What a week!

 I am so glad we didn't have another snow day today because our 100th day was just too fun to have to wait all weekend for! The kids thought today was the best day ever and my PM class told me about 100 times how I awesome I am.

I think they had fun. :0)

The most popular activity was our 100 snack and I will let the photos do the talking!

(there are lots!)

Next week we are focusing on the letter l and the word little. I will also be assessing students on their progress in the "tricky sounds" that we have been working on such as the long vowel sounds, /oo/ as in moon, /ar/ as in car, /-ed/, and /ing/. Because the assessment process is time consuming, I will not introduce a new sound next week.

In Math we are continuing to practice teen numbers.

We are making good progress on our bears and the Teddy Bear Parade is fast approaching. We are looking to do that the week before spring break, but have not set a specific date and time yet. The kids are working on sewing the right side and then we will start stuffing our bears!

Conferences are also coming up on March 17th and 18th and I will provide more information on that soon.

98...99...100...oops

When I sent home February calendars I put the 100th day on the wrong date. We will do our special 100th day activities on Thursday February 24th instead of Wednesday the 23rd. We are not having a party that day, however we do have some special activities and a "100 snack" so I would love some parent help if anyone is available to come in. I think I was not accounting for not having school on Monday due to President's Day so my calculation of when the 100th day would fall was off.

Speaking of being off, I need to send home a revised February calendar for the PM class because again, I was off on the specials schedule. I must have been distracted on calendar making day.... I noticed yesterday that the schedule said Library was last Friday and it was actually yesterday so I have to adjust that. I will send home a new copy in the folders on Friday.

Sorry for the mix-ups!

Valentine's Day

Thank you very much to all of the parents who came to help out with the parties today. I am so appreciative of all your support and generosity. You are wonderful! I posted pictures from both parties on our Kindergarten shutterfly account, so take a look. You can also upload any of your own photos as well. I am trying to label each album with either AM or PM to keep the classes separate.

You can log on with my school email address: ktoppel@ttsd.k12.or.us
the password is 2010kinder.

I also posted some pictures of the kids sewing their bears and other photos of the kids doing some sorting activities. Enjoy!

Sorting

Math:

This week we have been working on sorting in math. We started with paper cards that have images of circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles in different sizes on them and then we moved on to collections of different items which are a bit more fun to work with.

We have talked about sorting things by color, size, and shape and the kiddos have practiced sorting different collections. Some of the items they have sorted are rocks & shells, bottle caps, colored pasta, keys, screws & bolts, buttons, and bread tags. Part of the process is being able to explain to a partner or to me how they decided to sort their items.

Here are some pics from math this week:

Celebrations:

Monday February 14th we will have Valentine's Day parties in class and on Wednesday February 23rd we will celebrate the 100th day of school! Both occasions will be lots of fun. The students made heart shaped holders for their Valentines and the students who have already brought in their cards have delivered them to their classmates' hearts. We have some awesome moms who have been planning fun Valentine activities for Monday and I know the kiddos are looking forward to opening all of their Valentines and treats.

In this week's Friday Folders you will find instructions for one of our 100th day activities. I am asking that each child bring in a collection of 100 items. I will post more info about our 100th day celebrations as we get closer to that date.

You will also find your child's report card and a copy of the Kindergarten assessment in the Friday Folder this week. Another reason for celebration as the children have made lots of progress since the beginning of the year! 

This week

I would like to extend a big thanks to the following parents who have been in to help with our Teddy Bear Project!

Nikole Emerson

Elsa Alonzo

Angelica Basurto

Melanie Espinoza

Debi Scott

Katie Webb

Ron Sapp

Kristin Trerise

Brandi Coffman-Luckcuck

It truly makes such a difference to have your support and the kids are so excited about this very special project! We are a little farther along in the morning, but both classes are doing a great job. 

This is what we have going on this week:

Reading: 

We are focusing on the letter e, the /oo/ sound like in room, moon, and zoom and the sight word this.

Writing:

In addition to journal writing, we are starting a book about the process of making our Teddy Bears. Parent volunteers have been photographing the kiddos as they work on their bears so that each child can create a book documenting the process of their work. Rather than the kids coming up with the writing on their own, these pages contain sentence frames and the kids will suggest words that we can write in to describe what they have done for each step of the process. Today we worked on completing the sentence

First, I sewed _________ and ___________ on my  bear. 

The children wrote in 2 eyes and then 1 heart in the spaces and we will add a photo once I get them printed.

Math:

Today we talked about both 2-D and 3-D shapes. We talked about how 2 dimensional shapes like circles, rectangles, squares, and triangles are flat compared to 3 dimensional shapes like cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders which take up space. Since the concept of 3-D is pretty tricky to understand, I related it to 3-D movies where things pop out compared to regular movies where the images are just flat on the screen. The kids got to talk with partners to share examples from real life where they have seen each of the 2-D and 3-D shapes.

We will also begin working on sorting this week with different colored cards that show different shapes. Students will sort by color and then also by shape and size.

