The week of April 3-7.

Happy Monday!

We are beginning our farm unit this week.  We will learn about cows, pigs, sheep, and chickens!  If your child has not let you know yet, we will have chick eggs in our class tomorrow!  I have an incubator that holds 7 eggs!  Tomorrow, I will send pictures of our eggs in the incubator.  It takes 21 days for the chicks to grow, so hopefully by April 25, we will have some chicks hatching! We should have some to check out when you come to our open house on April 28!

This week we are reading about cows and writing details that we learned from our book.  The kids will pick a detail or two to write down and draw a picture about their sentence.  Each week we will do this about the animal we read about.  We are also making a cow class quilt using our hand print.

This is my favorite unit since I grew up on a farm!  We had cows and pigs too! I like to add some of my farm stories I remember.

Spelling words this week!  We are on week 5!  The words are:  at, be, this, have , from
I am hoping that the kids are remembering the words more than spelling them.  Please remember that this is the first time doing spelling tests!  They are all trying their best!  I am not concerned at all if they misspell words.  Making sure they know the words to read them, will be more beneficial at this time.  

Letter of the week:  Long Ee
sight words:  him, Dad

Theme Story:  Just the right size!  It's a farm story with a chick to spy on each page.  Cute story!

Book-it Calendar:  Please turn them in by Wednesday!  Thanks!

Class pictures are this Wednesday.  If you want one for your child, please turn in the picture order and money by Wednesday.  Individual spring pictures are Wednesday too!  You don't have to purchase them, but all will have their picture taken.

Fish bowl auction:  It was a great turn-out!  I will let the kids know tomorrow who won my pizza lunch with me!

Grade cards:  Please let me know if you need help checking out your child's grade card on Skyward.  It's so important to let your child know how proud you are of their progress!

Math this week!  
Topic 13:  Sorting, Classifying, Counting, and Categorizing Data
We will be talking about sorting by attributes such as; color, size, and shape.  Picture graphs are also part of this topic.

Coming up!
Wed. April 5       Class pictures and spring individual pictures
Fri. April 14       No school--Good Friday
Mon. April 17     inservice day--no school

Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00

The week of Mar. 27-31.

We are finally blessed with rain!  I can't wait for my grass to green up and my flowers to bloom!
Now, if only the temperature will warm up.  We had spring weather in winter and winter weather in spring!

I noticed some of you were able to get on Skyward over the weekend and check out your child's grade card.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  If you are not able to view it, please call the office and let them know.  Thank you for cheering for your child on their success in Kindergarten, or working with your child on what they need to improve on! YOU make such a difference in your child's learning!

This is our last quarter to learn all of those 50 sight words.  Please work hard with your child this quarter, so they can achieve that huge goal for kindergarten!

Fish Bowl Auction!  The auction is this Saturday from 5:00-7:30.  I have a function to go to for the Special Olympics until 6:00, but I am planning on coming to the auction by 6:30.  I hope to see some of you there!  It is a fun night for the kids!  The buy one get one book fair will also open!  It is a great time to get some free books with your child! As a reminder, kindergartners are not able to bring money on their library day to see the book fair.  A parent or adult must be with them to purchase books.  
Our class will visit the book fair next Wednesday, April 5. 

Weather Unit 
We are finishing up our weather unit this week!  We will fit in an experiment to notice how much warmer rocks, water, sand, and dirt get when in the sun and how cooler they are in the shade.  However, we may have to do it next week when it warms up!  It doesn't reach the warm temps in the mornings.

Life Science  is our next unit.   We will learn about the interdependent relationships in ecosystems:  animals, plants, and their environments.  This will lead in to our Farm unit next week through the end of April.  

Farm Day Planning Meeting is Thursday at 4:15 in the North Activity Center.  Farm Day is similar to Apple Day.  We will have stations for the kids to do farm activities, so we need volunteers to help out at the stations.  I hope you can attend the meeting!  If not, please let me know if you can help out and I'll put you on the list.  Farm day is Friday, May 5.

Letter of the week:  Short Ee
sight words:  home, over

Math this week!
Topic 12:  We are continuing with measurement focusing on capacity, length, and weight.  Our test will be on Thursday.  

Coming Up!
Thurs. Mar. 30  Farm Day Planning Meeting at 4:15 
Wed. April 5       Class pictures and spring individual pictures
Fri. April 14       No school--Good Friday
Mon. April 17     inservice day--no school
Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00

The week of March 21-24.

