Weekly News: April 1-5

Welcome back to school! I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing spring break! I am looking forward to seeing everyone on Tuesday! We will have a short, but fun first week back together. 

Electives and Success Academy will resume NEXT WEEK - Monday, April 8th.

Next week (April 8-12) we are having our first annual school wide Read-A-Thon. The goal is to read as much as we can to raise money for our partner school in Ghana. Students will have the opportunity to receive pledges for how much time spent reading during the week at home and at school. More information will be coming home Tuesday. 

Save The Date: We will be having a very special Mother's Day celebration on Friday, May 10th from 11:00-12:30. More information to come. I wanted to let you know early in case you need to take the time off work or find childcare for little ones. The school childcare fills up quickly on this day and is on a first come first serve basis.  I encourage you to find childcare for your little ones since this is a special celebration for mommies and their kindergarten student.  Thank you in advance for your understanding.  This is SUCH a special celebration and we hope all of you mommies are able to make it!

Speaking of taking time off work, I will also let you know that we will be having our very special Last Day of Kindergarten Celebration on Wednesday, June 5th from 11:00-12:30. This is a celebration you will NOT want to miss, so mark your calendars NOW! :) 

Our due date is quickly approaching for those Community Service projects. ONE MORE MONTH. These will be due the first week of May - They will need to be turned in before May 11th to qualify for the Leadership Banquet. Please see our Community Service Tab for more information and feel free to email me if you have any questions.  

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN. 

Letter Team: EIGH (sounding like "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

Reading: We will read books about spring. We will continue to explore non-fiction texts as we discuss the main idea and key details from the text. Students will continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library. Many students have begun taking AR quizzes on books they have been reading. 

Writing: We are working on adding details to our stories. Some of us are even writing eight sentences now for Step Up to Writing, adding explanations after every "detail" sentence. For example: My spring break was so much fun.  First, I went to Disneyland.  I took a picture with Mickey Mouse.  Next, I went horseback riding.  I was a little scared but still enjoyed it.  Last, I visited my grandma.  I baked delicious chocolate chip cookies with her.  My spring break was a busy and fun time.

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten. A fun game that we are learning to play in class that you can play at home: Take the face cards (jack, queen, king) out of a deck of cards so that you only have A(this is our number 1) through 9. Hold a card up to your forehead so that you cannot see it but your child can. Have your child tell you what YOU NEED to make 10 and guess your card. Take turns playing this - it is great practice for composing numbers. 

Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!

Homework: April 1-5

Flashcards: Please make new flashcards for each new sight word and letter team. New words for this week are: SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN and the new letter team is: EIGH (sounding like the long "a" like in EIGHT and NEIGHBOR).

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

Reading:  Make sure you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passages, paper books, sight word and letter team pages, and library books. Continue to log onto Smarty Ants for 10-15 at least a few times a week. You can also read leveled books on RAZ-Kids and take quizzes on books read.  Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. 

Writing: Write three to five sentences in your at-home journal. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss ways to make 5 (and ways to make 10!), numbers in base ten (in the number 16, how many tens and how many ones?), addition and subtraction number problems and word problems, 2D and 3D shapes, and the Doubles Song. Count the money in your bank.

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. It would be a great idea to print the addition and subtraction pages as well as all the number bonds pages for your child to practice at home each day. Stick these in a page protector and use an expo marker so you can reuse them day after day and not have to print a billion copies :) 

SPECIAL Turn-In Homework:  We have a special Sharing Homework this week. Bring in a picture of when you were a baby and a picture of you now. Write at least 5 sentences about how you have changed and how you are different now. Note: YOU WILL GET THESE PICTURES BACK, I PROMISE! 

Weekly News: March 11-15

We will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day this Friday by wearing green, sharing our Leprechaun Traps and having fun St. Patrick's Day centers. Don't forget to turn in your leprechaun traps by Thursday at the latest! We will have a special leprechaun museum and set them up to try to catch them on Friday! 

There are no electives and there is no Success Academy this week!


This is our last week of school before spring break. We have NO SCHOOL for the next two weeks. Spring break is a perfect time to work on your Community Service Projects! I hope you have a wonderful two weeks off with your families! We will see you back on Tuesday, April 2. 


What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: There will be no new sight words introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our words introduced so far.  Remember, sight words are words that your child should recognize instantly.  These are not words your child should be sounding out!  Please continue to work on these words. 

Letter Team: There will be no new letter teams introduced until after Spring Break.  Please take this time to review ALL of our letter teams introduced so far. Many children know most of the letter teams, but have a hard time applying them into decoding words. A great idea would be to write words (or make flashcards) with letter teams inside them and have your child decode the word for you, applying the letter team. (example: FARM - "I see the letter team AR inside the word FARM.")

Reading: We will read books about leprechauns and spring. We will continue to explore non-fiction texts as we discuss the main idea and key details from the text. Students will continue to read fluency passages at their levels and their self-selected good-fit books from the library. Many students have begun taking AR quizzes on books they have been reading. 

Writing: This week, we will write a procedural writing on "How to Catch a Leprechaun". Students will use their very own leprechaun traps to think of and write the steps of how they plan on catching the leprechaun. 

Math: We will continue to work hard on decomposing and composing numbers within ten, as well as addition and subtraction problems, and identifying the place value (tens and ones) of two-digit numbers. 


Leadership: We will continue to ROAR and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset!