Halloween Fun!

October 25, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I explained the letter f and we let the air out of an inflatable fish.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, and f.  Please try and practice with your letter cards at home.  Please ask your child to say the letter names and sounds. All students have a bag of cards with letters, pictures, and words. They should try to match the letters, pictures, and words. You may choose to make it a game like Memory, Rummy or Go Fish. Use your imagination!  Keep the cards in a special place at home so they can use them again and again.  The cards can stay at home.

Reading:   We read the story The Amazing Little Porridge Pot.  We compared this story to the story from last week Goldilocks and The Three Bears. We worked on summarizing the story with order words such as first, next, then, and last.  We also worked on drawing conclusions from the story.

Math:   We continued our work on shapes and colored in our shape man who is just what his name states.  A man made up of triangles, squares, rectangles and circles.  There was a special key that told us to color each shape a different color.

Popcorn Words: This week we reviewed all our popcorn words.  We now have ten words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up and run.  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home.

Writing:  We wrote about seeing a big bat with the Halloween theme in mind.  After we wrote about seeing a big bat we created a Halloween scene at the top of our paper.

ART:  The students created a pumpkin of their own.  The eyes are circles and triangles or squares depending on what each student wanted to use for the nose.  For the pumpkin’s mouth the students were able to draw whatever type they wanted whether it be scary or happy.  They are going to be displayed in our classroom until after Halloween.

 REMEMBER:

Wednesday October 31^st, 2012 is Halloween and class party day.  The students will wear their costumes to school on that day.  The A.M. parade starts at 9:45 A.M. inside the school and will be out front at 10:00A.M. for friends and family to see us outside. We will then head back inside for our classroom party that begins at 10:15.

The afternoon parade starts at 1:40 P.M. for the whole school.  You may watch us in front of the school or behind the school as we march around the whole building.  We will then head back inside for our classroom party at 2:00 P.M.

Please do not send treats to school.  The party planners will provide sufficient snacks and entertainment for our party.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE OCTOBER 28

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Halloween is Near!

October 19, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I explained the letter u and we made the motion of opening an umbrella.  For the letter l the children pretend they are licking a lollipop.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u and l.  Please try and practice with your letter cards at home.  Please ask your child to say the letter names and sounds. All students have a bag of cards with letters, pictures, and words. They should try to match the letters, pictures, and words. You may choose to make it a game like Memory, Rummy or Go Fish. Use your imagination!  Keep the cards in a special place at home so they can use them again and again.  The cards can stay at home.

Reading:   We started theme three:  We are family.  We read the books Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Shoes From Grandpa.   This week we worked on predicting and making inferences.  In the story Shoes From Grandpa, a grandfather buys shoes for his granddaughter because of the upcoming winter and then all of the girls’ family members bought her clothing for the season.  We then talked about what clothing we need in the wintertime such as, jeans, boots, scarf’s, mittens, and sweaters.  We then talked about all the clothing we would wear during the summer season.

Math:   We continued working on correctly naming shapes regardless of their overall size or orientation.  We also used simple shapes to form larger shapes.

Popcorn Words: This week we added two words to our popcorn bag: up and run.

Writing:  We had a sentence that was “all mixed up”.  We first had to cut out the words that were “all mixed up” (out of order).   We then talked about how all sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a punctuation mark, so we then knew what word was the first and last word of our sentence.  We then arranged the words to make a complete sentence that made sense and glued the words down in order. Finally, after we were done gluing our words, we drew a picture to illustrate our sentence.

ART:  The students finished their tree project that will be displayed in the hallway.  The children first traced their hand on brown paper and then cut it out.  For the leaves the students put their fingers in different colored paints and placed their fingers on the paper to look like leaves.

 REMEMBER:

Thursday October 25^th is a half-day.  There is no AM kindergarten.  The PM class comes in the morning and is dismissed at 12:00 noon.  If you are picking up your child on that day please send me a note ASAP and the pick up time is 12:10 P.M. in the office.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS ARE DUE OCTOBER 28

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Fall is Here!

