Ms. Wolters' Class

I can't believe it's the last week of school!!! The students have made so much progress this year; I am so proud of all of them!!! We will not send any homework home for this week and I need to collect all the little books so the inventory can be taken. Please return all the little books and just continue reading with your child at home. It has been so much fun watching them learn to read and grow this year. Thursday will be our class party at 1:00. Everyone is welcome. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the kids this year. I hope they will come back and visit me next year. I want to thank all of you parents for all you have done. Lindsey and Kristy have been an awesome help with planning our parties and Judy has been a great help with reading our little books. Many of you have come in to help also. Thank you to Carol, Dave and Melanie who have come in to read with the kids. They love have mom and dad come in so thank you all!!!! It has been a great year. I hope you have an awesome summer!!!!

Mrs. Wright's Class

The last two weeks have zoomed by and I can't believe we are down to less than 10 days of school. I will sure miss this class and have enjoyed them tremendously! In saying that I hope that you were at the celebration last Thursday. The kids did a super job and I was very proud of my class. We will be having our classroom celebration/end of the year party on Thursday, May 20th. Mark the date on your calendar and plan to be there. All parents are welcome to attend. The afternoon festivities will include a pizza party, games and crafts. We will need some extra hands to assist in the projects so if you are planning on coming, let me know!

We have been doing awesome with our spelling tests. Almost the whole class has earned a 100% each week since we started them. This week will be the last practice test and I feel that the kids are more than prepared for the first grade spelling lists. This week will also be the last week for little books and the final homework packet is due on Friday. Please keep up with reading and various writing and math activities throughout the summer to keep all of the learning fresh for first grade. In math we are cruising right through the addition chapter. The kids are getting it pretty easily, but again could use some practice over the summer. We will begin our subtraction chapter towards the end of the week and this will be a skill to fine tune over the summer since we are running out of time in class. The kids will expand on addition and subtraction in first grade, but should have a good understanding about each of these math concepts before entering first grade.

Well, as we approach the end of the year I want to thank each of you for being so involved with our class and your child's learning. The kids have come so far this year and I am confident that all of them will do well next year entering in to first grade. I have invited all of the kids to come back and visit my class next year and hope to see each of you around campus. We will be enjoying these last days we have together. Thanks again for all you do!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Congratulations to all the kindergarten students on a spectacular celebration night. I hope everyone enjoyed the performance. I was so proud of everyone and their outstanding performance. Remember, you can still buy a DVD of the show, $3 each and orders are due by May 14th.

I also want to thank everyone for a wonderful teacher appreciation week. I received many gifts, cards, and drawings to show how much everyone appreciates me. I appreciate all of you just as much as you appreciate me I am sure!

The school year is sadly coming to a close. Only two more weeks of kindergarten for everyone, can you believe that? Here are some important reminders;

Remember to continue to read over the summer. Summer is a long period of time especially for five and six year olds. We unfortunately see a lot of regression between school years so just make sure you are doing your part at home to minimize this. The library is a great place to start. Everyone is reading now and should be reading between a .5 and 1.5 reading level. So ask the librarians at your local library to point you to that section. You may also want to look into getting some workbooks to keep your students minds sharp. Walmart and Costco are great places to find these workbooks. And don't forget about www.starfall.com. They have a "Im reading" section that everyone can learn from now.

I will be gone Thursday May 13th - Monday May 17th and will be returning on the 18th so if things seem a little different, this is why. Mrs. Woodard will be my sub for the entire time. The students have had her before and should be used to her. I will still be checking my email so if you have any concerns please email me.

On Thursday, May 20th, we will be having our end of the year celebration. Parents are welcome to come and help out. Please contact our room moms if you have questions or want to know how to help.

Friday, May 21st. Only AM students come from 8-11am. This is also the last awards assembly.

If you have any library books out, they are due now. We will be concluding our reading series for the year, please return your little books ASAP.

We will be trying to finish up our last couple of math chapters in the next couple weeks. We are learning about addition and I cannot believe how fast everyone is catching on! I am hoping to get to subtraction as well but only as an introduction.

We will be starting our plant unit this week, students will even get to plant their own plants and hopefully see them grow!

We will also be working on some memory pages to put into our poem books. I hope everyone will be able to cherish these poem books forever and be able to look back for years to come and remember kindergarten!

If you have any questions about any of the upcoming events, please contact me!

Ms. Wolters' Class

We started a new math chapter on addition today. I am really happy with the way the students can do the mental math and addition seems to be coming easily for most of them. They are all doing great on reading their little books. Once they finish the little books they can begin AR reading and testing and they can earn some prizes. They are very motivated to get there so that is exciting. They are also improving on writing in their journals and they are really starting to sound the words out and spell on their own.

You should've received a flier regarding the kindergarten celebration. It will be held Thursday, May 6th and students should meet in their classroom at 5:30 so we can begin our performance at 6:00. Please have them wear a green shirt. Some of you have already sent in your shirt so I will have it here for them. I hope everyone can make it; they have been working hard on their songs. Thank you for all your support at home.

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Can you believe it is almost May? I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone. It seems like just yesterday we were all learning how to sit quietly and walk in a line.

I am so proud of everyone, they have come so far since the beginning of the year and are ready to be first graders! Keep up the great work at home and continue to practice over the summer so everyone gets a great jump start on first grade.

This week we have been learning about bugs. So far we have learned about spiders, butterflies, ants, ladybugs, and worms. Ask your child to tell you something about these bugs and see what they can tell you! Everyday we have been writing a fact about each bug so hopefully they will be able to tell you some interesting facts!

We have started our addition unit in math. Everyone is flying through it and are really excited to get to the "hard" stuff. I am hoping to get through addition and an introduction to subtraction before the end of the year.

We have some very exciting events coming up in the next couple of weeks. Friday, April 30th, is our AIMS water celebration. Since we had 100% AIMS turn out, the PTO puts on a water day for all grades. Kindergarten will go first thing in the morning and first thing when the afternoon class gets here. Please make sure you are sending your child IN their outfit to get wet. We will change into our dry clothes once the celebration is over. This will be a lot easier on everyone since they will only have to change one time. Students need to wear shorts and a colored t-shirt to participate in the water celebration. They also need a towel to dry off with as well as an entire change of clothes for after the celebration.

On Thursday, May 6th, we have our kindergarten celebration. Hopefully everyone got a gold paper home yesterday explaining all the details. Remember both AM and PM need to come to school in the morning on the day of the show so that we can have one giant run through before the big night. All students must come from 7:55am - 10:50am. We will be wearing our blue or red tshirts that you have brought to me before, students will be changing into their shirts once they come into the classroom. If you haven't brought in the shirt yet, please do so ASAP.

If you have any questions about anything, please contact me. Otherwise, I hope everyone has a great week!

Date Correction

THE DATE for the AIMS Celebration is Friday April 30th, not the 24th.

WWTK News

AIMS Celebration

Friday, April 24^th will be the AIM Celebration for the entire school. Kindergarten will be participating at the very beginning of each session, so here are some instructions to help make the day run smoothly.

 

PLEASE make sure to send your child to school in their swimming suits or short and shirts that will be getting wet-we go out right away and only have 30 minutes outside, so there will be no time for changing before we go outside. Boys and girls must wear a colored t-shirt (Any color but WHITE) with their suits, so please make sure they are wear one that can get wet. Also keep in mind suits must be modest-no bikini's or bare bellies for the girls and boys must also have shirts on!

 

PLEASE put sunscreen on your child before school. DO NOT send any sunscreen to school. I can not apply it.

 

PLEASE send a towel and a COMPLETE set of dry clothes for your child to change into when we are done, including underwear, shoes and clothes.

 

Don't forget about our Kindergarten Celebration coming up next week. Thursday, May 6^th at 6 pm.

 

Mrs. Wright's Class

Happy Monday! Today we started chapter 9 in math...readiness for addition and subtraction. I can not believe how ready the kids are to start these math skills. Most of them are already doing mental math and that is great. Please practice these skills at home and ask your child what they learned today. We also started our insect and plant unit. The kids learned what a plant needs to grow. Quiz them to see if they remember the 4 essential elements (air, sun, soil, water). We all continue to do super with our reading. AR is going well and we have almost half of the class going on those quizzes. As you are reading books with your child, please ask comprehension questions after and during reading to make sure they are understanding the main topic etc... This will be helpful to them when they begin AR. This is the last month you have to earn a Pizza Hut coupon. Please try to help your child reach the April goal.

