Mrs Sarafa's Class Blog

Tomorrow is our ocean party! You are free to come anytime starting at 2:30pm. We will be providing some snacks and juice! The kids will be stationed around the room while you walk around and check out all of their projects and ocean reports! Please look at all the kids hard work in addition to your own child’s. 🙂 They have all worked so hard and are eager to show it off! You may leave whenever you are ready – it will be ending at 3:15; however, if you would like to leave sooner please see me before you go so that you can sign out with me. Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our PBIS day – a day of play! You may send your child with a towel for our picnic and if possible a brown paper bag packed lunch with their name on it. If they need to buy, option 1 is hummus and pita, option 2 is cheese and crackers. The forecast is calling for rain, hopefully it will hold off!

Spelling booklets came home, and these can stay home with you. No more homework for the rest of the year and no more book bags. With the summer approaching it is imperative that you are still reading with your child so that they are ready to go for first grade! We want to prevent the ‘summer slide’ as much as possible. Scholastic has some great deals going on – 10 books for 10 dollars! If you’d like to purchase some through scholastic, visit the scholastic page on my blog so that you can order some books before the end of the year. Orders are due by this Thursday at noon!

Here is the code for our classroom on scholastic: RD7F6

Dear Families,

On Wednesday, May 30th we will be having a PBIS celebration to recognize your child’s positive behavior. This month’s celebration theme is A Day of Play. We will be having our lunch outside and enjoying outdoor play, so let’s hope the weather stays pleasant!

Your child may bring a towel or blanket to sit on during the picnic lunch, and we strongly encourage students bring a brown bag lunch since we will be eating outside. However, a bag lunch (cheese, crackers, or hummus and pita) will still be available for purchase in the cafeteria.

Thank you,

Haigh PBIS Committee

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts and Writing:  We have finished our NWEA Reading test!! I am thrilled to announce that 91% of our class is meeting and or exceeding kindergarten grade level as well as 91% have met their end of the year goal!! This is awesome! They have worked hard this year and I have seen amazing growth in them. I am so proud! 🙂  In addition to testing, we worked some more on reading comprehension passages. Next week I will continue to do DRA testing, which is testing their current reading level. Here are a few pictures from our Daily 5 time.

Next week’s LAST spelling words are the ing family: king, sing, wing, ring, ding, sting, thing, and bring

Math: We also took our NWEA Math test on Friday! Results are not yet in for everyone, so I will post those results next week.

Science: I know the ocean note initially said to have the ocean project due next Thursday; however, I do not feel the need to house these projects for a week before the party. So, please turn the ocean animal projects in on May 31st instead! Thank you!

Other:

Next week is our last homework, last spelling test, and I am collecting green book bags next week.

Since it is easy to get bogged down with testing we made sure to have some fun this week too! We played a little extra outside and enjoyed a couple games of hot potato together as a class. 🙂 On Friday we also got to enjoy some beautiful weather with big buddies as we played outside with chalk.

A few more kids cashed in Dojo points and we enjoyed lunch together. Only a couple weeks left for them to reach that goal of 80 if they’re hoping to have lunch with me in the classroom!

Upcoming Events:

May 25th and 28th – No School!

Friday, June 1st – Ocean Party (2:30pm)

Wednesday, June 13th – Kindergarten Celebration/Picnic

Remember to bring $10 dollars and the selected size if you would like to buy a class t-shirt today! We are hoping to order them this evening. Also, we are asking for $5 dollars from each family to help out with our end of the year party supplies.

Thank you!

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts and Writing:  This week we have continued working on our ocean reports. They are now officially done and ready for you all at the end of the year! We made our ocean party invites and sent those home. We spent time reviewing a lot of what we have learned this year in preparation for next week. We reviewed rhyming, sentence scrambles, punctuation, capitalization, some familiar word family patterns, and much more!

Next week’s spelling words are blends and digraphs: first, next, last, will, grin, crab, clip, shark, twig, flat

Math: We rolled out our last new math centers for the year!

• Ocean addition

• Add more hair!

• Summer count the room

• Rainbow base ten matching

• Creating with shapes
• Robot Subtraction

Next week’s math test is -7.

