Author Archives: Margaret 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

Welcome to Mrs. Ross’s Class!

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Dear DuVall Families,

I sincerely welcome your child and family to my classroom for the 2017-2018 school year! I am SO very excited to be a shiny new PENGUIN!!! This blog is where you can find all our information and newsletters each week!  I look forward to sharing pertinent information, as well as creating a window into our exciting classroom happenings.

I also wanted to THANK YOU so much for the warmest welcome this week and tell you how WONDERFUL your children are and how PROUD I am to be their teacher! We have been having SUCH a blast this week so far! I feel SO spoiled because I have been eating chocolate, using lotions, drinking from brand new coffee mugs and using new classroom baskets and supplies. Is it Christmas in September?!? I thank you for the lovely welcome treats from the bottom of my heart. I am so happy at this wonderful school and feel like I am home already!

Thank you to ALL the parents for donating classroom supplies! I have been writing all your children’s names on all the boxes and there are SO many I may end up using them for all students if that is ok?

We have been eating lunch in the cafeteria this week also and the boys and girls are learning what do do so quickly! I am so proud of how well they behave at their tables, and am secretly jealous as a mother because your children must be SO well behaved in restaurants!

I look forward to having a great year!

 

Mrs. Ross 🙂

Week of 5-1-2017

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Greetings room 111! I hope this message finds you all well and enjoying this beautiful day! OH MY GOODNESS it is already MAY! The image below is what Mrs. Ross feels like because I love your children so much and I DON”T want to let them leave me for the first grade next year! Time is going by so fast and I am SOOOOOO proud of all we have accomplished this year!

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Mrs. Ross’s Sad Face

 

Again, this week I am reminding you to please continue to READ with your kiddos every night to prepare them for the upcoming NWEA testing and our final year end assessments! You can read from reading packs nightly, but also from the RazKids website! Thank you in advance for all your help this spring to stay focused as the weeks get hotter and the kids get more and more ready for summer break! Tuesday is our first test and it will be Math. You can help prepare your child this weekend once more by counting objects, adding and subtracting, posing mock story problems, identifying numbers, comparing greater than and less than amounts, and simple measurement and position of objects. No pressure, just make sure that your child takes it seriously and gets a GOOD night sleep Monday night and they eat a hearty breakfast Tuesday morning. Good luck to us all!

 

Here is what is going on in class the rest of next week. I will be sure to update the iblog as needed with classroom news!

Word Family: –ip family (dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, tip, flip, grip, ship, slip, skip, snip, trip)

LA: “Frog” Non Fiction Focus

Poem: “Green and Speckled Frog”

Math: Unit 12: Review and Assessment of Addition and Subtraction Fluency 

Science: Earth Materials and Needs of Living Things (such as plants)

Monday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner. Please return homework packets, new ones will be sent home today

Tuesday: Music with Mrs. Wilder and Art with Mrs. Brown (Math NWEA today)

Wednesday: Computers with Mrs. Pantaleo

Thursday: Music with Mrs. Wilder

Friday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner

 

Important News:

Pie in the Face: Please send in dollars with your child if they wish to “Pie a Teacher” in the face LOL! Tickets are going on sale ASAP! All proceeds go to the fundraising committee and then the school so thank you in advance for your help 🙂

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In cooperation with AROS – Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, AFT, a member of the AROS coalition, held a press conference on the front lawn of EFHS on April 18th to launch the Build Schools Not Walls campaign. 
 
On May 1st, there will be a National Day of Action, and we need to take part! 
DFT is asking ALL EMPLOYEES, STUDENTS, PARENTS, COMMUNITY MEMBERS to wear BLUE, any shade, to show SUPPORT for our PUBLIC SCHOOLS!
 
THANK YOU FOR GETTING INVOLVED! 
Chris Sipperley
President
Dearborn Federation of Teachers
15250 Mercantile Drive
Dearborn, MI 48120

Week of 4-24-2017

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Greetings room 111! I hope this message finds you all well and enjoying this beautiful spring weather!

 

This month it is April and I can’t believe the year is FLYING BY SO FAST!!! As our year is winding down, we are NOT losing momentum. So, please continue to READ with your kiddos every night to prepare them for the upcoming NWEA testing the first week of May and our final year end assessments! You can read from reading packs nightly, but also from the RazKids website! Thank you in advance for all your help this spring to stay focused as the weeks get hotter and the kids get more and more ready for summer break!

Here is what is going on in class this week. Have a wonderful week, I will be sure to update the iblog as needed with classroom news!

Word Family: –ed family (led, sled, wed, bed, red, fed)

LA: “Seeds” continue and “Frog” Non Fiction Focus

Poem: “Green and Speckled Frog”

Math: Unit 12: Subtraction sentences using the appropriate signs and vocabulary (difference, left, minus, subtract)

Science: Earth Materials and Needs of Living Things (such as plants)

 

Monday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner. Please return homework packets, new ones will be sent home today

Tuesday: Music with Mrs. Wilder and Art with Mrs. Brown

Wednesday: Computers with Mrs. Pantaleo (This week is library check out! Please remember to send in your books!)

Thursday: Music with Mrs. Wilder in the PM

Friday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner

 

 

Week of 3-20-2017

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Greetings room 111! I hope this message finds you all well and enjoying another week with family!

Happy March is Reading Month! Thank you to our students from 111 who dressed up on Friday to show their 80s Rock Spirit! Be sure to check your March Activity calendar to help your child “dress accordingly” on the fun days we have sprinkled throughout the month and especially on Fridays! This Friday coming up, we will have another fun dress up opportunity to dress like a “ROCK STAR!” Have fun, can’t wait to see my super stars!

The office is checking into rescheduling our field trip to the creative arts studio. I will relay the information as soon as I get it! Thank you for being flexible.

Here is what is going on in class this week. Have a wonderful week, I will be sure to update the iblog as needed with classroom news!

Word Family: –ot family (hot, pot, cot, dot, tot, rot)

LA: “Moon” Non Fiction Focus: Inferring, Integration of Knowledge RI.K.7 (How can I use the photographs and illustrations to predict the text?)

Poem: “Itsy Bitsy Spider”

Math: Unit 10: Addition: Combining Groups to 6, 7, 8,9, adding with 0 and 1, combining sets to 10.

Science: Force and Motion continue…”When Objects Collide”, and “Exploring different amounts of force needed to push or pull objects”!

Social Studies: Common Assessment Where Am I?

Monday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner. Please return homework packets, new ones will be sent home today

Tuesday: Music with Mrs. Wilder and Art with Mrs. Brown (WearPJs it’s Movie Night!)

Wednesday: Computers with Mrs. Pantaleo

Thursday: Music with Mrs. Wilder in the PM

Friday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner

*Important Dates:

–March 15th: Late Start 9:00am at our playground door

-March 26th: Parent Teacher Conferences (Only if your child receives a conference slip from the teacher)

–March 30th: Annual Reading Night: 5:00pm-7:00pm

–Rockin’ Movie Night March 21st (3:00pm-5:00pm) : Rock your PJs and enjoy a movie and food for $5!

*Reading Night Basket: Mickey and Friends!: PLEASE sne din $5 or a related product for our Reading Theme Basket! Thank you to those who have donated so far, and those that have purchased items. We now have $20!

Week if 3-13-2017

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3/12/2017

Greetings room 111! I hope this message finds you all well, warm and with power!

Happy March is Reading Month! Thank you to our students from 111 who dressed up on Friday to show their favorite characters! Be sure to check your March Activity calendar to help your child “dress accordingly” on the fun days we have sprinkled throughout the month and especially on Fridays!

The office is checking into rescheduling our field trip to the creative arts studio. I will relay the information as soon as I get it! Thank you for being flexible.

Here is what is going on in class this week. Have a wonderful week, I will be sure to update the iblog as needed with classroom news!

Word Family: –ip family (dip, hip, lip, nip, rip, tip, flip, grip, ship, slip, skip, snip, trip)

*There are many words in this family, I will only use six but want to show/teach all the “blends” the hot words will be: dip, lip, rip, flip, trip, ship

LA: “Jamie O’Rourke and the Big Potato” Narrative/Focus: Predicting, Retelling, Stating Opinions

Poem: “If I Were A Leprechaun”

Math: Shapes 2D and 3D continue…assessing this week and a culminating project!

Science: Force and Motion continue…

Monday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner. Please return homework packets, new ones will be sent home today

Tuesday: Music with Mrs. Wilder and Art with Mrs. Brown

Wednesday: Computers with Mrs. Pantaleo

Thursday: Fiend Trip to the Ceramic Art place! Music with Mrs. Wilder in the PM

Friday: Gym with Mrs. Fenner

*Important Dates:

–March 15th: Late Start 9:00am at our playground door

-March 26th: Parent Teacher Conferences (Only if your child receives a conference slip from the teacher)

–March 30th: Annual Reading Night: 5:00pm-7:00pm

–Rockin’ Movie Night March 21st: Rock your PJs and enjoy a movie and food for $5! Date is TBD…

*Supplies: Dear parents, we are in desperate need of dry erase markers, baby wipes, play dough and sharpened pencils! If you are able to donate any of these items we would greatly appreciate it!