 October 12, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I explained how water swirls and then gurgles as it goes down the drain for the sound of g.  We also learned the letter o.  For o, we pretended that we are turning on and off a light switch.  Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, and o.  Please try and practice with your letter cards at home.  Please ask your child to say the letter names and sounds. All students have a bag of cards with letters, pictures, and words. They should try to match the letters, pictures, and words. You may choose to make it a game like Memory, Rummy or Go Fish. Use your imagination!  Keep the cards in a special place at home so they can use them again and again.  The cards can stay at home.

Reading:  .  We started theme three:  We are family.  We Read the books Jonathan and his Mommy and Tortillas and Lullabies.  Tortillas and Lullabies tells us how four generations made tortillas, gathered flowers, washed dresses, and sang lullabies.  We see how each generation is similar and different.  Te story is also written in Spanish.  I read a few words on each page in Spanish for those who speak it.  We also read our Weekly Reader and one of the main issues was made into a book about firefighters.

Math:   We worked on correctly naming shapes regardless of their overall size or orientation.

Social Studies:  I read the book In 1492 by Jean Marzallo.  The book retells Columbus’ voyage with rhyming.  The illustrations are colorful and help the children understand about history and why we did not have school this past Monday.

Popcorn Words: This week we added two words to our popcorn bag: my and like

Writing:  We wrote in our journals about our families and after we wrote we were able to draw a picture of our families.  The students liked including all the different members that make up their families.

Fire Safety Week:   This week we met Firefighter Jaime.  He showed us how to stop, drop, and roll if our clothes catch on fire.  We learned to “ Fall and Crawl” if there is a fire in our house.  We also know “Don’t hide and Go Outside.”  We also saw Firefighter Jaime with all his gear on and we understand that he is not scary and he is our friend, who is there to help us.  Please make a fire escape plan with your family.

If any parents would like to volunteer to be a class computer helper, please let me know.  I am looking for helpers that can assist on a weekly basis.  The days that are available in the morning class are Monday, Tuesday and Friday from 10:30-10:55 A.M.  The days that are available in the afternoon class are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 2:20-2:45 P.M.

 REMEMBER:

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Fall is Full of Colors!

 October 5, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week we talked about our favorite foods, then rubbed our tummies, and said "mmmmm" for the sound of m. We played a drum to hear the sound of d. Now we know the sounds of the letters: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, and d.  I sent home the second sound sheet with the letters and actions. Please ask your child to say the letter names and sounds. All students have a bag of cards with letters, pictures, and words. They should try to match the letters, pictures, and words. You may choose to make it a game like Memory, Rummy or Go Fish. Use your imagination!  Keep the cards in a special place at home so they can use them again and again. You can use the letter cards to make words. We have started to use magnetic letters to make 3 letter words like the ones on the cards.

Reading:  This week we added another word to our popcorn bag: big.    We continued the theme: Colors All Around. We read a Big Book called In the Big Blue Sea. We saw many colorful fish that live in the ocean. We also read I Like Colors, How the Birds Got Their Colors, and White Rabbit’s Color Book.  We have a class set of color words and practiced reading those color words while we made our Crayon Box project.  Please keep reading to your children. It is so important to keep reading at home.  We also learned how to use our class listening station.  We all understand that not everyday do we get to use the listening station but we all will get a chance.

Math: We completed Chapter 3 in our math books this week. We learned to recognize and complete patterns with the following repetitions: ABABAB, ABBABBABB, and ABCABCABC.   We have continued counting the days of school and are up to 29 days.  The children even recognize that the pattern in our class caterpillar is the same color reappears every ten days.

Book It:  I sent home the Pizza Hut Book It Program.  Please color the square every day that you read 20 minutes with your child.  The goal is to read 5 days each week.  I will check every Friday to see who is spending time reading at home.  At the end of each month children can earn a free personal pan pizza if they reach the reading goal.

Bad Weather Drill:  We practiced a bad weather drill this week.

DATES TO REMEMBER:

NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY OCTOBER 8^TH COLUMBUS DAY

ART TO REMEMBER ORDERS DUE OCTOBER 19TH

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY