Pilgrims

This week in:

Reading Workshop-We will learn that super readers talk about books, too! Students will learn and practice introducing their book to their partners before they read.

Writer's Workshop-We are practicing and producing personal narratives as well as doing a little non-fiction writing about native americans and pilgrims.

Math Workshop-We are practicing using all our addition strategies and working on becoming fluent with our 0-5 addition facts.

Concepts-We had so much fun learning about life long ago with Native Americans last week! This week we will learn about the Pilgrims. We are looking forward to our class skit on Tuesday, November 20th at 9:00. We are changing the location from the cafeteria to our classroom. Please practice your child's lines with them at home. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you all! :)

Reminders
*Thanksgiving skit November 20th at 9:00in our classroom.
*No school November 21-23. Happy Thanksgiving!
*Reminder to send in a new or slightly used plain white shirt for your child to paint for reindeer week by Monday, November 26th.
*Gingerbread Play (you do not want to miss this!) Friday, December 14th at 8:30 in the cafeteria.

Native Americans!

This week in:

Reader's Workshop-We are working on our reading fluency by paying attention to bold print, punctuation, using the patterns in the book, and trying to sing our books. We even act out the characters emotions to bring our books to life!

Writer's Workshop-Our 5th grade buddies in Mrs. Church's class are coming next week to listen to us read our published personal narratives! We are so excited to show off all our hard work!

Math Workshop-We are continuing to practice addition by learning new strategies to make us more fluent with our facts. The class has learned how to add plus 0's, plus 1's, doubles, doubles plus 1, number lines, ten frames, the 100's chart, word problems, drawing, counting on, and fast 9's! whew! We are soooo busy in kindergarten!

Concepts-We will learn about Native Americans and life long ago. We will have a short Thanksgiving skit on Tuesday, November 20th at 9:00. More information to come home soon!

Reminders
*No school Tuesday, November 6th for election day
*Thanksgiving skit at 9:00
*No school November 21st -23rd for Thanksgiving holiday
*Gingerbread play Friday, November 14th at 8:30
*1/2 day of school Friday, December 21st. Dismissal at 11:00.

Bats!

This week in:

Reader's Workshop-We are working on using our voices to bring books to life by using the pattern to sing out books, using punctuation to figure out HOW to read, & changing their voices to show they understand the book.

Writer's Workshop-We are using rubrics to self assess our writing. We will begin our new genre of writing Information writing in January.

Math Workshop-We are continuing to learn new strategies to make us fluent with our addition facts. We have been working on plus zero, plus one, using counters, drawing pictures, and doubles. This week we will begin learning how to use a number line to help up add.

Concepts- We will study bats! We will learn words like mammal nocturnal, echolocation, and more!

Reminders
*The 50th day of school is this Friday! We will celebrate by dressing up like girls and boys from the 50's and doing a lot of fun activities with the number 50. :) We can't wait to see everyone!

Spiders!

This week in:

Readers Workshop- We are combining our reading powers and learning to use the first sound of a word to help you read a tricky word.

Writers Workshop-We are working on self assessing our own writing by using a rubric. We will begin publishing soon!

Concepts-We will continue to be scientist and study spiders next week!

Math Workshop-We are beginning addition and the kids are loving it! We will begin  with plus zero and plus one. We have been working on learning our doubles up to 5 and will begin learning our doubles to 10 soon. If you have an opportunity ask your child their doubles facts!

Reminders
*No school on Monday, October 22nd. It is a teacher workday.
*Our storybook carnival will be this Friday, October 31st. Please go ahead and send in your child's book that they will be dressing up as. Please put your child's name in the book. This will be a super fun day for our kindergartners! :)
*Report Cards will go home on October 31st. Please keep the report card but sign the envelope and send it back to school. :)
*A zero on the report card indicates that standard has not been assessed at this time. :) There will be a rubric on the report card for the number evaluation of 1, 2, or 3. :)
*Due to the hurricane day our 50th day celebration has been moved to Friday, November 2nd. Your child may dress up from the 50's error on this day.
*November the 5th we will have a special guest Kate the Chemist
*No school on Tuesday, November 6th for election day
*We still need help filling up our sign up genius for our storybook carnival. Below is the link:
http://signup.com/go/rRBrdFF
*If you have not signed up for a conference I would love the opportunity to share all the wonderful things your monkey is doing. :) If the dates and times do not work for you please let me know. :)
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0c4ca5aa29a1fe3-conferences1

Pumpkins!

This week in:

Reader's Workshop-We will practice our pointer power and our partner power to make us even stronger readers!

Writer's Workshop-We will begin to learn how to use a rubric to self assess our writing/personal narratives.

Math Workshop-We will continue to learn about place value.

