Week of April 29

Another week of Kindergarten's Alphabet Countdown!! :) Make sure to check the Conduct sheet and see whats happening every day.

Resources this week are Mon-Art and Tues- P.E. You'll notice we don't have Resource again after this until May 10. This is due to Upper Grades taking the Art and Music Tests for the District.

Friday is Hat Day and no one has signed up for Fun Friday Snacks. So let us know if you're interested. 

MATH

We are feep into subtraction. Some problems the students get and we can see a clear understanding of "take away." Then there are some problems that they just haven't grasped. So make sure to be practicing take away at home. It's great to do this during dinner when the students are eating.

Here are two videos for subtraction practice:

WRITING

As mentioned the past few weeks... it's Kindergarten Memory Book time. :) 

SAXON/ READING SKILLS

So last week was a little busy with i-Ready Reading testing, so we didn't get to complete all of our Saxon papers. So this week we are practicing the "oooooooo" sound of double O. It can be tricky, so make sure to discuss it with your child. 

Our sight Words are: our, say, any & through. Our blend is SN- and our focus vowel is U (long and short).

READING

We are going to be reading Stephanie's Ponytail. We are discussing the main idea of the story and thinking of other stories we have listened to that are similar. ( I wasn't impressed enough with the vocabulary to focus on it this week.)

Cowboy and Cowgirl Day :)

Sometimes time gets away from us and I forget to post the photos from Fun Fridays... sorry guys! Here are the pictures from Cowboy and Cowgirl Day. :) 

Enjoy!!

Important Dates!!

There are a few important dates in May and we wanted to list them now, so that everyone has the necessary time to request time off of work, if they choose to do so. 

Thursday, May 23rd is our big International Fair Day. :) PTA and the International Day Committee need lots of volunteers. Please think about donating some of your time.

Friday, May 24th at 1:00p.m. is our Kindergarten Award Ceremony. Notice we do not say Graduation. Not all of the Kindergarten students go on to First Grade, so it is only an Award Ceremony. 
Here are the following awards that are given out at the Award Ceremony for Kindergarten:
* Kindergarten Completion Certificate - ALL students receive this one
* Academic Excellence- ALL E's in Reading and Math for the year
* Academic Achievement- a combination of ALL S+ and E's for the year
* Excellent Social Growth and Development - ALL S+'s for the year
* Perfect Attendance - 0 absences for the year
* Top Reader Award - One student in each Kindergarten class is chosen for completing and turning in the most book logs.

Friday, May 31 is the Last Day of School. It is an Early Release Day and our Extended Day Program is closed. Please make necessary arrangements for your child's dismissal. :)

Week of April 23

So it's only a  four day week, but it's going to be BUSY!! We have PE on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Media on Thursday. Friday is Fancy Friday and Haleigh brought in Fun Friday Snacks!! 

Tuesday is our Dad's Events ~ Dad's ROCK!! I'll be there volunteering so I hope to see lots of you stop by. The event begins at 6:00 in the Multi Purpose Room. Wednesday is an Early Release Day!

And... we begin Alphabet Countdown on Wednesday!! Make sure to check the golden half sheets that go home. :) 

ooh I almost forgot!!! We will be submitting Progress Report (PR)Grades on Wednesday. We are pretty much done with our PR testing. We just have a few tests to make up for the absentee people. 

MATH

We are continuing addition~ please make sure to review vertical addition. We noticed the orientation of the math problem confused a lot of our students. 

You'll notice we're back to visiting number bonds in preparation for subtraction. :) This is a tricky concept. so be sure to practice at home and watch our Youtube videos!!

WRITING

We are full blown into our Kindergarten Memory Books. They'll be a big surprise until their unveiling after our Kindergarten Award Ceremony on Friday, May 24. :) 

SAXON/READING SKILLS

This week Saxon has us reviewing the /th/ sound. (Please make sure your child's tongue sticks out when making this sound or they will produce it the wrong way. Then Saxon is moving on to the /oo/ vowel blend. oo makes two sounds and we will be coding them both ways. Underlined with a breve on top to say "uh" as in hook, book, foot, etc. Then underlined with macron on top to say "ooooo" as in broom, root, boo, etc. 

Also, we are focused on the short and long O sound. Our blend this week is SM and our Sight Words are: could, good, name & way. Check out the slideshows below. :) Along with the Sight Word Video by Jack Hartmann. 

READING

So last weeks Vocabulary Test showed me that we need another week of practice before the i-Ready Test begins. So we will have another week of discussing the vocabulary in a story and taking a test on two different Friday. The story is titled Chickens Aren't the Only Ones by Ruth Heller. The vocabulary words are: oviparous, naturally, mammal, wild, tame, extinct, reptiles, amphibians & guard. 

