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Sunday, August 28, 2016

Weekly News: August 29-September 2


We had a wonderful second week of school together! 

Beginning of the year assessments, including letters and sounds, numbers, and phonemic awareness skills were sent home on Friday. Please take some time to review these results with your child. My goal for all students is to have 100% letter, sound, phonemic awareness, shape, and number recognition by the end of our first trimester in November.

We are ready to begin our Friday parent volunteers THIS WEEK!! We are excited to have you join our class for Fun Friday Centers!  Our center time is from 10:45-12:30. Please plan on arriving at 10:30 so that we can begin our centers right at 10:45. Our parent helpers who have volunteered include: Mrs. Carlson, Mrs. Andrian, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Frisch, and Mr. Hetherington. Thank You!!!

We are also ready for our PREP MOMS on Friday morning.  Our Prep moms include Mrs. Murphy and Mrs. Andrian.  Thank you!! 

The very first Scholastic Book order went out last week. If you would like to order books for your child, please visit our Book Order tab for more information on signing onto the Scholastic Website. With every order, we also get one free book for our classroom library. Place your orders by Friday, September 2nd! 

Please do not forget that while most of our homework in kindergarten is done at home, we do have "Turn-In Homework" every week. This is either a sentence to be written at home and turned in or something to bring in to share. Homework can be turned in ANY day of the week. Please check the Homework tab for the "Turn-In" topic of the week, as well as reading, writing, math, and phonemic awareness ideas. Thank you! 

Mrs. Stanley has also posted additional QR Code resource activities on ParentSquare.  These include video lessons on our sight words, letters, letter teams, word families and more.  If you haven’t already checked out these resources please take a look at them.  You may download and print the activities for your child to work on at home. 

There is no school on Monday, September 5th due to the Labor Day holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families! 

School picture day will be Friday, September 9th! Be on the look-out for a flyer coming home soon!


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: I, like, my. 

Letters and sounds: l, k, y, x, and the long and short vowel sounds a, e, i, o, u, y (the vowel sounds e or i)

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!!!

Word Family: ip - like in dip, chip, rip, sip, tip, etc.

Reading: We will continue to learn that vowels make 2 sounds - a short sound and a long sound. Ask your child to sing you the vowel songs! We will continue to read big books to help us with our reading strategies. This week, we will also read many books about colors and our five senses. We will introduce non-fiction as we read Scholastic magazines each week. 

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 Homework Folder to help with sounding out words and writing at home.

Math: We will continue to practice number identification, number writing, days of the week, months of the year, shape names and shape attributes and counting on/"Popcorn Counting". 


Leadership: At ILCS this year, we are ROARING. The acronym ROAR stands for Respect self, others, and property, Own your actions, Act safely, and Rise to servant leadership. For the next several weeks, we will be discussing the first O in class -  OWN YOUR ACTIONS. We will talk about what that means and how we can own our actions at school. Our goal is to have students take ownership of their own behavior as we all strive to be leaders in our classroom and school. Beginning Monday your student will “check in” with themselves and teacher throughout the day on their behavior at school: if they are GREEN (I am doing a great job Roaring today!), YELLOW (I am doing well, but I think I can do even better!), RED (I will choose to change my behavior). Your child will bring their “check in” sheets home on Fridays.

Homework now includes Smarty Ants and DreamBox!  Your child also has access to Raz-kids reading for independent reading practice.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOMEWORK POST TO SEE ALL OF THE HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK.

Homework: August 29-September2

Please take a moment to read each section of homework. I understand this can be very overwhelming. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.


Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (I, like, my), letters/sounds of the week (l, k, y, x, long and short vowels a, e, i, o, u, y) our letter teams of the week (sh and er) and our word family (ip - tip, lip, chip, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. Please see our Sight Word tab and scroll to the very bottom for more flashcards tips and ideas. We will have a Sentence Test on our sight words every Friday. A sentence test means we will be asking your child to write a sentence that we give them using our sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for correct spelling of our sight words, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, a proper punctuation at the end. An example of a sentence is, "We can see a man." It may be a good idea to have a practice Sentence Test with your child on Thursday night. 


Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, beginning/middle/ending sounds, and adding, changing and deleting sounds in words.  Please see our Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips. 


Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! In a few short weeks, your child will be bringing home little books that we have been reading in class to read at home for YOU! Reading to your child is also important. Children need to hear frequent fluent reading to become a reader themselves. 

