May 8, 2008 Pets Galore! Thank you for bringing all the friendly and interesting pets this week. We learned a lot and met many important “members of the family.” If a pet couldn’t come to school, please have your child draw a picture of the pet to show the class.
The antics of Hank the Cowdog have kept us laughing all week long. We enjoyed our visit to the Bradford Brinton Art Gallery to meet the illustrator of the book series, Mr. Gerald L. Holmes, and see his colorful artwork. We especially enjoyed watching him draw pictures just for us!
As part of our study of Children Around the World, we are comparing our food to that of children in other lands. In conjunction with this, could you please send a copy of your child’s favorite recipe to school? Thanks!
The students worked very hard on the DIBELS Test this week. We will still be doing other assessments through next week. Our play, The Magic Fish, is very exciting! We first read the book and then, with Mrs. Rucki’s help, we changed the story into a play. Each child chose a part and now we are working on memorizing the parts using good expression. We will be performing our play on May 29th at the Kindergarten Program.
We were honored to have our Kindergarten penpal, Diana Fast, visit our class today. She just returned from serving in the Air Force in the Middle East. She brought little presents for us and also presented us with a flag which had flown over Iraq on an in-air refueling mission. She told us interesting stories about her deployments to different countries around the world. Dates To Remember :
May 12th Book orders due! May 22nd Fishing Day (K-3 May 27th P.E. Fun Day May 29th Kindergarten Program 10:00 A.M. (Luncheon to Follow) May 30th Last Day of School
This Land Is Your Land
This land is your land,
This land is my land,
From California,
To the New York Island.
From the Redwood Forest,
To the Gulf Stream waters.
This land was made for you and me.
As I was walking,
That ribbon of highway,
I saw above me
That endless skyway.
I saw below me,
That golden valley,
This land was made for you and me.
May 1, 2008
We welcomed May with an English Maypole dance. We listened to fanfares and madrigals as we danced around our Maypole. At our “Proper British Tea,” we ate marmalade and tea biscuits. We sipped our herbal teas as we discussed polite manners and napkin usage. As part of our study of Children Around the World, we are comparing our food to that of children in other lands. In conjunction with this, could you please send a copy of your child’s favorite recipe to school?
Students with summer birthdays may choose a day in May to celebrate the special event
Starting next week we will have the long-awaited Pet Week. Any child who wants to share his/her pet may do so by having a parent/adult bring the pet during the first or last half hour of the day. If that time isn’t convenient, please check with me for other times throughout the day. Please plan to tell us about the care of your pet and what you feed it. (Bring an example of the food if you can.) Plan to spend 5-10 minutes sharing your pet. Also, please let me know if any children are allergic to animals so we can take proper precautions.
Dates To Remember :
May (First Week) Pet Week
May 8th Bradford Brinton Field Trip
May 22nd Fishing Day (K-3 a.m.)
May 27th P.E. Fun Day (K-3 p.m.)
May 29th Kindergarten Program 10:00 A.M. (Luncheon to Follow)
May 30th Last Day of School Early (1:00 p.m.)dismissal.
Sing A Rainbow
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green, Purple and Orange and Blue. I can sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow too.
Listen with your eyes, Listen with your eyes, And sing everything you see. You can sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, Sing along with me.
Red and Yellow and Pink and Green, Purple and Orange and Blue. Now we can sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow, Sing a rainbow too.
April 24, 2008
Our Spring Manners Basket has been home to all the cute stuffed animals which have come to school to visit with us. We have enjoyed play-acting good manners with these animals as we prepare for our Spring Manners Tea on May 1st.
Spritely Spring Synonyms! We had fun thinking up and choosing synonyms to illustrate. We are now enjoying reading them on the bulletin board in the hall.
Our song, “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree,” has gotten us in the mood for spring and we are now on the alert for spring blossoms!
One of our Kindergarten standards is learning about children in other cultures, especially their traditions and celebrations. As part of this study, we will be comparing our food to that of children in other lands. In conjunction with this, could you please send a copy of your child’s favorite recipe to school?
EARTH DAY/WEEK WAS GREAT!!!!
Dates To Remember :
May (First Week) Pet Week
May 1st Bradford Brinton Field Trip
May 6th DIBELS Testing
May 22nd Fishing Day (K-3 a.m.) (At a pond in Big Horn)
May 27th P.E. Fun Day (K-3 p.m.) Remember to send/apply sunscreen.
May 29th Kindergarten Program 10:00 A.M. (Luncheon to Follow) All family members and friends are invited.
May 30th Last Day of School Early (1:00 p.m.) dismissal.
Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree
I looked out the window and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
Spring has brought me such a nice surprise,
Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
I could take an armful and make a treat,
A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn’t really so, but it seemed to me
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree! * April 17, 2008
READING! READING! READING! We are doing so much good reading all through the day and at home that we need some advanced decoding skills.
As we read a lot of four or five letter words that end in “Ee,” we need to remember the rule that if it has a silent “Ee,” usually the vowel has a long sound – or its own “bossy” name. Examples would be cake, whale, hive, stove, etc. Even if it is made plural by adding an “Ss,” it still has the long vowel sound. Of course, there are trick word exceptions: have, where, and give, to name three high-frequency words, and live that can go either way! “Yy” can also be tricky! It has its own sound at the beginning of words or syllables, but can become the vowel sound of “Ii” or “Ee” in the middle or end.
Knowing how “bossy” the “Rr” can be helps us read words ending in ar, er, ir, or ur. Examples are car, butter, sir, and fur.
We are getting really good at synonyms and now we are learning about compound words. When we “chunk” compound words apart to make two recognizable words, it makes reading much easier.
Our class has been using higher-level thinking skills as we take the roll in the morning. Sometimes the roll is called by spelling the first name, at which time the child spells his/her last name Other variations include answering with the four digits of the lunch number or with initials.
We have a HUGE Spring basket in our class! The students used their small-motor skills and did a beautiful job of making it. Each child may bring a small stuffed animal to put in it to be used for good manners play-acting. This will help us get prepared for our Spring Manners Tea.
Upcoming Dates: May (First Week) -Pet Week May 22nd - Fishing Day May 27th - P.E. Fun Day May 29th - K Program /Lunch May 30th - Last Day of School (1:00 p.m. dismissal) “Our Five Senses”
Whenever I hear the song of a bird,
Or look at the blue, blue sky,
Whenever I feel the rain on my face,
Or the wind as it rushes by.
Whenever I taste a piece of fruit,
Or walk by my lilac tree,
I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world,
Mother Nature created for me.
April 10, 2008 The Big Horn Art Show at the Bradford Brinton Museum and Gallery was a great success! The students’ beautiful artwork was mounted and labeled professionally and was a joy to look at. Thanks to all those who helped with the refreshments for the delightful evening.
As we continue to explore time with digital and analog clocks, we are starting to track our school day. It was fun to make and decorate our own analog clocks and then use them to find the time to the hour and half hour. We are also reading and memorizing the days of the week and months of the year.
