Monthly Archives: January 2019

A week in review: January 22-24

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Due to the weather and in service day it was a very condensed week! Wednesday was a bit mind boggling to most of the students. They simply could not believe after only an hour that it was time for lunch! We fit in as much as possible and enjoyed the weather at recess. The snow is always so much fun for them, other than putting all the snow clothes on! I hope you all had a great week and try to stay warm this weekend!

Important Dates:

  • January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz gymnastics
  • February 13: 100th Day
  • February 14: Valentine’s Party
  • February 15-18: No school Winter Break

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. If you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. I will also be sending home driver’s guidelines for those who are driving us which need to be signed and returned! Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. One other matter of importance is we are in need of car seats so if at all possible if you drive your child to school could you please bring a car seat in for them on that morning or even the day before. That would help us immensely! We will also be keeping an eye on the weather. If ZCS happens to have a snow day the field trip will be cancelled and will hopefully be rescheduled. We will also be looking at the roads we will be traveling on to determine if it will be safe for us to travel. Please watch your email on Monday morning.

We only need 5 more “bugs” in our jar to reach our goal for our class incentive. I am anticipating that we should reach the goal by Friday. I would like to plan our picnic for Wednesday February 6. Please let me know if you would be willing to bring some pre-cut fruit in on that morning to add to a class fruit salad for our picnic. Also, please still send a lunch with your child as I will just be adding a snack along with our fruit salad and a drink box! I will send another reminder about this towards the end of the week!

100th Day is approaching soon! It is scheduled as of now for February 13. We will be doing lots of fun activities that day to celebrate the number 100! One thing we will be doing is dressing up like super heroes! Mr. McAboy will be dressing up like Zero the Hero that day and surprising us in our room as well! Please feel free to use anything you have at your home to make your child into a super hero, be creative and have fun! Do not stress about this as all of your children are super heroes already! We just want this to be a fun day for the kids!

For Valentine’s Day we will be having a party from about 11:00-11:45 on the 14th. It would be great if your child brought in valentines to pass out to the whole class (20 students). You do not have to label the To: section of the valentines, but just the From:. This will make it much easier for the students to hand them out! Also these may be either homemade or purchased, whatever you prefer. Leah Russcher’s mom, Lisa will be heading up this party and will be sending out sign ups for volunteers and donations soon! Thank you Lisa for doing this!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we had chapel and were honored and privileged to hear our guest speaker Cleopatra Kennedy. She has been actively involved in the civil rights movement and as a gospel singer. She shared stories of many of her experiences with us and then we were able to go back to class and discuss what we heard. We had a great discussion about how people were unkind but can still be that way today. We talked about being kind to everyone and that often people are unkind because they don’t know and have a relationship with Jesus. It was an amazing time of reflection about the difference Jesus makes in our lives.

Word Wall Word: am

Daily 5: After assessing each child’s reading I have constructed some new reading groups and goals for the kids. Each child should be bringing one new book home with them this weekend. They also should have a bag with word wall words and our new consonant, vowel, consonant cards to help them say each sound and then blend them together to work on sounding out words. Please work on these with your child at home! I will also be sending a Sign Up Genius soon for volunteers to help during our Daily 5 to listen to our kids read and practice sight words.
Math: This week we took a unit review test to see where we are at with simple addition and subtraction as well as the numbers 1-10 and a few new shapes.

Phonics: This week we had picture cards and practiced listening for long vowels and then finding the vowel on our pocket chart. This was helpful for the students as well in reminding them that vowels have 2 sounds unlike consonants.

Writing Workshop: This week we continued with our pattern books, as well as making pattern books in the writing portion of our Daily 5. We attempted to write 4 pages on our own. It is still relatively difficult but we will be working on this for several more weeks. I am encouraging your child to listen for sounds and write what they hear. The perfectionist in many of them makes this extremely difficult. We continue to talk about what matters is not perfection but being willing to try their best!

Up in Lights: This week Lindiwe Weeda was Up in Lights. We loved looking at her baby pictures and are still hoping to have mom come visit as the snow day prevented that! Lindiwe is a blessing to our classroom!

Afternoon: We continued our normal afternoon rituals of quiet time, play time, snack and recess. Also, because we have everyone here on Tuesdays and Thursdays we are now able to add some extra Daily 5 during the afternoon!

A week in review: January 14-18

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Kindergarten Days!

It has been another busy and productive week in our kindergarten classroom! We are truly back into the swing of things after Christmas break! We are continuing to work hard while also learning to be good friends and classmates, another very important part of kindergarten! Here are just a few reminders for you. I sent the towels home today to be washed if you could please send them back on Monday. Also library books need to come back on Wednesday for your child to be able to check a new book out. Lastly, I have noticed this week that many students run out of food by our last snack and then they want to share. I am trying to avoid that as there are so many illnesses going around right now. If at all possible throw something extra in your child’s lunch just in case. Thank you in advance for your help with this!

