Weekly News: October 31-November 4

It is SPIRIT WEEK at ILCS! Your child can participate by dressing up everyday! What a fun way to show your school spirit! Dress up days include... 

Monday, October 31 - Sports Day (wear your favorite sport jersey)

Tuesday, November 1 - School Colors: Blue and Yellow Day

Wednesday, November 2 - Crazy Sock Day

Thursday, November 3 -Crazy Hat Day 

Friday, November 4 - Pajama Day

 

We had so much fun with the pumpkins on Friday! Thank you for all of your help! On Monday we will taste the pumpkin seeds! Pictures coming soon!

We will be celebrating Halloween with fun Halloween games and activities during centers on Friday! We are excited! If anyone would like to donate yummy Halloween sprinkles, please let me know! 

A look ahead: There is NO school next Friday, November 11th due to Veterans Day. The following week of November 14-18th) we will begin Parent Conferences! I will be posting a parent conference schedule on the Classroom Clipboard Monday morning so that you can begin thinking of a good time that suits your schedule. I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child's progress!

 

Many friends have been leaving jackets down at the playground and lunch tables :( While we ask the students which jackets belong to which friend, we are also teaching responsibility. If your little one has misplaced a jacket, you may check the "Lost and Found" down at the playground. Items not claimed at the end of each month are donated.

 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: BOY, GIRL, HAS, NICE.

Letter Team:  OY/OI (like in BOY, TOY/COIN).
 
Word Family: This week we will be making words with the word families -OP (HOP, COP, SHOP) AND -OY (BOY, TOY, JOY).  Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with the word families.

Reading: We have learned so many decoding strategies for reading in kindergarten! These can all be found on our Reading Strategies tab. Please review all of these strategies with your child during your reading time together. This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for 2 vowels go a-walkin'" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will read even more books about pumpkins, books about Halloween, and read our special poem of the week, "Jack-O-Lantern".

Writing: This week we will write a big book together about coins. We will review the names and values of our coins as we write this book together. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: We will review everything we have learned in math this week. Students will explore various math centers as I do my math assessments. Please continue to help your child at home with everything we have learned: addition, geometric shapes, counting by 5's, counting by tens, counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, counting ordinally, and identifying what number comes next. 

Leadership: Congratulations to our Compassion Leaders: Landon, Abbie, Amber, Colby, and Taryn! Our new leadership theme for the months of November and December is GENEROSITY. 

Homework: October 31-November 4

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: BOY, GIRL, HAS, NICE and new letter teams are OY/OI.

Reading: Book bag and Book box reading EVERYDAY!

Math: We want students to be practicing math at THEIR LEVEL. For some students, this means still counting practice, number flashcards, and number writing practice. For other students, counting money and simple addition is appropriate. YOU know your child best. Please make sure to practice a little bit of what your child needs for math practice every day. If you see a math paper that has come home with my writing on it or circled problems that your child is struggling with, please reinforce those worksheets at home!

Writing: This is the same as math practice. YOU know what your child needs. For some students, alphabet writing practice is still needed. If your child is doing well with alphabet and name writing, practice writing sentences or short stories.

Sharing: Write one sentence about ways to show generosity. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Weekly News: October 24-28

Don't forget to turn in your granola bars, travel size kleenex and packs of gum for our compassion bags!  Thank you for your support!

IMPORTANT! SPIRIT WEEK HAS CHANGED! We will be celebrating Spirit Week beginning NEXT Monday, October 31.  Please notice the dress-up days have also changed. Your child can take part by dressing up in the following ways:

Monday, October 31 - Sports Day (wear your favorite sport jersey)

Tuesday, November 1 - School Colors: Blue and Yellow Day

Wednesday, November 2 - Crazy Sock Day

Thursday, November 3 -Crazy Hat Day 

Friday, November 4 - Pajama Day

We are investigating pumpkins this week! On Friday, we will be measuring pumpkins and counting seeds. Part of our study will be to pull out the insides of the pumpkin to count the seeds. This is REALLY MESSY - it would be a good idea to send an old button-up shirt for your child to wear over their clothes on this day! If you are able to donate pumpkin items or time on this day, please see the sign-up sheet on our Classroom Clipboard. We appreciate your help!! 

