Author: Melissa Dimitriou

Our PBIS Fall Fest was a blast! The children found their way through a giant maze, participated in a potato sack race, and enjoyed cider and doughnuts.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Dear Parents,

We have been working hard to become successful readers. We are well on our way to achieving this goal, but we know that practice makes perfect! Starting tomorrow, a Kindergarten Book Pouch will be sent home with your child every day. Please find a safe place to keep these book pouches in order to keep them in good condition for the years to come! Perhaps a special shelf or somewhere up high would be a good place to keep the book pouches, in order to keep them safe from younger siblings and pets.

Please enjoy the books that come home and return all materials EACH DAY with your child’s green folder. We will use the book bags during reading time, so please make sure your child brings their pouch to school. New books will come home in the Book Pouches two times per week. These books can be used to fulfill the nightly reading log in the homework!

The following can be used to extend your child’s learning and help them read:

1. Check the pictures for clues
2. Look for spelling words (sight words and word family words)
3. Touch each word as they read (reading finger)
4. Talk about the characters (who are they), the setting (where did the story take place), the problem (something bad that happens in the story), the solution (how the problem was resolved – in class we say, “the solution fixes the problem”)
5. Retell (beginning/middle/end) the story.
6. Write about the story
7. Go back and reread! Good readers read the same book over and over again!

MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD KEEPS THEIR BOOKS IN THE GREEN &YELLOW BAG AND BRINGS THE BAG TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY! 

Please let me know if you have any questions and have fun reading!!!

We had so much fun at our Halloween Party! The children were able to participate in six centers. We had a sugar skull bean bag toss, witch’s hat ring toss, pin the eye on the monster, sugar cookie decoration, pumpkin toilet paper craft, and Halloween Bingo/Tic-Tac-Toe. Here are a few pictures from our party:

We had so much fun at our Halloween party! Thank you to all of our volunteers that helped to make the afternoon a success! I will upload the pictures from our party in another post.

Don’t worry if you missed out on helping with this party. There will be plenty of opportunities to help out in our classroom throughout the year! I like to get every parent in to volunteer that is interested! If you are interested in helping out in the classroom, please email me at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org.

Upcoming Events

10/31 PBIS Party  – Fall Fest

11/4 Half Day – Dismissal at 11:45am

11/7 – 11/18 Yogurtopia Can Food Drive

11/8 Election Day – NO SCHOOL!

11/10 Parent/Teacher Conferences (A reminder note will come home with your day and time)

11/14 Scholastic Book Order Due

11/14 – 11/18 School Scholastic Book Fair (Our class will go to the book fair on 11/14 [send money to school with your child on this day OR meet us in the media center at 12:00pm] – Family Night on the 17^th)

11/16 Late Start – 9:40am

11/16 Parent/Teacher Conferences (A reminder note will come home with your day and time)

11/17 Parent/Teacher Conferences (A reminder note will come home with your day and time)

11/18 Picture Re-Take Day

11/22 Mad Science Assembly

11/22 Kindergarten Thanksgiving Play & Refreshments (more information coming home soon)

11/23 – 11/25 NO SCHOOL! Happy Thanksgiving!

11/30 PBIS Celebration – Jazz Band

Agenda for the Week

Letters: This week we focused on the letters Gg and TT. We talked about the sounds they make, brainstormed things that begin with each letter, and spent time practicing the proper formation of each letter. These letters will show up on next week’s homework for a handwriting review.

Reading/Writing: Our focus this week was on learning what a noun is and identifying it in our writing. We learned that a noun is a person, place, thing, or animal. Here is the video that we sing in class to help us remember what things are nouns:

This week I was able to test every child on their reading! It is important to remember to ask comprehension questions during and after reading.

Ask your child:

What part was your favorite? Why?

Did this story make you think of anything from your own life?

Retell the story to me (beginning, middle, and end OR First, Next, Last)

We are still working on our writing through stretching our words and writing down the sounds that we hear. Many of the children are beginning to write the first sound they hear in each word they write. Some of the children are even hearing the ending sounds! Please practice this skill at home with your child.

This week we created a monster in our mind. It could have ten eyes or one eye, tentacle arms or no arms, etc. After the children created this monster, they had to write about the monster. I modeled this on the board for the class and we even isolated the nouns in my sentence! The children had so much fun with this writing piece this week. I held on to these papers and will share them at conferences with each of you!

Here is a video we watch in class to help us remember what a sentence should look like:

Math: We continued to work with tally marks, graphing, 2D/3D shapes, patterning, and sequencing numbers. All of the children love participating in our math centers at the end of the day.  Math seems to be one of the class’s favorite activities – next to gym and recess of course!

