Here we are at the All-School Sing-a-Long!  We sure do look adorable!!

Here’s a glimpse of my little elves today…

Today I received a call from the office saying that our class had received a “Special Delivery” from Santa at the North Pole!  A huge box was sent down to my room and WOW, were we ever excited!

When we opened it, there were individual certificates from Santa saying that the child had made Santa’s Nice List…whew 🙂

Also, there was a little box for each student filled with “kisses.”  Santa sure has been watching us.

Thank you Santa!

Reminder that tomorrow, Tuesday, is Library Day for us.  I’d like my students to have a Library Book for the break so please have your child put their book in their backpack tonight.  (Have THEM do it…responsibility)

We are SOOOO excited in here for Santa to arrive and it is wonderful!  I love being with the kids as they anticipate his arrival and the joy and happiness that he will bring.  I hope you are enjoying these days as well.

Next week I’ll be going “off the grid” with some things. HO HO HO We’ll still have our weekly READING, WRITING, AND MATH, but we’ll be doing it different ways.  🙂

READING-We’ll finish Unit 4-FOOD.  We’ll talk about Food Traditions so you can begin that conversation this weekend.  Talk about what food traditions your family has.  Turkey for Thanksgiving, Grandma’s cheese soup for New Year’s dinner, red and green Rice Krispies treats for Santa, etc.

LETTERS-F f   G g

WORDS-Make  make  Help  help

MATH-The kids are really enjoying our time with calculators!!  WOW!  ( I found the calculators this summer at a warehouse…they were going to throw them away, needed the space.  I’ve been looking for a class set with a big screen for my little ones and came across these.  I’m so happy and the kids are having fun trying to beat me at our calculator time.)

We’ll be using the calculators and they will be in Math Word Stations.  Yesterday I taught them “Top-It.”  You can play it at home…all you need is a deck of cards, minus the Joker.  Ask your student how to play.  They should know.  I also brought out the Dominoes-I’ve got some GREAT strategists in here!  Excellent thinkers!

SCIENCE-We will begin Push and Pull.

F.Y.I….

Thursday will be our class party.  The homeroom moms have, once again, done an excellent job of contacting parents to donate certain items.  Sorry parents…the party is just for the kids. 🙁

Look for a Time Line for your child to complete during the break.  This is part of our Social Studies Unit.  I will send it on Thursday, along with December Book Reading List.

Friday will be our All-School Sing-A-Long.  The student body will meet in the gym for a sing-a-long and some students/parents will be having their hair cut to donate to Children With Hair Loss.  We have done this for many years and it is a wonderful event.  A few years ago, one of my sons-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and lost his hair during all of his treatments and radiation.  His hair has never really come back in and, although he never mentions it to us, we know it bothers him.  So, I could only imagine what hair loss might be for a child.

We will NOT be going outside for recess next week so you can leave the snow pants at home if you’d like.

Enjoy the snow!!!

Mrs. Smith

Parents,

Next Wednesday our S.T.A.N.D Students (Students Taking A New Direction) will be hosting an Ice Cream Sundae event at lunch.  Sundaes will be $1.oo and the monies collected will be used to purchase fleece to make crate blankets for the Dearborn Animal Shelter.  If you would like your child to buy a sundae next Wednesday, please send in $1.00 next Wednesday.

Thank you

Brrrr…Winter has arrived!  Students will need to wear boots to school and change into shoes upon arrival.  Even though the sidewalk may look dry, the snow melts out onto the sidewalk, the kids walk through the water and track it, and then they sit on a wet carpet.  YUK!  So, wear boots to school, change into school shoes (remember to put shoes in backpack at night!!), and we’ll be toasty warm and dry.

BOOK BAGS- I am holding off on sending home the BOOK BAGS until after break.  We are SO busy in here these days that it’s hard to find time to refill the bags.  I like to have each child read their book back to me before I give them a new one and I’m editing/revising their writing with each of them, which takes time.  we’ll resume after the break.  You can go ahead and send in any bags that are at home.

