January 2020 archive

31
Jan
2020

Newsletter 18: Week ending January 31

categories: newsletters 2019-2020

On Thursday morning we headed to For the Kidz Gymnastics! We had so much fun jumping, stretching, climbing, and swinging together! Thank you to all the parents who drove, brought in boosters, and signed waivers!

Important Dates & Reminders

  • Tuesday, February 11 @ 9:00: All school chapel. Kindergarten and 8th grade will be participating/leading!
  • Thursday, February 13: Class Valentine’s Day Celebration & 100th day of school!
    • If your child would like to pass out valentines please bring enough for 21 students. Please fill out the “From: ___” section, but not the “To: ___” section as this greatly simplifies passing out the valentines.
    • Stay tuned for details about volunteering in Valentines Day centers or donating materials if you would like to help us celebrate.
  • Thursday, February 13: 100th Day of School
    • Zero the Hero (secretly Mr. McAboy) will be visiting our school to help us celebrate 100 days of learning! Throughout the day, we’ll be doing a few fun literacy and math activities. God has been so good these 100 days! Your child may dress up as a super hero to celebrate with Zero the Hero. 
  • Friday, February 14- Monday, February 17: No School

Curriculum

Bible: In Bible we are walking through the events of Jesus’ ministry. This week we read about Jesus’s interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. We learned that Jesus gives eternal life. Your kids are doing an awesome job with our Bible memory! I will assess it this coming week. We will also start a new unit on miracles and begin learning the following Bible verse soon.

Miracles Bible Verse: Pidan, y se les dará; busquen, y encontrarán; llamen, y se les abrirá. Mateo 7:7

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

Literacy: This week we continued our conversations about verbs. We learned that verbs with él, ella, or usted usually end in a or e. Then we categorized verbs according to their different kinds.

  • Reading strategy: Visualizing
  • Read aloud: El ratoncito, la fresa roja y  madura, y el gran oso hambriento
  • Vocabulary words
    • fresa (strawberr)
    • madura (ripe)
    • la planta (plant)
    • el oso (bear
    • el ratón (rat)
  • Phrase of the week: Tengo __ años ___. (I’m ___ years old.)
  • Words on the wall so far: el, él, no, la, si, sí, mamá, y, papá, soy, en, tu, tú, es, de, bien, son, voy

We also finished our first round of literacy centers! I’m so proud of your kids! Next week we’ll begin to cycle through the alphabet again, this time through our handwriting curriculum.

Math: In math we have been looking at teen numbers. We’re practicing seeing these numbers as 10+___. We have also been looking at smaller numbers and trying to find the two parts that make that number. For example, 3 and 2 are parts of 5. Practicing writing teen numbers and identifying them would be great practice at home!

Writing Workshop: We continue working on pattern books. Many of the take-home books we practice during Daily 5 have patterns! The kids are finishing up their books about animals and many have started writing a book about the things they can do. These books are full of verbs and have been great review of our other literacy concepts! We’ll continue writing pattern books for the next few weeks.

Up in Lights: Oliver was up in lights this week! His whole family got to join us and share some of the things that make Oliver so special. He is very interested in space and showed us some of the special things he got when he visited Purdue on their space day. We love you to the moon and back, Oliver!

24
Jan
2020

Newsletter 17: Week ending January 24

categories: newsletters 2019-2020, Uncategorized

In our morning devotions this week we’ve been learning the song  Nuestro Dios (Our God.) Many of the kids recognize this song from hearing it in church or on the radio and they are eager to learn it in Spanish! Here is a link to the YouTube video.

