Week of April 15th-18th

Hi! We have lots of exciting things coming up so wanted to make sure you have all the info. you need!

Next Thurs., April 25th is the Bluejay Expo. It is a time for your family to come up and see all the great things happening in our room and in school. Doors will open at 2:15. You must enter through the front of your school and have your ID. You will wait in the gym until 2:30 and then will be dismissed to the classes. If you have multiple children here at BE, please come and get your kindergartener first. You can tour the room, see what we’ve been working on, explore the hall art and take a tour of the bldg and go to the older kid’s class as well. If you are ready to leave before dismissal, you can sign them out with me in the room and take them when done. Please let me know if you will NOT have an adult here with your child. We try and find some other adults to pair them up with if not. The kids are excited to share their work with you! If there is any way at least one person can make it, it’s important to the kids and hard for kindergarteners to understand when someone isn’t here. 🙂

The field trip will be on Friday April 26th. We will leave at 8:45, so please make sure you are on time to school. I will email volunteers with directions separately. We will be inside and outside, so please have them wear weather appropriate clothing to play at the park. Tennis shoes would be best and send a jacket if needed with their name in it. They will need a disposable sack lunch in a paper bag or gallon baggie works well. Please send a disposable water bottle with their name on it as well. We will be going to the Coterie Theater and then the park by the Indian Creek library to eat lunch followed by a tour of the library.

Book orders are due by noon on 4/24. This will be our last order of the year.

Kids Teach notes came home. Please remember to have them send in their idea as soon as possible so we can make sure it’s long enough and it doesn’t double up with someone else. I told them they could not teach about something we’ve already learned about and can’t do ocean animals as we’ll be doing that in May. They need to have a poster board to go with their lesson and it’s important that they do the work. They need to practice at home so they are ready to go on their day. If you know they’ll be gone the day that they were assigned, please let me know asap. This is part of their speaking and listening grade and is not an optional project. 🙂

For our community service project, we will be modge podging rocks that were painted a few years ago and putting them out by the playground to brighten the area!

We are learning about engineering and the terms structure and function. You’ll see a few projects we’ve done at Bluejay Expo. After that, we will learn about insects and then ocean animals and then all of a sudden school will be out! I will send the schedule of dates for May next week.

Please remember that we have a half day tomorrow (Thurs) and pick up is at NOON and no school on Friday.

And just fyi, I have a Dr. appt on Wed. April 24th, so my class will be dismissed from Ms. Funk’s room which is door K.

Have a great rest of the week!

Week of April 8th-12th

This week after learning about and experiencing the eclipse, we started our unit on living/nonliving things and plants. We are learning how plants grow, what parts of plants we can eat, what plants need to survive and we planted some flower seeds! We did an experiment to learn how water travels up the stem of a plant and goes to all the parts to help it live. We’ll finish up plants next week and then learn about engineering and the structure and function of things. We’ll use that information to build Jack’s beanstalk whose structure has to be as tall as possible, sturdy, and hold a golden egg. We will also be working with the other kindergarten classes to finish up some decorative rocks to put out as a service project to help beautify the school!

We are finishing up teen numbers in math and will start working on decomposing 3D shapes. We are also doing LOTS of problem solving and practicing fluency with our math facts!

On Monday, an important note will come home about the Kids Teach lessons that will start in May. Each child will choose a subject to teach the class about. The lessons HAVE to be okay’d by me first and it’s first come first serve, so get your ideas in early. The note is pretty self explanatory but I’ll send more info home next week.

Book orders are due April 24th. Please have them in by noon so I can get them ordered and we can be sure they get back quickly. Books can be great incentives and great for trips! Be sure to use code READS to get a free book with a $25 order!

The glow party is tonight. My great-niece is having her 3rd birthday tonight, so I will be at that instead. Besides a bunch of kids dancing around my fractured leg makes me a little nervous…ha!

Please turn in permission slips for the field trip. I will contact parent volunteers next week.

