PLAY DAY SHIRTS!!

Last week we sent home this form for Play Day shirts and shorts. We haven't received many orders, so we wanted you to know if you accidentally threw away the shirt do not fret... you can go online and order it! :) All shirt orders are due by FEBRUARY 5!!

If you wish to order one online, click HERE. 

(We made it into a hotlink to take you right to the sight. Please share with other Chimney Lakes parents if they lost the paper too.)

Everyone in school will have the same Play Day design, but we are color specific for each grade level. Kindergarten is Hunter Green. 

**If you plan on volunteering or even just coming to cheer your child on during Play Day~ help support our P.E. Department by purchasing a Play Day shirt. :) 

Patrol Fundraiser!!

We really want to help support our Patrols in raising money to visit Washington, D.C. and Friday, Feb. 1 you can get that chance!! (We know it's also animal dress up day... so maybe you can wear an animal hat.:)   Think about it!)

ALL STUDENTS that submit $1.00 to their Teacher can wear a hat at school. This is even BIGGER than what we do on our Fun Friday Hat Day... the students are allowed to wear them in the hallways, during lunch, inside the classroom, at Recess and even during Resource!!!

If you wish for your child to participate, please send $1.00 in a ziploc or envelope labeled with your child's name and the words HAT DAY. :)

Sunglasses Day

The students were too funny in their glasses!! Some had so much fun wearing them that they didn't even come over for pictures. haha So if your child is missing... know that they probably had their glasses on~ but they didn't want to stop playing!

Week of Jan. 28

We have a busy week of learning and a FUN week of KINDNESS ACTIVITIES!! (Make sure to look back at the Kindness Challenge Blog post, if you forget what the activities are.) The most exciting one for us is the Fun Friday Activity~ Dress like an animal or wear animal print!! And Giovanni will be bringing in Fun Friday Snack that day!!

We have many Resources this week and we will be sending home our February Calendar so you know what events are coming up. **The big one we are most excited about is the Zoo Field Trip!! ALL MONIES for the trip are due by February 6.** 

MATH
This week we will finish our unit our measurement and take our unit test at the end of the week. We will be continuing to use the vocabulary words: longer, shorter, taller, heavier, and lighter. Students will continue comparing different objects in size and be able to use the vocabulary correctly. Students will also get the chance to use a scale/balance in class to understand weight. Please continue to review the vocabulary with your child and complete the homework that is sent.
**We will also be doing Quarter 3 testing this week on counting to 75, number recognition to 15, and counting to 100 by 10s.***

WRITING

This week we will have a writing test. The students will be given a picture and expected to write a sentence that matches the picture. The students will have two days to complete this. Remind your child there is no need to rush and that they should use the word wall for sight word help. Also~ SPACES!! All words are separated by a finger space.:)
Here's a rhyming sight word video to practice some sight words. 

SAXON/READING SKILLS

We are doing a lot of coding in Saxon!! Vowels, blends, double consonants and that's not all~ more is to come... make sure to be looking over your child's Saxon papers. We complete papers 4 times a week.
Our focus letter is letter Ee. Quite a few students have difficulty producing this letter sound, so make sure to check out Jack Hartmann's video.
Our Blend this week is GL- and our word family is the -ed family. Check out the slideshow and Youtube video below. :)

Our Sight Words this week are: do, been, your, little
Also, make sure to be practicing a rhyming word for a given word and ending sounds of pictures!! We will be testing on them beginning this week. 

READING
We will be focusing on the book Polar Bears by Dee Phillips. We will be discussing this informational text and completing a HAVE, CAN & ARE Chart. Students will be recording this information in their Reading Journals.
I have a feeling the students are going to love this book and it's going to be great for our discussions!!  I wasn't able to find a video of the book online... but I did find this youtube video. Enjoy watching it and learning about Polar Bears.
**Please remember your child will have a short comprehension test on the topic of Polar Bears. ** 

Substituting Beginning Sounds

Every day during Saxon time the students practice this skill ~substituting the beginning sound of a word. Below I'll post the conversation so that you can do it with your child at home. :) They are getting pretty good... so be ready to be amazed!!

**When you feel as if your child has mastered substituting the beginning sound. Move on to substituting the ending sound of words.**

Teacher: "Say lap."
Students: "Lap."
Teacher: "Now change the /l/ sound to a /t/ sound.  What's the new word?"
Students: "Tap!"