Homework packets went home today. I apologize for the delay. If you need an extra weekend to catch up and complete the activities, please feel free to turn in the packet on Monday, May 3rd. Progress reports will be going home on Friday. Your kids are right on track for first grade, however, if you have any questions about the progress report contact me ASAP. In your child's folder I sent home the last round of Scholastic Book Orders for the year. There were three order forms and I encourage you to look through them to see if there is something that you can purchase to keep the kids engaged in reading over the summer. Some of my picks would be:

SeeSaw April:
What's That Mittens?
Bugs, Bugs, Bugs Pack
Get Ready for First Grade Items (page 2)
Sight Word Readers Library
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse

SeeSaw May:
Get Ready for First Grade Items (page 2)
Phonics Fun Set
Biscuit Pack
Disney Princess Flashcards (addition/subtraction)

Firefly April:
The Tiny Seed
Sight Word Game
Phonics Friends
Our Earth

Most of the books listed above are leveled readers appropriate for kindergarten students. Any of them would be great for the kids to utilize this summer to enhance their reading skills. Some of the books are priced as low as $1.00 and many of the games or kits are under $15.00. That is money well spent! Please feel free to order on line or send the paper order in. Orders will be due by April 27th. Check out the selections today!

Mrs. King's Class

Parents I am sorry that homework did not make it home today. We had some technical difficulties and it will come home on Monday-don't panic if you need an extra weekend to finish it, you can always send it in following Monday instead of Friday.

Celebration News: the committee is looking for tape to help hang our beautiful backdrop and characters. There is only one kind of tape that will work on our brick walls-it is call Strapping Tape-it is used for packing and shipping boxes-it is clear and has the string going through it. If you are able to pick a roll to donate we would greatly appreciate it. You can get it at Office Max, Staples or other office supply stores. Fry's also carries it but it is a bit more expensive and the shipping stores-FED-X or UPS have it but it tends to be very expensive there. We haven't found it at Wal-Mart-but it might be there with their shipping supplies.

Also I have gotten some of yellow shirts! YEA! I still need a few more. If you could have them to me by the end of next week I would really appreciate it!

Next week is Earth Week and the entire school will be celebrating:

Monday: Wear Green
Tuesday: Wear Yellow
Wednesday: Wear Brown
Thursday: Wear Red
Friday: Wear Blue

We will be doing other activities and fun things in our rooms and on campus. If you have some recycle objects that would look cool in our "Recycled Art Display" Please send them to school on Monday or Tuesday.

Thanks for all your help and support. I couldn't do what I do without you!!

Mrs. Wright's Class

Wow what a busy couple of weeks it has been in class! I am sure you have all heard about the field trip and what a wonderful time we had. It was a great day for all and the kids did a super job being guests at the farm! We were all on our best behavior and had great manners. Thanks to the parent chaperons for the help, it was a pleasure having you join us! On that note...we are wrapping up our unit on farm animals and will begin to explore plants and bugs. This topic should carry us through the end of the year and your kids will come home with all kinds of fun facts to share with you.

Since we are left with only a month of kindergarten we have several important dates to remind you of. The first would be our kinder celebration on Thursday, May 6th. All kinder students will participate in the performance. Grandparents, uncles, aunts and friends are all welcome to attend the evening performance scheduled for 6 pm. I originally wanted all of my class to be in a white t-shirt. That idea came and went, but now I would like for my class just to have a white shirt (any kind) on that night. That way we can differentiate the classes and your kids will match. If you have questions about this, please call or email me. We also have our class party scheduled for Thursday, May 20th. We plan on doing pizza for lunch and will have crafts and fun activities for the kids to partake in. If you are interested in helping that day with a project, please let me know ASAP. I will surely need some extra hands. Our last day of school is Friday, May 21st. It is a half day so the kids will be dismissed at 11 am. I am quite sad about the end of the school year and am not quite ready to give these kids up. It has been a pleasure having each and every one of them in my class this year. They have done super and I know they will all do great in first grade.

As we wrap up the end of the school year we will continue to focus on our reading skills and strategies as well as journal writing and sentence structure. In math we will finish our 3D shapes chapter this week and will begin readiness for addition and subtraction on Monday. Please start to play around with these concepts at home. The kids are definitely ready for this! We will also be finishing a poetry book that we have been working on throughout the year, be watching for that to go home. We will continue to be busy bees in our last month together. It has been such a great year, thank you for all of your contributions!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

I hope everyone got to hear some great stories from the field trip! We had a great time and the students are still talking about the trip today.



This week, we are starting our bug unit. We will be learning about bugs for the next three weeks. We will get to learn about the parts of a bug, all different kinds of bugs, as well as do some cool bug crafts. Students will also get the opportunity to write a mini bug report!



In Math, we are continuing our 3D shape unit. We are learning about cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres. Everyone is doing a great job of recognizing the different shapes in our classroom.



Everyone is doing a great job of reading! Keep up the great work at home.



The kindergarten celebration is approaching quickly! We have been working hard in the classroom getting ready to perform for all our parents. Remember, the celebration is on May 6th from 6-730pm in the multi-purpose room. Students need to be in their classrooms by 530pm. Students will be wearing those solid color t-shirts that you have sent in, so if you haven't turned in your blue or red t-shirt yet, please do so soon!

We are also in need of mittens! If you can let us borrow some mittens for our celebration we would appreciate it! We need about 10 pairs of mittens for the celebration.



AM kindergarten will be back on the playground in the morning starting Monday. Please remind your AM kindergartners to go straight to the playground in the morning.



This week we are doing our DIBELS testing. Hopefully everyone will do a fabulous job and will show that they are ready for first grade!



Remember to keep reading and doing that homework so that everyone is ready for first grade! Next week's homework packet is going to include spelling words. This is to help our kindergartners get ready to start taking tests in first grade. Spelling tests will be every Friday and students will be getting a grade for them. Make sure you are practicing that spelling at home!



If you have any questions, please contact me! I hope everyone has a great week.

Mrs. King's Class

What a Great Field Trip we had yesterday! We had a great time and I hope all the children came home with lots of things they learned and saw while we were at the farm. We got to see a brand new baby calf stand up and walk for the first time! It was very exciting. Thanks so much to the parents who chaperoned and to those who met us at the farm! You did a great job keeping track of the children and helping them learn all they could at the farm! It was a great learning experience for all of us.

On to our next big project the "Kindergarten Celebration" Please put Thursday, May 6, on your calendars. The celebration takes place in the multi-purpose room at 6 pm. We ask that students arrive between 5:30 and 5:45. The program will probably last between 30 and 45 minutes. We have been working very hard on our songs to sing for our parents. This is also where the yellow shirts come into play. When we met the a group of the parents who were willing to volunteer to help us they voted to have each class wear a different color t-shirt. Our shirt-color is yellow, so if you could please send in a yellow t-shirt so we can put a class picture on it for the celebration. I really need those here by next Friday April 23 so I can start to get the photo's all done. I will take a picture when we have everyone here-so far this week we have not had everyone here. Hobby Lobby and Michael's have the shirts for less than $2.00 until Saturday. You can also purchase them at WalMart, K-Mart or Target. Please let me know if there any other questions about the shirts or the celebration. I will make sure to send more information home as it gets closer.

Keep up the good work with homework. The next cycle of homework will include spelling words. We will study the words all week and then take a test on them on Friday, but the grade will not be entered into the grade book. We just want them to get used to taking a spelling test because they will start taking them the second week of school next year. This can be a bit traumatic for some so we like to practice and get them ready. The words will be word families and a couple of sight words-10 words total. Again we will not be posting these grades so they won't count against the child, but will give them experience so they are ready for next year.

Keep reading those little books, we are doing great with them and we will start addition sometime next week!!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Kindergarten has been doing a great job! Everyone is doing a super job of practicing first grade skills. We are continuing to work on sentence structure and writing as well as decoding words. This week we have been busy learning about farm to get ready for our exciting upcoming field trip! We have gotten to read several fun farm books as well as make some neat farm crafts. Everyone is getting super excited about the field trip.

In math we have moved on to geometry. Yes! Geometry in kindergarten! We are learning about 3D shapes, sphere, cube, cylinder, and cube. We will also be learning about cutting things into equal parts, halves and quarters. Please continue to work on money at home, many students are still having difficult recognizing and counting the coins. We will be coming back to money after we cover addition.

The farm field trip is Monday, April 12th! I hope everyone is ready. Remember, students need to bring a lunch in a disposable bag, and wear sun screen. Students are also encouraged to bring a water bottle. ALL students, AM and PM need to come to school by 8am. We will be leaving around 9am and should be back to school around 1:30pm. If you want to check your student out at 1:30, you may, but they must be signed out in the office.

The kindergarten celebration is coming up on Thursday, May 6th from 6-7:30pm. Students are required to be here at 5:30. You are encouraged to invite all your friends and family to come and see this fabulous performance put on by the kindergarten students. Each class will be singing 2 songs as well as doing a song all together. We have been working very hard in class practicing our songs and hope that everyone can come to celebrate our accomplishments this year.

Dibels testing is coming up next week, students will be tested one last time to see how much progress they have made over the year. To get your student ready for this test, you can be working on sounding out words and using words in sentences. I am confident that we will see much improvement in all the students.

Remember to continue to practice those sight words!

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Ms. Wolters' Class

Good morning! I hope everyone had a great long weekend! Thank you to everyone for coming to conferences; I enjoyed meeting with all of you and sharing the great things your children are doing. Next Monday is our field trip. I did not get all the forms back regarding the lunch so unless you specifically ordered a lunch, please bring a throw away sack lunch for the field trip. The only kids I have down for ordering a lunch are Emmanuel and Rachel so everyone else should bring a sack lunch. Thank you for all the well wishes on my wedding. We had an awesome time and I am glad to be back. I look forward to an awesome week!!

Mrs. King's Class

Just very quickly I wanted to let you know that you have until tomorrow afternoon to put in your scholastic order. I know that a lot of you bought books at the book fair and that you may not be interested in any more books right now, but I just wanted to let any one who might want to take advantage of some of those $1 books that I will wait to send the order in tomorrow afternoon after school if you want to order online or send me your order in the morning! Thanks!!

A big thanks to everyone of you! We had 100% attendance at conferences and everyone came at their assigned time!! I keep saying I have the best group of parents in the school and once again you prove me RIGHT!! Your involvement and help is so appreciated I can't say thank you enough! You truly are the best parents ever!

Remember NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY!!

We have lots of fun stuff coming up so stay tuned for more. Chaperon paperwork went home so if you did not receive any you are still welcome to meet us at the farm and be with your child during the field trip. You will just need to drive yourself and pay your own entrance into the farm. We think it $4.50 and then another $1.00 if you would like ice cream. Please let me know if you are planning to meet us and remember that no younger children may come with you.

Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Wright's Class

Thank you to all of the parents who came to our spring conferences! I had an excellent turnout and was so glad to chat with you about your child's progress. Since we are down to the last 2 months of school we will spend the remainder of the year fine tuning our writing skills, introducing addition and subtraction as well working toward starting the AR reading program. While all students may not get to AR, I would like for your children to be reading at least 1 book per week from our "Book in a Bag" program. If your child is currently in the AR program I would also like them to be checking out at least one AR book and taking the coordinating quiz. Keeping the reading going throughout the summer is going to be critical. You do not want your child to be taking a 2 month break from this essesntial skill. Their success in starting off the year right in first grade will depend on good reading habits. Therefore, I encourage you to all visit the library frequenly or purchase some leveled readers from the book store or Scholastic. I have been so thrilled with the progress of each of the kids in regards to reading and my hope is for you all to continue to nurture that over the summer!

Our kindergarten field trip is scheduled for Monday, April 12th. It will be a regular school day for your child so they should arrive at the normal time (8:00am). We will leave the school at 9:30 am and return at 1:30 pm. Dismissal will go on as always (2:40 pm), however, if you plan on picking your child up early that day please sign them out in the office. The kids are really excited to visit the farm and next week we will begin reading books and doing activities in regards to farmers and farm life. This will be a fun time for all!

I appreciate all of your help and support with our classroom this year. I know I told many of you at conferences that this has been a SPECTACULAR year for me and I am not ready to let go of this class! You have all made it a pleasure to teach your children and I have enjoyed this group of kids so much. If you should have any questions or concerns about the field trip or any other issue, please contact me. I look forward to spending the last 2 months of school with your kids and hope that each of them enjoy the reminder of their year in kindergarten.

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

April is almost here! Can you believe we only have 2 months of school left? I am so proud of how far everyone has come this year it is unbelievable. Keep up the great work at home!

Thank you to everyone who came to parent teacher conferences, it was so nice getting to talk with everyone about their students progress.

The field trip is quickly approaching. Remember, Monday, April 12th is our field trip to Superstition Farms. We will be leaving at 930 and returning at 130. All students should come at 8am in morning and can stay until 250 in the afternoon. If you would like to come and check your student out early after the field trip, you must do so in the office after the field trip.

All parent chaperones have already been picked for the field trip, if you were not picked to be a chaperone, you are still welcome to come to the farm with us. You will have to provide your own transportation to the farm and pay to get in the farm on your own. Remember, no younger siblings can attend.

All students will be required to bring a sack lunch the day of the field trip. Students should bring their lunch in a brown sack that can be thrown away at the farm. We would like to not have anything coming back with us.

Please continue to work with your child at home on money, today we were trying to count nickles and pennies, Thursday we will be counting dimes, pennies, and nickles all together. A lot of students were confused on this topic, your help at home would be appreciated!

This week we will be doing some fun spring/bunny crafts. The students are really excited about the fun crafts we are getting to do. This week is also reading week, hopefully everyone got the schedule of events home last week.

If you have any questions, please email me at ktrowbridge@jocombs.k12.az.us

I hope everyone has a great week!

Mrs. Wright's Class

Happy Spring! I hope everyone enjoyed their week off. We are back into the swing of school and your kids have done a great job remembering our classroom rules and routines. This week we have conferences on Thursday and Friday so both days will be early release at 11:00 am. I look forward to discussing your child's progress with you at your scheduled time.

This week we will be reviewing money and time. We will most likely finish this chapter in math and will take our test on Friday. Please continue to practice with your child the value and recognition of coins at home. This is a difficult standard to master at their young age, therefore, we need lots of practice. In reading and writing we are continuing our quest to learn the required sight words. We are putting together a poetry book for some of the sight words we have mastered. This will be a fun gift for your child to bring home at the end of the year. They have enjoyed making it. We are also spending some time learning about spring weather. We have done several writing activities that you will get to see in our classroom about spring. I think we all love this time of year!

Our field trip is quickly approaching and it is important that you have all paperwork and money in to me by this Friday, March 26th. If you have any questions or need an extra permission slip, let me know ASAP. Anyone without a permission slip will not be able to attend our trip on April 12th. I have also selected the parent chaperones. With bus limitations each teacher was only allowed to bring 5 parents. If you were not chosen to chaperone do feel free to meet us at the farm, but realize that no other children or siblings will be allowed to attend the trip. The farm is opening up just for our group and have requested that only parents and kindergarten students attend.

The Scholastic book order was due on March 12th. We only had one family order so I would like to extend the ordering time until March 31st. Please look at the books online at, http://clubs.scholastic.com/parentordering/login, and see if there are some selections your kids would like for their summer reading. It will be important to keep reading for the break in order to keep the progression going. The login information is:

Class User Name: twrightsimontonkinder
Password: Stallions

If you have difficulty with the site or would like to send a paper order in, that is fine too.

Thanks so much for your continued support!

Mrs. King's Class

First, I hope everyone had an enjoyable Spring Break! I did, my son's baseball team played in a tournament in Tucson and I got to watch 4 days worth of games.

A couple of reminders for upcoming events-Kindergarten Field Trip monies are due by this Friday. I will try to remind you at conference if I don't have your paperwork. Also if you are interested in Chaperoning please check that on the permission slip. We can only take five parents on the bus, so on Friday I will be drawing names out of a hat to decide who will ride with us. I will send home paperwork to those five parents on Monday who were chosen. If you are not chosen to go, you are still welcome to attend. You will just need to drive your own vehicle to the farm, pay your own way in and remember that your child is already a part of an assigned group and while you may stay with your child-your child MUST STAY with the assigned group! Also remember that no siblings are allowed to attend.

Parent Teacher Conferences are scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Please come to the outside door and peek in to make sure the previous conference has concluded. If I am with someone, please have a seat in the chairs outside and I will get to you as quickly as possible. Your students are encouraged to come to the conference with you and report cards will be given to you at this time.

Next, Thursday, April 1. We will be celebrating SPRING! Mrs. Foster is looking for parents who would like to come in a help with our fun celebration activities. We will be doing special activities from 11:30 to approximately 2:15 or so. If you would like to help please contact her at: jfoster4000@yahoo.com or send me a note and I will pass it on to her.

The book fair is also going on this week. Tomorrow Morning is Muffins with Mom. The book fair will be open before school to allow you to stop by with your child. Children must be accompanied by an adult to attend the book fair before school. We will be preview the book fair tomorrow during our regular library special. The books are buy one get one free and they do have some very nice books for less than $5.00.

Next week we will also be celebrating Read Across America here at Simonton. A flyer will be sent home to explain all the fun activities we will be doing that related to reading! So be ready to read, read, read!

I look forward to visiting with each family at Parent/Teacher Conferences this week! See you at your assigned time!

P.S.
I have only gotten 1 yellow t-shirt for the celebration. We really need to start getting those in so that we have time to get the photo printed on them and get them back to you to be worn at the celebration.

Mrs. King's Class

Sorry it's been a while since I have given you any updates. It's been a bit crazy in kindergarten this last week. We have been busy working on third quarter assessments and Report Cards that will go home during Parent/Teacher Conferences. Conference appointment letters have gone home with every child. Please take a moment and clip the bottom portion and return it to me before Friday. I have a couple of parents who need to reschedule and I need to know what times might be available. I have gotten 15 of them back already so Thank you so much for returning them so quickly.

Academically the class is doing quite well. We are working on time-the hour and the half-hour, which is presenting a bit of a challenge for a few, so you might want to review that over Spring Break. We have also been working on rhyming and word families as well as reading our little books like crazy. After break we will be doing money-penny, nickle, dime, quarter and dollar bill. Mostly we will work on recognized each coin with it's name and value, another thing that can be worked on over Spring Break.

This Friday, March, 12, 2020, we will be doing "Pack your Snack in a Sack". We have been working on rhyming patterns the past couple of weeks and this is just a little fun thing I like to do. Your child just needs to bring a juice box, water or other healthy drink (NO SODA) along with a simple healthy snack-a half a sandwich-a few crackers or pretzels or any other simple healthy snack-please no cookies, doughnuts or other really sweet items and nothing that needs to be refrigerated or extremely messy or hard to ear. We will decorate a brown paper sack in the morning and put our snacks in them. At snack time we will be going out to the field to have our snacks and enjoying the hopefully warm sunshine.

We have had a couple of incidents of minor bullying in our classroom so I feel it is worth just mentioning here and having you talk as families to help your child understand what bullying is and why it is important not to be a bully and what to do if someone is bullying them. First all the children need to understand that saying things like: "I am going to kill you" or "My dad is going to beat you up" or "I am going to shoot you" or any other threatening statements are considered bullying at school. The school has a zero tolerance for bullying and since we have talked extensively the last couple of days about this in class anyone continuing to use these statements or other bullying actions will be referred to Mr. Hamm and they will be suspended from school. Also the inappropriate use of scissors, pencils or other objects that could hurt another child is an immediate referral. Again we have talked in class extensively about these things and the children should have a pretty good understanding of what bullying is and what to do if they are feeling threatened. I also thought that the parents needed a clear understanding of what we expect at school and it would give families a chance to talk about these issues and remind them about how we need to be treating our classmates. Please also remember if your child is on the receiving end of any kind of aggressive behavior to make sure they know they need to come and tell me immediately. We want everyone to feel safe and secure at school and want to maintain a positive safe environment for each and every student. So please make sure I know about any of this kind of behavior.

On a more positive note we have lots of fun things coming up. Our Field Trip to the Superstition Farm is planned for April 12. That is a Monday. Printed information will come home by Friday. Keep in mind that I can only take 5 parent chaperones with us on the bus. Other parents will be able to meet us at the farm, but other children or siblings will NOT be allowed at the farm! The farm is normally closed on Mondays and they are making a special exception for us to come and have asked that only the kindergarten students be allowed to attend that day. The cost for the field trip is $8.00 which includes entrance into the farm, ice cream at the farm and the transportation to and from the farm. Again all the printed information will be sent home by Friday.

Celebration Shirts- please remember we are doing a celebration shirt with a class photo on it to wear the night of the celebration. I have not yet received any shirts so please be on the look out for sales and get those into me as soon as possible. It will take a while to get them printed a ready to wear. Our color is yellow.

There will be no homework sent home this Friday because of Spring Break. Please continue to read with your child and practice with the time and money if you have some extra time. We will sent new packets home on Tuesday, when we return. I hope everyone has a great break. Please be safe!

Ms. Trowbridge's class

This week in kindergarten we will be focusing on perfecting our phonics skills. We will be working on sounding out words as well as decoding words. We will also be writing in our journals. I am so impressed with how well everyone is doing on their writing skills. The journals they turned into me yesterday were amazing! Keep up the great work of practicing at home.

This week we will finish up our time telling section. We are learning how to read analog and digital clocks to the hour. So far everyone is doing a great job of figuring out how to tell time. After spring break we will begin money. I have introduced a few money songs that you might ask your students to sing to you at home but after spring break we will really dive into telling the difference between and counting money.

This week has been full of assessments and I can not believe the progress everyone has made since the beginning of the year. I can see growth in everyone!

Conference slips went home today. Please mark on the bottom portion whether or not you will be able to come to your assigned time. I know the paper says the 25th and 26th but obviously I cannot fit everyone into those two days so some of you might be scheduled for a different day. I am really excited to get to share the growth of your students with you.

Please continue to bring in those tshirts, remember, AM students need a red tshirt and PM students need a navy blue tshirt. I am getting a lot in so keep it up! Remember, we need all shirts by the end of March.

We are still in need of copy paper. If you are able to donate copy paper I would appreciate it!

Next week is spring break, I hope everyone has a fabulous break. Remember to continue to read with your child each night as well as review things they learned in school. This would be a great time to practice money, time, or sight words!

The week after spring break and during conferences is the school wide book fair. Please consider going to the book fair with your child to help support our school. The library will be closed during that time so if your child is in AR he or she will not be able to check out books during that time.

I hope everyone has a great break, let me know if you have any questions.

Mrs. Wright's Class

It is our last week until spring break and I am seeing quite a change in the students’ behavior. We have been very chatty and "excited" this last week so I hope that all of the energy will be used constructively during their week off. Regardless, they are doing super with their reading, writing and math skills. Last week I introduced money to the students. A few of the kids were familiar with the coins, but as a whole we need a lot more practice recognizing and counting money. This would be a great skill to practice over spring break! We will spend this week and our first week back after break working with money...they will get it.

We are filling up our word wall. Each week I introduce one or two new words and the kids are getting them. Most all of the students are able to read the list and have been practicing their sight word ring I sent home. Thanks for the reinforcement it is making a huge difference. In AR and reading news it seems like we are adding one student a week to the AR program. Your kids continue to amaze me with the reading skills that they have acquired! All of them are doing super with our reading programs so...Thank you!

Conferences are quickly approaching and I look forward to meeting with each of you March 24th - 26th. A note about your scheduled time should be going home this week, be looking for that. If there is an issue with the time/date, please contact me immediately to make changes! During conferences I will be showing you work samples from your child, their journal writing, going over the third quarter report card and most importantly you will all see our Flat Stanley project. We have finished most of the Flat Stanley books in the series and have started on to another chapter book favorite "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". It has been a joy for all of us in reading these books. I would encourage you to find a chapter book to share with your child at home during the break and even throughout summer. They all are excited about the stories and keep up quite well with what is going on. During the week of conferences March 22-26th) we will also have our school-wide book fair going in the library. Please feel free to stop by and get some great books. They will have a "buy one get one free" deal going on, so come in and check it out!

Well, I hope all of the students enjoy the week off and find some fun things to do to occupy their time. Before we know it the break will be over and I will be visiting with each of you...I look forward to it!

Ms. Wolters' Class

I can't believe March is here already!! The kids have been doing great with decoding words, reading sight words and reading their little books. When they finish the list of books they get to move on to AR reading and they can earn points and prizes. We have three students who are AR reading and the rest of the kids are anxious for their turns. Thank you for your help reading with the kids at home. Your help is a very important part of their success. Thank you to Mrs. Arellano and Mrs. Baker who have come to help read the little books with the kids. By myself I usually can't get through all of them in one day so I am grateful for the help.

We have been writing a lot in our journals. I am very impressed with how far the kids have come with sounding out words and writing them. In math we have been learning about time to the hour and counting money. So far we have learned to count pennies and nickels. If you could let your child practice counting nickels and pennies at home, that would be very helpful.

I hope you all read the post to all kinder families. We need to have a green t-shirt for our celebration in May. The t-shirts were on sale at Michaels for $2.50. We will be singing some nursery rhymes for our end of the year celebration.

As most of you know I am getting married in Hawaii next Friday!! I will be gone March 9th-24th and I will be back to meet with you for conferences. Mrs. Banner will be our sub and the kids love having her. I look forward to meeting with you and sharing the work your child has been doing. Have a great rest of the week!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

March is here! Hooray! Everyone was very excited to see our new calendar, poems, and songs. Ask your student if they can sing you any of the new songs! They are tricky.

This week we are going to try to figure out our ending sounds. Everyone did a great job today so I think we will all catch on quickly.

Everyone has taken the chapter 6 math test so we are ready to start chapter 7, time and money. Please make sure you are talking with your student about the different types of coins and paper money. We need to be able to tell the difference between the coins as well as how much they are worth. In time we will be discussing hour and half hours as well as reading both the digital and analog clocks. Talk with your student what the different hands mean.

