Important dates and information

Wednesday December 18th is our Christmas performance. It begins at 9:30am and each class will perform, plan on it lasting until about 10:30-11:00am. Please dress your student in a green or red shirt/sweater.

Friday December 20th is our classroom Christmas Party. We will decorate cookies, have a book exchange, and enjoy holiday music together. Please bring a wrapped book for the book exchange. If the book is not gender neutral, please write on it if it is a girl or boy book. You may bring the books earlier in the week and they will be kept in a safe place until the book exchange.

Christmas Break- a homework packet will be sent home for Christmas break. It will look similar to the Thanksgiving packet I sent home during conferences, but it is required and must be return the first day back from break. All students who bring it back on time will get a treat.

Show and Tell- When we get back from break, we will begin show and tell. I will send a schedule of when your child's show and tell date will be. Your child may bring a special toy, stuffed animal, or any object of their choice to show and talk about with the class. If the object is very valuable or alive, I suggest that the parents stay for the first half hour of school so they may take it back home after show and tell is over.

Important Info

Singapore Math Night---

If you have any questions about Singapore Math, join us for our exciting and fun presentation by yours truly! :) Ms. Heagney and I will present an overview and explain why we have chosen to teach Singapore Math here at REACH. Please come and learn the differences and how you can help your child understand how math works! Thursday, November 14th, 5:30-7pm


Recess Reading Room---

Starting December 2nd, if students come to school with incomplete or missing homework and/or reading logs, students will go to the Recess Reading Room for recess until these things are complete or turned in. We are a school of excellence and we expect that both the students and the parents are doing their part to maker their student successful!!

If you would like to volunteer, we need parents for the Recess Reading Room, 8:50-10:10.



Early Release Day--- Move to Fridays.

Staring the week of December 9th, our early release day will no longer be on Wednesdays, they will be on Fridays.

December 11th- Full Day        Friday December 13th- Minimum Day

Red Ribbon Week

It's beginning to feel a lot like.... fall? winter?

It is beginning to feel a little cold outside and many students are still wearing shorts or skirts to school. Please try to keep your students warm, if you have leggings or stockings (blue, black, white) to wear under the skirts that is fine, but please don't send your students with bare legs with no jackets!! And I cannot say this enough, label EVERYTHING. I still see jackets on a daily basis with no name. And our lost and found is already over flowing, so please, label all belongings sent to school. Thank you!


On a side note- 100 mile club has started and it is wonderful!! Each Kinder teacher has chosen a specific day to earn our miles. Our class will participate on Mondays. If you would like to come and help out on Mondays at 12:55pm sharp, that would be great. This will allow us to break up the kids and jog/walk at different speeds. Let me know so we can plan accordingly. :)

Performance Assembly

This Friday we will be having an awards assembly as well as a short performance.
Mrs. Schissler and Miss Lopez will be signing and singing to the Alphafriend song.
Mrs. Contreras and Miss Maciel will be performing to the Tooty Ta,

Assembly Times
Kindergarten/Tk- 8:00am
First Grade- 8:45am
Second/Third Grade- 9:30am

When I was your student's age...

Scholatic Book Order

Order scholatic books online and earn points and books for our class!!

Orders must be submitted by September 18th, 2013. 

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies we are learning about how to be good citizens and following rules. Please talk to your students on how to be kind, helpful, and caring citizens at school and in the community. Also, please talk to your child about classroom rules as well as home rules. Right now the biggest thing we are working on is keeping our hands to ourselves, listening while the teacher is talking (aka not playing and talking at the same time), and following directions quickly. Please encourage your students to do their best in class so they can learn lots!

Kindergarten Donation List

If you would like to donate any items to our class, I would greatly appreciate it. Please note that all pencils, crayons, and other items donated will be used communally and it is unnecessary for students to bring personal pencils or crayons to school.  Thank You!

Crayons

Kleenex

Large pencils (You can find at CM Supply, Lakeshore, or Staples)

Clorox wipes

Dry erase markers

Large erasers (please no pencil top erasers)

Construction paper

Glue sticks

Elmer's glue

Ziploc bags- gallon size and quart size

Baby wipes

Band-aids

Reams of copy paper

Summer Journals

In class we have been doing what we call June Journals. Each morning, there is a sentence starter written on the board that the students are to copy down and continue with as a topic for an entry in the journal. I have been trying to encourage the students to create a journal for the summer in order to share their thoughts and the activities that they are doing on a daily basis.

Continuing to write on a daily basis throughout the summer will be of great value for them academically. I really want to encourage you as the parents to help them make a summer journal and get them excited about daily writing. Make it fun! Decorate the journals in a cute or cool way that fits their unique personalities and then provide them with fun sentence starters such as: "If I could make my own ice cream, I would use..." or "If I had a jet pack I would fly to..." or " If I could take an animal home from the zoo, I would take a ______ because..." or " In the summer I love to..."

