December 24th-January 2nd, 2013 Happy New Year!

Dear Parents, The reading buddies loved the gifts that they received from the kindergarten children. I hope you enjoyed the “Night before Christmas” book that the reading buddies gave to the children as gifts; they put a lot of time and effort into making them. We played “pass the present game” as I read “ T’was the Night Before Christmas” on Thursday, and every time I read the word “the” they had to pass the present to the child on their right. When the book was finished, they all opened the present that they were holding. I got them activity books to keep them occupied for a short time for you over the long days off! My other gifts to the children were two books and a notebook. They can bring the notebook back to school l to use during free time. We got our tickets punched by the conductor “Mrs. Potts” (who by the way really works on the train in Jim Thorpe) and she wore her train outfit and brought her real ticket punch. The children loved it!! The movie was a hit. We had cookies and hot chocolate just like in the movie. I sincerely hope you liked the Christmas ornaments that the children made for you. Someday, and it goes fast believe me, you will look back at these keepsakes and wonder where the time went when your little one was in kindergarten. I also hope you enjoyed the reindeer food, the polar express bell, the books, and the cookie plate for Santa. We were busy elves this season! Thank you so much for thinking of me at Christmas. The wonderful gifts were not necessary but deeply appreciated. Your children know what the “love of giving” means because they couldn’t wait for me to open their gifts. We will return to school on January 2nd, 2013, and it will be day # 1 on the school rotation. Phonics- We will be working on the new letter Bb, as in ball and baby. The lowercase “b” is always a challenge for kindergarten children, so we will be doing more handwriting practice. Math –We will continue working on shapes on the geoboards, and also learning about line segments. A cube will also be introduced. Reading- We will begin reading ”See How We Grow”. It’s genre is “biography”, and the comprehension skill is cause and effect. We will be testing when we return from break because the report cards will be given out on January 18th. I have included a list of the sight words that I will be testing the children on for the second report card period. Try and review them during Christmas break. Keep writing with your children over break, so that they don’t forget how to do it. They are becoming great authors. I will be testing word list # 7 when the children return from the break. MERRY CHRISTMAS and A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR! Mrs. Margaret Bernosky

December 3rd-7th

December 3rd- 7th Dear Parents, In Phonics we will be learning about the letter “R” as in ran and rabbit. We have already introduced the memory word “are” and that can be practiced at home. We are working on or wordlists and you should have wordlist # 5 in the weekend folder. In math next week we will learn about comparing objects by weight (mass). The students are learning how to use geoboards, and relative position. Our Reading next week will take us to a new story “Little Panda”. The genre is “Informational Text” and the comprehension skill is “compare and contrast”. We will be integrating the social studies skills-sequence and responsibility, and many science skills about animals. We will learn about a wonderful panda called “Hua Mei” in our Reading story “Little Panda”. There is a wonderful internet site from the San Diego zoo that you can observe a live “panda cam (along with other animal cams.) Check it out, the children will love it! We will be making “reindeer food” next week to go along with the letter “R”, and also to make sure Santa gets to our houses. We will still have show-and tell on Friday for the letter “R”. The kindergarten children will not be exchanging presents with each other. I bought little holiday boxes and we will fill them with a treat for the 4th grade buddies so it’s not necessary to buy gifts for them. We spent some time graphing with m&m’s this week at learning centers, along with learning some facts about the “Fox”. We made a “fish bowl” for our memory book with paint, and we learned to recognize the “plot” in our stories. In phonics we learned about “twin consonants” and we learned how to code them. We finished the week with a program about “safety” and show-and-tell for the letter “Ff”. Monday will be day # 2 and we will have music class. Have a good weekend! Mrs. Bernosky PS- Don't forget the letters to Santa next week!

Nov.26th-Nov.30th

Kindergarten newsletter November 26th- November 30th  Next week in Phonics we will be focusing on the letter “F” and its sound as in fish and feather. We will have show and tell on Friday as usual. Wordlist # 4 was sent home and I will be testing it next week. Most of the children did a great job on wordlist # 3. Math- We will continue with pattern, and we will compare objects by weight and explore the use of a geoboard. Reading- Our new book will be “Who’s Garden is It”. It is a rhyming story, and the comprehension skill is “realism and fantasy”. We ended our unit for Thanksgiving by writing about what we were thankful for, and making butter in our classroom almost the same way as the pilgrims did. We watched “Charlie Browns Thanksgiving while munching on popcorn with our read-a-long friends. Reminders: Book orders are due Friday, November 30thth. Due to the holiday rush we must order early to get it shipped in time for Christmas. If you would like to use any of the books for Christmas presents that you ordered, I will hold them for you and you can pick them up in the office. You can order on line by simply using a one-time activation code(GMXW8). When you do this we get $3.00 in free books for out class every time you order on line, and you get a coupon for a book worth up to $5.00. Please make sure your child is dressed warmly for the cold weather. We will be playing outside for recess in the cold weather until we get a snow covering. Tuesday will be day # 3 and we have library class. Please return the letters to Santa in an envelope before Monday Dec. 3rd if possible. The postman will be coming to school sometime during the week of Dec. 3rd.

Thanksgiving Week---- Nov.19th-23rd

Kindergarten News Phonics We will be finishing the letter “S” as in sun and snake. Due to the shortened week for the Thanksgiving holiday, we will not begin a new letter next week. Wordlist #4 was sent home today in the communication folder, but I will not test the students until November 29th or 30th. Most of the children are doing very well on their wordlists. Math We will continue to learn about money and time, and continue to identify the numbers 0-10. We will identify before, after and between. Directions are important for many areas of study. At home you can help with this skill by playing Simon Says, and including words like: up, down, in front of, behind, below, up, left, right; etc. Reading We will continue the story “A Bed for the Winter”. The genre is “informational text” and the comprehension skill is sequence. Many science concepts will be covered in this book including day to day weather changes, preparing for winter weather, and the four seasons. FYI We did an experiment for the letter “I” with Total cereal to show the children how to find iron in the cereal we eat. They were amazed. To conclude our unit for fall, we painted pieces of pumpkin pie and then made a predictable chart about one fact that we knew about pumpkin pie. We then made our own “pumpkin pie with pumpkin and vanilla pudding, and graphed if we liked it or not. Next week we will make some Native American vests and headdresses that will be taken home on Wednesday just in time for your Thanksgiving dinner. We have been invited on Wednesday morning to watch “Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving” in Mrs. Burda’s room (4th grade classroom), and celebrate Thanksgiving together with our friends. Popcorn will be enjoyed by all. Wednesday November 21st will be an early dismissal @ 1 PM. There will be no school from Nov. 22th through November 26th. We will return to school on Tuesday, November 27th. There will be no breakfast served on Wed. November 21st due to early dismissal. The kindergarten will eat lunch at 9:15-9:45 on that day!!!!!!!!! Please remember not to send candy for snack time. We encourage healthy snacks. Monday, November 19th is day # 5 and we have gym class. Fundraiser pickup-Monday Nov.19th from 3:45 until 8:00pm

November 5th-November 9th

Kindergarten News- Nov. 5-9, 2012 FYI- Picture retakes and/or make-ups will take place on Monday, November 5th. If you were not satisfied with your child’s picture, you must return it, in order to have your child’s picture retaken. Thanks to everyone for making the Halloween parade and party so much fun!!!!!! The kindergarten report cards will be sent home, Tuesday, November 6th, 2012. Please look over the report card, sign it, and return it as soon as possible! If you have any questions or concerns, please notify me and we can discuss them. The parent-teacher conferences will be held on Tuesday ,Nov. 6th. If you requested a conference, look for your confirmation in your child’s folder today (Monday). Those who requested a phone conference will be called after you have had an opportunity to look over your child’s report card. Many of the students are forgetting to bring their show-and tell on Fridays. I will begin sending brown lunch bags home as a reminder on Thursdays . The children get very disappointed when they forget something to share. Friday November 9th is an Act 80 day. There is no school for students. Day light savings time ends on Sunday, Nov. 4th @ 2 AM. Remember to turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night. School policy states that shorts may not be worn until the spring! Coat zipping can be a major problem for kindergarten, please practice this skill at home. The children hate being late for recess because they need help! Also feel free to send gloves for recess, we will be going out whenever possible, even when it is cold. READING: This week we read “Animal Babies in Grasslands”. The children learned about calves, cubs, joeys pups, and foals. This week our story is “Bear Snores On” by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman. Its genre is animal fantasy and the comprehension skill is realism and fantasy. Phonics: We will continue learning learn about the letter Mm as in monkey and mom, but we will also introduce the letter Ii if possible. I will be testing wordlist #2 early in the week, and wordlist #3 might come home so that you can begin to work on it . Math: We are learning how to have a mathematical conversation by naming a shape piece using three attributes (shape, color. and size). We will also learn how to identify a missing piece in a matrix, and describe the relative position of objects.

Oct. 29th -Nov. 2nd

Kindergarten News October29th-Nov. 2nd Next week in Phonics we will be working on the consonant letter Mm as in monkey and mom. We will have show & tell on Friday as usual. Our theme will be a “mish mash” of M topics, and we will learn a little about magnets and measurement. It will be “marvelous”! In Math we will be acting out story problems , and continue with identifying and counting 0 to 30. In Reading, we are introducing the story “Animal babies in grasslands.” Its genre is animal fantasy and the comprehension skill is setting. I will be sending wordlist # 2 with your child in their Friday folder. This copy does not have to be returned to me. Have your child practice the words all week, and I will individually test them on Thursday or Friday. I will then send the graded list home for you to review, sign it and return it to me. The “NSE” T shirts are a gift from the PTO. It is very important that your child wears this shirt on our field trip in the spring. The shirts can be worn on spirit days and gym days but please not to misplace it or you will be responsible for purchasing a new shirt. We have been having some problems with some children having bathroom accidents, and because of this we are asking for clothing donations of pants, socks, and shoes to be kept in the nurse’s office. If your child comes home with clothes from the nurse please make sure you return them after they are washed. Report cards will be sent home in your child’s folder on Please review it, sign it, and return it to me ASAP. If you have any questions, please contact me. Since the weather will be getting cooler, we ask that the boys and girls practice at home putting coats on themselves and zipping/buttoning them. We often spend lots of time struggling with coats and zippers at this time of year. Thanks for the help! The Halloween party and parade had been rescheduled for Friday Nov.2ndst @ 2:15 o’clock due to the impending bad weather on Wednesday. Please have your child bring their costume to school, they should not wear it, and please make sure it is in a bag with their name on it, so that you are assured of getting it home. There will be homeroom parents at school to help me get the children dressed. If you are a homeroom parent that has notified me that you are helping at the party, please be here at 1:40 PM. The book orders are due on Monday November 5th and our online activation code is GMXW8. Report cards will be given out Monday, Nov. 5th. Please sign them and return them ASAP. A schedule for parent conferences is in your child’s folder, if you would like to discuss your child’s progress please fill it out and return it to me. I will send a note next week informing you of the time of your conference. Monday is day # 3 and we have library class. Have a great weekend!

Week of October 22nd- 27th

Kindergarten News This coming week we will be learning the consonant letter Nn as in nest and nut. Please continue to review all the letters we have learned so far. Show and Tell will be on Friday. Please find something that begins with the letter Nn. Your child will have a word list #1 in their folder. This list should be practiced all week and I will be individually testing them on reading each word at the end of next week. Keep the list at home to practice each night, and I will send the wordlist that I tested as soon as possible. The word lists are used for a grade on their report cards. We will begin reading the book “Hot, Hot, Hot”. It is the first Phonics reader for this year, and we will be reading it all week. It is very important that your child knows all the letters and sounds that we learned so far in order to find success with this. In reading we are in Unit 2. The theme of unit 2 is Animal Live Here we will be reading stories that focus on animals’ homes. Our first story was called Life in an Ocean in which we learned about the ocean environment and also comparing and contrasting different things living in the sea. This week’s story is Armadillo’s Orange. The genre is animal fantasy, and the comprehension skill is “setting”. In Math we will be working on identifying, describing, and comparing triangles and squares. Please review the concepts of MORE, FEWER, and EQUAL and practice counting objects with sets of 0-10 with your child at home. Since the weather will be getting cooler, we ask that the boys and girls practice at home putting their coats on themselves and zipping/buttoning them. We often spend a lot of time struggling with coats and zippers at this time of the year. Thanks for the help! We are working on out “Tree journal” and it will be sent home soon. **Red ribbon week begins the week of October 22-31. Check the north Schuylkill newsletter for the specific things planned for this week. The school walk for diabetes will be held on Friday October 26th @ the high school track. We will be walking early in the morning so please make sure your child has a jacket. Monday is day # 3 book-exchange, please remember to return library books. Have an “awesome” weekend. Mrs. Bernosky

