Newsletter 8: Week of October 30

Highlights from our week…

It was SO good to be with your precious kiddos for a full week again! CEA was a great time to recharge, reconnect with other teachers, and learn some new strategies, but I missed your kids! We picked up on Monday right where we left off before our long weekend. In fact, I was amazed with the Spanish output I was hearing and we began a language incentive plan! We are now filling a jar with sparkly pom poms each time I hear one of the students use Spanish. When the jar is full we will celebrate! Once it’s almost full we’ll vote on ways we’d like to celebrate. I’m so proud of your kids and their hard work! Please continue to encourage them and pray for them as we continue to raise the Spanish expectations and continue our journey toward Spanish fluency!

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Finally outside after LOTS of indoor recesses!

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Elli was up in lights! Thanks for coming mom!

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Math centers- number puzzles

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Math centers- pumpkin roll and color

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Math centers- playdough number apple trees

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Emma was glad we had no more indoor recess!

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Beautiful fall recess after a rainy day.

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peek a boo!


Important Dates

  • October 31: Reformation Day Chapel (10:00) – please feel free to join us! You’re welcome to sit with our class or in the chairs with the other parents!
  • November 4: Grandparent’s Day! We are excited to host our grandparents on Friday! If you happened to miss the information that went home before CEA, please check out our resources tab to read the information on Grandparents Day and pass on The Gifts of Being Grand.
  • November 9 & 10: No PM bussing and no hot lunch
  • November 10: Picture Retakes
  • November 11: No AM or PM bussing and no hot lunch

Important Information

  • Gifts of Being Grand: Please help me connect with grandparents by passing along these precious keepsakes. I’ll add them to your children’s spiritual journals, a collection of pieces created throughout their years at ZCS. I would love to have these by Grandparents Day and will have extra copies that day if anyone needs them.
  • Snack: Just a friendly reminder to please send a morning and afternoon snack with your child even if he/she is ordering hot lunch that day. Thanks for your help with this! A full tummy is better for learning than a hungry one. 🙂
  • Parent Teacher Conferences: God is doing amazing things through your kids this year! I am looking forward to meeting with each one of you on November 21 or 22 to share how much your child has grown and learned so far in Kindergarten! This is a wonderful time of celebration and I can’t wait to share with you all of the great things your kids are doing! Beginning November 4 you will be able to sign up for one time slot. I will send an email with a parent letter attached to give you more information about how to sign up. Thank you, in advance, for taking the time to meet with me! I’m looking forward to it!

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

Bible: This week we learned more about Jacob. God brought Jacob to his uncle Laban where he blessed him with a job, riches, and with Leah and Rachel. Later God asked Jacob to return to his homeland. Even though he was scared of what his brother Esau might think, Jacob trusted and obeyed. God never left Jacob or stopped watching over him. God never leaves us and will always watch over us! God is so good!

(Just fyi, this coming week I hope to assess the October Bible verse and start the November Bible verse. A video will be coming soon!)

Literacy: This was a VERY exciting week for literacy! In the Daily 5 we reached our goal of 10 minutes of Read to a Friend for 3 days in a row and celebrated together! This coming week I hope to introduce #3 of the Daily 5 as well as introduce choice. Kindergarteners will be able to choose which of the 3 Daily 5 choices they would like to complete with the use of a check in sheet.

Our letter of the week was a consonant for the first time! This meant that we began to combine consonants and vowels to form syllables! We even combined some syllables to form words! We made some exciting and powerful steps toward reading this week!

In grammar this week we learned about a special ending some Spanish words have, -ito or -ita. This ending is used to speak lovingly or to show that something is small. For example, a small dog (perro) or a puppy might be called perrito. A cute kitten (gato) might be called gatito.

  • Reading strategy: Making connections
  • Word wall word: la mamá (mom) y (and)
  • Read aloud: Así Vamos a Escuela
  • Vocabulary Words:
    • disfrutar (to enjoy)
    • techos (roofs)
    • las zancadas (steps)
    • la campiña (countryside) *Some of our Kindergarten friends made connections between this word and where they live!
    • el titubeo (hesitation)
    • apurados (rushed, hurried)
    • los patines (skates)
  • Phrase of the week: Ya terminé. ( I’m finished.)
  • Letter of the week: Mm

Handwriting: This week we practiced the numbers 4 and 5. The kids are creating a book which is separate from our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum and will go home soon. We also practiced the letters H and K. The diagonal lines were the trickiest!

Math: This week we practiced matching sets of objects to numbers. We also started our first round of math centers! Typically, we’ll work on the same set of math centers for 2-3 weeks. Many of these centers involve powerful learning that doesn’t always include a worksheet. Please do not be alarmed if you do not see work coming home in your child’s red alert folder. If you’re ever curious about what we’re working on, please don’t hesitate to ask! I’m happy to share even beyond what I write in the newsletter. Our current round of math centers includes: playdough apple tree numbers, number puzzles, pumpkin roll and color, and apple patterns. These centers help develop number formation skills, number sense, patterning skills, counting, and number identification.

Writing Workshop: First we verbally shared our stories. Then we drew our stories. Now we are working on writing labels on our pictures! I am encouraging the kids to write all of the sounds they hear when they stretch out the words. Our goal right now is to write the initial sound of the word.

Play: This week your children created a 5 star restaurant. In art some friends chose to make menus while others were chefs and still others were servers. In the blocks center I added some people just to see what the class would do. The next thing I knew some of our friends had created cruise ships and the toy people were enjoying a vacation!

En las Luces: Elli was up in lights this week! Elli had a heart for traveling to other places and a passion for taking care of animals. Elli shared some pictures of her vacation to Puerto Rico. I was excited to see these since that is the country we are talking about during this unit! Elli hopes to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Thanks for sharing Elli!

**If you haven’t already done so, please check under the “Other Resources” tab for our Up in Lights schedule and an English translation of the instructions! I will send the packet and special animal home with your child 1 week before your child’s turn!


As we look ahead toward Grandparents Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas things tend to get kind of busy both in and out of school. I will do my very best to communicate everything you need to know well, but please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions! It is such an honor to partner with you all. Thank you for supporting me and your children!

 

1 Comment on Newsletter 8: Week of October 30

  1. Deb Gritter
    October 30, 2016 at 9:54 pm (7 years ago)

    Thank you for all of this information Melissa!! Hope it’s a great week with all the different schedules!

    Reply

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