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Thursday, January 31, 2019

Weekly News: February 4-8


Mark your calendars for two three-day weekends coming up in a row, as there is no school next Monday, February 11th and no school on Monday, February 18th. 

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day together with some fun themed centers on Valentine's Day. If your child would like to make valentines for the class, a list of boys and girls names was sent home last week. This is great writing practice for your child. Please check the sign-up on ParentSquare if you would like to donate towards our fun Valentine's Day centers or volunteer on this day.


Upcoming Events:  
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL 
Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers 
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL
February 25-March 1: Read Across America Week 
Friday, March 1: Dr. Seuss Day 
Friday, March 15: St. Patrick's Day Centers 
March 18-March 29: SPRING BREAK! 


If you are at the store and think of us, our class needs:
Baby Wipes 

Items for our Class Store 
Valentine Stickers 


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: EACH, PHONE, LAUGH, ALSO, YOUR.

Letter Team:  PH (makes the "F" sound like in PHONE and GRAPH).

Reading:
 
This week we will continue reading books all about our country. We will be learning all about our American symbols (flag, liberty bell, bald eagle, White House, Mount Rushmore, etc.) We will learn the meaning behind the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. There is a note coming home on Monday with the words and the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. Please go over this with your child and discuss the meaning, as we will be doing the same in class. 

Writing:  We will continue practicing writing a Step Up to Writing paragraph with a topic sentence, three things about that topic, and a conclusion sentence. Students will be making personal February writing goals with me. 

Math: This week, we will focus hard on place value (tens and ones). My goal for students is that they can tell me what digit is in the tens place and the ones place, as well as give a number sentence to match. (Example: The number 19 - the one is in the tens place, the nine is in the ones place, which means there is one TEN and nine ONES and 10+9=19.)


Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: February 4-8

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words EACH, PHONE, LAUGH, ALSO, YOUR and new letter team is PH. PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRACTICE ALL OF YOUR OLD FLASHCARDS - ESPECIALLY THOSE YOUR CHILD IS STILL STRUGGLING WITH - ASSESSMENTS AND REPORT CARDS ARE COMING UP!!!! 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 


Reading: Our book bags have been filled with so many things to practice reading! Continue to read your American Symbols book every night as you learn our nation's symbols. Continue to practice your fluency passage, your A-Z paper books, your sight word and letter team pages, and your library books. Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can also read leveled books on RAZ-Kids and take quizzes on books read.

Writing: Our January journals are coming home this week. I am sitting down with each student to review their journal and together, we are making a February writing goal. Please see the inside cover of your child's January journal to read the goal that we made together. Continue to work on these writing goals as you write three to five sentences every day in your at-home journal. With Valentine's Day coming up, part of your writing homework can also be to write your friend's names on his or her valentines. Writing names is great writing practice! A list of all the boys and girls in our class was sent home this past week. 

Math: Continue to discuss place value with your child. Ask them how many tens and ones belong in each number and have them give you the number sentence to go with that number. Example: The number 14 has one ten and four ones. 10+4=14. Continue to play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice your addition and subtraction facts and your number bonds. Count the money in your "bank" each day.

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Friday, January 25, 2019

Weekly News: January 28-February 1

We had so much fun celebrating our 100th Day of School! Thank you for all of the help, donations, and snacks!! Make sure you check out our pictures on ParentSquare. I can't believe we are more than half way through our school year together! I am so proud of your children for working so hard and for everything they have learned so far.

This week we will be learning about Groundhog's Day and beginning to learn all about our country. We will learn all about our American symbols, including the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, the bald eagle, the Washington Monument, and so on. 

Our field trip is Wednesday! We will be going to the Children's Museum of the Desert. Permission Slips for this field trip will be sent home last week - if you have not turned this in yet, please sign and return by Tuesday at the latest. On this day, we will be leaving school immediately at 8:15 so we are asking that all students meet at the classroom at 8:00 so we can get ready and load the bus. On this day, please pack your child a lunch in a paper bag.  No lunch boxes please. We will be eating our “sack” lunches at the museum following the tour. Don't forget to wear your ILCS shirt. Thank you to the parents that have emailed me to chaperone. Chaperones can choose to ride or follow the bus and will pay a cash fee of $10.00 the morning of the field trip. We are looking forward to having a great time!  

We are STILL in need of LOTS of empty Capri Sun juice 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!

Upcoming Events:  
Wednesday, January 30: Field Trip to the Children's Museum 
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL 
Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: QUESTION, WRITE, WITH, SAW, FROM.

Letter Team:  QU (we are learning that QU are married because they are always together!) and WR (the W is silent!) 

Reading:
 
This week we are reading books all about our country. We will be learning all about our American symbols (flag, liberty bell, bald eagle, White House, Mount Rushmore, etc.) We will learn the meaning behind the words of the Pledge of Allegiance. 

Writing:  We will continue practicing writing a Step Up to Writing paragraph with a topic sentence, three things about that topic, and a conclusion sentence. 

Math: 
Since we have passed our 100th Day of School, we will start working on place value to the hundreds. We'll be learning that Zero the Hero (I'm sure you heard a lot about him on Friday!) is now our place holder in the tens place. We will discuss how many hundreds, tens, and ones are within a given number and create number sentences to match. You can help at home by asking your child about tens and ones. ("My number is 16, how many tens and ones does that have?" Your child should be able to tell you that it has one ten and six ones, as well as give you the number sentences to match 10+6=16 or 16-10=6.) This week, we will also focus on sorting and graphing. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: January 28-February 1

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (QUESTION, WRITE, WITH, SAW, FROM), and letter teams (QU and WR). Study flashcards every day. STUDY OLD FLASHCARDS AS WELL. I WILL BE TESTING STUDENTS ON ALL SIGHT WORDS FROM THE FIRST AND SECOND TRIMESTER IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS!

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 


Reading: Our book bags have been filled with so many things to practice reading! This week, students will have an "American Symbols" book in their book bag. Please keep this book in your book bag for the next two weeks and practice reading it every night as you learn our nation's symbols. Continue to practice your fluency passage, your A-Z paper books, your sight word and letter team pages, and your library books. Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can also read leveled books on RAZ-Kids. Information for this was sent home last week. 

Writing: Write three to five sentences every day in your at-home journal. 


Math: Discuss place value with your child. Ask them how many tens and ones belong in each number and have them give you the number sentence to go with that number. Example: The number 14 has one ten and four ones. 10+4=14. Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss measurement and help your child to measure items at home. Reinforce addition and subtraction math facts through 5. Count the money in your "bank" each day. Tell addition and subtraction word problems to your children and have them explain to you how they got the answer.

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. There were MANY math practice pages uploaded onto ParentSquare last week - It would be a great idea to print the addition and subtraction pages as well as all the number bonds pages for your child to practice at home each day. Stick these in a page protector and use an expo marker so you can reuse them day after day and not have to print a billion copies :) 

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Weekly News: January 21-25


There is no school on Monday. Enjoy the three day weekend with your families! 

On FRIDAY, WE ARE CELEBRATING OUR 100TH DAY OF SCHOOL! We will be celebrating with special 100th day Fun Friday Centers!  

For part of our 100th Day Centers, we are asking that each student bring a snack item to be shared with the class on Friday. Some examples include: a box of goldfish crackers, a box of teddy grahms, large bag of gummy bears, large bag of skittles, box of cheerios, large bag of mini Oreos, etc. The students will be sharing these snacks with their classmates to make “100 Day Hash” in celebration of our 100th day!! 

We also have a SPECIAL TURN-IN PROJECT FOR HOMEWORK this week - please read more in our homework section. 

If you would like, we invite you to join us in class at 12:30 on Friday as we watch a special video from our first 100 days of school. I can't believe that we have already been in school for almost 100 days! I am so proud of your kids and how far they have come! 

Don't forget to keep working on those Community Service Projects! Our kindergarten requirement is 6-8 hours of community service. These projects and presentations will be in May. You do not want to wait until the last minute! 

We are getting excited about our field trip coming up on Tuesday, Wednesday, January 30th. We will be going to the Children's Museum of the Desert. It is sure to be an exciting “hands on” experience.  We will be leaving school at 8:15 SHARP and returning by dismissal. Permission slips for our field trip will be coming home as the field trip gets closer. If you are interested in being a chaperone please email me (jcbess@inlandleaders.com) and let me know BY FRIDAY JANUARY 25TH, as we need to give our final head count to the museum. Chaperones are welcome to follow us or ride the bus and will need to pay a chaperone fee at the door ($10.00) Please remember that school policy states NO SIBLINGS. Thanks! We are looking forward to a wonderful field trip! Also, if you have not made your Dollar A Day donation for the year, please visit https://inlandleaders.formstack.com/forms/dollar_a_day_test_form. Without donations to Kindergarten Dollar A Day, we are not able to go on field trips, so thank you for all of your support!  


