The February 1 newsletter has been added to the bottom of the class web site. See you tomorrow.

We re-read Stellaluna this morning and compared and contrasted the book and the play. I feel like we didn't get as much done today because we are having trouble getting along. We acted out several scenarios of how to deal with bullies. I am working hard to find a way to teach social skills that will be more meaningful for kindergartners.

We had a nice time at the theater this morning and the students were very well behaved. Thanks so much to Mindy Bach, Kim Dwyer, Deanna Lala, and Diane Morledge-Hampton for chaperoning -- I couldn't have done it without you all! It was great to see so many Rose Park families at Fuddrucker's after school. Tomorrow is a regular school day.

The class has found a read-aloud book that they really love. It is called Don't Eat the Teacher about a shark who bites things (and people) when he gets excited. They love playing the role of the shark as I read it to them.

Students did a story sequencing activity for another book we read today -- My Lucky Day. Look for the pig-shaped "book" in their backpack and see if they can re-tell the story.

Tomorrow is our big day -- Alberta Bair!!! School gets out at noon tomorrow, and it is Rose Park day at Fuddrucker's. Many staff members and Rose Park families will be having lunch there tomorrow. I hope to see you there!

We had fun with Mrs. Hanson's class this morning in sign language. Students learned signs for this week's shared reading, as well as signs for the song "W-H-I-T-E." In reading, I put a pile of picture cards in the center of the rug and students took turns finding rhyming words. Please practice rhyming at home, as some of them found this difficult. Next, students cut apart pictures of a mouse getting ready for school and put them in the proper sequence. In math, we practiced counting by 5s. Students traced and cut out 4 hand prints, numbered the fingers, and glued them to a sheet of paper. I asked them to keep these sheets at home so they can continue to practice counting by 5s up to 20. (Check your child's backpack.)

Even though we stayed in for recess today, the whole class was so good and so on task that they earned several popcorn points! They only need two more points to have a popcorn party. (Actually, they want to have an ice cream party.)

We read the book Mrs. McNosh Takes Out Her Wash this morning. Students drew pictures of some of the items Mrs. McNosh hung from her clothesline, we re-read the story, then we hung the drawings from a string in our room. Students wrote in their journals about what they did this morning, before coming to school. I was looking for a sequence of events, such as, "I ate breakfast, then I got dressed." Students did an excellent job writing their sentences. Please continue to encourage your child to write at home, using invented spelling.

The Jan. 25 newsletter has been posted to the class web page. Happy VIP week, Aspen!

Your child's report card was sent home today. Please check their backpack. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about it. We played a different version of BANG today, using sight words. In math, we played a BINGO game to reinforce recognition of numbers 1-31. I worked individually with students to edit their "All About" posters. Each student chose a topic and wrote 3 facts about the topic. The posters are displayed in the hall. Each student received a ring pop at the end of the day for doing such a nice job of cleaning our room all week.

Next week, we have an early out AND Alberta Bair on Thursday.

This morning in social studies, students used boxes and other assorted containers to create building and houses. They really got creative and made 3-dimensional trees, chimneys, and arches to accessorize them. Tomorrow, we will arrange the buildings, and add roads and parks to separate the structures. I can't wait to see the finished product and I will be sure to post pics.

In math, students colored all the 2s on a 100s chart with yellow crayon and all the 5s with blue crayon. Next, we used the 100s chart to count by 1s, 2s, and by 5s. Your child should have brought their 100s chart home to continue practicing counting in different ways and noticing patterns on the chart.

Book orders are due today, either online or by returning the paper order form and payment to me. We've been counting up to the 100th day of school. Yesterday was the 90th day, so if I've done my calculations correctly, the 100th day will be Feb. 2. I've asked students, on that day, to bring a collection of 100 things. The items must be small so that we can display all the collections on a table in our room. Suggested items are paper clips, pennies, marbles, M & Ms, mini erasers, etc. Please don't feel that you have to go out and buy anything--cereal will do! The point is to reinforce counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s, so please encourage your child to count the items before bringing them to school.

If your child has not brought a box or container to make a house for our neighborhood, today is the day we will be using them. I'll post some pictures after school of the buildings they create.

We have new decorations in our classroom. In math, students worked in pairs to put together a paper chain with 20 links. We put chains together and draped them from the ceiling. The students think it looks like a party in there.

In reading, I divided the class into 3 groups of 5 students. I gave each group a stack of index cards, and challenged them to draw as many pictures of things that begin with the letter H as they could think of. When time was called, the groups made a trail of their index cards. The group with the most had 15 words/pictures in 5minutes!

