrow. Welcome, Christian!

There were lots of comments this morning about the inflatable letter E hanging from the lights. It will be joined by the letter T tomorrow because I will add each letter as we learn it. We found that only 3 students have Ts in their names: Thomas, Natasha and Peyton. We learned a Teddy Bear poem and the signs to go with it. We started Star of the Day. Each day, a different student will have the opportunity to stand up and tell the class something about themselves. We will study that person's name and each student will write the "star student's" name and draw their picture. Today our star was Mia. We learned that she has a sister and a dog named Chili. Students had their first day of gym with Mr. Goudy. It sounded like they had a good time.

Parents, please return any of the forms that required your signature in the Monday envelope that should be sent with your child tomorrow morning. I reminded students that they will take the envelope out of their backpack and hand it to me on their way into the classroom tomorrow.

We had a very productive day! To get ready for handwriting and spelling work, I taught the procedures for passing out and returning mini dry erase boards and erasers. While they had their boards, we practiced writing the uppercase and lowercase E. (Yes, I'm a few days behind where I hoped I'd be on letter introductions. I was a little overly ambitious with my original schedule.) Students did such a nice job of following directions that they earned some "doodle time." Everyone got a turn to use highlighter tape to showcase a letter E in our ME poem. We practiced recognizing and writing some numbers and played a counting game (1-10). Today was our first day of Library. Students listened to a story, looked at books, and colored an information sheet about library procedures that will go home in their Monday envelope.

Today students learned the Pledge of Allegiance in sign language. I introduced the letter Ee. I called on a few students to write the letter on the board and some others pointed to E's on a chart. We learned a poem called "ME." We read the ABC phonics chart (see class web page for a link to it). We watched the movie Chrysanthemum and talked about the length of names. For math, students cut out the individual letters in their names, glued the letters to paper squares and put them onto a strip of paper that was inserted into a pocket chart so we could compare the lengths of our names. Mia and Joe tied for the shortest names and Salvador was the longest name. I read my favorite book to them after lunch, Bad Dog Marley. We learned some fun songs, too. The students had their first day of music with Mrs. Summers, which was interrupted by a fire drill. We had practiced earlier in the day and the comment I heard as we were coming back inside from the drill was, "That wasn't so bad." :)

Our Daily Schedule

Some of you noticed that I had written a partial list of our daily class schedule on the marker board Monday night. I wanted to let you know that the schedule is also posted on my class web page. Go to the "Links" section below and click on the first link "Class Web Page." On the far right you will find the schedule. Students have music with Mrs. Summers tomorrow afternoon, Library with Mrs. Waples on Friday afternoon, and P.E. with Mr. Goudy on Monday afternoon. Please send your child to school in running shoes on Mondays for P.E.

First Day of Kindergarten

I adore my new class! They are absolutely adorable children and they seemed to adapt well to so many new things! We started the day by reading Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. We talked about how they got ready for school (by buying supplies and getting shots) and how I got ready for school (by writing their names all over the place). After our tour of the office, library, lunchroom and bathrooms, we had recess. I gave a whistle signal (2 tweets) to line up to go back inside. Some of the students said they couldn't hear the whistle so I had to gather all my little ducklings before heading back inside. Next, we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and watched the short movie that goes with it. We then made our own Chicka trees, which involved tracing, cutting, gluing, and attaching the letters in their names. The trees are so cute that I hung them in the hall, but will try to send them home on Friday. Lunch took longer than usual, as everyone had to learn the procedures. Afterward, we read How I Spent My Summer Vacation. Students decorated their journals and completed their first writing activity: showing me all the letters and numbers they can write.

Parents, you have lots of reading material that was sent home in your child's Monday envelope. Please sign the papers and return them in that same envelope tomorrow morning. They normally go out on Mondays and are returned on Tuesdays, but there was already so much paperwork to deal with that you needed a head start. See you in the morning!

Mini Open House

It was so fun to meet so many of you last night! I wish I could have spent more time talking with some of you who came in during the busiest time. Please know that you can talk to me after school and you can email me anytime. I will be sending home a student interest survey so that I can find out more about your child. I saw lots of adorable children and I can't wait to get to know them!

