Hello Families!

Today we read the book, “The Christmas Penguin” by Mary Packard. We practiced comprehension by identifying the problem and the solution. We also went further and identified the characters, setting, and our personal connection to the story.

Then…this afternoon, we got a visit from one of the characters in our story! Santa!!! He brought Mrs. Claus too! Santa talked to the boys and girls about kindness as he read the book, “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by R. May and B. Hazen.

We sang songs with Santa and Mrs. Claus too!

After they left, we wrote about Santa! The children were so excited! This was some of the best writing and illustrating I have seen them do yet! 🙂

Tomorrow, is Jersey Day for Spirit Week! Your child can wear a sporty shirt or a shirt with a large number on it. Please do not go out and buy anything special to wear. This is just for fun! Thanks!!!!

Homework: Write as many words that rhymes with sun! Practice saying the short u sound in the middle of this word. Our “new” letter today is U u. Don’t forget to visit MobyMax and MyOn.

Thanks for all you do! Enjoy the pictures from our visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Mrs. Mehrhof

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to kindergarten!

Mrs. Claus is so nice and beautiful!

Mrs. Claus is so nice and beautiful!

Santa and Mrs. Claus surprised us with a visit!

Santa and Mrs. Claus surprised us with a visit!

Santa is tying our shoes!

Santa read us a story! He loves to read!

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to kindergarten!

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to kindergarten!

Santa read us a story! He loves to read!

Santa is dancing and singing with us!

Hello Kindergarten Families!

Happy 16^th week of kindergarten! This week is spirit week at Miller. I wish all who are celebrating Christmas, a very Merry Christmas! We would like to wish everyone a safe a beautiful Winter Break! Have fun with your families welcoming in 2017!

Monday- Hat Day! We made reindeer hats to wear!

Tuesday- Jersey Day! Wear a sporty shirt!

Wednesday- Crazy Hair Day! Go wild with your hair style!

Thursday- Mismatch Day! Be silly as you wear clothes and socks that do not match! Please wearing a matching shoes.

Friday- Pajama Day! Wear your pajamas to school. Please do not wear slippers.

There will be no school for Winter Break for the week of Monday, December 26^th through Friday, January 6^th. School will resume on January 9^th! Please remember, it is expected that all students are visiting MobyMax and MyOn using Clever each day during Winter Break. I will be checking on our students’ progress on these sites. Thank you!!!

Homework: Be sure to complete the daily homework assignments on the December calendar. If this was misplaced, you can find it on my blog. Practice letters, books, and sight words in your child’s reading bags.

If your child wears winter boots to school, please be sure to send gym shoes that they can independently put on. Thank you so much! Please label your child’s gloves, hats, and scarves with their name.

Spelling: Please help your child practice writing the following letter this week: U u, B b, D d.  In addition, please help your child practice writing his/her first name. *The test will be on Friday!

1. U
2. u
3. B
4. B
5. D
6. d
7. Your child’s first name and last name. Please be sure there are no backwards letters and that only the first letter in each part of the name is uppercase. The rest of the names should be lowercase. Recognizing and writing names are very important and will be practiced every day!

Ex. Ryan Smith    not…RYAN  or ryansmith.

Reading: This week we will continue to review narrative story elements, such as setting, characters, and problem/solution. We will also practice re-telling with beginning, middle, and end. In addition, we will continue to work on identifying rhyming words!!! (ex. hat/cat, fish/dish) The children will also continue working on blending sounds to read a word. (ex. b-a-t blended reads bat) We are still practicing our independent Daily 5 time with Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. We will start to make personal connections to the stories we read. Please encourage your child to read their sight words and books from their reading bags each day! Please practice the sight words that have been sent home in your child’s reading bag.

Review words: jump  will do                              New words:   play   that   did

Math: We will begin a new unit learning 2D shapes. We will learn that 2D shapes are flat. We will also identify the number of sides and corners in the 2D shapes. (ex. triangle, circle, square, rectangle, rhombus)

Science: We will continue the unit on physical science called “Pushes and Pulls”. We will observe and discuss these two types of forces. We will explore  how an object’s shape effects its movement.

Social Studies:  We will review the unit called “How do I get what I want?” Your child will be tested on this unit this week.

Writing: We will continue personal narrative writing. We will write and draw to tell about a personal event with a beginning, middle, and end as well as a reaction sentence. Please encourage your child to write at home using spaces between words, uppercase letter at the beginning, and an end mark at the end

Thanks for all you do!

I am looking forward to a wonderful week of school! 🙂

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!

First, I’d like to start by saying how I excited the children were to come to school today! They had great stories about playing in the snow! We are going to turn these into our next personal narratives!!!

We read the book, Pooh Welcomes Winter by K. Zoehfeld. We practiced the reading strategy of listening for understanding. The children love being read to and listening to stories. There are some of the amazing stories we read at school available on you tube as well! In addition to the amazing stories we read, Ms. Thompson, Miller School’s Instructional Coach, has a wonderful blog. She posts stories often that you can find at the library as well as possibly online. PLEASE sign up for her blog.

Click here to sign for Ms. Thompson’s blog! We would love it if you did!!! Once you click on the link, to the right of screen type in your email address and click on create subscription. It is super easy. 🙂

Today, we made snowflakes using 2D shapes. We began using a hexagon, since we learned that all snowflakes are hexagonal. These will be displayed outside our classroom on the winter tree in the hallway.

We also practiced a strategy called chunking when decoding a word. This is when the child gets to a word like played and chunks play with -ed to get played.

We also practiced writing the letter Yy. Please bring in a picture or labeled drawing of something that begins with the letter Yy tomorrow or Thursday.

PLEASE be sure to send in your child’s permission slip and money for the field trip. It is due tomorrow. Thank you so much!!!

One more thing…please speak to your child about the importance of wearing gloves and a warm hat to and from school. The weather is about to get incredibly frigid.

If your child wears boots, they may only be Winter boots, not dressy boots. When your child wear winter boots, please be sure they bring gym shoes they can independently put on.

We are in need of baby wipes, tissues, and black dry erase markers if you would like to donate any to our classroom. 🙂

Thank you for all you do!

Enjoy the pictures!

Mrs. Mehrhof

We are creating our plan by drawing for our personal narrative about a time we played in the snow.

We are creating our plan by drawing for our personal narrative about a time we played in the snow.

We are creating 2D shapes snowflakes!!!

We are creating 2D shapes snowflakes!!!

We are creating 2D shapes snowflakes!!!

We are creating 2D shapes snowflakes!!!

We are creating 2D shapes snowflakes!!!

Last…here is my silly dog, Doodle, relaxing while I am blogging. 🙂

Hello Kindergarten Families!

Happy 15^th week of kindergarten!

I hope each of you had a fun and relaxing weekend! Wow! We sure did get a lot of snow!

I hope that each one of my students is able to login and access Clever for awesome learning opportunities with MobyMax and MyON. Please see me if you have questions about Clever.

Please send in the money and permission slip for January’s field trip to the Science Center this week! Thanks!

Homework: Practice letters, books, and sight words in your child’s reading bags. Write first name and last name, count to 100, write numbers 1-20. We have been noticing that books and items are missing from the reading bags we are sending home. Please help your child to put these items back in their reading bags when you are finished with them at home.

If your child wears winter boots to school, please be sure to send gym shoes that they can independently put on. Thank you so much! Please label your child’s gloves, hats, and scarves with their name.

Friday, Dec. 16^th, the PTA is hosting a movie night for all of our awesome Miller students and their families! The event begins at 4:30!

Spelling: Please help your child practice writing the following letter this week: Yy and Jj.  In addition, please help your child practice writing his/her first name. *The test will be on Friday!

1. Y
2. y
3. J
4. j
5. Your child’s first name and last name. Please be sure there are no backwards letters and that only the first letter in each part of the name is uppercase. The rest of the names should be lowercase. Recognizing and writing names are very important and will be practiced every day!

Ex. Ryan Smith    not…RYAN  or ryansmith.

Reading: This week we will continue to review narrative story elements, such as setting, characters, and problem/solution. We will also practice re-telling with beginning, middle, and end. In addition, we will continue to work on identifying rhyming words!!! (ex. hat/cat, fish/dish) The children will also continue working on blending sounds to read a word. (ex. b-a-t blended reads bat) We are still practicing our independent Daily 5 time with Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. We will start to make personal connections to the stories we read. Please encourage your child to read their sight words and books from their reading bags each day! Please practice the sight words that have been sent home in your child’s reading bag.

Review words: jump  will do                              New words:   play   that   did

Math: We will begin a new unit learning 2D shapes. We will learn that 2D shapes are flat. We will also identify the number of sides and corners in the 2D shapes. (ex. triangle, circle, square, rectangle, rhombus)

Science: We will continue the unit on physical science called “Pushes and Pulls”. We will observe and discuss these two types of forces. We will explore the concept of gravitational pull. We will learn what gravity is.

Social Studies:  We will review the unit called “How do I get what I want?” Your child will be tested on this unit this week.

Writing: We will continue personal narrative writing. We will write and draw to tell about a personal event with a beginning, middle, and end as well as a reaction sentence. Please encourage your child to write at home using spaces between words, uppercase letter at the beginning, and an end mark at the end.

Have a wonderful week!

Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!

We had our first snowfall together today! I cannot being to tell you how excited WE ALL were :). The children were absolutely adorable! For some, it was their first glimpse of snow!

We traded our puppets today was well. Please ask your child to tell you about what is a trade or an example of a trade.

Tomorrow is our handwriting test for Ww and Ee. I am also going to give a pop up sight word. (ex. we or see)

We also made winter trees with snowballs that help us practice counting by 10’s.

Enjoy the pictures!

Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof

We love the snow!

We love the snow!

We segmented three letter words with middle vowel short e.

Our count by 10 trees in the making!

Our count by 10 trees in the making!

We traded the goods we made…puppets!

We traded the goods we made…puppets!

Hello Families!

As I am on my out to watch the second hockey game of the week, I decided to send a quick update of what we did today!!! 🙂

We practiced writing the letter Ee. Please continue to help your child practice writing Ee for Friday’s test.

Homework tonight is to bring in a drawing or picture of something that begins with with short e or long e.

Mr. Awada read the book, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today”, by Carol Mc Cloud. The children were delighted to listen to him read one of their favorite stories. Mr. Awada reviewed the importance of making good choices and treating others with kindness.

We continued our personal narratives about going to the store and getting a new toy. The children are amazing me each day as I watch their writing get better and better!!! Yay!!! Today we worked on the middle of our story using a BME (beginning, middle, end) chart.

In math we completed our first story problem. We illustrated the story problem and solved to find the answer!!!

We ended our day reviewing goods and services! We created our own goods! The children used various arts and crafts materials to create their own puppets!!! Tomorrow we will review the concept of trade as the children trade puppets with a friend! These puppets are each awesome and unique…just like my 27 amazing students! 🙂

Thanks for all you do!!!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Check out these pictures!!

We made goods!!! Look at our puppets!

We are creating goods to trade with friends!

We are creating goods to trade with friends!

Hello Families!

Today was super busy and super fun!

We practiced making connections to the story “Just a Toy” by Mercer Meyer. We will use this books this week for other lessons!

We also practiced writing the letter Ww and identifying words with its sound at the beginning and the end.

Please help your child draw and label a picture of something that begins with the letter W for homework.

Speaking of homework, please click on the homework link on the top of the blog page. It will show your were to click for the December homework.

We reviewed what personal narrative writing is and began getting our plan together for the personal narrative we are going to write about going to the story to buy a new toy/or other object.

We practiced using cubes to add using the sentence stem, “The sum of ___+ ___=___”.

I also introduced the concept of a good in regards to goods and services. Goods are objects that are grown or made for us to help us meet our needs and wants. (ex. A car is a good.)

Also….check out the learning objectives link at the top of the page too! 🙂

I hope you have a lovely evening!

Thanks for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Kindergarten Families!

Happy 14^th week of kindergarten! I hope you all had a relaxing and fun weekend! I did…I got a chance to go shopping, and attend a birthday party! I am looking forward to fun-filled and busy week!

I am  looking forward to a fun-filled week of learning! I hope that each one of my students is able to login and access Clever for awesome learning opportunities with MobyMax and MyON. Please see me if you have questions about Clever.

Homework: Practice letters, books, and sight words in your child’s reading bags. Write first name and last name, count to 100, write numbers 1-20. I have been noticing that books and items are missing from the reading bags I am sending home. Please help your child to put these items back in their reading bags when you are finished with them at home.

Monday, December 5^th is our first Parent Technology meeting! This will begin at 2:00!!! I hope you can attend!

We will also have a Scholastic Book Fair on Monday!!! If your child is interested in purchasing a book, please send them with the appropriate amount of money enclosed in an envelope with their name and book fair written on it. Thanks!

Spelling: Please help your child practice writing the following letter this week: Ww and Ee.  In addition, please help your child practice writing his/her first name. *The test will be on Friday!

1. W
2. w
3. E
4. e
5. Your child’s first name and last name. Please be sure there are no backwards letters and that only the first letter in each part of the name is uppercase. The rest of the names should be lowercase. Recognizing and writing names are very important and will be practiced every day!

Ex. Ryan Smith    not…RYAN  or ryansmith.

Reading: This week we will continue to review narrative story elements, such as setting, characters, and plot. We will introduce problem-solution in a story.  We will also practice re-telling with beginning, middle, and end. In addition, we will continue to work on identifying rhyming words!!! (ex. hat/cat, fish/dish) The children will also continue working on blending sounds to read a word. (ex. b-a-t blended reads bat) We are still practicing our independent Daily 5 time with Read to Self, Work on Writing, Word Work, and Listen to Reading. We will start to make personal connections to the stories we read. Please encourage your child to read their sight words and books from their reading bags each day! Please practice the sight words that have been sent home in your child’s reading bag.

Review: are   with   all   this                                         New words: will    jump    do

Math: We will continue to practice recognizing and writing numbers 0-20 as well as representing the quantity the number represents. We will also continue to practice counting to 100 by 1’s and 10’s. We will work on simple addition using pictures and objects. Please practice counting to 100 by 1’s and 10’s each day!

Science: We will continue the unit on physical science called “Pushes and Pulls”. We will observe and discuss these two types of forces. We will explore how to use force to make objects move.

Social Studies:  We will wrap up our unit called “How do I get what I want?” We will continue to discuss the concepts of needs and wants as well as introduce the concepts of goods, services, and trade. (ex. a book is a good, a teacher is a service)

Writing: We will return to Personal Narrative Writing. This is writing that tells a personal story. We will work on writing a story with a beginning, middle, and an end. We will also work on adding a sentence at the end to tell our reaction in the story. We will work on using a period at the end of our sentences as well as finger spaces between words. We have been practicing stretching for the sounds in words as we write too!

Have a lovely week! Thanks for all you do!!!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!

Wow! This week really zoomed by! I missed the children so much during the Thanksgiving break. I enjoyed my week with them and am looking forward to the week ahead. I hope they had a fun time learning and laughing this week too!

I read different narrative stories this week. The children are doing a really great job recalling the beginning, middle, and end of the story. We even practiced making connections to the story. We use the sentence stem, “The part of the story when…., reminded me of…..”. Our favorite story this week, (well, maybe my favorite story this week), was Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion. I loved one personal connection made this week by one of the students. He said, “The part of the story when Harry got dirty reminded me of when I went to the park and got really dirty.” 🙂

We also wrote our opinions about favorite letter of the alphabet! The children wrote about their favorite letter using the sentence stem, “I like the letter ___ because___.” we also did a fun activity the letter that helped us increase the strength of our fine motor muscles in our hands as well as our hand-eye coordination. Please check out this writing and this activity in our classroom!

In Social Studies we drew and labeled a need as well as a want. The children did a great job stretching for the sounds! Please continue to encourage them to stretch for the sounds in words as they practice writing at home. Today, we talked about goods and services with a deeper focus on what is a service. A service is a job that is done for us. (ex. teacher, police officer, barber, baker, farmer)

In science, we discussed the forces of push and pull. The children worked in their table teams to sort pictures of things into the categories of push or pull. Some of the pictures lead to conversations about how they can be both a push and a pull. 🙂

In math we have been practicing addition with objects as well reviewing numbers and quantities. We used a circle map to show our given number in multiple ways. We showed the number with drawings, tally marks, stickers, and by decomposing the number into two parts to create a number model. (ex. 7 can be decomposed as 5+2=7)

Thank for you completing the family project for the Chicka Chicka Boom boom winter tree! The tree looks beautiful!!!

Monday is a pizza sale in the cafeteria after school!

Monday is also the book fair. Please check your child’s folder for a paper with some of the great books that will be for sale at the book fair. Each book you purchase helps our school get books! If you are sending money for your child to purchase books, please do so in an envelope with your child’s name and book fair on it!

December 7th is picture retake day! If you are not satisfied with your child’s school pictures, please return the package you paid for this day.

Monday is also the first parent technology meeting of the school year at 2:00!! Please consider attending this!

Please check your child’s folder for the homework for hand writing as well as math. These are due on Monday!

The handwriting test for letter Xx and Oo will be on Monday!

Thank you for all you do!!! I hope you all enjoy your weekend!!!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Enjoy the pictures!

We like our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree!

We sorted pictures with our team of things that can be pushed or pulled!

We sorted pictures with our team of things that can be pushed or pulled!

We cut and glued paper holiday cookies onto a pretend tray and added the cookies to create a number model!

Hello Families! Check this out!!!

Miller Elementary School— Dearborn مدرسة ميلر اإلبتدائية – مدينة ديربون Technology Sessions for Parents تعليم الكمبيوتر لآلباء ي ر رضات ف مح

We are so excited about this opportunity for all of our amazing Miller families!

Please take advantage of these free training sessions, even if you consider yourself pretty proficient at technology. Please come and support this initiative to strengthen parent involvement at our school!

Session 1: December 5, 2016 @ 2:00pm, Topic: Basics of the computer and the Internet

Session 2: January 16, 2017 @ 2:00pm, Topic: Internet Safety for Parents: Keeping your kids protected online

Session 3: March 6, 2017 @ 2:00pm, Topic: Online help for preparing your kids for the M-Step & NWEA Tests

المحاضرة الأولى – 5 ديسمبر 6102 الموضوع: أساسيات الكمبيوتر و الانترنت و كيفية الاستفادة من المعلومات المتوفره عبر الانترنت لمساعدة أولادكم المحاضرة الثانية – 02 يناير 6102 الموضوع: كيف تحمي أولادك من مخاطر الإنترنت المحاضرة الثالثة – 2 مارس 6102 الموضوع: كيفية الإستعانة بمصادر الإنترنت للتحضير لإختبارات نهاية العام جميع المحاضرات تبدأ تمام الساعة الثانية مساء

And… We are looking for parent volunteers to help with the book fair on Monday! Please see me if your are interested!!! 🙂

One more thing…Please check out the blog page for homework ideas! You will find a link to the December homework calendar. And… checkout the Kindergarten Objectives blog page. You will see another glimpse into the academic expectations we have in store this week!

Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof