Here Comes the Snow!

January 25, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the letter combination of ou and qu.  For ou we pretend that we accidently poked our finger with a pin and qu we pretend our hands are quacking like a duck.  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, ch, sh, ng, th, ou, qu, 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: here, our and out.  Please practice the popcorn words we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult.

Reading:  This week we started our Sunshine and Raindrops theme.  This week we worked on predicting and inferring.  We read Chicken Soup with Rice.  This book takes us on a journey through each month of the year all the while making chicken soup each month.  The theme of each month is based on the season of the year and the weather that is likely to occur during each month of the year.  We also read What Will the Weather Be Like Today?  The story talks about different animals and the weather that they like.  For example, there is a page about a lizard and the lizard likes hot and sunny weather.  We then had a class discussion of where the lizard would live and since it is the dessert the lizard likes the warm and hot weather.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week and what makes that student a star.  The students then get to illustrate themselves and the star student   Each and every student will have the opportunity to be the star of the week.

Math:  We started our third quarter material.  We focused on reading and writing numbers 11 through 20.  Please practice reading and writing these harder numbers at home.  We also started on our counting from 50 –75.

Social Studies:  We talked about Martin Luther King and that is the reason we did not have school this past Monday.  We talked about how Dr. King fought for equal rights for everyone.

REMEMBER:

Wednesday January 30, 2013 is a half-day.  Only the morning class will attend school.  School will go until 12 noon.  Pick-ups on that day will be at 12:10 P.M.

Valentine Party Information- On the valentine cards please have your child only sign their name and not who they are too.  Please do not bring any candy or treats with the valentine cards.

The Six Flags Read to Succeed log is Due by February 22^nd, 2013

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Our January Snowman!

January 18, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the letter combination of ng and th.  For ng we pretend that we are strong.  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, ch, sh, ng, th, 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: he, she, and be.

Reading:  This week we continued our Let’s Count Theme.  We read the stories Peace and Quiet and All You Need For a Snowman.  In Peace and Quiet an old lady and man can not get any sleep because of branches from a tree brushing up against the house and a creaky floor, so the old lady and man visit the wise man in the village.  The wise man tells them to put all types of animals, such as a goat, dog, cat and horse, in their house.  All the animals make so much noise that the old couple determine that a little noise from a branch on a tree and a creaky floor are not that bad as compared to all the other noises that could be inside a house.  All You Need For a Snowman tells a story of all the components needed for children to make a snowman.

Writing:  We wrote in our journals.  The sentence: He is a strong man!  The children noticed that three words are popcorn words and the other two words the children were able to read using their decoding skills..  After they wrote their sentence, they had a chance to color the strong man on the page and draw a picture of themselves being a strong boy or a strong girl.  Using the word strong was a good review of the ng jolly phonics lessons from this week.

Math:  We continued working with addition and subtraction.  The children know that addition is putting together and subtraction is taking apart.  We also worked some more on writing numbers one through ten.  Please practice writing numbers at home with your child.

Social Studies:  We talked about the President of the United States.  The children know that the President is President Obama. He lives and works in the White House and that he is responsible for the laws of our country and that he is the commander and chief of our armed forces.  We also talked about how the President can serve two terms and that President Obama’s inauguration is this upcoming Monday January 21, 2013.

Art:  After reading All You Need For a Snowman the children had an opportunity to build their own snowman.  The children cut out one snowball for every letter of their name and then one additional one for the snowman’s head.  On each snowball the children wrote one letter of their name and when the snowman is complete and you stand it up the snowman spells out the names of each child.  The children were able to add arms and a hat.  The projects will be on display on the walls by the kindergarten classrooms.

REMEMBER:

No School Monday January 21, 2013- Martin Luther King Day!

The Six Flags Read to Succeed log is Due by February 22^nd, 2013

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Pajama Day- Friday January 25, 2013

Wednesday January 30, 2013 is a half-day.  Only the morning class will attend school.

Welcome Back!

                                                       

                                                        January 11, 2012

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: This week the class learned the letter combination of ch and sh.  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, ch, sh 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: the, you, and down.

Reading:  This week we continued our Let’s Count Theme.  We read the stories Counting Noodles and Ten Little Puppies.  In Counting Noodles the Noodles family goes for a picnic and spends some time on the water in a boat.  When they get back to shore Papa Noodle counts the members of his family to make sure everyone returned to shore safely, but Papa Noodle forgets to count himself and the family thinks they have lost a family member and can’t figure out who it was.  A hiker then comes by and offers help and Papa Noodle includes the hiker in the count and now the Noodles can’t figure out how they have one to many members in their family.  The children in the class did a great job of figuring out what exactly the Noodles did wrong in the story.  We also read Ten Little Puppies in which a boy starts out with ten puppies, but as the story goes along he loses a puppy one by one because each puppy does his or her own activity.  For example, one puppy went out to dinner, another puppy went for a haircut and another puppy joined the circus to do tricks.  At the end of the story we read about the illustrator of the book and the children learned that an illustrator is the person who draws the pictures for a story. The children also learned that the author of a story and an illustrator can be two different people.

Writing:  We wrote in our journals.  We wrote the sentence: You and me!  The children noticed that the three words are all our popcorn words.  After they wrote their sentence, they became illustrators and had a chance to draw a picture of themselves and someone else.  We also wrote about up and down since down is a popcorn word this week.  The children also had a chance to illustrate something that stays down on the ground and something that is up in the air.

Math:  We continued working with addition and subtraction.  The children know that addition is putting together and subtraction is taking apart.  We read the story Ten Red Apples and in the story a farmer starts out with ten apples on his tree and then day-by-day someone or some animal comes and takes one apple away leaving the farmer with less and less each day.

All of the students worked very hard on this first week back from break and all parents should be very proud of their children. Great Job Class!!!!

REMEMBER:

The Six Flags Read to Succeed log is Due by February 22^nd, 2013

If you still have a report card envelope at home please return it to school on Monday.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

No School Monday January 21, 2013- Martin Luther King Day!

Pajama Day- Friday January 25, 2013

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