Hello Families!

Today was another Marvelous Monday! The boys and girls looked absolutely adorable for picture day!!! They were so excited to get their pictures taken! I cannot wait to see their beautiful pictures! I am sure you cannot either! 🙂

We are only at 23 cans of food collected for local families in need. PLEASE help us meet our class goal of 100 cans. I know I am heading to Kroger this week to purchase some canned vegetables! We will be collecting cans of food til October 28th!

Today we learned the letter Cc. We practiced an accuracy strategy where we identified words that begin with the letter Cc. Tomorrow we will do more with this strategy. I asked the children to bring in a drawing or picture of something that begins with the letter Cc for homework.

We also learned the new sight word: here! It would be super awesome if your child wrote a sentence to tell about their letter Cc picture. (ex. Here is a cat.)

We created an anchor chart in writing to introduce our new writing unit. We are learning about Informational Writing. The students will be expected to write a fact about a given topic as well as provide a detailed illustration that matches their writing by the end of this unit. We discussed what is meant by a fact. A fact is something that gives information and is true all of the time. (ex. Apples grow on trees.) An opinion is what we think or how we feel about a topic. It is not a fact. (ex. I like apples. They are the yummiest fruit.)

Today in math we practiced counting, number recognition, number writing, and sorting. The problem of the day asked: “How many letters in your name?” The children used their white boards to practice writing their first names. They then counted the letters and recorded the quantity. Then…they sorted into groups based on the number of letters in their names. We recorded the number in each group to see which number has the most friends with that many letters in their name. We had 7 friends with 4 letters, 10 friends with 5 letters, 5 friends with 6 letters, 2 friends with 7 letters, 1 with 8 letters, and one with 11 letters!

If you are reading this post now…I will add pictures later. 🙂 I took some really super duper cute ones!!!

One more thing…this morning, I picked up a lost dog. I took it to the Dearborn Animal Shelter. If you know who it might belong to, please ask them to call the shelter. See me for any additional information. I know how I would feel if it was one of my dogs that was lost. I would be super sad. Here are my dogs. They are such a blessing and a part of the family! Their names are Doodle and Khloe.

Please check out the additional page I added to the top of the blog. It is called Kindergarten Learning Objectives. It states the learning targets we are focusing on this week. These are aligned to standards that all kindergarten students are learning in Michigan.

Thank you for all you do! Have a lovely evening!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Kindergarten Families!

Happy 7th week of kindergarten! We are looking forward to another beautiful week in Miller’s Kindergarten!

TOMORROW IS PICTURE DAY!!!! Please be sure to complete the picture form and insert the correct amount of money for your order. Our picture time is usually in the morning. I’m hoping that is the case tomorrow. 🙂 

Thursday, October 20th is our Family Engineering Night beginning at 4:30 and ending at 6:00. Please join us for the awesome family event. You and your child will love all of the science stations to discover.

Please help us help the people in our community who are in need this season by bringing in canned goods! We will be collecting canned goods for the next two weeks! Our school goal is to collect 5, 000 cans! Our class goal is 100 cans!

Please be sure to check your child’s backpack everyday as well as empty out any old papers.

Please remember to put the items your child brings home in their reading bag back into the reading bag when you are done using them. The children are bringing home books and sight word cards to practice. Please help your child be responsible with these learning tools. The reading bag contains homework items for your child. Please work with these items for 20 minutes each day.

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

1. C
2. c
3. V
4. v
5. Your child’s first name. Please be sure there are no backwards letters and that only the first letter is uppercase. The rest of the name should be lowercase. Recognizing and writing names are very important and will be practiced every day!

Ex. Ryan    not…RYAN  or ryan.

Reading: This week we will begin our first unit on informational reading. We will learn the differences between a fiction and non-fiction book. We will work on building our comprehension skills by identifying the main topic of an informational book. The children will also begin 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, and Word Work. Please encourage your child to read their sight words and books from their reading bags each day! Please practice the following sight words: (These are words your child needs to recognize and read by sight.)

Review: the it we                       NEW words this week will be: here  in  look

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.

Science: We will continue learning about the 5 senses. These are see, hear, smell, taste, touch. We will conduct our next science investigation this week using the 5 senses as well as the scientific process of investigating a question with a hypothesis and using data to determine the results. We will focus on investigations with pumpkins!

Social Studies:  We will continue a unit called “How to Get Along with Others”. This week we will continue to discuss a classroom issue and brainstorm ways we can work together to solve the problem together. We will also have our first test in social studies on the concepts we have learned about getting along with others.

Writing: We will begin our first informational writing unit. This week the children will learn that informational writing is factual writing about a topic. In kindergarten, at this time of the year, we expect the children to use their drawing oral dictation to tell one fact about the topic we are writing about. The children will learn the concept of what is a fact.

Hello Families!

As you know, today was a half day of school. Thank you for begin on time to pick up your children.

Today we went to gym! Gym is always such a great time for our little ones.

We took our writing test on letters Aa and Hh and our first name. I graded these tests. The children should have them in their folders. Also, in the folders is a letter from Mr. Awada as well as a reminder for Picture Day!!!

Picture Day is on Monday!!! Please send the picture form completed with your order as well as the exact amount of money that is due for your order. Thank you!

Please check your child’s reading bag. We have learned the entire first page of our star sight word list. Your children made flash cards to practice these words everyday. Please work with your child on reading and writing these sight words. As we learn more sight words, more flash cards will be coming home.

Today, we practiced the comprehension strategy called Listen with Understanding. The book I read was actually one that was requested…and one of my favorites!!! We read the book, “Wonder Woman” by Erin Stein. The children loved this book! It is so awesome to read about super heroes! The children become super engaged in stories that feature characters they know.

Tomorrow is the 5th Annual Cipriano Cross Country Run at Ford Field at Brady Street and Monroe. This event in in honor of a former Dearborn School employee, Robert Cipriano. The even begins at 9:00 and is open to the community. You can feel free to join everyone there as students walk/or run a mile! You can cheer on Miller School students!

Tomorrow is Sweetest Day..for those who celebrate. It is a time to recognize all of the sweet people you have been blessed with in your life. I have been blessed with 26 little sweethearts in mine! So… I wish all of my little sweeties…Happy Sweetest Day! Tomorrow I will celebrate by spending time with some of the special people in my life. It is important to never let a day go by without letting people know how important they are to you; our parents, grandparents, children, friends, and co-workers. I am so super blessed to have so many sweet and amazing people in my life!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be gorgeous! We are planning on studying pumpkins this week and next. If you have the opportunity please take the time to visit a pumpkin patch with your child! They can then see first hand how pumpkins grow on vines and how these vines grow from the soil. Many times, children think we just get our pumpkins from the store. Learning experiences such as these make lasting memories!

Thanks for all you do!!! Have a beautiful weekend making lots of memories with the sweet people in your life!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!!!

Today was a great day! We began our day with Daily 5. We had visitors from other schools come watch us do Daily 5 and practice the independent choices of Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Word Work. The visitors were amazed with your awesome children!

The children also had their hearing tested today. If the auditory professionals found something out of the ordinary in regards to your child’s hearing, you will be contacted. This is a great service, offered for free, to our students.

Today we practiced the comprehension strategy of naming the setting with the book, “Duck on a Bike” by David Shannon. This is one of my favorite read alouds!!!! This is a story about a courageous duck who chose to try something new….riding a bike. He rode around the barnyard waving at all of the farm animals. Eventually…all of the animals decided to ride bikes! Please ask your child to tell you setting of the story. (the setting of this story is the farm)

We also practiced using the sound of short a to blend sounds to read a word for our new poem. We blended the sounds b-a-t to read the word bat. The poem is called My Bat. The children read the poem together. Some were even able to read the entire poem by themselves! We even got to make bats to hang up in our classroom! While making these bats the children practiced their coloring, cutting, and following directions skills! 🙂

We learned a new game today during math workshop! We learned a game called Top It. This is a game played with number cards 0-9. It is played with a partner. The children took turns turning over a card and saying the number. The child with the bigger number won that round. You can create this game at home with a deck of playing cards, (minus the joker, queen, king, and ace), or with scrap paper that you simply number 0-9 to make your own cards. This is a fun way to practice number recognition as well as comparing numbers 1-10.

We also answered the Problem of the Day. It asked us to sort ourselves by how we come to school. We did this and discovered that the most popular way in our classroom to come to school is by bus. We have 10 children that ride the bus, 7 that walk to school, and 9 who drive in a car! 🙂

Today in science, we practiced making a prediction (hypothesis). The investigation had to do with whether or not an apple would sink or float. The children made their predictions and told me why they  made that prediction. We tested our hypothesis by dropping the apple in the water. Please ask your child to tell you what happened! (The apple floated!)

In writer’s workshop the children practiced working in pairs to listen to each other’s personal narrative writing and provide their friend with one way they could make their writing better. The little authors did a really great job listening to each other. The ideas were great. The personal narratives were about a time they went shopping. One students made the suggestion that their buddy add a drawing of the lady that was at the store (the worker) in the drawing.

Homework was sent home in the folders to review for the writing test tomorrow. The test will be on writing the first name, H, h, A, a. Please continue to practice writing numbers and counting to 100 by ones!

Tomorrow is a half day! Pick up will be at the classroom at 11:45.

It is not too late to bring in canned goods!!! Our class goal is 100 cans!!! Please help us reach goal. If each child in our class brings at least 5 cans…we will exceed our goal!!! The goal for Miller School as a whole is 5000 cans!!!! We can do it!!! The reward is helping those in need!!!

Please remember, Monday is Picture Day. The picture day form was sent home in the folders last week. Please be sure to fill out the form and include the exact amount of money owed for your order in the envelope. All children will have their picture taken. If you want to order pictures for home, please be sure the form is filled out and returned to me by Monday morning. Thank you!

Thanks for all you do!!!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Here some more adorable pictures of what we did today!

Dear Parents,

If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.

Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.

Sincerely,

Technology Department

Hello Families!

Today was a wonderful Wednesday!!!

We began the day with practicing handwriting letter Aa. The children are doing such a terrific job with coming into the classroom putting away their things, making their lunch choice, and finally getting a chalk board and chalk to practice handwriting for bellwork. They truly are amazing…I just can’t say it enough…Seriously…I brag on my super star students!

We practice comprehension by naming the setting for the story, “Minerva Louise at School” by Janet Morgan Stoeke. The students used a sentence starter to begin sharing their response to the question…what is the setting of the story… They began their answer with “The setting of the story is….” In the case of this story the setting is school! 🙂

We also practiced making a prediction in a story in a different mini lesson that was actually squeezed in at the end of the day. I try to use as many teachable moments as I can with my little super stars! But this time we finished reading the story, “Fall is for Friends” by Suzy Spafford. We began this story the other day and I strategically stopped it at a point where they students had to make a prediction if they thought the leaves would fall of the tree when the friends began singing to the tree. Today, we revisited this story. The children made their predictions… The leaves fell off of the tree!!! The characters were able to play and jump in the fall leaves!! 🙂

Engaging your child with asking questions about the story or while reading is a great way to not only build their comprehension skills, but also increase their vocabulary and language skills. Thank you for taking the time to read with your child. If I have any books you would like to borrow, please do not hesitate to ask!

We learned the new sight word, we! So far this week, we have learned….see, it, and we! Please practice these words. A baggie with sight words will be coming home in the reading bags tomorrow. It is super super important that you take the time to review these words with your child each day!!!

We also talked about ways we could solve a classroom problem that we have been having. This is part of our social studies unit on Getting Along with Others. The problem that we have been having is that the children’s coats and backpacks keep ending up on the floor. We talked about why this is a problem…namely, because it is not only messy, but also a trip and fall hazard. We brainstormed a really great list of ways to solve this problem. We also talked about what is meant by the common good. Common Good is what is good for everyone involved.

We practiced one to one correspondence in counting for math. Today, as you may have seen in your child’s folder, we practiced scatter counting. The children had to count and record the number of apples, clouds, and birds on the page. I sat with each student and watched as they counted the items. Please see me of you have any questions about any notes I may have written on your child’s assignment.

PLEASE practice writing numbers 1-20 and counting to 100 by ones everyday!!! These are very crucial math skills.

We are currently collecting lots of lots of canned goods for needy families in our community!!! PLEASE help Miller School reach our goal in collecting 5, 000 cans! This is a worthy cause to help those in need. If our class collects the most canned goods, we will get a pizza and ice cream party!!!!!

Please check your child’s folder for a note from Mr. Awada to all of the Miller School families. This is am important letter that talks about school safety!

PLEASE remember, Friday is a half day of school!!! Pick up is at 11:45. Your child will eat lunch at home on Friday.