On Monday, we had a delightful visit with our guest author, Susan Stevens Crummel. Because we had already read the books which she discussed, we were able to really appreciate the stories she told how she and her sister went about writing and illustrating them. A special part of the day was receiving a personally-autographed copy of her hot-off-the-press book, Help Me, Mr. Mutt!, Expert Answers for Dogs with People Problems.
As we search out and learn exciting new vocabulary words, we are exploring all parts of the English language. We are learning more about vowels, consonants, verbs, and syllables. This week we had fun with synonyms––two different words which mean almost the same thing. We enjoyed doing an art project of thinking up and illustrating synonyms.
Thank you for sharing your quilts and the stories of how they were made. We have enjoyed the diversity and uniqueness of each special quilt.
Our class has enjoyed echoing and following the directions to the chant, “A Tooty Ta.”
Our person of the week is Jarret M. We are looking forward to finding out more about him
If you become aware of new residents of the area with Kindergarten children for next year, please encourage them to contact the school at 672-3497.
A Tooty Ta
Chorus: Leader: A tooty ta, A tooty ta, A tooty ta ta. Students: A tooty ta, A tooty ta, A tooty ta ta.
(Sing the chorus between each verse/addition to the song as listed below:
Thumbs up Elbows back Feet apart Knees together Bottoms up Tongues out Eyes shut Turn around
This chant can be changed to incorporated phonemic awareness and letter sounds, such as A dooty da, A looty la, etc. It can also be changed to foster direction-following, such as snapping fingers or clapping hand during the tooty ta chorus.
April 3, 2008
In our study of the letter “Qq,” we are learning about quilts, memories, and family heritage. We looked at a quilt made from the scraps of fabric left over when Mr. Roberts’ mother made shirts for him when he was an elementary school student. We also examined some colorful antique quilt tops and a fabric-painted quilt.
We are enjoying reading beautiful books about quilts which help us realize the importance of our extended family and ancestors in our lives.
If any students have special quilts or blankets, we would love to look at them and share in the special stories about how and by whom they were made.
In our Math Money Unit we have been working on recognizing both sides of, and knowing the value of, the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. Please give your child as many real-life experiences with money as possible. After studying our country’s presidents, it was fun to find them on the coins. In anticipation of Monday’s visit from author, Susan Stevens Crummel, we have been reading some of the unique and humorous books she wrote and illustrated with her sister, Janet Stevens. Among the books we read are Plaidypus Lost, The Great Fuzz Frenzy, And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, and Cook-a-Doodle-Doo.
Some of our new vocabulary words are from these books: Frenzy, fiasco, moral, morale, absurd, charity, courtesy, spine, vertebrae. cartilage, exhausted, determination, and predicament.
On the back of the newsletter is a word search with the names of the Kindergarten Kidlets. Have fun finding and circling all the names!
A REMINDER:
Tonight is the opening of the Big Horn Art Show at the Bradford Brinton Gallery 6:00-8:00 p.m. All friends and family members are invited. The show will be open through April 6th.
March 20, 2008
Wyoming Weather!! We hope that you enjoyed the first hint of Spring as much as we have at recess time...snow, sun, slush, and wind!! We are looking forward to the coming of flowers and other signs that the earth is renewing itself.
On St. Patrick’s Day we found green treats in our room: delicious green grapes which we used for counting and eating, and huge green apples which we used to learn about fractions. We cut one whole apple (one part), into halves (two parts), another into thirds (three parts) and another into quarters/fourths (four parts); then we cut enough parts for each person in the class to share some delicious pieces.
To celebrate the end of our ocean, we made a crayon resist of colorful fish with blue and green paint “water.” We then wrote an essay telling about our artwork.
Thanks to all our Clam Chowder Helpers and Eaters We all had a delicious time!
In social skills we have been discussing PERSEVERANCE and CONSEQUENCES. It was fun to “Chunk” those huge words and see how easy they were to read. Play-acting different situations helps to reinforce the meaning of such important words.
Our introduction to Telling Time was fun as we practiced clapping out seconds while watching the second hand go around the clock. The expression, “Just A Minute,” took on a whole new meaning as we sat in silence and waited for a minute to pass. We will continue exploring time with digital and analog clocks. We are also memorizing the days of the weeks and months of the year.
If you become aware of new residents of the area with Kindergarten children for next year, please encourage them to contact the school (672-3497) to make an appointment for Kindergarten Screening which will be held on April 25th.
Happy Spring Break!
March 13, 2008
OCEANS! OCEANS! OCEANS!
Over the last several weeks we have been celebrating the letter ”Oo” by learning about the ocean and all of its interesting creatures.
What fun we had making our own “Ocean” in our classroom with our favorite fish “swimming” in it. We also have examples of many kinds of shells and other ocean creatures. They include starfish, sand dollars, coral, a puffed-up puffer fish, and a tiny little sea horse.
To further celebrate our ocean, we will have a Clam Chowder Luncheon next Thursday, March 20th. We will peel potatoes, chop onions and celery, grate carrots, and pry open clams to make a huge vat of delicious clam chowder. We will also have fruit and vegetable trays, and cheese and crackers, in addition to P. B. & J. Uncrustables for the Faint of (Fish) Heart!
All family members and friends are invited to join us around noon next Thursday for lunch. Any food contributions would be appreciated for the celebration: potatoes, celery, onions, heavy cream, butter, and fruit and veggies for the trays.
This week we read Margery Williams’ book, The Velveteen Rabbit, in preparation for our field trip to the Wyo Theater. The production by the Philadelphia-based Enchantment Theatre Company was outstanding; a most unique combination of actors and puppets. We followed up with a video presentation of the beloved children’s story.
As we polished off Pluots, Pistachio nuts, Pretzels, Pickles, Pignolias, Peppers, Pineapple, and Peppermint Pom-Pom Puffs, we pondered all the “Pp” words we know. A special thanks to J. R. and his Mom for our beautiful Peacock feathers.
My Bonnie
My Bonnie lies over the ocean, My Bonnie lies over the sea, My Bonnie lies over the ocean, Oh bring back my Bonnie to me.
Bring back, bring back, Oh bring back my Bonnie To me, to me. Bring back, bring back, Oh bring back my Bonnie to me.
March 6, 2008
Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss this week! We wore our “Cat-in-the-Hat” hats as we enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss books at guided reading time. It is amazing how many words we know!
We especially enjoyed reading the book, Green Eggs and Ham. A Venn Diagram helped us graph our predictions on whether we would like green eggs and ham. It was surprising to find out how good it tasted!
As we were consuming scrambled green eggs, ham, bread with green butter, and juice, we had a surprise visit from The Cat in the Hat and Thing One. It was exciting to hear our favorite Dr. Seuss books read by The Cat!
In addition to writing books, Dr. Seuss enjoyed writing lyrics for songs. One we enjoy singing in our class is “The Super-Supper March.” We were not sure about frittered flums or wham chops, but we enjoyed eating red beets and are on the lookout for rhubarb so we can make upside down cake!