We will be starting something new this week, I will be quizzing students on their sight words. When they have all their sight words mastered, they will get a paper ribbon to hang on the tree in our classroom. Please practice the sight words with your student each night so everyone can earn a ribbon for the tree. I have sight word flash cards already made up, if you would like them, click here to download them. Please note these have been updated with new words, if I have sent them to you in email, there are new ones added to the bottom.

I have been getting lots of Tshirts! Thank you to everyone who has already brought in their Tshirts. Remember, AM needs a red Tshirt and PM needs a navy blue Tshirt by the end of March. We will be putting a special picture on each of them and we will wear them the night of our kindergarten celebration coming up in May. More information will be coming home at a later date about our kindergarten celebration in May.

We had a much better amount of homework turned in this round. Please remember that this is the key to helping your child be successful this year and especially next year. Getting into a good homework routine is vital for the success of your child for their entire schooling career.

We need paper! If you are able to donate a ream of white copy paper, I would appreciate it.

Spring conferences are coming up the week after spring break. Notices about when your spring conference is scheduled for should come home sometime next week. Please try your hardest to keep the appointment you have scheduled. If you must switch, please let me know and I can try to fit you in somewhere else. Conferences will take place Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in order for me to get all conferences done.

Thank you to everyone for your great support in and outside the classroom. Keep up the great work! If you have any questions, please email me. Ktrowbridge@jocombs.k12.az.us

Mrs. Wright's Class

It is almost spring...HOORAY! I think our class is feeling a bit of spring fever already with a lot of talking and jitters in class. We are working with staying focused and following our classroom rules, chat with your child this week about what it means to be on task in our classroom. I will be at a educational conference for the remainder of the week. We will have our trusted and loved substitute in place, Mrs. Ferguson. Please realize that things may be a bit different the next couple of days. I know she will try to keep things as consistent as possible in our classroom.

We have started working on parts of a word and have almost mastered the ending sound. We will soon begin working on the middle sound and hopefully this will help in decoding and writing words. In math we are still working on telling time to the hour. The kids have done great with this and next week we will move on to learning about money. We have started our reading groups and I am working in small groups with each of the kids. This is giving me a lot of insight on what special skills your child may be struggling with and ways to help them along in the reading process. I will have ideas and data to share with you at conference time regarding your child's progress.

I hope you have all read a previous post for parents regarding our kindergarten celebration. Every class is wearing a specific colored t-shirt and our color is white. Michael's craft store has them on sale this week for $2.50 or any white t-shirt that is new will work too. If you are unable to get a shirt for your child by the end of March, please let me know and we can make arrangements. Our classroom is also in need of some items: Hand Sanitizer, Lysol wipes and baby wipes. If you are able to send an item in with your child, it would be greatly appreciated. Well, I hope the rest of the week goes great...I will see you all on Monday.

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Can you believe this is the last week of February? Next week will be March and we are looking forward to learning new songs and poems. The last couple of weeks we have had a nursery rhyme competition going on between girls and boys on who can sing their nursery rhymes better. The students are really getting a kick out of this and I see them practicing their nursery rhymes every chance they get. Hopefully they are practicing them at home for you to hear as well!

This week we are focusing on middle sounds. Some students have already mastered hearing the middle sound and some need some extra practice. Encourage your student to sound out words at home and tell you what the middle sound is. Next week we will be moving on to the ending sound. Hopefully this will really help those struggling with sounding words out.

Please continue to work on those sight words. The list of sight words given out in the beginning of the year must be mastered before first grade. I already have had several students read me the whole ring! If you need another list of sight words, please let me know.

Hopefully most of you have read the posting to all kindergarten parents. Our kindergarten celebration is quickly approaching and we need t-shirts! AM students need a plain red shirt, and PM students need a plain navy blue shirt. We will be putting something special on these shirts so would like them all to be turned in by the end of March. Please write your child's name on the tag so we know it is theirs! Also, I know there are some families out there who may not be able to purchase a shirt, if you are unable to purchase a shirt, please let me know as soon as possible so I can make other arrangements.

This week we will be finishing up Chapter 6 in our math books, measurement and weight. The students have really enjoyed getting to measure different objects with unifix cubes as well as see how much things weigh. Our next chapter is time and money. Please start introducing your child to penny, nickle, dime, and quarter. This is learned purely by memorization so the more you introduce them to it, the quicker they will catch on.

I hope everyone has a great week, if you have any questions, please contact me.

Mrs. King's Class

This week just flew by. It will be March before we know it. Just a few notes on what we have been doing.

We finished up Chapter 6 in our Math book and are on to Chapter 7 which will cover Time and Money-this includes the months of the year, days of the week and important terms like today, yesterday and tomorrow as well as time to the half hour and recognizing the coins and begin counting simple combinations of coins. We are writing our numbers to 100 and doing a great job. Everyone also counts to 100! Yea!

We are reading like crazy. The little books are coming in at a rapid rate! Great Work Parents!!! They are just like sponges and are soaking up the rhyming and ending sounds, learning about CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words, word families, and have pretty much mastered most of the first 12 sight words. Keep practicing and reading at home because it makes such a difference here in the classroom!

We are also beginning to write words and sentences. We are learning about spacing, capitalization and ending punctuation and will begin keeping a journal next month. They are sounding out words to spell and doing a great job on handwriting most of the time.

Just a note that if your child came home with a green or yellow today-it was mostly for talking. We are still having a tough time some days remembering to listen when Mrs. King is talking instead of visiting with our neighbors. Not a huge deal, but we do a great job for a while and then slowly we work back into the talk, talk, talk mode again.

We had a great visit from one of the other kindergartner's dad who is a dentist this week. They got to see inside the dentist office and learn all about exactly what happens when you go to the dentist. Each child also go a bag of goodies to take home. It was a fun presentation.

Thanks to all who participated in the cookie dough fundraiser for PTO. They really do a lot for the school and every penny made goes right back here to Simonton. We all appreciate all the work they do for us!

Also thanks for all those who helped with our Valentine Celebration last week-they children really seemed to enjoy it so THANKS!!!

Please read the All Kindergarten Parent Post about the t-shirts for the celebration. Remember our color is yellow. It doesn't have to be from Michael's if you have another source please feel free to use it. Also I can't stress enough if there is a budget issue at your home, please contact me!!! I don't want this to be another burden on your family. We have several avenues we can pursuit to get the shirts.

Hope you all have a great weekend and I will see all your lovely, wonderful children back on Monday morning!

I will be watching baseball on Saturday! MY FAVORITE!

ATTENTION ALL SIMONTON KINDERGARTEN PARENTS:

This is for all of our kindergarten parents.

At the parent meeting for our celebration, the group of gathered parents decided that this year we would do matching class T-shirts for our celebration. Each teacher has now chosen a color and we are asking that parents purchase a new t-shirt in that color in the appropriate size for their child. We are sending this out now so you have plenty of time to purchase the shirts and also because Michael's is having a sale this weekend the t-shirts are $2.50 per shirt. The following are the class colors:

Mrs. King's Class: Yellow
Mrs. Wright's Class: White
Mrs. Wolters' Class: Green
Ms. Trowbridge AM Class: Red
Ms. Trowbridge PM Class: Navy Blue

If you have any questions please feel free to contact your child's teacher. Also we do understand the economic times and if your family does not have the extra funds in their budget to purchase the shirt, please contact your child's teacher and she will make arrangements for shirt. We don't want anyone to feel this to be a burden or not participate because of the shirts.

Mrs. Wright's Class

We have had a busy couple of weeks! To catch everyone up to speed with what has been going on in class here are the highlights:

-we are reading and decoding words like crazy
-the students are learning to have an "ear" for ending and middle sounds in words
-we are writing in our journals and have talked about punctuation, capitalization and finger spacing between words
-our class loves books and we have been looking at different art techniques in stories that illustrators use...we have even tried a few
-we are rhyming real and nonsense words
-the kids have started learning about time
-we are studying and celebrating Black History Month
-it is Dental Health Month so we enjoyed a great presentation today about keeping our teeth healthy...thanks Dr. Goates!
-we can count to 100 by ones, fives and tens
-daily we are receiving our Flat Stanley's in the mail...the kids love it!
-we have made it through 6 of the Flat Stanley chapter books during our read aloud time after lunch...there is no stopping us now!
-we enjoyed our Valentine card exchange
-we are looking for signs that spring and warm weather is on its way

So in all, we continue to have fun with and while we are learning. Your kids are doing great and I look forward to bragging about each of them during our spring conferences in March. Without your support and involvement, their success would not be as grand as it is so...THANK YOU!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

I hope everyone had a fabulous 3 day weekend! This week we are going to concentrate on math, we are a little behind in math from the other classes so we will primarily be working on math. We are working on our measurement chapter. We are figuring out what would hold more and how much things weigh. This would be the perfect opportunity to have your students help you in the kitchen! Let them figure out what would hold more such as cups or bowls. This is a pretty easy chapter that they grasp easily so I hope to be done with it this week so we can catch up with the other classes.

Tomorrow the morning class will be participating in a dental presentation. We are hoping to learn lots since this is dental hygiene month. This would be a great opportunity to talk about the correct way to brush your teeth.

Please continue to practice writing sentences at home. We are working each day in our journals and some students are still struggling to fill in the blanks of the sentences. Also, remind your students while they are working on homework about the need for capital letters, spacing, and a period at the end.

Progress reports went home on Friday. Dibels scores were attached to them. If you have any questions about either of these, please let me know.

I hope everyone has a great week. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me! ktrowbridge@jocombs.k12.az.us

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Everyone is working so hard on their fun Valentine activities. Yesterday everyone got to make their Valentine bags that we will be using for our card exchange. Don't forget, Friday is our card exchange party. Remember to bring your Valentine cards on or before Friday so we can pass them out. PM class, we got a new student, Caleb, so make sure you make a Valentine for him too.

This week we wrote about what we love and they are hanging up in our room. Feel free to stop by anytime to see what everyone loves. I am so proud of how far everyone has come with their handwriting and sounding words out.

Next week we are going to start learning to hear the middle sound of a word. Almost everyone is doing a fabulous job of sounding words out so hopefully hearing the middle sound will not be too tricky.

Keep up the great work of the little readers. I am so proud of everyone and how far they have come on their reading and decoding skills.

We still need donations for our fun center boxes. Please look at the previous posting for stuff needed.

Classroom donations: We are still in need of glue sticks! We go through lots of glue in kindergarten and are in need of more. We also need dry erase markers and copy paper! If you can donate I would appreciate it!

Keep working on that homework. Remember, homework packets are due this Friday, a new one will also go home on Friday. Homework is essential in half day kindergarten to get them where they need to be for first grade.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week and don't forget, no school on Monday!

Mrs. King's Class

REMINDER!!!!

Tomorrow is our Valentine's Day Celebration activities. Valentine Cards need to be brought to school tomorrow morning. Remember to just have your child sign 24 of them, you do not put the other children's names on any of the cards.

Ghost Toast:
At our last celebration we did and activity called Ghost Toast. I promised the children I would put the directions on the Blog so they could make it at home. Don't worry it is very simple and quite fun. Of course, I forgot so I am making good on my promise.

Ingredients:

Whole or 2% Milk-just a couple of tablespoons for each color
Food Coloring
Bread-white bread works best but wheat can be used as well the colors just don't come out as bright.

Butter, Cinnamon and Sugar or other favorite toast topping.

Mix the food coloring with the milk. Use a paint brush (you can get a package of ten in the craft department of Walmart for 97 cents) to paint a picture or design on the bread. Only do one side. Toast the bread in a toaster. Add butter and favorite toast topping. Eat and Enjoy.

Next Progress Reports will come home on Friday. Please check your child's folder for them. I won't be here but the substitute should put them in the folders. The entire class is doing very well. I am very proud of them.

Remember Cookie Dough Orders are due on Tuesday, February 16th.


Last thing I also promised to post directions to one of my sons baseball games. The reason I will be gone on Friday is I am attending my son's college baseball games out of state. He does plays for Cochise College down in southern Arizona. Most of the children expressed interest in coming to a game. Well, they wanted to go with me on Friday. Unfortunately, we all know that is impossible but the team does play a few games nearby. They will be here in town-well close on Saturday, February 20th. They play two games at Chandler/Gilbert College which is just off Gilbert and the 202. The games are at 12:00 and 2:30. If you have nothing to do that Saturday afternoon and want to enjoy a baseball game. You are welcome to bring the kids and come join me. It is free.

I hope you all have a great three day weekend. Remember no school on Monday.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Mrs. King's Class

Just a couple of quick reminders for the weekend. The scholastic online book order is still available. So if you want to take advantage of any of those $1 books, please either log on and order or send in the paper order by Monday.

Also a big thanks to those who have donated items for our "daily living" boxes. We are still taking donations for those so check your closets and your cupboards.

Remember that our Valentine Celebration is on Thursday, February 11. I will be out of town on Friday. So please remember to send in the signed Valentines by Thursday.

Today we were able to write our numbers all the way to 100!!! YEA! I have never had a class that was able to do that by the end of the year so these guys are really moving along. Keep reading! Have a great weekend!!!

Mrs. Wright's Class

We are feeling "love"ly these days and are spending time in class talking about what love and friendship means to us. The kids did a cute writing activity today about what love means to them, stop by the room to see how cute their response was! We are also doing Valentine crafts and working on Chapter 7 in math, time and money. The kids are doing awesome with their reading. We have a couple of classmates in the AR program and I hope to have all kids trying the tests before the end of the year.

Tomorrow a note about our Valentine card exchange will be going home. Please check your child's folder for that information and let me know if you have any questions. We will not be doing a party, just some crafts and a Valentine Movie. Please be watching next week for your child's progress report. Their most recent DIBELS scores will be attached as well. The kids overall did great and we are working in our reading groups on the skills we still might be struggling with.

I will be out on Friday, so a substitute is in place. The kids will not be bringing a new book home if you send one in on Friday and will not have to turn in homework until next week. I anticipate all things will go smoothly and told the kids I would be out. I will be back on Monday ready to go again. Keep up all of your hard work...your kids are all doing SUPER!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Happy February! This week we are working on some fun Valentine's projects. We are working hard at matching our letters, beginning sounds, and color words. We will also get to do some fun Valentine's Day patterns.

We have also started reading groups on Wednesday. I will be pulling small groups to focus on the skills that those individuals need to be successful this year and in first grade. The other students will be working in "fun centers" including playdoh, puzzles, listening centers, watercolors, and memory games. I am hoping that this will give each student the individualize learning time that they need with me to be successful.

In math we will be starting a new chapter dealing with measurement. We will get to figure out how long things are using unifix cubes as well as people and shoes! We will also get to weigh things and guess how many unifix cubes something weighs.

Yesterday I sent home a list of names so everyone can get started on their Valentine's cards. Please remember if you are going to do cards, a card must be given to everyone so no one gets hurt feelings. This is great handwriting practice so please encourage your child to write their own Valentine's. I tried to give everyone their list early so they would have plenty of time to write them all.

Please remember that our homework has changed to a two week calendar, I did not get very many homework packets turned in this last time. Homework is a very important part of kindergarten especially in a half day program. It is the supplement to my teachings and it is what will keep them up with the students in the full day program. Since your child is enrolled in a half day class, activities at home are essential to keeping your child on track to be successful in first grade. Please try your hardest to complete all the tasks on the homework and turn it in on time.

We are still in need of glue sticks and dry erase markers, if you can donate please send them with your child.

I hope everyone has a super week, if you have any questions, please contact me!

Mrs. King's Class

Well, it's the first Monday of February and the days just keeps flying by. Valentine's Day will be here soon and today in the folders a pink sheet went home about our Valentine's Celebration. Please read the information and if and let me know if there is an issue in supplying the needed item. I fully understand that some budget just don't have any wiggle room. So please don't let it be a burden just e-mail me and we will take care of it. Also I just wanted to also explain how I do the Valentine Cards. NO LIST is be sent home! Please have your child sign their name on 24 cards. That's it-DON'T PUT ANY NAMES OF THE OUTSIDE OF THE CARDS OR ENVELOPES. You are welcome to put a treat or something with the cards but Kindergartners are just too young to try to match up all the right names with the right bag and it becomes a nightmare and we end up with children in tears! If they are just signed your child will simply drop one Valentine into each of their classmates bags and it is fast, easy and NO TEARS! So remember NO LIST will be sent.

Next, I also sent home in folders today the PTO Cookie Dough Fund Raiser. This is the last big fund raiser PTO will do for the year. Please don't send your child door to door, only have them sell to people you know. Orders and Money are due back on February 12th. If you chose not to participate that is fine, just send the packet back to school. Delivery for the Cookie Dough will be the First week in March I believe. You will need to come to the school and pick it up as it will be way to hard to send it on the buses or for the children to carry it home. I will give you the exact date and times so that you can be prepared.

We have lost one of our Math Books. I am not sure if someone accidentally took it home so if you could look around and in your child's room for a red soft bound math book. It has a cute Dalmatian puppy on the front cover. If you find it, I would appreciate sending it back to school. We are not done with them yet and I don't have a replacement for it.

On Friday a purple flyer went home in folders asking for Parent Volunteers to help with our Kindergarten Celebration. We will be having a very short meeting with those interesting in volunteering right after early release on Wednesday, February 10. If you are interested please fill out the form and return it to school. If you didn't get the flyer and would like to help just send me an e-mail. We are looking for people to help with decorations, props, refreshments and other various items related to the celebration.

I also e-mailed the new snack list home today. If you didn't get one or have trouble opening it either e-mail me or send me a note. I can either make you a hard copy of send you the date your child has snack.

The children are doing a great job reading their little books and turning in their homework. I can't thank you enough for being so supportive and making this first learning experience for your children such a positive and rewarding one. I am amazed every day at how quickly they are learning and growing and it is because they have such great support at home!! Thanks again for all you do to support our efforts here at school. It will pay dividend for a life-time for your children.

Mrs. Wright's Class

What a great week we had! We spent a lot of time reading, learning how to decode words and rhyming. We also finished up our measurement chapter. We did not have time to get to our little books Thursday or Friday so I apologize. Monday all students will come home with a new book if they brought it back to school. Don't forget to bring in your Flat Stanley by next Friday and look for a school fundraiser packet to be sent home February 1st. The class with the most sales will win a pizza party...let's try for that! Thanks to all of you who donated shoes for our "Soles for Souls" drive. Our class had a wonderful amount of shoes to donate. The people in Haiti will sure appreciate them. Thanks for your support. I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend, I have heard sunshine is in the forecast...ENJOY!

Mrs. Wright's Class

This week we have been busy wrapping up our "winter unit" and learning about some of the fun things winter brings. We are also finishing our measurement chapter in math and will begin Chapter 7 next week. Our writing is coming along and today we learned the sight word can. In class your child is making their own sight word ring that will come home next week in their book bag. Please practice these sight words nightly in addition to reading your little books.

Our class is looking forward to February. We will be celebrating friendship and Black History all month. On Friday, February 12th we will have a card exchange in class. There will be more information to go home about that soon. I am sure you have all been introduced to our favorite book character Flat Stanley. He should have made it home this week and I ask that he be returned by February 5th so we can mail him away for some fun adventures. The kids have enjoyed reading the Flat Stanley series and we can't wait to see where his travels take him.

Your kids are doing super and they continue to amaze me in their daily work. I am seeing great progress and hope that you are too.

Attention Kindergarten Families:

The kindergarten team will be starting a new unit soon called Practical Life Skills. We are really excited to introduce this unit to the children and think you and your child will really enjoy it! We will have several centers within the classroom that encourage your child to practice life skills.

One center will be to encourage children to dress themselves entirely. This center will allow children to put on clothes (over their own clothes) to practice buttoning, zipping, tying shoes, as well as hanging clothes back on a hanger, folding and sorting laundry.

Another center will be designed to teach children food preparation and serving. This center will allow children to prepare a simple snack for their class, set a table properly, serve their class and pour from a pitcher.

Another center will be set up as an office. Here children will be able to play simple computer games to practice keyboarding skills, there will be an unplugged telephone set up so children can pretend to dial their phone number and have a phone conversation. There will also be a digital and analytical clock so children can practice telling time with a partner.

Another center will be designed to help facilitate basic math with everyday materials. Your child will have an opportunity to work with a partner to use a calculator to practice learning numbers and doing simple math. As well as learn simple addition and subtraction using measuring cups, rulers, and more.

There will also be a job oriented station where children will have an opportunity to dress up as a certain professional, and learn about what it is like to be a fireman, policeman, pilot, truck driver, teacher, etc.

In order to implement this great new unit into the classroom, we are asking for any donations that you would be willing to contribute. Below is a list of materials we will need. If you are unable to donate the materials below, but would still like to contribute, please feel free to donate monetary funds and the teachers will disperse the funds where they are most needed. Donations should be given to your child's teacher. Thank you all for your help and support, we are looking forward to getting started.

LIST OF SUPPLIES NEEDED:
large button down shirts
large pants with zippers and buttons
large tennis shoes with long laces
hangers
socks
zip up sweaters
laundry baskets
paper cups
paper plates
cutting board
plastic spoons, knives, and forks
pouring pitcher
digital and analytical (clock with hands) clocks
telephone
old keyboards
calculator
ruler
measuring cups
any dress up outfits of occupations (please do not send in fictional characters)

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

I hope everyone had a great week! We have another week full of fun activities and lessons. Today we got to take home our I Can Do It Books. Please read the poems with your student and talk with them about the poems. When you are done with the books, please return them. I would like all notebooks back by this Friday, January 26th. This way we can continue to fill them up!

Scholastic book orders also went home today. If you would like to order books from any of the catalogs you can do so until February 5th. Remember, you can also order online at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs the user name is trowbridgekinder and the password is scholastic. For every order we have online, our class gets a free book!

This week we are going to hopefully finish up our chapter on patterns and move to measurement. Almost everyone in class is able to complete the patterns or make their own patterns. We will also be learning about the -op family as well as figuring out what number comes before and after other numbers.

AM parents, I am in need of a volunteer every Wednesday from 9-10. If you are able to come on Wednesdays, please let me know.

The school is having a shoe drive to help the survivors of Haiti, if you have new or gently used shoes of any size that you would like to donate to the drive, please send them to school with your child in a plastic bag.

Supplies - We are in need of dry erase markers and glue sticks. If you would be able to donate to our class, we would appreciate it!

Valentine's Day is coming up! On Friday, February 12th, we will be having out Valentine's card exchange. I will be sending home a list of names and everyone is encouraged to give Valentine's to each of their friends. If you choose to participate in Valentine exchange, please understand that one needs to be made for each child so feeling do not get hurt. If you would like a jump on buying them, we have 27 students in the morning class and 24 in the afternoon.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week, if you have any questions, please contact me!

Ms. Wolters' Class

I just wanted to let you know in advance, I am getting married in Hawaii on March 12th. I will be gone March 9-12 and March 23. I know it is hard for the kids when I am gone but rest assure that they will do fine with our sub Mrs. Banner. She has subbed for me before and the kids loved her. I will be back in time to meet with all of you for conferences. When I come back I will be Mrs. Spooner. I have told the kids and they get a kick out the name. I can't wait to come back to show the kids pictures of waterfalls and beautiful scenery.

Ms. Wolters' Class

Good morning!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I would like to send out a huge thank you to Ms. Jordan for donating a basket of sand toys for our kiddos!!! This is very much appreciated since we lost access to the preschoolers' toys when they relocated. I also want to thank Mrs. Arellano for offering to come in each week to help read with us. This is also appreciated greatly!! The more help I can get, the more your children will benefit.

In math we have been working hard on patterning and now we have moved on to measurement. We will be measuring everything in the room using different units of measure.

We have been working hard on our journals every day and the students are doing a great job. They help me sound out the words for our writing prompt and then they fill in the blank.

The kids are doing great with their little readers. Thank you for helping read with them at home as they can not wait to show me how well they are doing.

I saw a few comments on the survey about the homework being inadequate. If you feel the homework is too hard for your child, please adjust it accordingly. If you feel it is too easy there are plenty of websites you can go to for extra work such as www.starfall.com.

Thanks so much for all you do and have a great week!!!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

This week in kindergarten we will be learning and creating all different patterns. We will be using ourselves, toys, as well as coloring our own patterns. We will also be focusing on the -an family as well as the -op family. Everyone is doing so well at figuring out these word families, please encourage your student to sing you the word family songs.

Yesterday we celebrated the 100th day of school. We got to do some fun crafts including 100 exercises, collect 100 things, and find a surprise message in a 100 chart.

We have been busy writing in our journals almost everyday. Everyone is getting so good at sounding out their own words. Please continue to encourage your child to sound out words at home too.

A new homework calendar went home on Friday, if you did not get one, please let me know. Remember, this calendar is good for two weeks and all assignments should be turned in on the Friday of the second week. I realize that this calendar has taken some getting use to but this will help them transition into the first grade homework calendar better as well as really fine tune the work we do in class.

I hope everyone has a great week, if you have any questions, please contact me.

Mrs. Wright's Class

Happy 100th Day of School! It seems hard to believe that we have been in school for 100 days. Time sure flies. Your kids are 100 days smarter that is for sure. Today we will be doing fun learning activities all relating to the number 100. Ask your child about some of the things we did today.

For the rest of the week we will continue on with Chapter 6, measurement, in math. We are learning to measure classroom items with many creative things. We are also spending some time reviewing numbers 0-30 since some of us still struggle with this skill. Please continue to practice writing and recognizing these numbers.

