Parents,

I could use some trimming of laminate on some dominoes that I made for the kids.  Any volunteers?

Thank you to Mrs. Balestrieri for coordinating the treats for our Halloween Party and to all parents who sent in paper products and goodies.  Although the rain may have been damp outside, no spirits were dampened in my room.  WE had a great time!

November has arrived and we continue to move along.  First report card marking will end this week.  Parent Teacher Conferences will be November 14, 20, and 21 and I look forward to sharing your child’s progress with you at that time.  I will send home a reminder of your time slot.

Congratulations to our BOOK-IT readers who read for 20 minutes every night and turned in their calendar for a free pizza coupon!  Good job readers and you showed great responsibility by completing your calendar and turning it in on time!  (Fits right in with our Social Studies unit on responsibility and rules!) Parents, thanks for your support.

My November Students of the Month are Jason Anderson and Fatimah Alharbi.  Congratulations!

Important this week…

TUESDAY 11-5  NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS  District Professional Development for all teachers

WEDNESDAY-Library Book due             Please have your child (responsibility) pack her/his book the night before so they can check out a new one.

FRIDAY  1-8  Half Day for students      11:45  Dismissal    End of first card marking

Here is a peek at our week…

READING-We will finish our Unit about Friends.  Please continue to listen to your child read at home.  It is so important to help them read with accuracy and fluency.  In addition, it does wonders for their confidence.  Continue to work with PREDICTING when you are reading with your child.  Look for clues that can predict what will come next or what will happen at the end of a story.  I asked the students to predict what color Mr. Denison would wear to school last Friday.  They predicted green.  When he walked in wearing green, I asked them what clues they had used to make their predictions?  Good thinkers, Kindergarteners!

WRITING-This week’s lesson focuses on writing lists.  You can allow your child to really be involved with writing lists at home.  Let them write a few grocery items down is a list.  Or have them write a list of 3 or 4 things they need to do this week.  Many students can stretch out a whole word spelling it!  If not, they can at least get the beginning and ending sounds and letters.  Please make sure to let them say/stretch the word.  Don’t jump in and make the sounds for them…they need to hear the sounds themselves.  Then they will connect the letters that goes with the sounds.

MATH-We will continue with number recognition and playing a game with Dominoes.  We will also work with more than, less than, with a game called Monster Squeeze!

SOCIAL STUDIES-This week we will extend our “Friends” unit to the community.  We will read a non-fiction article about Helping Hands.  How can we help friends in our community?  How can we be responsible, thoughtful of others, kind?

SCIENCE-Earth Science

Of course, READ TO SELF and READ TO SOMEONE is included every day.  Their stamina for reading and staying focused with their individual reading is increasing!  They are proud of it too!

Have a great week and remember to vote on Tuesday!

Mrs. Smith

October Calendars for Book-It are due tomorrow.

We had a great day today!  Have fun tonight!

Mr. Denison just announced that today’s parade is cancelled.  If you planned on picking up your child at 11:25 to change into costumes, you may still do so.

Enjoy tonight with your child.

BOO!

Today we went to the Library for the first time and checked out a book.  They loved it!  Library books are their own choice.  They will be due every Wednesday.  I’ll try to remind you on my blog.  They need to return their book each Wednesday before they can check out a new book.  Please help them remember to put their book in their backpack on Tuesday night so they’ll ready for Wednesday’s Library Day.

Also…BEWARE!  (I told them I’d tell you this.)   Some scary item coming home today.  Keep your eyes open!  lol

Reminder that your child should be reading (or read to) for 20 minutes every night.  Each night after reading, they were to color in the date on their calendar that was sent home at the beginning of the month.  If your child read every night and colored in the dates, they will receive a certificate to Pizza Hut for a free Personal pizza.  Reading and pizza–what a deal!!  Calendars will be due on Friday.  See you tomorrow for the parade–1:30.  Bring your cameras! ( We’re very cute !)

Thursday’s Halloween parade will start at 1:30, weather permitting.  If weather is rainy, parade will be cancelled.  Mr. Denison will make that decision Thursday morning.

