Weekly News: February 3-7

Mark your calendars for two three-day weekends coming up in a row, as there is no school next Monday, February 10th and no school on Monday, February 17th. 

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 will be sent home this week. This is great writing practice for your child. Please check for a sign-up on ParentSquare (coming soon!) if you would like to donate towards our fun Valentine's Day centers on this day.

If you are available on Tuesday evening, we will be holding our annual LCAP meeting at the CSC campus at 5:30 in the Lion's Den. LCAP stands for Local Control and Accountability Plan - this is our school plan/goals and your feedback and input greatly helps us with ways to improve our school. We hope to see you there! 

Upcoming Events:  
Monday, February 10: NO SCHOOL 
Friday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 17: NO SCHOOL

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. 

Writing:  We will continue working on narrative (stories about our lives) and opinion pieces. We are working hard on going back to reread our stories to make sure they make sense and make sure we have our conventions (period at the end, uppercase at the beginning, and proper spacing). 

Math: We will continue working on addition and subtraction problems and word stories. You can help at home by asking your child a simple math story - "If we have three apples and two oranges, how many pieces of fruit do we have altogether? What number sentence would match that story?"

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

Homework: February 3-7

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. 

Students will have a book bag "check-in" at the end of each week, where we will read everything from their bag together and they will receive a star for each item they read fluently. 

Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: With Valentine's Day coming up, part of your writing homework can 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 will be sent home this week! 

Math: Keep practicing counting, number recognition, addition and subtraction and place value at home!  Please review your child's Math Facts Tests that come home weekly to reinforce addition and subtraction at home! You can also find these pages uploaded on ParentSquare! 

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

Weekly News: January 27-31

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 San Bernardino Museum. 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 8:30. 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 with us if there is space 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!  

Upcoming Events:  
Wednesday, January 29: Field Trip to the Children's Museum 
Monday, February 10: NO SCHOOL 
Friday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers (more info coming soon)
Monday, February 17: 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 narrative (story from our life) and an opinion. 

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 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 continue to work on using many strategies to add and subtract.

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

Homework: January 27-31

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. Students will have a book bag "check-in" at the end of each week, where we will read everything from their bag together and they will receive a star for each item they read fluently. 

Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: Write in your at-home journal every day.

Math: We have started our unit on addition and subtraction. Please review your child's pre-test that came home to see what skills they need to work on. Please also review your child's Math Facts Tests that come home weekly to reinforce addition and subtraction at home! You can also find these pages uploaded on ParentSquare! 

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

Weekly News: January 21-24

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 12:20 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! 

Our next kindergarten field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, January 29th. We will be going to the San Bernardino Children's Museum in Redlands. It is sure to be an exciting “hands on” experience.  We will be leaving school by bus at 8:30 SHARP and returning by dismissal. Permission slips for our field trip will be coming home on Tuesday. If you are interested in being a chaperone please email me (jcbess@inlandleaders.com) this week. Chaperones are welcome to follow us or ride the bus if there is room, 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! 

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 20: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 24: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION
Wednesday, January 29: Field Trip to the Children's Museum

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 addition and subtraction as we learn all the strategies to help us add and subtract numbers. Some of these strategies include: number line, draw a picture, draw on a tens frame, and counting forward from the bigger number. We will also celebrate our 100th Day of school this week by counting and writing to 100. Keep practicing those addition and subtraction math tests at home so you can pass your next level this week!

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

Homework: January 21-24

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: Make sure that you are reading your book bag every night! Inside books bags, each student should have: sight words and letter teams of the week, a sight word review page at their level, one or two fluency stories, 2-3 A-Z books, and some classroom library books they have chosen. This probably seems like a lot, but I just want to give each student the opportunity to read, read, read! We are learning that readers get better at reading by.. READING! Students will have a book bag "check-in" at the end of each week, where we will read everything from their bag together and they will receive a star for each item they read fluently. 

Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: Write in your at-home journal every day.

Math: We have started our unit on addition and subtraction. Please review your child's pre-test that came home to see what skills they need to work on. Please also review your child's Math Facts Tests that come home weekly to reinforce addition and subtraction at home! You can also find these pages uploaded on ParentSquare! 

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

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! 

Weekly News: January 13-17

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.  If you are able, we'd love more prizes/small trinkets for our "class store"!!! Thank you for your continued support!

