Mrs Sarafa's Class Blog

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts and Writing:

We have been working a lot on checking for comprehension while we read stories. This is a strategy to work on at home with your child when reading books in their book bag. Look for a letter in your child’s book bag that has more information on how to help your child with comprehension! Now that testing is over we are back in our normal schedule and I think the kids are relieved. We wrote about our star student this week, Mohammed Beydoun. We also made a classroom book together, “Who Am I?”, which we then got to read together and guess who each person was!

Next Week’s Spelling Words:

Like, see, my, if, and, fun, run, bun, sun. An example of a bonus word is: spun.

Math: We continue to work on addition, and will continue all year with this skill! They are getting pretty good at drawing pictures instead of relying solely on their fingers. We did introduce subtraction this week, but will dive deeper into that in the following months.

Next week’s math test is +5

Science: As we continue with our polar climate unit, we learned about penguins this week! We learned there are 17 different types of penguins, the emperor penguin can weigh 100 pounds, that they eat krill, etc. Of course, we had to do a penguin craft to end the week!

Social Studies: Timelines were shared this week! Each child got to share theirs to the class, and since it is quite hard to sit and listen to others talk about themselves we had a little gallery walk. They loved getting to walk around and check out one another’s posters. Thank you for making these – they were so much fun to see!!

Other: I am so sorry for running late at dismissal on Thursday! That is our late special day. We have a special that ends at 3:25 on the other side of the building and getting their coats on and walking to our dismissal door apparently takes awhile! We will move quicker and hopefully warm weather will be upon us soon for less jacket zipping up time. 🙂

Upcoming Events:

Monday January 29th – Winter Carnival PBIS!

Friday, February 2nd – No School for Kindergarten

Wednesday, February 7th – Late Start

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts and Writing:

This month’s focus is on informational, or non-fiction writing. We wrote a lot about whales this week! They are full of fun facts, so feel free to ask them to share what they learned about whales. We also wrote about our star student, Jacob. Lastly, we spent some time going over different types of punctuation. We talked about the meaning of a question mark – encourage them to talk about things that are facts and things that are questions.

Next week’s spelling words are from the -op word family:

for, up, look, hop, pop, top, cop, mop, stop

We all finished up our NWEA tests for reading – and they did great!

Math:

We continued with our math centers and took our math test for +3. Next week is +4.

We will take our Math NWEA test next Tuesday – then we are officially done with testing! Yay!

Science: Polar habitat is our focus for this month, and this week we learned about whales. They are loving every second of it!

Other:

We have rolled out a new behavior system in the class! I figured it was about time for a switch, so we are now using a system called Dojo. It is an app, and they gather points for good behavior. They use our classroom tablet to give themselves points when I see them doing something good. On Fridays they will be able to redeem their points or continue saving them. There is a new prize for every increment of 10. Example, 10 points is something from the prize bucket, 50 points is shoes off for the day, and 80 points is lunch with the teacher.

We made whale crafts on Friday with our big buddies, they are on display in the hallway.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, January 26th – Half day

Friday, February 2nd – No School for Kindergarten

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts & Writing:

January is a big testing month! Next week we will be taking our NWEA test that we took at the beginning of the year. If a certain percentage of kindergarten is on or above grade level they get to slime Mr. Short! So, we have spent some time this week reviewing what we have learned so far this year.

Also, we are checking in on their reading levels. I have not gotten through everyone yet, but so far we have a handful of students who are already at or above kindergarten reading level! 🙂 This second half of the year we will see a lot of growth!

Next week’s spelling words are from the -ig family:

is, go, we, big, dig, pig, wig, zig, jig, fig

Math: We have new math centers for the month:

• Counting and recognizing numbers in written form

• January count the room

• Winter tens frames

• Gumball addition
• Counting On

Next week’s math test is +3. When practicing, allow your child to use objects to count other than their fingers, encourage them to draw a picture, and we are also learning how to use a number line.

Science: We have started our new unit, which is polar habitat! We will be learning about all sorts of different polar animals and what they have and need in order to survive in the arctic.

Other: We introduced Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday with our big buddies and they got to write about what their dream is for the world. We will return more to this conversation on Tuesday.

Upcoming Events:

January 15th – No School

January 17th – Late Start (9:35am arrival)

January 26th – Half day for students

Hello!