We finally got to enjoy spring break weather!  I had a relaxing break staying home with my kids.  Hopefully you got to enjoy some time with your kids over break!  This quarter will fly by even quicker than the last three, so enjoy every minute of your child's 4th quarter in Kindergarten!  Many fun things will be happening in our class.

This week we will be studying different types of weather.  Each day we will check the temperature and learn how to mark it on a paper thermometer.  We will also be writing what it is like each day in a weather book and notice daily changes.  This crazy spring weather will be fun to track!  :)

We have a new science curriculum this year, so it is nice to have a big book to read about the weather and talk about the beautiful pictures in it!

The sight words this week are:  come, time
Letter of the week:  Jj
spelling words:  that, was, for, on, are    Bonus word:  yellow

Verbs!  We learned what a noun is a few weeks back.  This week we are going to have fun with verbs!
Like the nouns, we will come up with descriptive sentences with action verbs and then make a paragraph with the sentences using sequence words such as; first, next, then, finally.

Open House--On April 28, I will have a Kindergarten Open House at 11:00.  We will show our farm projects, and sing songs for you!  Please put this on your calendar!  Just like class parties, parents only please.  It will be great for you to share this special Kindergarten moment with your child.  

Book it!  This is our last month for the Book-it program.  It would be awesome to have 100% turn in their calendar.  Reading with your child at home everyday is so beneficial in your child's love of reading!  They should be able to help you read easy books by sounding out 3-4 letter words and reading the sight words they know!  Thank you for making reading a fun time with your child!  


Math this week! 
Topic 12-Measurement--We will be measuring by length, height, weight, and capacity.  We will use different types of measurement such as linking cubes and yarn to measure length and height.  In Kindergarten, we use the balance scale to measure weight.  I will use measuring cups and other larger containers to measure capacity.  It's a fun topic!

Coming up!
Thurs. Mar. 30  Farm Day Planning Meeting at 4:15 
Wed. April 5       Class pictures and spring individual pictures
Fri. April 14       No school--Good Friday
Mon. April 17     inservice day--no school
Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00

The week of Mar. 6-10!

It really is the week before spring break!  Wow!  It's going to be fun 4th quarter learning about weather and climate, plants, and the relationships in Ecosystems: animals, plants, and their environments! Then in May we will do more science...Forces and Interactions: Pushes and Pulls, and Engineering Design!

We will be so busy in Kindergarten this last quarter!  Hang on tight!  Your Kindergartner will be a First Grader before you know it!

This is the last week of 3rd quarter!  I will be doing some retesting on any 3rd quarter skills your child did not master.  Check out the packet you got from conferences and see if there's anything you can review tonight.  The retesting will be tomorrow!  Thanks for all you do at home to help your child with their Kindergarten skills!

We had a fun Dr. Seuss day on Friday!  We ate Green Eggs and Ham, thanks to Mrs. Sanders making them for us!  We also made Thing One or Thing Two pictures which are hanging in the hall if you come to school.  See the pictures below!

Yearbooks!  Just a reminder that if you'd like to order a yearbook, you have to order it online!
I will send home the information again in the Friday Folders.  If you are new to CCE, the color yearbooks are well worth buying!  There will be a Kindergarten page with individual pictures and some class pics, along with other pictures throughout the yearbook of our kids!  The last day of school is yearbook signing.  The KDG classes will get together to sign each other's yearbooks.  If your child doesn't have one, they will get a sheet to have other's sign.  I do want to let you know that it is difficult for children who do not receive the nice yearbook when their friends do!  It's $16.50!  Please consider buying one for your child if possible.

Last Reminder to donate for our Fish Bowl Auction Basket!  Please send in what you can by Friday, Mar. 10!  Thank you so much!

I hope you are studying spelling words for the test on Friday!  The words are:  to, you, of, it, he.  Bonus word;  blue.

This week is Bb week!  We are doing some fun activities about bears!  We are reading Cordoroy, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, GoldiROCKS and the Three Bears, Panda Kindergarten (a nonfiction book), and The Teddy Robber.  We will make a venn diagram comparing the two Goldilocks books and talk about the differences we notice between fiction and nonfiction books about bears!

There are so many fun bear books, so I had to fit in as many as I could!  
Friday, we are going to bring teddy bears (or another stuffed animal if your child doesn't have one) to school.  They must fit in their backpack!!!  We are going to describe our teddy bear in our journal, sing songs with our teddy bear and measure it.

Sight words:  dog, baby (not required)

Math this week!
Topic 9--We are continuing with adding by thinking of facts for each number up to 10.  The kids are doing a great job understanding how to do this skill!  The test will be on Friday.
Then, we move on to measurement!