Subscribe to the Blog

During the 2010 - 2011 school year, I plan to use the blog as my main form of communication instead of sending home paper copies of calendars, newsletters, notices, reminders, etc. In September, I will have a THIS WEEK section on the right side of the blog where I will list: what we are focusing on, when the students have Library and Phys. Ed. that week, and special events. I will also have a DATES TO REMEMBER section where I will list dates of: special events and when book orders and permission forms are due. I will keep all posts, files and photos on the blog so that you can access them months after they are posted. You may also choose to print and/or save some of the files (e.g., calendars) that I post on the right side of the blog on your computer.

Starting in September, I am hoping that you will be able to check the blog weekly so that you will always be well informed. I have set-up a program that can e-mail you when I update the blog. On the right side of the blog under SUBSCRIBE VIA EMAIL, please enter your email address and click on subscribe. You will then receive an email from feedburner. In the email, click on the link to activate your subscription. Feedburner will then e-mail you every time I update the blog.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

I'm so excited for school to start!! I've been working hard on getting the classroom ready, creating new learning materials, and researching the best teaching methods. I hope that you are able to come in on Monday night to take a look around, become familiar with the classroom and the school, and introduce yourselves. Monday night is a great time to drop off school supplies so your child doesn't have to carry all that stuff into school Wednesday morning. Stay tuned here because I post messages every night, letting you know what's happening in class. I can't wait to meet you all!

Parent Update August 2010

Parent Update August 2010

Thanks to a fun and enthusiastic group of students and their very supportive parents, it was a fantastic year. Thanks so much for a wonderful celebration that was made possible by all of you who helped by serving, setting up, cleaning up and/or providing treats. I received some lovely gifts that I will treasure forever. I will miss those students who are moving out of state but am thankful that I will be able to see most of you around the building next year. Have a fantastic summer!

During every spare moment today, I read bits of a story we started yesterday The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh. We played a couple of games we don't normally have time to play: heads up, 7-up and parachute. We had one injury with the parachute, but otherwise it was a good time. In the afternoon, the 5th graders shared fairy tales that they had written and illustrated.

Please DO send your child with a backpack tomorrow. I am cleaning the room right now and keep coming across papers that need to go home. I have a DVD for each of you that will be enclosed in your child's report card envelope, which they will receive tomorrow. I can't believe it's the end of the year! See you tomorrow.

Can you believe we only have one and a half days of school remaining? Wow, how time flies. I have a multimedia presentation to commemorate your child's kindergarten experience that I might not have time to show you on Friday, but that I will send home in DVD format. The disc that I send home will not play in the DVD player hooked to your television, but it should play in your computer. (I created it with Windows Movie Maker.)

Tomorrow is our last "normal" day of school. We will see you at 11am in the gym on Friday for our end of year celebration.

Despite the misty weather, we had a great time at the zoo. It must have been perfect weather for wolverines because they were very active. Thanks to all the parents who came along. It was fun to share the day with you and it was so much fun to see Anna and her family!

Both kindergarten classes practiced singing/signing songs for our end of year celebration and then we had music class together. We're still jumping rope at recess and students are getting so much better! In the afternoon, students who are not in sign club spent some time in Mrs. Paulson's first grade classroom while I helped Mrs. Wheeler with the sign club show. The students did a great job and I hope that they will join sign club again next year.

We go to the zoo tomorrow. Please make sure your child wears comfortable walking shoes and sunscreen, has a lunch and a water bottle, and is ready to have fun.

Preparation for Zoo Field Trip

Things to send to school on Friday:
lunch
water bottle

Things to think about beforehand:
apply sunscreen
pack a light jacket with a hood (in case of rain)

Does anyone have a large wagon that we could borrow? I'd like to drag along the discarded jackets and water bottles, as well as have snacks along with us. In years past, I've left all of that stuff in a basket at the front gate, but it's not handy when you need it. For the past 2 years in a row, I've had someone wet their pants, so if one of the parents coming along could bring an extra pair of sweatpants that would fit anyone, that would be very much appreciated. If I think of anything else, I'll post it. Will you let me know if I've forgotten anything? Thanks!

