April 3rd to April 5th, 2013

Kindergarten News -April 3rd -5th - Wednesday April 3rd will be day # 4 Even though we are finished with all of the letters of the alphabet, we still have much to learn. Next week we will finish up the Phonic lessons about long vowels. Remember the rule- “If a vowel is not followed by a consonant, the vowel is long and we code it with a macron.” Ask your child to tell you about long vowels.  No show and tell for the rest of the year unless I notify otherwise.  You may have noticed that we are practicing for our “end of the year testing” on our phonic worksheets. The children are given 10 minutes to write as many words as they can as part of their kindergarten testing. The Reading teachers give the test in the cafeteria because there are no words to copy from, and we will be there to help. I am trying to teach “word families” like “at, it, ed, ug,og, ad, op, etc to make it easy for the children to be successful on this test. Practice this at home. In Math we will work on identifying and making symmetrical designs, counting pennies to pay for items that together cost less than 30 cents and writing numerals through 30 to label sets. Please review the pages that come home in your child’s folder daily. . We had a great Easter egg hunt and we actually incorporated some learning into fun. Each teacher wrote a “memory” word for their class on their eggs and the children had to only find only those eggs. Our word was “said”.  Thanks to Mrs. Love for filling the eggs for me.  Have a Happy Easter and spring break! There will be no school for teachers and students Friday, March 28th and Monday and Tuesday April 1st and 2nd. School will be in session Wednesday, April 3rd. Kindergarten pictures: Thursday April 4th- Please send in your Graduation picture order envelope and form by Wednesday-April 3rd with money included. The students need a white colored shirt because they will be wearing a rounded neck graduation gown and the collar will be the only thing showing of their clothing. Each child’s picture will be taken for the group shot, so we would appreciate if you would dress your child appropriately even if you are not interested in purchasing the pictures. The pictures are being taken at 9:00 AM and there is no make-up date so please make sure your child is at school on time. The children will be wearing graduations caps so please no ponytails or barrettes, because they will not fit under the cap. Dates to remember: Fieldtrip- May 23rd Carnival- May 24th Kindergarten graduation- May 28th (evening)

Kindergarten News- March 25th-29th  This week since we have finished all the letters of the alphabet, we will be working on a new concept. We will learn about long vowels, and the new rule is “a vowel not followed by a consonant is long: code it with a macron. Some examples are-hi, me he, and she.  All of the girls enjoyed being “Queen for a day” on Thursday. The girls got to wear crowns and the boys did nice things for them all day.  We will try to begin our Foss Science Kit called “Animals Two by Two”. We will be exploring and observing a few different animals in nature including our own aquarium of goldfish. We are working on a “fish journal, “also.  Report cards will be given out on Wednesday, March 27th. We are still testing so keep working at home.  For Reading we will begin “Mayday! Mayday!” Its genre is informational text, and the comprehension skill is cause and effect. We will continue with transportation, but this week we will concentrate on transportation that helps us in an emergency. We will continue to discuss weather changes.  In Math we will be working with identifying numbers 11-30, identifying a Sphere, and identifying a quarter and a dollar... We will also be comparing events according to duration of time.  Wordlist # 16 will be checked this week and Wordlist # 17 should be in your child’s folder today. I like to give it to you in advance so you can take your time practicing with your child. FYI: *Don’t be alarmed if your child does not bring home some of their Phonics or Math worksheets , or if you seem to be getting them out of order. For their report cards, I use their everyday worksheets along with the additional testing to come up with the grades for their report cards. *April 4th are kindergarten graduation pictures. Remember that your child needs a white collared shirt because they will be wearing caps and gowns. The wedding of Q and U will be on Friday April 5th. Mrs. Pott’s class has been invited and they have responded that they will be in attendance. I am sending a separate reminder note about this event closer to the date. School will not be in session on March 28th to April 2nd. April 3rd will be the first day back for students, and it will be day # 4.

Kindergarten News- March 18th-22nd This week we will be working on the letter Qq and its sound as in queen and quarter. Review identifying and writing letters learned. Also practice blending letters in three, four, and five letter words. We will have Show & Tell on Friday as usual  To go along with our letter Qq, we will have” Queen for a day “on Thursday. The girls get to wear crowns and the boys will do nice things for them all day.  The theme this week will be “spring”.  For Reading we will continue with “Max Takes The train” by Rosemary Wells. You probably recognize this author, she had written over 60 children’s books. It is an animal fantasy, and the comprehension skills that we will be concentrating on are realism and fantasy. The social studies aspect covered in this book is exploring all different forms of transportation.  In Math we will be working with graphing, and problem solving, among other things. Please review the pages that come home in your child’s folder daily.  Kindergarten graduation pictures will be taken in the morning of Thursday, April 4th. Envelopes were sent home today with portrait package information. If interested in purchasing pictures then please return the money before or on the day of pictures. (CASH or MONEY ORDERS ONLY!!)**Each child will be photographed as part of a class photo even if a package is not purchased, so please plan on your child wearing a WHITE COLLARED SHIRT and girls, no hairstyles on top of your heads because you will be wearing graduation caps and gowns!  Report card testing will continue next week. Wacky hair day was a huge success with many wonderful hair dos and wigs, ----Wow, wow, wow!!!!!!!! We had a wonderful time on our treasure hunt and the children found their treasure by following clues which took us all around the building. I loved all the Irish outfits that the children came to school in today, they looked very green and my Irish eyes were smiling!!!!!!! FYI: Spring break-March 29th-April 2nd. Children will return to school on April 3rd. Kindergarten graduation pictures-April 4th. May 23rd- Fieldtrip to circus May 24th- Carnival May 28th-Evening graduation Monday, March 18th is Day 5—we will begin the week with gym class.

