Tomorrow is an out of uniform day. Students earned over 2000 "You've Been Called Tickets" for the first quarter. Therefore, they earned a day to wear whichever clothes they would like. Jeans are okay tomorrow!
This week's word of the week is "is". We will continue to be working on letters and sounding out simple words in reading as well. I writing, we are continuing to write about our personal experiences. In math, we are continuing to work on patterns and positional words. In Social Studies, we will continue to learn about jobs in our community, including community helpers. In science, we are continuing to learn about oceans and ocean animals. In religion, we are continuing to learn about the feelings that God has given us.
I feel that the conferences were a great success! If you have any lingering questions about anything we discussed at conferences or about the report cards, please do not hesitate to email or call me!
October 29, 2009
Just a few reminders...
1. We have to send our stockings for the troops off tomorrow! A letter was sent home a few weeks ago, and the date really crept up on me too! We made cards to put in the stockings, but they are looking for some items to send off as well. If you have any of these things handy, or are planning on stopping at a store tonight, please look for New CD’s & DVD’s, Small Puzzles (crossword, Sudoku, etc.), Batteries (AA & AAA), Individually wrapped Beef Jerky and Slim Jims, Starlight Mints (candy), Disposable Cameras, or other stocking stuffers such as snacks and candy. I am planning on running to the store tonight to see what I can pick up. I'd like for each student to be able to attach something to his or her card.
2. The party begins at 2:30 tomorrow. If you are coming to help your child change into his or her costume, please arrive at 2:00. Even if you did not sign up for a job, parents are welcome to stay for the party as long as you have been through the VIRTUS training and background check!
3. There have been plenty of emails regarding the allergy policy. Please keep the allergies in mind when planning treats.
4. The conference schedules went home yesterday through your oldest child. If you have not received a conference schedule, please contact your oldest child's teacher. If you would like to reschedule or cannot attend the assigned conference time, please just let me know and we can reschedule.
5. Scholastic orders are due on Monday. I'll send the December book orders out the following week so they can be turned in and the books will have enough time to arrive by Christmas.
I think that's it for now. As always, please don't hesitate to email me with any questions!
October 19, 2009
I just wanted to post a reminder about picture day. We are scheduled to have our pictures taken tomorrow. Please dress your child in his or her "Sunday Best". This means they do not have to wear their uniforms, but should be dressed up for a picture to be taken.
I will let everyone know if for some reason we do not get our picture taken on Tuesday and need to be bumped to the alternate day. This is not likely, but is possible.
If all goes well and we get our pictures taken on Tuesday, your child can dress casually on Wednesday. However, jeans are not allowed.
My other suggestion is to pack non-messy foods for lunch and snack. Even though we are scheduled before lunch, it is possible that we will have our pictures taken after lunch.
We also get the use of new combs for each student before the picture, and I will do my best to recreate the hair style your child came to school with, but feel free to pack a brush that might be more compatible with your child's hair.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
October 16, 2009
Next week's theme is "pumpkins." We are going to do a variety of activities involving pumpkins. We are going to explore the outside and inside of a pumpkin. We are literally going to use every single one of our five senses to study the pumpkins. Our final, fun activity is going to be actually carving the pumpkin. This is going to be a fun week!
In math, we are about to wrap up our chapter on counting, reading, and writing numbers one through five. In social studies, we took a neighborhood tour this week and learned how to follow a map. Next week we are moving on to community helpers. In science, we have begun to learn about magnets. This is a high-interest topic, so we are going to have lots of fun with it! We did not introduce a word of the week or do a guided reading book this week because of the short week. Instead, we began free writing. I will be happy to show some of these writing samples at conferences.
Conference papers were handed out to the oldest/only children on Friday. Please make sure you fill these out and send them back as soon as possible so we can get the ball rolling on scheduling conferences. If you have specific concerns that you would like to address at your conference, I would really appreciate if you could send me a quick note ahead of time letting me know what you would like to discuss. This way, I can prepare in advance. We only have ten minutes per conference, and I would like to make the most of it.
