December 2016

November went by so very quickly.  I hope you all enjoy your family and friends during this holiday season.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!  Let's remember to be grateful.  I would like you all to know how grateful I am for your sweet children.  They make me laugh every day and once in awhile make me want to cry, hehehaha!  Thanks for sharing them with me each day.

REMEMBER November:

• Language Arts and Math Practice

We have learned the entire alphabet and all letter sounds. We have had FUN learning the letters of the alphabet.

 Letter Ee is for Ear and Egg

 Please make sure your child is able to recognize and name all letters in RANDOM order.  Also, each child should know the letter sounds including long and short vowel sounds. 

Y is for YAM, Yucky and Yummy

 I am not sure that I believe that these Y-Y-Y yams taste that good. 

Are they YUCKY?

 OR YUMMY?

Here are the class graph results.

Z is for Zebra

U is for /u/ /u/ umbrella

 21 Sight words have also been taught and your child should be reading them fluently in random order and be able to find them in books and other text. 

 Also, please continue to read every day with your child.

 or other books!

Congratulations to Jaden Sherman and Aubrey Bennett for moving up a level on RAZkids.  They are now reading Level B books. When your child completes a level please remind them to tell me and then I will assess their level again in class and move them up or have them repeat a level for increased fluency. All Kindergarten students should be able to read Level D books by May.

We will begin our Unit 3 Language Arts Assessment next week and I will be sending the completed assessment by Winter Break.  Also, we will be completing our assessment about shapes too.

• The Q and U Wedding  
  

This was an exciting week because Mr. U (Enzo) and Miss Q (Jayci) were joined together by Mr. Rempfer the officiator in AlphabetLand for this wedding of the year!  All the Kinder Eagles enjoyed the celebration.  This wedding will be part of the end of the year video.  We had such a great time and I think they will remember that "qu" are always together in words.  Thanks again parents for your support.

• WTW Spelling Sorts

We will have 3 spelling sorts this month on December 2^nd, 9th and 16th.  Please help your child each week by cutting, sorting and writing the letters or words depending on which level of sort they are currently studying.  I am so pleased with the progress each child is making!  Please continue to support their progress.

• Mathematicians

Your student should be able to identify, name and write numbers 0-10 fluently. 

We have also been studying and learning about 2-D (flat) shapes and 3-D (solid shapes) for a few weeks and we will have a few review days and the Unit 5 Math Test will be given on November 30th.  Please continue to practice naming and identifying these shapes.  

  

 Working in cooperative Learning groups to create a NEW shape with given shapes.

 Mouse

 Butterfly

 Here is the transfer of learning from our recent science unit about the Day and Night Sky.  The kiddos made the sun, moon, earth and another planet of the solar system.  Great Thinking!

 Snowman

 Caterpillar

 Ice cream cone 

Shapes are all around us.  Keep having discussions in your families!

• December Calendar

All month we will be learning about Habit #4  

*Remember that Tuesday each week is our Library Day and we need to return the book each week.

Friday, December 2nd- Minimum Day dismissal at 12:45.  It is also a $1 Dress Day and proceeds are going to support our school parent organization.

Tuesday, December 6th- Ogden Nature Center Field Trip- I need 2 Parent volunteers that day to go with us.  We will be going rain, snow or shine.  Please dress your child for the weather with hat, gloves, warm coat and boots if needed that day.  We will be boarding the bus at 8:40 sharp.  Please have your child at school on time that day.  The session is 9 AM to 11 AM, we will return before our lunch time for 11:30.  Please let me know ASAP if you are able to volunteer.

Thursday, December 8^th- Mrs. Lopez School Counselor class lesson presentation at 1-1:30 PM

Tuesday, December 20th- Graham Cracker House STEM project  8:10 – 11:15

We will need many parent volunteers (at least 8) that day.  A list of needed supplies was sent home with your child in the Home Learn folder.  If you can help with the donations please contact me at the school or through an email.  

• 6 large boxes of graham crackers: Dollar Store kind work great!
• Bags of candy, or cereal,  etc.  Anything you think could be used to make a good pattern. Like Skittles, M&M's, gum drops, peppermint candies and mini candy canes, etc. 

• Royal icing from Topper Bakery (contact me if you’d like to donate this)
• 26 dinner size paper plates-really heavy duty kind.

Tuesday, December 20th- Minimum Day dismissal at 12:45, $1 Dress Day

Winter Break- December 21st- January 3rd; Return to School on January 4th

Have a Very Happy and Safe Holiday Season!

NOVEMBER 2016

Stroll Through October  : October was a month full of activity and lots of FUN learning.  See all the pictures below to review with your children.

The walking Field Trip to the LDS Cannery down the street was lots of fun and very informative.  We had a great time hunting for shapes on the walk to and from the cannery and observing 3-D shapes while in the cannery.  We also learned about the process of canning stew.  Special thanks to our parent volunteers and Mr. Rempfer for going with us that day.  We appreciate your support!

Our class continues to introduce new letters of the alphabet and use many learning styles to help us remember the letter names and sounds.  In October we had a "horrible hair" day with Mr. Hh.    

Letter Xx- building the letter with our bodies was so much FUN and learning how to draw a skeleton too.

 Letter Bb science experiment was Blowing up a balloon using pop and nerds; our class Scientists observed their first "chemical reaction" and then recorded it in their science journal  for the letter Bb. 

  Glow in the Dark Glasses and groovy grass G's helped us learn the letter Gg. 