Reminder that we have a HALF day on Thurs. the 18th, with dismissal at NOON. No school for kids on the 19th due to professional development. Look at the last post for all the April dates.

And lastly, thank you for the birthday treats! I love the basket of my favorite things and the gift cards and homemade cards! And I got a BIG birthday chalk greeting! It was a nice birthday surprise! Thank you all!!

I hope you have a great weekend. The school year is rapidly coming to a close and the progress your kids have made is amazing! I’ll be sending a note home soon about a summer packet. Please continue to practice all the skills we’ve learned this year over the summer so they hit first grade up and running! I’m already getting a little sad to say goodbye. I get them just where I want them and they LEAVE me! 🙂 This is a great group and they’ve been lots of fun! Enjoy them, they’re only little once! 🙂

Week of April 1st-5th

We have a lot going on and a lot coming up, so I’m just going to bullet point for you:

• Monday is the eclipse. Please send in a beach/pool towel for your child. We will be out on the blacktop for awhile and that will be a little more comfortable to be on. We talked about the importance of keeping the glasses ON the entire time we are out. We will not have a TOTAL eclipse, so we will not be able to have our glasses off at all. I made the kids masks to help better protect their eyes, but please have a conversation with them about how important this is!! Thank you to Rachel Katz, Son Kim, Ben Lambertson, and Kylie Rossner who are coming up to help. (Adults, please bring your own glasses, we don’t have extras). Please do not put anything in the girl’s hair, unless it is a low or high ponytail. I measured the headbands to fit today.
• Please check at home for gloves that may be mine. I am missing a red, blue, and black pair. I had 5 extra pairs for kids to borrow and am now down to 2.
• We will send permission slips home for the field trip on Monday. Please sign and return as soon as possible. We will be going to the Coterie theatre in Crown Center. Then we will get back on the bus and go have lunch at the park by the Indian Creek library on 135th st and then have a tour of the library and a story time. They will need a disposable sack lunch and disposable water bottle. We are asking for 6 parent volunteers to join us at the library to help with lunch/bathroom/library time. If you’d like to go, information is on the additional permission slip being sent home. If we have more than 6, we will draw names. All permission slips are due by the 18th at the latest.
• Please be sure i-pads are charged daily. We will start to use them a little more and it frustrates the kids when they can’t participate in the same way. We’ve been doing some CVC spelling work on them.
• Please be practicing math facts to 5. They will start math facts to 10 at the beginning of first grade and we have been asked to be sure they know them to five fluently. We work on them daily but this will be a good thing to practice over the summer too!
• Have your child share all they learned about frogs and community helpers. Today we learned about maps and they have a weekend homework map assignment. Next week, we will start learning about living/nonliving things and plants.
• Upcoming April dates to know:
• April 8th Eclipse day–send in a beach towel
• April 11th NO SCHOOL for current kindergarteners since we will be doing kindergarten enrollment for next year
• April 12th PTA Glow party
• April 18th half day, dismissal at NOON (no lunch served) (permission slips due)
• April 19th NO SCHOOL, professional day for teachers
• April 25th Bluejay Expo
• April 26th Field trip
• May 10th field day (more info to come)
• May 22nd last day of K, dismissal at NOON

I hope you have a great weekend!

Week of Feb. 26th-March 1st

It’s been a “beary” fun week while becoming bear scientists and researching and writing reports about 4 different kinds of bears! Reports will be coming home today. The kids worked hard to find a “good” fact about the bear and to write a good sentence with capital letters, spaces between words, and a period at the end. Some are great at writing their own sentences and some have worked with me for additional support. Practicing writing at home is a GREAT idea, but please reinforce those capital letters and spaces and make sure they are writing the letters correctly. I’m sure they’ll be excited to share their reports with you.

On Monday, our bears will come out of hibernation (shhh..it’s a surprise) and we will have teddy bear day. We will do lots of fun activities with our bears and then they will come home.

We are finishing up subtraction and will go to teen numbers and place value after this week. Your child should be able to count to 40 independently at this time and most have already made it to 100. If they haven’t per our discussion at conferences, please keep practicing at home. We are working on lots of problem solving and they are learning to figure out what the problem is asking and what words tell us if it’s addition or subtraction, and then different ways to show and solve the problem.

Next Friday, March 8th will be QU wedding day. Info. will come home on Monday. They will also be bringing home a QU gift paper. This is their wedding gift to bring to the wedding. They are due Thursday the 7th, but can be turned in when done. You can help them come up with a word that starts with qu and (this time only :)) you can write it on the paper. They will draw a picture of that word and color in the present and return to school. Girls can come dressed as queens (think princess or pretty dress, but leave heels at home) and boys can come dressed as quarterbacks (football shirt or jersey). We will have an actual wedding as Q and U have to be together to make words and then a reception will follow. Super super fun day in K!

A few reminders for next week:

• Spring picture day is Tues. March 5th. Pictures will come home when printed and then if you want to keep them, you pay for what you want and return what you don’t, or return the whole packet. They will take class pictures that day too. Class pictures are $10 and must be paid for ahead of time, either in cash or online. Envelopes came home a few days ago. They can bring clothes to change into if you’d like.
• Book orders are due March 8th by NOON. Our class code is HWML6 on scholastic.com
• All book/game bags are due by Wed. March 6th. I will be keeping those here over spring break and will return them after break. Please be sure you’re only keep those a few days. They can’t practice if they don’t have new books at home to practice with.
• I am sending home a Lucky Charms spring break packet for the kids to work on. They will use the Lucky Charms marshmallows to do some sorting and math. There is also a writing page on the back that the KIDS need to do the writing and stretching out their words. Packets that are returned on Tues after break will earn stickers.
• Spring break is Monday March11th-18th. Kids will come back to school on the 19th.
• Please be sure to keep sending in coats, you know how are weather can change drastically in a day!

Have a good weekend!

Week of Feb. 20-23rd

Hello! Sorry I’m late to update:

This past week, we learned about the presidents and qualities of a leader. We also learned about National USA symbols and compared them to what we learned about our KS symbols. We also learned about the eagle being the national bird. We are now able to get on the raptorresource.org site and watch the eagle nest in Decorah, Iowa. I usually do this much earlier in the year and we get to see them lay the eggs, but the snow days threw us all off. They have two eggs and are due to hatch around March 23rd. It’s a fun way for the kids to learn about an eagle as up close and personal as we’ll be able to get.

We also learned all about hibernation and hibernating animals. The bears got to spend the day with us doing hibernation activities and helped the kids forage for their snack. Then they went into their dens to hibernate. They will come out of hibernation after we are finishing learning about bears and doing our bear reports which we started today. Each day we will learn about a different bear and will write our own fact sentences about that bear. By the end, we will have a great research report on bears to share with you! It’s a great way to incorporate all of our language arts and science skills in one place!

We are hard at work on subtraction and learning that the number decreases each time we subtract. Being able to quickly recall simple addition and subtraction facts to 10 will really help them in the long run. This would be a great thing to practice in the car!!

The kids have been doing a great job lately and are working hard towards our class goal. We celebrated on Friday with a Wild Kratts movie on bears and had some popcorn. They voted on our next goal which will be a movie and a treasure box choice once our goal sheet is full. They earn “cookies” for the cookie sheet by lining up with face forward, voices off, and hands to self.

This week, we will learn all about bears, we’ll have a teddy bear day on next Monday (shhh, it’s a surprise), finish up bears, have a Dr. Seuss day, have a leprechaun day and the Friday before spring break will be QU wedding! The letters Q and U will get married and we’ll have an actual wedding and reception in class. The boys will come dressed as quarterbacks and the girls will be queens. More info. to come!!

I did send home a book order. Those will be due on March 8th by noon.

Thanks again for making time to come to conferences. It was really great to see and talk to everyone. Have a great week! Please check the weather for Wed. It’s supposed to be COLD again!!

Week of Dec. 4th-8th

We’ve had another busy week full of learning with some fun activities sprinkled in of course! Next week we have a full week and then a day and a half the next week with dismissal at noon on the 19th. Kindergarten is having a pajama day on the 18th AND the 19th! Find those holiday pj’s and send them in! Be sure they’re dressed to go outside! Thanks to the room Mom’s for the sign up genius and for gathering party supplies and thanks to all of you who have signed up to donate. If you have questions about an item, please let me know! Thank you for your support!

We are reading lots of fun gingerbread stories this week and comparing and contrasting them and learning what the refrain is. Then the kids are writing the ending of each story in our gingerbread jar journal. Buddy the elf came on Monday and he is helping us with our writing as well. Each morning they get to find him and write about his activities. Today we got to taste gingerbread cake and a gingerbread cookie and graph whether or not we liked it. The majority did and some even said it was the BEST thing they’d ever had! 🙂

We are working towards earning a stuffed animal and pj day which should be early next week. I will let you know when that day is! They’re doing a great job working towards their goal of lining up with hands to self, facing forward, and voices off!

Next week I will be collecting all game/book bags, so please send them back as you are done with them, but they are all due by Thursday the 14th at the latest. There are a few Goldiblox game bags out still, please return those by Thurs. as well.

Many of you requested a Winter break HW packet. Those will come home on the 18th along with a gift your child made. If you will NOT be here on the 18th or 19th, please let me know so I can make sure everything gets sent home.

I am researching sending information out via a text app that first grade uses vs. using the blog. I tend to type a lot more about what we’re doing and what we’re working on, but I’m not really sure how much of that info. parents are reading. I also know that as you get older kids, sometimes you get overloaded with information. Would you please shoot me an email and let me know if you would prefer the app format or the blog format? Thanks!

Have a good weekend!

Week of Nov. 13-17th

This week was all about turkeys and being thankful! We did a fun directed drawing and watercolor painted. We did some retelling, worked on disguising our turkeys, learned some fun turkey poems and songs, and made a long legged turkey. Today we put the directions in order to make pumpkin pie in a cup and then we got to make and eat it of course. It was about 50/50 on who liked it and who didn’t but they did all try it. We are also working on beginning sound and the rest of the word called onset-rime. We are also working on rhyming which would be another skill to practice over the break!

In math, we’re working on measuring length and width and have started talking about measuring by weight. We also measured how tall we are in leaves. We have been playing a 5 frame and 10 frame game and are working hard on different ways to make 10. This would be great to practice at home. They really need those numbers to 10 facts memorized and to come to them easily.

We added the letters, Jj and Ww and the words jump, was and will.

Midterms for second quarter are coming home today. It gives you an idea of all we are working on through Dec. which is the end of 2nd quarter.

I also sent home a sight word game and activity to do with it. If they play and return the sheet completed, they can earn a sticker when they get back.

Please be sure that they have a water bottle, their folder, and i-pads charged when we get back. And please be sure they have a coat, hat and gloves. I have extra gloves they can borrow and now everyone wants mine instead of bringing their own! 🙂 I know Dec. can get busy. Please have the game/book bags returned within a couple of days so they can get new ones. I will be collecting those before winter break as well.

On the Monday we get back from break, I will be sending a note home to see if you want a winter break packet. It is mostly review of language arts and math and has a few extra things. We don’t want to print them if they won’t be used. Be looking for the note to let me know if you want one.

We are also sending home (Monday we return) a family quilt square. Directions are on it. Be looking for this as well.

And lastly, we are working on different ways to do coding this week and when we get back, kindergarten is going to do some different coding rotations. One of the things we worked on can also be done at home on the i-pad. IF you choose to have your child logged in, you will need to write their log in and password on the tech sheet in the back of their folder. Then they can keep going where they stopped at home. They won’t be able to continue if I don’t have the log in. You do not have to log them in, they’ll just start in a random spot at school. Some of the kids really loved it and may want to go in a sequential order which is fine, I would just need their log in to help get them on at school. The directions are: go to code.org, click on students (under the bee), scroll down and on the left click K-5 courses (purple), then click the purple button “start pre-reader course”. When finished with that, they will move to the express course.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and safe travels if you’re going somewhere. We are headed to Salt Lake to see our daughter and go to the Utah/Colorado game and our son is flying there from Atlanta. It’s been too long since I’ve had the family all together, so I’m excited for that! Thank you for all your support this year. Happy Thanksgiving! Lori

Week of November 6th-10th

Aargh! We sure had a fun pirate day this week! We read pirate stories, we wrote about if we were a pirate, we graphed several different things and compared and contrasted stories. We learned the letter Rr and the chunk “ar” which has one sound. The kids were amazing pirates and we had a really fun day. The exploding treasure chests were so fun! Hopefully they shared with you and showed you the jewels, money, and treasures they found! Special thanks to Pirate Soon (Maddox’s Dad) for coming to help out with the experiment!

This week, we added the letters Rr, Cc, and Ff. We also added the words are, find, no and they.

In math, we have started measurement and are measuring with non-standard units of measure. We’ve measured with pencils, crayons, and string. We are working on lining the ends up so the measurement is correct and learning about longer and shorter which has been fun. We are still working on more/less as well.

Just a reminder that the family papers are due next Wed., so we can start sharing those.

Book orders are due by noon on the 27th and let me know if your order is a gift!

Our BE Girl Scouts are doing a drive for Harvesters. I will attach the sheet of things they need to the email.

I put some Pirate activities on Seesaw that we didn’t have time to get to. I will also add some measurement activities.

I will be collecting book bags next week by Thursday and not sending them home over break. That gives me some time to get them reorganized and I’ve found sometimes they get misplaced over a long break. I will refill them again on Monday and then everyone needs to return them by Thursday. (with the exception of the chapter book readers)

I think that’s it for today. We’re headed to hear Mr. Glassman share with us about being in the military and then on to the Veteran’s Program.

Have a great weekend! I’m headed to the KU game and hoping for another Jayhawk win!!

Week of Oct. 30-Nov. 3rd

Wow! It’s been a busy week! We had a lot of fun on Halloween and the Friday before. Thanks again for sending the goodies in and thanks to the room Moms: Jennifer Wilt and Laura Minkler for helping with the supplies and games!

This week we have been focused on the letters Oo and Ll and added the words little and with. We are working on hearing and identifying the first sounds in words. We started our small groups and are working on stretching words, hearing first sounds and reading comprehension, depending on where your child is. I love working with them in small groups as that’s when I really get to see them make progress!

In math, we started on 3D shapes and are working on the characteristics of sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism and cubes. See if you can find some of those same shapes at home!

We worked on our push/pull unit this week and did some fun experiments. We learned the vocabulary: push, pull, force and motion, friction and collision. We worked with ramps and cars and today did an experiment where they had to get the marble down the ramp without touching the marble with their hands. The goal was to use a push/pull motion to get the marble down the ramp and have it travel along a piece of tape. We read a book called Rosie Revere Engineer and talked about when we experiment, we try for a great first try and then try again if it doesn’t work. We also worked on synergizing and how to work in a group.

I sent home a note today about some engineering backpacks that I have. Please read the note, sign and return if you would like your child to check one out from me. I don’t know that these are even available anymore for purchase, so PLEASE be careful with them and make sure all pieces are returned. You can keep them a few nights, enjoy the activities and send them back in when they’re done.

Just a reminder on game/book bags. I will not take them if they are not initialed by you. You are more than welcome to keep them beyond the two nights and play them more. Please just let me know in person or by email. I hope you are enjoying them.

Next Thursday is PIRATE day! It’s a super fun day in Kindergarten! We work on the /Rr/ sound, the /ar/ sound and the word “are” during the week. On Thursday, please have your child come dressed as a pirate. You do not need to buy a costume. There are lots of easy ideas on pinterest and google if you don’t have a costume. Please do not send any swords or play weapons of any kind. I did tell them they could wear a hook hand for pictures. I also told them how they could fringe the bottoms of an old pair of pants and told them, DO NOT CUT CLOTHES WITHOUT TALKING TO YOUR PARENTS!! 🙂

On Friday we will celebrate Veteran’s day and attend the assembly. Please have your child wear a flag shirt if they have one or just dress in red, white and blue.

I sent book orders home as well. They are due Nov. 27th by noon. I will place the order that day to make sure they’re back by the break. If you order books as gifts, please email me and I can put them in the office for secret pick up!

Ms. Kennicott, the counselor, has started her bullying lessons. We talk about bullying being something that happens repeatedly and will not stop when asked. We hear a lot of kids then accuse others of being a bully when they do one thing they don’t like. Just because someone isn’t nice to you at recess isn’t bullying. Our district takes this very seriously so we want the kids to learn that’s not okay, but also that it isn’t a one time thing when you’re upset.

Monday is our all school picture and students have been asked to wear blue if they have it.

I know that’s a lot of stuff to keep track of. The blog is always here to refer back to if needed. The kids are making great progress and we met our class goal of lining up after recess with hands to self, facing forward, and no talking in the hall. We got to have extra recess time since we met our goal. This month, we are continuing that goal, but have more “cookies” to earn to fill the chart.

I hope you have a great weekend and enjoy the extra hour!

Week of October 9th-12th

It was a batty fun week in Kindergarten! We are learning all about bats which includes our science standards along with many of our reading/comprehension standards. And it’s just lots of fun and really cool!! We are making our very own non-fiction bat book which they will be excited to share with you!

In math, we are still working on more/less as we will continue to practice for awhile. Please be practicing at home. An easy way to do this is to say, show me 9 on your fingers and then have them show you one less. Using manipulatives is a great visual tool as well (especially if they’re M & M’s and they can eat them after!). We will be starting simple 2D shapes which we go through quickly and then will work on 3D shapes.

Just to let you know, we learned how to use Seesaw. I will put some activities on there for them. Please double check they are doing them correctly until they’ve had a little more practice. If they are NOT done, they should click the orange checkmark. When completed they click the green checkmark. Once the green is clicked, it goes to me for review and they can’t get back to it unless I send it back.

I sent home a Trick or Treat Rhyming game today. I told the kids that they can earn a sticker next week, if they play the game and you take a pic of them playing on their i-pads. They can show me the pic next week. Our trick for rhyming words is that they “sound the same at the END.” When rhyming, they don’t have to give you a real word, it just has to rhyme. For example a rhyme with pig could be lig and that’s okay. Next week, I will send home a syllables game and same goes with the picture. We put our hand under our chin, so we can feel our mouth move with the syllables, then we clap it, then show the number on our fingers. Both of these are great pre-reading skills to practice.

I will send more info. about Halloween and the parade (which will be on Friday the 27th) closer to the date. And we did set a date for pirate day of Nov. 9th just so you can think about a pirate costume.

PLEASE make sure you send your child in a coat every day from now on. It was supposed to get to 80 today and it’s 68 right now and fairly cold and very windy. It’ll be much easier if you just get into the habit of adding a coat to the morning checklist. And if they can’t zip and right side out their winter coats and put their gloves on by themselves, start practicing now please!

Looking forward to talking to everyone at conferences. Please remember they are 20 minutes and scheduled without transition times in between. We (and I mean WE 🙂 need to make sure we are on time for everyone else. You can come in the front doors and wait outside the room until it is your turn, or you can wait outside the classroom door on the blacktop, weather permitting. When it is your turn, please knock if needed so we can stay on time. If the door is shut, I am in a conference. Kids don’t come to this conference, they will come in Feb. If you need to bring them, they can read a book or something while we talk. I have lots of information to share in a short time. If you have questions after you leave (because that’s when I always think of them!), feel free to email me. I will be out of town Thurs.-Sun., so I will not be getting back to you until the next week. ( I will be here all day Wed. though if you think of something then!)

Have a great long weekend! We worked on Dd and Hh this week. Have your child see how many words they can think of that start with each letter.