As you can tell, your child is getting experience working in groups. For the paper chain project, I allowed students to choose their partner. In reading, I chose the students for each group randomly. Most of them adapt very well to working with different people and I hope that by the end of the year everyone will be comfortable doing so.

This morning in sign language, each student was given a card with a high frequency word written on it. Mrs. Hanson and I took turns fingerspelling the words. The student who had that word had to recognize it and sign the sentence "I have (fingerspelled word)." We played it as a "teachers versus students" game. If they used their voice, the teachers got the point. If they weren't paying attention and didn't recognize their word as it was fingerspelled, teachers got the point. Thankfully, the students won 20 to 11!

We practiced counting the number of syllables in words during reading and incorporated sign language. More students read their books to the class today. In math, students were given a sheet of dots representing numbers 11-20. They had to write the number represented by the dots, cut the numbers apart, them put them back together in the correct order on a sentence strip (long, skinny paper).

If you haven't already sent an empty box, your child needs it to build a house for a neighborhood. An empty shoe box, a cardboard 1/2 gallon orange juice or milk box, or empty cereal box will work. We don't have enough to start our project tomorrow, but we will definitely need them by next Wednesday.

Don't forget that students do not have school on Monday, the 18th.

Due to some recent turmoil in our room, we had our first morning meeting today. Morning meeting will be our time to talk about our feelings, expectations, problems, and/or successes. Students led the discussion about what they should and should not do in the classroom. Students acted out examples of what to do when someone bothers you and they learned the fastest way to calm down--three deep breaths. Next, we set some ground rules for center time, defining what it should look like (working together at your own center), sound like (indoor voices and kind words) , and feel like (safe and fun).

Our shared reading today was about where we live: in a city called Billings, which is in a state called Montana, in a country called the USA (see if they can remember what the letters stand for), and in the world. We are compiling a book about where we live. Today, students wrote the name of our city and drew a picture of their favorite place in Billings. As you can imagine, many of them said The Reef water park!

After lunch, we read three Robert Munsch stories. You can go to his website at http://www.robertmunsch.com/booklist.cfm to listen to his stories. Afterward, we continued our writing project: "me" books. I'm so encouraged by their enthusiasm for the project. They are having so much fun filling pages for their books that we have spent more than our typical 30 minutes on writing! Most of the students have finished at least one book by now, and most have had the opportunity to read their book to the class. I'll try to video someone tomorrow so I can post their story to this blog.

Mrs. Hanson's class joined us this morning for a sign language lesson. Students learned signs for foods such as celery, hot dog, peach, apple, bacon, milk, and pizza, to name a few.

In reading, students took turns unscrambling a mixed-up sentence. They had to use their knowledge of sentence structure to determine which words would be first and last, then work from there. They did a great job! We also talked about announcements, and discussed how traffic lights are silent announcements. We also read a traffic light poem.

In math, students received new number cards, which they cut apart and added to their bag of numbers. I challenged them to put the numbers in order from 0 to 20. Most were able to do this very quickly. We also did a quick review of AB patterns.

In writer's workshop, students have been working on "Me" books. We started this project yesterday, with the hope of having enough pages to compile a book by the end of the week. A few students were so far along today that they numbered their pages, created a cover, and added a title. We will begin sharing the books tomorrow, but will continue all week.

Today we read the book Maxi the Hero. The story led to a discussion about why people have dogs as pets. We decided that dogs can be companions, guardians, or helpers. Tomorrow we will focus on the vocabulary from the story. Students will work in groups to illustrate definitions for five words from the story.

The letter of the week is H. We used highlighter tape to find uppercase and lowercase Hs in the poem If You're Happy, and then we had to sing the song. Remember when I asked you to please save your 1/2 gallon, cardboard orange juice boxes or milk cartons? Well, this is the week we will use them. We will build houses so that we can create a special neighborhood.

The class is gearing up for the 100th day of school (15 school days from today). I will remind you know as we get closer, but on the 100th day of school, students may bring in a collection of 100 small items, such as paper clips, cereal pieces, M & Ms, tiny rocks, etc. We will count the items by 2s, 5s, and 10s to find the fastest way to count to 100.

Kindergartners love homework, so today I told them that their nightly homework is to read or listen to a story. I also sent home a mitten cut-out with teen numbers so you and your child can practice number recognition. Please also practice the sight word flash cards until your child can read the words automatically--not just sound out the words.

This week's newsletter was just posted to the bottom on the class web site. :)

I tried something new for counting practice today. I went to the online stopwatch web site at http://www.online-stopwatch.com/, used the projector to show it on the screen, and had the students count up to 30 and then count back down to zero. I had to ask them to stop at one point because they were saying the number that would come next -- saying 16 while 15 was still showing. I didn't want those who still don't recognize numbers to become confused or to "learn it wrong," so we talked about it and tried again. I think with a little work this will be a great tool for a quick, daily drill.

