Week 8

Good afternoon,

Reminders for Next Week:
Looking Ahead to Next Week
Independent Reading
Boosterthon
Walk To School

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

Phonics:  We will practice writing all 26 upper and lower case letters this week.  We will be identifying the beginning sounds of words.  Using sight words will be a good way to isolate the beginning sound of the words we already know!

Math: We will be reviewing all the concepts we have learned so far and will take our culminating nine weeks math assessment on Friday.

Writing: Workshop is so fun!  We love working on our own projects each day.
Sight Words: look, in, as

Independent Reading
Please be sure to read with your child at least 15 minutes per night. This really helps to reinforce the concepts we have been working on in school.  Each student should complete one box on the READ card, go over sight words, letters and sounds each night.  You can use Jack Hartmann’s Letter Sound video on you tube to review!  Your child knows this song well!

 
Boosterthon:
Thank you again for supporting our school through the Oakland Elementary Allstar Fun Run!
This weekend we are issuing a special challenge. Visit funrun.com to see the bonus prize your child can earn simply by getting a pledge this weekend only.
And if you’re looking for an easy way to ask for a pledge, upload a photo of your student to funrun.com to personalize their own Student Star video. It’s a fun movie trailer starring your child! You can share it on email or social media to ask for a pledge.
Thank you again for helping our class!

PS - If you haven’t registered your child on funrun.com,  please do!

Walk to School:
Walk to School Week is next week! We will be participating in fun dress up activities all week long!
Move It Monday: Wear a yellow and orange to school and eat your veggies.
Traffic Stopping Tuesday: Wear red yellow or green and make a traffic light because we will talk about Whoa, Slow, and GO foods!
Walk to School Wellness Wednesday: Walk to School Day! We will be participating in the Walk in the morning. Dress like a construction worker or road crew member.  Moustaches Make the World Well by wearing a moustache and sharing wellness tips with others in your classroom.
Trash Excuses Together TEAM Thursday: Wear black clothing to black out sugary drinks. We will wear our class shirts as a “team”!  Drink only water today!
Nail It Fitness Friday: We will wear our Boosterthon shirt at school and participate in the Boosterthon Fun Run! 

Week 7 Update

Reminders for Next Week:

Looking Ahead to Next Week

Independent Reading

Boosterthon

 

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

Phonics: We will introduce letters, Qq, Xx, Yy, and Zz. We will be practicing the sounds these letters make as well as practicing making words with the letters we have already learned. We will also practice writing all 26 upper and lower case letters this week.

Reading: As we progress in our community helpers unit, we will be reading various books about community helpers. We will be discussing the difference between non-fiction and fiction texts as well, in addition to the other print concepts we have been practicing (following words with your finger, reading from left to right, spaces in between words, etc.)

Writing: Working in Writer’s Workshop has been a fun, learning experience!  We will be reading books to get ideas for our own writing and share our writing with our peers.

Math: We will specifically focus on counting to twenty-five, as well as introduce a number line. We will practice filling in missing numbers on number lines to help us with our counting skills. We will continue to work hard in math stations for independent practice.

Social Studies: We will continue our community helpers unit. There are many more helpers for us to learn about!  We love reading books about these helpers on our Epic! app!

Sight Words: stop, go, dog, in

 

Independent Reading:

Please be sure to work with your child at least 15 minutes per night. This really helps to reinforce the concepts we have been working on in school.  Working on one READ card box per night, review sight words and letter sounds will be very beneficial for your child. Please be sure that the READ card AND the books from school are returned in your child’s binder each day. 

 

Boosterthon:

We will kick off our fall fundraiser, Boosterthon, next week! Be on the lookout for more information to come about this super exciting time to raise money for our school!

 

Week 6

Looking Ahead to the Week:

Phonics: Introducing the letters v, i, w, and k.  We are also discussing that sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period (or other punctuation mark) during our phonics time this week.

Reading:  Reading Engagement is our area of focus this week.  We will learn how to be mindful of our attention in books.  We will notice details in pictures of books and find sight words in books as we read!

Writing: We will be introducing Writer’s Workshop.  This is an exciting time for students to become writers.  They will work on their own books, deciding for themselves what to write about.  We will read Library Mouse several times to learn about how authors get ideas and how to start the writing process. 

Math: We are continuing to focus on the numbers 1-10, with a specific focus on 1 to 1 matching.  We will begin Math Stations and it is sure to be a fun time working with numbers.

Social Studies: We will begin our unit on community helpers. We will be discussing firefighters, police officers, doctors, soldiers, construction workers, principals, and mail carriers!

Sight Words: like, you, at, cat 

Week 4

What an awesome week here in room 204!  Here’s a look into next week…

 

Reminders for Next Week:

Looking Ahead to Next Week

Kindergarten Success Night / PTA Open House

Goodies with Grandparents

 

Looking Ahead to Next Week:

Phonics: We will be introducing letters h, n, and j. We will be using these new letters with letters we have already learned to create words by discussing how letters work together to make words.

