Hello Families,

We had such a fun week celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Wow, it is March and it is almost spring! Here is a peek at next week:

In science, we will be talking about the weather and different types of clouds.  We have many books and poems that we will be reading. 

In Writer's Workshop, we will be starting our new unit on opinion writing.  They turn out very cute because we ask them to write about if they have opinions on what we could change at school.  One year, our students helped get the track in the upper playground get fixed because so many wrote about it. 

In Reader's Workshop, students will be introduced to being a "super reader. " Students will be show their powers by looking around the room and other places to identify familiar words.  Then, they will use "pointer power" to point to words as they read.  

word wall words: little, girl  

In math students will be identifying solid and flat shapes.  We will identify and compare shapes using vocabulary words like face, sides, corners etc.  Students will be making different sizes of shapes.  We will also continue to practice addition and subtraction facts.


Reminders:

Report Cards go home on March 20
Spring break is the week of March 27

Wish List:
Sour patch worms/kids
Prizes for prize box
paper towels
wipes for desks

Thank you and have a great weekend!

Hello Families,

This week, we are celebrating one of our favorite authors, Dr. Suess!!! His birthday is on Monday, March 2.  We will be doing activities in math, reading, art, and science that are themed with Dr. Suess.  Students who want to dress up daily to match the book we are reading are welcome to do so.  Also, students can bring in a Dr. Seuss book to share.  It should be a super fun week!

Monday: Dress up in stripes for "The Cat in the Hat"
Tuesday: Dress up in green for  "Green Eggs and Ham"
Wednesday: mix and match (backwards, inside out, etc.) for "Wacky Wednesday"
Thursday: something red or blue for "One fish Two fish Blue fish Red fish"
Friday:  Crazy socks "Fox on Socks"

Word wall words: want, feet

Writing workshop: Finishing up our "How to" book and celebrating on Friday with our buddies.

In Math:  In counting collections, students are exploring grouping of 2's, 5's, 10's, and other grouping.  Please practice at home.  We have also been discussing "place value" and counting the 10 way.  For example: for 12 it is 1 ten two, 13 is 1 ten 3, etc.  This is to help with placing the ten in the correct place. 

In Readers workshop: We are focusing on sounding out words instead of guessing.  You can use clues with the pictures to identify each letter in the word.

Nightly Homework:  Thank you for reading nightly with your child.  Please remember to sign the front of the envelope and return as soon as they master it.  I will not be sending books home on Fridays.

Wish List:

Paper towels Clean up wipes
Baby wipes
prizes for prize box
CD Player/Boom box- My CD player broke and I have so many cute kinder songs on cd that we can no longer listen to.  If you have an old one that you would be willing to give up, it would be greatly appreciated!

February 24-28

Dear Kinder Families,

We had a fun short week! Next week we will have our first long week in a while!

Here is a peek at next week.

Language Arts/Reading:  We are working on being "careful readers." "Careful readers" check their reading and make sure it makes sense.  We also try to sound out difficult words by using the picture to help us figure it out.  We continue to look for sight words in our reading. 

Homework:  Thank you for reading nightly with your child and returning the book each day.  I will be sending these books home daily except on Fridays. 

Math:  We are working hard learning about place value, teen numbers and missing addends.  (ie 3+_=5) This is a difficult skill but we will keep practicing!

Social Studies/Science:  We will continue learning about teeth.  This week we will learn about different types of animal teeth, and do an experiment to see what happens to teeth when exposed to sugary foods.

Writing Workshop:  We will continue to work on our "How to" books.

Have a super weekend and I will see you all on Monday!

Wish List:

Prizes for prize box
Gummies/or Sour Patch kids
cotton balls
baby wipes
paper towels
band aides

Hello Families,

   We had such a fun Valentine's Day party!  The ice cream and sprinkles were quite a hit! Thank you so much to all of our parent helpers and amazing room parents! Fun was had by all!  We were so busy passing out Valentines that I forgot to give out my Valentine cards for the kiddos!  Please let your student know that they will get one from me on Tuesday when we return!