I have sent out multiple emails regarding the pumpkin seed recipe. My new procedure is that I am going to post the ingredients here on schoolnotes. If you are not opposed to any of the ingredients because your child does not have any allergies, I do not need to hear from you. If you are concerned about any of the ingredients, please email me. If I don't hear from anyone, we will go ahead and make that recipe. If I work with a parent to change the ingredients, I will post a new recipe on schoolnotes. Please make sure you are subscribed to this page so when I make changes you are notified.
The latest recipe for pumpkin seeds is:
pumpkin seeds
corn oil
sugar
salt
cinnamon
Again, please let me know if any of these ingredients are not okay for your child to have.
I sent home new Scholastic order forms on Wednesday. I did not write it on there, but the due date is November 2.
Have a great long weekend!
October 5, 2009
This week's theme is "explorers." We are going to learn about different kinds of explorers in observance of Columbus day. We may even get a chance to be explorers ourselves! In math, we are continuing to learn how to count, read, and write numbers through ten. In social studies, we are continuing to learn about out neighborhood. We are going to begin looking at and reading simple maps. In science, we are learning about the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. In religion, we are learning about how God made people who love us. We are also concentrating on memorizing all the words to the Lord's Prayer. Our word of the week is "can" and we are beginning a review unit of all the skills we have learned so far in reading.
Good news! Last week was an all green week! Every student stayed on green every day last week! That is quite an accomplishment. To celebrate, we had an extra 20 minutes of free choice at the end of the day today!
Scholastic orders went home today! A big thanks to those who ordered! We got quite a few free books for our classroom! I plan on reading two of them this week for Columbus Day. I hope you enjoy your purchase! Next month's orders will go out sometime next week and will be due November 2.
September 28, 2009
Just two reminders regarding Thursday.
1. Don't forget to send one apple to school with your child. Mrs. Breen sent a note listing the types of apples that will work in our treat.
2. Scholastic book orders are due Thursday. Don't miss out on these great books! Ordering online is easy. Just go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. Our username is misscupalsclass and the password is ClubOrders. The books should be here by next week (Friday the 9th at the latest), so Halloween books will still be current.
September 25, 2009
This week we learned all about Autumn. You can see from the work that has gone home that we are well acquainted with the new season. Next week, out theme is apples. Mrs. Breen sent home a note asking each student to bring in one apple on by Thursday. If you want to send it in earlier in the week, I will keep track of who brought what.
Next week's letter is "A". The word of the week is "that". In math, we will focus on counting groups of 1-5. We will also focus on writing numbers 1-5. In science, we are continuing to explore our five senses. In social studies, we are continuing to work on memorizing our addresses, and we will begin talking about classroom and community rules. In religion, we are alternating between learning about God's love and reading Bible stories. This week we focused on the story of Noah's Ark. Next week, we are learning about all of the people who love us that God created.
Journal has gotten off to a great start! The kids are really excited about seeing their parents in our classroom. Thanks to those who have already volunteered. If you did not get a chance to sign up for journal, but would like to help us out with something else, or have something special in mind that you would like to do with our class, just let me know, and we will schedule you in!
Another reminder that Scholastic orders are due October 1. I sent home the September order earlier this week for those students who placed orders online by September 10.
Again, I apologize for sending home that email note with no email address on it. If the stjosephwilmette.com address is kicking the emails back to you, please feel free to email me at starr.kuttenberg@gmail.com.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
September 16, 2009
Just a quick update. The email system is still down. Hopefully it will be back up tomorrow, but again, backpack express is the best way to reach me until this is completely resolved.
I sent home quite a few Scholastic Book Club catalogs. These are full of great prices and great resources. I order many of these items myself because they offer them at such great prices. These are full of books you may want to add to your personal libraries at home. What I am recommending are books that I feel will help your child down the road to reading success. Feel free to use my recommendations, but I will not be hurt if you choose not to order anything. Many of you with older children have seen these books before, but I felt that I should offer the opportunity to everyone. Also, the more our class orders, the more free books we get to add to our classroom library. I offer both online ordering and the old-fashioned paper check method. You can order online and pay via credit card, or you can fill out the form on the back of the flier and send it back to school with a check. Feel free to order as much or little from each club as you'd like. There is no minimum or maximum order, and there is no shipping charge for us.