Important Dates & Reminders

  • Thursday, January 30: We will head to For the Kidz Gymnastics for a field trip! I hope to leave school at 9:45 and return at 11:45.
    • Please make sure your child is dressed in comfortable clothes and is wearing socks.
    • Please turn in signed waivers.
    • Please pack a lunch for your child. We will be back to school in time for lunch, but not quite enough time to get hot lunch.
    • I am all set for drivers this time. Thank you! 🙂
  • Tuesday, February 11: All school chapel. Kindergarten and 8th grade will be participating/leading!
  • Thursday, February 13: Class Valentine’s Day Celebration & 100th day of school!
    • If your child would like to pass out valentines please bring enough for 21 students. Please fill out the “From: ___” section, but not the “To: ___” section as this greatly simplifies passing out the valentines.
    • Stay tuned for details about volunteering in Valentines Day centers or donating materials if you would like to help us celebrate!
    • Zero the Hero (secretly Mr. McAboy) will be visiting our school to help us celebrate 100 days of learning! Throughout the day, we’ll be doing a few fun literacy and math activities. God has been so good these 100 days!
  • Friday, February 14- Monday, February 17: No School

Curriculum

Bible: In Bible we are walking through the events of Jesus’ ministry. This week we read about Jesus’s interaction with NIcodemus and Lazarus.

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Mateo 19:14 Pero Jesus dijo, “Dejad a los niños venir a mí y no se los impidais. Porque de los tales es el reino de los cielos.”

Literacy: In grammar we continued to talk about verbs. This week we talked about the second person singular form- tú. The beautiful thing about immersion is your students have been using these kinds of verbs all year as they speak, write, and listen to Spanish. Now we get to study them more closely. Next week we will learn about 3rd person singular verbs- él, ella, and usted. 

  • Reading strategy: Visualizing
  • Read aloud: Abren Paso a Los Patitos
  • Vocabulary words
    • cruzar (to cross)
    • la orilla (shore)
    • el jardín (garden)
    • los patitos (ducks)
    • los cacahuetes (peanuts)
    • la isla (island)
    • la laguna (pond)
    • la responsabilidad (responsibility)
  • Word wall word: voy (I’m going)
  • Phrase of the week: Hoy es ___. (Today is ___.)
  • Words on the wall so far: el, él, no, la, si, sí, mamá, y, papá, soy, en, tu, tú, es, de, bien, son

Math: In our math centers we are practicing our addition facts in a variety of hands-on ways. In our math lessons in the morning this week we worked on our unit 2 math test. We will finish it this coming week and begin to talk about teen numbers as groups of 10 and some more.

Up in Lights: Lucas was up in lights this week! His mom and siblings came in to share the special things they see in Lucas. He would like to be a firefighter when he grows up, loves the color teal, and enjoys listening to music. Lucas is a great friend to many in our class and we’re so glad we get to do kindergarten with him! We love you, Lucas!

17
Jan
2020

Newsletter 16: Week ending January 17

categories: newsletters 2019-2020

We had another great week of school together! On Thursday morning Maestra Barends subbed in our classroom while I pulled students to work with me individually. I absolutely love sitting with your children one on one and these assessment days are some of my favorites! I’m so proud of each child in our class for the way they continue to work hard and for all the progress they’ve already made!

Important Dates & Reminders

  • Treats: Just a friendly reminder that we share non edible treats for birthdays etc. in order to keep all our friends safe and healthy. This way we’ll all be able to enjoy the fun together.
  • Monday, January 20: No School (teacher pd)
  • Thursday, January 23: All school chapel 9:00
  • Friday, January 24: Wear red to school to celebrate Chinese New Year with our Mandarin friends! This is an important festival and holiday time in China.
  • Thursday, January 30: We will head to For the Kidz Gymnastics for a field trip! I hope to leave school at 9:45 and return at 11:45.
    • Please make sure your child is dressed in comfortable clothes and is wearing socks.
    • Please turn in signed waivers.
    • Please pack a lunch for your child. We will be back to school in time for lunch, but not quite enough time to get hot lunch.
    • I am all set for drivers this time. Thank you! 🙂

Curriculum

Bible: In Bible we are walking through the events of Jesus’ ministry. This week we read about Jesus teaching The Lord’s Prayer and blessing the children.

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Mateo 19:14 Pero Jesus dijo, “Dejad a los niños venir a mí y no se los impidais. Porque de los tales es el reino de los cielos.”

We learning  this song by Steve Green to help us memorize our Bible verse. The lyrics are from our Bible verse. Please click here to share the song with your child. (Please be aware of unpredictable ads that may play before the song.)

Literacy: In grammar we continued to talk about the order of adjectives. We quickly discovered that, contrary to English, in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun. Our literacy centers continue to go well and we are just over halfway through the alphabet!

