May 2017 archive

27
May
2017

Newsletter 35: Week of May 28

categories: newsletters

Highlights from our Week:

Do we really turn our calendar over to June this week? I can’t believe how fast this school year is going by! It’s been a tremendous joy to partner with you in your child’s education this year! Our PBL continues to be a highlight for many of the kids. They are forming some beautiful relationships with the 7th graders and the partnership as they work on these projects is just amazing.

Important Dates: 

  • May 29: Memorial Day (no school)
  • June 1: PBL Celebration (10:00-11:00)
  • June 7: Holland Farmers Market and lunch at Kollen Park
  • June 8: Last day of school! Happy summer!
  • June 8: No hot lunch or pm busing

Important Announcements: 

  • Memorial Day Parade: ZCS students K-2nd grade who are interested and available that day are invited to march in the parade in downtown Zeeland! Please do be sure to note the instructions for Monday given in this document: Memorial Day Parade Information-1n8fago I will see you on Main St. near the intersection of Cherry and Centennial at 8:45! To the families who have reached out to me about other plans, have a wonderful day! We’ll miss you!
  • PBL Celebration:  On June 1st at 10:00 each child will present his/her project in a group! Please join us for cookies and lemonade in our classroom afterward. Thank you, in advance, to the families who have offered to donate cookies and lemonade! I know the kids are super excited to share their projects with you!
  • Farmers Market and Lunch at Kollen Park: On Wednesday, June 7 we’ll be heading to our last kindergarten field trip, the Farmers Market! From there we’ll head to Kollen Park for a picnic lunch. We will not be eating hot lunch that day. We will be back to school about 12:45. “Morning kids” are welcome to stay until then! If you need to pick your child up at the normal 11:50 time, please meet us at Kollen Park. If this causes a problem for your family, please let me know and we’ll figure something out! I sent a letter about this home on Friday. You can also find it here: Farmers Market Parent Note-26se8wl If you have any questions, please let me know!

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

Bible: We continue to learn about Paul’s journeys. Some days were challenging but God never left his side!

We continue to work on our Bible verse. The kids have even started singing it when they’re waiting in line or during transitions. 🙂

Por tanto, vayan y hagan discípulos de todas las naciones, bautizándolos en el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo, enseñándoles a obedecer todo lo que les he mandado a ustedes. Y les aseguro que estaré con ustedes siempre, hasta el fin del mundo. Mateo 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

Literacy: This week we learned about the letter Xx. We did a treasure hunt around our classroom searching for words with the letter Xx. We also learned about the verbs es and  son. 

We finished the aalpa! I’m so proud of all of the kids! The results aren’t something I typically share with parents, but if you’re interested in knowing how your child did, please let me know! I’m happy to share them with you, but they’re really meant to inform my instruction, help your child set goals for the future, help your child’s 1st grade teacher know where to begin instruction at the beginning of next school year. They’re definitely not “top secret,” but are really more meaningful from a teacher perspective than a parent at the kindergarten level in my opinion. Still curious? I’d love to chat and share them with you!

  • Reading strategy: Inferring
  • Read aloud: No Tengo Sueño
  • Vocabulary words
    • el sueño (dream)
    • las polillas (moths)
    • roncar (snore)
    • acostarse (to lay down)
    • travieso/a (naughty/mischievous)
  • Word wall word: son, es
  • Phrase of the week: ¿Puedo ir al próximo centro? (May I go to the next center?)
  • Letter of the week: Xx

Math: We are practicing finding the number that is greater than, mayor, and less than, menor. We are also working lots with parts of 10.

Exploring God’s World: Our PBL continues to go well! We met with the 7th graders twice this week to work on our projects. They’re almost complete! When we talked about who we’d like to share our projects with the kids mentioned their families, of course, but I thought it was interesting that they also mentioned several friends from other classes or grades by name with whom they wanted to share. I love the amazing friendships your kids are forming!

Writing Workshop: We continue to work on How-To books. This week kindergarteners wrote about how to speak Spanish, how to go to a parade, how to research an animal, or how to take care of a pet.

Handwriting Without Tears: This week our handwriting went along well with our literacy! We practiced writing the lowercase h, b, and f.

 From Our Immersion Coordinator

As we move into the summer months, stop by my office (#69 between the library and gym) if you would like a handout from add.a.lingua that gives suggestions and ideas for enhancing your child’s immersion education during the summer. As always, feel free to stop in or email me (jpierce@zcs.org) with any questions that you might have.