In conjunction with our 100’s theme, we have been working on Time Lines so as to better understand the difficult concept of time through the years.
Our Kindergarten class will be going to a production of The Velveteen Rabbit at the WYO Theater on March 12th. Seating is limited, but there will be an evening performance for those who are interested.
These are some of our great vocabulary words: aglow, pursuit, chariot, boulder, pebble, integrity, shrieked, whisked, tuffet, and tally marks.
“The Super-Supper March” By Dr. Seuss
1. Hungry, hungry, I am hungry, Table, table, here I come. I could eat a goose-moose burger, Fifteen pickles and a purple plum!
2. I could eat three bowls of goolash, Half a pound of wuzzled wheat. I could eat a peck of poobers, Then I’d really get to work and eat!
3. Oysters, noodles, strawberry stroodles, French fries, fish hash, one red beet. Lamb chops, wham chops, huckleberry mish mash, Oh, the things that I could eat!
4. Donuts, dumplings, blueberry bumplings, Chocolate mush-mush, super sweet. Clam stew, ham stew, watermelon wush-wush, Oh, the stuff that I could eat!
5. Deep dish rhubarb up-side-down cake, I could eat a frittered flum. Hungry, hungry, I am starving! Table, table, table, HERE I COME!!!!
February 28, 2008
What fun we had today for 100’s Day! We counted out the many different items which we brought from home and then shared the wrapped edibles.
We also enjoyed making 100-count necklaces out of fruit-flavored cereal. We planned out the colors on our necklace mat so as to be able to count by tens to 100. We then threaded them in their groups on the yarn to finish the necklace.
As we read the book, One Hundred Hungry Ants, we predicted what would happen at the end as we watched how long it took for the ants to get in the different formations for counting to 100. We then made our own formation for getting to 100 with pennies.
For some fun 100’s Day homework, the students may find and write 100 words on the light purple paper. Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss this weekend! We will be celebrating more on Monday.
All week we have been working on cardinal number symbols, cardinal number words, and ordinal number words. We are really getting good at putting them in order for the numbers 1 to 10 (from a very mixed up mess!!)
This afternoon we visited the Sheridan College Dental Hygiene Department and had a wonderful presentation on our teeth. Through stories and skits, we learned how we can take good care of our smiles with proper brushing and flossing. Thanks to those parents who came with us.
For the beginning of our OCEAN UNIT, we read the very funny book, Looking for Crabs, by Bruce Whatley. We found many places in it to do our little “ing” cheer: Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers
1 one first
2 two second
3 three third
4 four fourth
5 five fifth
6 six sixth
7 seven seventh
8 eight eighth
9 nine ninth
10 ten tenth
February 21, 2008
Our three-cornered hats looked most debonair as we danced the minuet to celebrate George Washington’s birthday. We learned many facts about President Washington’s early life: he loved horses, he was trained as a mapmaker, and his school was right at his own house.
He tried to use integrity in all of his dealings with others which helped him as he served as leader of the army and then later as our first president.
Please enjoy this song with your child about George Washington’s hat. It has helped us with our coordination and thinking skills. Be sure to do all of the actions at the right times!
On February 28, we will have the 100th Day Of School! We have counted and sung the numbers up to 100 by one’s, two’s, five’s, and ten’s. We will count beads, blocks, pencils, n and the number of steps it takes to get to and from our room over the next few days to get ready.
To celebrate this landmark, each child may bring 100 items to count and share. Pennies, paper clips, peanuts, straws, ---- let your imagination go wild! If it is something which needs to be returned, we will make sure it gets back home. We will COUNT on having a great day
Our field trip to Sheridan College’s Dental Hygiene Department will be on the afternoon of February 28. We have been identifying good food for healthy teeth in anticipation of our visit. Parents are invited to go on the field trip with us. We will leave the school shortly after 1:00 p.m.and return before 2:30 p.m.
Wyoming Young Authors 2008 is coming up soon. If anyone is interested in participating in this writing competition, please contact me.
This is a song about George Washington’s hat. It has helped us with our coordination and thinking skills. Be sure to do all of the actions at the right times!
My hat, it has three corners.
Three corners has my hat.
And had it not three corners,
It would not be my hat!
February 14, 2008
We have been studying one of our most famous Americans, Abraham Lincoln. Born in a one-room log cabin, he developed a reputation for honesty and determination, which led to his nickname, “Honest Abe.”
He respected and honored each person he met, no matter what that person’s station in life. We read about Abe’s great sense of humor. After his stepmother cautioned six-foot-four-inch teenage Abe to keep his head clean so he wouldn’t get her ceiling dirty, he played a trick on her by helping a neighbor boy walk across the ceiling with muddy feet! He then cleaned and whitewashed all her floors, walls, and ceilings.
Our field trip to Sheridan College’s Dental Hygiene Department is coming up the afternoon of February 28. We have been identifying good food for healthy teeth in anticipation of our visit. Parents are invited to go on the field trip with us.
To help celebrate the letter “Nn” we enjoyed reading two big books called New Hope and The Napping House. These books stress the importance of extended families and our family histories.
As you read with your child please remember the following helps: one-to-one matching with the pointer finger, picture clues, tapping out the sounds and scooping them together, and chunking the word apart (an-i-mal). Also ask, “Does it make sense?”
The Wyoming Young Authors 2007 is coming up soon. If anyone is interested in participating in this writing competition, I have the entry forms.
As we work more on writing our letters and numbers, we are working hard to remember to always start at the top and go down.
We have enjoyed learning more about Jackson G. as our Special Person.
We especially like singing the quiet song, Falling Snow.
Softly Falling Snow
Falling down, Gently down, See the softly falling snow.
Falling down, Gently down, Covering the ground below.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
February 7, 2008
Did you know that the distance from the tip to the first joint of the thumb on a kindergarten child is about an inch? Did you know that King Charlemagne’s foot was used to tell the citizens how long a foot was? Did you know that a yard is the distance from an (average) adults’ nose to the end of his side-stretched arm? By reading the book, How Big Is A Foot, by Rolf Myller, we learned many interesting facts about measurement.
We have been measuring ourselves, the chairs, the tables.... everything around us to make comparisons. Please help your child practice measuring familiar things in the home environment. Along with using the foot rulers and yardsticks for measurement, we tried using them in an eye-hand balance and coordination game. The object is to see how long a person can balance a yardstick on the end of his/her outstretched finger without having it fall!
The students have worked very hard on a penmanship lesson of copying each other’s names. This paper may be used to address Valentines to exchange. If you do join in the Valentine exchange at school, please be sure to include every child in the class. We will deliver our Valentines on February 14th, during our party in the afternoon.
For our study of the letter “Mm,” we read a big book about geese migration called Honk! Honk! We enjoyed honking our stuffed Canadian Goose to hear its bird call as we learned many exciting vocabulary words from the story. We also laughed about the crazy antics of Mrs. McNosh when we read the book, Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash.
New vocabulary words: twilight, first light, dawn/sunrise, dusk, tenacious, (uni) universe, unique, unicycle, and university.
