Happy Earth Day!

                                                      

                                                        April 25, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.

Word Family’s:  This week we reviewed our short e word families.  We also began working on new word families, ot and op.

Popcorn Words: This week we learned the words came, make, ate, and ride.  Please practice the popcorn words every night, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult. 

Reading:  We started our Spring is Here reading theme this week.  We read the book When Rabbit Grew Feathers.  It is similar to The Tortoise and the Hare, but in this story Turkey broke Turtles shell and when Rabbit wanted to race Turtle, Turkey hid inside Turtle’s shell and then raced Rabbit with Turtle’s shell on.  From then on Rabbit never bothered Turtle again.  The lesson the children learned was that you do not have to be the best or the fastest, but if you are a nice person and try your best people will stand by you and help you in time of need. We also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and we focused on what the caterpillar ate, which is one of our popcorn words this week.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week. 

Math:  We focused on fluently adding and subtracting numbers up to five.  We practiced counting to 100 and worked on counting to 100 by tens.  Next week we will continue with our counting, with the focus this quarter of counting to 100.  We started our Caterpillar Addition project, and as soon as the whole class completes them we will take them home.

Social Studies- We also read Too Much Trash from our Weekly Reader.  The story focused on recycling since Monday was Earth Day.  We talked out things we can do to save our planet.  We also read I Love the Earth.

REMEMBER:

Brookfield Zoo Field Trip- Thursday May 23^rd 2013.  Permission slips to follow shortly.

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Kindergarten Graduation Day is Tuesday June 4^th 2013. 10:00 A.M. for the morning class and 2:00 P.M. for the afternoon class.  All family members are welcome.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Rain, Rain Go Away!

April 19, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.

Word Family’s:  This week we reviewed our short e word families.  We worked on the en, ed, and et word families.  Next week we will start our short o word families ot and op.

Popcorn Words: This week we learned the words eat, please, want, and with.  Please practice the popcorn words every night, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult. 

Reading:  We started our Spring is Here reading theme this week.  We read the book Kevin and his Dad.  The story is about a boy who has to do his chores with his father first, and then father and son can go outside and have fun.  We learned that working together is very rewarding.  We also read the book Spring is Here.   We talked about all the signs of spring we see and enjoy and summer is coming very soon.  Lastly we read the story If I Gave a Mouse a Cookie.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week.  We also wrote a sentence about the story If I Gave a Mouse a Cookie.

Math:  We focused on fluently adding and subtracting numbers up to five.  We practiced counting to 100 and worked on counting to 100 by tens.  Next week we will continue with our counting, with the focus this quarter of counting to 100.

Social Studies- We read a small book called It’s Raining, It’s Pouring and we even talked about the water cycle.  The children learned about evaporation, condensation and precipitation.  The children were very interested in the fact that the water cycle continues over and over.

Art:  We did a spring flower project in which we had to write the numbers counting by tens up to one hundred on individual flower petals.  The projects will be on display for our open house this upcoming Thursday April 25^th.

REMEMBER:

Open House- Thursday April 25^th 6:30 to 8:00 PM

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Kindergarten Graduation Day is Tuesday June 4^th 2013.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Lions, Tigers, and Giraffes Oh My!

April 12, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.

Word Family’s:  This week we continued working on our short e word families.  We worked on the et word families.  Next week we will be reviewing the short e word families.

Popcorn Words: This week we learned the words say, away, play and they.  Please practice the popcorn words every night, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult. 

Reading:  Our reading theme this week was a continuation of our farm/ animal theme.  We read the book Rainbow Fish, which focused on sharing and fairness.  We also read Ten Little Fish, which had a math focus of counting back from ten. Lastly, we read the book The Giraffe Made Me Laugh.  The Giraffe Made Me Laugh was a great lead in for our giraffe art project that will be proudly displayed at our Open House on April 25^th.

Writing:  We wrote about Rainbow Fish and how we share just like he does in the story.

Math:  We focused on fluently adding and subtracting numbers up to five.  Next week we will continue with our counting, with the focus this quarter of counting to 100.

Art:  We worked on a few projects this week in anticipation of Open House.  We did a Rainbow Fish project, and made lions, tigers, and giraffes, all of which will be displayed at our Open House.  The children are so very proud of their work and cannot wait to show their work to their loved ones.

REMEMBER                       

 Please sign the report card envelopes and return.

Mismatch Tuesday April 16.  Have fun mismatching your clothes!

Please return your spring kite project as soon as you are finished.  They will be displayed at Open House 

Open House- Thursday April 25th

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Kindergarten Graduation Day is Tuesday June 4^th 2013.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Welcome Back!

                                                        

                                                        April 5, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.

Word Family’s:  This week we reviewed our short e word families.  We worked on the en and ed word families.

Popcorn Words: This week we learned the words who, what, where and there.  Please practice the popcorn words every night, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult. 

Reading:  Our reading theme this week was a continuation of our farm theme.  We read books The Three Little Pigs, Mouse’s Birthday, and Eek! There’s a Mouse in the House!  While we read the books we discussed the key elements of the stories; who are the characters, what is the main ideas of the stories, and where the stories takes place (the settings).  It was a great way for the students to get exposure to our new popcorn words.

There is a spring reading project that will be going home today.  Each student will have a chance to read a story and do a kite project that focuses on who, what and where.

Students will also be receiving a form on Friday for a free ticket to a Kane County Cougars baseball game.  The tickets are from Ozzie’s Reading Club.  The tickets were awarded to students because they kept up with their reading this year.  Have fun at the ball game!

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week.  We also wrote a sentence telling what each student did over spring break.