Week of April 15

We have a busy four day week coming up... we are getting in our Progress Report Testing. So make sure your child gets a good nights sleep so that they do well on the Tests. :) 

Our Resources this week are: Monday~Music (Broach), Tuesday~Art (Phillips) and Thursday~P.E.There is No School on Friday and No School on Monday, enjoy the four day weekend!! :) And have a Happy Easter!! 

MATH

We are diving head first into addition using cubes, pictures, number lines (number paths) and ten frames. Make sure to be reviewing the Math Worksheets that go home. Our test has problems taken directly from the papers. 

Also, practice number writing to 20. We noticed quite a few reversals written and students lose points when that happens. 

WRITING

We just finished our All About Me Reports. So now we are starting our Kindergarten Memory Books. The students take great pride in these books and we don't want to rush them... so we're starting them early. :) 

SAXON/ READING SKILLS

We are discussing Digraph th. Saxon offers two ways to code the th depending on where it is located in a word. We will only be underlining it. This is what we have done with every digraph in Saxon. 

Our focus Vowel this week is i. We will be discussing words that have the short and long i sound. Check out the slideshow below to practice.

Our blend this week is SK-. Students may confuse the sc- with sk-, at the current time it is okay. 

Our Sight Words are just, then, went & things. As mentioned last week in the Weekly Post, practice reading Sight Words!!

READING

Our story is Hey, Little Ant by Phillip & Hannah Hoose. Last week got kind of crazy and I didn't feel the students had enough practice to do well on a Vocabulary test. So we will be completing the test this week. The vocabulary words are: squish, mates, rude, crook & decide. As mentioned, the students will be given two words and they will need to write the definition or draw a picture illustrating the word. 

Baby Sawyer James!!!

It's time to announce Sawyer James' arrival!! The students have been anticipating Sawyer's arrival and they are so happy the time has finally come to see him. Also, many of you have asked about Mrs. Croft and I will let you know she's doing great!! Her and Mr. Croft are quickly adjusting to being a family of 3, along with their dog Tramp. :)

Sight Word Lunch at the Cheetah Cafe

Due to testing we were not able to have our Sight Word Picnic like we normally would... but we improvised by eating together at the Cheetah Cafe. :) The students loved getting to sit at the circle tables and chit chat the whole time. 

Make sure to congratulate these Smarties when you see them. And we hope to have a lot more at our next Sight Word event!!!

Sunglasses Day

Finally... we have pictures from Sunglasses Day!! I've been having issues again with my Apple Computer (it's old!!), but I finally got the pictures available. :) 

Enjoy!!

Week of April 8

We have a busy week of Resources, Learning and hopefully... Mrs. Croft has Baby Sawyer. :) (Her due date is this Wednesday and the students are hopeful for a baby!!!) Our Resources are Monday to Thursday and go accordingly: Media, Art, Music & Art. Then on Friday we have Cowboy and Cowgirl Day!! And it's Noah Williams' Birthday. :) 

Also, we mentioned last week about not having anyone signed up for Fun Friday Snacks. Last Friday we went through all of our leftover snacks and juices. Hopefully we have someone sign up for this Friday. :) Just send us an email.

MATH

We are continuing our new unit on addition with word problems using number bonds, a number line, and math symbols. This unit uses the foundation from last unit to continue learning and practicing putting two numbers together to make a new larger number. The number line can be tricky for students so please make sure to review it with them. We will continue to use the number line in our next unit with subtraction. 

WRITING

We are finishing up our All About Me Report Books. Look for them to come home at the end of the week. :)  

SAXON/ READING SKILLS

Saxon is focusing on the sh blend. We did this last quarter, so I'm hopeful that the students will ease into coding it and using the /sh/ sound. They're also focusing a lot on Sight Words. Which is great, because this quarter our goal is 80 words!! :)

Our focus blend is PR- and our Medial Vowel is E. Remember to practice the slideshow with your child and go over the short e and long e sound.  Our sight words for the week are: know, with, back & after. 

ooh I almost forgot... make sure to be practicing lowercase letter writing. We'll be taking our test Friday. Perfect scores earn a Treasure Box!!

READING

This week our story is Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini. Instead of focusing on multiple skills. I decided to focus on vocabulary. :) We will discuss how many words have multiple meanings... but we want to know the meaning of words in this story. We will aim to make three Journal entries that showcase the meaning of a word with definition and picture. 

Here are the words we will focus on: delicious, plump, spell, gear, stared, lumbered, surrender & threatened. Make sure to discuss these words with your child. Two of the words will be chosen for the test on Friday. The students will be expected to write the definition or illustrate the meaning of the word. 

April Calendar