Weekly News: September 26-30

We had so much fun making apple pie! Thank you for all of our donations and a special thank you to Mrs.Hill and Mrs. Lopez for ALL of your help baking our pies! This week we will be making applesauce together! YAY :)

Electives begin this week! Electives are from 12:15-1:00. If your child is participating in an elective, please pack them a lunch. Lunch supervision will be provided 11:50-12:15 before their electives begin. The elective teacher will be dismissing the students at 1:00.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sending home Book Bags with your child, but we will only be starting one group each week. Book Bags are to be brought back and forth, home-to-school, every day. Book Bags are also an essential part of your child's home reading - they should be reading these books EVERY DAY for homework.

School Picture Day is THIS TUESDAY!!! If you would like to order pictures, you should have received a flyer in your Homework Folder. Tuesday is the day! Dress to impress and don't forget your smile!

There is no school next Monday, October 3rd. Enjoy the relaxing three day weekend :)

We now have a box tops box and fresh and easy receipt box in our classroom (Thank you, Mrs. Atchley!) so keep sending in those Box Tops and Fresh and Easy receipts!!

The Fall Festival is coming up - Friday, October 7th at the Bryant St. campus! Our room-mom is working hard to prepare our classroom booth! Please see Mrs. Atchley if you would like to get involved! Please also see the Classroom Clipboard in the morning if you would like to donate your time at the Fall Festival!!

Our field trip to Los Rios Ranch will be Tuesday, October 11th. We will be leaving school by bus sometime in the morning and returning around pick-up time. The cost of this field trip is $5 per student - this will cover our apple tour with Johnny Appleseed and many more fun things! We are asking for donations to help cover the cost of this trip - if you are able to give, please send this donation in an envelope marked "Field Trip" in your child's Homework Folder - any amount will help! Please recognize that this is a separate donation than the $5 t-shirts. We are collecting a one -time $5 for the cost of the t-shirts and a separate $5 for the cost of the field trip. Thank you in advance for all of your help! We are looking for wonderful volunteers that would like to take the tour with us. We are asking that chaperones drive separately and meet us there. The cost for chaperones is also $5.  If you are interested in chaperoning for our field trip on this day, please sign up on the Classroom Clipboard and pay $5 to Miss Reeve BY FRIDAY MORNING. On Friday I will be giving our final head count to Los Rios Ranch. We apologize for any inconvenience, but siblings and little ones are not allowed on this field trip due to the safety of our kindergarten students you will be chaperoning.  Also, be on the look-out for the field trip permission slip that will be coming home in your child's Go Folder sometime this week. These are due back to school ASAP in order for your child to go on the field trip.We are so excited for this field trip! Yay!

What Are We Learning This Week?:


Sight Words: COME, AT, SAID.

Letter Team: CE/CI (we are learning that the letter C can make a soft sound when it is followed by an E or I like in "cent" and "city"). 

Word Family: -IN. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -in (bin, fin, tin, etc.)

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Skip the word and read on to think about what makes sense" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will continue reading books about apples and Johnny Appleseed, and read our special poem of the week, "Applesauce".

Writing: This week we will learn what "quotations" are. We will write a big book together about our silly monster friends and use "quotations" when they say something. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: This week we will introduce before, after, and in between. We will be practicing this number sense by identifying numbers that come before, after, and in between others. Mastery of this concept is identifying the number quickly without having to go back and start counting from the number 1. We will continue counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next.

Leadership: This month our theme is "responsibility". We will discuss ways to be responsible at home and at school.

Homework: September 26-30

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: COME, AT, SAID and new letter teams are CE and CI. Please make a flashcard for each letter team as well. Sight Word Quiz and Spelling Test on Friday!

Reading: We are continuing our book bag reading program with one group each week.  Look for a ziploc bag to come home in your child’s Take Home Folder.  Within four weeks every student will have a book bag for the rest of the school year. Please make sure your child is reading their book bag book each night and returning it to school each day.  Also, please have your child read the paper books in their “at home” book box each night, making sure they are pointing under each word as they read it. "Make your finger match the word" is the phrase they will hear me say in class. If your child is struggling with words they are reading, please have them "sound out" the word by putting their finger under each letter and saying the sound it makes. This will help with letter and sound recognition as well.

