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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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!

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 🙂

*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!

hELLO WONDERFUL FAMILIES OF ROOM 111,

Just a reminder that:

*tomorrow is the spelling test for the -et family from the homework packets

*Homework packets are NOT due until Mondays

*Timeline project is due tomorrow for social studies! Please make sure that you have written something small down under each picture to explain what happened at that point in your child’s life! Can’t wait to see them and thank you again for your help!

Tomorrow is library check out! Please make sure to send in your child’s library books (place them in the backpacks not reading packs tonight to make them easily accessible!)….Thank you for your help. We have had many students lately forgetting books at home. Please look and find them to avoid fees!