Highlights from our week…
This week our classroom community learned about the power of prayer in difficult situations. We learned that when one of us is down, whether it be from being tired, missing mom or dad, not feeling well, or just having an “off” day, it takes a loving community to lift that person up. I love our classroom family and I know that God is doing great things in and through your children! Thank you for sharing your children with me this year! God is so good!
Important Dates:
- March 2: Wear stripes in honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday!
- March 15: Wear black and bring a flashlight to school! (We’ll have a black out day to celebrate March is reading month!)
- March 20: Parent Teacher Conferences- no school
- March 21: Parent Teacher Conferences PM- full day of school
- March 24: Garden Crossings field trip (AM only- I will send a SignUp Genius out soon.)
Important Announcements:
- Quarters for Wayne: Kindergarteners will work together to help raise money for our sponsor student in the Philippines by earning quarters throughout the month of February. You may collect quarters directly on the sheet with tape or in a separate Ziploc bag. If you need to view the sheet again, please click here. I would like to have all quarters and/or recording sheets by the end of February please.
- Conference Sign Up: Click here for sign up instructions for conferences. Please remember that sign up isn’t open until March 3rd @ 9:00 am. Unless you have been notified from our CLC, please only sign up for ONE 15 minute time slot. Thank you!
Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!
Bible: We continue to learn about stories that show Jesus’ power. We learned about the healing of the blind man and the feeding of 5,000 people with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread.
Literacy: This week we talked about how to change verbs to show that we, nosotros, are doing something. We brainstormed things that we do at school and noticed how the ending of the verbs change in this tense. Then we classified verbs according to their endings. We worked with verbs in the first person singular, yo, second person singular, tu, and third person plural, nosotros. Sometimes as I write the grammar concepts we’re studying I feel more like I’m describing a high school English class than a Kindergarten class. I want to remind you that these tenses are nothing new for your children. They use them all the time when they are speaking Spanish. My job in these lessons is to draw the kids’ attention to what they are already doing and help them notice and practice the patterns in the language.
- Reading strategy: Visualizing
- Read aloud: Quiero Viajar
- Vocabulary words
- avión (airplane)
- yate/bote (boat)
- el velero (sailboat)
- el autobus (bus)
- el cohete (rocket)
- el tren (train)
- explorar (to explore)
- viajar (to travel)
- Word wall word: tengo (I have)
- Phrase of the week: Hice ___. (I did ___. or I made ___.
- Letter of the week: Rr
Math: This week we talked a lot about teen numbers as 10 and some more. Like we used manipulatives to divide numbers 1-10 into 2 smaller parts, we also used them to divide numbers 19-20 into smaller parts. The first part was always 10.
Writing Workshop: This week we “fixed and fancied” our favorite pattern books. This coming week I hope to celebrate our writing together. Time permitting, I also hope to kick off our next unit, Small Moments.
Exploring God’s World: On Friday we “played” with ramps and a variety of balls and other rolling things. We discovered that the weight of an object affects the speed at which it moves. We also learned that an object needs a push or a pull to begin moving and that the object will move in the direction that it is pushed or pulled.
From the immersion coordinator: Why does my child’s teacher feel that she/he needs to step out of the classroom to talk to me? Our teachers do a phenomenal job of protecting the target language-only environment in the classroom, and you can play an important role in protecting it as well! When we set clear boundaries and expectations with children, we know they are much quicker to respect our expectations. It is the same with the language use; we need them to see that the classroom is for Spanish or Mandarin only. You can help by using even broken Spanish (or Mandarin if you know it!), by stepping out of the classroom to talk with the teacher, or at minimum, by turning your back and whispering when English is needed. Thanks for the support!
Highlights from our week…
It was a full and fun week in Kindergarten! On Monday we celebrated the 100th day of school! It was a very special day of reflecting on God’s faithfulness over the past 100 days. We giggled a lot as many of us dressed up as if we were 100 years old and created portraits of our 100 year old selves. Kids who didn’t dress up and those who did all had an amazing day celebrating together! (I love how Kindergartners just go with it!)
“What will I look like when I’m 100?” — 100 year old portraits
I think a highlight was counting out 100 ingredients in our special snack. THANK YOU to those of you who donated snacks and other supplies to help make our 100th day of school celebration possible!
On Tuesday we celebrated God’s love for us and our love for each other. It was another very special day for our class. Thank you, again, to those of you who helped by donating supplies, running centers, and helping your child bring valentines to pass out.
