Field Trip- Wednesday May 23, 2012
Bring a sack lunch!!!!!!!

Wow!! Where has the year gone!  We are in the final stretch.  Right now we are testing, testing, and testing. We have just completed our District Math Inventories this week. All students did extremely well.  I am so pleased. They have learned so much in math this year.  We also worked on our the District Writing Probe.  Students were able to show off their writing skills and wrote some really great stories.  
Because the end is near, we are testing for report cards.  We will be sending them home the last day of school.  

Field Trips Coming Up!

KS will have two upcoming field trips in May.  On May 1, we will be going to Jefferson County Park with Therese Cumminsky.  Then, on May 23rd we will be going to Van Buren County for a craft and exploration day.   Your child will only need a cold lunch for the 23rd. I will be sending notes home later! Thanks!

Another Great Website on the Rain Forest

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids

Great Website on Rain Forest Animals

http://www.rainforestanimals.net/index.html

Kitten's First Full Moon

Duck on a Bike video

April News!

We are back from Spring Break and hopefully ready for the final stretch.  I hope you all had a wonderful break and Easter weekend.  Mrs. Leach filled in for me last week Monday through Thursday.  I had foot surgery over break and needed a little extra rest to recover. I will be on crutches until the middle of May.  Fortunately for me, your little ones took great care of me so I am in good hands.

Last week, we began to use number lines for solving addition problems.  We had been using  drawing out the problems, cubes and work mats to solve addition problems previous to Spring Break.  Several students discovered they liked using numbers lines better because it was quicker than using manipulatives.  We will use a variety of methods for solving addition problems so that students become familiar with them.  In May, we will begin to focus more heavily on subtraction. However,  at this point I try not to confuse them by switching back and forth.  We will also continue to review money, tally marks, graphing, and number identification to 30.  

District Kindergarten testing will be arriving soon. Student will complete a Writing Probe and a District Math Inventory.  Students have taken the DMI twice already, in the fall and winter.  Students will complete a writing probe and that results of that will be filed in their cumulative folder.

Several students have been engaging in writing stories in their free time. I am so impressed by their eagerness to try their hand at writing.  I have quite the little story writers in my room and I am always so eager to read their stories.

We will be working on spelling the hi- frequency works that are in our curriculum for the next few weeks.   I will pick 5 or 6 words to work on each week and then we will have a test on Friday.  Several students are able to identify the words in print but cannot write them independently.  Hopefully, we will have close to 100% of students writing and reading them by the end of the year. 

  We are talking a lot about first grade and what will be expected of them.  I think they are getting excited about first grade and how much they have learned this year!

Pizza Party!

Our class won the Pizza Party for selling the most items in the Fall Fundraiser.  We will be celebrating on March 22.

Two Weeks Till Spring Break!

With just two weeks away till Spring Break, Kindergarten will be busy, busy.  The end of third quarter is just around the corner, so we will finish testing for report cards this week.  Mr. Illusion is coming tomorrow for an assembly to commence  the end of our Reading Program.  Of course, we will have to celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Friday the 16th.  In addition to all that, we will continue to work on short e words, addition, subtraction, money, tally marks, maps and symbols, sight words and writing. You have probably noticed more writing coming home in their folders.  We are working on dictation, however I am also encouraging them to start writing their own ideas.  This is difficult, however I have already seen a lot of great writing and am very encouraged that we will have many great writers.  Kindergarten is nearing the end and we are working hard at getting ready for first grade.  You should be very proud of their progress, as I am.  They have come along way and have worked very hard to get there.   

Lidiya Goes to Des Moines

Lidiya was chosen along with three other students from Washington to have their art showcased in Des Moines.   We are so proud of Lidiya!!

Pablo- Student of the Month

-Pablo Fraga truly “listens with his heart.”  He is kind, tender-hearted, compassionate and sensitive to the needs of his peers.  He relates to lessons about helping others and constantly states that he will  “be nice” to everyone, which he is!  Pablo is truly generous with his heart and his a good friend to all in his class.  

Try Again

YIKES!

For some reason the video is no longer working!!! I will work on it over the weekend and see what I come up with!!!! Hopefully, by Monday the problem will be fixed!!!!

Happy President's Day!!