Here is a peek at next week:

No school on Monday for Presidents' Day.

Social Studies/ Science: We will continue learning about presidents and our country. This week our focus is on George Washington.  In science we will watch a video on dental health and eating healthy foods.  February is dental awareness month.  Please encourage students to brush teeth, floss and eat healthy foods. 

 Readers Workshop:  We are working on our "reading muscles."  We have learned many different strategies when reading.  For instance, using the picture to figure out a difficult word, putting words into "chunks" to sound it out, and using our pointer fingers ("pointer power") to read each word on the page. When reading at home try to help them with reading for fluency with our take home books.   Also, please remind them that reading is for understanding/comprehending not just being able to read the words.  

Word Wall words: will, come

Math: We will continue with subtraction and addition with word problems and basic addition and subtraction to 10.  


Have a great weekend!!

Hello Families,

Here is the Room 16 News for next week:

Home Reading Program:

 We will be starting our home reading program homework for Kindergarten.  These books will be coming home on Tuesday, February 11.  Please read the book and sign the envelope when your child can read it fluently without having to stop and sound out.  Signing the outside envelope tells me that you are ready for the next book.  Some of the books coming home can seem too hard but you can slow down and only do a few pages a day.  Please talk about the book and have them tell you about characters and what is happening in the story.  When your child gets to the Phonics Library books (which are the copied paper books), please do not keep, draw or write on them. We use them every year and need to keep them in good shape.

I have a paper that gives you a little info. on how to help your child read.  Again, once your child is fluently reading the book, send it back to get a new book.  Your child's reading ability will grow immensely if your child reads daily with these books.  

This Monday is a holiday so we will see you on Tuesday for centers and to celebrate Abe Lincoln's birthday.  We will be creating a log cabin in honor of Abe Lincoln and will be playing a game with pennies. **Centers are cancelled on Thursday due to a teacher training on Reader's Workshop.

 We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday at 10:30 with a lot of fun activities planned by our fabulous room moms.  

Word wall words:  they, of

Math:  We will continue working on addition and subtraction.  I am so impressed with the different strategies students have been able to use to solve word problems.  We will also begin talking about money. 


Reminders:

No school Monday, February 17.

Have a great weekend!

Hello Families,


Thank you so much for your generous donations!  I am so excited to buy some new books and art supplies needed for our class! I am so thankful to all of you wonderful parents!!!!

This Thursday,  Feb. 6, Courtney (Gigi's mom),  will be visiting our class to take pictures  for the yearbook,  She had the fantastic idea to have them write on a chalkboard what they would like to be when they grow up. If they would like to dress up as the part, they could do that too! (ie-If they want to be a firefighter they could wear a fire helmut, doctor- a lab coat, etc.)  

This week, we had so much fun learning about polar bears and penguins and how animals adapt to the cold areas.   We also did a science experiment on animal blubber.  Ask your child about what they learned about blubber.   

On Monday, we are celebrating  the 100th day of school.  The kiddos are so excited! We have fun centers planned to celebrate with the number 100!!!!  

word wall words: friend, from

Math:  Wow! I was so impressed with our CGI word problem this week!  Students are starting to understand so many ways to solve both addition and subtraction word problems.  Celebrate your child at home with how amazing their math knowledge is becoming with subtracting and adding!  Continue to practice mental math by sharing real world word problems to see if they can figure it out at home.  
.

 Valentine's project:

We need large grocery paper bags to decorate and collect our Valentines. Please send in, if you have any extras! Our Valentine Party will be on Friday, the 14th from 10:30-11:20. 

Reminders:

Feb. 10-No school

Feb. 17-No school


I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Hello Families,

One more week of January and then February!  Time is sure flying by!

100th Day of School Project:   I thought it would be fun for our class to bring in a project for our 100th day of school coming up on Feb 3!  It is 100 of anything!  You can have a display or a container to share your 100 collection.  I saw some cute ones in the other classes.  One student did 100 stickers in groups of 10.  One student made the number 100 out of a hundred rocks.  One student had 100 beads.  One student built a Lego design with 100 Legos.  It's your choice of what you would like to share.  Bring it any at anytime this week or next so that we can start sharing our collections.