We are STILL in need of LOTS of empty Capri Sun juice 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!

Upcoming Events:  
Monday, January 21: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 25: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION
Wednesday, January 30: Field Trip to the Children's Museum 
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL 
Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE.

Letter Team:  ONG (like in SONG) and ONK (like in HONK).  

Reading:
 
This week we are reading books all about our 100th Day of School! 

Writing:  We have some fun writing assignments this week. We will be writing all about our first 100 days of school, what we would do if we had $100, and what we would look like if we were 100 years old. 

Math: We will continue our unit on measurement. This week we will focus on measuring weight. We will use balancing scales to measure objects that are heavy and light. We will also celebrate our 100th Day of school this week by counting and writing to 100. We will also keep working on our addition/subtraction and number bonds facts. 


Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: January 21-25

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE), and letter teams (ONG and ONK). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 


Reading: Read the A-Z books from your book bag. Read the library book in your book bag. Read your new fluency passage from your book bag. Continue to read the little paper books from your at-home book box. Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. 

Writing: Write three to five sentences every day in your at-home journal. 


Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss measurement and help your child to measure items at home. Reinforce addition and subtraction math facts through 5. Count the money in your "bank" each day. Tell addition and subtraction word problems to your children and have them explain to you how they got the answer.


QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. There were MANY math practice pages uploaded onto ParentSquare last week - It would be a great idea to print the addition and subtraction pages as well as all the number bonds pages for your child to practice at home each day. Stick these in a page protector and use an expo marker so you can reuse them day after day and not have to print a billion copies :) 


SPECIAL TURN-IN PROJECT!!!!!!: We would like our students to practice counting to 100 by collecting 100 items to bring to school. Help them choose something small like 100 beans, 100 buttons, 100 pennies, 100 cotton balls, etc.Be creative! Help them put their collection into a paper “mystery bag” with their name on it (like a brown paper lunch bag that we cannot see through!). When they bring it to school, the class will try to guess what they brought! We will be doing fun activities with these collections all week long! These 100 Collections will be due Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday! Please DO NOT BRING ON FRIDAY! 

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Weekly News: January 14-18


Electives and Success Academy begin again this week. 

Students have been doing such a wonderful job on writing last names! If your child is still struggling with this, please practice at home! You can make it a part of your writing homework.

Our "banks" have been a big hit in the classroom! Students are excited to "earn money" for making good use of classroom time and for good behavior and hard work throughout the day. On Friday, we will have our first visit to the classroom store. Students have the opportunity to trade out their money for larger coins (5 pennies for a nickel, etc) and choose to spend money on a prize or save it for a larger prize later. Please continue to count money received everyday and reinforce the responsibility of taking care of banks. Also, if you are able, we'd love more prizes for our "class store"!!! Thank you for your continued support!

A LOOK AHEAD: Our next kindergarten field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, January 30th. We will be going to the Children's Museum of the Desert. It is sure to be an exciting “hands on” experience.  We will be leaving school at 8:15 SHARP and returning by dismissal. Permission slips for our field trip will be coming home as the field trip gets closer. If you are interested in being a chaperone please email me (jcbess@inlandleaders.com) and let me know BY FRIDAY JANUARY 25TH, as we need to give our final head count to the museum. Chaperones are welcome to follow us or ride the bus and will need to pay a chaperone fee at the door ($10.00) Please remember that school policy states NO SIBLINGS. Thanks! We are looking forward to a wonderful field trip! 


Last week, we began taking Math Fact Fluency Tests on Addition and Subtraction. This week, we will begin taking tests on our Number Bonds (ways to make 3, ways to make 4, etc.). These tests may come home a couple of times a week as your child progresses through each level. Please take some time to review these tests, and reinforce and practice these skills at home. Thank you for your support!

We are in need of LOTS of empty Capri Sun juice 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!

Upcoming Events:  
Monday, January 21: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 25: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)
Wednesday, January 30: Field Trip to the Children's Museum (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL 
Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WOULD, COULD, SHOULD, WALK, TALK.

