Holiday Week!

Enjoy the pictures of our students participating in Candy Cane Day, Reindeer Day, and Pajama Day.
Happy Holidays to everyone! Wishing everyone a safe and restful break! See you in 2020!

Holiday Party 12/18

We had soooooo much fun at our Holiday Party on Wednesday! Ms. Conner organized 6 different crafts that our students could participate in, and afterwards we enjoyed yummy pizza and donuts! We want to thank every parent and family member that came. We couldn't have done it without all your help!!
Shoutout to Grayson's mom, Kenza's mom and sister, Nicholas's mom, and Cayson's mom and sister for joining us! Thank you to all the parents that sent in the party contributions and supplies. Our students brought home all the crafts they made during our party and during Holidays Around the World on Thursday. If your child was absent, we will hold onto their items until after Winter Break. We hope you enjoy the fun pictures of our students at our party!

Holiday Party Tomorrow 12/18

Tomorrow 12/18 at 12:00pm we will have our Holiday Party! Our students will participate in making various holiday crafts and enjoy some yummy treats as well. Parents are welcome to join us! Just let us know so we can have a count of how many parents to expect. We thank everyone once again for the Holiday party contributions! We look forward to celebrating with our students!!

Week of December 16

We are so excited to be celebrating the Holiday season with our students while still learning this week! We will be participating in Holidays Around the World throughout the week where we will learn about holiday traditions celebrated in the USA, the Netherlands, Italy, England, Germany, and Mexico. We will also be having our Holiday Party this Wednesday at 12:00pm. More information will be sent home or posted throughout the week. We want to thank all the families that have sent in the Holiday party contributions and Holidays Around the World materials. We couldn't do it without all your support, so thank you once again!!

Our resources this week are Spanish, Media, Music, and P.E. We will be watching the 4th Grade Shakespeare performance on Monday morning.

Chimney Lakes is continuing with Holiday Dress Up Days that our students can participate in if they'd like to:
Monday - Candy Cane Day (wear red and white, accessorize with candy canes)
Tuesday - Reindeer Games Day (wear antlers and red nose)
Wednesday - Ugly Sweater Day
Thursday - Pajama Day

Due to our Holidays Around the World schedule we will not have regular time for all of our subjects. We will wrap up our Comparing Numbers unit in math. We are also finishing up our Reading and Math testing for report cards.

Just a reminder that Winter Break begins this Friday and students are to return to school on Tuesday January 7, 2020.

Holiday Shirts and Socks Day

So many of our students participated in this holiday dress up day. There were so many holiday shirts with Christmas colors, jokes, and pictures! We loved all the holiday socks too!

Light Up Day

Enjoy this picture of our students (and teachers) who participated in Light Up Day! We had lights, glitter, shimmer, and even gems!

CLE Candy Cane Grams

Chimney Lakes is sponsoring a "Candy Cane Gram" fundraiser to raise money for the United Way Northeast Florida. Your child can purchase a Candy Cane Gram for friends and teachers around the school. Candy Cane Grams will be on sale from 8:00-9:00AM and 2:30M-3:30PM in the Parent Involvement Room (Room 14 near the front office).

If you would like to purchase a Candy Cane Gram for your child you may send a special message and $1 per candy cane gram. All candy cane grams will be hand delivered to students! Please reach out to Ms. Welton with any questions.

CLE Holiday Dress Up Days

Enjoy pictures of the students that participated in Tree Toppper Day and Flannel Day!

Baby Francesca Jade's Arrival

Baby Francesca Jade has arrived! She was born on Sunday December 8th! Ms. Finocchiaro and the baby are both doing great! Our students were all so excited to see the picture of Francesca and all AWWWWWW'ed very loudly 💓

Week of December 9

Can you believe it's already December!? We sure can't! We're excited to continue learning with our students this week. Our Fun Friday activity is to wear winter clothes, that means hats, scarfs, earmuffs, mittens, coats, boots, etc. Nethanel will be bringing in Fun Friday snacks for everyone!

Our resources this week are Music, Art, and P.E. The Holiday Shop at CLE will also be open, please remember to send any money you want your children to use in the green and white envelope that we provided last week. We will either send students as they bring in their money or find a time to explore the shop as a class.

On Wednesday, pictures will be retaken or those that missed Picture Day can get their pictures taken. Wednesday is also an EARLY RELEASE DAY.

Chimney Lakes also has Holiday Dress Up Days that our students can participate in if they'd like to:
Monday - Tree Topper Day (wear holiday hats or headbands)
Tuesday - Flannel Day
Wednesday - Light Up Day (wear lights or sparkly items)
Thursday - Holiday shirts and socks
Friday - Clash of the Carolers (wear red)

SKILLS: We are continuing with our Reading Mastery program to practice skills with our students.

READING: We have finished administering our i-Ready Reading Diagnostic, therefore students are able to continue with i-Ready lessons in Reading ONLY.

WRITING: We will continue working on Report Writing, more specifically writing a report about ourselves. The pages will be simple fact items like: name, age, siblings, favorite color, favorite food, etc. 

MATH
In math this week, we are continuing to work on our Comparing Numbers unit. We will be focusing on skills like recognizing one number less, the same number, how many more, how many less, and how many in all. We will also continue to administer the i-Ready Math Diagnostic this week. Please remember that this diagnostic needs to be taken at school so please do not allow students to get i-Ready for math until we have finished all our testing. You can use the following video to help students understand which number is greater.