It is Kindergarten Assessment Week! We are almost done with our first trimester of kindergarten!! Report cards and parent conferences are coming up mid-November (more information to come!) and we are starting our end of the trimester assessments! Please note that there are so many assessments to give and they are typically administered one-on-one. While we do a majority of assessments in class, we would like to give your child our full attention during his or her assessment. In order to do so, (and in order to keep our normal teaching schedule during the school day), we are requesting that each child stay after school one day this week until 1:00 to complete his or her assessment. You should have received a bright pink note on your GO Folder with your child's day. Please send a lunch on this day and pick up your child from the classroom at 1:00. Thank you so much for your support!

 

Continue reading your book bag books each night - each book three times each every night! I know this seems like a lot of reading, but with each re-read your child is building word knowledge and fluency. You will see significant growth in your child's reading! Please remember to return the books in the book bag every day!

 

A HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Woodruff from Mrs. Stanley's class for preparing all of our materials the past two weeks at our Friday Prep Parties. If you are able to donate an hour or so to help, she is there every Friday! Don't let those treats go to waste!

Keep practicing our "We Are Leaders" song. It is on our song tab!! Remember that students who have it memorized by December will receive a special prize!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: ARE, LITTLE, BIG, FOR.

Letter Team:  IGH (like in BRIGHT, LIGHT, RIGHT) and AR (like in CAR, FAR, JAR).

Word Family: -IG. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -IG. I am sending home a fun worksheet/activity that you can do at home this week!

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for 2 vowels go a-walkin'" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will read books about pumpkins and Halloween and read our special poem of the week, "Five Little Pumpkins".

Writing: This week we will write a big book together about pumpkins. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: We will continue addition, geometric shapes, and start focusing on counting by 5's, writing our numbers by 5, and counting nickels. We will continue counting by tens, counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next. 

Leadership: This month our theme is "compassion". We are learning that compassion is when you want to help someone that needs help or be a friend to someone who needs a friend. We will also learn that we can show compassion to people, to animals, and to our earth.

Homework: October 24-28

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: ARE, LITTLE, BIG, FOR and new letter teams are IGH and AR.

Reading: Book bag and Book box reading EVERYDAY!

Math: We want students to be practicing math at THEIR LEVEL. For some students, this means still counting practice, number flashcards, and number writing practice. For other students, counting money and simple addition is appropriate. YOU know your child best. Please make sure to practice a little bit of what your child needs for math practice every day. If you see a math paper that has come home with my writing on it or circled problems that your child is struggling with, please reinforce those worksheets at home!

Writing: This is the same as math practice. YOU know what your child needs. For some students, alphabet writing practice is still needed. If your child is doing well with alphabet and name writing, practice writing sentences or short stories.

Sharing: Write one sentence about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Weekly News: October 17-21

A flyer came home in child’s Take Home Folder last week explaining our Compassion Project.  We are learning that the meaning of compassion is to recognize the suffering of others and then take action to help.  We would like to take action by making care packages for the homeless in our community.  Each class is being asked to donate supplies for the care packages.  We are responsible for granola bars, travel size kleenex and packs of gum.  Thank you for your support!

Stop by Fresh and Easy on Wednesday night for our Shop For Schools Shopping Night!

We will be celebrating Spirit Week beginning Monday, October 24.  Your child can take part by dressing up in the following ways:

Monday, October 24 - Blue and Yellow Day

Tuesday, October 25 - Crazy Sock Day

Wednesday, October 26 - Crazy Hat Day

Thursday, October 27 - Pajama Day

Friday, October 28 - Sports Day (wear your favorite sport jersey)

Thank you SO MUCH to the moms that attend our "Prep Parties" on Friday mornings to help prepare our materials for class. Also, thank you to my wonderful volunteers in the classroom :) 

Keep practicing our "We Are Leaders" song. It is on our song tab!! Remember that students who have it memorized by December will receive a special prize!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WHEN, HAVE, BE, AM.

Letter Team: AW/AU (like in SAW/CAUGHT) and the other OO (like in TOO, BOO).

Word Family: -OT. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -OT (for example: COT, JOT, ROT, SPOT).

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for a smaller word inside the word" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will continue to read books about fall and leaves and read our special poem of the week, "Scarecrow". We will also focus on syllables!! A lot of our friends still have a hard time distinguishing between syllables and sounds. You can help at home by having your child count the syllables in words and reminding them about the difference between syllables and sounds.

Writing: This week we will write a big book together about ways we can be compassionate. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart. This  week we will also learn to write the date on each of our stories so we can remember what day we wrote that story. Last week, we met two new writing friends, Neat Nancy and Sloppy Joe. We decided we were ALL going to try to write like Neat Nancy!

Math: We are starting simple addition this week. We are also learning ALL of our geometic shapes (cube, sphere, cone, cylinder). We will continue counting by tens, counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next. 

Leadership: This month our theme is "compassion". We are learning that compassion is when you want to help someone that needs help or be a friend to someone who needs a friend. We will also learn that we can show compassion to people, to animals, and to our earth.

Homework: October 17-21

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: WHEN, HAVE, BE, AM and new letter teams are AW/AU and OO. Please make a flashcard for each letter team as well.

Reading: Please have your child read the books from their book box AND the books from their book bag every night! If they are struggling with a word, guide them to our reading strategies: Look at the picture, Get your mouth ready for the first sound, Make your finger match the word, Look through the word at all the sounds, Go back and get a running start, skip the word and read on to think about what makes sense, look for a letter team inside the word, stretch out the sounds, look for a smaller word inside the word, look for the magic E! Please make sure your child is reading their book bag book each night and returning it to school each day. IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU BRING YOUR BOOK BAG BACK TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY!

Math: We want students to be practicing math at THEIR LEVEL. For some students, this means still counting practice, number flashcards, and number writing practice. For other students, counting money and simple addition is appropriate. YOU know your child best. Please make sure to practice a little bit of what your child needs for math practice every day.

Writing: This is the same as math practice. YOU know what your child needs. For some students, alphabet writing practice is still needed. If your child is doing well with alphabet and name writing, practice writing sentences or short stories.

Sharing: Write one sentence about what you learned on the field trip. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Los Rios Field Trip

Our first kindergarten field trip to Los Rios Rancho was a blast! We met Johnny Appleseed, walked through the apple orchard, toured the packing house, and learned how to make apple cider! Thank you so much for all of your donations that made it possible for us to go on this field trip. A very special THANK YOU to all the parent volunteers that joined us!!! Here are our pictures ...

Weekly News: October 10-14

The Fall Festival was a great success!!! It was so fun seeing you all there!! Our booth was awesome - special thank you to Mrs. Atchley and all the parents who helped out at this awesome event and made this all possible!!

We are so excited about our field trip on Tuesday! We will be leaving school in the morning and returning by dimissal (we may be returning a LITTLE bit after dismissal time!). Please send your child to school this day in a normal shirt (we will be throwing their field trip t-shirt over their clothing!) and without a snack (snack will be provided for them!) We are asking if anyone is willing to donate a large box of goldfish crackers and small water bottles or juice boxes for our snack on the field trip. Please let me know Monday if you are able to donate! Please also remember parents, that you will be following the bus and that our policy is no siblings or little ones. Thank you! PLEASE TURN IN YOUR FIELD TRIP PERMISSION SLIPS!!!! STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GO ON THE FIELD TRIP WITHOUT A SIGNED PERMISSION SLIP!

The whole class is now bringing home Book Bags! Please read these books EVERY NIGHT as a part of your reading homework! Don't forget to bring these bags back to school every day!

We have an awesome school song that the whole school is learning! Our school song, "We Are Leaders" can be found on our song tab on the website! If students can memorize this song by December, there will be a special prize!! We are sending home the lyrics on Monday, so check your Go Folder.

Does anyone have a cool, black leather jacket that we can borrow early this week for a fun project?? This could be any size. Please see me if you do! I appreciate it!