March 11th-15th

Kindergarten News- March11th- 15th  This week we will be working on the letter Ww and its sound as in wagon and watermelon. Review identifying and writing letters learned. Also practice blending letters in three, four, and five letter words. We will have Show & Tell on Friday for the letter “W”.  Wednesday, March13th will be WATERY WEDNESDAY. We will be talking about water and completing different experiments involving water throughout the day. It will be WONDERFUL!  As a theme for the week we will be discussing different kinds of weather. Maybe we will even have a future meteorologist in our midst!  For Reading we will be beginning the story “Max Takes the Train”. The genre is animal fantasy and we will be talking a lot about realism and fantasy. We will be learning about transportation.  In Math we will be working with graphing, and problem solving. Please review the pages that come home in your child’s folder daily. If your child is not bringing daily papers home, they might be “forgetting them” in their desk, so let me know and I will check.  Report cards will be distributed on Wednesday, March 27th. We will be beginning to test for them this week. Please help your child with letter recognition, letter sounds, blending those sounds to read words, rhyming words, and practicing the memory and high frequency words. For math please work on counting to 100, identifying numbers from 0-30, identifying the coins penny, nickel, and dime, knowing the value of each coin, and being able to tell time to the hour.  On Thursday March 14th we will have Wacky Hair Day, to go along with the letter “W”. Remember boys and girls with short hair can always wear wigs because wigs are wacky too!  We had a very busy week as we worked on the letter” X”. To end our lessons on X we will have a “treasure hunt” around our school. With the help of our 6th grade helpers we will follow clues to get to our treasure. This will be held sometime next week. We didn’t have it this week due to Kindergarten registration.  Newspaper in Education Week ends on Friday, March 8th and the white “I’m a Reader” form must be returned to me by Tuesday March 12th. It must have a parent’s signature and initials for each day of the week. Student names that participated will be printed in the newspaper if your child returns the form properly filled out. FYI: Friday March 15th we will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day so don’t forget to get into the spirit and wear something green!!! There is a little bit of Irish in all of us on this day!!!! Monday, March 11th is Day # 5 and we have gym class. Be sure to wear your sneakers, students cannot participate without them. Daylight savings Time takes place this weekend! Fall back-Spring ahead!

March4th-8th, 2013

What’s happening in Kindergarten? March 4th-March 8th Phonics: We will be learning the letter Xx, like the end of fox and six. We will separate words in compound words, and we will be working on testing wordlist # 12, and you can begin practicing wordlist # 13 at home. Due to such a fun filled week, we did not get the opportunity to test wordlist # 12. Math: We will be creating, identifying and extending ABBC patterns, compare numbers through ten by using playing cards, identifying right and left, exploring tangrams, and learn to divide by sharing. Keep practicing number writing at home, especially if you see a lot of reversals, or a lot of homework practice being sent home. Reading: We will be finishing the lessons from the book” If You Could go to Antarctica” and we begin reading the next book “ Abuela”. Its genre is fiction, and the comprehension skill is setting. The phonics review for this story is the vowel “Ee”, and it is always good to have as much practice as we can for our vowels. Social Studies: The children will learn about transportation and the culture of areas other than where we live. Many children are forgetting their library books on day # 3. They get very disappointed if they can’t get a new book. Also many students are forgetting about show and tell and they do get very upset when they forget. Remember that we will always have show-and-tell on Fridays of each week, and it is for the letter that we are learning that week. If the time arises that we don’t have it, I will inform you in the Friday newsletter. Information: *We are beginning to read a chapter book series called “The Magic Tree House” by Mary Pope Osborne. The children really like these books. You can usually buy them from the Scholastic book order. *We go out to recess any day that it is above 32 degrees and there is an area that is not covered with snow for the children to run around and get some exercise. Many children are coming to school with no hat and gloves. Please make sure that they are properly dressed for the cold weather. If you want to keep an extra pair of gloves to keep in their cubbies that would be fine. Monday March 4th will be day #5, and we will have gym class. Don’t forget sneakers!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a” Seussifully wonderful day today!!!!” We were lucky enough to have Ms. Amy who is a graduate student from Bloomsburg University as our first guest reader, and she read “Green Eggs and Ham, and she even played her guitar and sang with us! We also had my wonderful daughter Carlee read “Oh the Thinks You can Think” and she gave the children beautiful cookies in the shape of the cat’s Hat. Last but not least Mr. Brown came to read to us and he read a very appropriate book “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You”. He brought lollipops for the kids. What a great day” And remember—A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small”