Science: We will continue our theme on Winter Animals  We will learn many facts about the different types of penguins that live in the Southern Hemisphere.  We will also talk about Polar Bears that live in the Northern Hemisphere. We will talk about how these animals adapt with the type of feathers and blubber to make them able to live in coldest areas of the world.

Math: This next week, we will be back to a full week with counting collections, math games in centers, learning to count on, etc.  Please continue to practice counting to 100 by 1's , 5's, and 10's.

word wall word for the week: has, had

We have a few more celebrations coming up.  We have our 100 days of school on Feb. 3.  and Valentine's Day on Friday, Feb. 14. We also celebrate President's Day with no school on Feb. 10 and 17th.

Donations Needed:  I am wondering if anyone would like to donate the following items:

the thick pretzel sticks from Trader Joes (to make log cabins for Abe Lincoln)
Cotton balls for comparing Polar bears to grizzly bears
Crisco large tub (for our science experiment about animal blubber)
100 red cups (for 100 day celebration)

This year, some of you have donated Amazon cards and Target gift cards for me to buy things.  I also use my own money but it gets very expensive.  We love doing projects and don't want to give that up.  I really appreciate all the help and thank you all!!


Reminders:
Science Fair January 31
Morning Assembly  Wednesday Feb 5
No school on Feb. 10 and Feb. 17
Math Festival: February 6

Thank you all! Have a great weekend!

Jan. 21-25

Jan. 21-25

Dear Families,

We had a great first week back from Winter Break!  We are ready to start 2020 off with a bang.  

There will be no school this Monday, Jan. 20 to observe Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  We read a couple of stories about this amazing man and had a discussion on how he wanted all people to be equal and be treated fairly.  We read a poem called "The Crayons that Talked".  It is about how each crayon is unique and when you put them all together it creates a beautiful picture.  I talked about us being that box of crayons and we all have different talents that come together to make a beautiful picture.

Chinese New Year : Next Friday, we will march through the classrooms to celebrate Chinese New Year.  If your child would like to bring in a "noisemaker" (ie tamborines, bongos, bells, maracas,etc.) they are welcome to bring in on Friday. It should be lots of fun!

Language Arts:
 Our new theme is winter animals!  We already introduced owls and penguins and will talk about how winter animals adapt to their environment during the winter months by hibernating, growing more fur, storing food, etc.  This week and next, we will have center activities focusing on  owls. and penguins.

In the next few weeks, we have a few holidays/occasions to celebrate.  We celebrate Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day,  100th day of school, Valentine's Day, and President's Day.  This makes these next few months go quickly!

Word wall words: this, that

Math:  We will continue to work on number bonds and practice word problems as well as addition to 10.
  

Please continue to practice counting to 100 , and counting by 5's,and  10's.

Math Festival coming up on February 6th!!!! We need parent volunteers.  
We need 2 volunteers for both sessions:
First Session: 7:55-10:35
Second Session 11:35-2:10
Volunteers will be assisting with classes, grade K-6th, as they filter through the MPR to explore math activities and games.  
You do not need to teach any math or know the skills, you will be more of a facilitator at a center- cleaning up materials  between each class, helping younger students read the directions, etc.
If you are interested and can commit to one of the sessions, please email alyssa_davis@pvusd.net (our academic coordinator).  We definite need volunteers for this to run smoothly.

Classroom Needs/Donations:

red lunch or dinner size plates

white paper plates

paper grocery bags (need 25)

Paper towels

Clean-up wipes

Crayola twistable crayons

Fruit loops/necklace string (for 100 day project)

Individual boxes of conversation Valentine hearts(for math activities)

Trader Joes's brand whole wheat pretzels (for Abe Lincoln log cabin)

Reminders:
No school this Monday- Jan.20
No school Monday Feb. 10
No school Monday Feb. 17
Math Festival Tuesday, Feb. 6

Have a great week!