Field day was super fun. Classes rotated through stations. Our first station was a water relay in which students pulled a big sponge out of a bucket of water and held it under their chin until they passed it to their next teammate, so rightaway, they were drenched. Our last station was tug of war--boys against girls. The girls won!! (They had 2 extra people, but they were still totally awesome pullers!)

Tomorrow at 1:15 is the sign club performance in the gym. We already performed for the student body on Earth Day, so this one's just for you parents. I went to the zoo after school and paid our admission for Friday's trip. I had money for most of the students and only one parent. If you are coming along with us and didn't already give me your money for admission, you will need to pay at the gate when we arrive. I also found out that families who have season passes may not use them for group trips. Apparently it's too difficult to keep track of with large numbers of visitors during school trips.

We were fortunate enough to watch the 3rd graders perform their musical after sign language. At recess, I tied one end of a long jump rope to the fence and swung the rope for students. They are catching on quickly, well enough that we will learn some jump rope rhymes. (We tried, at first, to have a student swing the other end, but they don't know how to adjust the speed to the person who is jumping.) We learned subtraction in the afternoon and I was surprised by how quickly students caught on. During afternoon centers, the 2nd graders presented very informative dinosaur reports. After school, we had our last sign club meeting, at which we practiced for Thursday's show.

Tomorrow is Field Day!!

Students learned to use calculators in math today. They added a series of numbers, wrote the total, and compared their answer with the answer their partner got. We stayed in for morning and afternoon recess, but they went out for a little while after lunch. At the end of the day, we went to the gym to watch the first graders perform Frog and Toad plays. Just think, next year these guys will be the ones performing the plays! I can't believe I only have one more week with them.

This is a busy week! We will review long vowel sounds and subtraction, as well as sight words. Wednesday is Field Day. From 9 to 10:30, students will be outside, rotating from station to station. Students need to be dressed for the weather. They WILL get wet, so no white or see-through shirts. Flip flops are okay if it's warm enough. On Thursday at 1:15, the students in sign club will perform for parents. On Friday, both kindergarten classes go to the zoo. The bus picks us up at 10:30, so parents coming with us need to be at school by 10:15. Be prepared to drive yourself because we might have more people than space on the bus. The plan for the zoo is that we will arrive around 10:45, sit at the tables in the entrance area to eat our sack lunches, and then tour the zoo. We will go as a group, starting at the farm area and making the loop. We will end at the playground area and stay there until the bus arrives at 1pm to take us back to school.

We have big plans for an end-of-year celebration on the last day of school. At 11am in the gym, both kindergarten classes will perform for you, Mrs. Hanson and I will present awards, and we will enjoy refreshments. If you would be willing to bake cookies, serve punch, or help to set up for this event, please let me know. I have a video presentation for you that I will most likely share with you in my classroom before or after the combined celebration. (I haven’t figured out how to do this, because it doesn’t involve the other class.)

Izaak brought some yummy cookies as his birthday treat. Thanks, Izaak! We watched a Magic School Bus video about the life cycle of a butterfly, then students made a paper representation of the cycle. They glued a grain of rice to represent the butterfly egg, a spiral noodle as the caterpillar, a small shell as the chrysalis, and a bow tie noodle as the butterfly. We used cups of the same pasta shapes for a sorting and counting activity in math. Students counted the number of noodles in each group and recorded their answers. On Monday, we will learn how to punch those numbers into a calculator to find the total. Next week, our schedule is very busy with watching performances by other grades. Can you believe that next Friday is our trip to the zoo?! Have a great weekend.

The little astronauts ate their space food today. They had to drink their pudding through a straw so it wouldn't float away in our zero gravity classroom. Their food was 1/4 C milk and 1 Tbsp instant pudding mix. They could choose from chocolate or vanilla. The majority chose chocolate, but a few of them thought it was really yucky! Both kindergarten classes had music together today outside. We have been working on addition, but only with objects until today when we learned how to add pennies. The only difference was to show the cents sign. We read a story called The Magic Finger. See if your child can retell the story to you. It was about a girl who is friends with a family of hunters, but she is very against hunting. She had learned earlier that when she gets really angry, she can point her magic finger at the person who has upset her and cause things to happen to them. She was upset with her friends for hunting ducks, so she pointed her magic finger at them and that night the people turned into ducks and the ducks turned into hunters. When the ducks, armed with guns, came after the humans, the humans had to agree to smash their guns to bits to avoid being hunted.