Love Somebody
Love somebody, yes, I do!
Love somebody, yes, I do!
Love somebody, yes, I do!
I love somebody,
But I won’t tell who!
Shhhh!!!
Valentines
Valentines, Valentines,
Tell me what they say.
I love you,
I love you,
More and more each day.
January 31, 2008
Snow was an important word this week! We began by reading the 1999 Caldecott Medal Winner, Snowflake Bentley, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. In this story/biography about the self-taught scientist, Wilson Alwyn Bentley (1865-1931,) we learned how he devoted his entire life to capturing, on film, fragile and elusive snowflakes. We also enjoyed taking our first Accelerated Reader quiz on his book.
We did internet research to find some of his photographs of snowflakes which reveal two important truths: first, no two snowflakes are alike, and second, each one is startlingly beautiful. http://snowflakebentley. com. As we sang the songs, “Falling Snow,” and “Once There was a Snowman,” we could “hear” the snow falling with the cadence and melody. Exploring words in poetic form was enjoyable as we wrote our Cinquains about snow. A cinquain is a poem with five lines which gets its name from the French word for five: cinq. The following is the form we used:
Snowflakes Icy lace Dancing,twirling,blowing Landing on my tongue Cold!
Folding and cutting paper to make our own six-pointed snowflakes helped us understand how unique and special each snowflake/child is!
January 24, 2008
In honor of the peaceful efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to bring equality to all Americans, we discussed and illustrated how each of us can be a Peaceful Person and honor the worth of all individuals, no matter what differences we see and experience among us. We also decorated Peace Doves and wrote on them our dream for a better world.
Because we are starting to encounter them in our reading, we have been learning to read the titles, Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss, and Dr., and their meaning and derivation.
With our study of the letter “Kk,” we are finding one of the tricks of our language: the silent “K.” We have enjoyed sounding out words such as knee, knife, knock, knight, knoll, and knuckle with the silent “K.” We also had fun clinking keys as we sang “Dr. Knickerbocker.” We “got the rhythm” as we did skip counting by one’s, two’s, five’s, and ten’s. The song also helped us review our body parts.
These are our great new vocabulary words for the week: khaki, afar, liquid, confidence, predator, prey, pray, century, sentry, ingredients, positive, negative, and synonym.
As we tap and sound words out, we are using The Clover to help understand which of the six syllable types we have in the word.....more on this later!
Happy Birthday to Mary N. on January 25th.
“Dr. Knickerbocker”
Dr. Knickerbocker, Knickerbocker, Number one. He got stuck in the bubble gum.
Now let’s get the rhythm with our Hands. (Clap, Clap)
(Repeat two more times with other body parts.)
Now let’s get the rhythm With the number one.
(Or two, five, ten, or by whatever number you are skip counting.)
You then proceed to count as high as you want --- in a normal counting voice --- keeping a good counting rhythm.
January 17, 2008
This past week the whole school has taken the DIBELS Assessment (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.) The Kindergarten assessment included Initial Sound Fluency, Letter-naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Word-use Fluency. Since I helped administer the assessment, we welcomed Mrs. Shirley Rucki into our class as a substitute teacher on Monday and Tuesday mornings. The students worked very hard to prepare for these assessments. At our Parent/Teacher Conferences on January 31st and February 1st, we will discuss goals based on the test results.
RED - YELLOW - BLUE These are the primary colors we have been experimenting with to make new colors. We also have a song about the primary colors which helps us to make wise choices. The words are on the back of the newsletter.
Puzzles have kept us busy this week. After struggling with some large floor puzzles, we thought up strategies for putting puzzles together: 1. Look carefully at the picture on the box and keep it handy for frequent reference. 2. Find the corners first. 3. Find all the edges. 4. Fill in the middle pieces. The students decided that puzzles must be good for the brain; they really make us think!
After reading the books, Dancing to America, and The Dance, we enjoyed watching a video of The Nutcracker Suite. Our vocabulary words for this week included some from this famous ballet: prima, ballerina, cavalier, ballet, retrospect, symbol, creed, courage, service, truth, message, and opportunity.
Please return the blue conference paper on Monday. (School IS in session Monday!!)
“Our Primary Colors”
Our Primary Colors are one, two, three---
Red, Yellow, and Blue.
Each one has a message for you and me.
Each has a symbol too.
*
Red is for Courage to do what is right,
Yellow for Service from morning till night.
Blue is for Truth in our thoughts and our deeds.
We will be happy when this is our creed.
January 10, 2008
What fun we have had with our Words-of-the-Day! First we find all the vowels and scoop the syllables together. Then we tap out the phonemes (sounds) and clap the syllables. Our trusty classroom dictionaries come in handy for looking up what the word means and other words like it. Some of our words this week have been indigo, heliotrope, struggle, transom, consequences, artifacts, obstacles, and said (pronunciation derivation).
We will be starting classroom journals to help us celebrate the letter “Jj.” To get ready for writing in our new journals, we will continue to play our new game called Name It, Verb It. We think up a name of something (person, place, or thing) and then an action for it to do. Examples would be Lion: growls, Motorcycle: roars, Baby: cries, Wind: blows, City: sleeps, Star: shines, This could be a great travel game which will build vocabulary and help teach sentence structure.
A big “Thanks” to all the patient home reading partners who are helping our “Kindergarten Kidlets” become readers!
Our DIBELS Assessments (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) will be Tuesday, January 15th. The students will be tested on Initial Sound Fluency, Letter Naming Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, and Word Use Fluency. I will be at school in meetings from 7:30 to 2:00 this Friday, but would be happy to answer any questions about these tests afterwards.
Happy Birthday to Will P. on January 10th. *!!Book orders-due Jan. 15th!! *
Here comes Susy Snowflake,
Dressed in a snow-white gown.
Tap, tap, tapping at your windowpane,
To tell you she’s in town.
* Here comes Stevie Snowflake.
Dressed in a snow-white shirt.
He is blowing all around the town,
And covering up the dirt!
January 3, 2008
Happy New Year! It was good to see the happy, smiling faces of the children as they returned to school on Wednesday.
We had a delicious time decorating cookies for our classroom program in December, and appreciate all the parents who assisted with this project and with the program. A special thanks to the students who performed so well!
With the arrival of the New Year, we will put particular emphasis on memorizing the days of the week and the months of the year. Learning them in sign language helps cement them in our minds. If you have extra calendars, old or new, we would love to use them in our class.
We will be checking to make sure we all know the following information about ourselves: our full name, our parents’ names, our addresses, and our phone numbers. Please help your child review these important facts about him/herself. Our class will be doing assessments for the next two weeks. The students will be given the Observation Survey Letter and Sound Identification, The DRA, and the DIBELS. Please be sure your child gets plenty of rest so as to do the best job possible!
Our Snow Table is getting us in the mood for learning more about the seasons. With the possibility of snowy and icy road conditions ahead in the next few months, please remember to listen to the local AM radio stations for school closures or delays. (KROE 930 and KWYO 1410)
If you would like to order books from Scholastic Books, please return the completed order form by January 15th.
