Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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.

Friday, February 19, 2010

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.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

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

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

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!

Friday, February 5, 2010

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!!!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

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!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

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!

Monday, February 1, 2010

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.