Conference Week

Thank you to all the parents that came to parent-teacher conferences!  I enjoyed sitting down with you to give you an update on your child's education.  I'm proud of the progress they are making. 

With all the craziness of conference week, I forgot to create a homework menu.  Please continue to have your child visit the Lexia and MyOn websites to practice reading skills.  Please encourage students to draw and write about things they see or do through the week.  We are also working on counting to 100, finding shapes in our world, and counting out the appropriate number of items from 1-20.  Look for coins.  Talk about the name of the coin and how much it is worth. 

This week our centers focused on Penguins.  We created circle maps that included everything we know about penguins.  We also made Pengins.  They are all in the hallway in front of our classroom.  Stop by and take a look!

Next week we will read the books The Hat and The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We will compare and contrast the books.  We will also continue to count on from 5 in mathematics and work on addition.  On Wednesday of next week, our 4th grade buddies will come in.  We will do a science experiment with candy hearts. 

Wednesday of next week (February 1) is a late start day.  School will start at 11:30 and dismiss at 3:40. 

On Monday, we watched a video based on The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.  Today, we read the book.  Afterwards, we compared and contrasted the book and the video.  I wrote some of our thoughts on a T-chart. 

Have a great weekend!

Classroom News-January 20

Today was a difficult day for some children because they are ready to go home at lunch time on Fridays, but we had a busy and fun day.  Next week we will be on a normal schedule.  Wednesday, February 1 is a Late Start Day.  We will not have school on Friday, February 17, or Monday, February 20.  These are no-student contact days. 

We started our day with centers (Reading, building sentences, math journals, and coloring snowflakes which meant they had to match the color word with the cowboy hats above the white board).  While we were at centers, we watched the Presidential Inauguration.  I thought it was important for the children to see how we change Presidents.  They will not have an opportunity to see this again for 4 years.  I feel as though they need  to understand this is an important transition for our country. 

After recess, we finished centers and went to lunch.  After lunch, we watched a video called The Snowy Day.  We wrote in our Winter Journals about the weather we observed in the video. 

We went to music class and had a lot of fun playing ukeleles!  Mr. Sutton said our class was fantastic!

We finished the day with math.  We are continuing to work on counting on from groups of 5 up to 10.

Next week is parent-teacher conferences.  I sent home a notice with your conference time last week.  If you need to reschedule, please contact me and let me know.  I look forward to meeting with everyone!  We will be discussing the results of the mid-year literacy assessment and our end of year goals for the children.

During centers next week, we will be talking about penguins and polar bears.  We will also finish our Weather unit and start working on our Culture unit.    In math, we will work on partners of number (2 and 3 are partners of 5, 4 and 1 are partners of 5).  We will go to P.E. on Monday and go to the art room on Wednesday. 

We will have a Valentine Party on Monday, February 13.  Children are welcome to bring Valentine cards to share with classmates.  We currently have 24 children in our class.  Please do not worry about writing who the Valentine card is TO.  Just have your child write their name on the back of the Valentines.  I would like to have children decorate Valentine cookies during the party.  We will need heart shaped sugar cookies and frosting, and maybe a bag of M&Ms.  Let me know if you are willing to donate to the party. 

Have a great weekend!

January News

We have had a very busy week because it is a short week.  There is no school on Friday, January 13.  It is a no-student contact day.  We will not have school on Monday, January 16 because it is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  I will not see students again until Wednesday, January 18.  Since we do not have school on Monday, we will be at school ALL DAY on Friday, January 20. 

Looking ahead, February 1 is a Late Start Day.  School will start at 11:30 and dismiss at 3:40.  The children will go to lunch as soon as they arrive at school.

We will have a Valentine Party on Monday, February 13.  Students are welcome to bring in Valentine cards to share with their classmates.  Do not worry about writing the other students' names on the cards.  Your child should just write their name on the back of the cards.  I would like to have cookies for the students to decorate for the party.  Would it be possible to find heart-shaped sugar cookies to decorate?  Then we will need sprinkles and frosting. 

Today, Mrs. Melaney's 4th Grade class came for a visit.  They helped the kindergarteners think about and write about things they could do to make a  positive change in the world with their own hands.