Week of October 15th-19th

Kindergarten news- October 17-21 Next week in phonics we will be learning the letter “A”. We will learn that apple has a short /a/ sound and acorn has a long /a/ sound. Show and tell will be on Friday as usual but I will not be sending a bag home anymore. We will be beginning the story “Life in an Ocean” in Reading. The genre is “informational text” and the comprehension skill is “compare and contrast”. For the next ten lessons in Math we will be focusing on: * Numbers and operations, * Algebra- recognizing, describing, and order of objects by size, and number. *Geometry- recognizes, name, build, draw, compare and sort two and three dimensional shapes. Before we know it, it will be time to begin individually testing your child for their first report card, so please continue to practice letter and number recognition, letter and number formation, and letter sounds for l, o, g, h ,t ,p and A. Also practice the memory words “I, a, am, to, the, little, love, of, have, and is.” They will also be tested on making and extending an A,B pattern, and be able to give me a rhyming word when I provide them with a word (tell me word that rhymes with hat) and be able to tell me if two words rhyme(like bug- rug). The fall festival was a huge success. The children had a wonderful time. A lot of people devoted a huge amount of time to making this an enjoyable day for our students, and it is appreciated. I would also like to thank my nephew Travis Brown and his two friends and co-workers from Colorado for providing our school with a free demonstration of “slack-lining”. The main objective of this presentation was to educate children on the importance of staying physically fit. We had a wonderful time at the pajama party on Friday. Some of the activities were: pasta necklaces, printing with Halloween sponges, paper plate puppets, and playing with play dough. Everyone looked perfect in their pajamas, and we even had pancakes. For snack time we munched on popcorn and pretzels. Thanks to the homeroom moms and dad that helped out. If you signed up to be a homeroom mom and have your clearances, and you would like to help out for the Halloween party on October 31st(Wednesday) please send a note to me and I will be in touch with more details. Please note that Friday October 19th is an early dismissal (11:45) for students due to an act 80 day. Please make any necessary arrangements for your child, and let me know through a note if their departure from school will be different than usual. Lunch will be served at 9:15-9:45 and there will be no snack time. This month students are invited to raise awareness for breast cancer by wearing pink every Thursday. The weekender backpack program will begin this week for participating families. Please return the empty food bag to school on Monday. The next distribution will be Oct. 25th. Picture retake day is Monday, Nov. 5th. Anyone who was absent on picture day is asked to be photographed on re-take day. Also anyone not happy with their photo taken in September may return the complete package of photos and have their picture retaken. Monday will be day # 3 and we have library class! Don’t forget your book!!!!! Have a Perfectly Peachy weekend!

