Announcements
First Semester Parent Teacher Conferences:
Hello Families,
Here is a link to First Semester Parent Teacher Conferences, that will be taking place in December. It will be a 20 minute time slot, where I can share celebrations of learning for this first half of the year. Please bring your child to this conference. The conference will start with time for your child to pridefully share with you things in our room and examples of best work. Then we can meet to talk more specifically about growth and next steps. Wow- you are going to be amazed to see such tremendous growth!
Q&A
-I prefer not to have siblings in the room so that the focus can be on your child. However, if there are no other options, then I understand.
-If you EVER have a concern, please email me. We do not have to wait until conferences if there is something you would like to discuss. :)
-In addition to conferences, you will be getting a EPR (Electronic Progress Report) before Winter Break. This is the more formal way that teachers share out learning, but you will find our parent conferences to be where you get more specific, personalized information.
Looking forward to this time together!
~Ms. Lauren
Climbing: Our crew will be climbing during the week of December 12th. If you attended Mr. Doug's belay training, please sign up to come belay during our gym time: 1:45-2:35. The more bleayers we have, the more climbing and less waiting in lines for kids. Thank you for volunteering and helping to make this a great first experience for our kindie climbers! Link for Climbing Sign-Up
Warmer Change of Clothes: Today, the extra clothes were sent home. Please send back a new change of clothes for colder temperatures, which should include pants, socks, underwear, and a long sleeved shirt. Please send these back on Monday in a labeled zip lock back. Thanks!
Scholastic Book Fair Next Week: Our crew previewed some of the fun fiction and nonfiction books that will be available at next week's book fair. Please note that kindergartners must be accompanied by a parent to make a purchase. Please do not send money to school with your child. Next week will be spirit week to generate excitement about the book fair. Dressing up is optional. Thanks for support our school by visiting the book fair!
Lost & Found: The school Lost & Found is OVERFLOWING. When you come in for the Book Fair, Thanksgiving Lunch, or Community Reading, please stop by to claim any items that may belong to you. Also, you are welcome to check it out before school, during school, or right after school. It is located at the top of our kindie hallway. Thanks!
School Newsletter: There was a November 4th and there is a November 11th post that you may have missed. Check it out! Also, if you have a young sibling to enroll, make sure you see the information about enrollment deadlines.
School Newsletter Link
Adopt a Family: Would you like to help out a local family in need? Our incredible social worker, Ms. Allison, has set up a holiday adoption program, which I offered for our crew to adopt a family to provide gifts and show generosity. It is amazing what a difference these gifts make. Here is the information: Here is the sign-up Genius link where you will find information for your family. All items need to be accounted for and identified with their ID code (on a stickie). Please do NOT wrap gifts. Please pass these to Ms. Lauren by December 2nd. If you are interested to learn more about Ms. Allison's holiday adoption program, click here. The stories will touch your heart.
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:
-If you are interested in being a lunchroom volunteer please sign up for our time 11:10-11:30 on this lunchroom sign up.
-Here is a classroom volunteer sign-up for days and times to come in.
Calendar
11/14-18 Book fair
11/15 Thanksgiving Meal at REMS. Our time is 11:10-11:30. Space is limited to one adult per family.
11/18 Community Reading at 8:30-9am; Fieldwork to view Prairie Dogs
11/21 -11/25 Thanksgiving Break. No School.
12/7, 12/14 First Semester Parent Conferences
12/12-12/16 Climbing
Crew Highlights
Learning Update:
-In writing, our crew has been working on adding labels to the their writing, using labels as inspiration to the captions, and using sentence starters in their captions, such as "This is a ____."
-In reading, our crew finished up our unit on Every Story Has Characters. We discussed the essential questsion: How are characters different? Our list lots of specific examples of characters in stories as well as remembering that we can notice how a character is different by what it looks like, how it feels, what it does, and how it interacts with other characters. What impressive high level thinking! Our next unit is called Rules at Home and School, and we will be exploring the question: Why do we have rules?
-In phonics, our letter of the week was Ii. We spent a lot of time identifying i at the beginning of words and in the middle of words. For example, clap once if the word pair has the same middle sounds: bib/sit (clap); tip/fan (no clap). Then, in small groups, kids practice making words with letter cards, such as in, it, sit, bit, bin, an, tan, mat, sat, and so on. At this time, your child should show mastery of the letters/sounds of m,a,s,t,n,i and the sight words am, can, see, like, we, the, go, & she.
-In math, we finished up Session 8 titled Compare within 10. Students counted groups of up to 10 and then would identify which group had more/fewer. One strategy was to draw lines from each group, which gave a visual aid to compare items even if they were different shapes or in different arrangements.
-In expedition, we began the week with timelines. Thank you for your support at home to help your child write about significant events from their past, present, and future. It was for our crew to share these with one another, make connections to similar experiences, and for volunteers to highlight their important events. Next up, prairies dogs! We are going to be looking at prairie dogs as a case study of how groups of animals can work together as a crew. The Great Fuzz Frenzy was a delightful launch. On Friday, students brainstormed what they think they already know about prairie dogs and what they wonder. Next week, we will use these questions to dig in!