Letter Team: 
 ANG (like in HANG, SANG) and ANK (like in TANK, BANK). 

Reading:
 T
his week we are studying and reading about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and equality for all people. Students will be taking home a little paper book about Martin Luther King Jr. this week in their book bags. Please practice reading this at home, as well as library books and fluency passages. 

Writing:  We are learning how to write a five sentence paragraph. I have been modeling a structure for paragraph writing called, "Step Up to Writing" for the students. Kindergarten Step Up to Writing is writing a paragraph with a topic sentence, three sentences about that topic, and a conclusion sentence. This week, we will write five sentence step up to writing stories about Martin Luther King Jr. 

Math: We will continue our unit on measurement. This week we will focus on comparing how objects are similar or different. For example: If the glue stick is 5 cubes in length and the pencil is 10 cubes in length, which object is longer? The tricky part of comparing is when we ask, "HOW MUCH LONGER?" We will learn that comparing problems are really just subtraction problems (10-5=5 so the pencil is 5 cubes longer). This is very difficult critical thinking for our kindergarten students. You can help at home by asking similar comparing/subtraction questions. 


Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. 

Homework: January 14-18

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (WOULD, COULD, SHOULD, WALK, TALK), and letter teams (ANG and ANK). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 


Reading: Read the Reading A-Z books from your book bag. Read the library book in your book bag. Read your new fluency passage from your book bag. Continue to read the little paper books from your at-home book box. Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. 


Writing: Write three to five sentences every day in your at-home journal. 


Math: Continue to work on number ID, number writing, counting to 100, and counting forward. Work with your child on addition and subtraction. You will start to see these tests come home: adding +0, one more, one less, and facts within five. Go over these tests and work on areas where your child may need support. We will begin our Measurement and Data Unit. Measurement and Data in kindergarten is a fancy way of saying measuring, sorting, and graphing. See the picture below to go over our goals for this math unit. We will be learning height, weight, length, width, capacity. You can help your child at home by using Measurement Vocabulary and encourage them to use these words to describe everyday objects. (I can measure my weight with a scale, this cup measures capacity, the height of the chair is 4 books tall, the spoon is shorter than the knife, I can measure a book’s height, weight, and length, etc) You can also help your child at home by asking him or her to sort objects (shapes, colors, utensils, coins, or other every day objects laying around the house). Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill. Please review your child's Math Facts Tests that come home and reinforce addition, subtraction and number bonds! 




QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Friday, January 4, 2019

Happy New Year!


Happy New Year and welcome back to school! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and fun two weeks off with family and friends!

This is a short week, but we will still have new sight words, letter teams, and Friday tests! 

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 7th due to a Teacher Inservice day. There is also no school on Monday, January 21st due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Success Academy and electives will resume the week of January 14th. 

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 proper 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!! Please also remember to empty the folder of papers every day, only returning book bags or any other important papers that need to be returned. 

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 throughout our day. Students will have the opportunity to receive pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters 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 sort and 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. 

This week, we will begin taking Math Fluency Tests on our Number Bonds (ways to make 3, ways to make 4, 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 weekly tests. 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!

We are in need of LOTS of empty Capri Sun juice 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!


Upcoming Events:  
Monday, January 7: NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 21: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 25: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)
Wednesday, January 30: Field Trip to the Children's Museum (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL 
Thursday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OF, BACK, SAY, SAYS, PLEASE.

Letter Team: 
 CK (We are learning that CK makes the K sound and helps the vowel to say it's short sound, like in BACK, NECK, PICK, LOCK, DUCK).

Reading: This week, we will read many books about winter and snowmen. We are also reading "The Mitten" and many other books by Jan Brett. We will discuss and record story elements such as author, illustrator, setting, and characters. 

Writing:  We are learning how to write a five sentence paragraph. I have been modeling a structure for paragraph writing called, "Step Up to Writing" for the students. Kindergarten Step Up to Writing is writing a paragraph with a topic sentence, three sentences about that topic, and a conclusion sentence. For example, "We had a great day at school today. First, we learned about measurement in math. Next, we colored snowmen at centers. Last, we read a lot of books about winter. School is so much fun!" 

Math: We will discuss Number Bonds we will begin taking Number Bonds and Fluency Math tests. We will continue to learn our Doubles Song. 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. Please see the homework section below for more information. 

Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. Students displaying excellent leadership traits will be rewarded with money to spent at our class store.