Mrs Sarafa's Class Blog

What We Did During Our Week:

We continued to focus on opinion writing – this week we wrote about a book, “I hate my cats (A love story)”, and they wrote their opinion on what they would do to David from the book, “No, David!” Some decided they would let him go free because he’s just a kid, and some decided they would put David in timeout for days! Next week we move onto informational writing and will have an earth day theme going for the rest of April. We also wrote about our star student, Anna!

Next week’s spelling words: cub, rub, sub, tub, slub, stub, bonus word

Sight words to be read: from, went, him

We started module 5: Numbers 10─20; Count to 100 by Ones and Tens.

We worked on finding 10 ones and then some extra ones in addition. (Making sure that when we find a group of 10 we only use one large circle)

Other:

Monday we had an assembly for Earth day. The presenter sang songs with us and some kids got to go up on stage and sing along!

We had a great time at bowling! Thanks to everyone that was able to come and help out with chaperoning, they all had an awesome time! They were tired and hungry, but still said it was the best day ever! Afterwards we saw big buddies and filled out a field trip report with them.

Upcoming Events:

Friday, April 19th – NO  SCHOOL

Wednesday, April 24th – Late Start!

Hello Everyone!  I placed your child’s report card in his/her folder.  Please look over the report card and sign the envelope on the 3rd card marking line.  Please RETURN the envelope in your child’s folder, but keep the report card at home.  Thank you!

What We Did During Our Week:

We continue to focus on opinion writing – this week we wrote about whether or not we would share our ice cream, and their opinion on if they would like a dog or not! We also wrote about our star student, Kamel!

Next week’s spelling words: dog, log, jog, hog, blog, frog, bonus word

Sight words to be read: little, have, us

We took our Module 4 math test, and they did great! The test covered number bonds, addition, subtraction, the concept of ‘one more’ and ‘one less’.

Module 5 after spring break: Numbers 10─20; Count to 100 by Ones and Tens. Other:

We had a very busy week!

Tuesday we went to the 2nd and 3rd graders concert, they had fun seeing some big siblings perform!

Wednesday we traveled to other kindergarten rooms and had the other teachers read them a story. We also had some high school students come and read to us outside!

Thursday we had Upland Farms PBIS where they got to see some real farm animals! In the afternoon we saw big buddies and did a rainbow craft with compound words.

Friday we had our pie Mr. Short assembly! Click on the links below to see!

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The school year is going so fast, enjoy your spring break everyone and we will see you in April! 🙂

Upcoming Events:

School resumes april 8th!

Friday, April 12th – Bowling Trip!

Friday, April 19th – NO  SCHOOL

Wednesday, April 24th – Late Start!

What We Did During Our Week:

We continue to focus on opinion writing – this week we wrote about our dad, favorite bug, and our favorite color! We are working on blends within words, and have launched reader’s theater into some of our reading groups. These are short plays that they practice and rehearse within small groups and then perform in front of the class. Readers theater is a fun way to work on vocabulary, fluency when reading, and expression! We also wrote about our star student, Emma!

Next week’s spelling words: sip, lip, dip, slip. ship, chip, bonus word

Sight words to be read: where, out, now

We finished up module 4! By now to be on track, your child should be comfortable with addition and subtraction up to 10. We will be taking our end of unit test all next week and then moving onto module 5 after spring break: Numbers 10─20; Count to 100 by Ones and Tens.

Other:

This week was relatively calm compared to all the other weeks so far in regards to extra activities. They had fun at the book fair, and we are preparing for a fast, and busy week next week before spring break! 🙂

Next Friday is the moment they have all been waiting for – pie Mr. Short! This is happening due to January NWEA. As long as the grade level performed well, we would be rewarded with pie-ing Mr. Short. We pulled 2 names from a lottery-based system, as only 2 kids per class will be pie-ing him. The two from our class are Aiya and Keaton! We will all cheer them on next Friday!

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, March 28th – PBIS Upland Farms

Friday, March 29th – ice cream social, and pie mr. short assembly!

School resumes april 8th!

What We Did During Our Week:

We continue to focus on opinion writing – this week we looked at a piece of art and they decided whether they saw a duck in it, or a rabbit! We then wrote an opinion piece explaining why they thought that way. Along with writing we focused on the ‘qu’ chunk as well as the ‘ing’ chunk. We also wrote about our star student, Muntathar!

Next week’s spelling words: dad, what, mom, red, fed, wed, led, bed, sled, bonus word

For math we continue to work on addition and subtraction, and now starting to differentiate between the two. For math each day we work in round and small groups, see below to get a glimpse of our schedule for math time!

Other:

We had a lot of fun for spirit week! Thanks all for participating and celebrating March is Reading Month! Thursday we had an assembly to celebrate reading as well, “Readers are Leaders”.

We have added a morning greeter to our routine! We always greet one another everyday, but this is the new way we’re doing it! Each week a child will be the ‘morning greeter’. They get unpacked quickly and then stand at the door to greet each student. Each child picks the way that they would like to be greeted before they head in to start our day! 🙂

Upcoming Events:

Tuesday, March 19th – Book Fair!

What We Did During Our Week:

We finished introducing the ‘h’ brothers and did some more practice with them. This week we also focused on opinion writing. We are at the point now where they should be writing sentence longer than just a few words. They state their opinion and then add a reason why. We wrote about our favorite season, where we would like to go on a trip. We also wrote about our star student, Vinci!

Next week’s spelling words: had, bad, dad, mad, sad, pad, bonus word

*Reminder sight words only need to be read now!

