Monday, January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz Gymnastics. Many of you already turned in permission slips-THANK YOU! Please remember to dress your child in comfortable clothes that day as well as socks 🙂 We will keep an eye on the weather. If ZCS has a snow day, the field trip is cancelled and will hopefully be rescheduled. We will also look at the areas near For the Kidz to determine if it is safe for us to travel. Please keep an eye on email Monday morning.

We will be celebrating 100th Day! This is tentatively planned for February 13. We are going to celebrate by dressing up like super heroes! We have a special visitor from Zero the Hero (Mr. McAboy on this day and do a lot of fun counting to 100 activities. Feel free to be creative by making a cape or using one you already have and think of a special super power 🙂 Perhaps a special gift or talent God has blessed your child with. Have fun with it!

We will be having a Valentine’s Party in our classroom on February 14. More details will come as well as volunteer opportunities. I do ask that children bring in valentines to pass out to the whole class (21 students). You do NOT have to label the To: section of valentines, but just the From: 🙂 These can be homemade or purchased.

This week’s schedule has been quite different from our average week. We began with no school for students on Monday, but teachers had professional development. We enjoyed going to Hemlock Crossing and learning about Nature Rich classrooms. It was wonderful to brainstorm ideas on how to incorporate outdoor spaces into our current curriculum. We had the opportunity to walk outdoors and enjoy the beauty God created.

Thursday we began our day with a special chapel with guest speaker Cleopatra Kennedy. She has been actively involved in the civil rights movement and a gospel singer. She told many stories of her experiences. To summarize for our kindergarten students, we talked about people doing unkind things in the past and still today. Miss Kennedy reminded us that God created each one of us, so every person should be treated with kindness. We should show God’s love to everyone.

Daily 5: I have been able to assess reading levels for each child and have made some adjustments on Raz-kidz and will be changing a few reading groups around next week. Each child has grown! We continue to work on different strategies with our reading groups.

Word Wall Word: this (please continue to review a, at, and, am, go, here, I, is, look, like, me, see, the, up, we)

Math: We worked on adding to make 10

Phonics: We introduced vowels and sorted pictures listening for long vowel sounds. It is difficult   for kids to hear these middles sounds at first, so we will continue to work on it. It is okay! 🙂

Bible Verse:

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belong to such as these.” Matthew 19:14.

We also read about Jesus teaching how to pray. So many children recognized the Lord’s Prayer and we had a great discussion about what each line means. We spent time praying individually.

Monday, January 21: No School Teacher Professional Development

Thursday, January 24: All School Chapel @ 9 AM

Monday, January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz Gymnastics. Many of you already turned in permission slips-THANK YOU! Please remember to dress your child in comfortable clothes that day as well as socks 🙂

We will be celebrating 100th Day! This is tentatively planned for February 13. We are going to celebrate by dressing up like super heroes! We have a special visitor from Zero the Hero (Mr. McAboy on this day and do a lot of fun counting to 100 activities. Feel free to be creative by making a cape or using one you already have and think of a special super power 🙂 Perhaps a special gift or talent God has blessed your child with. Have fun with it!

We will be having a Valentine’s Party in our classroom on February 14. More details will come as well as volunteer opportunities. I do ask that children bring in valentines to pass out to the whole class (21 students). You do NOT have to label the To: section of valentines, but just the From: 🙂 These can be homemade or purchased.

This week in Kindergarten:

Bible: We read the story of Jesus telling his disciples, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belong to such as these.” Matthew 19:14. This is also our new memory verse! It was so fun to read the story with your children and remind them how special they are in God’s sight.

Math: We took another Math test. The kids are doing well! It can be a little tricky to remember which is – and + so we continue to practice these and say add or subtract/take away.

Phonics: We listened for beginning sounds and ending sounds.

Daily 5: I am introducing word wall word cards to your children and also “sounding out cards”. These cards are actually to help sound out letters and blend them to read a word. To practice at home, please have your child point to the first letter and say the sound, then point to the next letter and say that sound and finally point and say the last letter sound. These will be sent home to about half the class at a time next week. We have used them in class and the kids are so excited to sound out words! If you notice a set in your child’s book bag, please go through the cards with him/her. You only need to do 3-4 at a time or until you see your child is ready for a break. I do not want this to be stressful for anyone.

Word Wall Word: am (please continue to review a, at, and, am, go, here, I, is, look, like, me, see, the, up, we)

Writing Workshop: We continue to write pattern books. It is a lot of work, but so rewarding to see your children working hard and show pride in what they have written!

Engaging God’s World: We are learning about motion. Today we observed different types of motion on the playground. It was wonderfully timing as the kids learned a catchy song about involving motion in music today. I am sure they would love to sing it to you.

I have loved starting our day with our emotions/feelings pages! Some write and draw more than others, but it is wonderful to have that quick conversation with your child before we fully begin our day.

Upcoming dates:

• Thursday, 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 grade, please invite them to attend!
• January 18: No Bussing
• January 21: No School (Teacher In-Service)
• Monday, January 28: Field Trip to For the Kidz (gymnastics). Thank you drivers! Please send along a booster seat if you are able (if your child doesn’t ride the bus). Children should dress in comfortable clothes. We will be moving a lot!
• February 15-18: No School Winter Break

What a great week back to begin 2019! We focused on remembering and practicing routines quite a bit this week. It was very helpful to get everyone back into the school way of doing things. I am happy that we were able to see everyone again and learn some new things as well.

Daily 5: We were able to add one new book to the book bags. I will work on emptying out the old books next week. Until then, enjoy reading books with your child at home. They are proud of their reading!

Writing Workshop: We began writing pattern books this week. These books are written with a sentence pattern. For example, each page may say “I see a _____. ” or “The _____.” These are wonderful for beginning readers and writers. It is a challenge to sound out the last word and write it independently. At home you may help by sounding out short words. We often use CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words. The vowels are the hardest for kids to hear. It is okay! This is something we will continue to practice at school and you can practice at home as well.

Bible: We are beginning to read about Jesus’ ministry. I love beginning with the story of Jesus being baptized by John. It is an amazing display of Jesus preparing for his earthly ministry. I also enjoy the discussions of baptism afterwards. Your children are learning and taking in so much from church, home and school.

Math: We noticed patterns when subtracting 1, it is like counting down. It is wonderful for children to build strong number sense and recognize patterns in number problems. We also reviewed shapes, working specifically on naming a hexagon.

Handwriting: We are wrapping up our focus on uppercase letters! There has been a lot of improvement in forming letters. We will continue to practice uppercase, but move on to specific practice on forming numbers next week.

Word Wall: We added and this week.

Engaging God’s World: We discussed Needs and Wants. This should lead to some good discussions at home 🙂

One of my favorite time of day is devotions with your children. We use a short daily devotion from “Veggie Devos) and the children are able to apply the verse and lessons pretty easily. I love to see their heart for helping others and their unshakeable faith in God’s love during this time. Thank you for entrusting your children to ZCS and me!