Thursday, March 1 Kindergarten Program Information:
Send your child to school in the costume colors for our 2:45 performance. If you worry about a messy lunch, you can send the t-shirt in the backpack for after lunch. The afternoon performance will be recorded and available on DVD for $5.00. The order form was sent home today. Yes! You are invited to join us for this performance! For the evening performance: Please have your child at school at or just a little after 6:00. Kids can walk to the classroom alone so you can get in line for seating. I will be there waiting to supervise and lead kids to the cafeteria at 6:10. My class wears red shirts and pants/leggings. Girls can wear red dresses if they want to. A few of my kids wear a different color of shirt, and they know who they are. You have received several notes about clothing, so you already know what color your child needs. Audience seating will begin at 6:20. My class stands on the left side of the risers, but in the left-center. You will want to sit on the left side of the cafeteria to see your child best. If you sit on the right side, you may not be able to see through Mrs. Christensen. If you know your child will not attend the evening performance, please let me know. It is very difficult for 97 students to be on the risers so closely for our hour practices. I truly appreciate the behavior expectations I know you have shared with your child. Practices have improved dramatically in the past week. Weekly Theme: Presidents
Shared Reading: Nonfiction texts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Kids listened for facts to share about them. We also compared and contrasted what we learned about each. We also learned about United States Symbols and drew the Statue of Liberty. These are in our hallway for you to see! Sight Words: review of all four lists Handwriting Letters: We listened for short vowel sounds in small words and wrote them. Letters were written correctly using the line guides. Word Family: -op Writing: Kids worked toward publishing their “How-To” pieces. We will continue next week. The writing assessment will be given March 5th. Kids will write directions to teach others to do an activity they can do well. Site words must be spelled correctly. The writing must be readable by others as well as the child. Pictures should be detailed and labeled. Math: Topic 10: Compose and Decompose Numbers 11 To 19 - We continued working with ten-frames to build and break apart teen numbers. The assessment will be Wednesday. DRIVE – IN MOVIE…...Our class will be celebrating the end of our “Transportation” theme by having a Drive-In Movie Day on Friday, March 9th. Each child needs to collect a box they can comfortably sit in to be their car/truck and decorate it. Pinterest serves as a great idea board. Keep working on your vehicle so it is ready to bring to school the 9th. Upcoming Events: February 28 – Book It Calendars Due March 1st – Kindergarten Musical - kids should wear short sleeves due to heat on stage! (Students need to be here by 6:00; Doors will open for seating at 6:25) March 6 – Hat Day March 8 – Literacy Night @ 6:00 March 9 – Drive In Movie (Please make arrangements for your car to be picked up by 6:00) Early Dismissal @ 12:30 Weekly Theme: Valentine’s Day
Shared Reading: Slug’s In Love Communication Arts: We will be using this week to work on the following skills…
Handwriting Letters: writing words that include short vowels o-e Word Family: -og Writing: We focused on creating a materials list, adding cautions and tips to our writing, and rereading to be sure we have all the steps necessary while staying on topic. Next week kids will be publishing what they have written. Math: Topic 10: Compose and Decompose Numbers 11 To 19 which breaks the numbers into tens and ones place value School Wide Book Read: We kicked off our school wide book read Wednesday, February 7th. Each family should have received one copy of the book The Hero Two Doors Down by Sharon Robinson along with a letter outlining our reading schedule. We will wrap up the book at a final celebration on Literacy Night, March 8th from 6:00-7:30. You will find your child’s artwork displayed in the halls along with book activities in each grade level wing. Please be reading the book at home. We are trying to find time to read it at school, but time is sparce. What we have read we have discussed and enjoyed. DRIVE – IN MOVIE…Our class will be celebrating the end of our “Transportation” theme in March by having a Drive-In Movie Day. Each child needs to collect a box he/she can comfortably sit in to be his/her car or truck and decorate it. For more information please refer to the letter that was sent home last Friday. Upcoming Events: Read chapters 6 and 7 next week Pizza Hut Book-It lists are due Feb 28th Our theme this week was the Moon. Kids activated schema (prior knowledge), made predictions of words we might see in our texts, and discussed the problem and solution of the text Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me. The problem is when the beginning of a text stops. The solution is when the ending begins. Tricky, right?
Handwriting: short vowel words using /a/ and /i/. Handwriting does matter, so we are practicing on these short pieces of work to write the way kids have been taught. Letters begin at the top, not the bottom. Please watch for this mistake with your child. It is a difficult habit to break. Word Family: -op Writing: Kids continued to work on How-to pieces. Spacing is a must so others can read writing. We discussed adding cautions and tips such as: when you are dressing yourself, be sure to put your socks on before your shoes or you will have to just take them back off. To help support writing you can ask your child to write a sentence or two each night. Ask them to tell you about lunch, recess, something they laughed at, or a friend. This will provide practice using writing strategies taught. Be sure to reinforce spacing between words, using capitalization correctly, using punctuation, and handwriting. This is also a great way to practice sight words. Begin a sentence and let them finish it. Example: I like to ___________. I can go __________. Math: We finished Topic 9! The assessment was Friday. Scores will be available on Mastery Connect this weekend. We will begin Topic 10 Monday: Compose and Decompose Numbers 11 to 19. Kids will be working with ten-frames to easily add a group of ten to a number quickly to see the answer. We use counting on from 10 to do this. If teen numbers don't come quickly for your child, reading them and writing them at home can help tremendously. Ways to help at home: Have your child practice reading each night from “on level” books. To access a variety of books on your child’s level you can login to https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login. For teacher username, enter willardsouthka or click on my name if it appears. This will take you to our class screen where your child can locate their name. Our class’ password is a picture of a watermelon. Focus on tracking print, reading exactly what is on the page (no adding words), and using the strategies Lips the Fish & Eagle Eye as the first means for decoding unknown words. Jump Rope For Heart fundraising ends Friday, February 16th. If you haven't considered participating or donating, please do. The American Heart Association saves lives every day with research and special funding for heart patients. My grandson, Elijah, has heart defects, and he is alive today because of The American Heart Association. You are welcome to donate under my granddaughter's name if your child is not participating. Send your donation in an envelope marked "Jump Rope for Heart". The Valentine’s Day Party is coming up on February 16th from 10:00 - 10:45. You are welcome to make a Valentine’s Box with your child and send it any day next week. If you do not wish to make a box, I will have a bag they can use for their Valentine’s. Please send completed Valentines by Monday, February 12th. At this time we do not have any treats provided. If you can send anything, please let me know. *A Movie Day note for March is in your child's mail today. Please read to be prepared. *The goal page on the left side of your child's folder is for the month of February. Some kids were able to complete their goal, some were not. Please review the page with your child and complete if necessary. This is a goal your child set for themselves to be a better student in our classroom. Ask daily if the goal was met for the day. You are free to track days on the sheet if you want to. *School-wide book read: every teacher is reading the book, The Hero Two Doors Down, in class. I am explaining things that I know the kids do not understand (every other paragraph!) They seem to be enjoying the reading of a chapter book. This will be a tremendous lesson in treating others as we want to be treated when we reach the end of the book. You have a schedule to follow at home as well. It will be good for kids to hear the book at home and at school. Talk about events, feelings, problems when reading. It is a great way to practice thinking about what we are reading. Important Dates: February 16- Valentine’s Day Party February 16- Dismiss at 12:30 February 28-Book it reading log due March 1- Kindergarten Music Program 6:30 PM March 8- Literacy Night 6:00-7:30 March 9-End of 3rd Quarter March 9- Dismiss 12:30 March 13-16- No School - Spring Break Book Orders are due today. If you are ordering, please contact me when you are finished ordering on-line.
We read Substitute Groundhog to work with identifying the beginning and ending of a story. To determine the beginning of most stories simply read to the point when the problem occurs. The ending begins at the point when a solution is provided. Kids seem to be grasping this idea. The most important parts of either are what must be included in a retell. Events that aren't important to the story can be excluded, but a teacher will never get upset if a child includes a bit more than necessary. Students were fun to listen to as they activated schema for our groundhog schema chart. They weren't quite sure what a groundhog was. They knew groundhogs live in holes in the ground called burrows. They inferred that if the groundhog lived in a burrow, he must have claws to dig. They also made some text-to-self connections about having seen a dog dig a hole using his paws and shadows. We celebrated the 100th day of school on Wednesday with 100s activities and a snack of graham cookie for the one, and two cookies for the zeros. We've been using Youtube and Gonoodle videos to practice counting to 100. I used an app to "age" the kids for writing. These pictures are in the post below. Their page is in our hallway with writing "When I am 100 I......" Some kids said "will be dead" or "will be a mom/dad". Grasping the idea of 100 years is a bit beyond their understanding. It was fun to giggle at their pictures. Sight Words: will, come, down from List C. We are still practicing lists A and B for our December goal. At this time five kids have mastered lists A and B. Handwriting: We used math lessons to practice writing numerals 11-20 correctly Word Family: -it Writing: We will start a new unit on learning to write How-To books, or teaching books. This unit will focus on writing specific directions to teach the reader how to do something. Next week, our focus will be on labeling to add clarity to our pictures and using spacing in our writing. Math: Topic 9: Counting Numbers To 20 We discussed how to count items to 20 and how to chart counters on ten frames to show how many were counted. This is in preparation for showing place value. It is also an excellent time to be sure kids are not skipping numbers 13, 14, 15. When there are speech problems, kids often hear "firteen" for 13 and "firteen" for 14, so they leave one out. This gives them an incorrect count. Practice counting objects at home to identify if this is causing your child difficulty, then talk through it. Ways to help at home:
Upcoming Events: February 5th - The last day to turn in January BOOK IT lists February 5th - the school-wide book read begins *watch for the book and chapters to read each week February 6th – Hat Day (Bring a canned or boxed food item to participate) February 16th - Early Dismissal at 12:30 Friendship Party 10:00-10:45 No book order due to the lack of interest. |
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