Reading: We will be focusing on print concepts (reading left to right, top to bottom) as well as the job of an author and an illustrator.

Writing:  We will be creating our own version of our mentor text “My Map Book”. We will be creating pages (“maps”) about our faces, bedrooms, families and classrooms. We will also practice labeling our maps.

Math: We will be focusing on numbers 6 & 7, by discussing sets and one to one matching.

Social Studies:  We will introduce the concept of what a map is, and discuss how maps are important to us as we navigate through the community.

Sight Words: dad, mom, love (be, me, see, we-we talked about these in class last week.)  (Please remember, sight words are assessed often)

 

Kindergarten Success Night / PTA Open House:

Kindergarten Success Night will take place on Tuesday, September 6 from 5:40 – 6:20. This will be an opportunity for you, as a parent, to find out more of exactly what we’re about here in OES Kindergarten. We will discuss things like how we use a station rotation for Math and ELA, what exactly PBL is, and more. Following Kindergarten Success Night, PTA Open House will be at 6:30 in the cafeteria. You will have a chance to come to our classroom after the portion in the cafeteria.

 

Goodies with Grandparents:

On Monday, September 12 from 7:00 to 7:30 a.m. in the OES cafeteria, grandparents will be welcome to come enjoy a special breakfast with our friends.

 

 

What can you ask your child about our week?

Last week we learned 3 ways to read a book: read the words, read the pictures, and retell a familiar story.  Can your child name all 3 ways?  This week we have had lots of fun discussing how just right books are like shoes, they fit perfectly.  I really liked Andrea's shoes but they were too small.  I thought I should try Mr. Watson's shoes since they are bigger but they were too big.  We finally decided I needed to wear my own shoes because they were just the right size.  It reminded us of the story Goldilocks and the 3 Bears and of Cinderella.  We read both stories this week.  We practiced reading pictures, words, and retelling like we learned last week.  Choosing right fit books is like finding the right shoe, not too easy (small), not too hard (big), it should fit the purpose, and you should like it.  We found the perfect story to relate to choosing right fit books, Goldisocks and the 3 Libearians.  It is a story about 3 bears that are "libearians" and they know just how to help "Goldisocks" select a right fit book.  Look it up on YouTube, your child will love to share it with you.  We decided we could use our fingers to help determine if a book is too hard.  For each word you do not know, hold up a finger.  If you have 5 fingers up, the book is too hard.  Can your child choose an appropriate book?  Finally, we discovered our first reading strategy, using your "owl eyes" to look for picture clues to figure out words we do not know.  Reading strategies are located in your binder, you can reference those when reading.  Can your child tell you how owl eyes help us as readers?

Week 3

Weekly update:

What an awesome week we have had here in room 204! We have really loved our beginning stages of working in stations.

 

Reminders for the Week:

Wear College Colors Day

Picture Day

Phonics: In phonics, we will be introducing the letters b, c, f, and r.  We will be discussing what sounds the specific letters make and reading poems with the letters we are studying.

Reading: We will continue building our reading stamina as we practice reading independently (whether it’s reading the words or the pictures.) We will also be discussing how to find books that are a good fit (Do I like it? Does it fit? (too easy or too hard) and Does it help me?)

Writing: We will be moving forward from our author study of Mo Willems and begin a study on Author / Illustrator Eric Litwin (author of Pete the Cat books). We will read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes, Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses, and Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons. We will learn about writing words that match our pictures (labels).

Math: We will begin our number study for numbers 4&5. We will be focusing on different representations of the number (such as tallies, what it looks like on a dice, how many pictures equal the number, etc.) and creating a number line throughout the week.

Social Studies:  In our “All about Me” unit, we will be moving our focus from “me” to “my family”. We will discuss our families, and compare families and activities families used to do long ago (not watch tv but listen to radio) and today  (such as watch tv). 

Sight Words: be, me, see, we (Please remember, sight words are assessed often)  We had originally planned to add these 4 words.  After our first assessment, we realized that so many students had difficulty learning our first 6 words that we need to spend next week reviewing instead.  If your child is ready, they may begin working on these words.  If not, please work this week to catch up on the words from the past two weeks.  It is very important that students do not get behind on words because it is overwhelming to catch up later.  We will learn 100 words by the end of the year so please practice each night at home to help reinforce what we work on at school.  Thanks for helping your child at home!     

 

Wear College Colors Day:

On Thursday, September 1. our Class of 2029 All*Stars will be showing off that they’re college bound! We are asking all of our All*Stars to wear the colors of their favorite college or the college they want to attend when we grow up on this day.

 

Fall Pictures

Fall pictures will be taken on Friday, September 2. All students will have their taken for the yearbook.  Be sure to wear your best smile on Friday!

