Category: Blogs

Green book pouches will not be coming home today.  We were busy reviewing our routines and rules today and did not have time to get our new books for the week. New books will come home in the green book pouches tomorrow!

Thank you for your patience as we get back into the swing of things!

Hope everyone enjoyed winter break and had a chance to relax a little with friends and family!

A note is coming home today stapled inside of the green folders with the login information for Math Seeds and Reading Eggs.

We only have Math Seeds until the end of the month. Please make sure to log on and use this with your children. It is a great tool and I have already received lots of positive feedback from many families who used this program during winter break.

Reading Eggs is a subscription we have all year! It is great for helping your child increase their reading skills on many different levels. Please make sure to login and have your child use this at home. Practicing Reading Eggs can count on the reading log for the weekly homework! 🙂 However, please do not substitute this for practicing the books that come home in the book pouch.

Spelling Tests

Spelling is a very important skill. We will have a spelling test on Friday of each week. These tests help the children know how to read and write sight words and word family (rhyming) words. There will be one mystery word on each list. Practice extra words for each word family (rhyming) list that comes home. The mystery word will be another word family (rhyming) word.

New spelling words will be distributed each Friday in the classroom newsletter posted on our class blog. The spelling words will also be listed on the homework that comes home each Monday.

Our first spelling test will be this Friday! The words are as follows: bat, cat, sat, I, a, the

Please help your child practice reading and writing these words throughout the week.

We created a word family book that will be in your child’s book pouch that will come home today! This book can be used to help your child read and spell the word family words for this week.

Here is a list of words in our word family this week that you can use as practice as well:

bat

cat

fat

flat

hat

mat

gnat

pat

rat

sat

splat

spat

that

No red folders or book pouches today.

Please keep the green folders in a safe place during break!

Homework packet for break came home today. This is just to keep them practicing skills over the next two weeks.  Complete a little bit here and there when you can during break to help the children stay in school routines!

Mr. Short has started a reading challenge for break.  A log is coming home today with directions about the challenge. You can “double dip” your reading log with the log in my homework packet. Please do not feel like you need to read separately for each log. Record the same readings on each to make it easier!

Thank you all for your generosity and kindness with all the gifts you have given me. I am overwhelmed by all of your love and support! I hope you all have a very relaxing break filled with fun and lots of family time!

Thank you to everyone who helped make our winter party, and our Polar Express day a success for the children.

We had six centers; a wreath craft, necklace craft, winter memory card game, holiday light show computer game, snowman sugar cookie decorating, and pin the button on the gingerbread man game.

Here are pictures from our activity:

Upcoming Events

12/23 – 1/8 Winter Break

1/9 BACK TO SCHOOL!

1/9 – 1/20 Pizza Kit Sales

1/13 Leaders for Life Assembly – Send children in Detroit Lions gear/colors

1/16 NO SCHOOL! MLK JR. Day

1/18 Late Start – 9:40am arrival

1/20 Pizza Kit order forms and money due

1/27 ½ Day – dismissal 11:45

1/27 Pizza Kit Delivery ***Must pick up orders between 11:45 – 3:00pm

1/30 PBIS PARTY – School-wide BINGO

Agenda for the Week

Reading/Writing: We wrote about the star of the week and tried to add details. The children are working hard to include the “why” word in their writing. Our “why” word is “because.” The children work on telling why or supporting the claim they are stating. The children have been working hard at listening for the beginning sound and ending sound of each word while they stretch words during writing time. This week we moved on to isolating the middle sound (vowel) within words and played a fun game to help us practice this skill.

Please continue to have your child practice writing at home. Here is what I am looking for in class:

Uppercase to start the sentence

End punctuation (. ! ?)

Finger spaces between words

Does the sentence make sense? Are the words in the correct order?

Does the picture match the words?

Did you stretch your sentence? (Is there a noun, adjective, and verb?)

Math: We took our +0 and +1 math quizzes. The children all did well with learning the rules about test taking and trying their best on their quizzes. Today, I sent home the +2 flashcards. Please practice these flashcards over break. We will take the +2 quiz on Friday, January 13th.

Please continue to practice counting by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100 with your child at home. Also practice counting to 30 by 2’s (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20…..).  Other activities you can practice at home are using tally marks to count objects, identifying 2D/3D shapes around the house of community, and really making sure your child has good one-to-one correspondence when counting (this means that they touch each object as they are counting and count all objects correctly).

Housekeeping Items:

If you would like to leave boots and snow pants at school in your child’s locker, please feel free to do so! Just send me a note so that I know that they need to stay here through the week.

Please make sure reading books are placed back in the green book pouches each night and returned to school every morning.

Please make sure to record the reading that you do with your child each night on the reading log in the homework.

The easiest way to get ahold of me during the day is through my email at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org. If the children are working independently on a task, I can easily check my email and send a quick reply.

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.

Now that we are done learning the letters, the homework packets will look a little different. Beginning in January, the packets will include the spelling sheet, a reading comprehension sheet, writing practice, and math practice.

If you need help on completing any of the pages, please refer to our “How-to Homework Video” below:

Reading Eggs has been such a great tool and resource for the students in class! The children LOVE completing their lessons during Daily 5 and I know many of them are also using their logins at home!

I just signed up for a free trial of Math Seeds. The login information is the same for the children as it is for Reading Eggs. Math Seeds is a math computer program through the same company. You can still go to readingeggs.com, then click on the “math seeds” tab and login there for some fun math practice!

I am going to introduce the children to this program later today and give them some time to work through a few lessons during math centers.

I thought Math Seeds would be worth checking out since the children love Reading Eggs so much. The free trial only lasts for 30 days. I thought we could use it for the next 30 days and see how the children like it and then we can possible see about getting a subscription for Math as well.

Please let me know your feedback on the program.

Remember, the login and password for Math Seeds is the same as the login for Reading Eggs. If you need your child’s login, please email me at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org

Both of these programs can be used on a computer or a tablet!

Our winter party will be on Thursday, December 22nd. The children will make two crafts, play 3 different games, and decorate cookies. In the afternoon, the children will enjoy the PBIS “movie theater” reward!

On Friday, December 23rd, we will have Pancakes, Pajamas, and Polar Express. There is a note in the children’s mailboxes coming home today about our Polar Express day. We will serve pancakes and juice in the morning for all the children. All children are welcome to wear pajamas to school, but please no slippers! Remember, we have gym on Friday. We will watch Polar Express and drink hot cocoa. We will complete a few activities about the Polar Express such as sequencing the story, comparing the move to the book, and discussing our favorite part. It will be a fun day!

This week we were collecting money for many different events (popcorn and PBIS candy). I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you for making it easy on me to sort everything and get the money where it needed to go. It could have been hectic sorting all the money for the different items, but everyone sent in the money labeled with what it was for and their child’s name! Thank you!!!

Thank you to everyone that helped make our Goods & Services day a huge success! The children worked hard all week to earn “Kinder Kash” to spend at the restaurant, store, and spa.

Here are pictures from our activity:

It was a huge success and I am so grateful to everyone that helped to make it a fun experience for all of kindergarten!

Upcoming Events

12/19 – 12/21 Candy Gram Sales ($1 per candy gram)

12/21 Late Start – 9:40am

12/22 PBIS Party – Movie Theater (in school)

12/22 Holiday Party (more information coming home soon)

12/23 Pancake Breakfast & Polar Express Day – Wear Pajamas (more information coming home soon)

12/23 – 1/8 Winter Break

1/9 BACK TO SCHOOL!

Agenda for the Week

Letters: All letters have been learned!

*Homework will look a little different moving forward. Homework will begin to include spelling practice, reading comprehension, writing practice, addition, and subtraction.

Reading/Writing: We wrote about the gingerbread man disguise. All of the gingerbread men/girls were turned in and are hanging on the children’s lockers! They all look great! Thank you for helping with this activity. The children wrote about the disguise they chose and why they thought it was a good disguise. The children also wrote about the best way to catch a gingerbread man. Some of the children wrote very funny stories about tricking the gingerbread man into thinking they were friends in order to catch him!

Please continue to have your child practice writing at home. Here is what I am looking for in class:

Uppercase to start the sentence

End punctuation (. ! ?)

Finger spaces between words

Does the sentence make sense? Are the words in the correct order?

Does the picture match the words?

Did you stretch your sentence? (Is there a noun, adjective, and verb?)

Math: We did not have time to take our math test today due to our busy schedule today with Daily 5, 5^th grade buddies, and the kindergarten goods and services activity which took up the entire afternoon. We will take the +0 math quiz on Monday morning. Today, I sent home the +1 flashcards. Please practice these flashcards for the test next Friday.

Please continue to practice counting by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100 with your child at home. Also practice counting to 30 by 2’s (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20…..).  Other activities you can practice at home are using tally marks to count objects, identifying 2D/3D shapes around the house of community, and really making sure your child has good one-to-one correspondence when counting (this means that they touch each object as they are counting and count all objects correctly).

Social Studies: This week we talked about goods & services and prepared for our activity. The children worked hard all week to earn “Kinder Kash” for our goods and services event.

Housekeeping Items:

Please make sure reading books are placed back in the green book pouches each night and returned to school every morning.

Please make sure to record the reading that you do with your child each night on the reading log in the homework.

The easiest way to get ahold of me during the day is through my email at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org. If the children are working independently on a task, I can easily check my email and send a quick reply.

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.

Families —

Now that the weather is cold, there are a lot of winter accessories you may be sending with your child to school.

Please make sure all items are labeled with your child’s first and last name.

Please feel free to leave whatever you may want to leave here at school in your child’s locker. Just make sure you tell your child what you want left here and if need be, send me a note letting me know too. This way I can help them to understand what items should be left at school.
Please make sure that your child has a pair of shoes to wear each day.

Wearing boots can become tiresome as they remain wet for a long time and can be uncomfortable to be in all day long. If you would like to leave a pair of shoes here at school in your child’s locker, that would be great.

Thank you for your help this winter season!

Friday, the children participated in a fun gingerbread activity. We have been reading several versions of the gingerbread man stories. The children had to think about whether the gingerbread man could have made it across the river by himself. The children stated their opinion and then made predictions about what they think the cookie would look like after it got wet. Next, we placed a gingerbread cookie in a tub of water and watched what happened to the cookie. Next, we were going to decorate and eat some gingerbread cookies, but they ran away (just like what happened in a story we read called Catch that Cookie).The gingerbread cookies left us clue that led us on a scavenger hunt around the school until we finally found the cookies! We brought the cookies back to class and decorated them. Then we all took just one bite and graphed how many of us bit off the arm, leg, or head. We tallied our data and then enjoyed the rest of our cookies! This was a very fun activity for everyone!

Upcoming Events

12/15  3-5 Family Workshop Night (The first 50 families to turn in participation slips)

12/16 Kindergarten Goods and Services Activity 2pm

12/19 – 12/21 Candy Gram Sales ($1 per candy gram)

12/21 Late Start – 9:40am

12/22 PBIS Party – Movie Theater (in school)

12/22 Holiday Party (more information coming home soon)

12/23 Pancake Breakfast & Polar Express Day – Wear Pajamas (more information coming home soon)

12/23 – 1/8 Winter Break

1/9 BACK TO SCHOOL!

Agenda for the Week

Letters: This week we focused on the letters Mm and Oo. 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: We wrote about the gingerbread man. We read several different versions of the gingerbread man story and we came up with our own version with our own characters. The children also practiced writing using transition words first, next, last to tell how we can be good listeners.

Please continue to have your child practice writing at home. Here is what I am looking for in class:

Uppercase to start the sentence

End punctuation (. ! ?)

Finger spaces between words

Does the sentence make sense? Are the words in the correct order?

Does the picture match the words?

Did you stretch your sentence? (Is there a noun, adjective, and verb?)

Math: We began learning about measurement in class. The children learned that there are many different tools we can use to measure objects. The children even practiced measuring items in the classroom and played a few measurement games.

Please continue to practice counting by 1’s, 5’s, and 10’s to 100 with your child at home. Also practice counting to 30 by 2’s (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20…..).  Other activities you can practice at home are using tally marks to count objects, identifying 2D/3D shapes around the house of community, and really making sure your child has good one-to-one correspondence when counting (this means that they touch each object as they are counting and count all objects correctly).

Continue practicing addition at home. This can be done while eating a snack, at the grocery store, or while playing outside. They just have to count two groups of items and add them together

Social Studies: We continued learning about the concept of needs and wants. This week we did a cut and paste activity where the children had to identify what the picture was and if it was showing a need or a want. Then they had to glue the picture in the correct column on a t-chart.

Science: We continue to learn about push and pull. The children completed a cut and paste T-chart activity, where they had to cut out pictures of objects being pushed and pulled and sort them on the T-chart under the words “push” and “pull.”

Housekeeping Items:

Please make sure reading books are placed back in the green book pouches each night and returned to school every morning.

Please make sure to record the reading that you do with your child each night on the reading log in the homework.

The easiest way to get ahold of me during the day is through my email at dimitrm@dearbornschools.org. If the children are working independently on a task, I can easily check my email and send a quick reply.