Category: Blogs

The Spelling Test Booklets will be coming home today. This is an opportunity for you to see how well your child performed on their test which they took last Friday.  Please sign and return tomorrow!

We began NWEA testing and will continue testing through the 31st of the month or until we have completed all Math and Reading for each child. Please make sure the children are getting their rest and eating breakfast so that they can try their best on the test!

Upcoming Events

1/20 NO SCHOOL!! MLK JR. Day!!

1/21 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/23 Timeline Project Due (note came home 1/13/also posted to blog)

1/24 No spelling test because of the short week

1/28 Field Trip to Theater!

1/31 Spelling Test #3: it, am, do, jet, met, pet, set, net, vet (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – et. Practice extra -et words with your child such as wet, get, etc)

2/5 Late Start – arrival at 9:35am

2/5 Scholastic Book Order Due

2/6 Spelling Test #4: is, go, we, big, dig, pig, wig, zig, jig (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – ig. Practice extra -ig words with your child such as gig, fig, sprig, rig, etc.)

2/7 No School for Young 5’s and Kindergarten ONLY!!!

2/14 Spelling Test #5: for, up, look, hop, pop, top, cop, mop, bop (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – op. Practice extra -op words with your child such as shop, chop, stop, flop, etc.)

2/17 – 2/21 MID-WINTER BREAK!!!

2/28 Spelling Test #6: like, see, my, if, and, fun, run, bun, sun (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – un. Practice extra -un words with your child such as spun, gun, etc.)

Agenda for the Week

Reading & Writing:  We are focusing on middle sounds which are our vowel sounds. The children are doing really well with these tricky sounds! We also continue to work on increasing our comprehension during reading and to sound out words during writing. The children are learning about informational writing, as we learn about polar animals and complete activities about walruses, penguins, and polar bears.

Please continue to have your child practice writing sentences at home by pretending they are holding an imaginary rubberband and stretching it as they slowly say the word they are trying to spell.

Please utilize RazKids, Readingeggs, and Mathseeds at home. These are all wonderful resources to progress your child’s skills. When your child first logs onto Readingeggs and Mathseeds, it will ask them to take an assessment. This assesses their skill set and places them at the lesson that is best suited for them. Some of your children may start on lesson one or some may start on lesson nine. I love these programs because they place the kids at their own learning level!

Math: We continue to work on addition and subtraction. We also are learning about how objects can be heavier, lighter, taller, shorter, etc. It was interesting to learn a little about area and perimeter by using unifix cubes to cover the surfaces of different objects within the room.

Science: We began talking about polar habitats and the animals which live there. We are learning about different animals who live in the cold and how they are able to survive in this habitat.

Social Studies:  We are discussing history. The children are learning that we can remember and talk about things that happened in the past.We cannot wait to share our timeline projects with the class!

Housekeeping Items:

Indoor Lineup

Indoor lineup is now at the 5th grade doors. Remember, even during indoor lineup, no parents are allowed in the building unless you have signed in at the front office.

Winter Apparel

Please practice putting on and taking off coats, boots, shoes, scarves, gloves, etc. As well as buttoning/zipping coats and tying their own shoes. Your child should be able to do all of these things independently!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder 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. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized.

The following note is coming home today:

Timeline Project: We are getting to know each other in Kindergarten! A great way to get to know each other is by learning about our timeline (history)!  You and your child will create a timeline project using events from their own lives! Some examples of important events are: birth, began to crawl, first steps, lost tooth, etc.  This is a wonderful project that will allow your child to present their experiences to their peers in class. Please be sure to involve your child in the creation process so they are able to stand up and speak about the poster to their friends! 

On the timeline, please include 5 pictures or drawings and a very short heading under each event.  Please limit to ONLY 5 events on the poster board. The project should also be done chronologically starting with birth.  Please make sure the project is displayed horizontally, so students are able to see the progression from left to right. Your child may decorate their timeline any way they choose…be as creative as you would like:)
We hope you all enjoy walking down memory lane with this wonderful Social Studies project and we can’t wait to see and talk about all the projects in class!  All projects are due to school by Thursday, January 23rd.   Thank you!    

The Spelling Test Booklets will be coming home today. This is an opportunity for you to see how well your child performed on their test on Friday. I will send the test booklets home every Monday and they need to be signed at the bottom of the page and returned to school by Tuesday! This will ensure that the booklets have been returned for the next test! If the test booklets are returned tomorrow, your child will receive a hoot and be entered into the hoot drawing to win a prize!

Also coming home today is a half sheet of paper with the words for this week’s spelling test. These words can also be found here on the blog, and on the communication log.

can 

pan

man

tan

ran

fan

to

in 

you 

Please practice the -an spelling pattern, not just the words. The 10th word will be an “application word” from the -an family that has not been provided. 

Tomorrow is our first spelling test! We have been practicing these words all week!

As a reminder, here are the words:

cat 

bat

hat

sat

rat

mat

I 

a

the 

Please practice the -at spelling pattern, not just the words. The 10th word will be an “application word” from the -at family that has not been provided. 

We had so much fun this week! We had our surprise gender reveal, our PBIS party, our winter party, and our Polar Express, pancake breakfast and PJs day! So many fun activities crammed into one week!

I hope you all have a wonderful break together with family and friends and to those who celebrate any holidays during break, I hope you have happy holidays! And to all of you, Happy New Year!!!! See you in 2020!

Thank you to all of you for your generosity and support not only during this time of year but throughout this entire year, for congratulations on my new baby, and for all the kind gifts and thoughtful cards! You all are amazing!

Here are a few pictures from our winter party and Polar Express day:

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! See you in 2020!

A look ahead…

1/10 Spelling Test #1: the, I, a, cat, bat, rat, mat, sat, hat (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – at. Practice extra -at words with your child such as pat, flat, splat)

1/14 Scholastic Book Order Due

1/15 Late Start – arrival at 9:35am

1/17 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/17 Spelling Test #2: to, in, you, can, man, tan, pan, ran, fan (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – an. Practice extra -an words with your child such as van, plan)

1/20 NO SCHOOL!! MLK JR. Day!!

1/21 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/23 Timeline Project Due (note coming home 1/13)

1/24 No spelling test because of the short week

1/28 Field Trip to Theater!

1/31 Spelling Test #3: it, am, do, jet, met, pet, set, net, vet (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – et. Practice extra -et words with your child such as wet, get, etc)

2/5 Late Start – arrival at 9:35am

2/5 Scholastic Book Order Due

2/6 Spelling Test #4: is, go, we, big, dig, pig, wig, zig, jig (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – ig. Practice extra -ig words with your child such as gig, fig, sprig, rig, etc.)

2/7 No School for Young 5’s and Kindergarten ONLY!!!

2/14 Spelling Test #5: for, up, look, hop, pop, top, cop, mop, bop (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – op. Practice extra -op words with your child such as shop, chop, stop, flop, etc.)

2/17 – 2/21 MID-WINTER BREAK!!!

2/28 Spelling Test #6: like, see, my, if, and, fun, run, bun, sun (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – un. Practice extra -un words with your child such as spun, gun, etc.)

Dear Parents,

I am thrilled to announce that I am due with my second child on April 24, 2020  This means that I will be taking maternity leave to be home with my baby beginning sometime in April. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am planning on working up until this little one decides to make her debut.  I will return six to eight weeks after the baby is born, depending upon my approved leave through the school district. If she comes on her due date, my plan is to come back for the last week of school to say goodbye and close out the school year.

Once I leave, the children will be left in very capable hands. The long term substitute for our classroom is Mrs. Maria Bolger. She has worked very closely with me over the last five years in and out of my classroom as a substitute and as a paraprofessional. She is very familiar with my teaching style, my routines, and procedures. She currently is working in another Kindergarten classroom, so she is familiar with the children in our room as well! Mrs. Beydoun will also stay on for the remainder of the year! She has been working in our classroom all year, which has given her and the children the opportunity to get to know one another. Mrs. Beydoun will be able to assist Mrs. Bolger while I am on leave. I am dedicated to the success of every child in my classroom and feel confident that I have found a substitute for our class who has the same goals. I will be preparing the children for my leave by talking to them about the baby and working hard to get all of our routines in place to provide a seamless transition.

Today, I announced to the children the news that I am expecting a baby and they got to make their prediction about whether they thought it would be a girl or a boy! We graphed our results and then we did an experiment with baking soda and vinegar to reveal the results! The pink solution bubbled over revealing that it will be a GIRL! 

It is my privilege to teach your children and I look forward to a wonderful year with all of you! As always, should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Mrs. Dimitriou

dimitrm@dearbornschools.org

Here are some pictures from our GENDER REVEAL:

SURPRISE! It’s a girl!

We are so excited for our Polar Express Day on Friday, December 20th! Children are welcome to wear “school appropriate” pajamas for the occasion. We will read the book, watch the movie, do fun activities, and eat pancakes. Thank you to our wonderful homeroom moms for supplying and making us breakfast! This will be for the children only, no parent volunteers are needed.☺

We have been working on text-to-text connections and have been reading all the different versions of the gingerbread man. We have read, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Cowboy, The Gingerbread Baby, The Ninjabread Man, The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, Catch that Cookie, and several versions simply titled The Gingerbread Man. The children learned about Venn diagrams and practiced comparing and contrasting key details from each story. The children also used their retelling skills using prop masks to act out one of the stories for the class.

This afternoon, we had to follow clues around the school to find our gingerbread men because they ran away from us just like in the story “Catch That Cookie.” We followed clues through the school until we caught our gingerbread men! Then we brought our cookies back to class and we decorated them!

We also did an experiment with a gingerbread cookie and asked the question, “What would have happened to the Gingerbread Man if he had tried to cross the river without the fox?” We put a cookie in water and made predictions what we thought was going to happen and then we observed what actually happened and compared the results to our predictions.

The class also had fun sharing their gingerbread in disguise! Thank you for your help with this project!

Enjoy the photos below from all of our gingerbread activities:

Upcoming Events

12/19 PBIS – Movie Theater

12/19 Winter Party (sign-up genius TBD)

12/20 Pajamas, Polar Express, and Pancakes! (sign-up genius TBD)

12/21 – 1/5 NO SCHOOL!!! Winter Break!

A look ahead…

1/10 Spelling Test #1: the, I, a, cat, bat, rat, mat, sat, hat (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – at. Practice extra -at words with your child such as pat, flat, splat)

1/17 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/17 Spelling Test #2: to, in, you, can, man, tan, pan, ran, fan (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – an. Practice extra -an words with your child such as van, plan)

1/20 NO SCHOOL!! MLK JR. Day!!

1/21 Half Day! Dismissal at 11:40am

1/23 Timeline Project Due (note coming home 1/13)

1/24 No spelling test because of the short week

1/31 Spelling Test #3: it, am, do, jet, met, pet, set, net, vet (And one more cold word belonging to the word family – et. Practice extra -et words with your child such as vet, , splat)

Agenda for the Week

Reading & Writing:  This week we focused on beginning sounds vs. ending sounds. Many children know these, but are mixing them up. I taught the children how to play many center games which reinforce these skills. We have been working on our independence during Daily 5 so that once work is finished and the children have done their best work, they may go choose to play one of these games independently.

Please continue to have your child practice writing sentences at home by pretending they are holding an imaginary rubberband and stretching it as they slowly say the word they are trying to spell.

List #3 will be assessed on 12/18. As a reminder the words are: find, from, but, this, came, on, will, into, be, your, that.

All children are receiving one-on-one tutor time on the sight words using flash cards, magnetic letters, dry-erase white boards, and much more! If your child already knows the words on the list, we are working on having them write them! They have not truly mastered the word until they can read it and use it in their writing as well!

This week we worked on the letters Mm and Nn as well as the sounds these letters make. We learned how to write each letter and where each letter should be written on the line. All of the letters and sounds have been taught!!!

Please utilize RazKids, Readingeggs, and Mathseeds at home. These are all wonderful resources to progress your child’s skills. When your child first logs onto Readingeggs and Mathseeds, it will ask them to take an assessment. This assesses their skill set and places them at the lesson that is best suited for them. Some of your children may start on lesson one or some may start on lesson nine. I love these programs because they place the kids at their own learning level!

Math: We have been discussing measurement and vocabulary such as shorter, longer, taller, length, width, height, heavier, lighter. The children learned how to play a measurement game on the Promethean board and learned how to use a ruler to measure!

Science: We continued talking about different types of weather and discussing the different seasons. The children have been playing with different puzzles which build scenes of each season.

Social Studies:  We are discussing economic goods and services. We have been talking about places we go where we might buy something (grocery store, toy store, etc) or where we might pay for a service (getting hair cut, snow removal, etc)

Housekeeping Items:

Indoor Lineup

Indoor lineup is now at the 5th grade doors. Remember, even during indoor lineup, no parents are allowed in the building unless you have signed in at the front office.

Winter Apparel

Please practice putting on and taking off coats, boots, shoes, scarves, gloves, etc. As well as buttoning/zipping coats and tying their own shoes. Your child should be able to do all of these things independently!

Folders

Please make sure to empty the folder 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. Please be sure to send the folder to school each day. It is a big part of our arrival and dismissal routines and the folders help the children keep all of their papers organized