Weekly News: December 12-16

There is NO SCHOOL for two weeks due to Christmas vacation!!!! This is our last week together in 2016. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Years and I will see you back at school on Wednesday, January 4, 2017!!

Monday is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 8:50. The TK and kindergarten classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, and our school principal, Dr. Urrea, 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 you are invited to join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day for kindergarten will be over at 9:45. We hope you can attend!

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


Our play is this week!!!! Please come see your fantastic children in "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". We will be performing a school day show at 9:15 on Thursday, December 15th. We hope that parents who work evenings are able to attend this performance. We will have our BIG performance at 7:00 on the evening of Thursday, December 15th. Please arrive at 6:45 (no earlier due to other performances this evening and limited parking space, and no later because we need time to get our costumes on!) We will meet in the church sanctuary. Your children are doing such a fantastic job and we are so excited for our performance! 

More information about our play: 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 14th (please meet us in the sanctuary at 9:15!) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 15th (please meet us in the sanctuary at 9:00!) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 6:45.  Thank you!

Play Costumes: We are providing all of the costumes and props for your children.  PLEASE SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL THURSDAY MORNING AND EVENING WEARING A PLAIN BLACK OR WHITE SHIRT AND BLACK LEGGINGS OR PANTS so that it is easier to put their costumes over their clothes :) Narrators will dress in "Sunday Best".
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 we will still be taking home book bags so make sure you are still reading every night!!! 

Homework: December 12-16

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 on RAZ-Kids. There will be no new fluency story or paper books this week. Please practice reading the library book in your child's book bag every night. Have fun at home and read Christmas stories together. Just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization as we discussed at conferences.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Check and review your Daily Math worksheets and Math Talks. Ask your child addition and subtraction questions. Tell your child math stories and ask them to tell you how they got their answer. 

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about our Gingerbread Man play. Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Remember that you can bring your writing homework ANY day of the week! You do NOT need to wait until Friday! Here is a link to our Sharing Paper. 

Weekly News: December 5-9

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 12th is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 8:50. The TK and kindergarten classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, and our school principal, Dr. Urrea, 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 you are invited to join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day for kindergarten will be over at 9:45. We hope you can attend!

We will be performing our kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 15th at 7:00. TK will have a small performance at 5:30, followed by Mrs. Marion and Mrs. Bobrink's class Gingerbread Man play, and we will be the last to perform. Because of so much going on this evening and the limited amount of parking, we ask you to arrive at the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 6:45 to get your costume on and get ready. If you come any earlier, another class will be performing/taking pictures/etc. and we need to be respectful of their time. Please arrive at 6:45. 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! 


More information about our play: 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 14th (9:15-10:00) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 15th (9:15-10:00) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 6:45. 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. A HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE PARENTS FOR HELPING TO IRON AND REPAIR OUR COSTUMES LAST WEEK! We ask that your child come to school on Thursday morning and Thursday night wearing a plain black or 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". 

Each year, we like to show our hard-working custodians how much we appreciated all they do for our school. Each year we ask for a $3 donation per student for a special custodian gift that will be presented to them before we break for the holidays. Please turn in your donation in an envelope marked "Custodian Gift" or bring it to the office. Thank you! 

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, December 12: Grandparent's Day
Thursday, December 15: "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" 7:00
Friday, December 16: Christmas Centers 

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

Christmas Stickers and Prizes/Trinkets

Treasure Box Prizes 

Black Expo Markers 

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 fluency passages. Please practice reading these sheets and these books every day at home. Please remember that everything in your book bag MUST come back to school every day! 

Writing: We will continue to work on our writing goals as we strive to write three to five sentences every day. Some students will be writing topic sentences, three details, and a conclusion sentence. 

Math: Last week, we learned how to tell time to the hour and we started counting money. We will continue working on fun Christmas story problems and playing fun addition games. 

Leadership: Don't forget to ROAR everyday to keep earning those ROAR tickets! 

Homework: December 5-9

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 on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your book bag! Read your fluency passage 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: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization as we discussed at conferences.

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.  Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill. Remember to check the back to see our Math Talk of the day. 

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

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