Learning Links

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

                         Christmas Gift Exchange

This year our classroom Christmas gift exchange will be an art supply gift exchange.  Please stay within the theme of “art supplies” when purchasing your child’s gift for the gift exchange.  Following are some ideas for gifts:
Playdough                                                watercolor paints
Specialty crayons and paper                  special scissors
Stamps and ink pads                               paint with water books
Floam                                                         craft kits
Markers                                                     colored pencils
Colored chalk                                            construction paper
The possibilities are endless!
Gifts should be approximately $4.00-$5.00.  Please make sure the gift is appropriate for either a boy or a girl.  The gift can be labeled as “To: A Friend, From: (your child’s name)”.
Feel free to send the gift in to school early.  You will need to explain to your child that we will play a game and it will be a surprise to see who gets their gift.  We will exchange gifts at the party on Thursday, December 18.  Please send the gift in to school before then so I can prepare the gifts for the game we will play.               Thanks!               

Friday, November 7, 2014

Update

It was nice seeing everyone at Parent/Teacher Conferences!  Thanks to all who attended!

Here is what we are currently working on in class:

Language Arts- We continue to work on letter identification, letter sounds, sight words, and decoding simple (vowel, consonsonant, vowel) words.  We have begun doing a great deal more writing in class as well.  We are now working on writing daily in a journal.  We are also beginning to read simple books.

Math- At this point everyone should be able to recognize, read, and write numbers through 10.  We are now working on numbers in the teens.  We also work daily on counting.  We are learning various ways of patterning.  We are also learning how to tell and solve number stories.

Science- We are learning about symmetry in nature, and continue to study the season of Fall.

Social Studies- We have learned about voting as a fair way to make group decisions.  We have also learned about fire safety and about our friends, the firefighters.  We are just begining to talk about Thanksgiving, and will be learning about how the pilgrims and Native Americans celebrated the First Thanksgiving.

The week before Thanksgiving we will celebrate our own Thanksgiving.  We will be making Friendship Soup.  Your child will need to bring in something to add to our soup.  More information will come on this later.  I am looking for parent volunteers to help the children cut vegetables for our soup on Tuesday, November 25 from 8:00-10:00 in the morning.  Please let me know if you are available!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

IT LOOKS LIKE WINTER!!!!

PLEASE make sure that your child has a warm winter coat, snowpants, boots, hat, and gloves for recess now that November is here.  We stayed inside on Halloween when it snowed, but from now on snow will not be an excuse to not go outside. Please have your child prepared for the cold!  Also, please label all of your children's clothing as we quite often have duplicate items in duplicate sizes. The lost and found seems to grow daily by leaps and bounds.  It will make it a lot easier for your child to find their lost clothing if they know that their name is on it and where to look for their name.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

A FEW NOTES:

Don't forget next Tuesday, October 28 is our Fall Family Night!  We will have a pizza dinner from 5:30-6:00.  Then from 6:00-7:00 you will be able to take your child through the four kindergarten classrooms to do an activity in each.  I am looking forward to seeing you Tuesday night!

Halloween is coming up quickly!  When choosing your child's costume, please keep in mind to stay away from scary, gory, or violent costumes.  No weapons are allowed as part of the costume, even if they are pretend.  We will have our party on the afternoon of Friday, October 31.  We will parade with the rest of the elementary students.  The parade will take place downtown if the weather is good, or in the school hallways if the weather is bad.  Please do NOT send your child to school in their costume- we will change into them in the afternoon.  If your child's costume requires make up, please have them either go without it this time, or plan on coming in to apply the makeup yourself Friday afternoon.  If you signed up to provide something for the party, reminder notes will be coming home soon!  Thanks!


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The kids have been very excited to bring in loose change for our coin drive for hunger through Pizza Hut.  We still have a couple weeks to contribute, so keep saving that change and sending it in to school.  Thanks!

This month we begin the Book-It program through Pizza Hut as well.  Your child is bringing home an informational letter as well as a calendar to keep track of their at home reading.  (This does not have to be reading that they do by themselves, you can read to your child for this program).  The goal is to read with your child for at least 20 minutes a day, at least four days a week (the more, the better)!  For each day that you do this, please have your child color in a pumpkin on the reading calendar.  At the end of the month, sign the calendar and sent it back to school.  If your child has met the goal, they will get a sticker on our chart and will get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

Language Arts:  We have gone through the alphabet once with a primary focus of learning to name each of the letters (capital and lower-case, when presented in random order), and a secondary goal of learning the sounds that the letters make.  For the rest of the year we will be focusing on one letter a week with the goal of learning the sound the letter makes, learning correct handwriting formation of the letter, and using the letter in words (hearing the letter sound at the beginning, middle, and ends of words).  We are also beginning to work in reading groups where we are reading simple stories, working on story comprehension, and learning phonics skills, sight words, and handwriting.  Each day we work on the computer and/or our i-pad to read and listen to stories and practice reading skills.
We also read from our book boxes each day, and are beginning to add books to our book boxes that we have made in class and can read on our own (such as our "ABC Sound Book" and "Red Circle, Red Circle, What Do You See?").

Math:  We are working on counting and recognizing numbers, sorting objects by various attributes, patterning, recognizing and naming shapes, measurement, graphing, and calendar skills.

Science/Social Studies- We are learning about the season of Fall and will soon be starting a unit on Fire Safety.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Language Arts:
 We are currently working on learning the letters of the alphabet.  We have been focusing on two letters each day, going through the alphabet in order.  Our primary goal is to learn to name each letter of the alphabet; however, I am also introducing the sound or sounds that each letter makes.  If your child is already able to name all 26 letters of the alphabet, capital and lower-case, when shown letters randomly (in mixed up order), it is time for them to learn the sounds that the letters make.  Please work with your child on first being able to name all the letters of the alphabet, and then to be able to give the sounds the letters make.  Remember, you should present the letters to your child in mixed up order so they are not relying on the alphabet song and the order of the letters to figure out which letter is which.
We are also working on writing our names neatly and correctly.  The children have been taught that letters always start at the top.  Please check and see that your child is writing their letters from top to bottom, left to right, and that circles go counter-clockwise.  This is the way we read and write in our language and it is important to train the brain to work in this manner.  It will make a big difference later when learning to read and when learning to write cursive.
We have introduced our first sight word, which is the word "I".  The new sight word for this week is "can."
We are also working on learning about rhyming words through a focus on nursery rhymes.


Math:
We are working on counting, recognizing numbers, and being able to put numbers in order up to 10.  We are also learning our shapes, which most of the kids know, but triangle and rectangle are very easy to mix up.  I have taught the children that "tri"means three like three wheels on a tricycle.  Please check and make sure that your child can correctly identify circle, square, triangle, and rectangle.
We are also learning to sort objects in various ways such as by color, kind, shape, and size.

Social Studies:
We are working on learning classroom rules and social skills.  We need some more work on learning to use inside voices, as sometimes our classroom gets way too noisy!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Getting Excited!

I am busy working in my classroom getting it set up for the new school year.  I am getting excited and can't wait to meet everyone!  Are you getting excited too????

Monday, May 19, 2014

DATES TO REMEMBER

Friday, May 23-  Fun to Be Fit event up at the track at 1:00 (please join us!)
Wednesday, May 28- Spring program in the high school gym at 1:30 (please attend!)
Tuesday, June 3- Field trip to Kettunen Center (bus leaves at 8:30, please send a sack lunch!)
Monday, June 9- Track and Field in the afternoon (helpers needed!)
Wednesday and Thursday, June 11 and 12- Last two days of school, 1:45 dismissal