Week of October 8th-12th

Kindergarten News October 8th-11th No school for students Monday Oct. 8th A new revised calendar has been sent home for the month of October. The school rotation has been changed so please take note of next week’s schedule. Monday- no school for students Tuesday-Day # 5-Gym class Wednesday-Day #1-computer class Thursday- A special program will be help in the gym during the student’s special time. This is also the fall festival. Friday- Day#2- Music class.- No show and tell this week! Tuesday will be day #5, and we will have gym class. We will not begin a new letter this week in Phonics due to the short week. • Please continue to review the letters we have covered at home. • We will continue working on patterns in Math and we are also going to learn about ordinal numbers, and even explore acting out story problems. • In reading we will be starting the story Dig, Dig, Digging. Our focus skills for unit one are story setting, characters, sequence, and comparing and contrasting the story elements. The genre is a concept book. • We began our writing program titled Kid writing. Several times during the week we work in small groups writing stories. Once we complete several pieces I will send home your child’s writing for you to keep and enjoy. When I am working individually with some students, the other children are working in learning centers that are designed around some of the concepts that we have covered so far. It is very exciting to watch the children grow into writers! • Thursday Oct. 11th will be the Fall Festival. The children can wear the clothes that they would wear for Gym class or dress code attire. We will be outside very early in the day, so remember a jacket for the cool mornings. Sneakers are a must!!!! • Congratulations to Ava Karabinas for earning student of the month. • Now that the colder weather is approaching, please make sure you have name labels in your child’s jackets and coats to avoid confusion .Also please practicing zippering and buttoning jackets for recess. Mrs Bernosky Activation code for the scholastic book order online- GMXW8 Make sure you keep the list of red ribbon week activities for the week o fOctober 22 -31,2012

Week of October1st-October 5th

Happenings for the week of October 1 – 5, 2012 Monday –day #5-gym class This week in phonics we are working on the letter Pp. We will have show and tell on Friday. Please help your child find a small object at home to bring in that begins with the letter p. This past week for the letter “T” we have many disappointed children because they did not remember to bring their show and tell” to school. We have “show and tell” every Friday unless I inform you otherwise. Please help your child remember for the letter “P”. In math we will be discussing ordinal position of objects, story problems, and putting events in proper order or sequence. We will begin working on Kid Writing this week. Each day we worked in small groups writing stories. Once we complete several stories they will be sent home for you to keep and enjoy. It is exciting to watch your child grow as a writer! In reading, we will be enjoying the story, “Julius”. Our focus skills for unit one are story setting, characters, and comparing and contrasting the story elements. The genre for this story is “animal fantasy”. As the end of the first quarter is approaching, we will begin to assess the children on their knowledge of the letters and sounds we have covered in phonics including letter l, o, g, h, t, and p. We will test sight word knowledge on words I, am, the, a, my, little, and love. You may want to review these at home starting next week. Our math assessments will be based on the knowledge of patterns, shapes, number to 30 (reciting), and recognizing numbers to 10. We do not send a progress report home in kindergarten, when the rest of the school does. We will be enjoying a pep-rally on Friday October 5th to celebrate the homecoming football game against Tamaqua. Fall Festival money is due ASAP. Future dates to remember: Week of October 8-12th Thursday, October 11th-Fall Festival. This will be held outside weather permitting. Friday, October 14 will be pajama day. Children are allowed to wear pajamas to school for that day. We will have different P activities and a special treat that starts with the letter P as well.

September 24th-28th

Kindergarten News In the upcoming week, we will be learning Tt as in tent, tail, and tie. Take some time to find items at home that begin with the letter Tt sound! Also, boys and girls are asked to learn their telephone numbers. Please practice at home! Our theme for the upcoming weeks and October will be Fire Safety. We have many activities planned to teach the students about fire safety such as; videos, stories, and art projects. Don’t forget to ask your child what he/she has learned! In reading we will be starting the story Plaidypus Lost. Our focus skills for unit one are story setting, characters, sequence, and comparing and contrasting the story elements. The genre is animal fantasy and fiction. We will soon begin our writing program titled Kid writing. Several times during the week we work in small groups writing stories. Once we complete several pieces I will send home your child’s writing for you to keep and enjoy. It is very exciting to watch the children grow into writers! In Math we will be working on ordering numbers 1-5, naming shapes by color, shape and size, describing the relative position of objects, and matching numbers to sets. The Kindergarten Fall Festival will be held at the school on Thursday, Oct. 11th. There will be a fall festival meeting on Thursday, Sept. 27thh, at 6:00 at the pavilion at NSE Elementary. . Parent and grandparent volunteers are welcome and needed to help the homeroom parents with this fun-filled day! Please send your $3.00 dollar donation ASAP. If you cannot help at the festival, there are many small things that we need donated to defray the cost of the larger items. If you would be willing to donate something let me know and I will send a list of needed items to pick from. School store will begin on Monday, September 24th. Monday is the only day that kindergarten students are permitted to shop at the school store. Each grade has a designated day .The store is run by the PTO and the students must shop before school begins at 8:45. Parents are encouraged to check out your teacher’s BLOG for homework and important information for the week. You can access each teacher’s blog by going to the NS website at www.northschuylkill.net and clicking on Elementary School; then drop down to Homework Helpline and click on the teacher’s name. This should take you directly to each teacher’s blog. (The blogs will be updated at least once a week) There has been a change in the lunch menu for next Wednesday the 26th, it will be toasted cheese and tomato soup, and Friday September 28th will be pierogie casserole. Please make sure their children have their names on their homework. If you did not get a corrected homework paper returned, it is because there was no name on it and the children could not identify it. We began our unit on trees, and we examined seeds (chestnuts, acorns, and maple seeds), and we did leaf and bark rubbings. Monday, September 24th will be Day 5 on our special classes’ schedule. Wear your gym sneakers!!!