19
May
2017

Newsletter 34: Week of May 21

categories: newsletters

Highlights from our Week:

May always seems to bring about projects, assessment, and reflection. This week we continued working on  aalpa, the language and literacy project, and PBL, the project about animals that we are working on with our 7th grade friends. Your kids are doing an amazing job! As I work through assessing each child I get to reflect on our school year together. I am so proud of each one of your children! I pray they always work “at it with all (their) hearts, as working for the Lord.” Each one of them is doing their very best and should be very proud of themselves!

Important Dates: 

  • May 29: Memorial Day (no school)
  • June 1: PBL Celebration (10:00-11:00)
  • June 7: Holland Farmers Market and lunch at Kollen Park
  • June 8: Last day of school! Happy summer!
  • June 8: No hot lunch or pm busing

Important Announcements: 

  • Memorial Day Parade: ZCS students K-2nd grade who are interested and available that day are invited to march in the parade in downtown Zeeland! A note went home this week detailing drop off/pick up procedure and time as well as the parade route. If you’d like to take another look at the hand out please click here:. Memorial Day Parade Information-1n8fago I know it’s a bit picky, but please be assured I only do it so that I can be certain your children are safely accounted for! I know families often have other plans and that’s fine! Unless I hear otherwise from you, I will plan on your child marching! 
  • PBL Celebration: I’ll be sending details home soon, but for now please note that your child will be taking part in a PBL unit about animals in May. On June 1st at 10:00 each child will present his/her project in a group! Please join us for cookies and lemonade in our classroom afterward.
  • Farmers Market and Lunch at Kollen Park: On Wednesday, June 7 we’ll be heading to our last kindergarten field trip, the Farmers Market! From there we’ll head to Kollen Park for a picnic lunch. We will not be eating hot lunch that day. We will be back to school about 12:45. “Morning kids” are welcome to stay until then! If you need to pick your child up at the normal 11:50 time, please meet us at Kollen Park. If this causes a problem for your family, please let me know and we’ll figure something out!

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

Bible: We continue to talk about Paul. We read about his journeys sharing the Gospel and bringing people to Christ. We continue to review what we know about the Holy Spirit. As immersion students your children have the power to share the Gospel in their second language as well!

We also started learning our new Bible verse, the Great Commission. We are singing it to the tune of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

Por tanto, vayan y hagan discípulos de todas las naciones, bautizándolos en el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo, enseñándoles a obedecer todo lo que les he mandado a ustedes. Y les aseguro que estaré con ustedes siempre, hasta el fin del mundo. Mateo 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20

Literacy: This week we learned about the letter Ww. When we made a list of all the W words we know we noticed that most of the words used an uppercase W. We reviewed that this means these words are probably names of people or places. W isn’t a very common letter in Spanish and most of these names come from English. We also learned how to name our preferences by saying I like, Me gusta, and I love, Me encanta. 

We are finishing up the final task in the aalpa, the presentational task. Students are writing about living and nonliving things with the support of pictures and a word bank. I am going to attempt to finish this step of the project and meet with students in guided reading groups so that they can have at least 1 take home book next weekend.

  • Reading strategy: Inferring
  • Read aloud: Franklin dice “te quiero.”
  • Vocabulary words
    • el regalo (present)
    • el globo (balloon)
    • la mosca (fly)
    • feliz cumpleaños (happy birthday)
    • cansado (tired)
  • Word wall word: gustar (to like)
  • Phrase of the week: Me gusta ____. (I like ____.)
  • Letter of the week: Ww

Math: We are learning about “math mountains!” A math mountain is another way to illustrate the parts of a number. The number goes on the peak of the mountain and the parts go on the side where we draw “snowballs” to represent the parts. A note describing this concept went home in red alert folders on Friday.

Exploring God’s World: Our PBL continues to go well! On Friday Maestra Minkus’ class joined us again. We used the internet with teacher and “big kid” supervision to further investigate our animals. At the end of our time together each group came up with an idea they’d like to use to try to share the information they gathered. Next week we’ll talk about who we’d like to share this information with!

Writing Workshop: We continue to work on How-To books. We are focusing on the following words/phrases: first, primero, After, después, and at the end, al final. 

Handwriting Without Tears: This week our handwriting went along well with our literacy! We practiced writing the lowercase v and w.

From Our Immersion Coordinator

Join me for an Immersion Parent Round Table Discussion. We will look at a variety of topics of interest to immersion parents (How to provide support at home, how learning to read in Spanish is different than learning in English, How does immersion pedagogy differ from foreign language instruction–particularly in secondary education, etc.) The grade levels are just suggested ranges to don’t feel restricted by them. We’ll meet in the classroom at the back of the media center. Bring your lunch and your questions.