This month’s Book Club is filled with great books and software. I’ve picked out of few titles that I am sure you won’t want to miss.
I particularly recommend these:
SeeSaw September:
101. Word Family Readers Set
85. Sight Word Library
84. Sight Word Bingo
71. Phonics: Short Vowels
2. AlphaTales Pack
32. Dr. Seuss Beginner Reading Readiness Cards
SeeSaw October:
65. Scholastic Phonics Leveled Readers Library
88. Word Family Tales Pack
33. Late For School
93. Mighty Math K-2 CD-ROM
61. Ready to Read Pack
Math and Science:
6. Apples and Pumpkins Pack
48. Monster Math Pack
Of course, all the books in these book clubs are great. You know your children best, so you can decide what they would like most and benefit from the most. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks!
September 12, 2009
Hello Everyone!
Unfortunately our computers are still down at school. I hope this update works since I am doing it from home, but please keep in mind I have not been able to access my email, even from home, so hopefully I will be able to respond to everything on Monday. If you have something urgent, the quickest way to get to me would be a quick note in your child's backpack.
I want to thank everyone for your involvement so far! Communication has been wonderful, and it was great to see many of you at Parent Information Night. For those of you who could not make it, I sent home the information packet in your child's folder as well as a sheet outlining his or her responsibilities and dates for being Star Student. If you have any questions about either of these, please feel free to ask. Also, our Coconut Tree projects look great thanks to your help.
In reading we had our very first "word of the week" this week. We learned "the", and everyone was able to read the book for this chapter with the word. In each folder, I included a small chart. When your child reads this small book to someone at home, please write, or have your child write who he or she read the book to. This week's book is called, "The House."
Ms. Namovitz (our reading specialist) has given assessments to our class. You will be/already have been contacted if your child would benefit from working in a small group with Ms. N. In addition to this, we are all working on our letters and letter sounds. A video that we watched in class yesterday, and I would recommend to repeat at home is "The Letter Factory" by Leapfrog. The songs are really catchy, and it is a fun way to practice letters and sounds. We are also working on capital and lowercase letters.
In math we are beginning to work on general math concepts. The first couple of chapters seem to be fairly easy for the students as a whole, but they set up the tone for the work they will be doing throughout the year. I just got a new math manipulative kit, so we are doing a lot of hands-on work. I send home the workbook pages we do so that you are involved in what we are learning, but please keep in mind that these worksheets are only a small portion of our day.
Thanks again for your continued involvement. And again, if you have any questions or concerns, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss. As soon as the email is up and running, that will become the best way to contact me. My email address is skuttenberg@stjosephwilmette.com.
Have a great weekend!
August 27, 2009
Kindergarten is off to a great start! Students are beginning to learn the routines and procedures that we will use every day for the rest of the year.
Please send a snack with your child everyday. This should be something healthy that will hold them over until lunchtime. We eat snack around 10:00 each day, and lunch is not until 12:30. Today, many children were hungry about 30 minutes before snack time and about an hour before lunch time. Please discuss this with your child. If you would like to send additional snacks with your child's name on them, I can store them in case your child is extra hungry one day or happens to forget a snack. Snacks should be packed separately from their lunch and kept in their backpacks at school until it is time to eat. The reason it cannot be packed in the lunch is because the lunch bins get taken down to the cafeteria before our snack time.
Also, please note on the school supply list that each student should bring either a pack of construction paper or a pack of card stock. Girls are to bring construction paper and boys are to bring card stock. If you have not yet brought in this supply, please do so. We will use both of these in a variety of projects throughout the year, and it is important that we have enough.
Please remember to turn in the walking permission forms so that we can go off school property. There are several upcoming lessons that involve walks in the near neighborhood.
Our class would love to have parent helpers! If there is something that you would like to help us do in the classroom, please let me know! You can read a story to the class, sing songs, do a craft, play a game, etc. Please let me know a week in advance, and we will work this activity into our schedule!
Please sign up for the notifications on this website, and the website will automatically notify you when I change this website. I will usually change information on Fridays, but if I think of something throughout the week, I will add it.
Thank you!
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