If I am not mistaken, this should be our first full week of school in a while!  I am looking forward to it 🙂  The class continues to become curious and do their best to learn new things and practice skills we have learned already.

Here is what we learned about last week:

Phonics: We sorted words according to their vowel sound.  It is great practice to listen for sounds!

Handwriting: We continue to work on forming numbers.  Many students still write numbers backwards, but we are working on it!  That is a nice feature of Handwriting Without Tears-most numbers and letters start in the same place so it really builds the habit and slowly stops the reversal writing.

Bible: We read about Jesus welcoming the children!  It was so special for the class to hear how Jesus showed how special children are.  We are finishing up reciting our Bible verse:Matthew 19:14 “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”

Math: We are trying to see numbers in groups.  This has helped us count faster! We continue to work on addition and subtraction and writing these math problems out.

Exploring God’s World: Our study of motion this week took us to the playground.  We looked for everything that was moving while we were outside.  When we came back in and sat together and listed the many things on a playground that move-including all of us 🙂  Each child drew a picture of something showing MOTION.  This week I would love if you could send a ball into school on WEDNESDAY so we can experiment how different size balls move.  THANK YOU!

Daily 5: This week most groups did not receive new books for the book bags.  We worked on different skills during our small group time (listening to letter sounds, sounding out words, writing out words, etc).  When the students are reading to self and reading to someone, they are reading their book bag books first and they are so excited to confidently read their books. I am also changing a few options for Daily 5 including games on the iPad and writing cards that allow the kids to sound out words.  They have loved it!

February 10: FIELD TRIP – please remember to fill out the waiver for FOR THE KIDZ

February 10: NO hot lunch or PM bussing

February 13: 100th day! We will celebrate by dressing up like we are 100 years old ?This is optional!  We will have fun eating a special snack that the kids will count and mix together.

February 14: Valentine’s Day! We will have a small party in class from 10:15-11:45. . Part of the party will include passing out valentines. You may make or buy these. We have 20 students in our class. You do not need to write student names in the “to” section, just your child’s name on the “from.”

February 20: NO SCHOOL

Report Cards:

• Report cards will be available online starting January 27. Please contact the office if you need help setting up your Parent Portal account. Some things to keep in mind as you look over your child’s report card:
  • The skills left blank on the report card have not been taught fully or assessed yet. We will be covering these skills more in the 2nd half of the school year.
  • A 1 indicates that a child has not yet reached that goal, a 2 indicates that a child is developing that skill, and a 3 indicates that a child has mastered a skill. It is perfectly acceptable for a child to be at a level 2 right now. The next couple of months are big months for learning and growth!
  • Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions. I would love to talk with you about them!

It always amazes me how the days and weeks fly by!  Especially when we have had some surprise ice days lately!  Your children continue to work hard and adapt when we need to make some changes to fit everything in to a shortened week.  Our devotions this week reminded us that it is God’s strength that can help us-and he surely has. 🙂

In Bible we read about Jesus calling his 12 disciples.  These men stopped what they were doing and followed Jesus.  They devoted their time to learning from Jesus and spreading that good news.  As a class, we talked about how we are like the disciples. We have a big job to do.  We also sang some childhood favorite songs on this: Fishers of Men and I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.  It is such a joy to sing these Sunday School favorites!

Continue to practice our Bible Memory from Matthew 19:14 “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'”

Phonics-We are listening for beginning, ending sounds as well as stretching out words to sound them out.

Writing Workshop-We continue to write pattern books.  This has been so fun to see the students think of a theme for their book and choose a pattern.  They are so proud of their writing and they should be!

Handwriting-We are reviewing uppercase letters and writing numbers.

Math-We took our Unit 2 Math test this week.  This was on writing numbers in order, recognizing shapes, especially hexagon and even a little addition and subtraction.  Your children are doing well building up these skills.