  • May 17 at 12:00: Preschool-3rd
  • May 18 at 12:00: 4th-8th
14
May
2017

Newsletter 33: Week of May 14

categories: newsletters

Highlights from our Week:

We continue to enjoy our time together learning lots in the classroom and playing whenever we get an opportunity both in our classroom and outside in this beautiful spring weather!

Important Dates: 

  • May 29: Memorial Day (no school)
  • June 1: PBL Celebration (10:00-11:00)
  • June 7: Holland Farmers Market and lunch at Kollen Park
  • June 8: Last day of school! Happy summer!
  • June 8: No hot lunch of pm busing

Important Announcements: 

  • Memorial Day Parade: ZCS students K-2nd grade who are interested and available that day are invited to march in the parade in downtown Zeeland! More information will be coming this week!
  • PBL Celebration: I’ll be sending details home soon, but for now please note that your child will be taking part in a PBL unit about animals in May. On June 1st at 10:00 each child will present his/her project in a group! Please join us for cookies and lemonade in our classroom afterward.

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

Bible: This week we learned about Saul’s conversion. God changed his life on the road to Damascus and the Holy Spirit empowered him to spread the Gospel.

Literacy: This week we learned about another letter that makes 2 different sounds in Spanish. When the letter G is followed by an A or an I it sounds like the English J. When it is followed by and A, O, or U it sounds the same as the English hard G sound.

Our literacy project, aalpa, is going very well! Each child has completed the first step, the interpretive task, by reading a book and answering some questions. We’re just getting started on the second step, the interpersonal task, where students will work together with a partner to create a t-chart of living and nonliving things. I am thrilled with the performance your kids are making! There will be one more week of no take home books as I use our Daily 5 time to meet with kids in small groups to work on the aalpa.

  • Reading strategy: Inferring
  • Read aloud: El loro tico tango
  • Vocabulary words
    • el mango (mango)
    • el higo (fig)
    • el datíl (date)
    • la cereza (cherry)
    • robar (to steal)
    • sujetada (hesitation)
    • hurtar (to swipe)
    • sabroso/a (delicious)
    • dulce (sweet)
    • el ala (wing)
  • Word wall word: ¿porqué? (why?)
  • Phrase of the week: Yo sé la respuesta. (I know the answer)
  • Letter of the week: Gg

Math: We learned about two powerful math words this week mayor (greater than) and menor (less than.) We practiced matching up sets of objects to figure out which set was mayor and which was menor.

Exploring God’s World: Our PBL is up and running! This week we worked hard on it and did 3 different lessons. First, we talked about what we would like to learn about our animals. The kids came up with great questions! Then we talked about how to figure out the answers to our questions. The kids came up with some wild ideas like capture the animal and climb a tree to observe the animal. With a little support, they came up with books, maps, and the internet as research tools and on Friday we met with Maestro Minkus’ 7th grade class to begin researching!

Writing Workshop: We continue to work on How-To books. This week kindergarteners wrote about how to speak Spanish or how to attend a parade!

From Our Immersion Coordinator

Join me for an Immersion Parent Round Table Discussion. We will look at a variety of topics of interest to immersion parents (How to provide support at home, how learning to read in Spanish is different than learning in English, How does immersion pedagogy differ from foreign language instruction–particularly in secondary education, etc.) The grade levels are just suggested ranges to don’t feel restricted by them. We’ll meet in the classroom at the back of the media center. Bring your lunch and your questions.

  • May 17 at 12:00: Preschool-3rd
  • May 18 at 12:00: 4th-8th

 

06
May
2017

Newsletter 32: Week of May 7

categories: newsletters

Highlights from our Week:

Thank you for making me feel so special this week! I was showered with sweet emails and notes, yummy treats, special gifts, and a very sweet book your children made for me! It is such an honor to be your child’s kindergarten teacher! I am blessed by all of you! Thank you for partnering with me this year and thank you for showing me so much love this week!

Important Dates: 

  • May 10: 1/2 Day for Tulip TIme (Dismissal is at 11:50.)
  • May 11: No hot lunch or pm busing
  • May 12: No hot lunch or pm busing
  • May 29: Memorial Day (no school) Kindergarteners who are interested and available that day are invited to march in the parade in downtown Zeeland! More information will be coming soon!
  • June 1: PBL Celebration (10:00-11:00)
  • June 7: Holland Farmers Market and lunch at Kollen Park
  • June 8: Last day of school! Happy summer!
  • June 8: No hot lunch of pm busing

Phew! That’s it until the end of the year I believe! The end of our school year brings many special things! Please make note of these dates in your calendars and, of course, let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for hanging with us!

