Our Last Week Together in 2019

We are so excited to perform our play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on Thursday. There will be a school day performance at 8:30 and an evening performance at 6:00. Please remember to send your child to school on Thursday wearing plain clothing (black pants/leggings with a plain black or white top) and please meet at the church at 5:45 (no earlier, please, we are trying to courteous of others parking!) for our evening performance. 

We will celebrate the holidays together with fun centers on Friday. Do not forget to bring your white elephant $1 gift to school sometime before this day - remember, this is a wrapped gift that could be for a boy or a girl. On Friday, your child will be coming home with their large brown "Busy Bag". This will be filled with all of our Christmas Art, December projects, stockings, a small gift for each student from me, and our Christmas presents we have made for mom and dad. 

There are no electives this week and no Success Academy. Electives and Success Academy will resume our SECOND week back to school in January.

There is no school for the following two weeks due to Christmas vacation! I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Years and I will see you back at school on Tuesday, January 7th, 2020!


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, playing fun math games, 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. We will still take home our book bags to practice reading, but there will be no new sight words, letter teams, fluencies, or leveled readers. Keep reading all of those little paper books at home over the break as well as playing Smarty Ants and Dreambox. 

Weekly News: December 9-13

Monday is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 9:00. 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 10:00. We hope you can attend!


Gingerbread Man Information: 

Details: We will be performing our kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 19th at 6:00. TK will have a small performance at 5:00, Mrs. Bess and Mrs. Stanley's classes will perform at 6:00, then Mrs. Bobrink and Mrs. Marion's classes will  perform at 7:00. Because of so much going on this evening and the limited amount of parking, we are asking you to arrive at the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 5:45 to get your costume on and get ready. If you come any earlier, another class may still be performing/taking pictures/etc. and we want to be respectful of their time. Please arrive at 5:45. 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! 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 18th (8:15-9:15) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 19th (8:15-9:15) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 5:45. If anyone is able to come help, please let us know! The more, the better! 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 Thursday (the 19th) morning and Thursday (the 19th) 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 :) If you are a farmer, please wear jeans instead of black pants, but we will provide the rest of your costume. 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 9: Grandparent's Day

Thursday, December 19: The Tale of the Gingerbread Man 

Friday, December 20: Christmas Celebration/Centers 

If you are at the store thinking of us, our classroom would love:

Christmas/Holiday stickers and trinkets 

Baby Wipes

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US.

Letter Team:  WOR (the OR sounds like Mr. ER, like in work and word) and TION (sounds like SHUN like in vacation, invention, connection). 

Reading: We are reading many books about the holidays. Students will continue to take home leveled Reading A to Z books, fluency pages, and library books in our book bags. 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: 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 9-13

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (WORK, ALL, US, JUST, AWAY), and letter teams (WOR and TION). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Read your book bag every night! This includes Leveled A-Z books, decodables, library books, sight words, and fluency pages.  Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. 

You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: Write in your at-home journal every day. Continue to work with your child on the writing goals they need to master. While we ARE all at different writing goals, the in-class expectation is now that each child will write three or more sentences every day. Please reinforce this at home with writing homework.

Math: Continue to work on number ID, number writing, counting to 100, counting forward and shapes. Please check your daily math page coming home each day for skills that you need to work on. An expectation for a few problems on Daily Math is that students are able to give four number sentences on each of the tens and ones problems. For example, when the problem reads 10 and 9 is 19, we would like students to write: 10+9=19, 9+10=19, 19-10=9 and 19-9=10. 

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

Weekly News: December 2-6

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week off with your families. I am so excited to be back at school. This is such a fun, yet busy time of the year in kindergarten with so much going on. Please take a moment each week to read through our news and upcoming events so that you don't miss out on anything. Thank you!

Next Monday, December 9th is Grandparents Day at ILCS! Our TK through 2nd grade classes will be performing some holiday songs in the sanctuary, then we invite all grandparents back to our classroom to do a special craft together. TK and Kinder Grandparents Day will be from 9:00-10:00. Keep checking those ParentSquares from the school for more information. 


Gingerbread Man Information: 

Details: Our kindergarten classes are doing a Christmas play this year! I'm sure you have heard all about it! We will be putting on "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". We started rehearsals before Thanksgiving break and our kiddos are having so much fun learning all of the songs and hand motions. Every student should have received his or her special role in the play, along with a script and CD before break. Our kindergarten classes will be doing two performances in the evening (so that hopefully all moms and dads can attend) on Thursday, December 19th.  Mrs. Bess and Mrs. Stanley's classes will perform at 6:00 and Mrs. Bobrink and Mrs. Marion's classes will perform at 7:00. Please mark your calendars now. This is an event you will not want to miss! 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 18th (8:15-9:15) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 19th (8:15-9:15) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 5:45. If anyone is able to come help, please let us know! The more, the merrier! 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 Thursday (the 19th) 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 :) If you are a farmer, please wear jeans instead of black pants, but we will provide the rest of your costume. 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 9: Grandparent's Day - more info coming! 