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, study number flashcards, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, practice drawing shapes, sort and count coins at home, and discuss how to tell time to the hour.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Write one sentence about a state of California symbol (some examples include the state flag, state flower - poppy, state animal - bear, state bird - quail). Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

T-shirts!!!

I am excited to announce that we are in the midst of planning our first field trip (more information coming in later weeks!) and field-trip t-Shirts are being ordered. Our field trip t-shirts are so important to us because at the end of our kindergarten year, this shirt will become a wonderful keepsake and memory from your child's first year of school!! We are asking for a $5 donation from each child to cover the cost of the shirt. Please send your donation in your child's GO folder. Also, Mrs. McDonald from Mrs. Woolcock's class will be heading up the "T-shirt committee" and needs your help!! If you would like to help make these memorable t-shirts, please let Mrs. Atchley (our class roommom) or myself know! Thank you so much for your support!

Weekly News: September 19-23

News:

Thank you to Mrs. Atchley for a fun "Unbirthday Celebration"! What a surprise! A big thank you to all of my kindergarten friends for all of my sweet and silly cards! :)

We had so much fun tasting apples this week! This Friday, we will be making apple pie!! Please see the Classroom Clipboard on our morning table if you are able to donate items for this day. Thank you!

Our parent volunteer program will begin this week!!! Our time on Mondays through Thursdays will begin at 10:00 and on Fridays at 10:30. If you are able to come a few minutes before I would love it! Thank you in advance for donating your valuable time in our classroom! Please check the Attachment Library for our current parent volunteer schedule. A reminder: if you cannot make one of your scheduled days, please either "cover your shift" with another parent or let me know so that I can adjust our activities accordingly. Thank you for your support!

Over the next four weeks, we will begin sending home Book Bags with your child. Book Bags are to be brought back and forth, home to school, every day. Book bags are also an ESSENTIAL part of your child's home reading - they should be reading these books EVERY DAY for homework. We will only be started one group each week, so look for your child's book bag sometime in the next month!!

The electives list of which electives students signed up for will be posted on our campus (outside the office) on Thursday! Electives on our campus will begin the week of September 26th. If your child is participating in an elective, you may send a lunch to school with him/her on that elective day and lunch supervision will be provided for your children on these days.


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: YOU, AND, IT FRIEND.

Letter Team: WH (like in "what" and "whistle").

Word Family: -AT. We have been studying word families in class. Word families are words that have different beginning sounds with the same ending chunks. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -at (cat, bat, rat, fat, etc).


Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Go back and get a running start" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). We will continue to read books about apples and Johnny Appleseed and continue to read books about colors as we learn our color words.

Writing: We are writing a big book together about the life cycle of an apple using sight words we have learned so far. We will be studying how an apple grows, from seed to tree to blossom to apple. This week we learned that when we get stuck on writing a word, we can put that word in our mouth and pull it out slowly like bubblegum, writing down the sounds that we hear. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout, and use a period at the end. We will continue to use our sight words in our sentences and use our sound chart to help us sound out the words we do not know how to write.

Math: This week, we will learn how to tell time to the hour. We will learn that when the "big hand points up, it means o'clock". Please reinforce this at home by looking at clocks around the house and talking about the time. We will continue to learn all about money as we start counting pennies! We will also learn how to count by our 5's and 10's.

Leadership: This month our theme is "responsibility". We will discuss ways to be responsible at home and at school.

Homework: September 19-23

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: YOU, AND, IT, FRIEND and new letter team is is WH. Please make a flashcard for each letter team as well. Sight Word Quiz and Spelling Test on Friday!

Reading: We are starting our book bag reading program beginning with one group each week.  Look for a ziplock bag to come home in your child’s Take Home Folder.  Within four weeks every student will have a book bag for the rest of the school year. Please make sure your child is reading their book bag book each night and returning it to school each day.  Also, please have your child read the paper books in their “at home” book box each night, making sure they are pointing under each word as they read it. "Make your finger match the word" is the phrase they will hear me say in class. If your child is struggling with words they are reading, please have them "sound out" the word by putting their finger under each letter and saying the sound it makes. This will help with letter and sound recognition as well.

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, study number flashcards, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, practice drawing shapes, sort and count coins at home, and start discussing how to tell time to the hour.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Write one sentence about the life cycle of an apple. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Meet Our Room Mom!

Meet our fabulous Room Mom, Meghann Atchley!! We are so excited to have her as our class room mom this year! Head on over to our Room Mom tab on the website to see how you can help Mrs. Atchley!!

Happy Birthday Colby!

Our friend Colby turned 6 today!! Happy birthday!!!

Parent Volunteers

It's the moment you've all been waiting for!!! We will begin our Volunteer Schedule next Monday, September 19th. 

Please see the link to our Volunteer Schedule - if you would like to add your name to volunteer or if you need to make any changes, I have made it so that you may type and edit it. I hope I did, at least! Please let me know if it does not work!

I would really like for there to be two parent volunteers in our classroom each day for center time - one parent to help out with a special activity or game and one parent to sit in our library and listen to children as they read to you, helping them read along the way if necessary. Our center times are Monday through Thursday 10:00-11:00 and Fridays 10:30-11:30.

If you are not able to be there to volunteer, please let me know so that I can adjust accordingly. You may also chat with the other parents and switch a day if you like!

Again, thank you SO MUCH for your support in your child's education and I am looking forward to working with you in the classroom!

Weekly News: September 12-16

News:

This week we will be studying and reading books about apples. On Friday, we will have a fun apple tasting in our classroom. We are asking each child to bring in one apple (red, green, or yellow). Each child will decide which color apple tastes the best and we will make a classroom graph! Please see our "Classroom Clipboard" on our table in the morning for the apple sign-up sheet so that we get a variety of different color apples. Thank you!

We will Our sight word songs are so funny this week! Go check them out on our Songs Tab!!!

Thank you so much for all of your Scholastic Book Orders! I placed the order over the weekend so in a few weeks, your new books will be delivered to our classroom! Thank you for ordering online - with every order you place online, we get a free book for our classroom so this significantly helps me add to our classroom library!!!

Electives on our campus will begin the week of September 26th. Keep an eye out for the elective email (coming from the school) if you wish to sign your child up for an ILCS elective. If your child is participating in an elective, you may send a lunch to school with him/her on that elective day and lunch supervision will be provided for your children on these days.

I understand that our "What Are We Learning This Week?" and "Homework" sections can be so repetitive and a lot of reading. To make things a little easier for you, I will be posting all the NEW information each week IN RED. Thank you so much for taking the time to read our news each week and stay up-to-date on what we are doing in class!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: LOOK, HERE THIS.

Letter Team: CH (like in "cheetos") and OO (like in "look" - we will learn that OO also makes another sound, like in "pool" a little later on!)

Reading: This week, we will focus on the Reading Strategy, "Stretch Out the Sound" (see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will read books about apples and Johnny Appleseed, and continue to read books about colors as we learn our color words.

Writing: We are writing a big book together about science tools using sight words we have learned so far. We will be studying these science tools and how and when we use them. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout, and use a period at the end. We will continue to use our sight words in our sentences and use our sound chart to help us sound out the words we do not know how to write.

Math: This week we will learn the name and value of each coin and pretty soon, we will start counting money! You can help at home by having your child name and tell you the value of coins around the house. We will learn to count backwards and identify the missing number in row of numbers. We will continue to learn how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and how to write numbers to 10. We will also continue learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next.

Leadership: This month our theme is "responsibility". We will discuss ways to be responsible at home and at school.