Teacher: "Say dog."
Students: "Dog."
Teacher: "Now change the /d/ sound to a /fr/ sound.  What's the new word?"
Students: "Frog!"

Saxon Lesson~ Is it a K or a C?

Yesterday we had our first Saxon lesson figuring out when to use a k or c for the /c/ sound. The students did great for their first day, but they are going to need a lot of practice!!

Here are the rules:

When hearing the /c/ sound before an ---> e, i or y. Use letter k.

When hearing the /c/ sound before an ---> a, o, u or other consonant. Use letter c.

Pictures that were in Saxon and you can use to practice with your child are: 

cat, (doctor's) kit, cake, cot, key, kitten, coat... Have fun and let us know what other examples your children come up with. :) 

Kindness Challenge Week

Today everyone brought home a Kindness paper. :) 

Next week we will be participating in the Great Kindness Challenge. We hope that you will promote kindness with your child at home too! :)

Below you will see the schedule for school and then the Family Checklist paper. Enjoy!!

Lunch Pictures :)

As you may have read in the last post... we had to reschedule our Sight Word Picnic. But a few parents still showed up anyway to eat lunch with their SMARTIE. :) Here are pictures of Zoe and her Dad, Giovanni with his Mom and sister, William Scully with his Grandma & Kaleah with her Mom and Dad. 

Enjoy the sweet smiles!! 

RESCHEDULED ** Sight Word Picnic

We had our Sight Word Picnic scheduled today, but due to the weather... we are rescheduling the Picnic for next Thursday, January 31. :) 

We are sorry for any inconveniences this may have caused anyone.

Week of Jan.22

It's going to be a busy 4 day week! We've got lots of lessons planned, three Resources, an Early Release Day, a Sight Word Picnic and on Friday... we've got Sunglasses Day! Also, Arianya will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks. :) 

MATH

We are going to be continuing our lessons this week on Measurement more specifically using the vocabulary words taller, shorter, and starting point. Towards the end of the week we will begin learning about weight and using the words heavy and light. Students will have the opportunity to use the vocabulary while using scales for different items in the class. Along with measurement we are continuing practicing counting to 100 with a focus to 75. Our fluency activity this week is practicing learning and using the different combinations to make 5. 

WRITING

Our writing lessons this week continue to piggy back but we've been doing the past few weeks... writing sentences that match the given picture. Please make sure to be practicing at home. We've noticed that the students are doing better looking at the Word Wall to find the sight words they need for their sentences. However, unknown words that they need to chop up and write are lacking. 

Example~ mittens. We expect the students to write the sounds they hear when they "chop" the word up. Which means we would expect to see *mitns*, or something similar like *mits, mtns, etc. These are all acceptable at the current time. 

SAXON/ READING SKILLS

You'll notice there is a ton going on with reading skills!! Third quarter in Kindergarten really expects the students to be using their sounds in all aspects. So we have blends, word families, ending sounds, rhyming... make sure to be practicing!

Our blend is fr-: french fries, Friday, freedom, etc. Our Sight Words are: part, time, how & or. Our word family is the -at family; bat, flat, pat, etc. ("at" is not an acceptable response as a word for the word family. )

Many of the students are having difficulty with rhyming. This quarter they are expected to give a response for a word that rhymes with the word they are given. Our hope is that the word family practice will help with this skill. So make sure to practice. :) 

READING
We are focusing again on the story from last week! Snowmen at Night. We will work on retelling the events in the order that they happened. We will do this with pictures, make sure to discuss the story at home. :) 

Boots Day

The students were too cute showing off their boots during Recess! Something about boots makes these sweet students smile and act super SILLY!! haha

Enjoy the pictures!!

Library Field Trip!!

We had the best Field Trip to the Webb Wesconnet Library!! Our bus driver was the sweetest and said our class was the best group of students she's had in a long time... The Librarians and the checkout clerks were the sweetest and were SOOO excited to see our students. It was a GREAT TRIP!!

You'll see lots of pictures at the end of the post, along with a few videos. :) We are crossing our fingers that the videos play correctly, so that you can experience what the students went through. Also, the titles of the books that were read during Story Time were:The Book With No Pictures, MOO! and Duck! Rabbit!. These were three fantastic books!!! The next time you are at the library, consider checking them out. :) 

And here are all of our great books leaving the library in a cooler! haha We didn't want the students to accidental leave things on the school bus. :)