Today, we celebrated President's Day and  not only learned about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln but American symbols as well.  We did not quite get through all of our books and activities and will probably have to continue tomorrow. We read several books on Abe Lincoln and George Washington.  We were able to look up pictures on-line of Abraham Lincoln's dog Fido, the Lincoln Memorial, George Washington's home, Mt. Vernon,  Abe's home in Springfield and Ford's Theater. We saw pictures of Washington's false teeth and the one student wanted to see John Wilkes Booth, the "mean guy" who killed Abraham.  Several students thought it would be fun to take a field trip to see all these places. Hmmmm....I am not  totally convinced on that idea.  Thanks to Mrs. Sandbothe, Kindergarten teacher at Pence, we had a fabulous lesson on the Statue of Liberty! Here are a few pictures showing our own Mr. and Miss Liberty's.

Latest Info!

In Reading, we have begun the "ot" and "ox" word family.  We are also reviewing the sight words, "the" and "said."  Students are working on stretching out words that they want to write and trying to spell new words on their own.  They have been extremely excited about spelling new words and have been writing notes to each other.  It is very cute to see all these little writers at work.
Today, we counted the poems in our Poetry Journal.  We are up to 26 poems.  They were so proud of themselves as they realized how far they had come since the beginning of the year. Wow!!! What SUPER READERS!!!  
Our school has begun a new reading program for February.  Each class will be taking time during the day to read.  Our class has decided that we are going to tally how many minutes we read together, independently, and read a-louds with adults.  Our goal is to build our independent reading stamina. Today, we read 25 minutes because we were a little busy making Valentines!!!  
Right now in Math, we are covering a little bit of everything and reviewing.   We will start on writing and identifying numbers 22-30, estimation, story problems with addition and subtraction and measuring... like I said- a little of everything!
Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day!

100 Days of School!

Snowman Measuring!

Student of the Month

Isabelle Henderson is exemplary example of Think Win-Win!  She treats all of her peers with respect and kindness.  Just yesterday, Isabelle took time away from what she wanted to do, to play with a boy who was feeling lonely and thought he had no friends.  Isabelle is well-liked and respected by her peers because she treats them the same way!

Quick Up-Date

Monday is our 100 Day Party!  We will be having a lot of crazy fun tomorrow as we celebrate the 100th day of school.  We have been looking forward to this since the first day of school.  Of course, that means 100 days of kindergarten are over and there is only 80 more left to learn, learn, learn!  
Last week, we made snowman rulers and began measuring items around the room.  We practiced lining up the bottom of the ruler to the end of the object to get an accurate reading. This is a lot harder than it looks.  However, by day 2 most students were getting the hang of it.
Please continue to have your child read to you at home. This is probably one of the most important things you can do for your child's education.  Each week or two your child should be bringing home several books that contain sight words and word family words that we work on in class.  
I will be sending home more information on our Valentine's Day Party that is coming up!!!!!

Fun Night 1 on PhotoPeach

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100th Day of School

On the 100th Day of School, we will be celebrating 100 days of Kindergarten!  The students are really excited as we have been working our way to 100 days by singing and counting to 100.  On that day, each child will bring 100 edible food items.  We will be putting them all together to make a snack for the class party.  Ideas for edible items would be 100 marshmallows, 100 cheerios, 100 m&m's.... you get the idea.  We will spend the day doing many activities that have to do with 100! 
As a side note- we have been practicing counting by 1's, 5's and 10's to get to 100!  Your child may need some extra help at home!

School Fair

Just a reminder that the Washington School Fair will be held tomorrow night!

Poetry Journals

Kindergarten has been rockin' on their Poetry Journals.  We have added 20 poems so far this year that we have been working on.  I am amazed at how far they have come with their reading.  Reading from our Poetry Journals have been a way for students to identify words they know, discover strategies for decoding unknown words and to develop fluency in their reading.  Identifying punctuation such as the exclamation mark and comma has added a lot of voice to our reading as well.  By the end of the year, students should bring home a whole volume of poetry that they can read to you!

Back To Work!

Kindergarten will be focusing our studies on penguins and Martin Luther King, Jr this month.  We will also be anticipating the 100th day of school.   Our class will have a "100 Day" party on this date.  Each student will be encouraged to bring 100 edible food items such as cheerios, marshmallows, or candy, etc to make a snack mix to share.  The students have been practicing counting by 1's, 5's, and 10's to 100!  They are really excited about the 100th Day of school!!!!

Kindergarten Testing!

This week we will be testing for Quarter 2 Report Cards!  Quarter 2 ends on Friday, January 12.
Report Cards will be sent home on January 19th.  
There is no school for students on Monday, January 16th.  This is a work day for teachers.