Social Studies: We continue to work on following directions, being good listeners, and being a good friend to each other. It takes a lot of time at this age to build a positive and productive learning culture in the classroom. We talked about how our classroom is a community and how we all have to look out for and take care of each other. I saw some very sweet and kind behavior when a friend was feeling a little down. It is great to see the children accepting each other for exactly who we are and understanding that sometimes we have good and bad days and that it is ok!

Science: We finished our unit on the five senses and spent time discussing how a pumpkin grows. We sequenced the life cycle of the pumpkin and practiced more of our cutting and gluing skills with this craft.

Our wonderful Haigh PTA bought the entire school pumpkins! The children were able to go out into the field and choose a pumpkin on Thursday morning. They were excited to pick their own pumpkin and take it home! I also chose a pumpkin and everyone from the class signed it! Here are a few pictures from our Haigh pumpkin patch:

Housekeeping Items:

Please make sure to empty the green folders each night! It is very difficult and time consuming to locate homework or important notes when the folder is full of papers from the day before.

**I know this is posted every week, but this week many of the folders were full of left over papers from the previous day. Please help me by emptying the folders each night. It makes it so much easier and takes much less time for me to go through the folders, when they are emptied each night. Thank you!!!**

Please make sure to read with your child each night. The book pouches will be coming home next week and it is so important to practice reading each night! Thank you!

Please see Mr. Short’s blog post about the change of route for the parade:

https://haigh.dearbornschools.org/2016/10/28/new-dry-path-for-the-halloween-parade/

Dear Families,

On Monday, October 31st we will be having our first PBIS celebration of the year. This celebration is to recognize your child’s positive behavior for the month of October. Our theme will be a Fall Festival! This event will take place outside, so let’s hope the weather stays pleasant!

Be sure to check the weather forecast and make sure your child is dressed appropriately.  Students will be outside for 45 minutes, therefore, a scarf, hat or mittens may be good idea.

Thank you,

Haigh PBIS Committee

Many of you asked what time you should arrive for the Halloween Parade. The parade starts at 9:30 and the whole school will make their way out at that time.

The weather forecast looks good for tomorrow, however if it does rain, the parade will be moved inside.

See you at the parade!

Just a quick reminder –

The Kindergarten parent meeting will take place in the media center from 8:00 – 8:30am.

Please see Mr. Short’s post about costumes and the parade for Friday.

https://haigh.dearbornschools.org/2016/10/25/halloween-parade-map-and-information-for-friday-at-930am/

Here are a few questions that come up quite a bit:

How do you pronounce my name?

• My last name is pronounced with an /oo/ sound, similar to the ending in kangaroo.

When are books coming home?

• I am working on labeling book bags. These bags will be used every year with my class. They will need a special place at the house in order to stay safe and clean! I am currently assessing the children to determine their reading level in order to send home the appropriate books for each child. My goal is to have books coming home by the beginning of November.

How do I know when my child has flipped their card?

• At the beginning of November I will start sending home Friday Folders. These folders are red and will have a quick check list of how the week went and how many owls (green cards) or flips (yellow, blue, red) your child had throughout the week. More information will come home about the Friday Folders in November. There is also information posted in the “class info” tab on our blog.

What do I do if my child wants to buy a lunch?

• Every child has a lunch card that works just like a debit card. You can send money to school with your child and I will get it turned in to Ms. Kathy in the lunch room in order for the money to be added to your child’s account. If the account goes into the negatives, an invoice will be sent home with the amount to be paid. You can choose to send money in as your child buys lunch, or you may choose to pre-load the card with $5 -$50. I have had parents do both throughout the years. There is more information about this posted in the “class info” tab on our blog.
• Milk, and ice cream are available each day for purchase for buyers and packers.

Can I bring in treats for my child’s birthday?

• We do not do treats in Kindergarten. The reason for this is that sometimes food is brought in that is not ok for all children to eat. Sometimes children have allergies, some items may not be halal, etc. Although it may seem hard to believe, I have also had parents drop off sheet cakes to me with no plates, silverware, and no way to cut the cake. Treats at this age can prove to be a challenge. Instead of treats, all of the kindergarten classes are asking that we do non-edible prizes. Last year many of my families made little goody bags. These bags included many different items such as bubbles, pencils, stickers, small toys, little books, glow sticks, play-doh, etc. We still sing with the children and let them choose a friend to help them pass out the goodies. Information about birthday treats can also be found in the “class info” tab on our blog.

I hope this helped to answer some questions. Feel free to email me or post in the comments section below if you have any further questions.