I encouraged the children to bring in a picture or drawing of something that begins with the letter Aa.

Today, we also went to the library for the first time!!! The children and I reviewed library expectations. They picked out their own library books. These books will remain at school.

Here are some pictures of what we have been doing at school!

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Thank for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!!!

Today was a marvelous Monday!!! 🙂

We learned a new letter! We learned the letter Hh. We also were introduced to the Alphafriend, Hattie Horse! We sang her song and talked about words that begin with the sound of Hh.

We also learned a new word! the word is see!!! We practiced spelling and finding this word in the morning message!

We also are beginning a new personal narrative this week. We are still focusing on ideas. We are also focusing on trying to label our illustrations. We have been talking about writing conventions as well. We are working on putting an end mark at the end of our sentences. We have practiced identifying all three end marks. (. ! ?)

We read the story, Just Shopping with my Mom, by Mercer Meyer. After reading this story, we turned and talked to our carpet buddy to tell them about a time we went shopping. We also used this book to practice identifying the setting of a story. The setting is where the story takes place or happens.

In math we practiced recognizing numbers as well as counting the dots on a dice. Some of my students are beginning to subitize. (this is where they can look at the dots and automatically know the number represented) The students rolled a dice and had to find and color the number on their number monster mat.

Here are some pictures of our day!!!

Also…and super duper important!!! We are participating with HYPE to help feed people in need in our community. Mr. Awada is inviting all of the Miller students, families, and staff to “Can the Principal”! This is a contest with a worthy cause to bring in at least 5,000 canned goods. Please consider helping our class be the ones who collect the most at Miller School! Please consider donating canned goods, such as soup, canned fruit, or canned vegetables. The winning class will get a pizza and ice cream party! But…better than that…we will know that we helped feed hungry people. 🙂

Please see me if you have any questions!

Don’t forget…we have a half day on Friday. Pick up is at 11:45.

Oh….I asked the children to bring in a picture of something that begins with the letter H. I mentioned I was going to look in the Kroger ad for a picture of one of my favorite foods…hummus!! 🙂 Another student said she was going to look for a picture of a hamburger.

Please remember to make sure your child does not wear shorts to school now that the weather is super chilly in the morning. Please be sure to send them to school with a sweater or a jacket.

Thanks for all you do!!!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Kindergarten Families!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!! I know I did! It was a busy weekend, but a fun one as I spent time with friends and family! 🙂

Happy 6th week of kindergarten! Wow!!! October has been so beautiful! There are signs of Fall all around. Last week, we investigated apples using the 5 Senses! There are many wonderful apple orchards to visit as a family. You can use your 5 senses as a family to explore the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch at the apple orchard.

Please be sure to send a jacket or sweater to school with your child each day. When the weather is not rainy we will go outside for recess.

If you would like to donate boxes of tissues, baby wipes, or hand soap, I would really appreciate it!!! 🙂

Friday, October 14^th is a half day of school! Pick up is at 11:45.

Please remember to put the items your child brings home in their reading bag back into the reading bag when you are done using them. Many of the children are bringing home books and will soon be bringing home sight word cards to practice. Please help your child be responsible with these learning tools. The reading bag contains homework items for your child. Please work with these items for 20 minutes each day.

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

1. H
2. h
3. A
4. a
5. Your child’s first name. Please be sure there are no backwards letters and that only the first letter is uppercase. The rest of the name should be lowercase. Recognizing and writing names are very important and will be practiced every day!

Ex. Ryan    not…RYAN  or ryan.

Reading: This week we will continue to practice identifying the setting and the characters in stories, songs, and poems. Identifying the elements of a story is a comprehension strategy to help your child remember what was begin read. We will also continue to practice identifying beginning sounds of words. So far, I have introduced 3 of the 5 Daily Choices. The children are now independently doing Word Word, Work on Writing and Read to Self. I am still encouraging the children to practice the 3 Ways to Read a Book. (1. Read the pictures 2. Read the words 3. Re-tell the story) Please practice the following sight words: (These are words your child needs to recognize and read by sight.)

Review: to  go  can                       NEW words this week will be: the  it  we  see

Math: We will 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.

Science: We will continue learning about the 5 senses. These are see, hear, smell, taste, touch. We will conduct our next science investigation this week using the 5 senses as well as the scientific process of investigating a question with a hypothesis and using data to determine the results.

Social Studies:  We will continue a unit called “How to Get Along with Others”. This week we will continue to discuss a classroom issue and brainstorm ways we can work together to solve the problem together. We will also have our first test in social studies on the concepts we have learned about getting along with others.

Writing: We will continue to write to tell a personal story with a focus on the 6+1 Writing Trait called Ideas. This is called a personal narrative. The children will write using detailed drawings as well as their ability to tell me about their story.

Thank you for all you do!

Have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!

I hope you all had an awesome day! Each day I spend teaching your children, I am overwhelmed with how truly amazing they are!

We had a fun and busy day today. We investigated apples using our 5 senses. Tomorrow we will graph our favorite apple. We investigated red delicious, granny smith, and ginger gold. The children recorded their observations on an observation chart. We practiced using our sense of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Here are some pictures of our investigation.

We also learned a new Daily 5 choice!!! We began practicing independence with the Daily 5 Choice called Word Work! Word Work is designed to help your child practice strategies to help them become a better reader, writer, and speller. Here are some pictures of us building stamina during Daily 5!!! My students are simply terrific!!!! 🙂

We read the pictures in a wordless story book as we practiced a comprehension strategy in which we named the setting. The setting is where the story takes place. Today, we read a story about a brother and sister trying to give their large dog, Nicky a bath. The setting of this story is the bathroom.

We have also been practicing identifying end mark punctuation. We have learned the question mark and the period. Tomorrow, your children will be introduced to the exclamation point!

This week we are practicing the words: to, go, can, and see.

I have conferred with lots of the students and have sent home books to practice in the reading bags. Many of the children are practicing reading and touching each word one time as they read. This is called word by word matching. Please remind your children to read using their reading finger. 🙂

We wrote another personal narrative…Today we added the words to our illustration from yesterday in regard to a time when we were so mad. I read the book, “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak. We talked about how the character, Max, was mad at his mom in the story and how his mom was mad at him. The children “wrote” their stories and dictated their words to me. Please feel free to see me anytime your would like to see your child’s writing notebook. We are working on using words from the word wall that we are learning. We are also working on putting end punctuation in our sentences.

Here are some adorable pictures of outside recess today! We used sidewalk chalk!!! The children made many beautiful creations, one created a game, some practiced writing numbers and letters!

Tomorrow is our “spelling test”. We will have a test on writing the first name, B, b, N, n. Homework to practice for the test was sent home today

Also, the picture form is to be completely filled out with the exact amount of money or check for your order included. Please complete and return the form for the mobile dentist. This is an amazing service for our students to get their teeth cleaned. 🙂

We are in need of baby wipes! If you would like to donate a package, we would really appreciate it!!!

Thank you for all you do!

Mrs. Mehrhof

Hello Families!

We have been enjoying this first week of October!

This week we visited the computer lab for the Math NWEA!!! If you would like more information on this assessment, please see me. The children took this test online. Please practice computer mouse skills at home or the local public library. This will really help your child. I recommend ABCya.com https://www.abcya.com/ for great learning games that help build mouse skills too.

Yesterday, we began writing a new personal narrative. I read the story by Mercer Mayer called, “I Was So Mad”. This is really a cute story. After reading the story, the children were given time to think about a time when they were mad. I pulled sticks to hear some of these stories. The children also shared about the time when they were mad with their buddies by turning and talking using the beginning,…. ” One day, I was so mad when…..”

We have been practicing Daily 5. the children are up to 10 minutes for Read to Self and Work on Writing stamina. This week our new words are: to…go….can…see.We have been practicing recognizing these sight words as well as using them in our writing.

We also practiced an accuracy strategy where the children practice recognizing the beginning sound of words. The children brought home this work in which they cut and glued pictures of objects that begin with the sound of Nn.

Today in math we created a graph! We graphed our favorite color. The results indicate that pink is the most popular color in our class.

Today our school practiced all of the drills. We had a lock down drill practice, a fire drill, and a disastrous weather drill. The children did an AMAZING job following directions and begin good listeners!!! Way to go, Kindergarten Stars!!!

Please encourage your child to draw and label things that begin with the sounds of Nn and Bb. Please continue to help them count to 100!

Have a Wonderful Wednesday!!

Thanks for all you do!!

Mrs. Mehrhof