Monthly Archives: September 2017

9-29-2017 Apples!

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Dear parents,

This week our theme was “apples” in language arts. We read two books. The first was “Ten Red Apples” by Pat Hutchins and an informational book about apples. We chose and learned about key vocabulary words from the text such as: dribble, rotten, bud, seed, bloom. We discussed what an informational book is and what a narrative book is and how they are different. We introduced the “table of contents” and looked at the parts of an informational book and read it out of order! The students were shocked lol! Then, on Friday, we used our creativity and sense of touch and sight to explore apples that were cut into slices. With forks, we stuck them into the apples and stamped our own apple trees! It was SOOOOO much fun 🙂 Next week, we will increase the rigor of this activity by writing to the prompt, “I can see __________ red/green apples in/by the tree.” In addition, we will use bingo dabbers to dot out the amount of apples on a ten frame! Come on by and check them out! we are oh so proud of our work today! Here are some pictures we snapped of our budding artists this afternoon during the project. enjoy!

Mrs. Ross and Class 🙂

THANK YOU!!!

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On behalf of room 106 I just wanted to say THANK YOU to you for your generosity this week helping us get through these last few HOT DAYS! Thanks to Ramy’s mom for the cooler full of waters and the AMAZING fan I wish I had at my house lol! Thank you to Malynn’s mom and family for the cooler full of waters and fan as well! We have water to spare for tomorrow and are so grateful! Thank you to Marco’s mom who will be bringing the kiddos Popsicles tomorrow 🙂  THANK YOU in advance! The kids are already excited to have them!

Despite the HOT weather, I have been lucky to have this wonderful classroom full of HARD workers and kind hearts. we have been through many smiles, tears, boo-boos, and laughs in only 14 days, but we are definitely doing it together. We are already a family!

With Gratitude,

Mrs. Ross and Class 🙂

Week of 9-25-2017

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Dear Families,

I hope this post finds you well and enjoying a much deserved rest! We’re almost out of the hot weather thank goodness 🙂 We have been working so hard despite the heat and I am SO proud of our class! I’d like to take this time to introduce and welcome Yasir, our new kindergarten student who started last week with us! We now have 23 students in our class 🙂

This week, we will finish taking our first NWEA asessments in LA and Math. I will be going over all your child’s data with you at the first conference in November and give you a copy to take along with our first report card. Please see me if you have a specific  date and time to request, otherwise this week I’ll be sending you home a scheduled conference time if you have not been able to sign up yet! Can’t wait to show you how WELL your children have been doing already! Have I mentioned that I LOVE this class lately?

Here is what you need to know for this week!

Writing Workshop: We will continue building our routines and procedures and stamina writing as well as continue Unit 1 Writing though pictures! We are doing SO well developing rich illustrations, drawing shapes, labeling pictures and telling the stories orally.

Daily 5/Reading:  This week we will finish testing, continue to build stamina for “read to self” and work on procedures and expectations for reading. In addition, this wednesday bothe kdg classes will begin incorporating a literacy intervention program with Mrs. Pelaccio during Daily 5.  I am excited to dig in more to Daily 5 as we rock and roll our way to reading! Keep having fun working on Raz-kids every night for 10-20 minutes depending what grade you’re in and your child’s stamina at this point may be more like 5-10. That’s ok just build on it throughout the year! Remember, if you record a book I can listen to it and play it for the CLASS in school! This is SO fun and the kiddos are SO proud to hear their voice through the speakers!  🙂

THANK YOU to Mrs. Sullivan, who continues to support us during writing workshop and helps as a spelling mom on Fridays with the first grade students! We’re so lucky to have this help.

Math Workshop:  *Thank you to James’s mom  (Mrs. Freitag ) for coming in to help run stations during math workshop on Thursday! It was SOOOOO hot, but we made it through somehow! 

Kinders: This week we will continue working on our number sense with numbers 0-5 kdg, 0-10 firsties, counting orally to 100 by 1s and 10s

*first graders in Unit 1 will be working within the range of 20 (counting objects and representing with the written numeral), compare two two digit numbers based on the meaning of the tens and ones digits, relate counting to addition and subtraction, organize,  and organize and represent and interpret data on a graph, read and write tally marks)

Spelling: kinders will keep working on sight words in class and letter ID with the teacher in our individualized spelling program. If you have received a “green card” Mrs. Sullivan will begin asking you on Friday’s if you can read your “word of the week” you were given to MEMORIZE. Remember these sight words can NOT be stretched out! All students will progress at different rates, some are still working on names and letters so PLEASE don’t stress out if your kdg child has not received a sight word/reading pack yet. If your child is still working on letters, then each Friday, they will be assessed on the remaining letters they are working on to see which new ones they have committed to memory! The more they know the better, but each child will progress at their individual speed 🙂 The lists are on spelling city.com for your children to “play with” and I recommend at least twice a week for first graders to help you get ready for weekly assessments.

*First Grade Spelling list Week 3: od, op family (cod, rod, pod, sod, drop, rod, pop, stop, top, I, you)

*Spelling city has the new word family list for games and the sight words list for k/1 are also up to practice new sight words!

*If your child likes to sing and dance, try practicing sight words on “Youtube”! You can google any sight word and look for sing along songs which are FABULOUS for committing sight words to memory! If this sounds like your child’s style check out my recommended sight words pages or the spelling program page for online resources to help! My daughter Antonia LOVES the letter songs by “Heidi Songs” that I rented for my classroom for the year. It’s only $7 for the YEAR and she rocks out to the videos and has learned her letters!!! Your child is familiar with Vimeo already!

Science: This week we will begin a unit on the 5 Senses and What is a scientist before we move into the push and pull unit. This year, we will be working on a mixture of kinder and first grade science units and will be the most amazing scientists in the world! I can’t wait to experiment using our 5 senses!

Social Studies: We will continue Unit 1 on being a good citizen and this week move into “good and bad choices” that people make!

*Important Dates: Conferences on November: 

*Reminders: Please send in a family picture for social studies this week! We will be decorating a picture frame!

*Please return any emergency cards of lunch forms etc. that the office sent back to you to Mrs. Ross as soon as possible! Thank you for your help.

Have a wonderful week and I will let you know of any updates in the schedules or if there is anything I have left out!

 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ross 🙂

 

 

 

Raz-Kids is up and running again!

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Dear Parents and Families,

Reminder that tomorrow is a school day for our FIRST GRADE only! Bring your quarters for popcorn if you want to purchase it in the morning to Ms. Kerby! Please meet her on her line in the am which is right next to ours!

Kindergarten families enjoy the day at home together and extended weekend!

***Raz-Kids is up and running again! We had a small snafu. My previous school deleted me from their account before my expiration date 🙁 No love LOL! No worries though, the very nice team members at the Raz-kids contact support helped me purchase a new account under DuVall school with the SAME login and passwords so there should be NO more issues from now on YAY!!! Happy Reading! Thank goodness for tech helpers and patient parents and students 🙂 Have a WONDERFUL weekend and say hi to my darling penguins!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ross 🙂

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Dear room 106 families,

Greetings! Just a reminder that Friday Kinders will NOT have class and first graders will come to school and be with Ms. Kerby in first grade all day while Mrs. Ross attends the district KDG meeting. All will be back together on Monday as usual!

***Raz-kids is telling me it is inactive today. I will call in the morning and ask what is happening with my account. IT may be as simple as renewing my purchase!  A few parents mentioned they were having trouble loging in and I suspect this was way. I APOLOGIZE for the inconvenience and hope to have it all squared away tomorrow morning!***

Homework clarification: I have sent home some GREAT resources to help you do homework this year in a fun way! Let me be a little more clear about expectations as to not overwhelm your little ones. Homework should be meaningful and consistent in Kdg/1st but NOT HOURS 🙂 Here are my expectations for you:

  1. Reading: 10-20 minutes a night (kdg 10/ 1st 20) of reading a night ( always from Raz-kids OR Reading packs when your child begins a reading group. If they are in a letter group that counts for “reading too”)
  2.  Math: 10-20 minutes a night “playing” games sent home on Mondays. These are for you to keep and they will come home on card stock. My suggestion to make it fun and exciting is to put them into sheet protectors and either a binder at home, large zip lock baggie, or a math folder/Tupperware box to keep altogether (whatever works for you!). This way your child can build up a HUGE resource of CCSS math games to constantly have fun and review math skills.
  3. Spelling:
    1. FIRST GRADE: please review the spelling words at your convenience throughout the week in your choice of format (written, play-doh, rainbow write, magnets etc. white board and dry erase or spelling city whatever works for you!)
    2. KDG: Spelling of word families does not begin until January for KDG. Kdg at this time is required by the district to learn letters and introduce 3-5 sight words a week during language arts instruction. Your child will be asked every week which “Dolch” high frequency words they can “read” in an individualized spelling program 🙂

*I hope this helps make the kiddos expectations clear and not stressful! Remember it’s only September and in school right now it’s all about introduction and procedure so we too are taking “baby steps” toward all these structures and goals! We do what we can during the allotted time and make sure we have the “downtime” we need during the day to stay a float! I am a firm believer in learning through meaning and fun so I hope I have given you enough options to work with your child on these goals 🙂

*As always I am here if anyone has any questions about the homework or just wants to come in and see it in action! Homework this week for math is our “station 1 and 4” in school so we’d love to show you our stuff 🙂

 

Hope this message finds you all well and again I thank you in advance for all for your help you give with these amazing children!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ross 🙂

 

 

Week of 9-18-2017

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Dear Families,

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weekend! If I’m being honest it’s WAY too hot for me LOL! Our family have spent another weekend watching my beautiful boy play soccer and baseball with his friends. As we head into our second full week there are a few reminders and what curriculum we will work on in class:

  1. Please send in a family picture for the class to make it cozy for Daily 5. Thank you Griffin for sending in your pics already! I’d love us to make some cute picture frames together this week and get them on our walls 🙂
  2. Raz Kids, Xtra Math and Spelling city.com are up and ready for your child to visit 10-20 min. daily and to have fun for homework!
  3. Popcorn sales are Fridays and popcorn is 25 cents a bag!
  4. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up for conferences please see me after school to grab a spot! I’ll bring out my clipboard each day after school this week 🙂
  5. All KDG teachers in the district have a PD this Friday so Ms. Shapas and I will be out of the building and your children do not have school on Friday! My first graders will be split up between Ms. Kerby and Ms. Jumaa’s classes Friday again.

*This week’s curriculum standards and lesson plans:

  1. Social Studies: We will spend a third week learning and developing classroom and building policies, procedures.  We will be working on being a great citizen, working in a group and getting along with others! This week we will continue a unit on citizenship! This week we will further our lesson on rules and laws and add a lesson about “good and bad choices”. We will read the book “What If Everybody Did That?” by Ellen Javernick to help us with our learning.
  2. Math: This week we will continue Unit 1 in Kdg and 1st grade. We will continue learning the expectations and procedures of my “math workshop” approach. It is comprised of mini lessons, independent and team stations, games and individual groups. Last week we did a beautiful job with the mini lessons, a few games and introducing the math journal as the final review component.  This week my goal is to introduce the “independent” work stations where they play games with partners in small groups after each mini lesson.  🙂
  3. Writer’s Workshop: we will continue this week to learn, and practice teachers structure and expectations for writer’s workshop! This week we will work on “how” to use basic shapes to help us draw pictures, introduce a stamina chart for independent writing time (introduce the classical music and build how many minutes we “work”  with the correct expectations, introduce and continue working on “share time”, doing our best work (reading a story called “Ish” all about encouragement) and detailed pictures (reading the story “The Crayon Box That Talked” to help with this).
  4. Language Arts: This week we will continue working on our first component of Daily 5 “Read to Self”. We will continue practicing the teachers structure and expectations for Daily 5. We will begin to build “stamina” for independent reading which will take place while the teachers is instructing students in small groups. This week I will begin small “mini lessons” in between each round of independent reading to self. The mini lessons will be composed of rhyming, separating sentences into words, identifying initial sounds, and our trade book for the weed “Huggapotamus” which has a theme about “friendship” which ties in so nicely with our social studies unit!
  5. Spelling: First graders assessment will be on Friday this week with the first grade teachers while I am at a PD for KDG. All students please begin logging into spellingcity.com to help you learn and play!
    1. First Graders Week 2: id and ig families (rid, slid, hid, kid, fig, dig, pig, twig
    2. Dolch words this week for K/1: and, he, a
  6. Reading Packs: As the teachers continues to assess and organize students skills, I will begin sending home reading packs with letters, or sight words to begin learning! The reading packs will all have different tools in them specifically for your child. If you child is “reading” ready they will have their first green card with the first 40 Dolch high frewuency sight words, and will begin getting paper emergent readers and eventually small books. If your child is working on letter and sound recognition in the alphabet as well as their own name, they will receive a car with the letters they need to work on, and well as a name game to help them learn and write their first names and paper emergent readers at level A. All students can and should begin using Raz-kids nightly.  Please make sure your child’s reading pack goes home and BACK each day with their red folder! Thank you in advance for ALL you are asked to do this year!
  7. Homework: This week I will be sending you home a fun math game to play with your child each night! It is very easy and fun and will come with instructions. In addition, I will send you home a list of “number sense” and counting and cardinality ideas to play with them that we do each day in school. No pressure, just some fun and easy ways to help your child build number sense and foundation skills with numbers 0-10.