It was brought to my attention that I never sent home homework this week – oops! I was stuck in Amsterdam and out on Monday so this has been a crazy week. Next week I will be organized again. 🙂 In lieu of homework just please be practicing the spelling words for our test on Friday, again those words are:

it, in, said, jet, met, pet, set, net, vet, wet

Also be practicing our math facts, this week is +2.

One last thing – if your child cannot tie their shoes please do not send them to school. Instead, send slip on shoes or velcro until they are able to tie their shoes on their own. This is a skill that can be worked on at home. 🙂 Right now, after switching our snow boots I am spending what feels like all morning tying shoes. And again after recess when they switch back to snow boots and back again to tennis shoes. Your cooperation is much appreciated! Thank you!

What We Did During Our Week:

Language Arts: We spent some time on the -an family words in preparation for our spelling test. Winter Holidays around the world was completed this week – their suitcases should have come home! Check out their hard work and read through the mini books with them. This week we traveled to China for Chinese New Year, and of course the United States of America to wrap it all up. We also wrote about our star student, Adam.

We will continue spelling tests when we get back from break, here are the words:

It, in, said, jet, met, pet, set, net, and vet.

Math:

We continue to work on addition and did some fun winter activities with cookie and gingerbread man addition.

Other:

Lots of fun activities went on this week!

We had our polar express party – the kids got to enjoy pancakes in the morning and then hot chocolate during the movie. 🙂

Thursday was our winter party – the kids got to pin the nose on Rudolph, decorate cookies, make cards for one another, and make a snowman craft!

Thursday was also our book exchange! Each child got to give one another a book to unwrap and they were so excited to know the feeling of giving!

Friday was our positive behavior party – the students voted on watching Zootopia and we enjoyed a few more snacks together.

Things to do over break:

We will be taking the NWEA MAP test on reading and math during the month of January. If you would like to give your child some extra practice at home, use the following links:

NWEA MAP Test Warm-Up

This link explains how to take the test and provides some sample questions for practice.

**This practice test provides more directions than what are actually given during the test. This is great practice because it teaches them about the test features and actually how to take the test rather than just focusing on their skill set and ability to answer the questions.**

https://www.prepdog.org/

Prep Dog is a great practice test sight. Click the link above and then click on kindergarten and have your child practice answering the questions.

— These links would be great practice during winter break!!!

It has been a crazy and fun first 4 months of school! Enjoy your break and relax with your family!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF THE OVERLY GENEROUS GIFTS!! I tried writing thank yous to each family but I ran out of time by the end of the day! One last note: I will be getting married over break and will be Mrs. Sarafa when we come back; however I’ll still go by Miss Straily for the rest of this year. 🙂 Happy Holidays and your kiddos will be missed!

What we Did During Our Week:

Language Arts: We have finished the alphabet! M & N were the last letters we needed to cover so we are officially done! Now, we can spend more time on spelling words, decoding words, and improving our writing. This week we traveled to Sweden and India! The kids loved learning about St. Lucia helping people in Sweden, and about all the festivities that happen during Diwali in India.  We also wrote about our star student, Zineb.

Spelling Tests:

We take our spelling tests on Friday – every test, for the whole year, is taken in 1 booklet.  We will grade the test over the weekend and send the booklet home with your child the following Monday. You need to look through the test on Monday, sign on the parent signature line and send the booklet back in their green folder on Tuesday. Please make sure that the booklet comes back every Tuesday so I can collect them to distribute again on Friday for the following test.

Next Week’s spelling words:

To, Am, You, Can, Man, Tan, Pan, Ran, Fan, Van

Math: We continued working on our math centers – with a focus on measuring. We took our first math test. Next Friday will be the same but all facts will be +1. Please continue to work on these addition facts with your child for next week’s test!

Science:  We finished up our seasons unit, and took a test on the seasons. We will be starting a new unit after break!

Other: We were the winners for classes K-2 for lunchroom behavior! Each student got to pick a piece of candy or a bag of chips from the cafeteria as their prize.

Next Wednesday (20th), we will be having a Polar Express party – your child may wear their pajamas to school, and bring slippers to wear as well. Of course, send them in their snow boots or tennis shoes and they can change into their slippers once at school. 🙂

Upcoming Events:

December 20th– Late Start @ 9:35 a.m.

