Highlights from our week…

How can you have a bad week when you start it off with a PJ day and running for a good cause! The kids did a phenomenal job in their first Jingle Jog! The amount that was raised for the Philippines is more than we could have hoped for and, once the total is finalized, will be posted in the blue note. Now that we had successfully completed our PJ day, it was time to vote on how to celebrate next time the Spanish jar is full! After selecting from many great and creative options that the kids came up with they voted on eating snack under their chairs! They can be so goofy! I love it!

Over the last 2 weeks we have been counting down the days until Christmas break with a paper chain. Each link on the chain has an act of kindness written on it. It has been such a blessing to see the kids show love to others around our school! If you happened to be in the office this week, the office staff posted the card your kids made for them. 🙂 Other acts of kindness have included giving someone you don’t know well a compliment, helping a friend, saying “Feliz Navidad” to the principal, etc.

Today we officially celebrated Christmas as a class. Thank you to Christina and the team of moms who helped run the centers. I couldn’t do my job without you! Thank you for helping us celebrate the birth of our Savior together! We even got to eat cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus! It is such an honor to celebrate this special time of year with your children! At the end of our celebration, I was presented with a gift. Your generosity overwhelmed me! I cannot wait to get pampered at Engedi Salon sometime and take Matt to dinner one night soon! I hope you all have a very merry Christmas! Enjoy the extra time to be with your families!

(Pictures from all of this excitement will be posted soon to the photos link of our blog!)

Important Dates

• January 9: Back to school!
• January 23: Teacher in-service (no school)

Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ! 

Bible: We officially finished and took home our Nativity scenes! The passion your kids have for the Christmas story is inspiring. They even acted out the Christmas story during recess!

Literacy: Daily 5 continues to go very well! After break I hope to add another choice to the Daily 5 options currently available which are: read to self, read to someone, and word work.

In grammar we continued to talk about adjectives. This time we focused on long possessive adjectives- mio, tuyo, suyo, (mine, yours, his/hers) for example.

• Reading strategy: Questioning
• Read aloud: Las estaciones
• Vocabulary words
  • abrigar (bundle up, wrap up)
  • ilumina (light up)
  • las luciérnagas (lightning bugs)
  • el deporte (sport)
  • rodar (to roll)
• Word wall word: el día (day)
• Phrase of the week: Yo tengo ___. (I have ___.)
• Letter of the week: Zz

Exploring God’s World: This week we talked about needs and wants. We searched through magazines to find pictures of things that we need or want and pasted the pictures onto a t-chart gift.

Play: This week the kids discovered the “props box.” This is a container full of open-ended toys and gadgets that leave it up the kids to do the imaginative creating. It was fun to watch all of the things they came up with! Some kindergarten friends also took this opportunity to act out the Christmas story. 🙂

Afternoons:

• Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
• Tuesday: rest. play, recess, snack, math centers
• Wednesday: rest, play, recess, snack, “el día” sigh word activity
• Thursday: rest, play, recess, snack,  color by sight word
• Friday: rest, play, recess, snack, K-5 singing

From the immersion coordinator: The extra days off from school often bring our students out into the community a little more. If your child has an opportunity to use Spanish or Mandarin outside of school during the holidays, I would love to hear about it. It is stories like these from parents that add value and purpose to the incredible language development that we see in the classroom. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas!

Highlights from our week…

Wednesday we celebrated my 1/2 birthday! Thank you for making me feel so loved! I couldn’t think of a better group of kids to spend my 1/2 birthday with. Thank you for spoiling me with generous gifts, thoughtful notes and emails, and sweet smiles and hugs!

We began the week with our first snow day of the school year! It was fun to share how we each spent our unexpected day off. Toward the end of the week we had several indoor recesses. When the announcements came some kids cheered and others were disappointed. I love to see how much the kids enjoy playing together both outside and inside our classroom walls. Friday afternoon it warmed up a little and instead of Kindergarten singing we took the kids outside to go sledding! We’re looking forward to doing it again soon so that the “morning kids” can join us too! 

Important Dates.