Important Announcements: 

  • Mother’s Day Flowers: The greenhouse is taking great care of our Mother’s Day hanging baskets. The dates to pick up the flowers are Thursday, May 11, Friday, May 12, or Saturday, May 13.
  • PBL Celebration: I’ll be sending details home soon, but for now please note that your child will be taking part in a PBL unit about animals in May. On June 1st at 10:00 each child will present his/her project in a group! Please join us for cookies and lemonade in our classroom afterward.

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

Bible: This week I felt a tug on my heart to make sure every child knew the Holy Spirit has given them the power to tell others about Jesus and live for him. We reviewed Pentecost and each child journaled about how the Holy Spirit helps them. I have goosebumps again just thinking about it! Some kids drew pictures, some wrote a few sentences, and others combined the two. Many reflected on sharing the Gospel while others wrote about the power to love others or do what’s right.

Later we learned about the first church and read a bit about Peter and the other disciples. We learned that the Holy Spirit gave them the power to do miracles in Jesus’ name. Sometimes things were hard. Once Peter was even in jail, but God never left them. He even sent an angel to help Peter escape from jail! I reminded the kids that God is with us too, in the good days and when we have problems.

When we practiced our Easter verse in small groups I was blown away by how well your kids knew it! So much so that I let them earn their prize. There was no certificate sent home, (I wasn’t prepared to assess it that day,) but everyone did such an awesome job! Our next verse is below.

Mateo 28:19-20 Por tanto, vayan y hagan discípulos de todas las naciones, bautizándolos en el nombre del Padre y del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo,  enseñándoles a obedecer todo lo que les he mandado a ustedes. Y les aseguro que estaré con ustedes siempre, hasta el fin del mundo.

Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Literacy: This week our letter brought an extra challenge as it makes two sounds! In Spanish the letter Cc makes a hard sound /k/ and a soft sound /s/. We played language detectives and noted that Cc makes /s/ when it is followed by an i or an e. In grammar we also learned that the pronoun lo can be used in place of nouns. In English it is similar to saying “it.” Check out our phrase of the week to see this special new word in context

Daily 5 continues to go very well for our class! I have been particularly impressed with the way the kids are independently working hard even when I’m not directly watching them because I’m working with another group! This weekend the kids do have books to read at home. Next weekend they will not be bringing books home. On Monday we are starting a special literacy project called the aalpa. We’ll begin with the interpretive activity, reading a book and answering some comprehension questions about it. I’ll be working with kids in small groups on this project instead of working on take home book reading strategies, so there will be no books to take home next weekend.

  • Reading strategy: Inferring
  • Read aloud: La familia de Clifford
  • Vocabulary words
    • el pueblo (village, town)
    • el cachorro (puppy)
    • el collar (collar)
    • la ciudad (city)
    • el avión (airplane)
    • el bombero (fire fighter)
  • Word wall word: ¿cómo? (how)
  • Phrase of the week: ¿Puedo llevarlo a casa? (May I take it home?)
  • Letter of the week: Cc

Math: Using the fruits and veggies from our play kitchen we made addition and subtraction story problems as if we were in a grocery store. It was fun to take turns “shopping.” Later we used base 10 blocks to reinforce our thinking of teen numbers as 10 and some extra ones.

Exploring God’s World: We continued learning about living things by closely observing WORMS! We watched how they move and learned all about their ways as living things! Here are a couple pictures, but please check out that page of our blog for more!

Writing Workshop: Your children are showing themselves to be quite talented kids! We made a list of things we know how to do and could teach others. Then each child made their first how to book. Everyone either wrote about how to play or how to color. These were the 2 most popular things from the kids’ lists.

On Friday we celebrated our unit on pen pals. THANK YOU to everyone who made that morning so special! The kids were super excited to meet their secret pen pals and complete the pizza-themed centers together. During lunch several commented on how yummy their pizza was! 🙂 Here are a couple pictures, but please check out that page of our blog for more!

Up in Lights:  Ken was Up in Lights this week! Thank you, Ken, for introducing us to your sister, Natalia, and your mom and dad! Ken taught us a song Unstoppable from his VBS. It went along very well with our Bible lessons as we talked about how the Holy Spirit makes us unstoppable! 

From Our Immersion Coordinator

All immersion parents are invited to learn more about your child’s immersion education at an Immersion Parent Round Table Discussion. While these are completely optional, I encourage anyone to join at least one meeting whether you have questions or just prefer to listen. The grade levels are just suggested ranges so that we can focus on topics which tend to be of interest to that level but don’t feel restricted by them. We will meet in the classroom at the back of the media center. Bring your lunch and your questions!

  • May 17 at 12:00: Preschool-3rd
  • May 18 at 12:00: 4th-8th