We watched a movie again for lunch recess. The students were much better about keeping their voices to a whisper if they absolutely had to say something during the movie. It was a Magic School Bus movie about bats. They referenced vampire bats at one point and some students began to worry that this would be a scary movie. Thankfully, by the end they learned that bats are gentle creatures that eat fruit and insects, not people.

Today we had sign language with the other kindergarten class. We reviewed the family signs that were learned on Tuesday. I introduced several new signs by holding up a picture card, showing students the corresponding sign, and giving the card to a student. After everyone had a picture card, I signed a simple sentence about the picture, such as "I want a lamb." The person who was holding the lamb card had to put it back into the basket. Next, this student signed a sentence and the person who had that card had to return it, and so on. The students amaze me with how quickly they are able to learn the signs! Some of the signs they learned today are: lamb (2 signs:baby + sheep),crying baby, motorcycle, helicopter, duck, cow, donkey, beach, camera, fire truck, etc.

We reviewed the meanings of the words across, behind, over, beside, by playing a game of Mother May I? I gave them a command, such as "Go and stand beside the sink." Students had to ask, "Mother, may I?" before following the command or they had to sit down. They loved it!

We did a torn paper project. I gave everyone a large sheet of white construction paper. I did not tell them what they would be making -- I only said to tear the paper into 3 circles of different sizes. (They had a lot of trouble figuring out how to tear a rectangle-shaped paper into a circle.) To ease their pain, I showed them that they would be using the circles to make a snowman. They turned out really cute because they are all so different.

In social studies we talked about where we are in the world. We are in a city that's in a state that's in a country. Students identified Montana on a US map. We read the book Zoom, and explored Google Earth (until it hung my laptop for the remainder of the day).

For spelling, I gave students mini white boards. I fingerspelled words to them which they had to write on their board before telling me the word. Most of them knew the word immediately, but I wanted them to integrate a variety of learning styles.

It was cold enough that students stayed in for all recesses today. The other kindergarten class joined us for a movie during lunch recess. We had to have a talk about the importance of NOT talking during a movie so that others may enjoy it. I have to say that the majority of the talkers were from the other class, but I think it's important to teach students to be courteous of others, especially as they go out to the movies with their families.

We played a Bingo game that required students to identify numbers 1-30. We also played a counting game. We stood in a circle. I randomly chose a number and we counted up to that number. The person who said the chosen number had to sit down, then the next person started back at 1 and we counted up again. After everyone was "out," we played again and this time the person who said the chosen number stood. It was a great game for practicing counting.

Okay, avid readers! I've set up online ordering for Scholastic book orders. The paper order forms won't go home until next Monday, but if you're reading this, you have internet access and can view the order forms online. Click on the link (to the right) for the class web site. On there, you'll click on the Scholastic book orders link. The username is dewskinder and the password is bookorders. You have until Jan. 20th to order. Online orders require payment with a credit card. If you want to pay in cash, turn your order and money in to me by THE 20th. The favorite Authors catalog looks great. Your child knows many of these authors already.

In sign language today, students learned family signs: mom, dad, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandmother, grandfather, family, friend, baby, girl, and boy. We learned a song in which they learned to spell mom, dad, love, you, and me. We also played teacher versus class, a game in which I try to stump them by showing them a sign they can't identify. I lost BIG TIME!

I'm glad we were able to play outside part of today because it looks like we may be spending a few days indoors again because of the weather. (We stayed in for afternoon recess and watched a Barney movie about feelings.) We had a lot of fun in math today. I made a new BANG! game for practicing number recognition. Students had to be able to correctly identify the number (1-30) in order to keep the stick. At the end of the game, they arranged their sticks in numerical order.

I taught subject and verb agreement. (The dog runs. The dogs run.) I know that some of the students caught on. They all hear the correct sentence, but trying to convey why it works that way was difficult and confusing for them. Tomorrow they will write their own sentences using correct subject/verb agreement.

I changed center partners today. I think most of the students were happy with their new partner. During centers, I have been testing each student's reading level for upcoming report cards. I am seeing scores that I would normally see later in the year. This is partly because your children are brilliant but also because I started reading groups earlier this year than I have in past years. I know you'll be pleased with your child's progress.

Question of the day: Why do we call someone a "copy cat" when cats don't usually copy what others are doing? Why don't we say "copy dog?"

Welcome back! I am anxious to see the students and to get back to work! This week's newsletter has been posted to the bottom of the class web site. Click on the link to the right to get there. You'll also see that I've added a link to Google Earth, a site that the class will be visiting this week. You can download it for free and play with it at home.