Kids are bringing home a field trip permission slip today. It has all the information you need for the day, as well as for being a chaperone. Please sign and return the bottom half as soon as possible. I’ve included information about the cost or what to do if you have a Friends of the Zoo pass.
Click here for a copy of the Kindergarten Field Trip note. The April calendar is full! Click here for the April Calendar that will be in your child’s folder Wednesday. The class has earned a compliment party on Monday. Kids chose Silly Shoes and bringing toys for Free Choice time. Any toy that will fit in the backpack is fine. These are not to come out until Free Choice. Thank you for the fun dance night! I’ve put pictures on our “Pictures” page for you to enjoy. Nine kids from our class attended. These kids have not returned their portfolios yet: Moriah, Elijah, Jayme, Ethan, Brayden, Zane, Kaiya, Madison. I won’t be able to add to them if they aren’t here! Word Work is now focused on word families – words that rhyme and are spelled alike at the end. This helps the kids realize that if they can spell “and,” they can spell all of the words that rhyme with it. We do many of these activities together since reading is involved and these are new learning pages. I ask the kids to write “Together” on their page so you know they had help. Configuration station will be alone next week. Writing is a continuation of persuasive letters, posters, songs, or lists. The kids are writing like crazy. They must include reasons for fixing the problems they have noticed. These can be warnings about punishments or how their friends may feel about them. We continue to practice nice handwriting, spelling, punctuation, and capital letters where needed only. Reading was fun as we used non-fiction books to research farm animals. The kids made posters with Fact Boxes about their topic. These are hanging in our hallway. Stop by sometime to see them! Teen numbers are still our math focus. Many are beginning to understand place value as we separate tens and ones. If you see errors on papers coming home, please practice counting into the teens using pennies. Put ten of the together for the group of tens. Add the ones beside them to show any teen number. Reminders: *Please send coats when we have days like today. It was 29 degrees with the wind, and I had 7 or 8 kids with little jackets. *No school April 3. *We do have school April 6. *I will be absent Monday for my father-in-law’s funeral in Hutchinson, Kansas *I will be absent Tuesday for my grandson’s surgery to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. These are causing stress on his heart. With the defect he has, it is imperative to operate now. Mastery Report Cards are being sent home today. Students were to put them in the front pocket of their three-ring binder I am also sending home. The report card is for you to keep. Please look through the binder to see progress your child has made to this point and return it by Friday. This will be yours to keep at the end of the school year. Check Mastery Connect for areas where your child is struggling to see where you can help. Many standards will be assessed again, and scores will change accordingly.
Your child's reading grade did not print correctly. I wrote it in at the top of the column to the right. Level D/6 is where students should be at this time in order to be proficient in May at F/10. Level C/4 is the most difficult hurdle because I am not allowed to read anything except the title during testing. Reading with your child does make the difference! I can see it when we are in reading groups then again during testing. Copy of the email sent Wednesday:
This week I started using Class Dojo as a visual record of students' behaviors. I can negatively "ping" a child's name for behaviors that are not allowed, as well as give a positive "ping" for those behaviors that should be praised. This program helps the kids realize how many reminders they've needed throughout the day and helps them strive for positive "pings". The information provided can be helpful to you when your child's folder is marked with anything other than a stamper. Ultimately I use it for the students to strive for only positive behaviors. Class Dojo is very useful in supporting when a child deserves to be moved from green. It is difficult to keep up with all positive behaviors, so keep in mind that if your child doesn't show any marks for the day, they behaved exactly as expected and did everything asked of them. You don't have to keep up with it at all, but it is here for you. The parent invite to view should have arrived Wednesday night. Click here to Reply or Forward I had a beautiful post completed, then the program bleeped it all away. Here it goes again....
The kids have started their persuasive writing unit and are doing wonderfully. Their job is to see a problem that needs corrected, think about how it can be solved, write to the person that can correct the problem providing a solution and consequences that will occur if the problem persists. They seem to really be into this type of writing because they get to say things they've wanted to say all year. Their ideas thus far have been: people talking and making noises during work time, trash on the floor, open backpacks dropping stuff on the floor, pee in the bathroom floor, being pinched or kissed, and even fixing our leaky roof. Their job this weekend is to watch for a problem that occurs outside of our classroom. Kids can write letters, make posters, or make signs. They are learning that they can change the world through writing. Math is a review of teen numbers, but kids are learning about place value. They need to be able to look at a teen number and know how many tens and ones have been added to equal it. We are using cubes and other manipulatives to show how we are counting. Our reading focus is learning the purpose of non-fiction books and learning from them. Kids went on a non-fiction features search in books we have in the classroom. They marked features they found and shared with a friend. We read non-fiction books about weather and listened for facts that teach us. Kids retold facts to a friend after each page. Next week we will use other strategies when reading about animals and jobs on a farm. Kids will be looking for facts that support what animals on a farm provide for us. We have a special event Thursday, March 26 from 6 to 7:30. Our yearly dance will be held in the cafeteria. You will find me in the middle of the dance floor. This is my favorite event! Please join us. Have a beautiful weekend! Oh my goodness what a week!!! We've been so busy anyway with testing for 3rd quarter then we added "fun" days. Not to mention the full moon Thursday. The kid's cars, trucks, buses.... they were all so very cool! The kids were proud to show them off. They didn't even care about the movie. They kept playing with each others' vehicles. These can be picked up any time this afternoon until 6pm. If your child is a car rider, we will try to get them to the front hallway. Please come inside to get them. (Check our "Pictures" page for lots of pictures! ) I am ready for a Spring Break, or even just Spring would be appreciated. Maybe next week. Remember to "Spring forward" Sunday morning for the time change.
When we return March 16th our theme is "Weather". Kids will be learning to identify types of clouds and the weather they predict, why rain and wind are important, and what jobs the sun has. We will wrap up our alphabet work with the letter Zz. At this time students should be able to identify all letters and the sounds they make. We will go into word families after Zz. Writing will be about sharing opinions. We will discuss how to choose what to write about and many ways to share an opinion. This will be a little easier than How-To books. Sentence structure is important: spaces, capitals in appropriate places, punctuation, and complete thoughts. Choose a few days a week to ask your child to write about their day. This practice with your one-on-one help can make a huge impact. Math will be a bit easier as well with us returning to the teen numbers. The hard part is that kids have to learn how to break the group of ten from the singles and record it. If your child names the teen numbers easily and counts to 100, it won't be as difficult. February and March Book-It forms may be sent any time. Late is fine!! A list means you are reading with your child. Enjoy next week. I know the kids are ready for a break. I have no amazing plans except to catch up a little on sleep and do zero school work. Otherwise I'll be changing diapers and feeding babies - and I look forward to it with great happiness. |
AuthorMrs. Christine Bailey Willard South Homepage
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May 2019
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