• December 19: EMPTY shoebox to school
• December 19: Jingle Jog- 10:30 (Please see information below as well as information sent home on Friday in red alert folders.)
• December 22: Christmas Chapel 9:15 AM
• December 23: Class Christmas Celebration- 10:30-11:45
• December 23: No hot lunch and no am OR pm bussing

• December 24-January 8: Christmas Break

Important Information

• Backpacks – Please be sure to check these carefully in the next few days. There will be gifts for you and for grandparents, Nativity scene projects, and other important things you won’t want to miss. Thank you!
• Jingle Jog – The Jingle Jog is an exciting part of Christmas for many ZCS students! Your children have been training hard in PE to jog for 12 minutes. (They think it’s a very big deal to be able to run in the hallways!) Information about how we use this opportunity to raise money for our friends in the Philippines at GCCS came from Mrs. Miller and was sent home on Friday. Parents and families are welcome to come watch, run alongside of, or cheer on their kids!
  

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Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!

Bible: We continued learning more about the Jesus’ Birth by studying the shepherd and baby Jesus this week. Several moms and dads came in to help us create these characters for our Nativity scene. Thank you!

Literacy: This week we talked about the letter Dd. We listened for the “d” sound at the beginning and in the middle of words. We read the poem “Los dados” and played language detectives as we searched for Dd syllables inside of words and placed them on our syllable wheel.

In grammar we continued to talk about adjectives. This time we focused on possessive adjectives, words that show to whom something belongs. The kids realized they use these a lot when they share good news in the morning family meeting. We hear lots of stories about “mi familia.”

• Reading strategy: Questioning
• Read aloud: La clase de dibujo
• Vocabulary words
  • el dibujo (drawing) We even connected this word to the verb dibujar (to draw.)
  • los colores (colors)
  • la tortuga (turtle)
  • la cabeza (head)
  • el/la artista (artist)
• Word wall word: de
• Phrase of the week: Vamos a recoger. (We’re going to clean up.)
• Letter of the week: Dd

Math: This week we practiced some more addition and subtraction. We used a scene from the park to find groups of objects and create addition and subtraction problems from the things we saw. For example, there were 2 kids playing in the sandbox and 3 kids jumping rope. From these observations we made an addition sentence, 2+3=5, and a subtraction sentence, 5-2=3.

Exploring God’s World – This week we talked about needs and wants. We categorized a variety of things as either a need or a want. The kids completed a cut and paste activity in which they pasted different things into the car of a train. One car was for needs and the other was for wants. God has blessed us with all that we need and many things we want!

Play: This week we opened up a new sensory bin filled with rice, green lentils, pine branches, cranberries, candy canes, and pinecones!

Afternoons:

• Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
• Tuesday: rest. play, recess, snack, math centers
• Wednesday: rest, play, recess, snack, Christmas tree initial sound cut and paste activity
• Thursday: rest, play, recess, snack,  math centers
• Friday: rest, play, recess, snack, Kindergarten sledding

From the immersion coordinator: Spread the word…We will be hosting an information meeting in the media center on Tuesday, January 31 at 7:00 pm for anyone interested in learning more about the Mandarin and Spanish immersion programs. This meeting will be geared towards new families who are considering entering the immersion program, but current families wanting more information about our program are also welcome to attend.

Highlights from our week…

This week we saw the mighty power of God as he changed his creation over to winter and covered his earth in a blanket of snow. When I see the excitement and awe in your children’s eyes I’m reminded that our God truly is a creative God! Thanks for helping us transition to this time of year this week by sending reusable bags full of labelled, warm and dry winter clothing! Monday it only took us 10 minutes to get dressed and ready for recess! 😉

Important Dates.

The next couple weeks are busy and I understand that there is lots going on both in and out of school. Please pay special attention to these important dates and reminders and, of course, let me know if you have any questions!

• December 19: EMPTY shoebox to school
• December 19: Jingle Jog- 10:30 (Please see information below.)
• December 22: Christmas Chapel 9:15 AM
• December 23: Class Christmas Celebration- 10:30-11:00
• December 23: No hot lunch and no am OR pm bussing

• December 24-January 8: Christmas Break

Important Information

• Winter clothes – You’ve all been wonderful with this! In case you are looking for a reminder, it would be very helpful if you could please send your child’s winter clothes (snowpants, hat, mittens, etc.) to school in a reusable bag. They hang very nicely on our hooks and help us keep track of where our own things are. Please also label your child’s clothing so that if something does get lost it is easier to find! We will wear our gym shoes (or other shoes if your child prefers) in our classroom and keep our boots for outside only. We will go outside at least once every day that we can, so please be sure to pack winter clothes in the reusable bag and bring boots every day! You might want to check the winter clothes each evening to see if they need to go in the dryer before school the next morning.
• Toilet Paper Rolls – Thank you all for bringing in the toilet paper rolls for our Nativity scene! We have all that we need thanks to your generous support! The kids and I are looking forward to finishing this project in the next couple weeks and sharing them with all of you!
• Jingle Jog – The Jingle Jog is an exciting part of Christmas for many ZCS students! Your children have been training hard in PE to jog for 20 minutes. (They think it’s a very big deal to be able to run in the hallways!) Soon information will be coming home from Mrs. Miller about how we use this opportunity to raise money for our friends in the Philippines at GCCS. Parents and families are welcome to come watch, run alongside of, or cheer on their kids!
  

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Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!

Bible: We continued learning more about the Jesus’ Birth by studying Mary and Joseph this week. Several moms and dads came in to help us create these characters for our Nativity scene. Thank you!

Literacy: This week I was able to meet with every kindergartener at least once. Reading is very developmental and every child is in a different place in the journey toward becoming a reader so I am always grateful for the opportunity to give specialized instruction and get to know your children better as learners in this small group setting!

This week we talked about the letter Ll. We listened for the “l” sound at the beginning and in the middle of words. Later on in the week we classified “Ll words” by how many syllables each word had. We used our arms to break the words down, “map” out the word, and count the syllables. Anytime learning is connected to the body like this it is called Total Physical Response (TPR.)

In grammar we continued to talk about adjectives. We learned that adjectives, like articles, change based on how many nouns the adjective is describing. If the noun is plural, for example, the adjective is plural. In Spanish this usually means there is an “s” or and “es” at the end of the adjective.

• Reading strategy: Questioning
• Read aloud: Sueños
• Vocabulary words
  • nacer (to be born)
  • el barco (boat)
  • profundo (deep)
  • navegar (navigate)
  • la sirena (mermaid)
• Word wall word: es (is)
• Phrase of the week: Yo veo. (I see.)
• Letter of the week: Ll

Another part of our literacy lessons this week brought us to the media center where we met Glenys Nellist, a real author! She commented several times that the kids were “very good listeners.” She shared some of her beautifully written and illustrated book with us, but I think it may have been her English accent that had them hooked! 🙂

Math: This week we practiced writing the number 9 and our number writing books went home in red alert folders this week!  We also started thinking a bit about teen numbers. We compared the number 1 and 11, 2 and 12, 3 and 13, 4 and 14, 5 and 15, etc. and discovered that the numbers 11-20 were like the smaller numbers plus a group of 10.

Writing Workshop: This week integrated our writing workshop lessons, our excitement for Christmas time, and our phrase of the week “Yo veo.” We created a class list of things we see at this time of year. Soon we will make our very first pattern book with the ideas we brainstormed together!

Handwriting Without Tears: We played a little catch up in handwriting this week! On Tuesday we learned about the letter Z and practiced some of the letters we’ve been working on up to this point. We quickly noticed that they all began in the upper left corner and many began with a big line down. On Thursday we learning about the letters C and O. Both of these letters and the letters we’ll be learning about in the next few weeks are called “magic C” letters because they all begin with the big curve of the C.

Play: Our home gained lots of pets this week! The kids are really enjoying taking care of their classmate pets. In the art center several kindergarten friends began to make Christmas cards. It is so exciting to see the passion your children have for writing even outside of our scheduled intentional writing workshop times!

Up in Lights: Parker Nagelkirk was Up in Lights this week! His dad (also a middle school teacher at ZCS,) his mom, and his younger brother and sister came to teach us more about the amazing kiddo God made Parker to be. Parker shared his favorite song with us and reminded us that no matter where we go, God is always with us. Thank you, Parker and family!

Afternoons:

• Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
• Tuesday: rest. play, recess, snack, art project- handprint angels
• Wednesday: rest, play, recess, snack, art project- Christmas lights
• Thursday: rest, play, recess, snack, Christmas math centers
• Friday: rest, play, recess, snack, K-5 singing
  

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Thanks for reading! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Blessings on your week ahead!

Melissa

From the immersion coordinator: What is an enfoque lingüístico and do Mandarin students have an equivalent? 

Each immersion classroom from preschool through 8th grade in both Spanish and Mandarin should have a grammar and/or linguistic goal posted on the wall in a prominent area. During the week (or two weeks for preschool), the teacher and students will learn about, hunt for, and attempt to use the goal throughout all the subject areas. In this way, students are encouraged to grow and strengthen their use of the new language while studying content material.