W-w-w-w-w, letter Ww is for whale in the water and Willy the worm!

 We also practiced writing our "snap words" outside on the sidewalk with chalk. Partner practice with the "snap words" was great.   Learning together is so much FUN!!!

 We raced that "crazy HARE" and the tortoises gave their best effort and never quit. 

 We read the story, “The Tortoise and the Hare” and we had our very own race in Kindergarten.  Just like in the story the Tortoise won because he/she knew that IT IS GOOD TO DO HARD THINGS!  We also learned that it is important to put forth your “BEST EFFORT” during work time at school and home.

Labeling Lesson:  We have been discussing and some students have made goals about drawing and labeling pictures.  We had a lesson about learning how to label.  The students got to label the teacher after we had labeled our school mascot "the eagle".  We had lots of fun!

Miss Hannah and I were out of the class to go on a family trip to a ranch in Wyoming, thanks to the subs that stated several times since then how nice, respectful and kind the kids were while we were gone on October 21st.  I love the Wyoming sunsets in the wide open sky! 

• Monday's FALL Harvest Activity Day was awesome!  

A "BIG" thank you to our Room Parents; Ashley Sherman, Leslie Martinez and Brianne Eyre for helping plan and facilitate a great day of learning! 

Ghost Bowling and Graph was a big hit during the activity that day.  It is amazing how "tricky" it can be to bowl  with a pumpkin.  After each turn the students would go to the table and graph the number of pins they knocked down for each turn.

We learned many things about spiders; they have 8 legs, sometimes have more than 2 eyes and build their webs just about anywhere.  The kids had fun making a spider sucker and trying to "snatch" up a little prize through a web of yarn.  

The Pumpkin Face Math/Estimation center was so fun and many different shape faces were created on the miniature oranges.  

The Skeleton Inside You center was informative and the students had fun creating their own skeleton body.  Come see them hanging in the hallway during the next week.

We have survived the week following Halloween and I hope all that celebrated and dressed up had a FUN and safe day.  My family had FUN carving pumpkins and eating white chili.

My granddaughter is the cutest ever!!!!!

• NOVEMBER  Calendar Items

Library EVERY Tuesday, please help your child remember to be proactive and put their book in the backpack the night before.

During November we will be focusing on Habit # 3 , learning how to "Put First Things First" working before we play.

Friday, November 4th is a Minimum Day dismissed at 12:45 PM, $ Dress Day- pay $1 wear Free Dress, the proceeds are helping the OPAPO school parent organization.

This is also our second annual "Day of the Dead" family night celebration; honor your loved ones that have passed, enjoy fun activities, food and artwork in the halls.  Please come and enjoy the fun!

SAVE THE DATE: November 17, 2016 @ 6 pm.  You will want to invite the grandmas and grandpas!  This will be the ONLY Kindergarten Performance for the year.  More info. to come in the folder!

• Nov. 17th-  Harvest of the Month- the Junior High CTE kiddos will be presenting information about cranberries

• Friday, November 18th Q and U will be getting married-joined together in every word. Kindergarten is going to have a Free Dress Day for the Q and U wedding.  Please wear "Best Dress" or school uniform.

Thanksgiving Break- NO SCHOOL November 21st thru 25th

Friday, December 2nd- Minimum Day students released at 12:45 PM

• New Learning and Review

This week we will be working with the Letters Vv and Jj.  We will be taking our Language Arts Unit 2 test and Math Unit 4 test.  

Please make sure that your student has mastered the 14 snap words the, my, a, and, I , like, to, me, we, no, is, in, at, go.  Please look at previous BLOG posts to know the letters they should know the names and sounds for.  Please review writing the numbers to 10 forwards and backwards without any backwards or upside down numbers.

• Winter Weather

BRRRR!  It’s getting cold out there.  Please make sure your child comes to school with a coat and any other (labeled with your child’s name) accessories. Students will go outside for recess unless there is heavy rain or major snowfall. It is imperative the students get fresh air to help get them through their day of learning and work!

•   Pizza Hut Coupons   

I sent Pizza Hut certificates home in the red folder.  Be sure to use them in 30 days or less.  There is no money needed to redeem the coupon.  The kids are very excited about going to Pizza Hut.  Thanks for reading with your child!  Remember, reading in Kindergarten is: doing my homework, someone reading to me, the student reading and finding "snap words", practicing letters and snap words, name writing, reading the pictures in books and retelling story to someone.

• Behavior Chart    
  

Many of you have probably heard from your student that the clip up chart has been taken down.  For the months of November and December we will be earning pennies instead of clipping up.  Students will earn pennies each day for going above and beyond, being a helper to me or a neighbor, bringing back homework completed and completing work in class. They will be using this money to purchase a graham cracker house, frosting and candy.  This is such a fun activity in December.  This is a STEM project.  The students will be designing and building a graham cracker house by themselves with the materials they are able to purchase.

 We will be learning about patterns in math and starting our math unit study this week about 2-D and 3-D shapes, so using candy to make patterns on their houses is a great way to reinforce this concept as well as the shapes.  Please remind your student to Begin With the End in Mind and work extra hard to earn pennies.  Follow through with them by asking them how many pennies they have earned during the week.  This activity also gives them experience with and understanding coin values.

• Mrs. Lopez school counselor has important information on her BLOG.  Please read the Leader In Me newsletter attached to the REMIND message for this week.  I have added her link to the side of my BLOG along with Señora Sorenson the Spanish teacher.

HAVE A WONDERFUL NOVEMBER!!!