Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  Trimester 2 begins on Monday, November 30!  It is hard to believe we are 1/3 of the way through the school year!

We had a great trip to the zoo.  Thanks to all the awesome chaperones!

Reading: We will be reading some fiction bear books this week and practice retelling.  We will also be reading some nonfiction books about hibernation.

Writing:  The kids did a great job writing non-fiction sentences about bears.  We will continue to practice our nonfiction writing this week.  We will also make writing goals.

Math:  We will practice counting higher numbers this week and use a ten frame to count on to larger numbers as well as develop a sense of our base ten system.

Science:  We will read about animals that hibernate and celebrate hibernation day on Friday!
Please click on the link to read more about our Hibernation Day!
Upcoming Dates:
Friday, December 4:  HIBERNATION DAY!  Kids can come to school in pajamas!  Bring a teddy bear snack for a teddy bear picnic lunch!  Bring a book and a blanket to read in "caves" (under our tables).
Thursday, December 17th:  WINTER CONCERT! Mrs. Hiolski has been working hard with the students to get them ready to sing a few songs and recite some poems for you.  There are two shows-one at 8:15 and one at 9:45.  We will have a small snack after the first show and a Gingerbread-themed party after the second show.  Please look for emails from room parents about this celebration in the next week or two.

Bears! Bears! Bears!

Reading: We read a lot of different kinds of non-fiction books about bears this week.  We learned about text features and main ideas and details.

Writing:  After reading non-fiction books we decided to try our hand at writing non-fiction books.  The kids did a great job writing about three different kinds of bears.

Social Studies:  We learned that maps are an important text feature in many non-fiction books so we added a map of where bears live to our own non-fiction books.

Science:  We learned about the habitats of different bears.

Field Trip:
We will go to the zoo even if it is cold!    PLEASE DRESS YOUR CHILD APPROPRIATELY FOR THE WEATHER! Right now it looks like the high will be around 37 and the low around 34.  Winter jackets, hats and mittens will help us get to and from the indoor exhibits.  Talk to your child about putting mittens/hats inside sleeves when indoors.  When we are outside it is better to leave the hats and mittens on and adjust the zipper if it gets too warm.

Your child will need a packed lunch that is 100% disposable.  We will not bring leftovers back, so try to pack a realistic lunch that will re-fuel, but not be wasted.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Please know that I am grateful to have the best job in the world, working with the 19 smartest, funniest, most amazing kids!

Reading and Writing: 

This week we practiced reading non-fiction as we started our unit on bears. Next week we will begin writing non-fiction sentences about bears.    This week we also have been hard at work on our sight words.  We now know: 

I 

a

see 

can

we 

the

play

like

go

to

Keep practicing at home to keep these words in students brains. 

In writing this week we are continuing to build independence while spelling.  Now that students are writing more,  we have been talking about some strategies to help spell tricky words.  This week we practiced chopping a word into sounds.  Put the word in your hand and chop it up!

Math: 

This week in math we started our measurement unit.  We talked about the words taller, shorter, and longer.  We measured with a popsicle stick and a piece of yarn.  Of course-we practiced counting and celebrated the number 50!

Theme: 

This week we began our unit on bears.  We talked about habitats and where bears live.  We also celebrated our 50th day of school by learning all about what life was like in the 1950's.  

Upcoming Dates

November 24th: Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo

November 25th-27th: No school Thanksgiving Break

December 4th: Wear your pajamas and bring a teddy bear to school for hibernation day

December 17th: Winter concert and classroom party - more information to come!

December 21st-January 1st: Winter Break

November 6

Check out the trophy our class earned for AWESOME participation in our Fun Run Fundraiser!  Thanks to all of you for contributing to this fundraiser and all you do for Irving School!

Wednesday is our 50th day of Kindergarten!  Don't forget to help your child dress like the 1950s!  

Girls:  Poodle skirt or longer/fuller skirt, a scarf around the neck or "pearls", white bobby socks, high pony tail, etc..

Boys:  Jeans rolled up with a white tshirt, or a "Mad Men" inspired suit, greased hair, comb in back pocket, etc.

It was great having a full week with no full moon!

Reading:  This week we read many books about fall.  After reading one book we practiced writing about the character, setting, and main events.  We also read more non-fiction books this week and will continue to focus on nonfiction reading next week.

Math:  We played some game to practice the concept of  more than and less than.  We also practiced counting on from a given number.  Next week we will practice counting on again and begin measurement. Of course we will celebrate our 50th day of school!

Writing:  We focused on putting clear spaces between our words when we write.  We wrote a narrative story about at time that we were kind.

Science:  We read a book called Pumpkin Jack  about a boy that carved a pumpkin and then watched as it started to rot.  He put the pumpkin in his garden and noticed the next spring a sprout grew and turned into a new pumpkin vine.
Question:  Would our pumpkin start to rot?
Hypothesis:  Yes!  Our pumpkin would rot.
Experiment:  We put a carved pumpkin in a plastic container.
Observe:   We watched as mold grew and as it got mushier all week.

Next week we will bury our pumpkin in our garden at school.

Upcoming Dates:
November 11th:  50th day of school!  Your child should dress up like the 1950s on this day!  So fun!  We will practice counting to 50, count 50 objects and learn about how the 1950s are the same and different as today.
November 24th:  Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo!
December 4th:  Hibernation Day-Students can wear pajamas and we will hibernate, read books and eat bear snacks.
December 17th:  Winter Concert

PLEASE SEE THE POST BELOW FOR LINKS ABOUT OUR MITTEN DRIVE AND AN AUTHOR VISIT!

Please see this information about a special author visit on December 1.



Please see this information about a mitten drive the Student Council is sponsoring!

November 1

It was  a pleasure meeting with all of you at conferences last week and seeing so many of you at our Halloween Celebration.  Thanks to all of you who contributed to the party to make it a success.
Here is a safe link to the video we watched at the end of our party!

Reading:  We continued to work on identifying important details in stories as we read them.  This week we will be working on making predictions and retelling events in order.

Lexia:  Kids have started using Lexia in the classroom on a regular basis.  If you have not already-check out the directions linked to the left to set up Lexia at home on your ipads or computers.  It is a great program that really helps kids develop reading skills.

Writing:  We are still working on narrative writing.  This week the kids will write about a time they were kind to someone at home.  It is great seeing all the progress in writing as kids get their ideas down on paper.  Keep working on those letter sounds at home and encourage independent writing!

Math:  We worked on decomposing numbers 7-9 and discussed math vocabulary words "more than" and "less than" with our math partners.

Science:  We will watch a pumpkin decompose this week as we read Pumpkin Jack.  

Upcoming Dates:
 November 11th:  50th Day of School- Kids are encouraged to dress like a 1950's girl or boy.  We will have a sock hop and a 50s themed treat.

November 24th:  Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo- We still need 2-3 chaperones.  Please look for the permission slip in the folders this week!