Strep is still in here…Our Claire has it AGAIN!!!  Wash hands.  Cover coughs.  Practice healthy habits.

Stay warm.

Mrs. Smith

Another fun week in Kindergarten!  We finished up our first week of our Food unit.  We have been talking about From Where Food Comes…Farmers grow wheat, wheat is ground up, wheat is made into dough, dough is made into pizza dough, and we bake and eat the pizza dough!  So, we made our version of pizzas with mini bagels for the dough, cream cheese for the sauce (because not all KIndergarteners like tomato sauce) and the toppings were red peppers, which they ate like they were candy!  Just about all “ordered” a second one.”  thank you Mrs. Regan for running to the store for the peppers this morning.  I forgot those last night in my haste to get home with the roads like they were.  The kids were simply adorable, making and eating their pizzas!  I took a picture of proud Sophia to show you but my computer is giving me issues today.

Here’s what is coming up next week…

Our unit theme is “What’s for dinner?”

COMPREHENSION STRATEGY- Summarize

SKILL-Making Inferences

WORDS-Have  have  Will  will

LETTERS-N n   C c

WRITING-We will be writing sentences about ordering from a menu.

For example, I will have __________.

First we will create a list of menu items.  Next we will pretend we are ordering by saying the sentence (Oral Language).  Then we will share our sentence with our “Elbow Buddy” (person sitting next to them).  Finally we will write the sentences.  They should be able to write 2-3 sentences.  They already know the words I  will have.  The only word they will need is the word from our “menu list.”  Attention to capital letters at the beginning, SPACES between words, and punctuation at the end will be our focus.  🙂

MATH-Adding 1   Adding 2  Simple Addition story problems, with pictures and then without pictures.  Make up some as you drive to the grocery store,bank, pick up siblings from basketball, etc.. Mental math is always good!

SCIENCE-Positional Concepts

SOCIAL STUDIES-I will be giving the District Social Studies Assessment.  Goods/ Services/ Needs/ Wants/Trades

Have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs. Smith

We’re picking up the pace with letters and words.  Keep on top of things by reviewing weekly letters and words and spelling the words.

Here goes for next week…

READING-We are starting Unit 4  FOOD

COMPREHENSION STRATEGY-SUMMARIZE

COMPREHENSION SKILL-IDENTIFY SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

LETTERS  H h  V v

WORDS  to eat  food

MATH-Number Lines,  Number Awareness, Greater than, Less Than

SOCIAL STUDIES-Finishing up GOODS/SERVICES and going on to TRADES

Catch a teachable moment when you are out…Is the cashier offering a GOODS or a SERVICE?  Hair Stylist? Toys in a store? A Waitress? Gas Station?  Police?  Dentist?

I have to take a moment to brag about my students…This week we brainstormed 3 different “things” to go along with our unit on Transportation and I wanted to work in our sight words.

List 1 

(Places to go)

zoo, farm, church,Dairy Queen,school, Chicago, Paris, etc.

List 2

(How to get there)

Bus, train, motorcycle, rocket, ambulance, hot air balloon, etc

List 3

(Who will you see?)

a teacher, friends, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa

Choosing one item form each list, they were to write 3  sentences (not 1, not 2, but 3 sentences).

Example:

“We can go to the farm.  We can go in a bus.  We can see friends.”

They did a great job and I posted their work in the hall.  This is a huge task for Kindergarteners.  The only 3 words that they haven’t had yet as weekly words were words on the list.  So, they had to find the word (retrieving information-a writing skill) and they had to use correct grammar.  (in a bus, on a motorcycle)

I an very proud of them and we are not even through first semester!!  Look out!  We might have their Master’s thesis topic chosen by May.  🙂

A special “THANK YOU” to Mrs. Sherding, Evelyn’s mom for making sure ($$) each child got popcorn today.  Thank you.

Have a wonderful weekend, still enjoying this gorgeous weather.

Mrs. Smith