Exploring God’s World-We started a new unit this week on Motion.  We talked about gravity-the force that pulls us down.  It was fun experimenting with dropping different objects to see how they fell down.  It would be a great thing to test out at home as well.

Reminders

January 23: NO SCHOOL – Teacher In-Service

February 10: FIELD TRIP – please remember to fill out the waiver for FOR THE KIDZ

February 10: NO hot lunch or PM bussing

February 13: 100th day! We will celebrate by dressing up like we are 100 years old ?

February 14: Valentine’s Day! We will have a small party in class from 10:15-11:45. I will also send out a sign for this soon. Part of the party will include passing out valentines. You may make or buy these. We have 20 students in our class. You do not need to write student names in the “to” section, just your child’s name on the “from.”

February 20: NO SCHOOL

Report Cards: Your child’s report card will be available to view on the Parent Portal starting Friday, January 27th.  If you have not set up your Parent Portal account, please call or stop by the office.

It has been great to get back into routine this week!  Christmas break was a wonderful time to relax and spend time with family, but I am excited for everything coming up in Kindergarten the second half of the year.  It was amazing how quickly the class got back into routine Monday morning.  Even with a surprise ice day, we were able to accomplish a lot!

In Daily 5 I continue to read with your child 1-2 times a week.  You noticed that book bags came home this week (ziploc bag with your child’s name on it and containing a book and papers talking about our reading groups).  The books in the book bag are ones that we have read together in class and your child has also read to himself/herself and to another friend.  Over the weekend I would love for him/her to read the book to you.  The books are not meant to be too challenging.  I want this experience to be encouraging and successful for each child.  It will be amazing to see how they each grow in the next few months. 🙂  Along with reading to me, your child is choosing each day to read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, working on writing and word work.

In Math we are continuing to practice forming numbers the school way.  The class is doing very well!  At times, I still see some numbers that are reversed and ask the student if this is the correct way.  If you notice this at home, just ask if the number looks correct and ask them to fix it.  We are also working on addition and subtraction.  We like to use manipulative to practice this and also paper and pencil to write out the math equation.  This week we will wrap up Unit 2.

In Bible we are beginning to learn about Jesus’ ministry.  This week we read about John baptizing Jesus.  It was fun to have conversations about different baptisms your children remember seeing.  We talked about Jesus’ baptism signifying the start of many amazing things Jesus would do while He was on earth.  We also introduced a fruit of the spirit-Kindness.  We often talk about being kind to our friends in both what we say and what we do.

Our new memory verse this month is Matthew 19:4 “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'”

Our Interactive Read Aloud this week was the book, “The Snowy Day.”  We focused on transition words that help us know when things occur.  We noticed “first”, “then”, and “last”.  We used these words to order our events in class and the class really grasped this concept.

In Writing Workshop we have been learning about pattern books.  These are books that have a word pattern.  Each page may start with the same phrase like “I like” or “this is a”.  We are writing and illustrating pattern books of our own.  As the class is writing, I am encouraging each child to sound out words as they write them down.  This takes a lot of practice, but I am so excited to see each child try!

Coming Up

January 23: NO SCHOOL – Teacher In-Service

February 10: FIELD TRIP – please remember to fill out the waiver for FOR THE KIDZ

February 10: NO hot lunch or PM bussing

February 13: 100th day!  We will celebrate by dressing up like we are 100 years old 🙂  I will also send out a sign up for a fun 100th snack very soon.

February 14: Valentine’s Day!  We will have a small party in class from 10:15-11:45.  I will also send out a sign for this soon.  Part of the party will include passing out valentines.  You may make or buy these.  We have 20 students in our class.  You do not need to write student names in the “to” section, just your child’s name on the “from.”

February 20: NO SCHOOL

In the next two weeks I will also spend time assessing each child for report cards.  Report cards will be available on line and are one of the tools used to show growth each child is making in a variety of areas.

It is a busy time, but full of wonderful things.  Thank you, again, for all of your support and encouragement for me and your children!