Mrs Sarafa's Class Blog

What We Did During Our Week:

We finished up our second round of computer testing, NWEA, the math portion. Your child’s score will be sent home at the end of September along with a progress report. These reports are just an informal snap shot so you can see how your child is doing! I’m aiming to send one home at the end of each month. 🙂

We continue to work on read to self, and have introduced work on writing as well. When they go to work on writing, they get to write about whatever they’d like! So, we made a heart map this week where they filled out what is important to them. They use this heart map as inspiration when they go to work on writing.

As you saw from open house, we also did a fun craft and wrote about “my future is so bright because”!

Math books have still not arrived from district, when they do they will be sent home and there will be daily math homework to complete.

First graders:

We are reviewing numbers that make 10, and going over what a “number bond” is. Your child should be able to know that 5 and 2 make 7, that 4 and 1 make 5, that 8 and 2 make 10, etc. We will be moving into addition and subtraction within this month.

For reading…book bags will begin to come home next week once we have finished assessing your child’s reading level. A reading response journal will also be in their book bag. Please read every night, and check the journal for an assignment.

Kindergartners: We are working on numbers to 10, and discussing sorting as well as distinguishing between things that are exactly the same versus things that are almost the same.

A late reminder….please have t-shirt money and form turned either today or Monday if you would like a t-shirt for your kindergartner student!

Thank you!

Hello!

If you are having trouble logging onto Zearn and need the class code please see below.

First Grade Zearn Code: UQ9C6A

Kindergarten Zearn Code: M54N9G

As a reminder, open house is tonight from 6-7:30 pm! See you then! 🙂

What We Did During Our Week:

We continue to get to know one another and our classroom rules. We read a lot of great books. “Pigeon has to go to school!”, and then they wrote about what they want to learn about this school year. We also read “Wemberly Worried”. We talked about how it’s okay to feel sad or worried sometimes and then we made a classroom book where they wrote about something they can do if they’re feeling sad or worried. 

We spent a lot of time on reading to self. We discussed that there are three ways to read a book…

1. Read the pictures
2. Read the words
3. Retell the story

See pictures below of us reading!

In the afternoon we have been doing hands-on activities like building with gears and blocks, manipulating abcs and sight words, and completing word puzzles while I have been testing everyone one-on-one. 

We did complete one test of NWEA. This is a computer based test that students take 3 times a year in both reading and math. We can look at your child’s score during fall conferences. Next week we will take the math portion of the test.

Our math materials have arrived and we will be beginning math next week. Look for a homework book that will be coming home on Monday. We are starting lesson 1 on Monday, and will be doing a lesson a day. You should complete lesson 1 homework on Monday, and continue to do a lesson a day at home as well. These are practice books that stay at home. They do not need to be turned in to school, just keep up with the work at home. 🙂

We had an all-school assembly on Friday about “being buddies, not bullies”, and had some great discussion afterwards about how to be a friend or help others if they need it. 

First grade spelling words for next week:

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, Sep 17 – Open House 6-7:30pm

Wednesday, Sep 25 – late start

Thursday, Sep 26 – KINDER parent meeting at Haigh 8-8:30am

What We Did During Our Week:

WELCOME TO THE 2019-2020 SCHOOL YEAR!

We have a fantastic class and are going to have an awesome year! I sent home a colorful welcome packet in your child’s blue folder for the 1^st week of school. So, I’m not going to reiterate all of that information here. This newsletter will come out every Friday, and it will be full of information on what we did in school, and it will include lots of pictures!

This week we got to know one another. We played lots of games, went over our classroom expectations, went to a few specials (technology, art, music and gym). We had a welcome back assembly with Mr. Short and met lots of other friends outside on the playground.

Next week we will be getting our full schedule, and then I will let you know what day we have gym on.

Our class size is small compared to other classrooms so that we can allow for a lot of one-on-one and small group time. Within these groups is when we work at your child’s academic level.  At the end of the year, your child will certainly be ready for the next grade.

We read a lot of great back- to-school books, and talked about ways to be kind and include everyone in our classroom. We have started our alphabet review, with a specific focus on handwriting. This is something that all first grade classes do at the beginning of the year. Kindergartners will work at a much slower pace on alphabet when in small groups.

As the first graders had the afternoon all to ourselves…

We started daily 5 – and worked on read to self. They did an excellent job! First graders will begin word family review as well next week with their first spelling test being next Friday!  They have gotten their 1^st grade composition notebooks, and we wrote about summer vacation! No longer do they have pictures in their notebooks, we have a strong emphasis on writing in 1^st grade!

Next week we hit the ground running and really start to get our curriculum going!

Of course, we will still take time to get to know one another, and our classroom but a lot more learning will begin next week. J Have a relaxing and long weekend!

We started the year together, and we are ending the year together – today we will not say goodbye, but see you again soon. 🙂

Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to grow and learn alongside your child throughout the year. We have created such great memories together, and every single child will be missed and remembered! Thank you all for your continued support and I hope to see some faces come back next year to visit! 🙂 Thank you all again, and have a wonderful summer! Keep on reading!

Please click on the link below to enjoy a quick memory video of our year in Kindergarten together! 🙂

~Love, Mrs. Sarafa

https://photos.app.goo.gl/D4zHNPCMDshYnk9A6

If you did not receive a yearbook today and you are interested in one…A book may be purchased for $10 tomorrow.  Fifth grade students will be be able to purchase books FIRST from between 8:30 am and noon on Wednesday morning.  After 12:00 it will be first come first serve until the books are gone.

Thank you!

Dear Parents,

Due to the inclement weather that is forecasted for Thursday afternoon, we have decided to move the Kindergarten and Young Fives end of year celebration to Wednesday morning from 9:15-11:00 am.  We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you, but we want the kids to be able to enjoy all the outdoor activities on their special day! Parents are still welcome to join us for the celebration right away from 9-11 omorrow!  

 

Be sure to wear to Kindergarten T-shirts and sunscreen!

Good evening everyone,

Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be raining tomorrow and or too wet to have field day outside. So, field day has been shortened and moved to the indoors. If you have been selected to be a parent volunteer, I’m not sure on what they’re going to do with you. I believe more information will be sent out in the morning. If not, still plan to come at your scheduled time unless otherwise noted.

We are still going to have a fun day and will replace field day with a movie of their choice in our classroom! We will enjoy our field day snack during this time and/or feel free to send in an extra snack with your child for them to enjoy during the movie!

It’s a bummer, but we will still have fun and let’s hope the rain holds off on Thursday for our Kindergarten Celebration!

Monday is Field Day – please send your child in shorts, active shoes, and their kindergarten class t-shirt!

Please also be sure that they already have their sunscreen on, and have a water bottle as well! They will be bringing them outside on Field Day, so make sure their name is on it.

We will also be having a school-wide picnic outside, so a packed lunch is encouraged, although not required.

Thank you and I’m looking forward to a fun week!

*Will update information if it’s looking like it’s going to rain.