March is here! Hopefully we have great weather approaching us soon!

Our literacy unit is all about weather. Last week, we focused on the type of weather and how it feels. This week we will discuss the weather with seasons in more detail using describing words (adjectives). This is perfect for this time of year. We are observing different weather changing from the winter season to the spring!

We are also celebrating our famous author Dr. Seuss. We will read story classics like The cat in the hat, The foot book, Green eggs and ham, one fish two fish-red fish blue fish and Hop on pop! We will discuss rhymes and create fun activities to go along with it. Ask your child what they did today!!

Letters of the week: Bb, Ll

Word family:-an (fan, can, man, ran, tan, van,ban, pan)

Spelling words: and, what, pan, man, tan, fan

Writing: Its all about writing sentences! We talked about 4 important things about a sentence.

1. Does your idea make sense?
2. Did you start your sentence with a capital letter?
3. Do you have space between each word?
4. Did you use an end mark (punctuation) at the end of your sentence?

Math: We will continue counting 1-100, counting by 5’s and 10’s. We will begin counting by 2’s to 30 ( if we can go higher, that would be great!). We will review coin exchange and counting coins together using pennies, dimes and nickels.  We will also create a goldfish graph.

Science: We will continue our waterproofing experiment. We will discuss items that will keep us from getting wet (dry). We will be reviewing seasons.

Social Studies: We look at different parts of the world and compare their weather to ours!

A couple of reminders and notes to keep in mind:

1. Students came  home with their learning plans. Please look over. If you have any questions, email me!
2. Students came home with a March is reading month packet. Please review and log your reading minutes. This will take place of our reading log for the month of March. Each week I will collect a reading ticket weekly (there will be four for the month of March).
3. Turn in your February logs. They were due Friday!  If you did not turn one in yet, turn it in a.s.a.p.!
4. Change your clocks March 8th- Day light saving time.
5. If you would like to read to our class during this month, let me know your available time (through an email please!) and I will schedule you a time to come in!
6. Running club starts today, if you would like to register you child, contact the office.
7. We are in need of snack, if you can donate some that would be great!

Ms. Mohamed

Welcome back!

We will begin Unit 7-WEATHER.  This week’s theme is Kinds of Weather.   We will read a non-fiction book called A Rainy Day. During the week we will discuss the difference between weather and temperature.

We will also recognize and produce rhymes.

LETTER-  “E  e”

WORDS- This  this   Do  do”

WRITING-We will work on writing a weather report.

I have developed a writing workshop and my students are now in full swing of the writing process. My weekly writing routine is–

Mondays I introduce our writing focus for the week. Tuesdays we work on the focus together and find examples in our reading or how we use the writing in every day life.  Wednesdays the students do their prewrite.  Thursdays I revise and edit with each student.  Fridays we publish and share our writings.  As you can see, they are very busy with reading and writing. My students have been using this routine for several months now and are comfortable with new weekly expectations. (For example, students now know that all sentences begin with a capital letter, have spaces between words, and end with punctuation.  They also know that certain words, like our Reading Words, need to be spelled correctly.  They know where to find them around the room.  Students also know to use good, new, descriptive vocabulary and correct grammar.) It’s so exciting to watch them grow into becoming readers and writers.  I was reading their Journals recently and was noticing with pleasure how far they have come and we’re only half-way through the year!

SPELLING WORDS-We will work with the et word family.

           get   met   pet   set   this   do

I have a”helper word” for each of the short vowels.  Their “helper word ” for the short e is “egg.” 

short a is “apple”     short e is “egg”    short i is “igloo”

short o is “octopus”   short u is “umbrella”

MATH-We will work with the dime.  We’ll also play a coin exchange game. We will review number stories and the hundreds chart.

SCIENCE-We’ll be discovering materials that help with waterproofing.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We will dive into maps and interactive maps. We will discuss the compass rose (north, south, east and west)

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school. You can send in an item that can fit in a Ziploc bag  count with friends. This is completely optional.

Thanks,

Ms. Mohamed

Ms.  Mohamed

If you would like to pass out Valentines on the Valentines day party…..

I won’t be sending home a class list of names.  Please just have your child sign THEIR name on the Valentines. Reading 27 other names (times 27 students) usually leads to a lot of “confusion .”

In the beginning of the year, the PTA sent home an entry form to create an artistic piece to showcase their idea of how to make the world a better place. A winner from our class was chosen and honored.

Congratulations Juliana Zaghir on your art work!

If you would like to participate in such an event, this takes place every fall in September.

Great job and good luck next year!

Ms. Mohamed

Reading: We will be reading several stories this week: Bus Stops, The park, Mouse needs a friend and Fishing. All these stories connect to our unit of community.

Writing: We will be creating a book called For You. We will create multiple pages in a heart shape of course!

Spelling words for this week: you, for, kit, pit, sit, see, we

Word family: -it (fit, sit, pit, kit, lit, wit,  bit, hit, split, quit

Math: We will be exploring the penny and nickel. We will learn its value and how to count a group of them. We will also practice writing 1-100. We will play games using a 100’s chart. We will even find hidden pictures in the numbers chart.

Social Studies: Presidents Day! We will review George Washington and meet Abraham Lincoln.

Science: We will explore more land forms. We explored oceans, and  mountains. We even talked about volcanoes! We will explore valleys, rivers, lakes and plains.

