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