Have a wonderful week and if there is anything I am missing I will be sure to write again asap!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ross 🙂

*Important Dates:

–Conferences Thursday November 9th, 15th, 16th (if you have not signed up yet see me after school this week! If you have, i’ll send you a reminder on paper the week prior)

Week of 9-10-2017

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Dear Families,

Wow we made it! The first week of school just FLEW by for me and I had a BLAST! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I spent the WHOLE weekend at Ben’s soccer tournament and baseball game. I am so tired lol! I want to welcome you all again to room 106. It is going to be a fantastic year! I want to thank all the kindergarten students and families for making appointment for assessments during your busy weeks. I am so happy I got to know your child a little better academically and feel more prepared to target instruction this month!

*Thank you also for being so prompt returning your emergency cards! If you have n! ot done so please return them this week. Thank you! In addition, if you’d like to volunteer or be in the building at all please make sure you have completed an ichat (background check) in the office. These are good for several years! If you go into the office Ms. Cathy or Ms. Ann can get that taken care of right away!

Here is what you need to know this week:

  1. Social Studies: As we begin our first full week in school, we will continue learning and developing classroom and building policies, procedures.  We will be working on being a great citizen, working in a group and getting along with others! This week we will begin a unit on citizenship! This week we will focus on laws and rules and reread the book “NO David” and write about how we will use good manners in school!
  2. Math: This week we will begin Unit 1 in Kdg and 1st grade. This week we will begin teaching students to learn and work in my “math workshop” approach comprised of mini lessons, independent and team stations, games and individual groups. I can’t wait!
    1. Our first unit is all about numbers 0-5 for kdg and 0-10 for 1st! I have a feeling though that our rockin’ KDG students will also be sitting in on all these lessons too 🙂 In these units we will be counting, recognizing and writing all numbers and working on our number sense!
  3. Writer’s Workshop: we will begin this week to learn, and practice teachers structure and expectations for writer’s workshop! This week we will also begin our first writing unit: writing through detailed pictures. You can practice telling stories at home through VERY detailed pictures and eventually label them! At the end of every writing unit, we’ll share the wonderful work we did with you by sending them home!
  4. Language Arts: This week we will begin introducing our first component of Daily 5 “Read to Self”. We will learn and practice the teachers structure and expectations for Daily 5. Will will begin to build “stamina” for independent reading which will take place while the teachers is instructing students in small groups.
  5. Spelling: First graders will begin spelling this week.
  6. Reading Packs: As the teachers continues to assess and organize students skills, I will begin sending home reading packs with letters, or sight words to begin learning! I have entered your children into my RazKids account and they are ready for you to begin reading at home! Please let your child read each night for 10-20 minutes on the computer! Please make sure that as you recieve a reading pack that your child is responsible with them and makes sure they return to school daily! Also, I intend to use these as many years as I can, so please do not have any food or drinks in them to keep the bags and contents dry 🙂 thank you in advance for your help keeping them clean.
  7. Homework: This week I am asking that you send in a picture of your family for our Daily 5 program. The idea is to make the classroom feel like home and the child to feel comfortable in the learning environment.  I too will be taking a family selfie this week and send it into Benjamin’s classroom! Everyone say cheese!

Have a wonderful week and if there is anything I am missing I will be sure to write again asap!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Ross 🙂

*Important Dates:

-Thursday September 14th, Elementary School Open House 6:00-7:30