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

Please turn in into the office!

Short week! Review week!

We will finish our unit about Animals. We will focus on Animal Homes- Habitats!

Reading: We  will read called The coyote and the turtle, Mole and the baby bird, 3 little kittens and Hidden homes. Each story refers to where certain animals lives.

Writing: We will write about animals some more. This time we will describe the animal using colors and animal coverings. We will identify where they live (habitats).

Math: We will be writing numbers. We will also practice counting to 100.

Science: Habitats-animal homes

Social Studies: review what we do daily yesterday, today and tomorrow. Review Martin Luther King Jr. and how he wanted peaceful change.

REMINDERS: 

*No school Monday, January 19

*1/2 day Thursday, January 22

*No school Friday, January 23

*Next week- Spirit Week- Flyer coming home today!

Ms. Mohamed

Literacy Unit: Animals-change and grow

Reading: We will be reading a non-fiction book called Animal Babies an ABC book. This book tells us the name of the animal baby and some facts. We will be sorting and classifying the animals by fur, tails and wings. We will discuss other characteristics to sort and classify. We will also be reading fiction animal stories such as The 3 bears, The ugly duckling and poems about animals growing.

Writing: We will be writing 2 complete sentences. We begin by discussing our idea and charting it. We have shared our opinions to our buddies and aloud. We will write about our favorite fur animal. Then will write about our favorite winged animal and finally will write about our favorite animal with a tail. You should see these pieces coming home through out the week.

Sight word: play, one, two, three

Letter of the week: Ff

Math: We will continue practice counting by 5’s. We practice daily computation and problem solving skills. We will create order of daily events as a whole group. Finally we will create and continue patterns.

Social Studies: We will work on our very own time lines. We will also discuss our very first president George Washington. We will discuss Martin Luther King Jr.

Science: We will revisit our magnet investigation and discuss push and pull.

REMINDERS:

*Pizza kits fundraiser is coming home today. Please submit money directly to the office in the PTA mailbox.

*Late start Wednesday, January 14th- we still have library check out day

Ms. Mohamed

The students of the month are:

Micheal Reda

Madina Reda

Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Ms. Mohamed

NEW YEAR; NEW UNIT!

I hope everyone had a wonderful break!

Our new unit is called: Animals-How they change and grow

Reading:We will be reading many different stories about animals this week. Mama Cat has 3 kittens, Lets go to the vet, 3 Little kittens, Mama Mouse and Elgato. We will be looking at which is fiction and non-fiction. Please have this discussion with your child.

Letter of the week: Oo (please review all the letters and and letter sounds Aa- Zz)

Sight words: red, yellow, blue (we will be having a sight word test on Friday)

Writing: We will be creating a book called I can___. We will be really pushing inventive spelling. Practice stretching out sounds for each word. Your child should know all the letters and letter sounds by now.

Math: We will be counting 0-50. We are now counting by 5’s and 10’s to 100. We will be revisiting shapes this week. We will discuss hoe 2 smaller shapes can make 1 big shape. We will also differentiate one-digit from two-digit numbers. We will revisit number stories and practice writing numbers 0-50.  We will explore subtraction within 5.

Science: We will be exploring push and pull. We will discuss how gravity works. We will investigate magnets this week.

Social Studies: We will discuss our very first president George Washington.

REMINDERS:

*Homework for December logs are due. Please turn it in asap

*Because of the weather , please make sure your child is appropriate attire. Allow them to put their clothes on and zip up independently. This may take long and frustrating for parents that we want to get done quick-but trust me it is worthwhile later. Practice tying shoe laces also.

WISH LIST

*Snacks

Thanks,

Ms. Mohamed

Wow! These are the last few days before the break! I am so proud of where the children are thus far!

This definitely a review week!

Please review the sight words: the, can, we, see, will, have, help, it, is in, like, a, go, to, I, because (test when we return from break)

Please review all letters and letter sounds (we are working on inventive spelling and this would help if your child knows all the sounds- most of the kids do).

We are reading many holiday, new year and winter stories! We are creating projects that are content related. You should see items coming home this week!

We are practice counting by 5’s to 100. We will explore and use a calculator. Allow your child to find a calculator on the computer, i-pod, i-pads and even your cell phone! We will be graphing and identify missing numbers from 0-40.

We have been discussing the seasons. We created a diagram to go into our science journal. We focused a lot on season changing from fall to winter. We are discussing hibernation and the types of animals that hibernate. We discussed how the season change is a cycle and it repeats.

We reviewed wants, needs, goods, services and trade. We practiced ways of trading with items as well as money.  We also reviewed concepts such as yesterday, today and tomorrow by recalling things that we did. We also started talking about how we can learn from the past by looking at pictures or asking an older family member.

A couple of reminders:

Wednesday, 17th: book checkout

Thursday, 18th: Class celebration before break. Please send in items in the morning.

Friday, 19th: School Sing Along, Locks of Love event and Family Movie Night.

Last day Friday, December 19th. Return to school January 5th.

Have a great break and holiday!

Ms. Mohamed

Literacy Unit: What for Dinner?

Reading: We will be reading: Our Special Sweet Potato Pie. Its about a a town coming together to make a dinner We will also read 2 poems: Crusty corn bread and Crunch! Munch! Thanks a bunch! We will read Grandfather bear is hungry and Little Juan and the cooking pot.  Both stories is about using a recipe to make a meal.

Strategy: Comprehension- retelling, sequencing

Sight word: have, because (we are using “because” a lot in our writing for opinion writing)

Letter of the week: Cc

Writing: We will be writing a recipe together. We will also write about  cold foods we like to eat. We will also write why.

Math: We will revisit addends. We will revisit patterns. We will continue to practice counting. We are now counting and writing 0-40. We will also practice counting by 10’s to 100. We will explore the calculator this week.

Social Studies: We will review needs, wants, goods, services and trade.

Reminders:

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

• LATE START
• Holiday boutique sale
• Library check out day

Ms. Mohamed