Classroom Clipboard

Meet our classroom clipboard!! From time to time, (especially when parties and events start coming up) there will be sign-ups for various things in our classroom. When I am asking for certain things for our classroom (donations for our parties, field trip chaperones, etc.) I will post these sign-ups on a clipboard. You will find the clipboard in the morning on our playground table with our homework folder and lunch basket. Thank you in advance for all the sign-ups and help and keep an eye out for that clipboard! :)

Homework: September 12-16

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (LOOK, HERE, THIS) and letter teams (CH and OO). Study all flashcards every day.
 
Reading: Read, read, read! Read books that have come home, read books from your book box, and read to your child!

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, study number flashcards, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, practice drawing shapes, start sorting and counting coins at home. 

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Great job on sharing last week! This week, we are learning workers in our community. Please write one sentence about a community worker. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Happy Birthday Gianna!

Our friend, Gianna turned 5 today! We wish you a very happy birthday!!!!

Helping Your Child Succeed!

Hello wonderful families!

I found this great poster online so I wanted to share it with you! Please click on the link below for some great tips! And thank you for all of your support in your child's academic success!

Helping Your Child Succeed

Weekly News: September 6

News:

I hope you had a relaxing three-day weekend with your families!

Thank you for allowing me to keep your kiddos for one extra hour last week to do assessments. Our beginning of the year assessments gives me a good idea of what level each child is coming in at and how I can help them in the classroom. If you have not received your child's results yet, they will be in their cubbies on Tuesday. Please take some time to review these results with your child.

Thank you SOOOO much to ALL the parents who attended our first Prep Party on Friday!

Scholastic Book Orders are due on Friday! Don't miss out!

Electives on our campus will begin the week of September 26th. Keep an eye out for the elective email (coming from the school) if you wish to sign your child up for an ILCS elective. If your child is participating in an elective, you may send a lunch to school with him/her on that elective day and lunch supervision will be provided for your children on these days.
 
What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: I, LIKE, MY.

Letter Team: SH (like in "she" and "push") and ER (like in "her" and "mother") - ask your child to tell you about Mr. ER - he is one crazy driver!!!

Reading: We will continue to learn that vowels make 2 sounds - a short sound and a long sound. We will continue to read big books to help us with our reading strategies - this week we are learning to Get Your Mouth Ready for the First Sound and to Look Through the Word at all the Sounds (see the Reading Strategies tab for more information). This week, we will also read books about colors and our five senses.

Writing: We are writing a new book together about our five senses using our sight words of the week. We are continuing to use an uppercase at the beginning of a sentence, finger spaces between our words, and a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart. You can help your child at home by using the same sound chart on the back of  your GO Folder to help with sounding out words and writing at home.

Math: We are learning to count by ordinal numbers (first, second, third...) We will also sort objects by color, size, and shape. We are also learning to read and extend patterns. We will also focus on identifying what number should come next without going back to 1 to count. We will continue to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30. 

Leadership: This month our theme is "responsibility". We will discuss ways to be responsible at home and at school.

Homework: September 6

A note about homework: Remember that BESIDES sharing, you do NOT need to turn in homework! Sometimes we will send home tips, activities, or ideas for you to do at home, but you do not need to turn that in to class. We trust that each family will reinforce what we are learning in class and work on that at home. My advice is to develop a consistent routine with your child: set aside 30 minutes every day to read, study flashcards, and practice writing and math concepts. 

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (I, LIKE, MY) and letter teams (SH and ER). Study these flashcards (and those from previous weeks) every day. It may be a good idea to keep a bunch of index cards on a binder ring or in a box and you can add the new flashcards to that every week. Also, if your assessment results from last week showed that your child is still struggling with letters, sounds, or numbers, it may be a good idea to make flashcards for those as well! :)

Reading: On Friday, your child came home with paper books to live in special book boxes at home. Have your child read his or her books to you every night three times each, pointing to the words. Don't forget to also read picture books to your child, as you are a wonderful reading example!

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, and practice drawing shapes.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Oh, no! Only 9 friends turned in their sharing homework this week! This is a big part of our curriculum and the only homework you need to turn in. I do record who turns in sharing for student's homework grades. This week, we are focusing on our leadership theme. Please write one sentence about how you can be responsible at home or at school. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week.