Please enjoy playing Name It, Verb It with your child!
Our person of the week for next week will be William P. We will look forward to finding out more about him.
Happy New Year,
Happy New Year,
Happy New Year
To You!
Happy New Year,
Happy New Year,
Happy New Year
To You!
December 20, 2007
Happy Holidays and a Great New Year
Dates To Remember:
December 21st Winter Break Begins January 2nd School in Session
Our Person-of-the Week has been James (J.R.) S. We have enjoyed getting to know him and his family.
Happy Birthday to J.R. on Dec. 28th
Delicious Sweet Potato Casserole
3 cups cooked mashed sweet potatoes/yams (Canned ones work just fine) 2 eggs well-beaten 1/2 cup heavy cream 1/4 cup butter 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (if desired) Beat together and put in a glass baking dish.
Topping
1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup flour 1/3 cup melted butter 1 cup chopped pecans Mix and spread over potato mixture.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 to 45 minutes. Watch that topping doesn't burn. Enjoy!
God bless all
Good friends here,
A Merry Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year.
December 13, 2007
For the last two weeks we had a wonderful time decorating our tannenbaum, lighting Menorah “candles,” and learning about children’s traditions in other cultures.
We are very excited about our Kindergarten Christmas Program on December 19th. This will be held in our classroom at 10:00 a.m. All family members and friends are invited to attend.
A big thanks in advance to those of you who are sending unfrosted cookies to school by Tuesday. We will frost and decorate them for our program on Wednesday.
We are making beautiful chains to decorate our classroom. The chains help us learn more about patterning in math. We have enjoyed making AB, ABC, and ABCB patterns. If you have any old calendars or receive new ones that you will not use, please save them for our class. In January, we will be doing calendar exploration with the months of the year, the days of the week, and random number recognition.
Dates To Remember: December 19th Kindergarten Class Program 10:00 a.m. December 21st Winter Break January 2nd School in Session
GOD BLESS ALL GOOD FRIENDS HERE A MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Happy Birthday to Kate A. on Dec. 20th.
O Tannenbaum
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter.
Du Grunst nicht nur zur sommerzeit. Nein auch im Winter wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum, Wie treu sind deine blatter.
December 6, 2007
The BHE All-School Elementary Music Program will be Thursday, December 6th at 7:00 p.m. (TONIGHT!!) Children should be in the classroom between 6:30 and 6:45 p.m. The students will be singing at the beginning of the program, after which they will go to sit with their parents.
Please reserve time on your calendar for our special Kindergarten Class Program on Wednesday, December 19th. This will be held in our classroom at 10:00 a.m. All family members and friends are invited to attend. In conjunction with this program, we will be frosting and decorating cookies on December 18th. If any of you are baking cookies, could you please save out 2 dozen unfrosted cookies to send to school on/before the 18th?
A beautiful Tannenbaum is in our class from the mountains above Big Horn School. Our thanks to the Quinn family for bringing it to us. We enjoyed learning about different trees in science. The deciduous trees have leaves which drop off at the end of their growing season. Conifers or evergreen trees keep their leaves and have pine cones. We enjoyed tasting pine nuts (interesting), smelling fir (strong), feeling pine (sticky), and tasting , sap/resin (sugar maple-delicious) from different trees. We especially enjoy looking at (beautiful!) our own Tannenbaum. Our five senses are especially useful during the holidays!
Vowels were fun to find as we chunked apart our big new word: Dendrochronology. It literally means Tree-Time-Study, or the study of the history and age of a tree. We counted the rings on the bottom of the trunk and learned that our tree was 13 years old.
In our study of children from different cultures, we enjoyed lighting the Menorah for the first day of Hanukkah. The students are wonderful Potato Latke-makers!
We had a surprise visit from the German Santa Claus, St. Nikolaus, who visits children on the night of December 5th. In the tradition of good children finding treats in their shoes, all of the Big Horn Kinder found goodies in their P.E. shoes.
Our Person-Of-The-Week for this week is Kate A.
Hanukkah Potato Latkes
8 large potatoes, grated 1 or 2 onions, finely chopped 4 to 6 eggs well-beaten 1/2 to 1 c. flour (part of the flour can be Matzo Meal) 1 to 2 tsps. salt 1/2 to 1 tsp. pepper dash of nutmeg oil for frying
Mix with a spoon. Fry in hot oil (pancake style). Turn when golden brown and fry on the other side. Drain on paper towels. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.
Delicious!!
November 29, 2007
We had such a wonderful time on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving! The pie-making and cream-whipping were educational and tasty. The potato-peeling, stuffing-making and turkey-roasting were aromatic and delicious. You should be proud of your children; they are the best choppers and peelers ever! Thank you, parents, for your wonderful support in this memory-making week.
Language arts and social studies standards are especially enjoyable during the holiday season as we learn of the traditions of children in other cultures. We will be including some of these in our own Kindergarten Program on December 19th. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.
As a special tasting treat for the letter “Ff,” we had some Fabulous, Fresh, Furry, Fancy, Fruit For Friendly, Famished, Kindergarten Friends. We Familiarized ourselves with the Fantastic Fruit Forthrightly, and Finally Feasted upon it with Fortitude, and that’s a Fact!
We continued our Feasting Fun with Giant Grapes as we practiced the soft and hard sounds of the letter “Gg.”
Learning to write our numbers is much easier with rhymes and stories. The ones we are learning help us remember the correct way to form the numbers.
Please return the Scholastic Book order forms by December 5th so we can get our books before Christmas.
Dates to Remember Dec. 6th All-School Music Program in the B.H.H.S. gym at 7:00 p.m. Dec. 19th Kindergarten Class room Program at 10:00 a.m. Dec. 21st - Jan. 1st Winter Break
My Dreidel
I have a little dreidel,
I made it out of clay.
And when it’s dry and ready,
Then dreidel I shall play.
Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,
I made it out of clay.
Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel,
Now dreidel I shall play.
November15, 2007
Five brave turkeys are we,
We hid all night in a tree,
When the cook came around
We couldn’t be found,
So that’s why we’re here you see!
We have exciting plans for harvest time in our Kindergarten! This week we cut open, explored, and ate raw, fresh pumpkin! It was most tasty dipped in ranch dressing. We then roasted the seeds and baked all the pumpkins from our Pumpkin Patch. This was in preparation for the actual pumpkin pie-making. On Monday, we will finish reaming and mashing the pumpkins and then smell, taste, and add the rest of the ingredients to make delicious pumpkin pies! We will whip the cream for the topping and enjoy our pies.... saving some for the next day’s feast. On Tuesday, we will be having our Harvest Feast. We will make the dressing by chopping onions, apples, and celery and tearing up the bread. We will add butter and “chicken candy” (bouillon cubes) and then stuff our turkey to replace the one which will have been cooking a good part of the night! After that, we will peel and mash our potatoes. We will eat our delicious meal instead of school lunch that day at noon. Any contributions to our feast would be appreciated (see attached list).
