Well...what an interesting start to the new year!  We have had two snow days, burst pipes in the class bathroom,  and 1 day of indoor recess.  I am not going to lie to you.  I'm a little afraid to come to work tomorrow!

Conferences:
Conferences are at the end of the month.  I am sending home a schedule for conferences based on the times and days you signed up for last time.  I thought this would be a helpful starting point as we schedule the next round.  Please look at the time I have for you and let me know only IF YOU CAN NOT MAKE IT.  I will work with you to re-schedule.

Winter:
Well, it is definitely here.  Starting Monday I am asking that all students line up with their class either outside or in the cafeteria on inclement weather days.  If your child is late, you may walk them into the office and make sure they get a tardy slip and order lunch if needed.   This will help us start the day as a group and begin our routine uniformly.  Thanks for your help with this!

Reading:
Keep working on those sight words and remember to have your child point to words as you read together.  Ask questions about the story as you go and then switch roles and have your child as you questions!

Writing:
We continue to work on writing complete sentences.  We will really focus on using capital letters in the beginning of a sentence and only lower case letters in the middle.  We are also working on ending punctuation.  Our favorite is the exclamation point!

Math:
We are working on number bonds for 5 and 10.

Hearts and Hundreds
Our 100th day of school will fall on February 7th! Please look for information about all the fun things we do on this day.

Report Cards go Home TODAY!

Report Cards:  You will find your child's report card in the red folder this afternoon.  Please take a minute to read the letter in the envelope before you read the report card.  It will help you understand the report card a little better as you read it.  Also-you can keep the report card, but you need to SIGN AND RETURN THE ENVELOPE as soon as possible.  This is my only "proof" that you have seen the report card.




Reading:  We continue to work on characters, settings and major events as we read.  As the year progresses we are writing more and more about these story features.  Be sure to talk about them as you read at home.  Here are some pictures of us working on a story chart for The Gingerbread Man.

Math:  We are working on "number bonds" in math.  Number bonds are the new "fancy" way of talking about fact families.  While we focus on number bonds for 0-5, most of the children are already fluent with these and we are working on number bonds to 10.  (4+1=5 and 1+4=5)

Bears:  We are all a little glad the Bear Unit is hibernating for the winter, but if you haven't had a chance to see these great Pandas outside our room, check them out!

Holidays:  We learned a little about Hannukah last week and we also learned a little about Diwali.  We will finish up some Diwali projects this week and then do some gingerbread activities.

Winter Concert:
There are two concerts. The first is at 8:15 and the second is at 9:45 on Friday, December 20th.  Both concerts are the same and equally ADORABLE.  It is short and you will also see first grade.  Following each concert we will return to the room and have a reception. The second reception will be more involved and if at all possible, you might want to try to attend that one.  Regardless, please plan on stopping by after the concert you choose to attend to congratulate your child-even 2 minutes makes a big difference.  If you cannot make either concert PLEASE LET ME KNOW so I can arrange for another adult to check on your child.  We are all willing to help, but it really helps your child to know the plan in advance.  Thank you!

A note from our Room Parents:
Hi all.

As you know, the kindergarten winter concert is December 20th.  After each concert, there will be a "brunch"/snack table and party to celebrate our cute kiddos!

The room parents are bringing snowmen cupcakes, snowmen popcorn balls, Santa cheese and Santa shaped fruit. We also need some drinks, a few more treats, plates, forks and napkins. Please check out the Sign Up Genius link below and sign up if you can bring something in for the party after either show.

We're looking forward to celebrating the season with everyone! Thank you.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0444A8A729A64-holiday


Stuffed Animal:
Finally, don't forget Stuffed Animal Tuesday is tomorrow!

It's been a while

Hi all-Thank you for your patience with updating the blog as I tackled a few other projects like report cards, a sick child, a masters thesis, and hosting Thanksgiving.  It's been a busy few weeks (months......years???), but I am thankful for all the opportunities I've had to learn and grow!

Report Cards:  Originally report cards were to go home on Friday.  However, because of some technical issues and a radically different report card and grading system, the district decided it was best to wait until Monday to send these home.  I know you are eager to hear about your child's progress but the district made a good decision to postpone sending them home.  As you read the report cards, please remember that we are looking for continued progress throughout the year on the end of the year goals.  These "grades" reflect your child's progress in the beginning of their Kindergarten year.  Most of the assessments are already a month old and as you know-the kids are learning things so fast!!!

Please (PLEASE) check out Irving's PTO website for information about

• a Fundraiser for children with Leukemia spearheaded by a 5th grade student!
• Eagle Extras-after school classes organized by the PTO and offered by Irving teachers, friends and local organizations
• PTO meetings:  I strongly encourage you to go to at least one!
• Winter Concert Date

You can find their website linked to the left, above, or click here!

Winter Concert and Party:

I am meeting tomorrow with a group of dedicated moms to sort out details for our winter concert reception.  There is a tradition in Kindergarten of having a brunch/heavy snack after the concerts.  There are two concerts. The first is at 8:15 and the second is at 9:45 on Friday, December 20th.  Both concerts are the same and equally ADORABLE.  It is short and you will also see first grade.  Following each concert we will return to the room and have a reception. The second reception will be more involved and if at all possible, you might want to try to attend that one.  Regardless, please plan on stopping by after the concert you choose to attend to congratulate your child-even 2 minutes makes a big difference.  If you cannot make either concert PLEASE LET ME KNOW so I can arrange for another adult to check on your child.  We are all willing to help, but it really helps your child to know the plan in advance.  Thank you!

Stuffed Animals:

So apparently, at some point, I must have told the kids it was ok to bring in stuffed animals on Tuesdays.  It started with a few kids and today there were 7 kids with stuffed animals.  (SHHHhhhh...I don't remember saying this, but I'm just pretending like I do.)  So!  Tuesdays are officially stuffed animal days.  Because...why not???  The kids do seem to enjoy reading to their fluffy friends and as long as they don't distract from work I have no problem with Tuesdays being stuffed animal days.  I will keep you posted on any stuffed animal developments.  I love Kindergarten.  

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!