Thursday, December 19: The Tale of the Gingerbread Man 

Friday, December 20: Holiday Celebration/Christmas Centers 

If you are at the store thinking of us, our classroom would love:

Christmas/Holiday stickers and trinkets 

Baby Wipes!!!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OUR, WHO, THING, THINK, 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, fluency pages, and library books in our book bags. 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: 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 2-6

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: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. 

Reading: Read your book bag every night! This includes Leveled A-Z books, decodables, library books, sight words, and fluency pages.  Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. 

You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: As discussed at parent conferences, write in your at-home journal every day. Continue to work with your child on the writing goals they need to master. While we ARE all at different writing goals, the in-class expectation is now that each child will write three or more sentences every day. Please reinforce this at home with writing homework.

Math: Continue to work on number ID, number writing, counting to 100, counting forward and shapes. Please check your daily math page coming home each day for skills that you need to work on. An expectation for a few problems on Daily Math is that students are able to give four number sentences on each of the tens and ones problems. For example, when the problem reads 10 and 9 is 19, we would like students to write: 10+9=19, 9+10=19, 19-10=9 and 19-9=10. 

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

Weekly News: November 19-22

There is no school on Monday, November 18th due to parent conferences. Enjoy the three day weekend with your families and I will see you at your parent conference on Monday!


We are so excited for our feast this Friday! We will be making special things in class all week long while we are getting ready for our Feast and learning all about the First Thanksgiving. Remember that if you'd like to join us, our feast will be down on the playground on Friday at 12:15 - please plan on meeting down there at 11:45 if you are able to help set up. 

Mark your calendars now!  We will be having our very own special kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 19th. MUCH MORE information to come, but I know December is a busy month and you do not want to miss this, so mark your calendars now! We have already started learning all of the songs and we will have "auditions" this week. Each student will have a very special role in our play. On Thursday before we leave for break, we will be sending home lyrics and/or scripts and CDs so that you can start practicing over break. Have fun! 

I am placing our holiday Scholastic Book Order on Friday! Don't forget to get your orders in - books make great gifts for the holidays! 

THERE IS NO SCHOOL ALL OF NEXT WEEK! Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your families!

What Are We Learning This Week:

This week, we will have fun reading and writing about Thanksgiving and playing Thanksgiving games. We will review everything we have learned so far in kindergarten. There will be no new fluencies and no new leveled readers coming home, but we will still be taking book bags home to read. Inside your book bag this week, you will find two fun Thanksgiving books we are working on in class.We will continue to study pilgrims and indians and work on fun Thanksgiving projects! There will be no new sight words or letter teams until after break and no new QR codes posted. Please take this time to review ALL of our first trimester sight words and letter teams.  Don't forget that you can still log on to Smarty Ants and Dreambox over break!

Weekly News: November 12-15

There is no school on Monday, November 11th due to Veteran's Day and no school for students on Monday, November 18th due to parent conferences. I am looking forward to meeting with you all to discuss your child's progress this trimester.

Thank you very much for donating to our Thanksgiving Food Box! What a wonderful way to give during this holiday season :)

A big thanks to all the parents who came out to support our class at the APEX Fun Run! Make sure to check out our pictures on ParentSquare. 

Our kindergarten classes will be having a combined Thanksgiving Feast on Friday, November 22nd. We are looking forward to a great, big Thanksgiving celebration together!  We will be making many items for our feast in the classroom together! If you are able to donate items for our feast, we would really appreciate it - please sign up on ParentSquare.  If you would like to come help set up and make this a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast for our kids, you are welcome to join us next Friday at 11:45 for set up.  The feast will begin at 12:15. We need need LOTS of help for set up and tear down and we would also love for you to join us! Thank you in advance!

Mark your calendars now!  We will be having our very own special kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 19th. MUCH MORE information to come, but I know December is a busy month and you do not want to miss this, so mark your calendars now! 

Two more weeks to get in your Scholastic Book Order! Don't forget to get your orders in - books make great gifts for the holidays! You can find the link on the side tab "Scholastic Book Orders" here on our website. 

What Are We Learning This Week:

Sight Words: AS, NO, KNOW, ABOUT, BY.

Letter Team:  KN (the K is silent, like in KNOW and KNIGHT), and EW (like in NEW and STEW).

Reading: We will continue our leveled reading groups this week. In these groups, students will be working on various reading strategies as we read A-Z leveled books. These books will be coming home in our book bags every day. We will also be reading a fun fluency page - this week, this is a short story titled Thanksgiving. We will practice reading this all week to work on fluency and find text evidence to answer text related questions in the story. In class, we will also read many books turkeys and pilgrims and Indians, as we prepare for Thanksgiving. 

