Club's Choice Fundraiser Pick up

**THE CLUB'S CHOICE FUNDRAISER PICK UP IS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17TH BETWEEN 3-6 PM AT THE HIGH SCHOOL CAFETERIA.  **

A FEW REMINDERS...

I am so glad to be back, I missed the kids so much!  They were all very sweet to me and filled my heart with joy with their hugs and well wishes cards!  Thanks for being so understanding and supportive!

A few things...

• We have started our listening center station during Daily 5 and the kids do use headphones.  I have enough for us to share but if you are concerned with "head lice" or are more comfortable sending your child their own pair to use that is great.  We will store them in their book boxes.  I do sanitize the general ones and keep in a plastic baggie but I just wanted to you to be aware of your options.
• This letter was sent home on Thursday.  We will be having a book exchange on Tuesday, December 23rd during our "Christmas Party."  Please send in a WRAPPED book ($3.00 or less) WITH YOUR CHILD'S NAME WRITTEN ON THE INSIDE so they know who it came from.  Please make it a gender neutral book.  If you are unable to send in a book, PLEASE let me know ASAP and I will get one for your child.

• We have some special things coming up for your child.  We will be doing a "reindeer run" where we spend the morning doing reindeer crafts and making reindeer hats and then in the afternoon we will be "running" through the school singing "Rudolph."  This is the 2nd year we will be doing this, last year was such a success and the whole school really enjoyed it!  We are looking at either Friday the 19th or Monday the 22nd.  
• ALSO.....SECRET....PSST DON'T TELL YOUR CHILD, ITS A SECRET...WE WILL HAVE A VISIT FROM SANTA AS WELL!  
• Also on the 23rd we have our Polar Express Day.  We build a train in the morning and this year I am thinking about showing the movie in the afternoon.  Normally we just watch the book on video but I am considering showing the film this year while we eat popcorn and drink hot chocolate,  please let me know if you have any concerns about watching the movie.  
• We also will need help on the 23rd taking down the dec the halls decorations.  Thanks so much to those parents who came to help put it up, it brightened up our entire school!  I do have the forms from those of you who said you are able and willing to come back and take down, thank you!  If you are able to come on the 23rd to help out, just let me know! :)
• Book Clubs are up and running.  Your child will bring their book bag home every day, some times it might be the same book but have them reread it for fluency.  My schedule is set and I will be meeting with each child at least 2 times a week, some times 3.  Please sign showing that your child read the book in the "folder reading log."  If you have ANY questions please let me know.  I will be sending home a few books over Christmas break so you can continue to be reading with your children.  
• Holiday Homework- I will be sending home a packet called Holiday Homework. I will show the kids this packet.  If your child completes the packet and returns it after break, they will get to eat their lunch in the classroom one day.  

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR KIND WORDS AND SUPPORT WHILE I WAS RECOVERING, I AM DOING WELL!

Friday, December 12th

Technology: Today we worked on getting to a great website called Puzzle Me Words. It's a great website to help with stretching out sounds to build words.  Check it out  HERE !!

Book Swap:  Every other Friday we will be going into the book room to swap out our books.  This is a great way of the children to help choose what books they want in their book boxes as well as me giving them the options from their current reading level.  We did such a great job today and were very excited to get new books!

Math:  Today math time was cut short because we spend a lot of time the first day at the book swap.  For math we just did our calendars today.

Writer's Workshop:  We had time to write in our journals today!

WE HAD PHY ED TODAY!

Phonics/Language Arts:  Today we played  listening game with our new puppet that we named "Elsa the Elephant."  She is a pretty cute puppet!  We are all becoming beginning sound masters!  Way to go!

Art:  I was very excited to teach my first art lesson today.  Ms. Huffman did a couple art lessons with the kids where they made a caterpillar and build objects using shapes.  Today we learned how to draw a clown using step by step instructions.  First we looked at pictures of clowns and talked about any patterns we notice about their clothing and things that each clown had in common.  We mentioned a red nose, bright colors and patterns on their close.  Also funny hair!  Most were wearing wigs.  The students were then given the opportunity to choose to draw a happy clown or a sad clown.  I was very impressed as to how well they followed directions and how bright and colorful their pictures turned out.  Come and stop in sometime and view all our great art work!

Thursday, December 11th

Character Education: Mrs. Weninger came in today and taught us two new unthinkables.  We learned about "glass man" who gets stuck on things and makes us feel mad and sometimes makes us cry and have a temper tantrum.  We talked about how to get him out of our brain and be more like super flex.  We also learned about "space invader."  Space invader gets into our brains and makes us get to close to the people around us.  One way to get space invader out of our brains is to use the "one arm rule."  Make sure that you have a one arm distance between the person in front of you when we walk in the hallway.

