School Year Fun...

Staff Sing-A-Long Performance

This year to add some joy into the holiday season the staff decided to have a sing-a-long with the children.  Here are a few pictures from the event.  It was a lot of fun and the children had a great time!

Happy New Year...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday break and a happy new year!

Holidays with our Buddies...

On Tuesday we had our buddy meeting with our 3rd grade buddies from Mrs. Ryba's class.  In November and December we have been discussing kindness in our meetings; therefore, we decided to make Holiday cards for our friends.  We brainstormed ideas on what to write to our friends (the children had some awesome thinking).  Then, the children decorated the cards and the placed a candy cane inside of them.  The children were thrilled to give them to their buddy as a sign of kindness!  We also read the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and found examples of kindness.  Thanks to Mrs. Ryba's 3rd graders for another great meeting!

Last week of 2011...

This will be our last week of school for 2011.  It is amazing how quickly the year has gone and how much the children have learned.  We will not be having Reading Street lessons this week; therefore there will not be a Family Ties or Reader this week.  We will be reviewing all learned letter sounds, decoding, letter names, and a few various other items this week.  I encourage you to still take time to read to your child and continue to work on letter sounds and simple 3 letter words.  This is important as we will be having our DIBELS assessment when we return from break.  In addition, the children will be bringing home a journal to be able to write in during their time off.  When we return we will be doing a lot more writing and journaling.  This is probably one of my favorite things to teach young children; I love writing.  I look forward to reading what the children did over their time away from school.  The children can return these to school on January 3rd or 4th.  I will read them and allow the children to read them to the class.  (Please note I do not expect words to be written correctly.  I encourage the children to segment the word and write the sounds they hear.  For example, if your child was trying to write "pick," I would expect to see the word "pik" or "pic."  If your child was trying to write "present," I would probably see "prznt" or "prezt")

In addition, I have completed the first round of math assessments.  Many children are having difficulty with counting to 50.  Many children are able to count to 39 and then skip to 50 or they make it to 49 and skip to 60.  The second quarter requires children to be able to count to 50.  The children have also been exposed to 4 3-D shapes, which they will be assessed on this coming week or when we return from break.  These shapes are: cube, sphere, cone, and cylinder.


I hope you all have a great holiday break!  I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on January 3rd for the B class and January 4th for the A class!  

Party...

We are preparing for our winter celebration next week.  We will have our celebration beginning around 1:45 and lasting until 2:40ish.  The children will be having a snack, making a craft, and playing a game.  Please do not send in any items, unless you are asked.  I do not want too much food as I do not want to be wasteful.  In addition, we have various food allergies in the room and my goal is to be able to have all children participate and enjoy the foods available!  If you are willing to send in items, please leave a comment and I will let you know what is needed.  Thank you for all of your support!

Another Great Week...

This coming week we are going into Unit 3 of Reading Street and will be reading "Little Panda."  We will be working on two letters and their associated sounds: Nn and Bb.  The letter Bb is a short sound; therefore, please do not have your children add the "uh" sound.  In addition, we will have three new sight words: she, me, with.  We will also be continuing to work with our other sight words and using them in writing sentences.  Please encourage your child to be writing at home on their days off.  We love to see what your child does on their day off and they can bring their writing into class and share.  In our centers we are working with writing, math, art, and reading.  The children are able to view and browse through various holiday books and choose their favorite, in the math center children are exploring 2-D and 3-D shapes, the art center the children are working on creative thinking with various items, and finally the writing center we will be working on writing about the holidays!

In math, we will work on two new 3-D shapes.  We will work on the cone and the cylinder.  The children are required to identify these two 3-D shapes for the report card.  The cone is typically an easy one to remember because of ice cream and a party hat.  The cylinder is harder for the children because the children do not use this shape or have experience.  The children will work with all the 3-D shapes and explore them in the way they move, look, and other properties.  In addition, we are also reviewing 2-D shapes and the similarities and differences of 2-D and 3-D.

Finally, we are planning the "Winter Celebration" for the children.  The celebration will be held on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd at 1:45.  We are asking families not to send in items unless asked too.  This is important as we do have allergies in the classroom and we want to make sure we are able to include everyone and not to exclude them.  We will be sending out more information in the coming week!  We appreciate your patience and your help as we plan a great celebration for the children.

This Week's Fun...

This week, we will continue our work with the letter Ii.  The children did very well with the short Ii sound last week and we are looking forward to creating more words to blend with the letters we have learned.  Our sight words/popcorn words will remain the same this week, “for” and “he”.   Please practice these words, and previously learned sight words/popcorn words, with your children at home!  It should take them no more than 3 seconds to identify the words.

We will be extending our work with segmentation this week and continuing to bridge this into our writing.  Last week, we saw some amazing writing in our writing centers.  The students are beginning to segment the words and write the sounds that they hear.   Please remember when you are looking at their work, it is developmentally appropriate for children to only hear the first and/or last sound of a word.  Some children may be able to hear and write the middle sound too, but remember this is the last sound the children hear!

In math, we will be introducing the concept of 3 dimensional shapes.  On Monday/Tuesday, children will be introduced to the sphere.  For many children, this is an easy shape for them to relate to as they have experience with baseballs, basketballs, tennis balls, toy balls, etc.  On Wednesday/Thursday, children will be introduced to the cube.  Again, many children can relate to this shape as they have experience with building blocks, cereal boxes, wrapped present boxes, etc.  To extend their learning, you can have your child sort different 3 dimensional shapes found in your home!  This is a fun way for them to learn and play at home!  As we learn our 3 dimensional shapes, we will be comparing them to our previously learned 2 dimensional shapes! 

As a class, we will also continue counting to 50.  Counting will be done daily, as children need to be able to count to 50 by the end of the second quarter.  Please encourage your child to count at home!  The more practice they have, the better counters they will become!

We have been completing many 2^nd quarter assessments over the past few weeks and we are very pleased with the progress we are seeing.   Thank you, again, for all of your extra support at home and continuing to review activities/lessons with them at home when they are absent!

Great Bobcats...

As a district and a school we discuss how to be a buddy and not a bully.  In addition, at W-T we have have a bobcat pledge, which we recite and discuss.  The Bobcat Pledge is:

I will be responsible for my own actions.
I will be respectful to classmates and adults.

I will take pride in my work.

I will stop, think, and make a good choice.

When I notice a child following the bobcat pledge they can earn a pom-pom for our jar.  This happens throughout the whole school; therefore, a child can earn a pom-pom from any staff member.  When our jar is completely full, we earn a special surprise.  We were able to fill our jar this week and will be having our surprise today for the 'B' class and next Friday for the 'A' class.  When your child comes home you can ask them "How were you a good bobcat today?"  I am very proud of their hard work thus far this year!