Bears! The Zoo! End of Trimester! Homework Research Project!

Wow!  How can a short week be so busy??

Bears at the Zoo
 We learned so much about Polar Bears this week.  Ask your child about polar bears and what kinds of interesting facts they remember.  The trip to the zoo was great.  We had some dedicated chaperones who did a great job keeping up with eager Kindergartners.  Thanks so much.  I have linked the pictures to the left.  I'm not a professional photographer, but I must say my subjects are pretty adorable.

We will continue out study of bears this week.  After a few more Polar Bear lessons we will learn about Panda Bears.  This will be the last bear we learn about before we shift our studies to...TEDDY BEARS!  I will keep you posted, but look for information about a special teddy bear picnic we will have in our class.

End of the Trimester/Grading
Friday marked the end of our first trimester!  It is hard to believe we are 1/3 of the way through the school year.  I will be finishing up some assessments this week and then begin working on the report cards.  As we work to master the Common Core State Standards in Kindergarten, we are focusing on
making progress towards the standard by the end of year.  That means your child's progress will be graded using the following descriptors.

PR:  This means your child is PROFICIENT demonstrating the END OF THE YEAR standard.  It means your child can demonstrate this standard in several settings.

• For example, a math standard for all kindergartners is counting to 100.  If your child is already counting to 100 with no errors or hesitations and can do it for me and you and with other adults, then your child would be PROFICIENT.  

AP: This means your child is a approaching proficiency demonstrating the END OF THE YEAR standard.  It means that while your child is not demonstrating this standard consistently, she is making good progress towards the standard.  This is the grade we would most expect this time of the year.

• For example, a math standard for all kindergartners is counting to 100.  If your child is counting to 35 at this point, then he is approaching this standard at an expected rate for this time of the year.

NP:  This means your child is NOT making the kind of progress towards the END OF THE YEAR standard that we expect at this point.  

• Using the counting to 100 standard example, your child might be counting to a number less than 35.  With the amount of practice we have had with this standard we expect the children to be counting higher.  An NP means that your child needs additional practice with this standard.  

HOMEWORK:

I hope you noticed the homework packet in your child's folder on Friday.  Please read the cover letter carefully and let me know if you have any questions.  There will be NO other homework until the bear research project is complete.  

Fabulous Fifties and Big Brown Bears

We sure enjoyed our 50th day of school.  We counted, danced, blew bubbles and measured with tootsie rolls!  Be sure to see the pictures linked to the left.

Reading:
We read non-fiction and fiction books about bears this week.  We focused mainly on reading about grizzly bears.  Ask your child to recall some details about brown bears!  In small reading groups we continue to work on pointing to the words as we read them.  We are also working on sounding out simple words that are consonant-vowel-consonant. (CVC words).  

Writing:
We practiced writing color words and sight words during centers this week.  We also wrote about bears.  Finally, we wrote a goodbye letter to Ms. Zucaro, our art teacher.  Today is her last day at Irving.  Next week, our regular art teacher, Mrs. Tague will be returning from maternity leave.  We will really miss Ms. Zucaro, but I know the kids will enjoy getting to know Mrs. Tague.

Math:
This week we worked on looking at a group of objects and naming the amount...without counting!!!  We used groups of 5 as an "anchor" to help us count groups of objects fast.  We also practiced counting by 10s to 50 and writing our numbers 1-20.

Geography Challenge
Our Green Team sponsors a geography challenge.  This week our challenge question is
Name the 5 Great Lakes.  Circle the one you can see from Chicago.  Help your child answer this question.  Write the answer on a piece of paper with your child's first and last name on it.  Your child could win a prize from our Green Team!

Reminders:

• No School on Monday for Veteran's Day
• Field Trip on Friday-remember a packed lunch and dress for the weather!

Reminders

A few Kindergarten Reminders

50s day
•    I hope you got a start on the 50s homework and that you are enjoying working on it with your child.  If your child has a collection of 50 things-please send that in whenever you have it ready.  It is due on Friday because we will be sharing our collections in class.  You will get the collection back.  ☺
•    Thanks to Molly McNamara for helping with stations on this day!  Thanks to Jaime Moran for getting our pudding cups (I mean “root beer floats”!) 



Field Trip  
•    Two chaperones have had to back out due to new circumstances.  If you are able to join us please let me know ASAP!  It’s super fun!
•    A few people seem to be confused about the $10 for the trip.  It is due when you return the permission slip-not on the day of the trip.  If you already returned your slip without the money, please send that in when you get a chance.  If you are unable to pay for the trip, please let me know and I can secure a PTO scholarship for you.


Bears!  Bears!  Bears!
•    We are studying bears this month!  We are also working on reading and writing the color words.  If you have any books on bears-fiction or non-fiction send them in!  If you have a great color book send that in, too!  Your child will return them in a few weeks.  (Please make sure you have your name in the books.)

November 1

PUMPKINS!

We learned a lot about pumpkins these last few weeks.  While we read about pumpkins we practiced identifying the main idea and details in the story.  Next we wrote about the main idea and details. After that, Ms. Diehl, our awesome data coach helped turn this into a digital book for us.   If you click on this link, you will see some of the details we remembered after reading a story.  As a bonus, you can hear each child read their detail!

http://iphone.childrenslibrary.org/cgi-bin/view.py?b=kt2pcs2qb7jaawmnxrtm

PUMPKIN DETAILS

50th day of School!
I am still looking for one or two parents to come to school on Wednesday to help with our 50th day of school stations.  We are working on math stations from 9-10.  We'll have a 50s themed snack with the other kindergarten classes and then do a sock hop!  If you can join us from 9:00-10:30 on Wednesday, November 6th, please let me know!

