Dec 8th newsletter

What a great Spanish Dance Performance the Kindergarteners put on last night! I took some flip videos that I hope to get on here soon.

Holiday Rotations are next week! Please check to see what days you volunteered and what supplies you signed up for. Volunteers are needed 8:30-10:30. All supplies are needed by Friday so we can be set up for Monday. Lomein noodles are due on Monday, has anyone signed up for them? The following items are needed too by other holiday classes: empty toilet paper rolls, empty paper towel rolls and empty/dry water bottles with lids. Please send these if you can.

December 1st

Early Release this Friday, 12/3 at 12:30

This week's curriculum:
# 12, identifying, writing, modeling
sight words: to, go (reading and writing)
letters and sounds Vv and Gg
Poems: I like School
             Where can we go?
Writing Book- At school
Reading book- We can go

We are studying the IB concepts of : Inquirers, creativity, and curiosity
Mrs. Herman came today to teach about Courage

Our current IB unit of study is : It's a wonderful world
We are learning about holiday traditions. Sharing traditions and holidays that our families celebrate and exploring some traditions from other parts of the world.  During this unit we are reading fiction and nonfiction books on holiday traditions. Learning some symbols, special foods, decorations and activities of various holidays.

December 13-17th Holiday Rotations Week
Our class will teach all the kindergarten classes about the holiday of Chinese New Years.
We need volunteers to help with these special centers all week. I need volunteers each morning from 8:30-10:30. We will be: making a dragon mask, a zodiac calendar hat, reading a guided reading book on Chinese New Years, tasting lomein noodles, getting a lucky red envelope with a candy coin, getting a Chinese zodiac calendar placemat that has all the animals for each year, hearing a story on How Buddha called the animals that created the zodiac animal calendar, seeing some symbols,places, and writing  of China.
Please, I need at least 2-3 helpers per day

We also have some volunteer work that a parent can do for us at home.
We have duplicated the masks and zodiac calendars for the hats.
I need 2-3 parents who can:

• rough cut the masks out and attach a popsicle stick with masking tape to the back,
•  trace/cut construction paper to form cone hat and attach yarn for ties
• cut out the zodiac calendar circles and attach to hats with a staple

We have the materials for these items. We just need some manpower to be ready for holiday rotation. I would need these back by next Friday, Dec 10th or sooner.

Holiday Rotation Supplies: we still need 125 red envelopes, (red is the lucky Chinese color, but if cannot get red we'll use white) and I need 5 quarts of lomein noodles-not cooked in peanut oil. I will use 1 of these a day, I could refrigerate all 5 on Monday because I am reheating them in a covered casserole each day.

Next week
Book Fair week- class will visit the fair and make a wish list on Monday

Dec 7th- Literacy Night, send in your pizza dinner reservation forms Friday,(they go home tomorrow)

Nov 9th Newsletter

This week we are working on:                   No School, Thursday
the color pink                                             November 11th!
the shape sphere (round like a ball)
letter sounds and vocabulary for N & W
number 9- modeling many ways
sight word- we
identifying numerals 1-30
number order 1-30
writing numbers 1-30
more/less, comparing numbers

learning our Thanksgiving songs for Kindergarten Pow-Wow (Nov. 22nd at 9:00)

Parent Conferences

I am working on meeting with parents of all of the

Chickadees to do our 1st quarter conference. I will be letting you know how your child is doing, what benchmarks they have achieved and what they may need to work on. If you haven't signed up for a conference, please do so on this blog sign up on the right side of the blog. It's important to try not to miss your conference time. Available time to schedule appointments is tight.

I look forward to meeting with you soon.

Teddy Bear Picnic Day- the class enjoyed bringing in their bears, having a teddy graham snack and especially listening to many bear stories. Here are a few photos. A big thank you to the parents who came to read and who sent in snacks.

               

Another way to help Haiti

Second grade is working on raising money to build 2 habitat homes in Haiti. You can donate on the following link https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=340274&supId=308893436

Check Joyner website and yahoo for the many ways Joyner is trying to help. A team of teachers are going to Haiti on spring break.

Nov 3rd Newsletter

Curriculum this week:

The color brown
sight word: am
# 8-modeling many ways (writing numeral, writing english/spanish word, ten frame, tallies, drawing a set of objects, number line circling/underlining 8, ABC line underlining/circling the 8th letter, making 8 dollars, 8 cents)
letter sounds and vocabulary for letters J and B
subitization- identifying the number for various dot patterns
identifying and putting #'s 1-20 in order
writing #'s to 20
identifying the shape- cube

Guided reading groups are working on: print concepts and reading books on their level, some groups are working on a phonics program where they use a set of letters that they manipulate to build words- these groups will bring home a phonics worksheet for homework using the same letters we used that day in class

During shared reading time we are working on the comprehension concepts of : setting, characters, sequence of events

Handwriting- we've worked on upper case letters that start at the top left corner
(B, D, E, F, H, K, L, M, N, P, R, U,V, W, Z)

In writer's workshop we've worked on:

• thinking of a topic we know (have personal experience of) that we can write on
• drawing your story
• labeling your picture
• writing something to go with your story by writing letters you hear when you say the words

Wear brown and bring your teddy bear on Friday. We'll celebrate with our teddy bear picnic at 12:15

Please sign up for your parent conference on the blog. These start on Monday, Nov 8th.

Apple Feast photos are here!
With the help of many parent volunteers and donations of supplies the class rotated through these centers and learned to compare and contrast attributes, some concept of measuring and writing down their data which we used to make a class graph.

They tasted apple juice and cider, compared apple jelly to apple butter, tasted dip with apple slices, tasted store bought to class made applesauce, made caramel apples and apple milkshakes. We listened to nonfiction and fiction books on apples and played apple games and activities.



apple milkshakes yum!!



juice or cider?



does apple butter and jelly look and taste
the same?



tasting apple sauce

making caramel apples

"Help our school help Haiti"

This spring a group of teachers are going to Haiti to bring supplies and help some schools.

Kindergarten is responsible to donate playground supplies-deflated/blow upable balls, jumpropes, etc.

Also, Mr. Knott is collecting cash to buy water filtration systems to provide clean water that will help with the Cholera problem.

Nov. 1st News updates and photos

What a great day! Thank you for my birthday surprises. The Chickadees are great at keeping secrets. I was so surprised when I returned from the office to find a party all set up! A big thank you to Mrs. Depo and to the parent helpers: Mrs. Tackett, Mrs. Lackey and Mrs. Lail. I will enjoy using my gift for quilting supplies and the treat of eating out! The gift of mini chalkboard erasers for the class will be helpful for our handwriting program.

Creepy Crawly Day

With the help of our many parent volunteers, that even included two dads, the class enjoyed six spooktacular centers.  At one center they played a boardgame which had them working on their own monster masterpieces. The next center had a "Boo" sight word game and spider dice addition math game. At the third center they created their own creepy crawly puppet. They played a count the pumpkins and turn down the correct number on the fence.  They made and ate spider bites with spooky punch. At another center they sorted and graphed autumn candy shapes. They also made various patterns using spooky foam shapes. In the afternoon we researched true facts about bats and watched a video about a bat named "Stellaluna". Then we created our bat hats.



Scholastic Book Orders are due by Friday, Nov 5th.  If possible send it in by Thursday. Remember to write checks to "Scholastic Book Club" for exact amount. If your getting a book for the class please mark it on the form or a note.

Parent conferences- a sign up sheet for 1st quarter conferences will be up soon. Check blog daily. Conferences will take about 15 minutes. Sign up button is now active on the right side of blog. Please choose a time. See you soon :)

No School on Nov 11th

Kindergarten Pow-Wow

A performance by all the kindergarten classes will be in the gym on Monday, Nov 22nd at 9:00. Meet us in the gym. Please be on time as our program is not long.

Early Release this Friday, Oct 22nd

Reminder:
Friday, Oct 22nd is early release.
Students will be dismissed at 12:30.

**Send notes each day there is a transportation change thank you

November Scholastic Book orders

Scholastic Book orders for November

Thank you, thank you!!!

We are building our listening library (cd and 3 copies of a book) with the free books and your generous donations for our classroom.

November orders are due Nov 5^th.

Checks written to Scholastic bookclubs only.

Class wish list See-Saw

2 #39 Merry Christmas Splat books

1 # 28 It’s Christmas, David!

1#68 SeeSaw Book & CD library

2 # 73 Skippyjon Jones lost in spice books

2 #16 Footprints in the snow

2 # 62 Santa Duck books

1# 22 Holiday stories with Cds

Wish list- Fire Fly

1 #46 Nov Book & cd library

2 # 52 Pip and Squeak Books

2 #5  Bear’s First Winter books

2 # 34 The littlest Christmas Star books

2 #56 Santa’s little helper

Apple Feast

The only item I see that we still need is a crockpot with extension cord.
Need this delivered on Monday and picked up on Tuesday- will need to be washed at home as we do not have facilities to clean it before returning.

Reminder need all supplies on Monday. thanks :)

October 14th

Apple Feast
Tuesday, Oct 19th

We have all items signed up for!  Thanks a bunch!
Please send in your assigned item on Monday, Oct 18th so we can have centers set up early Tuesday morning.

Our apple center volunteers need to be here about 8:45 for instruction so we can begin promptly at 9:00.

It would be helpful to have some volunteers to stay a few minutes to help us clean up apple centers so we can get the kids ready for lunch.

JYJ Jamboree- tomorrow Friday, Oct 15th 5:30-8:00?
come to the back of Joyner where the carpoolers are picked up. There will be fun games for your family to play.

Friday- Oct 22
Early release day students will be dismissed at 12:30.

Friday- Oct 29th
No school- teacher workday