Happy New Year and welcome back to school! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and fun two weeks off with family and friends!
PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST AS THERE IS A LOT OF NEW INFORMATION FOR THE NEW YEAR!!
There is no school this Monday, January 4th due to a Teacher Inservice day. There is also no school on Monday, January 18th due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
We will also begin taking Timed Tests on our Number Bonds (ways to make 2, ways to make 3, etc.) and adding and subtracting math facts through five. Our Common Core Standard is that by the end of kindergarten, students will fluently (meaning without fingers or manipulatives) be able to add and subtract within five. Students will have the opportunity to practice these facts and take tests when they are ready for it at math time. Please remember that we would like all students to master this standard by the end of the year. My hope is that each week, we will accomplish a little bit more on these tests. Please reinforce and practice these skills at home. Thank you for your support!
Be on the look out for our January Book Order coming home later this week, - order now and receive great books before Valentine's Day!
Beginning after the holiday break, we will now have each student write his/her first and LAST NAME on all papers, homework, etc. If your child does not know how to write his/her last name, please practice this at home. We will be practicing at school as well. Each student will now have last names written on their NEW Take Home Folders and name tags for support in the classroom.
Yes, we have NEW Take Home Folders! These will be the LAST Take Home Folder for the year, so we will be discussing responsibility and handle and care of these folders in the classroom. There might even be prizes awarded throughout the rest of the year on "Who has the nicest and cleanest Take Home Folder"! Please remember to bring these folders EVERY DAY!!
Also beginning after the holiday break each child will have a “bank” attached to his/her new folder. The “bank” is a ziploc baggie taped to the folder. Each day your child will have the opportunity to earn money at the end of the day - the money will replace the stickers! Students will receive a penny for staying on yellow and green for the day. Students will also have the opportunity to receive nickels and dimes in the classroom as rewards for behavior and hard work throughout the day. Instead of Treasure Box on Fridays, now they will visit the CLASS STORE! Each student will count money, trade money (example: five pennies for one nickel) and have the opportunity to spend their money on the items that are now “on sale” at the class store. Of course, bigger treasures will cost more money, which I hope will reinforce self-control and teach students about saving. Each child will be responsible for keeping track of their own bank and for counting the money in it. (This will be great math homework practice). Please encourage your child to take care of and keep track of his/her bank, as lost money WILL NOT BE REPLACED! Also, if students forget folders at home, they will not receive money for that day. The bank is designed to teach responsibility and accountability as well as reinforce math skills. This is a great life skill your child will benefit from in the future!! Thank you for your continued support.
In your child’s book bag, you will continue to find a fluency passage. Your child is practicing reading fluently in our reading groups. Fluency refers to a student’s speed, smoothness, and ease of reading out loud. Fluent readers read more quickly and smoothly, allowing them to focus on comprehension. Fluent readers gain more meaning from the text they read. Because fluency leads to comprehension, fluent readers enjoy reading more than students who devote all their energy to “sounding out” words. Some fluency passages have word family practice that should be practiced daily. Some fluency passages also have comprehension questions at the end of the story. Please have your child practice reading the fluency passage each night. Fluency passages should remain in our book bags so that we can practice reading them every day at school and every night at home. Thank you!
We are in need of LOTS of empty Capri Sun boxes!!!! If you have any please send them to school with your child! Thank you very much!!! Note: if you could please open the boxes at the side (not in the middle around the edges) that would really help us out! Thank you!
Electives and Success Academy will begin next Monday, January 11th.
Monday, January 4: NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 18: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 29: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)
Friday, February 5: Theater Field Trip to the Lewis Family Playhouse (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 8: NO SCHOOL
Friday, February 12: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 15: NO SCHOOL
If you are at the store and happen to think of us, we'd love....
Gluesticks
Baby Wipes
Any sort of small {or big} prizes for our class store
What Are We Learning This Week?:
Sight Words: WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US.
Letter Team: WOR (the OR sounds like Mr. ER, like in work and word) and TION (sounds like SHUN like in vacation, invention, connection).
Reading: This week, we will read many books about winter and snowmen. We will read our new fluency passages in our reading groups. We will continue to pick out "Good Fit Books" for our Read to Self time.
Writing: We will continue working on writing three sentences on the same topic and begin thinking of good topic sentences to begin our writing and conclusion sentences to end our writing.
Math: We will begin taking our Bonds and Fluency Math timed tests. We will continue to learn our Doubles Song. All students will be tested on standards not yet met from our Counting and our Shape units. We will be making new math goals on skills we still need help with. Be on the look out for a half sheet of paper coming home with your child's math goal and please work on this math goal with your child every day! We will also begin our math unit on measurement. We are learning different ways things can be measured, including length, height, width, weight, and capacity. You can help by discussing measurement at home.
Leadership: Our new leadership theme for the second trimester is SELF-CONTROL. We will be discussing ways that we can use self-control at home and at school.
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