Math:   Today in math we worked not the new vocabulary words longer, shorter and same.  We walked around the room and "hunted" for objects that were longer, shorter and the same as our craft stick.  We recorded our findings on our sheets.  We found some great items!

Writer's Workshop: We had time to write in our journals today.

WE HAD MUSIC TODAY!

Phonics/ Language Arts: Today we introduced the new snap word "be."  We played a review snap word game and then did our "be" practice sheet.  

Reading: We practiced reading fluently on our reader's theatre book, Baby Animals.

Handwriting:  Today we worked on the letter J.

Wednesday, December 10th

We had some 3rd grade student readers today who read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

This morning Chippy was hiding up on the ledge watching over us.

WE HAD STORYBOOK READER:  Our reader read the story Snowmen at Christmas.

Today we did our "shopping" at the Santa's Secret Shop.

Math: Today for math we didn't have a lot of time so we reviewed our numbers and then played a math game.

Writer's Workshop: Today we talked about remembering to stretch out the sounds we hear "brave spelling" and had time to write in our journals.

WE HAD PHY ED TODAY

Phonics/Language Arts:  Today we reviewed beginning sounds and practiced segmenting our words.  ex. cat is c    a    t.  This is still a pretty tough skill for many of the students.  A great idea to help with this would be riding in the car.  You just give them a word like "dog" and have them break it apart into    d     o     g.  This exposure will really help your child grasp this tricky concept.

Reading:  Today we introduced the reader's theatre book called Baby Animals.   We practiced echo reading.  I would read the sentence fluently and the students would copy.  We worked on reading punctuation such as a period, comma and exclamation point today.

Daily 5: Today we were introduced to our fifth and final part of the daily 5 activities.  It is called "listen to a story."  The students were shown how to choose a story and how to put it in and use the portable cd player.  **If anyone has any of these just lying around your house not using, please donate them to our classroom.  We go through these quickly for many are very used already.** Thanks!

Tuesday, December 9th

TODAY WAS LATE START!

WE HAD MUSIC TODAY!

This morning we came into school and there was a decorated Christmas tree.  We did not know where it came from.  Under the tree were lots of wrapped presents.  While we were sitting for Morning Meeting, there was a knock at the door.  I went to the door and no one was there but on the floor by our door was a small box with a little elf inside and a note.  We read the note and Santa had sent an elf on the shelf for our classroom.  The note said that we needed to give him a name.  After MANY great ideas we voted and "CHIPPY"was the winner!  The note said that Chippy will be watching to make sure we are all making good choices.  He will fly back each night to the North Pole to tell Santa about all the amazing things we are doing in Kindergarten.  Each night Chippy will find a new place to hide and we need to find him the next morning.  We are all VERY excited!!!!  Also, the note said that our elf Chippy was the one who brought and decorated our Christmas tree.  He also said that each day we must unwrap 2 of the presents.  These presents are all Christmas books that Mrs. Jost gets to read to the class.

Phonics/Language Arts: Today we worked on the word "have".  We reviewed some words we already know and did our have practice sheet.

IRISH PRIDE CELEBRATION!!  This afternoon we went to the gym for our 1st trimester Irish Pride Celebration.  At these celebrations we recognize and celebrate all the great things that our students in the elementary are doing!  We did such a great job sitting quietly and being very respectful listeners.  This went for about 40 minutes and I was so proud of how well we did.  We end each celebration by singing our school song.  

Monday, December 8th

I was go happy to see everyone this morning!!!!  I really missed you!

Student Readers:  This morning my son Nick and  buddy came and read the story The Gym Teacher from the Black Lagoon to our class.

Math:  This morning for math we reviewed the vocabulary words more and fewer.  We worked on a class book where we worked with our partners to create a more or fewer page.  

Writer's Workshop: Today we talked about the writing process.  We showed the cycle pre write-draft-revise-edit-publish.  

WE HAD PHY ED TODAY

Phonics/Language Arts:

Today we worked on identifying beginning sounds.  We played an interactive smart board game where using a "crane" game we picked the pictures that started with each beginning sound.  Next we worked at our tables on a practice sheet finding beginning sounds.  We all did great with this!

Reading:  For our whole group reading lesson today we finished reading the nonfiction story about the life cycle of a frog.  In this story we talked about sequence of events and how to use signal words to know the order.  Ex. first, next, then, finally. 

WE HAD LIBRARY TODAY!