December 20th- Pajama day (a note will be sent home with more information)

December 22nd- PBIS Movie Celebration

December 22nd– LAST day of school!  School resumes January 8th, 2018!

Hello!

With snow starting to fall – please be sending your child in their snow boots but also with a change of shoes to wear during the day. Their snow boots drag in mud to the class and get all over our carpet, and the kids get tired of wearing those big shoes all day. In addition, for gym days they are not allowed to participate unless they are in gym shoes – thank you! (Gym is Monday and Thursday)

Also, for lunch on Thursday it was supposed to be Halal burgers, but it is now Fish sandwiches.

Have a great evening!

What we did during our week:

Language Arts and Writing: We worked on recognizing and writing the letter L and the letter O. We continued our “Holidays Around the World” – this week we traveled to Germany and Israel. We wrote about our star student this week, Oliver.

Our first spelling test is next Friday (15th). Each spelling test will have 3 sight words, 6 words from a certain word family, and there will be 1 ‘bonus’ word that follows the word family for the week. The spelling test for next week focuses on words from the -at family. We are talking about these words during school too, but the more practice at home, the better!

Here are the spelling words for next week:

The, I, A, Cat, Bat, Rat, Mat, Hat, Sat.

Please practice extra -at words for the bonus word. The bonus word could be any of the following: fat, flat, chat, that, splat.

Math: We have started to work on measurement, and learning about comparing the weight of objects. Talk with your child about which objects are lighter and which objects are heavier.

Math flashcards were sent home today! Please work on these with your student, our first test is next Friday (the 15th).

Science: We spent some time this week talking about the seasons, and writing an opinion piece on what our favorite season is. They are still learning that Christmas is not a season. 🙂

Other: We had our Pete the Cat field trip!! While it was a short play they still enjoyed it!

We finished up our gingerbread houses with buddies – they look fantastic hanging in the classroom!

Upcoming Events:

December 12th– Hands On Museum Family Stem Night (6-8pm)

December 15th– Spelling Test

December 15th– Math Flash Card Test

December 20th– Late Start

What we did during our week: (I can’t believe it’s already December!)

Language Arts and Writing: We worked on recognizing and writing the letter P and the letter K. We have started our “Holidays Around the World” where we use Google Earth to take us to new places and learn about some of the different holidays that people celebrate. This week we went to Canada and England. As we learn about these places we write facts that we learn. We got to listen to the Queen’s speech – and they were amazed!

We got some new literacy centers too, check out some of the pictures below:

Math: New math centers for the new month! 

Here are our math centers for the next couple weeks:

• Gingerbread Tally Mark Puzzle

• Winter Counting Clip Cards

• Robot and Gingerbread Addition Cards

• Winter Count the Room
• Winter Tens Frames with Mini Erasers

We are starting math quizzes! These quizzes will help the children prepare for First grade and get used to taking tests (what the format looks like, how to follow testing procedures, etc). Each week we will have a math quiz, starting with +0, then +1, all the way to 10. Then we will begin subtraction with -0, then -1, etc. Flash cards will come home on the 8th for our +0 math quiz, which is on December 15th. Please cut these up and practice these math facts with your child for the quiz on the 15th. These flashcards are an example of how you could practice math facts each week with your child. You could also use counters (or food) for a visual representation of the math equation. You can also practice with your child by having them put the big number in their head and the small number on their hands and then count up. Try to make it fun! Thank you for supporting your child with their addition skills!

Science: We are starting to talk about the different seasons and snowy weather. Hopefully it will snow soon so we can have some hands-on experiences!

Other: Friday we met with our big buddies and got to make gingerbread houses with brown paper bags – they love big buddies! We had our PBIS party, and are now working hard to earn the next one, which is a movie party!

This week we also learned about the circle of life. One of our hermit crabs passed away – when they molt to grow into bigger shells they often do not make it. The kids gave Tiny a moment of silence. 🙂

On a brighter note, we are leading in the competition of lunchroom behavior! You may hear your child talk about getting a circle or a triangle in the lunch room – circle is good, triangle means they were not their best. The winning classroom gets a surprise!

Upcoming Events:

December 5th– Pete the Cat field trip!

December 8th– Sight word TEST list 3!

December 8th– Math Flash cards sent home