Fun Stuff:

On Wednesday or Thursday we will make special holders for Valentine cards that will get hung in the hallway. Then students can start delivering their Valentine cards in preparation for our party and Valentine exchange on Monday. I needed to change the party times a bit in order to not conflict with the ELD schedule so the new times are as follows:

AM 9:00-10:00 for Valentine activity, Valentine exchange and snack followed by conversation heart graphs from 10:00-10:30 during ELD time

PM 12:45-1:15 for Valentine activity, 1:15-1:45 for conversation heart graphs, then 1:45-2:25 for Valentine exchange and snack.

These times are different than the times listed on the February calendar I sent home.

Literacy Bags:

Parents who have children participating in the Literacy Bags rotation, please make sure to check the items against the checklist prior to returning the bags. We have had several activity pieces and books go missing and this really affects the success of the program for children who receive the bags with items missing.

Also, please make sure to return the bags on Monday. Thanks for your support. We really want to do our best to keep the rotation flowing smoothly which means bags need to be back on time with all items included.

Off To a Good Start

Bears
Thanks to Nikole Emerson and Ron Sapp for helping us get off to a great start with our Teddy Bear projects. Students began sewing eyes and hearts on their bears today and will continue with this first step all week. Since we are just starting out and parent helpers are working one on one with children, parents were able to work with about 4-6 kids today. All the children were really excited and anticipating their turn to work on their bears!

Art Literacy
Our Art Literacy has been moved to Thursday of this week, so we will have fun learning about a new artist and making some cool projects!

Vmath
We had some fun after school today with the families who came to learn about Vmath. A few kiddos tried it out for the first time and they loved it! The great thing about Vmath is that kids get to work at their own pace and their own level which means it's great for everyone! Children who need additional practice can repeat activities and practice what we have been working on in the classroom and children who are ready for more of a challenge can try some harder activities.

I highly recommend that you give it a try! www.vmathlive.com
Click on Sign in and then enter your child's log on information.**


**Tamie Lamb went ahead and changed log in names so they are less complicated for Kinder students. I am going to send home another instruction sheet on Thursday that includes your child's new log in name and password. If you want this info prior to Thursday, please email me or give me a call and I am happy to share it. The log in name (for most) will be 23 followed by the child's first name. The password is the child's 6 digit school ID number which is the same as it was when the first info sheet went home. Tamie is able to view which children had already logged on prior to today, so she chose not to change the log in names of those children to prevent confusion, however if your child has already been playing Vmath games and you would like to have a simpler log on name, please let me know and Tamie can easily change it.  If you want your child's info prior to Thursday, please email me or give me a call.

I hope to use my projector and laptop to show the kids some of the games that are available to get them excited about the site. It really is terrific and I have heard stories about kids making HUGE gains in math because they love playing which results in lots of math practice. Please try it out and let me know what you think!

Reading

I made a mistake this weekend when I wrote down our sight word for this week. We are actually focusing on the word "for" not the word "are." Tomorrow we will make our die cut words and learn our new song!

Friday Already?

The weeks just keep flying by, I can't believe it's Friday already. I am looking forward to a road trip up to Seattle this weekend to see a friend from high school that recently moved out this way from Boston.

Here's a little review of what we have been up to this week:

Math

We are continuing to focus on the teen numbers. Our puppet friend "Ten Bug" has helped the kiddos learn about making groups of ten and separating the ten from the ones. Then we do a little ten bug magic with the number tiles to show how the number representing the ones can cover the zero in the ten to show the teen number.

Writing

Thursday and Friday we spent some time doing journal writing. Now that the kids are doing a great job "breaking it down" and sounding out words, I have started asking them a question and having them write a sentence to answer. This week I asked them what they want to be when they grow up. We started with a partner activity during which each kiddo got to tell their partner what they want to be when they grow up. Then when we shared with the whole class, the children had to share what their partner wanted to be so I could reinforce the importance of listening to the other person. Once we shared some ideas, the kiddos got their journal paper to write a sentence and draw a picture to go with it. We had some great work and I will scan some of their work to post here. I am going to also put the pages together to make a class book because I really want the kids to feel proud of their work and to be encouraged to take their time and do their best.

Reading

For the past few weeks, we have been working on some "First Grade Sounds." I introduced some long vowel sounds and the double e and both classes have done a wonderful job sounding out some more challenging words. We talk about the "helper e" and how e helps the vowels say their names. I am so impressed with how much the kiddos are improving and very excited to see them blossoming! Next week, on Monday and Tuesday we will be focusing on /o_e/ and reading words like home, rope, and tone. We will also review the letter r and the sight word "for."

Literacy Bags

I hope that you are enjoying the literacy bags. Thanks for taking good care of them and returning them on time. I can see how excited the kids get when they arrive on Fridays and see their bags hanging on their cubby hooks, so it seems like the program is going really well! I had two girls in the afternoon class overjoyed and thanking me when they saw which bags they got to take home today. We have had a few books and items go missing and I have really appreciate parents letting me know when they receive a bag that has something missing. That way I can look at who the previous borrower was and try to track things down.

Fun Stuff
On Monday, both classes will have Art Literacy with Katie Webb, which is always fun. We are also starting our Teddy Bear projects and I know everyone is excited and looking forward to that. I really appreciate all of the parents who are volunteering their time to come in and help with this very big project and parents who were able to do some prep work at home. You are all wonderful!

Have a great weekend!!