Your child can dress up like the 1950s.  Keep it easy:  rolled up jeans/capri jeans with ankle socks.  Cardigans and scarves for the girls and white t's for the boys.  Long skirts for girls are cute, too.  Just keep it easy!

Permission Slip
You will find a permission slip in your child's folder today for our field trip to the zoo!  Please send the permission slip and $10 back to school by Friday, November 8th. Thanks!


Finally, thanks to all the parents who helped with our party and parade.   It was rainy and wet, but we had fun because of all the hard work!

Pictures!
Please check out the pictures from math centers, looking at a pumpkin, the Fun Run and Writers Workshop!

Brrrr!  It got cold this week!  Thanks for helping your child dress independently!  I know (trust me...I know) it is easier to "do it yourself" than to wait for your child to zip a coat or put on a mitten.  But in the long run, it is best to take a breath and let your child do it independently.  There are times I will zip or button, but for the most part, I expect your child to be able to do it.  If they say they need help, the first thing I will say is, "Show me what you did to try it yourself."  One more tip:  LABEL EVERYTHING.  (EVERYTHING!)

Math
Ever wonder what we do during math stations? Be sure to look at the pictures this week so you can see what math stations look like.  We work with partners to play games.  We build numbers. We read math books.  We even use the ipad.  We do math stations 2-3 times a week.

Reading and Writing
We are reading a lot about pumpkins this week and we are sequencing the events of a pumpkin life cycle during some shared writing.  We also finished our first Route to Reading skill.  We will start new groups and new skills next week!  EVERYONE PASSED their first skill!  Hooray! and Way to Go!  Look for a letter next week from your child's new Route to Reading teacher.

Library
We had a fantastic trip to the library this week.  Thanks a million to the parents who joined us.  It was a huge help.  If your child ordered a library card it is in the folder today!

Another Field Trip:
We are headed to Brookfield Zoo on November 15th.  Jaime Moran, Jeanetta Gant, Megan Adamski and Joann Apat signed up to be our chaperones on curriculum night.  If you are still interested in going, but did not sign up let me know.

Halloween

• Do not send your child to school in costume
• Do not send any weapons - even plastic- with your child's costume
• If your child needs make up, I cannot promise to do that.  Please arrange to come yourself or explain to your child that it won't work during school.
• Our party is SIMPLE in order to keep the children safe and have time to do everything before dismissal.  We have a simple craft, a simple snack and I will be reading some of our favorite stories.  

It was a short, but super-busy week!

FUN RUN!!!

If you haven't already asked for pledges for our Fun Run, be sure to do that soon.  The Fun Run is an absolutely FABULOUS fund raiser!  The kids have so much fun (hence the name!) and it is a great way to show them that fundraising can be healthy and pretty easy.  You can use this link to set up a website for your child so you can send out emails to family members.  Thanks for your support!  Also come on out and cheer us on!  Right now we are scheduled to run at 8:15.   If it changes,  I will let you know.
www.getmovingcrew.com

Reading: We are working on using those sight words to help us keep our place as we read books.  We are really working on pointing to the words as we read them in our small reading groups.  We are also practicing retelling stories after we read them.  Try this at home.  After reading a story, have your child retell the story in his or her own words.  Be sure to ask about the characters and settings.  Also talke about the beginning, middle and end of a story.

Writing:  Mrs. Chinn came in and helped us listen for sounds in words so we could write those sounds down.  We also worked on sharing our stories and listening to compliments (stars) and wishes about our writing.

Math:  The students worked on ten frames and finding the missing number when we are adding to 10. For example, if we see 5 dots, we know we need 5 more dots to get to 10.  We are also practicing showing numbers with our fingers.  For example, if we say 5, students can show me 5 fingers on one hand or they could show me 2 fingers on one hand and 3 fingers on the other.

Behavior:  We had some "issues" in the hall this week with running and talking too loudly.  Please make sure you take a minute to talk to your child about this.

Homework:  You are all doing a great job turning in the homework.  Remember, it is due on Fridays unless you let me know ahead of time.  Also, if you do nothing else...do the reading log!  I know it is a little tedious, but it is an expectation throughout the grades, so it is best to get into the habit now.  I also like to see what your child is reading at home.

Halloween: Thanks so much to our room parents for getting the Halloween festivities planned!  Please take note of a letter that is attached to a recent email about food at parties.  The time for the parade is 1:30-2:15.  

Conferences Next Week

I look forward to seeing everyone at your scheduled conference.  Please arrive on time.  You'll notice that I have the conferences scheduled for 20 minutes back to back.  I make every effort to keep on schedule, so if we run out of time and we still have something important to discuss, I will likely ask you to come back another time or schedule a phone conference.  I know many parents have conferences with other teachers and if I start to get late, those conference times are compromised.  Thanks for understanding!

At our conferences you can expect to hear about your child's

• social skills and school behaviors
• academic progress 
•  recent assessments
• work samples

I will also preview the report card and how it aligns with the Common Core State Standards.  The biggest change you will notice is that we are looking at end of the year benchmarks already.  With this in mind, your child may look as if she or he is "below grade level" when, in fact, your child is making steady progress towards a larger goal.

Please check out the Lexia app linked above if you haven't already.  It will become homework each week by the end of October.

Also, please look at the Starfall reading website that is now linked.  This is not as personalized, but the students really enjoy working on this website.  There is no "log in" but if you bookmark it your child could access a great website independently!