 

 

Pictures from the first week

We tried to take these pictures on the first day of school.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time and not everyone had their picture taken by Monday afternoon.  We were able to get them almost all finished by the end of the first week.  

Jitter Juice

We read the story First Day Jitters and then had our own jitter juice to forget our jitters.

What is this JitterJuice?  I don't know but it sure makes the table sticky!

Where did the others go?  I think they are putting their cups in the trash. They do not like this juice!

I am not sure if I like this juice either, do you?

Maybe kindergarten is going to be okay!  What do you think?

Jitter Juice got rid of my first day jitters!

Welcome to Kindergarten!

     In the story Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten the kindergarten teacher and students anxiously prepare for the first day of kindergarten.  We feel like Miss Bindergarten must have felt as we have also been very busy the last few days getting ready to begin a new school year.  Cubbies have been labeled, lessons planned, copies made, and the scent of new school supplies fills the air.  Our classroom is ready for a new group of students.  We are eager to begin; it is an exciting and promising time of year!  Like the story, we are certain that our students feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness as they wonder what awaits them in the days ahead.  They are both eager to begin school and worried that they may not be ready at the same time.  They wonder who will be their friend, will their teachers be nice, and how will they find their way?  Give your child the assurance that we will help them make friends, we will be nice, and OES teachers will always help them find their way.  Parents also have mixed emotions as they begin a new journey with their child, entrusting us to care for, teach, and protect their most precious gift. We both remember that nervous feeling as we left our children in kindergarten on the first day.  It is a bittersweet moment as you watch your child grow up and gain independence while you cling to precious memories of their preschool days.  Rest assured we will love your children, take care of them, and teach them what they need to learn to be successful in first grade.  We want to partner with you to be sure your child has a GREAT first year of school!  

     We will be sending a newsletter home this week but I wanted to give you a sneak peek into our week.  We will jump right in this week, learning the words: I, am, & can.  Please help your child learn these words throughout the week.  These sight words can be found on a chart in their binder, along with words we learn in the future. We will be learning about the letters in our names, learning our friends' names, and learning about what we can write.  In math, we will begin learning what numbers are and how they are different from letters.  We will be discussing what makes a "good" classroom, what rules we will follow, and class expectations.  Ask your child what rules they think will be important to establish a "good" classroom environment.  Remember, we want to create a safe environment with caring friends.  We look forward to seeing you Monday to see what ideas your child has to share!

Don't miss out on the fun!  Our Back to School Bash will be Thursday night from 5-8!  See you there!   

                                                   

                                   

       

Notes for the week

Just a reminder that we will not have a weekly assessment this week since we are assessing for report cards.  Report cards will be sent home on Friday.  This week's sight words are: play, day, & away.  We will have an egg hunt on Friday.  We would greatly appreciate prefilled eggs to use on our hunt.  Please send a basket or other container for your child to gather eggs.  Thank you for the tissues and hand sanitizer that you sent in response to our note!  We were completely out and it is the time of year when everyone's allergies are causing them to run to the tissue box.  Thanks for all of your support this year!  We greatly appreciate all that you do to help our classroom!!

St. Patrick's Day

                                                  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

MAP test

Please remember to get plenty of rest, eat a good breakfast, and be at school on time.  We started MAP testing today and will finish the reading portion of the test tomorrow.  We will take the math portion next Monday and Tuesday.  I sent home helpful hints last Friday to ensure your child does his/her best on the test. 

Cat in the Hat visits

Happy Valentine's Day

Circus

Circus

Circus field trip

Week 23

We had a great time celebrating the 100th day of school on Friday.  Thanks to everyone who helped us make a 100s snack by sending your items.  Check out our100s shirts.  

We will be sending information about our Valentine's party this week.  Look for a class list in the homework folder to fill out your Valentines.

Looking to the week ahead, we will continue our work for the park ranger.  We have completed our winter books and are ready to mail them.  We will continue reading and writing about the winter season.  We will continue learning about addition.  We will be working on syllables and rhymes.  Our sight words will be:  want, lots, of.  We will have special visitors on Thursday from USC Upstate teaching us about germs and hand washing. We are looking forward to our field trip on Friday to see the circus!! 

How can you help at home?  Practice writing simple sentences using our sight words.  Put our sight words in ABC order.  Practice addition problems (equalling less than 10) using items such as beans or cereal to solve the problem.  Be sure your child points to each word they say while reading so they do not omit or add in extra words.

Park Ranger needs help!

A park ranger came to our school today.  He needs our help!  For the next few weeks we will research different plants and animals to find out how they survive the winter.  We have to report our findings to the ranger!  

Spanish club visits

We are learning about Christmas traditions around the world this week.  Today we learned about Christmas in Mexico.  The BSMS Spanish club came and baked a Tres Leche cake for us.  It has to sit overnight and we get to ice and enjoy tomorrow!