For math we worked on subtraction this week. We are close to finishing up module 4. By now, your child should be comfortable with addition up to 5, composing, decomposing and reading number bonds, and start to be understanding the idea of subtraction or ‘take away’.

Other:

We were busy again with fun events! We had big buddies come in and do a St. Patrick’s Day writing. We had PBIS on Tuesday for BINGO and we have had a lot of older siblings in the building come in and read to us. And Friday we finally got to go outside for recess, yay!!

MARCH IS READING MONTH NOTE: This year we are encouraging you to send in your child’s favorite book from home and we will read it together as a class! If you send it in please make sure that your name is somewhere on it so that we do not get it lost in our jumble of books. Feel free to send it in anytime throughout March – but only one book please.

We are in need of some black expo markers – any donation would be greatly appreciated! Please make sure they are black only, the colored ones are very difficult to erase and stain a lot of our laminated centers. Thank you in advance!

Next Tuesday, be sure to wear your class T-shirt so we can all be twins! 🙂

Upcoming Events:

All next week is spirit week, refer to the communication log next week to keep updated!

Wednesday, March 13th – Late Start

Happy March! Spring is just around the corner!

What We Did During Our Week:

We are introducing the ‘h’ brothers! These digraphs are: th, ch, sh, and wh. We will continue to work on these next week as well. We also wrote about our star student, Lea!

Next week’s spelling words: yes, by, want, this, bug, hug, mug, tug, slug

*Reminder sight words only need to be read now!

For math we continued to work on number bonds, knowing what ‘equal’ means, drawing pictures to create story problems and we have introduced subtraction without give it that name.

Science for the month of March is focusing on polar climate and social studies we will be working on maps and globes!

Other:

Tuesday there was an Animal Alive assembly, and Friday we had an assembly to kick off March is Reading month! Make sure to follow along with your calendar at home, and sign up for the rockin’ read-a-thon!

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, March 13th – Late Start

What We Did During Our Week:

It was finally a most to normal week, and we certainly were productive! We worked a lot on short and long vowels this week as well as our weekly word family. We have been working on/reviewing story retelling as well. Everyone finally has their retell ropes, and they should be practicing using these when they can from their green book bags. We also worked on peer editing. They get in their think,pair, share partners and look over and edit one another’s paper. 

We are now meeting in small reading groups regularly again, so you will be seeing new books coming home again. Thanks for your patience this last month.

Next week’s spelling words: with, play, has, be, hot, not, dot, got, shot, bonus word.

IMPORTANT NOTICE ON SPELLING TEST: I recently attended a district wide professional development for kindergarten. It was shared that sight words do not have to be on our spelling tests. The kids are no longer required to spell the words, just read them. So, from here on out they will read the 3 or 4 sight words, and then will be required to spell the word family words. Their test will still be out of 10 points, but only the word family words will be written. Hope this makes sense! 🙂

**with, play, has, be only need to be read, not spelled.

For math time in the afternoon, we have a high school cadet! She is interested in pursuing teaching as a career in college and will be shadowing/working with us everyday in the afternoon for the remainder of the year. She is working with kids in small groups during math instruction time, so this will be a great help for our class!If you hear your kids talking about Miss. H or Miss Madison that is her. 🙂

Other:

Every month our school focuses on a ‘habit’. January’s habit was ‘begin with the end in mind’. At the end of each month every teacher chooses two students who were an awesome role model/example for this habit. Our first two students chosen were Zayn and Emma for displaying this habit! Awesome job Zayn and Emma and we can’t wait to see who shows us our next habit, “Take Responsibility”!

We have rolled a fun incentive – our classroom ball pit! The ball pit has 100 balls with sight words written on them, and a recording sheet. Throughout the day if I see someone working hard I might tell them to go spend some time in the ball pit. Once in here they hunt for sight words, and record them on a separate sheet. They are loving it! (No fear, we lysol it daily).

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, March 13th – Late Start

What We Did During Our Week:

It was another very short week together, hopefully after this long weekend we can really get back into the groove of things.

Next week’s spelling words: are, here, was, sit, hit, pit, fit, kit, bit

*A quick reminder with spelling tests: please do not stress about these, they do not determine your child’s grade – these are intended to be a piece of data for me to see how they’re doing and what we can continue to work on. It is of course essential they are understanding and grasping the concept of word families, and applying this to their writing. Just keep in mind that the understanding of the concept is what’s important, not the spelling test itself. Hopefully this relieves at least some anxiety! 🙂

We continued to work on our writing process and are going to continue learning how to peer edit one another’s work. We will continue to work on long vs. short vowels.

We had some fun with new February math centers…

Other:

Wednesday we celebrated the 100th day of school, exchanged valentines and had our party. They all had fun seeing how many licks to get to the center of their lollipop.

Below are some pictures from our party…it was great to see some of you! Enjoy your long weekend, and happy valentine’s day! 🙂

Upcoming Events:

Friday, February 8th – NO SCHOOL for KINDERGARTEN only

February 15th and 18th – NO SCHOOL

Good evening,

Tomorrow is our valentines day card exchange and party. Please send your child with their valentine box and cards in the morning! We will be doing these in the morning, not during the party.

The party will start at 2pm! All are welcome to attend!

Tomorrow is also the 100th day of school – feel free to dress like you’re 100 years old!

If you have not given your $8 for a class t-shirt, tomorrow is the final day. We turn in the money after school.

Thanks, and hope to see some of you tomorrow! 🙂