Important Dates:

  • January 21: In service day for all teachers, NO SCHOOL for students
  • January 24: All School Chapel with Cleo Kennedy
  • January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz gymnastics
  • February 13: 100th Day more details coming soon
  • February 14: Valentine’s Party more details coming soon
  • February 15-18: No school Winter Break

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. I believe I have received all my permission slips already, way to go parents! Also, if you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. I will also be sending home driver’s guidelines for those who are driving us which need to be signed and returned! Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. One other matter of importance is we are in need of car seats so if at all possible if you drive your child to school could you please bring a car seat in for them on that morning or even the day before. That would help us immensely! I am so looking forward to this field trip and I am sure the kids will love it!

We have only ten bugs to go in our class incentive jar! When we reach our goal we will be having an indoor picnic. I would like to do a “class fruit salad” for this if you would be willing to contribute some of your child’s favorite fruit please let me know!

One final reminder, there is No School on January 21 as there is a professional development day for the teachers.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we started full swing into our study of the ministry and life of Jesus here on earth. We learned about how Jesus chose 12 disciples and how they picked up everything to follow Him. We also discussed how we are His disciples now and how we can point others to Him by the way we live.

Word Wall Word: and (keep practicing a, at, and, am, go, here, I, is, look, like, me, see the, up, we)

Daily 5: Each child was able to add a new book to their bag this week. Enjoy reading this with them and make sure to send their bag in on Tuesday. In the next few weeks I’m hoping to add some cards with sight words to their bag as well as some cards that will have dots under each letter so they can learn to say each sound slowly and then slide them together to say the word. We will be practicing them at school so they will be able to show you how they work! I am very excited about this!

Phonics: We continued to work on ending sounds this week by playing a game where we matched the ending sound to a letter on the game board.

Math: This week we noticed patterns when we subtracted one. It is simply counting backwards one number. We then talked about how when you add one the pattern just becomes one more. We are continuing to work on simple addition and subtraction with manipulatives. Finally, we learned about a triangle and talked about different things we see that are triangles.

Writing Workshop: Last week we started working on creating pattern books and we will be continuing that over the next several weeks. A pattern book is a book where each page starts with a phrase such as “I like..” or “I see..”. Right now we are simply writing one page on our own but my goal is for them to be able to write a four page book. This week we specifically worked on “finger spaces” between our words as we write.

Engaging God’s World: Gravity was our focus this week. We had so much fun throwing or dropping different sizes and shapes of different items, including a feather, weighted balls, light balls, tissues, paper and pretend block bricks. We learned about the effect gravity has on everything on earth and how whatever we drop always goes down. It was very interesting to see their reactions as they saw the feather and tissue took the longest to drop. Our discussion was amazing and I think we have a lot of mini scientists in our class!

Interactive Read Aloud: We read The Mitten by Jan Brett and sewed a mitten of our own. We learned about sequencing and then retelling the story by putting the animals into the mitten.

Up in Lights: This week Sawyer Ipema was Up in Lights. Sawyer’s mom and siblings came to share about him and his dad came and had lunch with him. We loved looking through his favorite book about dinosaurs and learning from him some of their names. We are so very happy that Sawyer is a part of our class!!

Afternoons: This week we were able to do math centers as well as learn about feelings and that it is ok to be sad or worried or homesick or even to not know how you feel. We also learned that it is ok if your feelings aren’t the same as your friends. We are working on being understanding of the feelings of those around us. In addition we enjoyed our regular play time, quiet time, snack, recess and art!

A week in review: January 7-11

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A New Year

What an amazing first week back! The kids all came to school eager to share about their Christmas vacations and eager to start learning again! We had a highly productive week with amazingly focused kindergarteners! We were able to get so much work done, as well as assessments, while also adding more “bugs” to our incentive jar! Hoping your 2019 has started off well! As always please contact me
with ANY questions or concerns you have.

Important Dates:

  • January 17: ZCS Showcase This is a night for new families to discover our school. If you know anyone looking for a new school for any age, please feel free to invite them!
  • January 18: End of the semester and NO BUSSING
  • January 21: In service day for all teachers, NO SCHOOL for students
  • January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz gymnastics
  • February 15-18: No school Winter Break

A Few Additional Reminders:

Our Field Trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz gymnastics in Wyoming MI. I will be sending a field trip permission slip home this week that NEEDS to be returned for your child to participate. Also, if you signed up to drive please make sure that the office has a copy of both your driver’s license and your proof of insurance before we leave or you will not be able to drive any children. Thank you for your willingness to drive and your help in this regard. I am so looking forward to this field trip and I am sure the kids will love it!

