Happy Holidays!

                                                    

                                                    December 21, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the letter combination of oo.  Now we know the sounds of the letters and letter combinations: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, oa, oa, ie, ee, or,oo, z, w, v, y, and z. 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 such as 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.

Popcorn Words: This week we added three words to our popcorn bag: no, go, so.

Reading:  This week was Gingerbread Week.    We read many books about our new friend the Gingerbread Man who mysteriously ran away from our classroom.  We read the books The Gingerbread Man, The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, and The Gingerbread Man is Loose in the School to try and get clues of where our new friend went.  The Gingerbread Man also left us clues to where he might be.  We even made Gingerbread friends in hopes that he returns.  Along with reading those books and gingerbread activities we did many other fun holiday activities.  We also read a story about the Gingerbread Man’s friend Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  The students were able to create their own Rudolph bag and we put Reindeer food inside to prepare for the upcoming holidays.

You would never guess it but our new friend the Gingerbread Man did return on Friday morning just in time for our Holiday Party.

REMEMBER:

I want to wish all the students and their families a very

safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Winter Break- No School December 24^th 2012- January 6^th 2013.

January 7^th 2013 is our first day back from Winter Break

Run, Run As Fast As You Can!

                                                

                                                    December 14, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the sounds of the letters y and x.  For the letter y we pretend that we are eating yogurt and for the letter z we pretend to put on our x-ray glasses.  Now we know the sounds of the letters and letter combinations: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, oa, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, v, y, and z. 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 such as 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 our Let’s Count theme.  We read Benny's Pennies in which a boy has five pennies and buys gifts for his mother, brother, sister, dog and cat.  We talked about how the pennies in the book look different from the pennies we use.  We also talked about that Abraham Lincoln is on the penny and that 100 pennies equals one dollar.  We read Feast for 10.  We talked about the upcoming holidays and what we eat while we celebrate the upcoming holidays with our families.

Math:   We continued working on writing and tracing our numbers.  The children like to sing the Dr. Jean number song.  We learned about addition and that addition is putting numbers together.  We learned that the sign we use when adding is called the plus sign.

Popcorn Words: This week we added three words to our popcorn bag: little, and, yes.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student and why that student is a star.  Everyone in the class will have the chance to be the star of the week.

Next week we will be doing gingerbread activities.  Some will include reading gingerbread stories and searching for a gingerbread man who ran away inside our school.

 REMEMBER:

Next Friday December 21^st we will have a winter break party for both the morning and afternoon classes.

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

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Here Comes The Gingerbread Man!

December 7, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the sounds of the letters w and v.  For the letter w we pretend that the wind is blowing and for the letter v we pretend we are driving a car.  Now we know the sounds of the letters and letter combinations: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, oa, oa, ie, ee, or, z, w,and v. 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 such as 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 continued our theme friends together and continued to learn about making inferences.  We read the story Stone Soup and talked about the characters and setting of the story.  After the story was finished, as a class, we summarized what happened in the story.  We also talked about drawing conclusions.   We talked about how clever the hungry young man was and how he was able to get the villagers to give him the ingredients necessary to make his soup.  We also continued talking about action words.

Math:   We continued working on writing and tracing our numbers.  The children like to sing the Dr. Jean number song.  We also learned about greater than and less than.  For this concept I explained to the students that there is an alligator and his mouth always eats the greater number.  We had a chance to complete a greater than and less than activity in which there were alligator mouths for us to cut out and glue on our papers to make our number sentences read correctly.  I am so proud of the students.  They worked very hard learning this new concept.  We then played a greater than and less than computer game on Starfall. 

Popcorn Words: This week we added three words to our popcorn bag: ran, into, for.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student and why that student is a star.  Everyone in the class will have the chance to be the star of the week.

Watch for news about the upcoming gingerbread activities.

 REMEMBER:

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Almost December!

                                                                         

 November 30, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I explained the letter combinations of ee, and or.  We also learned the letter Z and move are arms as if we were a bee buzzing around.  Now we know the sounds of the letters and letter combinations: s, a, t, i, p, n, c, k, e, r, h, m, d, g, o, u, l, f, b, j, oa, oa, ie, ee, or, and z. 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 continued our theme friends together.  We learned about cause and effect and predicting and making inferences.  We read The Lion and the Mouse and My Dad and I.  In The Lion and the Mouse the students first made predictions about what the story was going to be about based on the pictures.  After the story the students concluded it was a make believe story because animals do not talk like humans, but the students did learn a real life lesson that friends help friends out in time of need.  In My Dad and I the father and son in the story are best friends and it tells about all the things they do together.  We talked about our own Dad’s, Mom’s, sisters and brothers being our best friends and the things we do with them.  During the week we also talked about verbs and that verbs are words used to describe actions.

Math:   We continued working on writing and tracing our numbers.  We are also working on matching like quantities and are able to tell, if given a number one through ten, which is bigger.

Popcorn Words: This week we added three words to our popcorn bag: to, too, and do.