We re-read Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon! and then reviewed action words. Many of the action words in the book had the ing ending, so it was a great teaching opportunity. Afterward, students made adorable space helmets, which I hung in the hallway--sorry kids, they were too cute not to share! Nick and Courtney read a non-fiction book about the moon in their reading group.

After lunch, students ate birthday cake-flavored ice cream cups for their "good behavior celebration." Since it's Izaak's VIP week, he got to choose the Scholastic video that we watched while we ate. He chose a Harold and the Purple Crayon video.

Library Books

Please return library books as soon as possible. Mrs. Waples is in the process of taking inventory and needs all the books back in the library. Thanks.

We had a great day! The Bugz musical was a success and it was great to see so many parents there. I think students did an even better job at the afternoon performance for the student body. Even with changes to our schedule, students were so well behaved that they earned the last two points they needed in order to have an ice cream party, so we will celebrate tomorrow.

We're talking a lot about astronauts, the space shuttle, and zero gravity. We watched a 3 minute video that showed astronauts eating, drinking, and playing in zero gravity. Tomorrow we are making an astronaut snack: 1 T pudding mix and 1/4 C milk mixed in a Ziplock baggie and sipped through a straw.

Our mentor text of the week is about a boy who travelled to the moon, so in writing today, I asked students to write about going to the moon, They were pretty creative, writing stories about meeting aliens and exploding rockets.

This Week's Newsletter

Happy birthday (yesterday) to Izaak. This is Izaak’s VIP week. We will be reviewing short vowel sounds, action words, sequencing, and adding.

We are planning a field trip to Zoo Montana on Friday, May 28th from 10:30-1:00. At the zoo, we will eat lunch and walk around the zoo observing animals in their natural habitats. By tomorrow, your child will need to bring back to school their purple permission form, a yellow sack lunch form (ONLY if you don’t want to pack a lunch for your child), and $3.25 (children and adults who plan to go with us).

Tomorrow at 9am there is a K-2 music performance for parents in the gym. I hope you are able to attend. Have a great week!

Happy birthday, Izaak!!!

Today we started a science unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. We learned a lot about the difference between butterflies and moths--ask your child to tell you the differences. We played some relay games as review today. The first was an alphabet game. Students were divided into two lines. The first person in each line wrote a letter of the alphabet on the white board, passed the marker to the person behind them, who wrote the next letter, etc. until they had all 26 letters -- in order!! The first team to get to z was the winner. Next, we played a similar relay for the first team to write the numbers 1 to 20. We also reviewed the shapes cone, cube, sphere, and cylinder by keeping a pattern going with those shapes.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather.

We were so happy to get outside to play today! I think the weather is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. Both kindergarten classes voted on more songs to sing at our end of year celebration. We used the teddy bears we made yesterday to practice subject/verb agreement. For example, One teddy bear was walking. versus Two teddy bears were walking. We also learned this poem:
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, show your shoe.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, I love you!
The teddy bears completed the movements beautifully.

Zoo Trip Reminder

I forgot to mention in the newsletter that each student would need to pay $3.25 for the field trip to the zoo. I would like to have the money by next Tuesday, May 18th, when the purple permission slip is due. If your child wants a sack lunch from the school, they also need to return the yellow form by next Tuesday. If no yellow form is returned, I will assume that your child is bringing a cold lunch from home. The actual field trip takes place on May 28th. More reminders will be sent home as the time gets closer. Thanks!

We have been reviewing the story of Corduroy, the teddy bear, this week. Today, we made and stuffed a paper bag teddy bear, which will be used in a language activity tomorrow. Also based on Corduroy, we used the concept of losing something to make "Lost" posters. I asked the students to pretend that they lost a pet or a special item. They could either cut a picture out of a magazine or draw their lost item. They even included a (fake) phone number to call if the item is found.

Mrs. Hanson and I decided that, rather than each having our own end-of-year celebration, we will combine classes for an end-of-year celebration. On the last day of school at 11am in the gym, we will put on a performance for families, hand out certificates, and enjoy refreshments.

