End of Quarter 2 Wrap-up

Hello kindergarten families,

January has been a busy month in kindergarten!  Here are a few of the highlights from the last few weeks:

• We learned and celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King and his dreams of the world.  We created our own MLK "I Have a Dream" papers, which are hanging in the hallway outside of our classroom.  We also worked with our art teacher, Miss G, on some MLK projects, some of which you can see at City Hall through the month of February!

• We finished our unit of study on animals and habitats and celebrated with our Animal Showcase.  Students loved being "experts" on frogs, salmon, owls and wolves and showing their families all they had learned!  Thank you to all of you who were able to attend this day.

• We completed our math study on subtraction.  Once we finish with our i-ready middle of year testing, we will be moving on to work with teen numbers.

• We have continued writing our animal reports during writing time, recording new facts about our animals, what our animals can/have/need, and labeling parts of the body.

• In phonics, we continue to practice tapping out sounds to read basic CVC words.  We also learn 2-3 new sight words each week as part of our weekly phonics poem.

• Students are completing middle of the year i-ready testing through February 8th in both reading and math.  This will give us an idea of the progress that has been made since beginning of year testing happened in November and help us plan interventions moving forward.

Congratulations to our January PRIDE Stars, Aiden and Levi!  And happy January birthdays to Javiel, Armani and Levi.

Reminders: 

1. The chocolate rose fundraiser is being filled weekly, so please feel free to send them in as you get them.
2. Money for the Sweetheart Dance is due by Friday, February 1st.  Tickets will not be sold at the door, so make sure to send your money and permission slips in by this date.
3. February 5th is the 100th day of school.  Please send back 100th day of school projects at this time.   
4. Our Family Engagement activity will take place on February 12th from 9:45-10:45.  If you would like to attend this craft day (we will be making valentine's day card holders), please be sure to send the slip back by February 11th.
5. If you would like to send in classroom valentines, you are welcome to do so.  All we ask is that NO CANDY OR FOOD OF ANY KIND is sent in.  If candy or food is brought it, we will need to send it back home with you, per the district's wellness policy.  Thank you for cooperating with this.

Looking forward to what February will bring! :)

Happy New Year!

Hello Whiteknact Families!

Happy New Year!  I apologize for the long overdue blog post - the holidays were a crazy time for everyone and time got away from me!

Here's a quick update on what the class has been working on lately:

We have continued our Animals and Habitats unit of study by studying owls and wolves.  We have compared the animals and discussed how they are the same and how they are different.  Students have been working hard on different projects in anticipation of our Animals and Habitats showcase later this month.  At this time, they will show what they've learned about frogs, salmon, owls, and wolves through a slideshow, projects, writing samples and answering some "expert questions."  We hope many of you will be able to join us for this event!

In writing we have been focusing our attention on informative writing and animal reports.  In addition to writing about the animals in our ELA unit of study, each student has an animal they have been researching and collecting facts on.  These reports will be shared at a later date! :)

In phonics, we have begun tapping out the sounds in simple 3 letter words, blending and segmenting our sounds, as well as spelling these words on our whiteboards.  We are learning how to properly write all of our uppercase letters too!

For math, we are moving on from addition of numbers to 10 and will begin learning about subtraction in the next few weeks.  Students are practicing these skills through computer programs, math centers, and math workbooks.

End of quarter testing will be taking place in the month of January, both on the computers and in paper and pencil tasks.  Expect 2nd quarter report cards on February 1.

Congrats to our December Pride Stars - Ishaly and Carter.  Great job!  And a happy December birthday to Austin! :)

More updates coming soon!