A LOOK AHEAD: Our next kindergarten field trip is scheduled for Wednesday, January 29th. We will be going to the San Bernardino Children's Museum in Redlands. It is sure to be an exciting “hands on” experience.  We will be leaving school by bus at 8:30 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 17TH, as we need to give our final head count to the museum. Chaperones are welcome to follow us or ride the bus if there is room, and will need to pay a chaperone fee at the door ($5.00) 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. These tests will come home oncer 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 20: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 24: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)
Wednesday, January 29: Field Trip to the Children's Museum (more info coming soon)


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: This week we are studying and reading about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., the Civil Rights Movement, and equality for all people. 

Writing:  We are learning how to write an opinion piece of writing. Students will practice how to state their opinion based on a writing prompt and give two or three explanations to back their opinion. For example: Which fruit do you think is the best, apples or bananas?  In my opinion apples are the best fruit.  Apples make delicious pies. They are also a quick and healthy snack you can take anywhere without getting smushed.  Apples are also good for gooey caramel apples that are fun to make and eat!   We will also continue to practice our narrative writing. We will also continue to work on proper penmanship and writing conventions such as periods and correct capitalization.  


Math: We are beginning our unit on addition and subtraction. Each week, we will focus on a different math strategy - this week, we are learning how to use a number line to add and subtract numbers. Your child will be coming home with a checklist of everything we are learning in this unit, as well as a Pre-Test they took in class. Please go over this pre-test and reinforce these skills at home. We have also begun taking Math Fact Fluency Tests. The end of the year standard is that students will be able to fluently (quickly, without fingers) add and subtract within 5 by the END of the school year. The kids have two minutes to complete as much as they can on every math fluency page, with the goal being that if not passed, they get a little farther the next week. There are many levels of math fluency pages that the students will be progressing through. The levels are as following: adding numbers to 0, adding 1 more, taking 1 away, adding and subtracting fluently through 5, adding and subtracting fluently through 10, missing addends, doubles facts through 5, doubles through 10, doubles +1, then double digit addition. Students will have a chance to pass his/her level every Thursday, will be given daily opportunities to practice during math center time, and should be practicing their level at home. If passed, the following Thursday, he/she will move on to the next level. 


Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR.

Homework: January 13-17

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: We will continue our A-Z Leveled Reading Books this week! Make sure that you are reading your book bag every night! Inside books bags, each student should have: sight words and letter teams of the week, a sight word review page at their level, one or two fluency stories, 2-3 A-Z books, and some classroom library books they have chosen. This probably seems like a lot, but I just want to give each student the opportunity to read, read, read! We are learning that readers get better at reading by.. READING! Students will have a book bag "check-in" at the end of each week, where we will read everything from their bag together and they will receive a star for each item they read fluently. 

Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: Write in your at-home journal every day.

Math: We have started our unit on addition and subtraction. Please review your child's pre-test that came home to see what skills they need to work on. Please also review your child's Math Facts Tests that come home weekly to reinforce addition and subtraction at home! You can also find these pages uploaded on ParentSquare! 

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

Weekly News: January 6-10

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 and letter teams. 

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST AS THERE IS A LOT OF NEW INFORMATION FOR THE NEW YEAR!!

There is no school for students tomorrow Monday, January 6th due to a Teacher Inservice day. There is also no school on Monday, January 20th due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Success Academy will resume Tuesday, January 14th and second trimester electives will begin the week of January 13th. 

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

Also beginning after the holiday break each child will have a “bank” in the classroom. Each day your child will have the opportunity to earn money throughout our day. Students will have the opportunity to receive pennies, nickels, and dimes in the classroom as rewards for behavior and hard work throughout the day. On Fridays students 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 practice). 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 6: NO SCHOOL

Monday, January 20: NO SCHOOL

Friday, January 24: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)

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 an opinion piece of writing. Students will practice how to state their opinion based on a writing prompt and give two or three explanations to back their opinion. For example: Which fruit do you think is the best, apples or bananas?  In my opinion apples are the best fruit.  Apples make delicious pies. They are also a quick and healthy snack you can take anywhere without getting smushed.  Apples are also good for gooey caramel apples that are fun to make and eat!   We will also continue to practice our narrative writing. We will also continue to work on proper penmanship and writing conventions such as periods and correct capitalization.  

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.

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