  • Reading strategy: Questioning
  • Read aloud: Los Pollitos Dicen (This is also a song! Click here to view the Youtube video, but be careful for unpredictable ads that play before the video starts.)
  • Vocabulary words:
    • las alas (wings)
    • el maíz (corn)
    • el trigo (wheat)
    • los pollitos (chicks)
  • Word wall word: bien (good)
  • Phrase of the week: Estoy emocionado/a. (I’m excited.)
  • Words on the wall so far: el, él, no, la, si, sí, mamá, y, papá, soy, en, tu, tú, es, de, bien

Math: We are looking for number patterns. When we wrote out 1+1=2, 1+2=3 and continued we saw that it was like counting up. When we began with 10-1=9 9-1=8 and continued we saw that it was like counting down. We continue to work on number writing and counting.This week we practiced writing the big numbers we’ve been studying. At last we finished our book of number writing and we were excited to bring it home!

Writing Workshop: We are also looking for patterns in books! This kind of book has a phrase or word that repeats on each page. It also usually has a theme. This week each kindergartener started a book about zoo animals and the pattern Aquí está ____. There is (a) _____. With this we continue to practice stretching out words and listening for all the sounds we can write to spell that word.

 

10
Jan
2020

Newsletter 15: Week ending January 10

categories: newsletters 2019-2020

It is so good to spend my days with your children again! I loved staying in my pjs as long as I could, got to play some extra board games and watch a couple movies with Matt, and definitely soaked in every minute of the extra snuggles and playtime with Addie Grace over break. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, a good break, and a great transition back this week!  I’m thankful for what God is doing in our classroom and so blessed to get to be a part of it. Thank you for the many ways you support us and everything that goes on at school.

Important Dates & Reminders

  • Treats: Just a friendly reminder that we share non edible treats for birthdays etc. in order to keep all our friends safe and healthy. This way we’ll all be able to enjoy the fun together.
  • Friday, January 17: No pm busing
  • Monday, January 20: No School (teacher pd)
  • Thursday, January 30: We will head to For the Kidz Gymnastics for a field trip! I hope to leave school at 9:45 and return at 11:45. If you are interested in driving please sign up here.  Drivers, please make sure the office has a copy of your up to date insurance and license and plan to be at school by 9:30 that day.

Curriculum

Bible: In Bible we are walking through the events of Jesus’ ministry. This week we read about Jesus getting lost in the temple and calling his 12 disciples, ordinary people like you and me.

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Mateo 19:14 Pero Jesus dijo, “Dejad a los niños venir a mí y no se los impidais. Porque de los tales es el reino de los cielos.”

Next week we’ll begin learning our Bible verse using this song by Steve Green. The lyrics are from our Bible verse. Please click here to share the song with your child. (Please be aware of unpredictable ads that may play before the song.)

Literacy: In grammar we continued to talk about the order of adjectives. We quickly discovered that, contrary to English, in Spanish the adjective comes after the noun. Our literacy centers continue to go well and we are just over halfway through the alphabet!

  • Reading strategy: Questioning
  • Read aloud: Rebeca
  • Vocabulary words:
    • la maceta (flower pot)
    • contento/a (happy)
    • la paleta (sucker)
    • arrullar (to lull to sleep)
    • regar (to water)
    • la carreta (cart)
    • chupar (to suck)
    • la patineta (scooter, skateboard)
  • Word wall word: bien (good)
  • Phrase of the week: Estoy emocionado/a. (I’m excited.)
  • Words on the wall so far: el, él, no, la, si, sí, mamá, y, papá, soy, en, tu, tú, es, de, bien

Math: This week we practiced writing the big numbers we’ve been studying. At last we finished our book of number writing and we were excited to bring it home!

Writing Workshop:We began a new unit on pattern books. We read several different examples of pattern books as we practiced identifying the pattern and the theme on each page. On Friday each child made a page in our class book. The pattern is “Yo veo ___” and the theme is friends in our class. Each page of the book says, “Yo veo the name of a friend in our class.”  (I see the name of a friend in our class. ) This coming week we will continue practicing writing pattern books.