Sept- 3rd-7th

*Mrs. Bernosky’s Kindergarten Newsletter* *First week of school* We made it!! The first week of school is over and all the children and the “teacher” survived!!! The girls and boys learned a lot about the school rules and the consequences if they are not followed. We even learned a song about school rules. I saw an improvement of behavior each day as the children became aware of my expectations. I believe that we are off to a great start and I am looking forward to a great year. We began this week exploring Teddy bear counters and pattern blocks in Math, and we learned the correct way to write the numbers one, two and three. Keep practicing the song that goes with these numbers, found at the bottom of the page. The children did a great job on their names for homework, and did a super job returning the homework all week. I will send homework on Monday through Thursday, and no homework will be given on the weekends! Phonics began on Tuesday introducing the very first letter, the letter Ll. We are learning that there is a capital and a lowercase letter. We learned the sound of “L” and that we always begin at the top to write both the capital and lowercase “L”. We began our Reading Series by reading the book “The Little School Bus” by Carol Roth. The genre of this story is a rhyming story, and the comprehension skill is character. A “Family Times” newsletter was sent home with details about the story and the skills that we will be working on. We will continue this unit next week. We practiced a fire drill on Wednesday so that the children can get use to walking to the high school football field which is where we assembly for fire drills. Friday afternoon, we hiked over to the football field for a school wide pep rally. Go Spartans!!!!!!!! Week of September 3th – 7 th Monday- Labor Day – no school Tuesday- The students will be upset because they have to start all over again getting adjusted to being at school. Phonics: We have finished up the letter “L” this week and to celebrate we are having a “ Little Luau” in Mrs. Bernosky’s class. The children can dress in tropical prints, bright colors, Hawaiian shirts, etc. It is ok if your child is not dressed according to the dress code policy on this day, but please no denim or flip flops. We will begin learning the letter “O” this week .Make sure that you go over all of the papers at home with your child to keep you informed about what your child is doing at school. Math: We will continue to work on pattern blocks, identify more and less on a graph, and learn about pictographs. Reading: We will continue the lesson from last week, and if possible we will begin the new book “”Fix It Duck”. Look for the “Family Times” newsletter for the new story. FYI *Friday, September 7th will be school pictures and the order forms will come home in your child’s folder. This will be day # 4, art class, so the children don’t have to worry about wearing “gym attire” on picture day. *Every Friday of the school year is spirit day. This is an optional activity that our school does to promote school spirit for our sport teams. The children are permitted to wear any North Schuylkill t-shirt or NS shirt and uniform pants or shorts. They can also still wear the regular uniform clothing if they wish. *Snack and lunch is getting better, but some of the children are still struggling. Please discuss what they are going to pick if they are eating the cafeteria food, and show them what they will have for snack. Please note that the elementary lunch price has gone up to 1.85 instead of the amount listed in the newsletter given out at “Meet the Teacher”. Updated prices are on the website. *Please keep wearing bus tags every day because the children don’t know their bus numbers yet. *Some parents have not returned all of the required forms from the beginning of the school year yet. Please submit them no later than Tuesday, Sept. 4th. I will try to send extra papers to the people who are missing them. If you don’t get any them you know you are fine. Have a great long weekend and great Labor Day! Mrs. Bernosky