P.S.  Students may still bring their costumes to school.

Our fall weather is here, crisp and cool.  🙂

We had a super,  great, fun, engaging  Science lesson on Sink or Float.  I was working with them on predicting  and they were being Super Scientists with their predictions!  They were amazing.  They not only gave good predictions, but went on to “investigate” why certain things sank while others floated.  They discovered that whether an object sank or floated had nothing to do with their size because a tiny metal  paper clip sank but a huge wooden block floated!  So, we went on to discuss how things that floated were alike and how things that sank were alike.  My Super Scientists discovered something else about the objects…what they were made of helped us predict what might sink or float.  Great minds, especially for beginning Kindergarteners!  I am so impressed.  Mr. Denison stopped in to watch us–he took a big step backwards when we dropped the big wooden blocks into the pans of water.  I wonder why??  🙂

This week…

READING-We will continue our Unit on Friends.  This week theme is “What Is A Friend?”

Letter is “P  p”         Word is  “a.”

We will be making a book but I think it will probably remain at school for a few weeks.  The student s made a book last week and wanted to keep it in their Reading Book Box.  You’ll get these books at home someday!

WRITING- We’ll be making picture/word webs.  Picture a circle with a word in the circle.  Then picture lines coming out from that circle with pictures or words attached to each line.  that’s a web.  A web helps kids organize their thoughts for writing.  We will be making webs a lot this year.

Our Anthology story this week is a time honored classic-“The Lion and the Mouse.”  The fable has a great moral.

MATH-We will be talking about different ways to count and measure.  They will enjoy this.  We also will play some games with Dominoes and number cards.  More fun!

We will extend our counting into the 20’s and 30’s.  Please keep up counting with your child.  Count anything…shoes, silverware pieces, leaves, how long it takes them to wash their hands, etc.   It really helps them.  Keep up the shoe tying practice too and it’s time to work with them on zipping their own jackets.  They can do it with practice.  (Thanks parents 🙂 )

SCIENCE-Spiders     Non-fiction  Gathering information about spiders

SOCIAL STUDIES-We  will finish our unit on Rules with a CLASSROOM RULE PLEDGE.

Please make sure your child is up to date with our sight words.  Keeping up weekly is a wise study measure.

Letters-Your child should know  M m  A a  S  s  P p and the sounds that each letter makes.  This is very important when students are writing a word and when they are trying to read a word.  When they see a word in print, they need to look at the first letter and know the sound of that first letter (and other letters in the word.)

Words-Your child should also be able to read and write  A   a  like, The  the  We  we  Can   can  I

Thank you for your support at home.

Thursday—Our All School Halloween Costume Parade will be outside around the track at 1:20.  Students may bring a costume to school in a bag on Thursday morning.  We will change into the costumes after lunch.  (Students are NOT to wear their costumes to school on Thursday morning.)  If you would like to pick up your child at lunch (11:25) and take them home to dress, that is fine. No scary costumes nor full face masks.   Please have them back by 1:00 so we’ll be ready for the parade.  Bring your cameras for the parade!  I will have a classroom party with the students later in the afternoon.  My Lead Homeroom Parent,  Mrs. Balestrieri, is in charge of coordinating donations for the party.  If she hasn’t signed you up for the Halloween Party, she’ll catch you for another one.  Thanks in advance for you donations.

Thank you to Ahmad, Natalia, and Jason’s moms for sending in extra white T-shirts.  We looked awesome in our “lab coats!” There were enough shirts for everyone to have a lab coat!  You are so great-thanks.  We sure looked awesome and definitely looked like Scientists.  I took several pictures but am having difficulty posting them.  I have had several people giving valiant efforts to help, but no progress was made.  Ah, technology! I will try again tomorrow.  I am at a retreat all day today so I won’t be able to get to this until tomorrow.

Have a good weekend and thanks again for the lab coats.  You are amazing…I ask for T-shirts one day and enough came in the very next day so every scientist could have a lab coat.  Wonderful.