Math:  We focused on addition and subtraction.  We used counters and ten frames to help write addition and subtraction number sentences.  We wrote our numbers one through twenty.  We even played a Jeopardy math game in which the student’s were able to use the interactive white board in our classroom.    Please practice writing numbers and counting at home.

REMEMBER                       

Report cards will be sent home Monday April 8^th.  Please sign the envelope and return.

No School- Tuesday April 9^th 2013- Teacher Institute

No School- Friday April 12^th 2013- Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Kindergarten Graduation Day is Tuesday June 4^th 2013.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Spring is Here!

March 22, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.

Word Family’s:  This week we reviewed our short i word families.  We worked on the it, in, ip and ing word families.  We also talked about words ending in ig.  After Spring Break we will work with our short e word families ed and en.

Popcorn Words: This week we reviewed and worked with all 63 popcorn words we have been working with all year.  Please practice the popcorn words, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult.  Next week we will start learning four words per week.

Reading:  Our reading theme this week was a continuation of our farm theme.  We read books focusing on spring since this past Wednesday was the first day of Spring.  Even our Weekly Reader was titled Spring is Here!  We discussed the signs of spring such as hearing the sounds of birds in the morning, the sight of robins, longer days of daylight, playing outside, going to the park, green grass and trees, and colorful flowers.

  

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week.  We also wrote a sentence telling each students favorite book that we shared with the class.  The students were very excited to share their favorite book.  There was a picture of a flower on each student’s work, which they colored and their work will be displayed at school.

Math:  We focused on addition and subtraction.  We used counters and ten frames to help write addition and subtraction number sentences.  We even did an addition number sentence that focused on spring.  For example:  If I had 3 blue flowers and 2 orange flowers how many flowers do I have all together?  The students then filled in the number sentence 3 + 2 = 5 and then the students drew a picture to go with their number sentence.  The students also graphed how many of each color of flowers were in our story. We wrote our numbers one through twenty.  Please practice writing numbers and counting at home.

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Have a Very Happy and Safe Spring Break!

REMEMBER

No School- Spring Break March 25, 2013-April 1, 2013. School resumes Tuesday April 2, 2013.

Please remember to return the pictures from Lifetouch if you are not purchasing pictures or please bring in a check if you have decided to purchase pictures.

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

                                                        
                                                        March 15, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  We learned the last two letter combinations this week, er and ar.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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.  Our final sets of letter cards went home this week.

Word Family’s:  This week we worked on short i word families.  We worked on the ip and ing word families.  We start with one of the word family endings: ip or ing, and then we add different letters to the beginning of the endings to make new words.  For example, for the ip word family we formed the words (rip, tip, drip, etc.)  We even talked about the ig family.

Popcorn Words: Our three new popcorn words this week were; soon, went and come.  Please practice the popcorn words, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult.  Next week we will start learning four words per week.

Reading:  Our reading theme this week was about farms.  We read the story The Story of Half- Chicken.  The chicken in the story only has one leg and wing but he is still a strong chicken who is determined to help his friends in time of need.  When half-chicken needs help his friends are very happy to help him because they remember what a great friend he was when each of them needed help.  We also read Cows in the Kitchen.

Writing:  We wrote about our star student of the week.  We also wrote a sentence using our popcorn word went.   The students were given the beginning of the sentence I went and then they had the chance to write where they went.  I was very proud of how well the children remembered to spell some of our popcorn words and used their own kid spelling by sounding out words if they did not know how to spell a particular word.

Math:  We focused on subtracting numbers, from numbers up to ten. Please practice reading and writing numbers 1 through 20.  Please continue to practice addition facts that add up to ten along with subtracting numbers up to ten.

Social Studies- To connect with our farm theme we read Ice Cream:  From Cows to Kids.  The story explained that we get our milk from cows and that when milk is mixed with sugar and then frozen we get ice cream.  We also read our weekly reader about St. Patrick’s Day, which is coming up this Sunday.

REMEMBER

Tuesday March 19th 2013 is a half-day and only the morning class will attend.  School is from 9:00 A.M-12:00P.M.  If your child is a pick-up, pick-ups will be in the office at 12:10 P.M.

 

Please remember to return the pictures from Lifetouch if you are not purchasing pictures or please bring in a check if you have decided to purchase pictures.

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!

Dr. Seuss Week!

                                                      

                                                        March 8, 2013

Focus on Curriculum

Jolly Phonics: We have completed all our jolly phonics sounds.  We learned the last two letter combinations this week, er and ar.  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, ue, oi, er, ar, 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. 

Word Family’s: We worked on the it and in word families.  We start with one of the word family endings: it or in, and then we add different letters to the beginning of the endings to make new words.  For example, for the it word family we formed the words (hit, pit, sit, kit, fit etc.).

Popcorn Words: Our three new popcorn words this week were; this, that and new.  Please practice the popcorn words, we are getting quite a few and they are getting more difficult.

Reading:  This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss all week long since his birthday was March 2^nd.  We read many of his classics along with a few new books.  We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, Oh the Thinks You Can Think!, The Cat In The Hat, Wacky Wednesday, Horton Hears A Who!, Fox in Socks, and Green Eggs and Ham.

Writing:  We wrote about the Dr. Seuss book Wacky Wednesday and illustrated wacky pictures that we shared with our classmates.

Math:  We focused on subtracting numbers, from numbers up to ten and continued to practice addition facts that add up to ten.  We used colored goldfish crackers with these activities that went along with one of our stories One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Please practice reading and writing numbers 1 through 20.  Please continue to practice addition facts that add up to ten along with subtracting numbers up to ten.

 

We had a lot of fun celebrating Dr. Seuss week all week long!

REMEMBER

Please practice the popcorn words with your child.

Bring your library books on Wednesdays!

Wear your gym shoes Thursdays and Fridays!