Reading homework every week will include Smarty Ants. 
Click below to access Smarty Ants online or you can download the app on your iPad or tablet.  Your child’s login info was sent home last week. THE HOMEWORK REQUIREMENT IS 40 MINUTES PER WEEK OF SMARTY ANTS.  You can achieve these minutes any way it works best for your family, 10 minutes per day Monday - Thursday, 20 minutes 2 days a week, etc. Here is the link:

Reading homework will also include Raz-kids Reading. This is a web sight reading program where your child will access digital books online. The books can be read and listened to and then your child can take a quiz to check for understanding as they progress through the levels. Your child’s login info was sent home last week. Here is the link:
Our class login is: mrsbess (no spaces!)
Then click on the Kids Login button at the top of the page.
You can also download the free Raz-kids app to access all these great materials on your iPad or tablet.


Writing: Our writing homework will change throughout the year and may look different for each student since each student may be at a different place developmentally. I would like all students to practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing your ABC's both uppercase and lowercase. You can also practice writing your sight words of the week in a short sentence. We are learning to start our letters at the TOP! Keep practice writing the ABCs uppercase and lowercase letters!


Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing - your child took a Number Writing Assessment in class and these will also come home on Monday so you can see what needs to be practiced! Practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Ask your child to name different attributes of shapes. For example, "What shape has three sides?" or "How many vertices does a rectangle have?" Your child will also be bringing home "Daily Math" practice pages that we do every morning in class. Please take a moment to go over these practice pages to see if there is anything specific your child needs to work on. Remember to check the back to see our Math Talk of the day.  

Math homework every week will include Dreambox. DreamBox is up and running and ready for you to play at home. Below is a link to DreamBox.  You can also download the free app to play on your iPad or tablet.  Open the DreamBox Parent letters below for more information. THE HOMEWORK REQUIREMENT IS 40 MINUTES PER WEEK OF DREAMBOX You can achieve these minutes any way it works best for your family, 10 minutes per day Monday - Thursday, 20 minutes 2 days a week, etc. 

Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs




QR Codes: Our class uses a LOT of QR codes in our learning.  Mrs. Stanley has created many QR code activities for all of our kindergarten students to scan and work on at home. Each week, these will be uploaded on ParentSquare. Please print these pages for your child to work on at home each week. One great idea is to put these pages in sheet protectors and add these pages into a binder for your child to refer to all year long. 


Turn-In Homework:  THIS IS THE ONLY PART OF HOMEWORK THAT NEEDS TO BE TURNED IT!    This week, we will be learning about our five senses. For Turn-In Homework this week, please write one sentence about your favorite sense and how you use it. (Example: I like my nose because I can smell cookies with my nose.) Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Your child may attempt to write this sentence themselves, or you may dictate the sentence your child would like to write.

Note: If you visit the following link (Sharing Paper), you'll find a great printable writing page with a spot for writing and for a picture! Feel free to print off a bunch of these pages to use for turn in writing homework each week :) 

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Weekly News: August 22-26


What a great first full week of school! I am the luckiest teacher to have such a great group of students with me and I am excited about our year together. We are having so much fun getting to know one another and adjusting to this crazy little thing called kindergarten :) 

It was wonderful meeting so many of our parents at Back to School Night!  It is so nice to see we have an enthusiastic and very supportive group of parents!  This year will be amazing!!

Thank you again to the parents that signed up to help us out in the morning with Daily Folders. If you are a Daily Folder helper, please grab our Folder Basket down at the tables on the playground and walk it up to class for us! Here are our wonderful Daily Folder Parents: 

Mondays: Mrs. Randolph
Tuesdays: Mrs. Conway 
Wednesdays: Mrs. Good
Thursdays: Mrs. James
Fridays: Mrs. Murphy

Last week I sent home a Sight Word CD with most of our sight word songs. This is a fun way to learn our sight words and reinforce letter identification too. Have your child point to each letter on their flashcards as they sing the letter name and have fun singing! 

You should have also received a note showing you how to download the QR CODE app onto your phone or tablet. Your children will have the opportunity to scan QR codes in the classroom and watch great videos to help with reading, phonemic awareness, penmanship, and math. Every week, some of the papers we are working on in class will come home. Have your child scan those QR codes again and again for practice! They love the videos!  Mrs. Stanley will also post these (AND MORE!) QR Code practice activity pages on Parent Square so you can download them.  This is a great way to reinforce/practice at home!

On Friday your child took his/her first spelling sentence assessment.  Please take some time to go over the spelling sentence with your student and reinforce any errors your child may have made.  We will have a spelling sentence assessment each Friday that will include our current and often previous spelling words.  We are looking for correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as well as appropriate spacing between words.  We understand this will take time, but with reinforcement and practice they will all achieve this standard.  Your students are off to a great start!!

On Friday your child also took his/her first sight word/letter/letter team reading assessment.  Please take some time to also go over this assessment with your child.  We will have this assessment each Friday and it will include current as well as past words, letters, and letter teams.  These quick weekly assessments are a great way to check in on your student’s progress and to monitor where support may be needed.  Thank you so much for your support!!


