Sunday Funday!!

Hi Families,

I call it Sunday Funday because with cold weather like this, you need to find something fun to do.  I went to Wal-Mart and found fun Valentine’s Day things!  Our party is probably going to be at 12:30 pm…right after lunch, on Friday, February 14^th.  Please let me know if you are interested in helping out during the party.  More information will come home this week.  I know that something has happened to the background on my blog…I am trying to figure it out, bare with me! 

Well, hopefully we will have a full week of learning.  I saw snow on the Monday night forecast…eekkkk! 

This week…..

ü Will be a lot like last week because of the snow days

ü We will have a library lesson tomorrow at 12:30 pm

ü We will visit the center room on Tuesday and Thursday

ü I am in the process of completing formal running records (reading levels) on all students.  I am hoping to make a phone call home to all families in the coming weeks to update you on academic progress.  Like I’ve said a million times,  I am so impressed with your students!  They amaze me every day!

ü Many students have saved enough Hero Slips to share a personal object during “Show and Tell.”  I am very impressed with their speaking skills.  They have made eye contact and answered questions from their peers.

ü Many students are very close to earning enough Hero Slips to eat lunch with me in the classroom!! If that is your student…tell them to keep working hard, they’re almost there!

ü In the spring I will have “Lunch Bunch” - every Friday I eat lunch with 4 friends and we have a special treat!  Every student will have a chance to do this.

ü Our academic goals and lessons will be the same as last week – please refer to my last Sunday Post

ü Sight Words – said, play, where

ü In whole group reading we will recall key details from a nonfiction text – we are using various animal books to practice this skill.

P.S. I got Frozen Valentine’s for our class.  It’s a great movie – my new favorite!! If you haven’t seen it…I say go!!

Have a Super week everyone!

Ms. Grimes

Enjoy these pictures...

Chatting about their favorite arctic animal...

Making Umbrella re-tell pieces...

Center work...

Inside recess fun!!!!

We have mailboxes in our writing center...ask your student what they have found in their mailbox??

Monday Update

Hi Families!

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  For some, it may have been a 3 day weekend! I feel as though it has been a while since I have given you a Sunday update.  Well, I guess today is a Monday update.  I apologize if you have been checking the blog and there was no information!  I promise to update every Sunday until the end of the school year.  Many exciting things are happening in kindergarten this week.  It is looking like we may have a snow day tomorrow.  If you are not already registered to receive Find Out First updates now is a great time to do so! They send school closings and updates right to your phone. 

Check it out:

http://fcps.ezcommunicator.net/edu/frederick/loginform.aspx?app=0

Here are the things you need to know for this week…..

ü We will have a library lesson and book exchange on Wednesday

ü We are having a Valentine’s party this year on February 14^th.  A letter will come home soon giving you details about the party.  Parent volunteers are welcomed and appreciated!!

ü In March Whittier is having a Science Fair.  Each class will participate by completing a class project.  If you are interested in working on an individual project, please call or email me so I can send the paperwork home.  It is a great opportunity to showcase your student’s talents and interests. 

ü Report cards will go home on January 28^th.

 

Weekly Sight Words: said, play, where

Poems:

Winter Cheer

Chubby Snowman

Language Arts (read aloud):

Standard: RI.2 With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text

Question:

What is the most important information on this page?

Books:

Martin Luther King Jr.

Nelson Mandela

Ghandi

Mother Theresa

Social Studies:

We will discuss wants/needs and goods/services. 

Writing:

We are working on small moment writing pieces this week.  We will discuss that we need to focus on one tiny moment and tell a lot about that moment. Students will sort through their writing folder and make a pile for stories that tell about more than one moment and a pile that gives details about one specific event.  Students will also practice using resources.  Last week they were given a personal word wall to keep in their writing folder.  Students can add words to their word wall.  For example, last week we wrote an informational piece about arctic animals, students added the words walrus, penguin and orca to their word wall.  We are going discuss the difference between words we need to sound out (takes time) and words that we can learn to write in a snap.  The word wall gives us WORD POWER…therefore we can use this resource to study words.  Eventually they will be able to write these words in a snap without using the resource.  When I say study I mean looking at the word as they write and noticing (memorizing) what the word looks like…Ex: will, two short letters and two tall guys lol I will conference with students this week and at the end of the week they will share their pieces. 

Math:

SHAPES, SHAPES and more SHAPES!!!

This week we will explore 3 dimensional shapes (sphere, cylinder, cube and cone).  We will play an “I Spy” shape game and hunt for 3D shapes around our school building. We will also continue to explore 2D shapes.  We will discuss the differences between 2D and 3D shapes.  We will also learn positional words (above, below, beside, in front of, behind, next to).  We will play a positional word game with partners. 

Here are some cool shape videos/songs you can use with your student:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htcuPenTg38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9L9l86N-xM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkuKOso9cA8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9-pEVaO4pM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4rhzjD5ohw

 

Any questions about this week, please ask!!

Ms. Grimes

Sunday Update!

Hi Families,

I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break!  Hopefully, we will have school tomorrow.  A full week of learning before we end quarter 2 would be great.  

This week we will review all transitions and routines.  The students surprised me on their first day back last week; they were able to transition and follow routines like we had not missed a day of school!!

We are not fully planned for the week due to our unexpected snow day.  However, I will share that we are going to begin working with addition story problems. We will use pictures and math manipulatives to help us solve these problems. We will begin solving story problems with answers to 5 and then move to answers to 10.  Once students have grasped the concept of addition and subtraction, we will work with math fact fluency to 5.  

In language arts, we will read nonfiction books about arctic animals...my favorite unit!

Please enjoy these pictures from our last day the 2013 school year!!

Our Classroom door....Thanks Ms. Jen!!

Donuts!!! 

 Well we didn't win, but we did get a trophy!!

Make it a great week!