Coming up!
Wed. Mar. 8      Skate Party  6-8:00 PM
Fri. Mar.  10      Last day of 3rd quarter!
Mar. 13-17         Spring Break!
Mar. 20              No School!  Inservice/workday

Thurs. Mar. 30  Farm Day Planning Meeting at 4:15 

Things!

Green Eggs and Ham!  Mrs. Sanders brought fish cookies from the book,

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish!  Thank you!

Cat in the Hats

The week of Feb. 27-Mar. 3.

Did I just write March in the date above?  That is so hard to believe!  Our half days just fly by with my busy bees!  Today they did a journal using a noun.  They came up with awesome sentences about the noun in their pictures!  I love this time of year when they aren't afraid of writing sentences without my help!

Spelling test:  our first test is Friday!  I hope the practice has gone well.  Please make sure to look for all lowercase letters when your child is writing the words.  Thank you!

This week in Reading! 
Theme 12  The Mighty Sun
Theme story:  My Favorite Star
vocab:  glowing, heat, source
inference:  making 
letter of the week:  Ww, r-controlled vowels (ir, er, ur)
Our last two of the 50 sight words:  if, their
         We will continue with new sight words each week until school is out, but they are not part of Frye's sight words that will be on the spelling tests.  The more you read, the better reader you will become!  
We will also read a "moon" book and "planet" book this week to elaborate on our theme.

Read Across America! is tied in with Dr. Seuss Week this week!  We will be doing journals geared toward "Cat in the Hat".  Thursday is Dr. Seuss' 113th birthday!  We will do special Seuss activities on Friday, along with a special snack!  We will read two of the favorites:  The Cat in the Hat,  and Green Eggs and Ham.   Dr. Seuss has several pen names that he also used in place of his real name, including Dr. Seuss!  I'll let your kids tell you about them after I teach them!

I sent home the dress up days in honor of some of Dr. Seuss' books!  Check your child's folder for them!
Tuesday:  Hat day,The Cat in the Hat
Wednesday:  Wacky sock day, Fox in Socks
Thursday:  dress up like a Seuss character for his autobiography,  Dr. Seuss, We Love You
Friday:  Wear green for Green Eggs and Ham

Math this week:
We just took our Subtraction Math test today.  Some are still trying to understand how to write the subtraction problem when given a subtraction story.  However, we all have to remember that it is the first time they have done this.  It is just introduced in Kindergarten.  We are looking for them to be able to use manipulatives to solve a problem.  It is my suggestion to try to have your child memorize the facts to 5 before first grade to be ahead of where they expect them coming in!  It is not a KDG still to master! 

Topic 9  More addition!  We will be adding up to 10 with pictures first.  Then we will be "decomposing", which is when the answer is given first instead of last.  This is a bit confusing at first, but it's letting them know that know matter where the sum is, the problem is the same.

Coming up!
Feb. 27-Mar. 3  Read Across America
Thur. Mar. 2      Dr. Seuss' 113th birthday!
Fri. Mar.  10      Last day of 3rd quarter!
Mar. 13-17         Spring Break!
Mar. 20              No School!  Inservice/workday
Thurs. Mar. 30  Farm Day Planning Meeting at 4:15 

The week of Feb. 21-24.

Are we sure it isn't spring?  This weather is absolutely fantastic!  It seems like we never have very many San Diego spring days before it is hot!  I hope you all were able to get out and enjoy it!

Thank you to the parents that helped make our Valentines' Day Party awesome!  The kids had a blast!  See pictures below!

Once again, I want to tell all of you THANK YOU for coming to your child's conferences!  I really enjoy sharing how much I enjoy your child and watching their progress throughout the year!  If you ever have any concerns please don't hesitate to let me know.

Spelling tests!  Yes, we are going to begin taking spelling tests over our sight words next week. It will consist of five sight words and a bonus, color word. I will send out the schedule for the tests and an informative letter explaining them tomorrow.  I apologize for not having this ready at conferences! The letter also gives ten ideas to practice spelling the sight words.  I will talk to the kids about it tomorrow!
I am also going to send home a handwriting practice sheet that you can make copies of to take practice tests at home.  It will be just like the sheet your child will take the test on at school.  I will say the spelling word, then put it in a sentence, and say it again.  I will mix up the words for the test, so make sure to practice them randomly.  Thank you for studying with your child each day so they feel ready and successful!  I do feel bad for a child if they have a blank face and struggle.  I know this is a first for your child and some words will be a challenge for them.  However, learning how to spell the words will help with learning them!  They feel so good when they can spell the words when writing them!

ELA:  English Language Arts--you will be hearing this term as your child gets older.  We have been working on capitalization and punctuation all year.  Your child knows when a sentence makes sense, but they do not know that they are making sure there is a noun and verb in their sentence to make it complete.  

This week I am introducing what a noun is.  We will look for nouns (person, place, or thing) in our Scholastic magazine tomorrow, find nouns in a sentence slide Thursday, write sentences with nouns Thursday and put them in a paragraph Friday!  It will be a busy week learning about nouns!  Ask your child what a noun is each day to review!  Look for nouns around the house!

Sight words:  do, how
Letter of the week:  long u, review the short u

Math:  
Topic 8 Subtraction
We will continue to work on subtraction this week using the minus sign, learning how the "difference" is the answer to the subtraction problem, and practicing subtracting from 5.  

I will pass out subtraction flash cards on Friday.  If your child knows all of their addition facts through 5, then please begin working on the subtraction facts from 5.

It would really be helpful if your child also learned their doubles to 10. (1 + 1, 2 + 2, etc.)  This will help them in first grade when adding one and two more to a number.

Coming up!
Thurs. Feb. 23  KDG Round-up at 6 pm for incoming KDG.
Feb. 27-Mar. 3  Read Across America
Thur. Mar. 2      Dr. Seuss' birthday
Fri. Mar.  10      Last day of 3rd quarter!
Mar. 13-17         Spring Break!
Mar. 20              No School!  Inservice/workday
Thurs. Mar. 30  Farm Day Planning Meeting at 4:15 

100's Day!  Making our trail mix with our 1,400 snack pieces!  (3 kids were absent)

Valentines' Day Party!

Feb. 6-10.

Wow!  100's day is already here!  We are so excited about celebrating it tomorrow!  Please make sure to send in your child's 100 snack and 100 collection in baggies tomorrow with their name on them!

Pajama Day!!!!  The class filled up the class bucket last week, so I thought it would be great timing to have a pajama day tomorrow (Tuesday) as well!  It'll be a super-hyped day anyway, so we might as well add more hype!  LOL!  I totally ran out of time to tell the kids what I decided, so it will be a surprise to them!

Parent-Teacher conferences--All of you should have received the conference time reminder in your child's Friday Folder.  I'm assuming your times are still ok for you, if I haven't heard from you.  :)

Days off--Parent Conferences are on Wednesday all day for 1/2 day KDG.  They are after school and evening for full day KDG and 1-5.  Thursday is only full day KDG and 1-5.  I have all of my conferences on Wednesday only, due to being employed half-time.  We are also off Friday and Monday for Presidents' Day.  I'll see the kids back on Tuesday, Feb. 21!

Valentine's Day Party--  We will have our Valentine's Day Party on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14!  It is the last school day that week.  I will have sacks for the kids to decorate in our classroom, so no boxes have to be decorated at home.  Have fun with that in future grades!  We have 16 kids in our class, but only 15 valentines need to be brought since your child doesn't need to bring one for themselves.  Please have your child just write  "their name" on it.  It is much easier for them to deliver to sacks if they don't put their classmates' names on the valentine.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

Reading this week!  
We are enjoying more learning about Presidents this week!  George Washington and Abe Lincoln are our main focus.  
Last week, we read about President Lincoln's hat and how it he put notes in it to refer to. Then, we each got a top hat to cut out and make in to something.  The topic was:  It looked like Abraham Lincoln's hat, but it was...  Look for these in the hall when you come to conferences!  They had cute ideas!

sight words:  an, each  (Please keep reviewing 1st-3rd quarter words.  Some are missing words that they already passed 2nd quarter.)
Letter of the week:  Kk

Math this week!  
Topic 8  Understanding Subtraction
We are learning how to take away and then will incorporate the minus sign and make the problem a subtraction sentence.  Try to throw in subtraction problems with your child using objects around you at home or in the car!

Subtraction flashcards will come home soon!  Please review the addition flashcards before beginning the subtraction flashcards.  They definitely need to understand addition before subtraction.

Coming up!  
Tues. Feb. 7        100's day celebration!  
Wed  Feb. 15      Parent/ Teacher Conferences (same times as the fall conferences)
Feb. 16-20           No school for Conference break and President's Day.

Sunflower Quilt

We read a sunflower book, wrote details we learned, and then chose a sentence to write under our sunflower.