Weekly News: December 14-18

News: 

There is NO SCHOOL for two weeks due to Christmas vacation!!!! This is our last week together in 2015. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Years and I will see you back at school on Tuesday, January 5, 2016!!

Monday is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Lion's Den at 8:15. Our TK through 2nd grade classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, as well as coffee and treats. We ask that all grandparents stay in the sanctuary for the entirety of the presentation, grab a treat, then join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day is over at 9:15. We hope you can attend!

Please remember that kindergarten will NOT be performing at the ILCS Christmas Program next Monday night. 

Our play is this week!!!! Please come see your fantastic children in "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". We are performing on Tuesday evening at 6:00. On Tuesday night, please plan on arriving no later than 5:45 so that we can get your children into costumes for our 6:00 performance. We hope you are able to come to this wonderful event!! 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of many parent helpers on Monday at 10:30, as well as the morning of Tuesday, December 16th (8:00-9:00) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Tuesday evening performance. If anyone is able to come help, please let us know! Thank you!

Play Costumes: We are providing all of the costumes and props for your children. DO NOT FORGET to come to school on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night wearing a plain white shirt and black leggings or pants so that it is easier to put their costumes over their clothes :) The only costume that we do NOT provide is the narrator - we ask that the narrators please dress in "Sunday Best". 

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, December 14: Grandparent's Day 
Tuesday, December 15: "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" 6:00
Friday, December 18: Christmas Centers 

December 21-January 4: CHRISTMAS BREAK!

Tuesday, January 5: Back to School

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, our classroom would love: 

Christmas Stickers and Prizes/Trinkets

Treasure Box Prizes 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

This week we will have fun and review everything we have learned so far in kindergarten. We will be learning about the different holidays of the season, working on fun Christmas projects, working on our Christmas Math Problems, performing our play, and reading many books about our holiday season. It's going to be a fun week! We are reviewing all of our sight words and letter teams, but there WILL be a new fluency passage coming home this week and we will still be taking home book bags so make sure you are still reading every night!!! 

Homework: December 14-18

New Homework Expectations: As discussed at parent conferences, we will have new homework expectations for the rest of the year. We will not only be recording students that have turned in their "Turn-In Homework", but we will be checking Smarty Ants and Dreambox to make sure students are spending 10-15 minutes a day on each program. We will also be keeping track of students that bring book bags to school every day. Thank you for your continued support at home!

Flashcards: Review all sight word and letter team flashcards. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read books from your Book Bag! Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Write three sentences every day in your at-home journal. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice counting, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), practice number writing, practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Counting and Cardinality and Geometry areas where they may still need support. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about our Gingerbread Man play. Draw a picture to go with your sentences.

Weekly News: December 7-11

News: 

We are FULL of information this week so please take a moment to read carefully so you don't miss out on anything! Thank you!

Next Monday, December 14th is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Lion's Den at 8:15. Our TK through 2nd grade classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, as well as coffee and treats. We ask that all grandparents stay in the sanctuary for the entirety of the presentation, grab a treat, then join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day is over at 9:15. We hope you can attend!

Please remember that kindergarten will NOT be performing at the ILCS Christmas Program next Monday night. 

We be be performing our kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Tuesday, December 15th at 6:00.  We ask you to arrive at the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) by 5:45 to get your costume on and get ready. Our rehearsals have been going well and the students are having so much fun! We hope that all parents are able to make this wonderful event! 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of many parent helpers on the morning of Tuesday, December 16th (8:00-9:00) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Tuesday evening performance. If anyone is able to come help, please let us know! Thank you!

Play Costumes: We are providing all of the costumes and props for your children. We ask that your child come to school on Tuesday morning and Tuesday night wearing a plain white shirt and black leggings or pants so that it is easier to put their costumes over their clothes :) The only costume that we do NOT provide is the narrator - we ask that the narrators please dress in "Sunday Best". 

Upcoming Events: 

Thursday, December 10: Holiday Craft Fair - please check ParentSquare for how you can help!
Monday, December 14: Grandparent's Day 
Tuesday, December 15: "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" 6:00
Friday, December 18: Christmas Centers 

December 21-January 4: CHRISTMAS BREAK!

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, our classroom would love: 

Christmas Stickers and Prizes/Trinkets

Treasure Box Prizes 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OUR, WHO, THINK, THING, THAT.

Letter Team:  INK (like in PINK, SINK) and ED (We are learning that tricky Mr. ED goes at the end of the word to tell us that something has already happened - making the word past tense. Mr. ED is tricky because sometimes he makes the "T" sound - like in LOOKED, sometimes he makes the "D" sound - like in PLAYED, and sometimes he says "ED" like in WANTED).

Reading: We are reading many books about the holidays. Students will continue to take home leveled Reading A to Z books and library books in our book bags, as well as letter sound flashcards, sight word fluency, and fluency passages. Please practice reading these sheets and these books every day at home. 

Writing:  This week we will continue our "Writer's Checklist" - a list of things that all good writers do, such as proper punctuation, uppercases at the beginning of a sentence and name, finger spaces between each word, spelling word wall words correctly, adding details, making sure our writing makes sense, and trying our best! We will read this checklist everyday to make sure we are applying each of those skills in our writing.

Math:  We will continue working on fun Christmas story problems in our math journals. We will also learn about Number Bonds, and Part-Part-Whole Addition and Subtraction concepts.  

Leadership: Our new leadership theme for the second trimester is SELF-CONTROL. We will be discussing ways that we can use self-control at home and at school. 

Homework: December 7-11

New Homework Expectations: As discussed at parent conferences, we will have new homework expectations for the rest of the year. We will not only be recording students that have turned in their "Turn-In Homework", but we will be checking Smarty Ants and Dreambox to make sure students are spending 10-15 minutes a day on each program. We will also be keeping track of students that bring book bags to school every day. Thank you for your continued support at home!

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (OUR, WHO, THINK, THING, THAT), and letter teams (INK and ED). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read books from your Book Bag! Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Write three sentences every day in your at-home journal. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice counting, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), practice number writing, practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Counting and Cardinality and Geometry areas where they may still need support. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about a special holiday tradition in your family. Draw a picture to go with your sentences.