SCIENCE: Due to our Reading Mastery program and Early Release, we do not plan on having time for science this week.

Ms. Finocchiaro's Maternity Leave

I wanted you all to know that today is my last day before Maternity Leave begins. :) I have informed the students and cried... they know that I will be back in 6-8 weeks. 

While I am away Mrs. Charleane Conner will my substitute. Mrs. Conner has subbed in our classroom many times and knows our rules and expectations. Working alongside Ms. Bellot, our class should continue as if I was still here. 

One last thing~ Parents please make sure to email Ms. Bellot during my absence. We know many of you don't email both of us and we would hate for your email to be ignored. 

***As soon as the baby gets here, I'll post a picture!***

Holiday Party

With the holiday season in full swing, we are excited to announce that we will be hosting a Holiday Party on December 18^th! During our class party, the students participate in making different crafts and enjoy yummy treats. Due to the supplies and food we need for our entire class, we are asking families to make a $3 contribution for our Holiday Party. We will be collecting donations until December 13^th so that we have the necessary time to purchase and prepare all the materials we will use. If you are in a position to give more to help offset the cost of those who are unable to contribute then please feel free, but do not feel obligated. Please reach out to Ms. Bellot at bellotg@duvalschools.org if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for all your support in helping us celebrate the holiday season with our lovely students!

December Calendar

In case you misplaced our December calendar or wanted to make copies, we wanted to provide you with it here.

 Please note there have been a few changes on our calendar.

Pennies for Patients Fundraiser

Chimney Lakes Elementary National Elementary Honor Society presents "The Season of Giving":

Pennies for Patients Fundraiser

Today 12/3 we had an assembly about this fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Our students were able to hear from a leukemia cancer survivor and how parents, siblings, doctors, and nurses can all be heroes just like cancer patients and survivors. Last week our students brought home a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraiser information sheet. Today, they will be bringing home their HERO kit. We will be collecting donations weekly. Please refer any questions you may have to our guidance counselors Ms. Sweeney and Ms. Saenz. Thank you!

***Students should bring their money in pre-counted on Thursdays in a Ziploc bag with their name and amount on it***

i-Ready Diagnostics

***THE DIAGNOSTIC IS ONLY ADMINISTERED AT SCHOOL. IF YOU SIGN ON I-READY AT HOME AND IT COMES UP FOR EITHER READING OR MATH. SIGN OFF! WE CAN ONLY ACCEPT SCORES OF DIAGNOSTICS DONE AT SCHOOL.***

It is i-Ready Diagnostic time!! Diagnostics are our way of figuring out what your child has learned thus far and what they still need to learn before the Kindergarten School Year is over.

Please speak to your child about the following information to help make their testing time go smoothly and for them to do GREAT!:
*Listen to every question.
*Press the repeat button if you need to listen to the question again.
*Stretch if you need to move around.
*Walk to the bathroom if you need to go.
*Walk to the water fountain if you feel thirsty.
*Finally~ explain to them the test is long. The more questions they answer correctly, the longer their test can be. i-Ready wants to find their individual learning level.

***THE DIAGNOSTIC IS ONLY ADMINISTERED AT SCHOOL. IF YOU SIGN ON I-READY AT HOME AND IT COMES UP FOR EITHER READING OR MATH. SIGN OFF! WE CAN ONLY ACCEPT SCORES OF DIAGNOSTICS DONE AT SCHOOL.***

Library Field Trip

REMINDER~ If you have not filled out your child's Library Field Trip form please do so soon. We will be sending out a 2nd Notice with the students we are waiting on. 

CHAPERONES~ We are only allotted two chaperones on this Field Trip. We are checking their Volunteer Status. If by chance they are not approved, we will go to the next form that was filled out saying they want to volunteer. 

Currently the Volunteers are Leigha's Mom and Noel's Mom. 

Week of December 2

So it's always a little tricky to get back to blogging after a holiday break, so please bare with us. :)

We have split classes for Spanish and Media on Monday and Tuesday. Then on Thursday we have another split class for Music and P.E. Friday we have a Field Trip to the West Branch Library off of Chaffee Rd!! If you haven't filled out a Field Trip Permission slip yet, please do. We'll be sending home a Second Notice for those that need it . **It is a free field trip and we will return in time to eat lunch in the Cafeteria. Not our regular lunch time, however the Cafeteria serves food until 2:00 and we will get served.**

Now for the Academic's:

READING~ We are beginning Reading Mastery. The students in our class will be split up amongst us and other the other Kindergarten teachers based off of their reading ability. This means the hour it takes to facilitate the program will cut away from our Reading Time in class. 

READING SKILLS~ Our words this week are you, had, more & made.  We won't have much time so we won't be listing any other skills, but we'll do our best to get to a Sight Word Reader.

WRITING~ We are beginning Report Writing. We will begin with writing a report about ourselves. The pages will be simple fact items like: name, age, siblings, favorite color, favorite food, etc.  

MATH~ We will continue working on the 2nd Quarter testing items and we will begin discussing more and less. Be prepared to use this vocabulary when discussing group sizes with your child. Have them tell how many more or how many less a group has when comparing.