Science: We are now done introducing all of the ocean animals! A note should have come home with your child’s chosen animal. Please make a model of this animal and this will accompany their ocean report for our party at the end of the year. 🙂

In case you lost the note, here is a copy and ask your child what animal they chose:

We are O-FISH-ALLY counting down the last days of school with an ocean themed project. The children will be choosing an ocean animal to research and will write an informational book with me in class. In addition to the book, we are asking each student to create a model of their sea creature. This part of the assignment will be done at home. Your child chose a ____________________. This model can be made from paper or other materials, and may be 2D or 3D.  Please send the completed model to school on Thursday, May 24th.

All families are invited to join us for a presentation of our sea creature models and informational books on Friday, June 1st  at 2:30pm. This entire event will last one hour. Please sign in at the office and then come to our classroom.

We hope you will enjoy all of our hard work on our research projects and all our efforts to turn our classroom into an ocean!

Other:

Next week starts our NWEA testing as well as DRA (reading level) testing. Please be sure to have your child come to school on time as it will disrupt our testing if they come in the middle of it. It is also of the utmost importance to continue getting a good night’s sleep and having a hearty breakfast and a healthy snack for school. I try to have extra snacks on hand, but just in case we do not want them to be hungry for testing. 🙂

For buddies we practiced ending punctuation some more with a springtime worksheet.

We did a couple mother’s day crafts! They kids wrote different things they know about their mom, including what makes their mom special! We also made handprint keychains! It was tough for them to keep this a secret, so hopefully it wasn’t spoiled for you. 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful moms!

Upcoming Events:

Monday, May 14th – Field Day – dress appropriately for fun activities!

Wednesday, May 16th – Late Start

May 25th and 28th – No School!

Friday, June 1st – Ocean Party (2:30pm)

Wednesday, June 13th – Kindergarten Celebration/Picnic

These notes will be coming home today….

If your child will be fasting for Ramadan a note is coming home today – please fill this out and return next week.

We are also collecting money for end of the year kindergarten celebrations, here is the note for that will be coming home today:

We are nearing the end of our year together! In order to guarantee the best celebration we’re asking for a donation from each family to help out with the costs for our party. A mom has purchased all of our materials and we don’t want to place a burden on her. So, we are asking for $5 dollars from each family to help out. Thank you!!

Also, our class would like to have class t-shirts to keep as a memory of kindergarten! These shirts are $10 dollars. They will be red and printed on the front, “Mrs. Sarafa’s Kindergarten Class – ‘17-18” and the back will have each child’s name printed. We plan on having these ordered and shipped to us so that we can all wear them together on the day of our Kindergarten celebration. 🙂

So, the total is $15 dollars per student, please have the money turned in by next Wednesday, the 16th. We will be placing the shirt order that evening.

If you plan on ordering a kindergarten t shirt, please circle a shirt size below and return this form with the money in a baggie. Thank you!!

——————————————————————————————————————————–

Child’s name: __________________________________

What We Did During Our Week: (sorry for the lack of photos this week – we’ve been so busy!)

Language Arts and Writing:  This week we have been very busy writing our ocean reports. I am pulling small groups everyday as we work together on this project. So far they have written their rough drafts, and a few have begun to start their final copy. It is a lot of work, but they are enjoying themselves! We also did a timed writing prompt – one of these was done in the fall (about turkeys) and one was done again this week (about sharks). I really enjoyed going through and seeing the amazing growth these kiddos have made! I made a copy of their fall and spring writing and sent them home today so you can check out their growth! We also wrote about our last star student, Nazih!

Some of our fall work! to…

some of our spring work!

Next week’s spelling words are: jump, down, her, eat, tag, wag, bag, rag, and flag.

Math: We have finished up our April math centers and will hopefully have new ones in place next week! We also did a couple fun color by numbers, and addition by number drawings tied in with our ocean unit.

Next week’s math test is -6.

Science: We continue to learn about ocean animals! We also threw in a little discussion on keeping healthy by exercising daily! I was surprised how many of them say they do squats and weight lifting at home! 😉

Other:

Monday was our school wide picnic and PBIS  Art in the Park. It was a blast – and I think I enjoyed the day the most!