On Friday your child also came home with their Daily Math paper. On Friday we use the Daily Math as a quick “check in” assessment for the math standards covered during the week.  On Fridays you will see a score recorded on this paper indicating how many problems your child missed on the assessment.  During the week we work together to complete the problems and reinforce these standards with hands on activities during our math rounds.  On Fridays your child will have the opportunity to complete this activity on their own to demonstrate mastery or needed support of a standard.  Again, please take a few minutes to go over any missed problems.  Thank you!!

                                 

Our first Scholastic Book Order is available online!   Check out the over 500 titles at the Scholastic Website. Here’s how it works:

1.GO ONLINE to www.Scholastic.com/bookclubs (this link can also be found on our class website at the top of each page under the Scholastic Book Order tab.)  On the Scholastic site go to Parent Page, click “Don’t have a Username and Password? link, then register for your own username and password to use all year long!  Whenprompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code (GQBYC).  This code ensures your order is sent to our class.


2. SELECT the books you’d like to order from over 500 titles.

3.  SEND your order to me online by the due date.  Books will be delivered directly to our  classroom within just a few weeks of ordering.

        BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE ONLINE BY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2ND


There is no school on Monday, September 5th due to the Labor Day holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families! 


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: is, the, me, or.

Letters:i, t, h, m, o, r, p

Letter Team: th (we are learning that TH has two different sounds - a hard sound, like in MOTHER and THE, and a soft sound, like in THUMB and WITH). 

Word Family: ap (cap, tap, rap, etc.)

Reading: We are learning the vowels! Ask your child about our special vowel song and what sounds the vowels can make! We are learning that each vowel can make 2 sounds - short and long. We are also learning the parts of a book, including title, author, illustrator, and title page. You can help at home by having your child point to each part of the book before you read. Students will continue one-to-one matching, and we will learn a few more reading strategies, including, "Get your mouth ready for the first sound", "Know the Letter Sounds" and "Stretch out the sounds”.

Writing: We are writing a new book together about our shapes and colors using our sight words of the week. We will practice that a sentence starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a period. We are working on putting finger spaces between our words. We are learning that our ABC Sound Chart helps us to identify sounds/letters in words. (You will also find the ABC Sound Chart on your child's Take Home Folder!!)

Math: We will practice number identification, number writing, days of the week, months of the year, and shapes. We will also focus on identifying what number comes next without having to go back to start counting at 1. In class, we call it "Popcorn Counting". For example, if I ask a student to count on from the number 7, I would like them to say "8, 9, 10" and the numbers just pop out of our brain like popcorn. We sing a song about this called: Popcorn Count 

Popcorn Count (Popcorn Count)
It’s what it’s all about! (It’s what it’s all about!)
It helps us add up numbers (It helps us add up numbers)
Really Quick!
Lickety Split!


Leadership: At ILCS this year, we are ROARING. The acronym ROAR stands for Respect self, others, and property, Own your actions, Act safely, and Rise to servant leadership.  For the next several weeks, we will be discussing the first R in class - RESPECT. We will talk about what it means to respect, as well as what it looks like. Our goal is to have students take ownership of their own behavior as we all strive to be leaders in our classroom and school. Our TURN-IN HOMEWORK this week is to write a sentence about how your child can show respect at school.

Homework will now include Smarty Ants and DreamBox!  Your child also has access to Raz-kids reading for independent reading practice.

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE ENTIRE HOMEWORK POST BELOW!!!! 

Homework: August 22-26

Please take a moment to read each section of homework. I understand this can be very overwhelming. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.


Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (is, the, me, or), letters of the week (i, t, h, m, o, r, p) our letter team of the week (th) and our word family (ap - cap, tap, rap, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. Please see our Sight Word tab and scroll to the very bottom for more flashcards tips and ideas. We will have a Sentence Test on our sight words every Friday. A sentence test means we will be asking your child to write a sentence that we give them using our sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for correct spelling of our sight words, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, a proper punctuation at the end. An example of a sentence is, "We can see a man." It may be a good idea to have a practice Sentence Test with your child on Thursday night. 


Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, beginning/middle/ending sounds, and adding, changing and deleting sounds in words.  Please see our Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips. 


Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! In a few short weeks, your child will be bringing home little books that we have been reading in class to read at home for YOU! Reading to your child is also important. Children need to hear frequent fluent reading to become a reader themselves. 

Reading homework every week will include Smarty Ants. 
Click below to access Smarty Ants online or you can download the app on your iPad or tablet.  Your child’s login info to access Smarty Ants will be coming home on Monday. THE HOMEWORK REQUIREMENT IS 40 MINUTES PER WEEK OF SMARTY ANTS.  You can achieve these minutes any way it works best for your family, 10 minutes per day Monday - Thursday, 20 minutes 2 days a week, etc. Here is the link:

Reading homework will also include Raz-kids Reading. This is a web sight reading program where your child will access digital books online. The books can be read and listened to and then your child can take a quiz to check for understanding as they progress through the levels. Your child’s login info to access Raz-Kids will be coming home on Monday. Here is the link:
Our class login is: mrsbess (no spaces!)
Then click on the Kids Login button at the top of the page.
You can also download the free Raz-kids app to access all these great materials on your iPad or tablet.