A couple of notes:

• Congratulations Kindergartners! We won a pizza party for selling the most pizza kits in the school! We will be celebrating on our Valentines day party.
• I sent home a special book bag with your child.  Please read and return this book bag every day. If your child does not have it, I can not change the book every 2 weeks. The purpose of re-reading familiar books is to work on accuracy.
• Make sure you read 20 min everyday and record it on the book log.
• Library day is every Wednesday. Make sure your child has the library book on that day to return and check out a new book.
• Spelling test is on Fridays. We will have a practice test on Thursday.
• We will be collecting Box Tops. Class that collects the most tops win something from the PTA. A letter was sent home last week with further details.
• There will be no school February 16-20 for mid winter break. Students will return to February 23rd.

The students of the month are:

Mariam Fawaz

Max Anton

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Ms. Mohamed

Happy SNOW DAY!! (Monday, February 2, 2015)

Literacy: This week is all about communities! We are building neighborhood maps with directions. We will discuss what a key is and even a compass rose! We will be looking at different communities around the world.

Our vocabulary words are:

community- a place where we live, work and play!

map, globe, community helpers

Spelling words for next week: you, for, kit, pit, sit, see, we ( this was a short week- so we will not have a spelling test on Friday)

word family: -it (sit, pit, kit, fit, hit, bit…)

Letters of the week: Review letter Hh

Math: writing and counting to 100. We are rapidly approaching the 100th day of school. If you have something you would like to share that has 100 items that children can count, feel free to bring it in!  (As long as they can carry it. examples include: 100 pennies in a jar, 100 marbles, 100 pieces of cearl, etc)

Science: We are starting our earth unit. We will investigate different types of land forms such as soil, sand and water.

Social studies: It all about maps/globes. We will be creating maps, reading maps and exploring interactive maps.

House keeping/Reminders:

*We have a talent show presented by the upper elementary, please donate $1 to go to the Ronald McDonald House at Children ‘s Hospital.

*Library check out day is Wednesday. Many of the children are not bringing the books back.

*Talent show to rescheduled- due to snow day

*4th/5th grade concert Thursday. Concert for school at 2:00, concert for parents at 7:00.

Thanks,

Ms. Mohamed

Magnet experiment-first we wrote our hypothesis, then investigated to find our conclusions! Below are our pics:

We also had a special presentation about the Science of Music. We had a couple of volunteers from our class. We captured this on class color day! Great job Paul, Chelsea, Hashem and Mariam F..

Finally, Friday was our birthday bash/pajama/crazy hair day! Below are pics and a short clip:

IMG_2824

A special thank you goes out to the parents who donated the gifts for the kindergarteners! They loved it. Also, thanks for helping out Michael, Madina and Groffin’s mom! The kids had a blast!

Ms. Mohamed

We have a busy week coming up!  Please make sure your child is well fed, well rested, and here at school.

All students will be taking the MAP, which is an assessment tool to mark their progress.  They took this assessment last October, now it’s time for a mid-year check, and they will take one more in the Spring.

All students will have a District Writing Prompt.  This assessment also happens 3 times a year.

This week is also Howard Spirit Week.  The students always enjoy these events.  A yellow note went home last week detailing the events but here’s a repeat.

Monday-Mismatch/Sports Day  Wear clothes that don’t match or wear something to cheer on your favorite team.

Tuesday-Class Color day   Kindergarten’s color is BLUE.  PTA is sponsoring a Science Assembly.  Thanks PTA!

Wednesday-Hippie Day   Students can come to school dressed like a hippie      It’s also LIBRARY DAY for my class.  Please have your student put their Library Book in their backpack on Tuesday night.

Thursday_Character/Movie Day    Dress like a movie or book character and we’ll enjoy a movie in our room.

Friday-(their favorite day! )   Pajama/Crazy Hair/Birthday Bash day  Students can come to school in their PJ’s and with crazy hair. We’ll also have a birthday treat to celebrate everyone’s birthday!!

Spelling Tests Begin This Week

READING-We will begin Unit 6  OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

We’ll be discussing places in our neighborhood (Library, Police Station, Fire Station, School)  We’ll be discussing main characters and details in stories.  Look for these when you are reading at home or even watching TV. During the middle of a story or during a commercial, ask “Who is the main character in this show?  What is the problem in the show?  How was the problem solved?  What were 3 details in the story/show?”  Get them thinking!

LETTER-  H  h

WORD- Are   are

SPELLING-Here are the spelling words for this week.  Spelling Tests will be on Fridays (usually )

We’ll work with the “at” family.  We’ll have known words (words we’ve had previously from first semester) and new weekly words.  So, this Friday’s words are:   cat  mat  fat   can   I   are

WRITING-We’ll be writing dialogue.  Can you believe it…writing with dialogue in Kindergarten??!!

SOCIAL STUDIES-Students will work in groups to create a map of a town.  They will be using these maps the following week for their writing.

MATH-Graphing using Tally marks, pictures, etc.  How do we read the graph?  What shall we title the graph (because all graphs have titles!)

Next week we’ll work with money.  Get your coins ready!

We are entering the second semester of Kindergarten.  Expectations will be stepped up.  Keep the reading, writing, math, discussions, thinking, problem solving, going at home.

Enjoy your weekend!

Ms. Mohamed