Our class incentive is going well! We now have 12 “bugs” and are almost halfway to our goal!

Please mark your calendars as there will be no school on January 21.

Thank you to all who volunteered to fill the lunch slots for kindergarten meetings! It is such a huge help and so appreciated!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we finished up our unit from before Christmas as we went into detail about the story of Joseph and how God’s provision for him is no different than how he provides and takes care of us today. We were then able to start our new unit on Jesus’ ministry here on earth as we learned about His baptism by John the Baptist.

Word Wall Word: like

Daily 5: Everyone should have a new book in their book bag this weekend! Please take the time to have them read it to you! They are very proud kindergarten readers. Please also take the time to review their letter sounds, such a very vital part of kindergarten and learning to read! During Daily 5 this week we added some word work which involved tracing word wall words in salt. This was definitely a little
messy but a whole lot of fun!

Phonics: This week we focused on listening for the last sound in words. We did a word sort together to see what sounds we could hear at the end of words.

Engaging God’s World: We were able to use magnifying glasses to investigate rocks up close as well as learn about different materials the earth is made of: water, sand, soil, and rocks.

Interactive Read Aloud: We read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats and learned about transition words and how they help us to understand when things take place.

Handwriting: S and A

Afternoons: This week we started doing Daily 5 on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons! We also continued math centers as well as our normal quiet time, recess, snack and art. The kids also came back to some fun new toys for play time!

A week in review: December 17-21

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Happy New Year!

I hope that this letter finds you rested and relaxed after the holiday season.  My prayer is that you all enjoyed some wonderful time with your family and friends as you celebrated Christmas.  It was a great time in the Arnold house but we are all ready for a normal schedule again! It seems like yesterday we had our last day of school but it has already been two weeks! We had such a great week before Christmas including our chapel which was enjoyed by everyone! Also thanks again to Kristin Tubergan and all who helped and donated to make our Christmas party a success! It was so fun to watch the kids enjoying the celebration! Thank you too to the large number of parents who came to cheer us on at the Jingle Jog. What a great way to raise money for our sister school in the Philippines! Now get ready 2019, here we come!

Important Dates:

  • January 18: End of the semester
  • January 21: In service day for teachers, NO SCHOOL for students
  • January 28: Gymnastics trip to For the Kidz

A Few Additional Reminders:

Thursday Afternoons-On January 10 all students will begin to attend on Thursday afternoons. If you want to add any additional afternoons please let me know at this time! I am looking forward to having two afternoons with the entire class!

New incentive-After finishing filling our bucket of bears and having our pajama day we are now starting a new behavioral incentive! I have decided that we will be putting 25 “bugs” in a jar, since often our picnics are invaded by little creatures! J Once we reach 25 bugs (we already have 5) I will be bringing in some big blankets and some picnic food on top of whatever your child eats for lunch! It will be a fun and unique experience to all eat “picnic style” together!

Here is a link to a Sign up Genius for lunch helpers through May. Thank you in advance for your help!

Please continue to practice putting on Snow Clothes at home! This allows us to make the most of our time in the classroom! Thank you!

Our next Field trip is scheduled for January 28 at For the Kidz, a gymnastics center located in Wyoming, Mi.  Here is a link to a Sign up Genius for volunteers for this as well.  It will be a morning field trip and more details will follow soon.

Curriculum:

Bible: We finished up our unit on the birth of Jesus, one of my favorites as well as the students, and now moving to Jesus’ ministry here on earth.

Word Wall Word: here

Daily 5: I was able to meet with most of the students this week and hand out some new books.  My goal is to be able to meet with each student twice a week as we will now all be here on both Tuesday and Thursday afternoons! When you practice reading at home with your child please make sure to emphasize with them how important it is to point to the words as they say them as this will help them when the word and books begin to get harder! I’m hoping to begin assessing their knowledge of letters and sounds this week to see how far they have come!

Phonics: We learned this week about first and last words in a sentence. We made a fun list of some of our favorite foods to practice this!

Interactive Read Aloud: We read an all time favorite this week, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff, and practiced our prediction skills!

Up in Lights: Ailie Bouwkamp was Up in Lights! Ailie’s mom, dad and sister joined us on Thursday and shared about her as well as joined her for lunch! It was fun getting to know a bit more about her! She is such a fun part of our class with her smile and fun sense of humor! Ailie we are so glad you are in our class!!!

Afternoons: This was an especially fun week because we had Christmas singing with K-5th grade with Mr. Meyer.  We were also able to do some gingerbread graphing! We graphed which part of the gingerbread man we ate first.  The majority of our class bit the head off first! We also enjoyed our usual play time and quiet time as well as recess, snack and art!