Writing: Our writing homework will change throughout the year and may look different for each student since each student may be at a different place developmentally. I would like all students to practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing your ABC's both uppercase and lowercase. Your child took an ABC Writing Assessment in class and these will come home on Monday so you can see what your child needs to practice. You can also practice writing your sight words of the week in a short sentence. We are learning to start our letters at the TOP! 


Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing - your child took a Number Writing Assessment in class and these will also come home on Monday so you can see what needs to be practiced! Practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Ask your child to name different attributes of shapes. For example, "What shape has three sides?" or "How many vertices does a rectangle have?" Your child will also be bringing home "Daily Math" practice pages that we do every morning in class. Please take a moment to go over these practice pages to see if there is anything specific your child needs to work on. 

Math homework every week will include Dreambox. DreamBox is up and running and ready for you to play at home. Below is a link to DreamBox.  You can also download the free app to play on your iPad or tablet.  Open the DreamBox Parent letters below for more information. THE HOMEWORK REQUIREMENT IS 40 MINUTES PER WEEK OF DREAMBOX You can achieve these minutes any way it works best for your family, 10 minutes per day Monday - Thursday, 20 minutes 2 days a week, etc. 

Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs




QR Codes: Our class uses a LOT of QR codes in our learning.  Mrs. Stanley has created many QR code activities for all of our kindergarten students to scan and work on at home. Each week, these will be uploaded on ParentSquare. Please print these pages for your child to work on at home each week. One great idea is to put these pages in sheet protectors and add these pages into a binder for your child to refer to all year long. 


Turn-In Homework:  THIS IS THE ONLY HOMEWORK YOU MUST TURN IN! For Turn-In Homework this week, please write one sentence about how you can show respect at school. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Your child may attempt to write this sentence themselves, or you may dictate the sentence your child would like to write.

Note: If you visit the following link (Sharing Paper), you'll find a great printable writing page with a spot for writing and for a picture! Feel free to print off a bunch of these pages to use for turn in writing homework each week :) 

Friday, August 12, 2016

Weekly News: August 15-19


We had a great first two days of school! It has been so nice to meet all of you and your awesome kiddos! I have a wonderful group of students and I am truly looking forward to a fantastic school year! 

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Thank you for ALL of your generous donations! Don't forget to attend our Back to School Night Celebration on Thursday, August 18th from 4:00-7:00 at CSC. There will be food trucks, a short presentation from our director, and our kindergarten team will have a booth set up to give more information about our classes. We will also have sign-ups for room parent and volunteering in the classroom. Hope to see you there!

I will start sending home our Take-Home Folders this week. Please check this folder every day, removing any papers to stay at home, and sending it back to school every day.

We are excited for our first full week of school - we will be learning sight words, reading books, learning math, writing in our journals, and even starting homework! Please see our Homework section for more information. More information about our kindergarten homework program will also be given at Back to School night. 


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WE, CAN, SEE, A.

Letter Team: EE (like in SEE and BEE).

Reading: We are reading many books about beginning school! We are reading books about our shapes and catching our sight words as we read. We are also learning a few reading strategies to become better readers: Make Your Finger Match the Word, Look at the Pictures, and Retell What You Just Read.

Writing: We are learning to neatly write the alphabet using correct letter formation.  We are writing a book together about shapes using our sight words of the week. This week we are learning that a sentence starts with an uppercase letters and ends with a period. We are working on putting finger spaces in between our words. We are learning that our ABC Sound Chart helps us to identify sounds/letters in words. (You will also find the ABC Sound Chart on your child's Take Home Folder!!)

Math: We are learning to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30, identify and name shapes and sort them by different attributes.  We are also learning songs for the days of the week and months of the year.  Each day, your child will be working on a “Daily Math” practice page in class. On the back of that practice page, you will find our "Math Talk" of the day. "Math Talks" are math problems we work on and talk about together in class. These pages will be sent home each day for you to review with your child. Please take a moment to go over these pages with your child, reviewing any missed problems you may have. 

Leadership: At ILCS this year, we are ROARING. The acronym ROAR stands for Respect self, others, and property, Own your actions, Act safely, and Rise to servant leadership.  For the next several weeks, we will be discussing the first R in class - RESPECT. We will talk about what it means to respect, as well as what it looks like. Our goal is to have students take ownership of their own behavior as we all strive to be leaders in our classroom and school.