Writing:  We used the words to and too in a sentence describing something that each student likes to do.  After each student wrote what they like to do they each found a friend in the room that likes the same thing and had that friend sign their name and write what they like to do too.

ART:  The student’s festive pines look great on display in our hallways.  I am so proud of all the students and all the hard work they have put into decorating their projects.

 REMEMBER:

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 16, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I introduced that the letters oa together make the long vowel o sound and ie makes the long I sound.  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, f, b, and j.  We also know that when two vowels go walking together the first one does the talking and the second one stays quiet.  We now know the vowel pairs ai, oa, and ie.  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: This week we added more popcorn words to our list. The new words this week are am, not, did  and next week they will be is, but, and can. .  We now have 20 words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up, run, on, at, we, me, am, not, did, is, but and can .  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home.  Try making simple sentences with the popcorn words.  We started are Friends Together theme and read Aaron and Gayla’s Alphabet Book and Friends at School.  We talked about things friends do together and how we are good friends to one another.  We also read and illustrated The Tale of a Turkey.  The children really enjoyed this activity and liked to point out all the popcorn words in the book.  Next week we are going to read Thanksgiving themed books.

Math:   We continued our numbers unit working with numbers one through five.  It is easier to trace numbers than write them on our own.  The students practiced writing numbers on the whiteboards. We can play fun math games that help us learn our numbers such as go fish with playing cards.

Social Studies:  We read our Weekly Reader focusing on Thanksgiving.  We talked about the pilgrims and what we all have to be thankful for.

Art:  We traced our hands to make turkeys and have a nice poem to accompany our turkeys.  I know parents will keep these fun holiday projects for years to come as the children grow older.

Have a Wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!

 REMEMBER:

No School November 21^st, 22^nd, and 23^rd Thanksgiving Holiday

Scholastic Book orders are due November 23, 2012

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

Fall Leaves

November 9, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I introduced that the letters ai together make the long vowel a sound.  We put our hand by our ear and say ai.  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, f, b, and j.  We also know that when two vowels go walking together the first one does the talking and the second one stays quiet.  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: This week we added more popcorn words to our list. The new words are we and me.  We now have fourteen words and they are: I, a, it, in, see, big, my, like, up, run, on, at, we and me.  Please practice the popcorn words with your child at home.  We then talked about and wrote how we are kind students who care about each other.  We also had a mixed up Thanksgiving sentence about a turkey chasing us.  We had a chance to unscramble the sentence and when in was complete it read A turkey is chasing me!  We reinforced that a sentence begins with a capital and ends with a punctuation mark.  In this case it was an exclamation mark.  We then had a chance to color our picture and share it with our classmates on the elmo projector in our classroom.

Math:   We continued our numbers unit working with numbers one through five.  It is easier to trace numbers than write them on our own.  The students need practice writing numbers on their own.  We also were introduced to the Starfall math program, in which we can play fun math games that help us learn our numbers.

Social Studies:  We talked about the Presidential election and who was elected the President of the United States.  We also talked about Veterans Day this upcoming Monday and how it is in honor of those who have served our country.

 REMEMBER:

No School Monday November 12^th- Veterans Day

Scholastic Book orders are due November 23, 2012

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

November is Here!

November 2, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week I introduced the letters b and j.  For the letter b we pretend we are hitting a baseball with a bath and the letter j we wiggle like a bowl of jello.  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, f, b, and j.  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 Clifford’s Halloween, Winnie the Pooh’s Halloween, and The Night Before Halloween.  It begins “ Twas the night before Halloween and all through the house all the creatures were stirring, except for the mouse.  The monsters had gathered to plan and prepare, for the trick-or-treaters who soon would be there.”

Math:   We started our numbers unit working with numbers one through five.  It is easier to trace numbers than write them on our own.  The students need practice writing numbers on their own.

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

Writing:  We wrote about what we saw looking at us on Halloween.  We also wrote at the Halloween party I was a _____________.

Social Studies:  We read our weekly reader on the Presidential Election that is coming up on November 6^th.  The children learned who the two candidates are and that at the age of 18 they will get the opportunity to vote for the President of the United States.  The children also learned that the President serves for four years.  The students also had the chance to vote for the President and the results will be posted in our school library shortly.  For voting the students received a vote sticker and Patriotic pencil.  All of the students were very interest in talking about the President and election.

 REMEMBER:

A special thank you to the parents who took time out of their busy schedules to volunteer and plan our Halloween party.  All the children were talking about what fun they had on Thursday when they came to school

Picture retakes will be Thursday November 8^th from 9:00 A.M. until noon.  Afternoon kindergarten parents need to bring your child in between those times if you wish to have their picture retaken.

No School Monday November 5^th- Parent/ Teacher Conferences

No School Tuesday November 6^th- Teacher Institute

No School Monday November 12^th- Veterans Day

WEAR YOUR GYM SHOES THURSDAY AND FRIDAY

BRING YOUR LIBRARY BOOKS ON WEDNESDAY

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