I made up an alphabet relay game and the students were willing to try it. It didn't work quite as well as I envisioned it, but I think the students had fun and got some practice with alphabetizing. In math, I gave each student a few paper clips. They were to find a partner, join paper clips, and write a number sentence. Everyone did very well.

Happy Mother's Day!!! This week's newsletter has been posted to the bottom of the class web page. See you tomorrow!

Snowman in May!

Teacher Appreciation week was AWESOME! Thanks to the PTA for all the pampering! Thanks, Mrs. M-H, for watching the class while I enjoyed my 10 minute massage! It was snowing during morning recess, and the snow was the perfect consistency for building a snowman. Without any adult leadership, a large group of students worked together to build a snowman. It was so fun to watch them work together. Students did a "salmon swimming upstream" art project that I found online, which turned out really cute! We watched the 5th and 6th graders perform their Beatles Revue in the afternoon. Our performance, Bugz, is o Tuesday, May 18th at 9am. No school tomorrow! Have a great weekend, and happy Mother's Day to all of you!

I said in my newsletter that book orders would be due on Friday, but I forgot that we are not at school on Friday, so they need to be returned tomorrow morning. Sorry for the mix up.

As of today we have a class "Grandma." Her name is Grandma Helen and she is married to Clyde, one of the lunchroom aides. Grandma Helen will be in our classroom Monday through Friday, from 8:15 until 10am, helping students with their morning work, handwriting, or flash cards.

Special Show and Tell--Baby Otis

Don't be surprised if your child suddenly wants a new lunchbox. One of our stories this week is about a boy who wants a lunchbox. He is too young to go to school, but as their father buys his sister a new lunchbox to start school, the younger brother wants one, too. We also read about a dragon who discovered a use for his fire breath--popping corn! We put some new words onto the word wall today. I need to post a new list for you. My main focus right now is getting every one's reading score as high as I possibly can. By the end of the year, students should be at a level 4, but students lose a lot of ground over the summer and we want them to begin first grade at a level 4. Please don't stop reading to your child over the summer. They are learning so much and will need lots of reinforcement over the summer in order to maintain their skills.

Don't' forget to return library books tomorrow!

The May 3rd newsletter has been posted to the bottom of the class web site.

I was back at school today but am still very hoarse. Students read their mini books to three others and then colored them. In science, students measured the height of their sunflower plants. We learned the importance of bees to plants and flowers. We would not have apples, almonds, or pumpkins without bees. Students made bees out of toilet paper tubes and "flew" them at the end of the day.

There was an assembly this morning about "morning walk," which will begin on Monday. Students who arrive before 8:05 (before any staff members are on duty) are to line up as usual. When a staff member arrives, students will begin walking in the same direction around the edges of the blacktop part of the playground. When the bell rings at 8:15, they are to finish their last lap, and then go to their line. I'm sure it will only take a few days to get the hang of it.

You will get a May lunch menu in your Monday envelope, but I thought I could at least let you know what's for lunch on Monday. It will be Cheesy Nachos, Corn Dog, or Beef Ravioli. Heads up: no school next Friday, May 7th. Have a great weekend.

Since I haven't been in class for a couple of days, I haven't tuned in to Rusty's social skills videos. A teacher friend, who also shows Rusty's videos to her class, let me know that Rusty did a "shout out" to our class on Tuesday's message. I have attached a link to the right so you can hear it.

We had a surprise visit from Mrs. Swan today. After doing her Junior Field experience in our room, Mrs. Swan student taught in a first grade classroom at Newman Elementary. She is almost finished and ready to graduate. Congratulations!! Students were each given a picture this morning and had to find a partner with a matching picture of a home and something that might live in that home. For example, one student had a picture of a foot and one had a picture of a shoe. At journal time, both partners wrote a sentence about their matched pair. Ex: "A shoe is a house for a foot."

By the end of the day, I had almost completely lost my voice. I have a headache from straining so hard to get any sound out, so just in case I'm not better by tomorrow, I left notes for a substitute. If your child is in sign club, it will still take place in my room, business as usual.

This week's newsletter has been posted to the class web site. I'm napping, drinking tea with honey, and taking vitamin C, hoping that I can kill this icky feeling in my throat. We mowed the lawn yesterday, so I'm thinking it stirred up all kinds of allergens.

Due to the wet weather. the student council's tree planting ceremony was moved to Monday. Our class toy exchange was a huge hit! Thanks to everyone who sent toys and books to school and a huge thanks to our organizers/helpers Elizabeth R., Diane M-H, Kim D., and Jennifer E.!!! Each student went home today with one new toy and one new book. The helpers stayed to make sure each child had their new book read to them. At journal time, students wrote about what they got. It seemed like all the students were happy with their choices. Have a great weekend, everyone!

What a busy day! We had our class picture taken in the morning, along with individual pictures. I thought they would individually photograph only the students who purchased packets, but they photographed everyone! The students were very well behaved while waiting in line. Mrs. Hanson took my class in the afternoon so I could help get things set up for our Earth Day assembly. The two kindergarten classes performed an Earth Day ABC poem in sign language, the second graders rapped a poem while playing instruments made of recycled materials, the sign club performed several songs, and fourth grade put on a play. It was all very good, but the kids got tired of sitting--it lasted an hour!

Dont' forget that tomorrow is the toy and book exchange. Please bring 2 books and 2 toys. The exchange will take place right after lunch.

Check out the Voice Thread again. It's no longer just Courtney's poem. I will be adding more poems. Ian is reading his Haiku about sharks.

One of our vocabulary words this week "communicate." We have been talking about different ways to communicate such as sign language, Braille, even the fire drill alarm communicated to us the need to leave the building. I mentioned Skype to them, and they didn't know what it was, so we called (Skyped) my dad in Texas. If you aren't familiar with Skype, it is a way to see and hear a person over the internet, using a web cam, for free! It's awesome. Students learned past tense today, by adding _ed to the end of an action verb. We started addition in math today. We learned multiple ways to make 10.

Picture day tomorrow!!

Courtney's Poem

Check out this voice thread of Courtney's poem. Click the Voice Thread link to the right. You can create a Voice Thread account (free) to make a comment to Courtney.

The highlight of the day was writing time. Not only did Courtney write a mind-blowingly great poem, but I found what excites your kids--music! I was playing classical music as they wrote and after the last classical song in my iTunes playlist, it switched to a song my daughter had downloaded (Tic Tock). Suddenly, they were all out of their seats, dancing, break-dancing, and cutting loose. I can see that I need to incorporate popular music into our day. Fun, fun, fun!

group visit letter

 

Dear Jane Dews,

Thank you for scheduling your field trip to ZooMontana!  We currently have you scheduled to bring 31 students and 7 chaperones at 10:35 A.M. for a visit on Friday, May 28^th, 2010.  Our group rate is $3.25/person for groups of 12 or more; please pay this fee all at once at the admission desk when you arrive.  To ensure you have the best possible visit to the zoo we have a short list of rules to follow to better assist you, your chaperones and your class.  Please pass on these regulations to your chaperones.

 

·       You are required one adult for every 8 children.  Chaperones MUST attend their group at all times. Our policy for groups is, no matter the age of the students, they must be with an adult chaperone assigned to that group.

·       Patrons must stay on designated trails while touring the Zoo.

·       Do not throw items into the exhibits.

·       Do not lean in or over the safety fences.

·       Do not tease or taunt the animals.

·       Do not feed the animals unless there is a designated feeding station. 

·       No bikes, skateboards or skate shoes allowed.

·       Please inform the Education Department if your students will be making purchases in the Nature Store so that we may provide additional staffing.  One group of 8 students every 15 minutes is the best way to allow your students to shop.

 

These guidelines are for your safety and the safety of our animals.  Failure to follow these rules could result in being to ask to immediately leave the zoo grounds.  Thanks again for scheduling your field to ZooMontana!  You may visit our website at www.zoomontana.org for more information on our education programs and events.  We look forward to your visit and hope you have a wild time!

 

Thank you,

 

ZooMontana’s Education Department

(406) 652-8100 ext. 6

education@zoomontana.org

 

 

Phone (406)652-81002100 South Shiloh Rd.

  www.zoomontana.org               Billings, Montana  59106