Thank you to Alicia and Mary for planning a great Christmas party!  Thank you, Lisa, for taking these great photos and Megan, Ross, Wendi and Stacey and everyone else for helping out!  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families.

We have one week until Christmas!  We are staying busy in the classroom with lots of learning and fun activities.  The children continue to enjoy playing outside in the snow.  We have updated a few playground rules as we have watched the kids play.  The side walk can be very slippery and we have decided it is not safe for the children to purposefully slide on it.  There are too many children that can fall into each other and on the hard ice.  As a Kindergarten team, we have chosen to create separate times for our classes to sled.  This past Friday we stayed in for the last recess, but went out after it to sled with the other Kindergarten classes.  Everyone had a great time!  Even if the sled tipped or went backwards, I was proud at each child for going again!  We will have more times of sledding on different days so everyone will have a chance to sled.  We are also watching the wind chill for morning recess.  If the windchill is below 10 degrees, our Kindergarten class may stay in for morning recess and exercise or have some music and movement instead.  We will follow the whole school’s recommendation for lunch and afternoon recess.  This week there was a day that lunch recess was shortened because of the wind chill.  We are all working to make sure children get the fresh air and movement they need and keep them safe.

Here’s what we have been doing in class and what we will work on next week:

Bible: almost half the class has been able to recite our Bible verse (Luke 2:6-7 She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn).  It is wonderful that the verse has been repeated in many of the Christmas books we have been reading as well.  We continue to focus on the amazing story of Christmas and God’s precious gift to us.  This week  we will finish up our nativity scene this week.  *Please make sure to send in a shoed box Monday*

Phonics: we were listening for letter sounds at the beginning and end of words.  This is an important skill as children begin to sound out words.  Children are also starting to see spelling patterns in rhyming words.

Daily 5: small groups working with me this week continued to identify letter sounds that they were hearing in words.  We practiced listening for letter sounds, identifying them and writing them.  We practiced the beginning, middle and ending sounds.  Children continue to read to self, read to someone, listen to reading and work on writing.  It still takes a bit of time to make choices and rotate between centers, but I love the excitement I am seeing for working on their reading skills!

Interactive Read Aloud: We were focusing on cause and effect this week.  As we read “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” it was fun for the class to pick out the cause and effect in the mouse’s actions.  Throughout the week the children would point out cause and effect of a variety of situations in our class.

Exploring God’s World: We talked about needs and wants.  We listed needs as something we had to have to live-food, water, shelter and also wants-things we could live without-toys, iPads, candy.  This also became a topic of conversation throughout the day.  It was fun to hear their ideas about needs and wants 🙂

Math: We are comparing numbers and especially looking at teens as ten plus more.  We have been exercising and counting as we count by fives and do jumping jacks and jump straight up and down as we count by tens.  We are working on writing numbers 0-10.

Word Wall: We continue to add words to our word wall and the class loves listening for them!  Please continue to ask your child to read their word wall books to you at home.  This week you will see two word wall books coming home.  Over Christmas break, try writing your own!

Reminders:

Monday, December 19: PAJAMA DAY!  We have decided to have a pajama day for the Jingle Jog.  Please dress your child in pajamas but make sure they can still wear their gym shoes (no footie pajamas).  Jingle Jog is from 9:30-10.  You are welcome to come cheer the class on as they run the halls.  Sheets went home last week explaining donations.  If you would like to contribute, please send the forms back to school this week.

Shoe boxes for our nativity should also be sent in to class by Tuesday at the latest.  Thank you!

December 22: Christmas Chapel 9:15am

December 23: Classroom Christmas Party 10:30-11:45

Please turn in a donation of $1-2 for our Kindergarten Christmas gift to a family in need this season.

No hot lunch or bussing on December 23.

December 24-January 8:Christmas break

I was not able to capture the joy that snow can bring to 5 and 6 year olds!  Our playground was made new with the fresh white snow.  The class has been loving recess this week.  Thank you for making sure your child has a winter coat, snow pants, boots, hat and gloves every day.  It works best to send them in a separate bag (reuse or grocery bag works well).  We have been keeping boots in the hallway and wearing gym shoes inside is perfectly fine.  If your child has gym shoes at school, there is no need for another pair of inside shoes.  You may wish to keep extra socks along with the regular extra clothes in their backpacks in case the snow travels 🙂

Important Dates:

December 19: Please send an empty shoebox to school.  These will hold our nativity scene that we have been making.

December 19: Jingle Jog – 9:30-10am. You are welcome to come and cheer for our class.  They have been practicing running during gym and are excited to run in the halls.  We have decided to make it a kindergarten pajama day as well. 🙂  Please keep in mind, students will be running in pajamas and their gym shoes. More details about the Jingle Jog will be sent home this week.

December 22: Christmas Chapel 9:15am

December 23: Classroom Christmas Party 10:30-11:45.

December 23: No hot lunch or bussing

December 24-January 8: Christmas break

Christmas Offering: A few years ago ZCS decided to forego gift exchanges between students.  Instead, classroom find local families or organizations to support.  The Kindergarten classrooms have found a family in need to bless this holiday season.  If you are able, please consider donating $1-2 for this cause.  You may send it in anytime before Christmas. Thank you!

Week in Review:

In Bible we continue to study the people and things in place in preparation for Christmas.  We are working on our Bible verse: Luke 2:6-7 “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”

In Handwriting children are continuing to work on forming letters and paying close attention to staying on the line, going “upstairs” or “downstairs” for certain letters.

Daily 5 is continuously a favorite time of day for students.  As I am working with small groups and listening to reading, children are able to choose between Read to Someone, Read to Self, Listen to Reading and Work on Writing.  They are taking more ownership of rotations and are doing very well.  In January you can look forward to leveled books being sent home with your child.  Until then, please continue to read our weekly sight word books at home and read to your child daily.

In Math we are seeing patterns in numbers.  We compared 1 and 11, 2 and 12, 3 and 13, etc.  Students quickly saw that the difference between these numbers is ten.  Children are also enjoying counting by tens and practicing counting by fives.

We are exploring God’s world by looking at different earth materials.  After making a list of earth materials (rocks, pebbles, sand, soil, water, etc.) we studied them and wrote words to describe them.  A favorite part was experimenting what happens when the materials are mixed together.

In Phonics we practiced stretching words out as we say them and listening for the letter sounds at the beginning, middle and end.  We wrote down the letters we heard and wrote many words!  The class was very excited about this and we will continue to work on this skill.

Week 12 was short, but full.  It was a pleasure to meet with all of you during parent teacher conferences and celebrate your children!

This week we have been enjoying the fruits of our labor.  The class has worked hard to build up routines and skills and now I see them use these skills while we are rotating centers, creatively building and playing, solving issues with other students…it is amazing the growth each child has had already this year!

In Bible, we have focused on Moses.  Today we said, “Moses really went through a lot in his life.”  He did!  God had a plan though and was able to use Moses in many ways.

All of the children were able to say our Bible Memory verse this month!  We are working on our new one: Luke 2:6-7 “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”

We will focus on Christmas and God’s amazing plan during the month of December.  God used many people and sent special messengers (angels).  We will be working on creating a nativity throughout the month as well.

Our Daily 5 time is very exciting right now.  Along with Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading, students are also Working on Writing and Word Work.  I am working with small groups during this time as well.  Everyone is enjoying it!

In Math we are enjoying numbers!  We are practicing writing numbers 0-7. We are having fun with addition and subtraction using stories, dice, and writing out math problems with white boards and markers.

In Phonics we listened for the starting sound in everyone’s names.  The class thought of other things that begin with the same letter sounds.

Our Interactive Read Aloud this week was “Olivia.” While we were reading, we could draw conclusions about this smart little pig. 🙂

Our Science unit is tying in with writing as we are studying the earth.  We have gone on several nature walks and made a list of things we see.  We reviewed how God created the world and made a list of earth materials.

Here are a few important dates:

December 7: Love Letters to God book order DUE
December 8: Scholastic Book Orders due!  There are many great books in there.  Also, if placed online, you have access to 4 different months and age ranges of book orders.
December 9: NO Hot Lunch and NO PM Busing

December 10: Scholastic Book order due

December 19: EMPTY shoebox to school
December 22: Christmas Chapel 9:15 AM
December 23: NO Hot Lunch or AM & PM Busing

December 24-January 8: Christmas Break