Recess: It seems everyone has been doing a good job with this, but just a friendly reminder to keep your kids in closed toed shoes even though the weather is nice. If they are in open toed shoes they will not be able to play on the wood chips during recess for safety reasons.

A note came home about field day, if your child wants to buy one of the popsicles on that day they are 0.50, and they are only allowing one popsicle per child. In other words, please only send them with 50 cents. And please place the money in a baggies with their name on it. Otherwise we have quarters falling everywhere and every kid claiming it belongs to them. 🙂

For buddies we got to make sea turtles and hang them on our newly decorated door. 🙂

The week of May 14th our end of the year testing begins – it it crazy how fast time has gone!

Upcoming Events:

Monday, May 14th – Field Day

Wednesday, May 16th – Late Start

Wednesday, June 13th – Kindergarten Celebration/Picnic (more information to come)

Dear Parents and Guardians,

To help us celebrate another fantastic school year, we will be having Field Day on Monday, May 14, 2018.  For this Field Day event students will work through stations with their class to develop skills they have learned in physical education and have tons of fun!  The schedule for the event is as follows:

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grades

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: 3rd, 4th and 5th Grades

On May 14, students need to wear clothes that will allow them to be physically active outside, including tennis shoes.  They need to bring a water bottle. Students are highly encouraged to bring a water bottle that can be refilled at the refill station that we will provide.  

We are looking for one parent from each classroom to donate a treat for the entire class to enjoy after their session.  We are also pre-selling Fla-vor-ice as a cool treat for students to enjoy during the activities. The cost for the Fla-vor-ice is $0.50, only one Fla-vor-ice per student please. Fla-vor-ice money is due by Monday, May 7.

Lastly, we need 15 parent volunteers for both sessions to help run stations.  If you are interested in volunteering, fill out the lower portion and return it to Mr. Peecher.  Please, contact Mr. Peecher with any questions.

Thanks!  The PBIS/Field Day Committee  peeches@dearbornschools.org

*We will only be able to accommodate students & parent volunteers for this event.

Field Day Volunteer Form

___  Yes! I would like to volunteer to help with a field day station.

___ Morning Session (K-2nd Grades) Please arrive for the morning session by 8:45 AM

___ Afternoon Session (3rd-5th Grades) Please arrive for the afternoon session by 12:30 PM

Volunteer Name: _________________________________________________________

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts and Writing:  This week we talked about our ocean animals! We wrote “can, have, and are” charts for each animal and read some fun books about them. After our trip to the farm we wrote a narrative about what we did. We also introduced a new stair step model to our writing process. Now, the students move up the stair case as they write during writer’s workshop. They start with pre-writing, then to drafting, editing, and finally publishing. After they publish their final copy they get to be an author and share to the class! Their work is beautiful!

Next week’s spelling words are: they, come, his, good, jam, yam, ram, clam, and slam.

Math: We took our math test, and continued to work on subtraction this week. Switching from addition and subtraction can be difficult, so we are making sure that they know the distinct difference between the two.

Next week’s math test is -5.

Science: We have officially started our ocean unit! Your child chose an ocean animal and for the remainder of the year we will learn about these animals, and write reports on them! The options were: sea turtle, seahorse, octopus, fish, crab, dolphin, and shark.

Other: We had a green day assembly to talk more about recycling and helping our Earth! A few friends cashed in their Dojo points this week and were able to eat lunch with me! 🙂

Tuesday was also the First Grade Market – the 1st graders did an amazing job!

We of course had our field trip to the farm! The kids had a blast getting to feed the animals carrots, riding on the tractor and playing in the field before heading back to school.

For buddies on Friday we wrote a poem about the animals that we saw at the farm!

A Few Notes About the End of the Year:

May 18th is our last Library check out date. Some children have been missing books for weeks – please bring these in or else there is a fine from the school. May 24th is the last day for green book bags and homework. Please make sure that all of these books are returned to me on that day. However, in the meantime please make sure that you are still reading with your child on a daily basis. I know it can get hard towards the end of the year to keep up with your daily routines, but this is imperative to keeping them on track for future success. This last month of school we have testing on reading levels and the NWEA test, so we must keep working hard!  Thank you for your support.

Upcoming Events:

Monday, April 30th – Art in the Park PBIS

Wednesday, May 16th – Late Start