Important Dates
- February 20: President’s Day Break- No school
- February 23: All school chapel (9:10)
- March 20: Parent Teacher Conferences*- no school
- March 21: Parent Teacher Conferences- full day of school
*More details on signing up for conferences coming soon. 🙂
Important Announcements
- Quarters for Wayne: Kindergarteners will work together to help raise money for our sponsor student in the Philippines by earning quarters throughout the month of February. You may collect quarters directly on the sheet with tape or in a separate Ziploc bag. If you need to view the sheet again, please click here. I would like to have all quarters and/or recording sheets by the end of February please.
- From what I can tell there are two “bugs” going around our classroom- one with severe cold symptoms and the other is the stomach flu. I am doing my best to keep things sanitized and safe at school and I know you are at home too. Winter will be officially over soon and hopefully a long weekend will help! Thank you for your prayers for a healthy class (and teacher!) If your child is sick, please remember to call the office. Thank you!
Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!
Bible: This week we began our unit on Jesus’ miracles. So far we’ve read about Jesus turning the water to wine at the wedding, the great catch of fish and Jesus’ teaching about being fishers of men, and Jesus calming the storm. When we learned about being fishers of men we practiced this song that has also been a favorite during our Kindergarten singing time on Friday afternoons.
Literacy: As you probably know our literacy curriculum, which comes from add.a.lingua is written to be taught over 5 days. Occasionally I’ll squeeze it into 4 days if we run into a snow day or something, but with Valentine’s Day and 100th Day both falling this week I felt it was best to review rather than introduce something new. I also new we’d be hitting lots of literacy objectives during our 100th day and Valentine’s Day special activities. Thank you for trusting me to use my best judgement!
With the bit of extra time reviewing gave us, we did something special with the book The Mitten “El Mitón.” Each child laced their own white mitten and practiced retelling the story with their own animals.
In Daily 5 your children are working very hard in Listen to a book, the final of the 5 activities I introduced a couple weeks ago. This week we learned about RazKids. This is an online application that allows me to choose books for kids to listen to at each student’s specific reading levels. It’s also a tool you can use from home if you choose to. (The app is free!) Please see the instructions below.
Kids A-Z Login Instructions:
- Step 1: Go to http://www.kidsa-z.com
- Step 2: Enter or choose my username, mizenbaard
- Step 3: Your child finds his or her username on the class chart.
- Step 4: Your child enters his or her password (Touch the airplane.)
Math: We continue to look for parts of bigger numbers. In particular, we are practicing looking for groups of 5 in bigger numbers. In the afternoon our math centers include opportunities for adding candy hearts, making patterns with candy hearts, flipping 2-sided math counters to make parts of 10, and coloring by numbers with dice.
Writing Workshop: Your kids continue to amaze me as they put their amazing and creative ideas onto paper! This coming week we will choose our favorite pattern books to “fix and fancy.” After that we will celebrate this unit of writing and each child will have the opportunity to share his/her published piece of writing!
Handwriting Without Tears: This week we practiced writing 4 and 5 the school way. We used this knowledge in the context of our teen numbers books and practiced 14 and 15. This was the first week I felt like the students really took to heart that there is a certain way we are expected to write numbers in school, not because Maestra Izenbaard suggests it, but because it’s best for our writing no matter what subject we are working on. I’m glad they are being so diligent!
Exploring God’s World: We dug a little deeper in our learning about motion and classified real life examples of push and pull, for example, pulling weeds, and pushing a shopping cart.
Play: Our 100th day costumes easily transitioned into play this week as the class decided to play grandma and grandpa. I loved the way even the kids without costumes that day were included in the game. I think this coming week, if they’re interested in continuing that play, I’ll suggest we pretend it’s Grandparents Day!
Afternoons:
- Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
- Tuesday: rest, sorting and graphing candy hearts, recess, snack, play
- Wednesday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Thursday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Friday: rest, play, recess, snack, Kindergarten singing
From the immersion coordinator: Did you know that translation is an advanced linguistic and cognitive activity? Most children will not have the cognitive maturity to translate naturally until middle to late elementary; this is not reflective of their understanding of the new language but rather demonstrates the way children’s brains work and develop. Cognates (words that look similar from language to language) usually go unnoticed by the young brain until late elementary or beyond also. Our teachers intentionally make cross-linguistic connections to help our students discover the relationships between their languages.
Highlights from our week…
Friday morning was our field trip to For the Kidz Gymnastics! THANK YOU to the wonderful moms who gave up their morning to spend time jumping, running, and playing with our class! The kids spent time in 5 different centers: an obstacle course, a foam pit, a bounce house, trampolines, and a rope swing into another foam pit. I bet your kids slept well last night! 🙂
Important Dates
- February 13: 100th Day of School! (information below)
- February 14: Valentine’s Celebration (information below)
- February 20: President’s Day Break- No school
Important Announcements
- Quarters for Wayne: Kindergarteners will work together to help raise money for our sponsor student in the Philippines by earning quarters throughout the month of February. You may collect quarters directly on the sheet with tape or in a separate Ziploc bag. If you need to view the sheet again, please click here.
- 100th Day Celebration: We will celebrate the 100th day of school on February 13th. We will have a special 100th day snack. If you signed up to bring ingredients please bring them no later than Friday, February 10. We will also dress up like we are 100 years old! This is 100% optional, but we thought it may be exciting for the middle of February. Some ideas include baby powder in your hair to make it gray, glasses, suspenders, a long skirt and sweater, or a cane. Google “kids dressing up like they are 100” for some more ideas. ?
- Valentine’s Day Celebration: We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th. We will have a small party and exchange valentines. You are welcome to start shopping/creating valentines for each classmate. Please note:
- We have 20 children in our class.
- Please do NOT write a classmates name in the “to” space. Just have your child sign their name in the “from” space. Names are too complicated for the limited time we have to pass out valentines.
Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!
Bible: This week we finished our unit on Jesus’ Ministry. We learned about the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well and we learned about Mary and Martha. We learned that Jesus wanted to spend time with Martha just as he wants to spend time with us. We followed up our reading and discussion by spending some quiet time journaling, praying, and listening to Jesus. We decided this is a practice we’d like to try more at school!
Literacy:
- Reading strategy: Visualizing
- Read aloud: El ratoncito, la fresa roja y madura, y el gran oso hambriento
- Vocabulary words
- fresa (strawberr)
- madura (ripe)
- la planta (plant)
- el oso (bear
- el ratón (rat)
- Word wall word: quiero (I want)
- Phrase of the week: Tengo __ años ___. (I’m ___ years old.)
- Letter of the week: Qq
Math: In math this week we practiced dividing bigger numbers into two smaller parts. For example, 3 and 3, 4 and 2, 5 and 1, and 6 and 0 are some of the parts of 6. We also practiced visualizing addition and subtraction problems as we saw them illustrated.
Writing Workshop: This week we explored pattern books with surprise endings. A surprise ending means that the author chose not to follow the pattern on the last page of the book. On Thursday I challenged the kids to write a surprise ending in one of their pattern books.
Handwriting Without Tears: We went back to numbers and practiced 1, 2, and 3. It was fun to combine this knowledge with what we are learning about teen numbers. Kindergartners are working on a book all about writing numbers 10-20.
Play: This is a highlight of our day for the kids and the teacher. 🙂 I love being silly during playtime with your children! This week we added a sensory bin of marshmallows to our purposeful play. The kids spent a lot of time building different structures with marshmallows and toothpicks. Nothing like getting a bit sticky while practicing our engineering skills!
Sophia and Lily built a church with their marshmallows and toothpicks.
Lydia built a park with her marshmallows and toothpicks.
Pierson and Eli are playing in an “I’m finished, now what?” center.
Up in Lights: Clive was up in lights this week! His mom, dad, and younger brother visited our class and shared many wonderful things that make Clive so special. Clive’s generosity, gentle spirit, and love for others struck me during his presentation. He brought in some playdough and tastes of two of his favorite foods for each one of his kindergarten friends. Thanks Kopas family!
Afternoons:
- Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
- Tuesday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Wednesday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Thursday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Friday: rest, cards for a kindergarten friend, recess, snack, Kindergarten singing
From the immersion coordinator: Do you know what the threefold goal of immersion education at ZCS is? We aim to advance the students’ academic achievement, cultural competency, and insist on high level performance in the target language. We are privileged to do this all within the Christian environment of ZCS. If anyone you know would like to tour our program to see immersion education in action, feel free to connect with Jodi Pierce, the Language Immersion Programs Coordinator at jpierce@zcs.org.
Highlights from our week…
I love teaching Kindergarten at this time of the year! The kids come to school ready and excited to learn. The routines are set and they’re hungry for a challenge. Some days I reflect back on our day and I’m amazed by the things your kids are accomplishing!
We can make predictions! Will the groundhog see his shadow?
Groundhog Day craft
Important Dates
- February 10: For the Kidz gymnastics field trip 10:30-12:30 (information below)
- February 10: No hot lunch or PM bussing
- February 13: 100th Day of School! (information below)
- February 14: Valentine’s Celebration (information below)
- February 20: President’s Day Break- No school
Important Announcements
- Quarters for Wayne: On Friday I sent home information about a special project Kindergarteners will work together on to help raise money for our sponsor student in the Philippines. You may collect quarters directly on the sheet with tape or in a separate Ziploc bag. If you need to view the sheet again, please click here.
- For the Kidz Gymnastics Field Trip: We are planning to leave about 10:30 and return to school about 12:30. 1/2 day families please plan on picking up your child at our classroom door at 12:30. All students must have a signed waiver to be able to participate. Please follow this link to complete the waiver for your child.
- 100th Day Celebration: We will celebrate the 100th day of school on February 13th. We will have a special 100th day snack. If you signed up to bring ingredients please bring them no later than Friday, February 10. We will also dress up like we are 100 years old! This is 100% optional, but we thought it may be exciting for the middle of February. Some ideas include baby powder in your hair to make it gray, glasses, suspenders, a long skirt and sweater, or a cane. Google “kids dressing up like they are 100” for some more ideas. ?
- Valentine’s Day Celebration: We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th. We will have a small party and exchange valentines. You are welcome to start shopping/creating valentines for each classmate. Please note:
- We have 20 children in our class.
- Please do NOT write a classmates name in the “to” space. Just have your child sign their name in the “from” space. Names are too complicated for the limited time we have to pass out valentines.
Check out how much we’re learning and growing in Christ!
Bible: This week we learned about Jesus changing the hearts of several people he encountered during his ministry. We talked about Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, and the Samaritan woman at the well. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, the Holy Spirit changes us and we become a new creation. To help us understand and reflect on this concept we watched a time lapse video of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. The caterpillar changed from the inside out into a new creation. Each child designed their own butterfly to help them remember the power of the Holy Spirit when a person accepts Jesus.
I also assessed the January Bible verse this week. Please click this link to see a video of your kids reciting their verse! This coming week I will introduce the new verse for February. I’m proud of your kids for working so hard on memorizing their verses each month! I pray that these verses will help them in their own times of need or that they’ll have opportunities to share them with others!
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Literacy: This week I dressed up as “Victoria la vaquera” (Victoria, the cowgirl.) The kids helped me round up my vacas (cows) by looking for the vacas with the letter Vv in their names. In grammar I put on a puppet show with puppets who gave each other commands using the yo (I) and tu (you) forms of verbs.
- Reading strategy: Visualizing
- Read aloud: Los patitos
- Vocabulary words
- cruzar (to cross)
- la orilla (shore)
- el jardín (garden)
- los patitos (ducks)
- los cacahuetes (peanuts)
- la isla (island)
- la laguna (pond)
- la responsabilidad (responsibility)
- Word wall word: voy (I’m going)
- Phrase of the week: Hoy es ___. (Today is ___.)
- Letter of the week: Vv
In the Daily 5 we opened up the last of the 5 center choices. We now have a “Listen to a book” choice during the Daily 5! Using the iPads has become a huge hit. 🙂
Math: Our math lessons this week introduced us to “Mariquita de 10” (“10’s ladybug”) who helped us look for groups of 10. We are just beginning to learn about teen numbers. Thinking of them as “10 and some more” has been helpful.
Writing Workshop: Your kids are amazing! They have turned into such writers! We are continuing to work on pattern books. This week some kids ventured into trying a new pattern- “me gusta” (“I like.”)
Exploring God’s World: This week we looked for pushes and pulls on the playground. Some of the ideas for pushes the class thought of included the tire swing and the day we made a giant snowball and moved it to the soccer field. One idea for pulls was the rock wall.
Handwriting Without Tears: We worked on three uppercase letters this week: I, T, and J. We are trying hard to remember to start at the top!
Play: This continues to be a favorite part of our day. It’s a stress-free way of learning and a great community builder in our classroom. It’s fun to see different kids thrive in the different environments throughout our school day. The new exciting thing in our classroom this week was the sand table!
marble run
Fire station main office
Up in Lights: Emma Texer was up in lights this week! She introduced us to her mom, dad, and two younger sisters. Emma is anticipating another new sibling very soon! She loves eating Smarties, feeling sparkles, and smelling flowers. Her favorite place to visit is school and she’d like to be a teacher when she’s older. 🙂 Thank you, Emma! God made you amazing!
Afternoons:
- Monday: art, rest, read aloud, recess, snack, play
- Tuesday: rest, math centers, recess, snack, play
- Wednesday: rest, math center,, recess, snack, play
- Thursday: rest, Groundhog Day craft, recess, snack, play
- Friday: rest, play, recess, snack, math centers, Kindergarten singing
From the immersion coordinator: Here is some encouraging anecdotal news for those of you who might be a little frightened by your immersion student’s English spelling or writing. Holland Christian High School took the time to compare the English grades and writing of our first two classes of immersion students; on average these students were indeed at or above the level of the non-immersion peers with some teachers reporting that they felt that immersion students’ writing had more depth than the comparison group.