We are learning all about National Symbols this week. This is also our sharing this week. Check out this cool kids' website I found about our nation!! You can read about our country and national symbols, and even play games or print coloring pages of our national symbols!!: National Symbols Website for Kids


 What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: HE, SHE, WENT, TO, PLAY.

Letter Team: AY (like in PLAY, DAY) and ING (like in SING, RING).

Word Family: -AY and -AM. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -ay (for example: BAY, DAY, SAY, MAY, HAY) and -am (SAM, HAM, RAM, SLAM).

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for a letter team inside the word" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will continue to read books about fall and leaves and read our special poem of the week, "Autumn Leaves".

Writing: This week we will write a big book together about playing. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart. We will learn this week that good writers are never "done". When we think we are done with a story we can add to the picture, add to the words, or start a new story. We will also meet two new friends, Neat Nancy and Sloppy Joe. We will try to write just like Neat Nancy!


Math: This week we will learn "more than and less than".  We will continue counting by tens, counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next. 

Leadership: This month our theme is "compassion". We are learning that compassion is when you want to help someone that needs help or be a friend to someone who needs a friend.

Homework: October 10-14

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: HE, SHE, WENT, TO, PLAY and new letter teams are AY and ING. Please make a flashcard for each letter team as well.

Reading: We are continuing our book bag reading program with one group each week.  Look for a ziploc bag to come home in your child’s Take Home Folder.  Within four weeks every student will have a book bag for the rest of the school year. Please make sure your child is reading their book bag book each night and returning it to school each day. IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU BRING YOUR BOOK BAG BACK TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY! Also, please have your child read the paper books in their “at home” book box each night, making sure they are pointing under each word as they read it. "Make your finger match the word" is the phrase they will hear me say in class. If your child is struggling with words they are reading, please have them "sound out" the word by putting their finger under each letter and saying the sound it makes. This will help with letter and sound recognition as well.

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, study number flashcards, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, practice drawing shapes, sort and count coins at home, and discuss how to tell time to the hour.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Write one sentence about a National symbol (some examples include the American flag, bald eagle, Liberty Bell, White House). Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Rain rain, go away. What do I do on a rainy day?!

I thought that since the cold weather is now here, I would answer that question for you. If it is raining (and I mean POURING) when you bring your child to school in the morning, you may bring them DIRECTLY TO THE CLASSROOM. We will also have snack and recess inside on rainy days. However, dismissal will be the same as every other day. We will all walk out to the dismissal area on rainy days. On these lovely rainy days, please send your child to school with a warm coat and umbrella. Thank you!

Weekly News: October 4-7

Happy birthday, Devin!!! Devin's birthday was Sunday and we had fun celebrating with him on Friday! We hope you had a wonderful birthday! 

This Wednesday morning at 8:15 moms will be getting together to create our field trip t-shirts. If you are able to help make our t-shirts, Wednesday morning is the day! Bring your own iron if you have one!!

Our Fall Festival is THIS FRIDAY at 4:00!!!! Please also see the Classroom Clipboard in the morning if you would like to donate your time or any items for the Fall Festival!!

Over the next few weeks, we will be sending home Book Bags with your child, but we will only be starting one group each week. Book Bags are to be brought back and forth, home-to-school, every day. Book Bags are also an essential part of your child's home reading - they should be reading these books EVERY DAY for homework.


Landon's daddy, Dr. Ryan came and showed us all about animals and being a vet! We even got to wear a stethoscope and listen to a dog's heartbeat! Thank you SO MUCH Dr. Ryan! We had so much fun! If you or a family member would like to come in at any point of the year and tell us all about what you do, we would love to learn all about it! We have already seen a fireman and a vet, but we would love to learn more! In the past, we've talked to dentists, doctors, and policemen. Please let me know if you know something you would like us to learn!

We are so excited about our field trip next Tuesday! We will be leaving school in the morning and returning by dimissal (hopefully!). Please send your child to school this day in a normal shirt (we will be throwing their field trip t-shirt over their clothing!) and without a snack (snack will be provided for them!) We are still asking for field trip donations to cover the cost of the trip - any amount will help! Parent chaperones that have signed up to join us but have not paid yet, please give your $5 to Miss Reeve tomorrow. Please also remember parents, that you will be following the bus and that our policy is no siblings or little ones. Thank you!