Concepts- We will continue being scientists this week and study pumpkins!

Reminders
* Conferences start this week
*Our first field trip is Wednesday, October 17th. Please wear your class shirt that was sent home earlier in the year and pack a lunch with a drink.  Please pack their lunch in a disposable bag with a disposable drink so they do not have to keep us with lunch boxes. Please write your child's first and last name and my name on the lunch bag. Please dress your child appropriately for the weather we will be outside all day.
*Our first weather make up date is Friday, October 19th. We will have school on this day.
*No school for students on Monday, October 22nd. Teacher workday.
*Kindergarten will have their story book carnival on Friday, October 26th. Students are asked to dress up as their favorite storybook character on that day.

Dinosaur Week!

This week in:

Readers Workshop: We are learning about our reading powers. This week we will talk about our pointer power. We will practice touching each word, the number of words on the page are the number of taps, even long words only get one tap, and using our sight words to help us keep track!

Writer's Workshop: We are making books! We are so proud and excited! The students are writing personal narratives (stories that really happened to them) We are learning to make our writing come alive by adding labels and speech bubbles!

Math Workshop: We are working on place value. We are learning about the tens place and the ones place. We are learning about rods and units and how to count them!

Concepts: We are going to be scientist (paleontologists) this week and study dinosaurs! We will make hypothesis, do research, observe fossils, make fossils, make a volcano, and so much more! Lots of great science vocabulary this week! Thank you so much for sending in special items so we can make learning fun and engaging for your little monkey!

Reminders
*We are doing awesome in the Read-A-Thon! Keep reading and logging in each night. :)
*Library check out on Wednesday. :)

Fall

This week in:

Readers Workshop- We will reread books and notice the characters expressions and body language to help us read like the character and make reading come alive! We will also pay close attention to the print and look for bold print, exclamation marks, ellipses, etc... to help us become better readers and comprehend the story.

Writers Workshop- We will continue to learn how to write a personal narrative (A story that really happened to us).

Math Workshop-We will begin learning about place value.

Concepts-We will study the season of fall by reading non-fiction books and discussing weather.

Reminders
*Monday we will go to an assembly to learn about Read-A-Thon. Information is coming home Friday and Monday.
*Tuesday wear your favorite sports team for Read-A-Thon.
*Wednesday wear pajamas to school! You may bring slippers to change into but please wear regular shoes to school. You may also bring in a stuffed animal as along as it fits in your bookbag. :)
*Wednesday is library check out day. Return your books please. :)
*Thursday is picture day and crazy socks day for Read-A-Thon.
*Friday is hat day for Read-A-Thon.

Apples!

This week in:

Readers Workshop-We are leaning and practicing reading our story books like a teacher and using transitional words like next, then, finally, at last, etc...when we turn the page. Our guided reading groups are doing great! Please read with your child each night. :)

Math Workshop-We will practice using a 100's chart and identifying the number before and after (plus one, minus one). We are also using the 100's chart to count on from any given number. For example start at 8 and count on....9,10,11...

Writer's Workshop-We are beginning to learn how to write personal narratives/stories that really happened to us. We are using our sounds in motion to write the sounds we hear/spell phonetically.

Concepts-We will learn about apples. We will learn the parts of an apple, how to grow an apple, why an apple is considered a fruit, and the life cycle of an apple. We will do several stem activities and science experiments!

Reminders
*Our PE teachers have started Jog and Fit club for kindergarten. On Fridays your child comes to school as usual and goes to the star room. If they like they can go out to the track with the PE teachers and walk/run for fun! The students have a yellow foot print with their name and earn a point for every lap they complete. Teachers and 5th grade helpers walk the students to the track if they want to participate. If this is something your child wants to do please come to school early on Fridays. The doors open at 7:15. :)
*Please remember to fill out your child's field trip form, pay online, and return form to school. Our field trip is October 17th.
*Picture day is October 4th. Forms will be sent home soon.
*Our class trip to the Humane Society to read to the animals is scheduled for Thursday, September 27th at 4:00. This is completely optional. :)
*We started assessing our sight words this week. Please review each night with your child. :) They did a great job and we are so proud of them! :)

Color Week!

This week in:

Reader's Workshop:We are reading familiar story books/fairy tales instead of non-fiction books. We will learn to look at the pictures, remember, and read! We will also practice matching what we say to the pictures. Lastly, we will learn to talk like the characters to make the stories come alive and of course make reading more fun!

Writer's Workshop:We will work on practice writing and reading our color words in our color poetry book.

Math Workshop:We will continue our study of counting and cardinality.  We will work on numbers before and after and missing numbers in the 100's chart. We will also look for patterns on the 100's chart and play games!

Concepts:We will study colors! We will have fun mixing colors, discussing primary colors, colors of the rainbow, hues, and much more! We will also learn to recognize our color words quickly and learn to spell them with fun songs!
Monday-wear Red
Tuesday-wear Blue
Wednesday-wear Yellow
Thursday-wear Green
Friday-wear Orange/Purple

Reminders
*Return your child's library book on Wednesday so they can check out a new book.
*Next week is apple week! Please look for a sign up from our room mom. We will need a few extra supplies for some extra fun activities we will be doing. :)

Laura Numeroff Author Study

This week in:

Readers Workshop-We will continue learning how to be a reader! Your child will meet with Mrs. Cannon or myself every day in a small guided group to work on specific reading strategies for them. Each night your child will bring home a new "just right" book in their reading bag. Please let your child read the book to you and return it the next day.

Writer's Workshop-We have learned all our letter sounds with sounds in motion!!! I am soooo proud! Now in writing we are learning that we have the power to write ANY word phonetically!

Math Workshop-We have been counting sets, discussing greater than and less than, using the math symbol for greater than and less than, representing numbers using tally marks and ten frames, and teen numbers, phew! This week we are going to review tally marks by writing them and counting them.

Concepts-We will do an author study on Laura Numeroff. She is the author of the If you give a Mouse a Cookie books! We will discuss characters, setting, problems/solutions, refrains, and compare her books!

Reminders
*Please read with your sweet child every night! :)
*Home work comes home on Mondays and is due the following Monday.

I can't tell you enough how much Mrs. Cannon and I are enjoying this class! They are all so smart and kind!

Our class mantra we say every morning is:
Me: Class
Students: Yes
Me: What's my job?
Students: To teach us and love us!
Me: What's your job?
Students: To learn and love each other!

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!

All About Me!

This week in:

Readers Workshop: We will begin guided reading groups! I am so excited about this! Your child will meet with me or Mrs. Cannon every day in a small group. We will meet your child where they are in reading and coach them forward. Each night your child will bring home a "just right' book in their reading bag. This book is on their instructional level so they may make mistakes and that's ok. I read with them on this level to see what strategies they are using and what strategies they need when they come to an unknown word.

Math Workshop:We will begin representing teen numbers. We will use double ten frames, number lines, tally marks, numerals, etc....

Writer's Workshop:We are working on concepts of print. Starting at the top left and writing across, returning, finger space, punctuation, etc....

Concepts:We will begin our All About Me unit this week! On Friday, you child will bring home directions and a bag. Please help your child fill their bag this weekend and send the bag to school on Tuesday. We look forward to learning more about our friends and what makes them special!

Reminders
*No school on Monday
*Homework will begin this week! It will come home in your child's monkey binder on Mondays and it is due the following Monday.
*Just right reading bags will come home beginning this week. Please have your child read the book inside and return to school daily just like the monkey binder. If your child forgets to bring home their book in a bag it is ok. Just read a book from home. :) If your child forgets to return the book in the bag to school it is ok. Just return as soon as possible. :)

 Working hard on his writing!

We started our king and queen of the jungle! When your child is selected they will bring home our class pet Coconut! Please take pictures of all the things your child does with Coconut and send them to school the next day for your child to share!

We have learned that we are all readers! We have been practicing reading the pictures and telling ourselves and our partners what is going on in the book. Next week we will start our guided reading groups with the teachers! We are all excited about learning to read!

Have a wonderful long weekend with your sweet little monkey!  Mrs Cannan and I are already looking forward to next week! :)

Welcome to Kindergarten!

This week in:

Readers Workshop-We will learn that we are all readers! We will practice reading a book by "reading"the pictures.

Writers Workshop-We will practice writing our names with only 1 capital letter and on handwriting lines.

Phonics-We will learn Sounds in Motion! Watch for videos coming soon!

Math Workshop-We will begin working in our math journals. We will learn how to use a circle map. We will learn how to represent numbers in different ways. For example: the number 1 is the word one, 1 tally mark, 1 dot on a ten frame, etc...

Concepts-We will begin our All About Me unit and learn about our new friends!

Reminders
*Your child will be given snack every day at 10:15. You do not have to pack a snack for your child.
*Homework will begin the 1st Monday in September. It is due on Fridays. You have a week to complete the homework activities with your child. Homework in kindergarten is not mandatory but a good review of what we are doing in class and an opportunity for you to see how your child is working and progressing.
*Please send and return the MONKEY binders daily. On Fridays work from the week as well as notes from the office will come home. If it is in the back of the binder please take it out. :)

Mrs. Cannan and I already LOVE your child! We truly have the BEST class! Thank you for sending us such well mannered and behaved little ones ready to learn! This is going to be an AMAZING year!