Parents who would like to help and/or join us for lunch would be welcome.
We also have been learning about the history and reason for the holiday and the important part which the Native Americans played in the lives of the Pilgrims.
One of our favorite songs at harvest time is “Over the River and Through the Woods.” If you sang this song as a child, please share that information with your kindergarten student and enjoy reading and singing the song together.
Along with our study of Thanksgiving, we “chunked” the word apart and rearranged it to find the words :“Giving Thanks”. We discussed all the things we were thankful for and made our own “Thank You” pictures.
With the word, Thanksgiving, it was a good time to work on our ”ing” ending that appears so frequently in words.
After reading The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, and learning what plants need to grow, we enjoyed watching our little green sprouts pop up. Thanks to Miss Chipman who helped us with this enjoyable unit.
Happy Birthday to Carley Jo M. on November 27th.
Our Harvest Feast List
For the Pies: canned (evaporated) milk sugar real (unwhipped) whipping cream eggs
For the Turkey Dinner: canned chicken broth onions celery old bread butter potatoes corn olives cranberry sauce (Anything else that makes your dinner special!) Please bring your ingredient(s) on Monday. THANK YOU !!!!!
Over The River And Through The Woods
Over the river and through the woods, To Grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way To carry the sleigh Through the white and drifted snow. Over the river and through the woods, Oh how the wind does blow! It stings the toes and bites the nose As over the ground we go.
Over the river and through the woods, And straight through the barnyard gate. We seem to go E-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y S-l-o-w, It is so hard to wait! Over the river and through the woods, Now Grandfather’s cap I spy. Hurrah for the fun! Is the turkey done? Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!
November 8, 2007
At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918, a peace treaty was signed to end what was then called “The Great War.” From that event we had what was called Armistice Day. In 1954 the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day to honor all of the men and women who have served to protect freedom in our world. Our Veterans Day table has many items which help us understand more about this holiday and our country We enjoyed finding the eleventh day of the eleventh month on many different calendars. We signed our names to little cards which will be sent to veterans in our local VA Hospital. Please discuss this important holiday in your family and take a moment on November 11th to honor our veterans. If you have any veterans or active service personnel in your family, please write down their names, addresses, and military service descriptions so your child can share that information with the class. We will send little cards to them also, with your permission.
The “Getting To Know You” student this week was Elijah P. We have enjoyed getting to know him better.
In math, we used our Ten Frames for the first time. We did counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. After that, we did “counting on” to understand the concept of addition. At the end, we paired up and had fun with our tiles!
Alphabetical Order has a whole new meaning now as we can place ourselves in line in alphabetical order by our first names AND our last names. We also enjoy calling the roll by our initials.
As the weather gets colder, more coats seem to lose their owners. Please put your child’s name inside all “take-off-able” clothing.
We are working on our long (marked with a macron) and short (marked with a breve) vowel sounds. The song, “Apples and Bananas,” helps us hear the vowels in unusual settings.
Happy Birthday to Elijah P on November 2, 2007.
Apples and Bananas
I like to eat, eat, eat, Apples and bananas,
I like to eat, eat, eat, Apples and bananas.
A E I O U
a e i o u
Each time the song is sung, one long or short vowel sound is used for all the voiced vowels in the words, eat, apples, and bananas. This helps the ear hear the different vowels in unusual (funny) settings.
November 1, 2007
What a great day we had on Wednesday! There were many different characters about which we learned. These are the ones we represented:
Kate A. Skeleton Book: Curious George and the Dinosaur
Chloe’ B. Angel Fairy Book: The Angel Tree
Rachel C. Witch Book: Hoodwinked
Luke D. Cowboy Book: “C” is for Cowboy
Jackson G. Darth Vader Book: Star Wars
Quinn M. Pirate Book: Pirate School
Taylor M. Barbie Cat Book: Dictionary of Pets
Jarret M. Fireman Book: Big Frank’s Fire Truck
Carley Jo M. Butterfly Book: Good Night Sweet Butterflies
Mary N. Angel Book: Angel’s Mother’s Wedding
William P. Monster Book: Scary Stories
Elijah P. Power Ranger Book: Operation Overdrive
J R S. Pterodactyl Book: Dinosaurs
Thanks to the parents who helped with our wonderful Harvest/Halloween Party!!
From the humorous book, Cookie’s Week, we have been learning to read the days of the week. We are also learning them in sign language.
As we “delved” into the letter “Dd” this week, we learned more about writing letters---especially the “tall” letters (b,d,f,h,k,l,t,) the “basement” letters (g,j,p,q,y,) and the “dotted” letters (i,j.)
The “Getting To Know You” student for next week will be Elijah P. We will look forward to learning more about him and his family.
October 25, 2007
On October 31st. we will have our Kindergarten Read-In. The students may bring a costume depicting a storybook or movie character.....(basically any Halloween costume would fit). Each child should bring a book telling something about the character, which we will read throughout the day.
The children can put their costumes on while their books are being read so we can have more visual enjoyment of the book. At our Tuesday library time, we will try to find books to fit costumes if you don’t have one at home. (Stretches are just fine; a book about spiders would surely qualify for Spiderman!) If you choose not to have a costume, we would enjoy reading your child’s favorite storybook.
Those who choose, may also wear their costumes when we have our Harvest/Halloween Party that afternoon. If you would like to help with the party, just send a note to school.
This Read-In will give us an opportunity to enjoy exciting stories as we discuss our reading standards concerning plots, characters, themes, and settings. We will also be addressing the standard involving sequence as we talk about the beginning, middle, and ending of a story.
We have enjoyed learning about the major and minor musical modes (styles) as we have sung two songs about cats in the different modes. Learning the sign language for happy (major mode – “up” motion) and sad (minor mode –”down” motion) has given us more understanding for these musical modes. We have also enjoyed signing the words in the songs. Please have your child sing and explain these songs for you.
As part of our letter “Cc” exploration, we are introducing Color words, story Characters, Cat songs, Contractions (did not = didn’t), and Countless Carrots.
In math, we enjoyed graphing our classmates’ favorite fruits and activities. We will continue our study of patterns as we explore and extend AB and ABC pattern sequences.
Our Person-of-the-week is Taylor M. We are enjoying getting to know her more.
“Black Cat, Black Cat” (Major Musical Mode)
Black cat, black cat, looking for a witch.
All around the night is dark as pitch.
You can see because your eyes are green.
Black cat, black cat, this is Halloween.
Boo!
“Halloween Cat” (Minor Musical Mode)
Halloween Cat! Halloween Cat!
Why do you Meeeow and Meeeow like that?
Neither I nor the moon, likes your tune,
So SCAT!!!!
Halloween Cat!
Pick A Pick A Pumpkin
Pick a pick a pumpkin from the pile,
We can make his eyes and a great big smile.
Pick a pick a pumpkin, round and clean,
Then we’ll be ready for Halloween!
Halloween! Halloween!