Technology

If your child has an iPad, iPod, or leapfrog that has educational apps, they may bring them to school. There are times throughout the day when students might finish an assignment a few minutes early, usually they get to visit the library and read books. But this would be a great opportunity to use their devise to play an education game. If your child brings their devise to school, they are responsible for bringing it into the class and placing it in the basket and then taking it home at the end of the day. If for some reason a student forgets to take it home, I will lock it away to keep it safe. If you have any questions let me know!

Summer Workbooks

I know that we have a few month until summer, but I am already thinking about it... And of course I am thinking about my kindos and how much they have learned already. But then summer comes... I hope they don't forget!!! SOOO, If you would like to purchase something to work on over the summer for 15-30 minutes a day to keep your student on target for First grade, I found a site that sell them! I highly recommend that you make a specific plan to help keep your student from losing valuable information over the summer. And please plan on reading on a regular basis. If you haven't noticed, your students are really catching on to this whole "reading" thing, so please have them read to you.

Even if you do not purchase these workbooks, please go online to find worksheets for Kindergarten or First grade to work on over the summer!! And please have them practice writing sentences, stories, and/or letters!!

http://www.summersolutions.net/english-grammar/?grade=0k

http://www.summersolutions.net/mathematics/?grade=0k

Read Across America- Dr. Seuss Day

We had a lot of fun on Dr. Seuss Day!

Pajama Day

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss' Birthday and Read Across America. Therefore, we will be celebrating on Friday. We will read lots of Dr. Seuss books and do fun activities. On this day we will wear our pajamas!!! Yay!!

Feb 25- March 1

Language Arts-- Letter "Hh" focus
                           HFW-do, are, that
                           Comprehension- Sequence: First, Second, Then, Last

Writing--- Writing more than one sentence using our Focus HFW

Math--- Comparing Number- One less, one more, two less, two more.

Science- Wrap up our unit on how plants and Animals change (butterflies, frogs, seeds)

Social Studies-- Maps, symbols

Leadership-- Good to great. Going the extra distance.



*** When it comes to writing sentences at home, please encourage your student to sound out the words as best they can. Tell them to write the sounds they hear. Also, if you want to model how to sound the word out, that is okay, but please allow them to write the sounds. At this stage they will spell words incorrectly if they write the sounds they hear, this is called "Inventive Spelling" and this is a Kinder Standard. In the class we often model a sentence and we show them how to sound out words. Then we allow them to write their own sentence and I ask them to sound the words out as best they can.

Valentine's and the 100th Day of School

The students loved "Zero the Hero"

The students were so surprised that "Zero the Hero" was a girl!!!

Counting to 100

Mandarin Class Performance

Friday February 22nd, we will be having an awards assembly at 8am. We will also be visited by Mayor Bailey this day. My Mandarin students begged to be able to perform the song we have been learning for the past few weeks for Mayor Bailey and of course our wonderful parents. Therefore, please have your students practice their Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star song (located in the Mandarin tab). Hope to see you all there!!!

100th Day Projects

I hope your having fun with your child's 100th Day Project! Get creative, have fun, and count to 100 with your student! You have the freedom to do almost anything you want with this project as long as you use 100 objects. Wednesday is our 100th Day of School and we want to use that day to complete various activities. Each student will have an opportunity to share their project with the class. If you need some ideas, Google 100th Day Projects.

Everyone Loves Pictures

He is not in my class, but I caught this on the playground and couldn't resist.

Dyson is our class artist!

He is proud to be a REACH student.

Center Time

Owen

                                                 

                                                           We love University Day!!!

Christian was the first student to wear a CBU shirt to school. I was excited.

Ahni quickly followed with his CBU shirt.

Scrip/ Don Jose's

Please check your student's homework folder for two upcoming events!

Monday (Jan. 14th)- There is a scrip meeting to help you sign up and learn how to earn money for our school. This will start at 6pm.

Tuesday (Jan. 15th)- Don Jose's fundraiser 3-9pm. Make sure to bring your flyer!

Scholastic Book Club

I will submit our next order the evening of Wednesday January 16th.

This Week at a Glance Jan. 7- 11

Welcome Back!!! Please continue to work on reading HFW. If your student is able to read all the words, please send a note to school so that we can begin to send home a new list of words to work on. Thank you!

Language Arts- Review letters i, a, s, p, k
                         Comprehension- Realism vs. Fantasy

Writing- Building a story; Beginning, Middle, End

Math- Finishing up Unit on weighing different objects.
           Making number bonds using the number 10. i.e. 3 and 7 make 10, 4 and 6 make 10

Science- Living vs Non-living things

Leadership- Equality, MLK