What Are We Learning This Week?:


Sight Words: TAKE, AN, BECAUSE, UP.

Letter Team: OW/OU (like in COW, FLOWER/OUCH, HOUSE) and the long OW sound (like in YELLOW, SNOW).

Word Family: -AN. Please help your child with word families of the week by asking them to create different words with  the word family -an (for example: CAN, MAN, PAN, FAN)

Reading: This week, we will focus on a new strategy, "Look for the Magic E" (Please see Reading Strategies Tab). This week, we will read books about Autumn and leaves and read our special poem of the week, "Down, Down".

Writing: This week we will write a big book together about matter. We will learn that matter is anything that takes up space. This big book will be written using the sight words we have learned so far. We will also learn that when we are writing a word that begins with a vowel with an "A" in front, we have to make that "A" - "AN" - for example, "an elephant" instead of "a elephant". We will continue learning to put spaces between each word, use an uppercase at the beginning of each sentence with lowercase letters throughout the rest of the sentence, and use a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: This week we will really focus on counting by tens. Please help your child with this at home. We are excited to announce that 5 friends are in the "30's Club" - this means the students have written numbers 1-30 perfectly with no reversals. Those students will now move on to "100's Club". We already have one friend in "100's Club" - congratulations, Hamilton! Please continue to help your children write numbers at home. We will continue counting money and telling time to the hour, learning how to identify, order, and count numbers to 30 and write numbers to 10, learning the days of the week, months of the year, shapes, how to read and extend patterns, and identify what number comes next.

Leadership: Congratulations to our Leadership Award Winners for Responsibility: Devin, Joshua, Gracie M, Brynn, and Gianna!! This month our theme is "compassion". We are learning that compassion is when you want to help someone that needs help or be a friend to someone who needs a friend. We will discuss ways to be compassionate friends. This is also our sharing homework this week!

Homework: October 4-7

Flashcards: Study sight word and letter team flashcards DAILY! These are so important for your child's reading! New words for this week are: TAKE, AN, UP, BECAUSE and new letter teams are OW and OU. Please make a flashcard for each letter team as well. NOTE: STUDENTS HAVE BEEN DOING SO WELL WITH SIGHT WORD RECOGNITION, BUT SOMETIMES GET CONFUSED WITH THE SIGHT WORDS THAT START WITH THE SAME LETTER (ME AND MY, LOOK AND LIKE, THIS AND THE). WHILE YOU ARE FLASHCARDING, PLEASE HAVE STUDENTS LOOK THROUGH THE WHOLE WORD IN ORDER TO TELL YOU THE CORRECT SIGHT WORD.

Reading: We are continuing our book bag reading program with one group each week.  Look for a ziploc bag to come home in your child’s Take Home Folder.  Within four weeks every student will have a book bag for the rest of the school year. Please make sure your child is reading their book bag book each night and returning it to school each day. IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU BRING YOUR BOOK BAG BACK TO SCHOOL EVERYDAY! Also, please have your child read the paper books in their “at home” book box each night, making sure they are pointing under each word as they read it. "Make your finger match the word" is the phrase they will hear me say in class. If your child is struggling with words they are reading, please have them "sound out" the word by putting their finger under each letter and saying the sound it makes. This will help with letter and sound recognition as well.

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher, identify numbers out of order, study number flashcards, number writing practice, sort items by color and size, practice drawing shapes, sort and count coins at home, and discuss how to tell time to the hour.

Writing: Practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing ABC's uppercase and lowercase (Aa, Bb, Cc). Also practice writing your sight words of the week and sight word dictation sentences for our spelling test on Friday.

Sharing: Write one sentence about a way to be compassionate or how to show compassion. Draw a picture to go with your sentence. Make sure you practice reading your sentence at home so you are prepared to read in front of the class. Sharing is due any day this week. Please see the "Attachment Library" page to download our Sharing Page - this is a great paper for sharing with a picture and writing space :)

Apple Fun!

We had so much fun tasting apples, graphing about apples, baking apple pie, and cooking applesauce in class! Check out some of our apple-tastic pictures!!!