Friday, October 25, 2019

Hello Families,
October  is almost over! I must say that your children are impressing me so much!  Their academics growth is incredible!  As I assess our class for our conferences and report cards, these bright kiddos are completely  blowing me away. 

This week, we have our Halloween  celebration on Thursday.  We will have centers and party starting at 12:40.  If you are helping, please come around 12:15 to help set up centers and food.  Thank you for the support for the party ! A big thank you to our lovely and talented room mom, Sarah for planning our party!  The children and I can hardly wait! Students may NOT wear scary costumes with blood or weapons.  Please keep those for Trick or Treating at home. Halloween parade is at 10:45 am.

Conferences are the  week  of Nov. 18-22.  We will follow our regular schedule and we will not have centers that week. 

Reading: The class has starting reading books with short vowels please practice at home. In RTI, we will be reading the story The Lion and the Mouse.  Students will focus on characters/ setting and cause and effect. 

WWW:  can, in

Math: We still are using number lines for counting on and back.  We will continue learning about the number bond to organize our thinking.  We will be finishing up Unit 2.  We have also been writing number sentences (equations).

Reminders:
Halloween Parade at 10:45-11:15, party from 9:30-10:35
No school Friday, Nov. 1
Conferences are Nov. 18-22, I will send home a reminder next week to confirm your time. 
No centers conference week
Picture retake Tuesday, Nov. 5
No school Monday, Nov. 11 in observation of Veterans Day.

Have a great weekend!!!
Cathy Werner

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Kindergarten Update 10/21 - 10/25

Hello Kindergarten Families,

Time is sure flying! It's hard to believe it's almost Halloween!  We have been having so much fun with our fall projects.  Here is a peek at next week:

Volunteering:  I just want to say a big thank you to all of my volunteers! I feel very blessed to have such an incredible supportive parent community! We could NOT do it without you!

This week, we will be finishing up our "Wild Things theme"as well as our spiders, pumpkins, and bats.  I hope you enjoy playing the games with the pumpkin number line.  There are many other games you can find with a number line on Pinterest and other websites.
The next couple weeks, we will be getting "Career & College" ready theme. This is a school-wide/district wide theme that will be talked about throughout each grade level.  We will be reading Oh the places We'll Go by Dr Suess.  This will open up discuss on what we want to do in the future and what we need to do now to prepare for the future.  We will talk about different careers and paths such as schools that are focused in one area like "engineer" .  This is great time to talk about it at home and what you did to get the job you have too.

word wall words: have


Math: In math, students are coming up with many strategies to solve math word problems.  We have talked about drawing a picture, counting on or back, using a number line or a ten frame and at the end we want the "dessert" which is the number sentence that explains what we did to solve it.  In counting collections, we are starting to group our collection in 2's, 5's, and 10's besides counting by 1's.  You can have them practicing counting collections at home.  If they have a collection have them put them into groups and count them in their groups.


Halloween:  We will have Halloween parade on Thursday, Oct. 31.  It will begin  at 10:45am and end around 11:15 on our upper quad.  Costumes should not have blood and please keep the weapons at home.  Our centers and party will be from 12:30-2:00.  Our fantastic room mom, Sarah has sent out a sign up genius for the supplies that are needed. 

Conferences Nov. 18-21. We will not have centers that week.  Also, we will have the same schedule as normal.  School will start at 10:35 and end at 2:05 on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Friday.  On Wednesday we will have a restructured day with a 12:20 dismissal.    If you don't have a conference time, please be sure to stop by the classroom for a time or send me an email.

Wish List/Donations:

Clean up wipes for tables
Baby wipes
Paper towels
Paper plates (cheap ones)
Amazon gift cards
Prize box items
Leveled books for our classroom library

Have a wonderful weekend,
Ms. Werner

Friday, October 11, 2019

Kindergarten Update 10/14 - 10/18


1:29 PM (8 minutes ago)
Hi Kindergarten Families,    

Hope to see you at the  Harvest Festival tonight from 5-9!

The new "Star of the Day", this round is about "bring a stuffed animal".    You can put it in a bag with your child's name and 3 clues and return to school.


Reading:  In centers,  we have one more book with sight words and then we will be starting short vowel sounds.  The first book is "Nat at Bat".  Again, please read at home.  Also, when you read at home find books that are at your child's comfort level (Meaning that they can read it with only making a few errors). If not reading yet, have them use a book and tell their own story using the pictures.  Many scholastic books have books that are easy readers and you can find them on their website. As you read together at home, students can locate sight words in books that you read together and talk about characters and settings.  


New Theme: “Monsters and Wild Things”! Our book we will be reading is “Where the Wild Things Are”.  This theme is a great way to discuss the concepts of “Fiction” vs. “Non-Fiction” which we will be comparing through a variety of books and charting the differences between each genre. We will also talk about the “characters”, “setting”, “problem” and “solution” in each book that we read. While reading with your child at home, please ask them to identify these story elements in their favorite stories. 

Art/Music/Science:  We will be finishing up our facts on bats and spiders.  Last, we will be making our own bat. We also have an art teacher that will be coming weekly to our classroom on Thursdays.




Word wall words of the week:  "you", "for"

Math: Students will practice counting forward and backward within 20 using the number line and “counting collections”. They will continue to practice a variety of math strategies with partner collaboration to solve word problems and number sentences.  They are using a number line to tell addition/subtraction stories in class.  

Upcoming Events:

October 16 Spirit Day-Matching Day-Find a friend or two to match outfits!
October 16-Piggie Pie Play
October 31-Halloween Parade for Kinder only will be at 10:45 in the upper quad. Families welcome to come and watch! Halloween Party-12:45-2:00 in our classroom.

Special thanks to Nicole Graham for revamping our garden! I also appreciate Monique Dutra and Sean Pate to doing prep work for the entire Kindergarten class! Thank  you to all our volunteers! We couldn't do it without you!



Have a great week,
Ms. Werner

Friday, October 4, 2019

Kindergarten Update 10/7 - 10/11


Hi Kindergarten Families,    

Here is what’s going on in Kindergarten this week:
    
Thank you families for driving on the field trip and making it a success.  

Art/Music/Science: Students will learn songs and create art projects that is focus on classic Halloween animals such as, bats and spiders! 

Reading: We will begin a new series of take-home readers that focus on sounding out simple 3-letter words. The first book is called “Nat at Bat” and it teaches the "-at" word family which includes words such as cat, hat, bat, and sat. Listen to your child read these books each night until they can read them fluently. If you feel that your child needs additional practice, ask them to write a list of as many words as they can that rhyme with "cat" (or whatever the “word family” focus is that week).  In Readers' Workshop we have been working on reading with partners by sitting side-by-side and holding a book in the middle while taking turns reading.  

Math: Our math centers will focus on number sense to 10. Math games will include number lines, ten-frames and a “Which bug will win"game.  We will start word problems next week in which students will use different strategies to solve addition problems.  They will explain their reasoning with the class.  Please continue to practice writing numbers 1-10 correctly at home.  

Sight Words of the Week:  "look"  review: I, like, see, a, the, to, my, go, at, is, and, up, down

Our school's Harvest Festival is this Friday, October 11th from 5:00-9:00. This is SUCH a fun event! I hope to see you there!  We could still use volunteers to make this night a success!  Please sign up to bring a baked good for our cake walk.  It is the most popular booth.

We still need toilet paper rolls for our bat project in a week!

Have a great weekend,
Ms. Werner

Kindergarten Update 10/18 - 10/22

  Dear Kindergarten Families ,   Here is the news for next week. I hope everyone enjoys their day off from school tomorrow!      In language...