Writing: We will continue to work on writing personal narrative stories. We are learning to extend our sentences and add details. 

Math: We will work on fun Thanksgiving math games this week. We will also have fun exploring 2D and 3D shapes. 

Leadership: For the month of November, our whole school will be focusing on the A of ROAR: Act Safely. We will talk about what that means and how we can act safely in the classroom, while walking, and at recess. 

Homework: November 12-15

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (AS, NO, KNOW, ABOUT, BY), and letter teams (KN and EW). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Keep working with your child on skills such as blending, segmenting, rhyming, syllables, and sound switch.  

Reading: In your book bag this week, you will continue to find A-Z Leveled Books that we are reading in our reading groups. You may also find a fluency page - this week, it is a short story titled Thanksgiving. We will practice reading this all week to work on fluency and find text evidence to answer text related questions in the story.  You may also find a sight word fluency practice page. Please practice reading every item each evening for reading homework and please make sure everything comes back to school each day in your child’s book bag. Continue to read TO your child every night, having conversations about the stories you are reading. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. 

You can find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ.

Writing: Continue to work with your child on the writing goals they need to master. While we ARE all at different writing goals, the in-class expectation is now that each child will write three or more sentences every day. Please reinforce this at home with writing homework.

Math: Continue to play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to count to 30 (or 50 or 100!) every day, practice number flashcards out of order, practice writing your numbers to 20 or higher, practice identifying shapes and drawing shapes. Remember to also go over our "Daily Math" practice pages that we do every morning in class - take a moment to go over these practice pages to see if there is anything specific your child needs to work on. 

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Our school code for Dreambox is X2we/inlandlcs

QR Codes: Download and print those QR Codes each week from ParentSquare and have your child work on those at home!

Weekly News: November 3-8

We had so much fun celebrating Halloween together. Check out our pictures on ParentSquare. 

There is no school on Monday, November 11th due to Veteran's Day and no school for students on Monday, November 18th due to parent conferences. 

The APEX Fun Run is Thursday! Whether you have received pledges or not, every child will participate in the run. Your child will be getting a special APEX t-shirt to wear over their clothes on this day. Please send your child to school in appropriate clothing and running shoes on this day.  Thank you!! You are more than welcome to come and cheer on our runners. More info coming your way via ParentSquare this week. 

Our kindergarten classes will be having a combined Thanksgiving Feast on Friday, November 22nd. We are looking forward to a great, big Thanksgiving celebration together!  We will be making many items for our feast in the classroom together! If you are able to donate items for our feast, we would really appreciate it - be on the look out for the ParentSquare sign up coming soon!  If you would like to come help set up and make this a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast for our kids, you are welcome to join us next Friday at 11:45 for set up.  The feast will begin at 12:15. We need need LOTS of help for set up and tear down! Thank you in advance!

Mark your calendars now!  We will be having our very own special kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 19th. MUCH MORE information to come, but I know December is a busy month and you do not want to miss this, so mark your calendars now! 

This week, I am sending home our holiday Scholastic Book Order. Scholastic books make great gifts for the holidays and they are super inexpensive. I want to give you a few weeks to shop but I also want to make sure you receive your books before Christmas, so orders will be due the Friday before Thanksgiving break, November 22nd. Have fun shopping! 

What Are We Learning This Week:

Sight Words: This week we are reviewing our tricky W words - WENT, WHEN, WHAT, WAS, WANT. Please continue to practice all sight words that we have learned in the first trimester, especially those your child has misread on their Friday Sight Word Tests.

Letter Team: GE/GI (the soft sound of G which sounds like J, like in GENTLE and GIANT).

Reading: We are starting our leveled reading groups this week. In these groups, students will be working with me on various reading strategies as we read A-Z leveled books. These books will be coming home in our book bags every day. We will also be reading a fun fluency page - this week, this is a short story titled Tom the Turkey. We will practice reading this all week to work on fluency and find text evidence to answer text related questions in the story. In class, we will also read many books turkeys and pilgrims and Indians, as we prepare for Thanksgiving. 

Writing: We have been working on using a Flow Map to put our narrative story in order.  A flow map is a series of boxes connected by arrows to represent the events in order.  We are learning to use the flow map to organize our ideas. For example:

From this flow map I might write the following narrative story:

Today I went to school.  I counted in math.  I played with my friends.  I read a story..

Some students are working on extending their sentences and their story may look like the following: This morning I was excited to go to my school Inland Leaders.  I worked on my math counting goal by counting to 100.  At recess I ate my apple snack and then played tag with Cathy and Sue.  At the end of the day I read my  fluency story in reading groups.

Math: We will work on fun Thanksgiving story problems and games this week. We will also have fun exploring 2D and 3D shapes. 

Leadership: For the month of November, our whole school will be focusing on the A of ROAR: Act Safely. We will talk about what that means and how we can act safely in the classroom, while walking, and at recess.