Then we’ll be ready for Halloween!
Pumpkin
Pumpkin, Pumpkin, big and round,
I’m glad you grow upon the ground.
I’m glad you don’t grow on a tree,
For then you might fall on me!
October 18, 2007
This week we commemorated the anniversary of the arrival in the New World of Christopher Columbus on October 12, 515 years ago. We learned about the early years of his life, especially how he concluded that the world was round.
It was interesting to do the same experiment with a butterfly and a grapefruit that Columbus observed in his orchard in Italy when he was just a lad. With the help of our big globes and the paper ships we made, we were able to see first the tops of the sails, then the whole ship, just as he did from his hilltop home overlooking the harbor.
Our senses were well-used as we tasted and smelled many new spices to learn one of the reasons that Columbus was trying to find a new route to the Indies. We also felt embroidered silk and smelled perfumes from the Orient.
At snack time, we tried some of the food that Captain Columbus and his crew might have eaten on their voyage. The hardtack, seeds, nuts, dried fruit, vinegar, and beef jerky were all tasty, but we decided that it would get pretty boring day after day without fresh foods.
We hope you enjoyed our little ships as they sailed to the New World.
As part of fire safety week, the students went to the Sheridan Fire Station last Thursday. Besides learning about the trucks and safety equipment, the students were able to visit the living quarters where the firemen eat, relax, and sleep, while constantly being ready to rush to an emergency. One of the many highlights of the trip was the fireman’s pole. The students cheered as the firemen came “flying” down the pole from the upper floor!
We had an enjoyable time learning our new finger play/song, “Five Little Pumpkins.” We especially enjoyed doing it as a choral reading complete with actions, sign language, and rotations. It also gave us good practice with our ordinal numbers. The words to the song are on the back of he newsletter.
Our author visit on Monday was a lot of fun! Kenn Nesbitt explained how he writesthe poems for his books. We all enjoyed some of the substitutions he used to make a normal song or poem especially funny. We are bringing home our own, personally signed, copy of one of his books, When the Teacher Isn’t Looking.
Happy Birthday to Chloe’ B. on October 4th.
“Five Little Pumpkins”
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
1 The First one said, “My it’s getting late.”
2 The Second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
3 The Third one said, “We don’t care.”
4 The Fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.”
5 The Fifth one said, “My we’re having fun.”
OOO went the wind, and OUT went the light,
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!
October11, 2007
Thank you for the wonderful Parent/Teacher Conferences last week. It was great to get to know you better and discuss goals for your super duper kidlets.
After learning about Eric Carle and his collages, our class was anxious to make one. As we took our wonderful autumn walk around Big Horn Town, we collected enough leaves, weeds, sticks, and pine cones, to make a beautiful collage of our very own. Thanks to all the helpers on the trip for a great morning.
In math, we had a great time with our Bug Bucket. We had to estimate how many bugs were on the rug when we dumped them out. Then we sorted them by color and size. We counted them in categories and used our HUGE calculator to add them up, learning how to use a calculator as we went. What great math fun we had!
We are super “The” detectives! If there is a “The” lurking around anywhere, we can spot it. Our homework is to find and tally “The” as many times as we can.
We read a beautiful book called, I Have A Sister --- My Sister Is Deaf, by Jeanne Whitehouse Peters. This book helped us to understand why sign language is necessary. Included in this newsletter is the sign language alphabet (finger alphabet) for you to enjoy with your family. We also are working on finger spelling our names.
We enjoyed meeting Rachel’s family and will look forward to Chloe’ for our new “Getting-To-Know-You” student next week.
We have a Pumpkin Patch in our classroom! If you have any extra harvest items (pumpkins, gourds, etc.), we would love to add them to our Pumpkin Patch.
If you wish to order books, from the Scholastic Book Order, please return the form by November 1st.
October 4, 2007
A big thanks to all the people who helped with our wonderful Apple Week. We learned so much and had a great time doing all of our activities, culminating in the applesauce-making. DELICIOUS!!
Along with the poem, Apples, we sponge-painted apple trees which turned out to be colorful and unique. We are still tasting different varieties of apples and will be making a graph featuring our favorites.
Our first alphabet book, My Aa Book, is hot-off-the-press! We discussed, read, and colored it in class. We hope you will enjoy sharing it at home. Please encourage your child to point to the words as he/she reads.
As we become more familiar with the letters, we will especially concentrate on the letter sounds. On the back of the newsletter is the pattern to one of our songs which helps us with left-to-right progression and one-to-one matching as we learn the sounds.
We are also tapping out the sounds in simple words such as cat, dog , etc. We do this by first saying the word, then tapping each sound with the fingers against the thumbs. We then “scoop” the sounds back together into the word. Since our fingertips are so sensitive, this is a powerful “hook” into the memory for sounds and words.
The “At” family was great fun! We went through the alphabet finding new words to make by adding a letter in front of the word, “at.” In additional to the more familiar ones such as bat and sat, we learned about tat (lace) and vat (huge pot).
We are going to have a Pumpkin Patch in our classroom! If you have any extra harvest items (pumpkins, gourds, etc.), we would love to add them to our Pumpkin Patch.
We enjoyed meeting Quinn M.’s family and will look forward to Rachel C. for our new “Getting-To-Know-You student next week.
If the weather is cooperative, our class will be taking a walking field trip around our town of Big Horn.
Happy Birthday to Rachel C. on October 4th.
September 27, 2007
We have enjoyed learning about John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed) this week. He was born on September 26, 1774, in New England, just as the apples were ready to eat in his father’s orchard.
He spent his whole life in the great outdoors befriending animals and helping others. He planted apple seeds, which he culled from large apple cider presses in New York. The trees from these seeds even have “grandchildren” trees in the Big Horn area!
We tasted different varieties of apples and will continue trying new ones next week, after which we will make graphs to find the ones we like the best. If you have a favorite kind, could you please share an apple or two so we can taste as many varieties as possible? Thanks!
We also had fun finding the magic “star” inside of each apple. We especially enjoyed making apple star prints on paper and ourselves!
Our Apple Table has many kinds and textures of apples from a wooden apple block calendar to an apple door chime. It also has applesauce-making implements which we will put to good use when we make our applesauce next week. (Any spare apples are welcome for this project; Big Horn orchard apples are especially good for applesauce.)
We enjoyed meeting Carley Jo’s ’s family this week. Our special person next week will be Quinn M. We will look forward to finding out more about him.
This year we are fortunate to have six guided reading groups made up from both Kindergarten classes. This will occur daily from 9:15 to 9:45 a.m. Your child will benefit by receiving individualized instruction, small group interaction, and the opportunity to learn with children from Mrs. Swan’s class.
Please be sure to check the green paper in your communication envelope for your parent/teacher conference time.
Happy Birthday to Quinn M. on September 27th.
“The Apple Tree”
Way, way up In the apple tree,
Two little apples Smiled at me.
I shook that tree As hard as I could,
Down came the apples, Mmmm, they were good!
