February 24-28

Reading and Writing
We began new Route to Reading groups this week.  Your child should have come home with a letter stating the skill they are working on.  We do Route to Reading 3 times a week.  We are working on consonant blends and digraphs in reading.  While we continue to review the short vowel sounds, many students are beginning to learn the long vowel patterns such as silent e.  As your child writes at home, please work on making sure every word has a vowel!  If the vowel says its name, it probably brought along another vowel friend.

Math
Students are working on number sentences up to ten.  We are also working on measuring and shapes.  As you saw for the homework this week, please continue to practice counting on from a given number. The goal for the end of Kindergarten is to begin counting from any number between and 100.

Social Studies and Science
In Social Studies we learned about different African American heroes.  In Science we continued to learn about the water cycle and how water changes into different states of matter.

Upcoming Dates
March 5:  End of Trimester
March 17:  Spring Pictures-more information to come later
March 21:  Report cards go home

Professional Development Days
I will be out for a district required professional development day this Friday.  Next Thursday and Friday I will also be out attending a PTO- sponsored Kindergarten conference.  Detailed plans will be left for the guest teachers.

Thanks!
Thanks to all of you who contributed to the Fun Fair in any way.  The New Beats won the talent competition, but alas, we did not win the pie in the face.  The Fun Fair was wildly successful as a fundraiser and an even more successful community builder.  Every year the Fun Fair reminds me just how much I love this school and our community.

Fun Fair Week!

Happy "Fun Fair Week!"  Things are getting exciting here.  A few reminders for those of you new to Irving School.

• You can buy tickets after school every day this week by the office.  They are discounted!  The tickets allow you to play games, do the cake walk and other events.  
• Teachers have volunteered to get a "pie in the face" for the good of the school!  While no one wants to get the pie in the face, we all desperately want the bragging rights that come with raising the most money...so send in those quarters, dimes, pennies...even dollars!  I'll wash the pie off my face in 2 minutes, but the money raised helps us all year!
• The silent auction has great items available.  There is an online component that starts TONIGHT at 6:00 pm.  

In other news...

Reading:  Wow!  Can I just say, "WOW!!!!!"  The kids are making so much progress!  Have your child tell you about the "h" brothers.  We learned that every word needs a vowel.  Can your child sing the vowel song?

Math:  Keep practicing those number bonds to 10.  Also, practice writing those numbers to 30.  This week we will continue measuring and building shapes.  

Writing:  We are working on 

• spaces between words
• spelling sight words correctly
• sounding out unknown words
• starting with a capital letter and ending with a period
• correct letter sizing (tall letters tall, short letters short)

Homework went home today and we will resume our Monday-Friday homework schedule.  

We successfully had a 5 day week!  Yay!  We got so much accomplished and best of all we celebrated (almost) 100 days of school!  Thanks so much to all the parents who sent in snacks and helped at the party.  I declare it was a success!  Please enjoy the pictures taken at the party linked to the left.  I ordered individual prints of each child, so you will get those along with the other ones from earlier in the school year.

Reading:  This week we revisited some of the common core standards from the beginning of the year.  We discussed author, illustrator, fiction, non-fiction, setting and character.  Students are working very hard during reading centers to practice sight words, writing and reading independently.

Writing:  We wrote about our favorite season and we are really working on correct punctuation, spacing and lettering.

Math:  We did some measuring this week and we worked on number bonds where one number was given.  Essentially this is subtraction, but for them it is more like algebraic thinking.  Finally, we worked on making new shapes from other given shapes.  Keep practicing the names of the pattern block shapes.

Science:  This week we learned that water changes shape depending on the container.  We also learned that some objects float in water and some objects sink.  Next week we will learn about what dissolves in water, what the three stages of water are, and that water can climb!

Upcoming Events:
Next Friday, Feb. 14, is institute day.  This is a professional development day and there is no school for students. Monday is Presidents Day

Saturday, February 22 is the Fun Fair.  Next week students will have the opportunity to put money in the jug of the team of teachers who is willing to get a pie in the face at the end of the fun fair.  As I mentioned earlier, I am on a team called the NEW BEATS!  We are a super fantastic dance team that loves to entertain the kids and raise money for the best school in the world.  (OK-we are average dancers, but we really love Irving and we are even willing to take a pie in the face to show it!)  Your child might be asking to bring quarters, dollars or pennies in for these jugs.  It is a HUGE fundraiser.