Everyone is doing such a wonderful job with their reading and we are adding new sight words to our word wall each week. We are also becoming very good at writing sentences and sounding out words. These skills will take practice and you will notice that some of the homework requires writing. Please practice this at home. It will be a skill necessary for your children to succeed in first grade.

I sent a book order home last week. If you are interested in ordering, please do so before Friday, January 22nd. Building your child's home library is a wonderful way to encourage reading and supports their success in reading.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the extra day off to relax yesterday. We have a busy and fun filled week ahead.

Mrs. King's Class

Another week of school has come and gone. It's been crazy. We are doing better on our behavior and I know with a little more work we can improve it even more.

I got several notes about the new homework calendar, so I thought I better clarify a few things for everyone. You will notice that we changed the calendar a little bit. There is no homework listed for Monday-it's a holiday, but there is homework on the first Friday. You are welcome to split up the homework however you need to so that it will meet your families needs. I know that some nights are busier than others so if you need to take a night off and split it up over the other days please do-if your week is just too busy and you need to do most of it on the weekend, that's ok too. We will not have homework listed on the second Friday, because it is due on that day and impossible for you to do. So from now on the only thing they have to do on that Friday is turn it in. Sorry for the confusion, we as a Kindergarten team are trying this new system and there will be a few minor changes that will need to be made. If you have any issue please send me a note or e-mail so we can address the issue. Homework is not meant to be a burden. Do what you can and if something on the list is not working for you-just put a little note next to it and say "we didn't do this one." If you want me to know the reason you can write it, if not that will suffice. The homework is meant to enhance and guide your educational interactions with your child at home. It is definitely not meant to intrude or cause difficulty for the family. You are always welcome to modify things to meet the needs of individuals and families.

We are definitely working hard and learning in our classroom. We have finally finished all the DIBELS Assessments for the Middle Benchmark and I will be sending individual student reports home next week so look for those in your child's folder. I have to brag a little our class as a whole did a terrific job. I am very proud of the progress of each student!! I didn't do it alone, it was with the help and support of each of my parents that we as a class were able to make such progress. So give yourselves a pat on the back too!!

In Math we have started Chapter 6 and we will be measuring everything in sight over the next couple of weeks.

Tuesday is the 100th day of school. There is a note with the homework about gathering 100 things to share with us on Tuesday. Please read it and follow the instructions so that you child can share with the class on Tuesday.

I hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Birthday to Trip and Joey this weekend!

All Kindergarten Parents

Your child should have come home with a parent survey in their folders this week. Please return the survey to your child's teacher by Friday morning, January 15. These are a District Survey and we need one filled out for each child. So even if you did one for your older child or children, please take a moment and fill one out for your kindergartner. Thanks so much for all your continued support!!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

Thank you to everyone for being patient with me while we work out the kinks on the new homework calendar. I am hoping by the next 2 week calendar everything should work smoother.

It has been brought to my attention that Thursday nights homework asks you to write sentences using your sight words. Obviously, I do not expect your child to write a sentence using all of our sight words on the list. I would recommend having your child choose 3-5 words to write sentences with, if you feel that this is too over whelming for your child, you can choose less. The point of this homework assignment is to get your child comfortable with writing sentences as well as using their sight words to make them better writers. You can adjust the homework as you see fit.

Also, if you do not have a little book on one of the nights you can choose any book in your house or think back to one of your child's favorite books to write about. Please understand that although I try my hardest to get the books turned around each night, sometimes I cannot get to all students each day.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation while we work through this new system. If you have any questions, please contact me.

Mrs. King's Class

Parents,
Your child might have brought home a green or yellow light today. Since the break, we have been experiencing a high volume of children talking when they are supposed to be listening. It has gotten steadily worse, so the iron hand fell today! Almost half the class had turned their cards a least once by lunchtime. If your child came home with a green or yellow today it was because they were talking when I was talking. They all received several warnings and yet several continued to talk as though I had not said a word to them. This is not the usual for this class so I am a bit concerned. I would like to take care of this issue now so, you will probably see a higher volume of greens and yellows the rest of the week and next week and we try to get this under control.

We also ran out of time so if your child came home with a blank circle today-they either didn't have an issue or worked very hard to earn back their sticker.

Thanks for your help!

Ms. Trowbridge's Class

I hope everyone had a great first week back. I know we had a great time in our classroom. Everyone picked up right where they left off and seemed to be happy about being back in school. Last week we started our word families. Your students brought home word family sliders, one for the -am family and one for the -at family. Please encourage your student to read these with you. We also finished up chapter 1 in math and worked hard in our journals.

This week we will be working on chapter 2 in math as well as the -ug family and rhyming. Everyone is catching on really quick to everything I introduce. Keep up the great work at home.

A new homework format went home last week. Each calendar has 2 weeks on it so you will be using the same homework calendar this week as well. I know in my last blog I said you could turn it in weekly or biweekly but in order to keep everything together, I would appreciate it if you would hold on to it at home or in their folders and I will collect everything at one time. This way I don't lose track of who turned what in. The bottom box on each night is working with their little books. If your child does not have a little book that night, you may pick any book at your house or think back to a favorite little book. If your child is not getting little books yet, please take this time to practice the letters and sounds 5 times.

This Friday, the 15th, is our schools skateland party. This is always a fun time and I hope to see a lot of you there teaching your children how to skate!

Report cards and skills reports went home on Friday. Please let me know if you have any questions on them. I am proud of everyone of the tremendous progress they have made this year and know that everyone will continue to catch onto everything we learn.

If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to ask.

Mrs. Wright's Class

Well, we are back to school and I was so surprised at how well the kids jumped right back into our groove. Sometimes it takes a week to get them settled down after the break and in the work mode...not this bunch! They are wonderful and did a super job this week! I hope you all enjoyed the break and had a wonderful holiday!

I apologize for my delay in blogging. It has been such a busy time of year that time has gotten the best of me. To recap a bit...our holiday party was a hit. Thank you to all of the families who came out to celebrate. The kids did a great job with their singing performance and we all enjoyed making the gingerbread houses in class. If anyone got video or pictures I would love to have some copies. I also want to thank you for all of the holiday cards, gifts and warm wishes. They were much appreciated!

In academics, before break we finished Chapter 2 in math. This was quite an "easy" chapter and we were able to cruise right through it. Now we have jumped forward to Chapter 6 and started "Weight and Measurement" this week. This is a great chapter and the kids enjoy learning about measurement and will all have an opportunity to use our classroom balance to weigh things. We spent the last week before break reviewing letters and now we are focusing on learning sight words and blends. Almost everyone has mastered the alphabet and we are on our way to reading! Please continue to review the alphabet at home if your child seems to be struggling with the letters.

Dibels testing was done throughout the month of December and we will soon have the test results to you. The kids did great job overall and I am anxious to see their progress. We will be working in small groups on specific dibels skills your child may be struggling with. Our hope is to have all students at or nearing benchmark by the years end. We will also be starting reading groups within our class and will work on specific reading skills for each ability group. Stay tuned for more updates on that!

A new homework calendar went home this week and there has been some confusion on how it works. As a kindergarten team we are all doing the same calendar to remain consistent therefore, we will work out some kinks for the next round. However, the calendar you received on Tuesday will be due next Friday, January, 15th. I will only be collecting the homework packet every two weeks. On the day your child returns their packet to school, the due date, they will receive a new two week calendar as well as their homework sticker like before. The activities are to be completed on a nightly basis and each activity in the box should be initialed when done. If you are not able to get a specific activity done on one night our intent was to have you work on it over the weekend or other days as needed. We feel that the activities listed will be more meaningful and helpful to your child's progress. If you have any questions about the packet please let me know!

All students should have a little book bag that they are bringing back and forth to school to practice their reading. Most of you are doing very well with returning it...some I rarely see. This reading program is going to be essential to your child's success in reading these next two quarters. Please read the book with your child nightly (more than once) and send the bag back when they have mastered the book. I in turn will read with them and get a new one home as quickly as possible. Most days this is not an issue, but some days our schedule does not allow time for me to read with each child and I may have to keep their book. This was the case today. I will read with all students on Monday so they will have a new book to share with you all soon. When you are spending time reading please keep track with the reading log in your child's folder. I have my avid readers who earn their "pizza reward" each month for meeting our reading goal and I am sure more of my students are reading too but may not be coloring in the log. I challenge each of you to read with your child 5 hours for the month of January...you can do it!

Report cards and skills reports went home today. The kids are doing wonderful and I am sure you will all be pleasantly surprised by their progress. If you should have questions about the grades or skills reports, contact me. I am willing to meet with you or explain anything you may have concerns about. I am really pleased with where the class is as a whole and know quarter 3 and 4 will be just as successful.

This was a long post as I was playing catch up! Sorry again for the delay in posting. Happy New Year to you all...this year is sure to be a good one!