September 20, 2007
To celebrate Constitution Day on Monday, we did many exciting activities. We practiced our numbers with the book, One Nation: America by the Numbers. We learned our letters with the book, A is for America: An American Alphabet. We read the song books: America The Beautiful, The Star Spangled Banner, and This Land Is Your Land, and then sang the songs along with learning the sign language for the words.
The highlight of Constitution Day was making our own Kindergarten Constitution. First we discussed our school motto, Respect and Responsibility, and The Golden Rule to make sure they would be part of our constitution. We then thought of all the different ideas which would help keep us safe and happy. We color coded them so they could be read easier. Finally, we signed our names underneath the list to witness that we would try our best to obey and follow our very own constitution
Next week is the starting of “Getting -To-Know-You.” On each Monday the “Getting-To-Know-You” student for the week may bring pictures, small toys, baby clothes, and other special things about himself or herself. After telling about the items, the child will help put them on a bulletin board in the hall. On Thursday he or she may bring a favorite snack to share, and parents and other family members may come to be introduced, tell about themselves, and read their child’s favorite story to the class. We will reserve 3:15 to 3:50 p.m. on Thursdays for this special family activity.
Our first getting to know you student will be Carley Jo. We will look forward to finding out more about her.
Our new book, I Read a Book, is coming home today. We are still working on left-to-right-progression and one-to-one matching in our reading. Usually our first books are “memorized” rather than “read,” but that is often the first step to understanding the reading process and getting those first “hooks” into that daunting sea of letters.
We have had a Lavender-blue “L” on our LEFT hand and a Red “R” on our RIGHT hand to guide us this week as we have been concentrating on learning LEFT and RIGHT. The “Hokey Pokey” is one of the songs which helped us hone our skills. The song on the back is one that helped me learn left and right when I was in Kindergarten!
In math we are working on ways which we can sort items such as color, shape, and size.
Our Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming up on October 4th and 5th. The green form to schedule conferences is in the communication folder. Please complete this form and return it by Monday, September 24th. The conferences last about 20 minutes and students are encouraged to attend. If there is a conflict with these dates, please note it on the green form and I will work around your schedule.
Our Kindergarten Constitution
1. Be nice and follow the Golden Rule.
2. Show Respect and act Responsibly
3. Walk and Whisper in the Halls.
4. Keep your Body to yourself.
5. Talk when it is your turn.
6. Only Take Things that belong to you.
7. Have Permission to leave the room.
8. Use a Safe Sit at the rug and the table.
9. Be Happy!
10. Learn a Lot!
Please..... Give me your right hand, Here is mine. How do you do? How do you do? I hope that you are doing fine, Dear little friend of mine.
September 13, 2007
Eric Carle, the author and illustrator, has become one of our favorite names! We have read and learned the sign language for his books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See? and Today is Monday,and enjoyed reading and doing the actions to his book, From Head To Toe. We also watched a video about his life. We are excited to try out his painting style as we make our own collages
We began using VOWAC Cards this week (Vowel-Oriented Word Attack Course). These help us learn the name of the letter, a picture memory-hook, and the sound of the letter. An example would be:
T--Tan Tent--/t/ .
These cards also teach left-to-right progression and one-to-one matching.
On Tuesday, to commemorate Patriot Day, we enjoyed learning “America the Beautiful.” The song becomes even more beautiful with descriptive signing.
These are our weekly specialists: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we have P.E. with Mrs. Wilson. We always need to have our P.E. shoes and shorts (for girls with dresses) on those days. Tuesday and Thursday we have Music with Mrs. Ruleaux. We are singing and exploring the sounds of the Orff instruments.
Monday we have Art with Mr. Jurosek. We are finding out the different media we can use to do our artwork. Nurse Newman teaches us Health each Wednesday. We are learning how to take care of our bodies. Our Library day is Tuesday. Our library teacher is “Miss Danna” Babione. To be able to check out another one, each child must return his/her book on or before Tuesday. We have Technology every Monday. We will learn about computers.
All children: if you wish, you may leave a complete change of clothing (underwear, tee shirt, and sweatpants) in a zip-lock bag at school for any emergency.
Today we have in our communication folders two Scholastic Book Order forms. We will be taking these book orders every month. If you would like to order, please turn your forms in by October 1st. We will accrue points with each order to use for buying Big Books for our classroom.
Happy Birthday to Luke D. on September 10th.
“America The Beautiful”
Oh, beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain.
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
September 7, 2007
This past week the whole school has taken the DIBELS Assessment (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.) The Kindergarten assessment included Initial Sound Fluency, Letter-naming Fluency, and Word-use Fluency. Since I helped administer the assessment, we welcomed Mrs. Shirley Rucki into our class as a substitute teacher on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.
We have been practicing writing our names in the Zaner-Bloser penmanship style. A copy of this alphabet is included in the newsletter for your reference.
Our new book, Lunch, is hot-off-the-press! The students are anxious to read it to all family members.....and pets.....and stuffed animals.......!
Counting, counting, counting! We have counted legs, ears, noses, arms, fingers, and toes. Our math manipulatives have helped us understand more about counting and patterns. We used colored plastic bears to make tabletop designs and AB patterns, after which we got down on the floor with our Unifix Cubes. Making and reading our patterns, we stretched our snake clear around the room! As we patch, clap, and snap, the rhythms we do with our bodies are also starting to make sense as musical patterns.
Our Kindergarten Newsletter can be accessed on the school district’s web site: http://co.sheridank12.net/. Go to parent links or staff links and then scroll down to teacher web pages (school notes.) Often first names of students are mentioned in the newsletter or on the web site. If you have any concerns about this, please visit with me.
Our big book, Mary Wore Her Red Dress, gave us many good ideas on how to write, draw, and sing about ourselves. We also enjoyed the hand-clapping game, Miss Mary Mack.
Please be sure to return The Communication Envelope each Monday so it will be ready for the next week’s papers.
Miss Mary Mack
Miss Mary Mack, Mack, Mack, All dressed in black, black, black, With silver buttons, buttons, buttons, All down her back, back, back.
She asked her mother, mother, mother, For fifty cents, cents, cents, To see the elephant, elephant, elephant, Jump over the fence, fence, fence.
August 30, 2007 What a great week of school we had! We learned so many new things in such a short time. We are learning to walk in line with polite arms and feet, the “safe sit” for rug time, and how to raise our hands and take turns. After reading My Brown Bear Barney, we adopted a “real” stuffed brown bear and his friends as our class mascots. We are already doing left-to-right progression and one-to-one matching with our song, “Welcome Back To School.” Please enjoy reading and singing this song with your child. We also liked reading and coloring the book, School, which your child is bringing home today. As we worked on our names this week we learned about the sky line, the plane line, the grass line, and the worm line to help us with our printing We will begin scheduled “Sharing Time” (Show and Tell) next week. Please help your child select an item (as educational as possible) which is meaningful to him/her. If a child forgets to bring an item, it just turns into a “Tell” where favorite foods, toys, etc. are discussed. This will be our schedule for the year:
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