Week 16 November 26-November 30

I hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving weekend! Jay and I got to spend time with family and talk about all the things we are thankful for in our lives. It's a beautiful thing to take some time to acknowledge our blessings. :) 

We're thankful for our little fur babies. I think
they're thankful for us too. :)

Here's a look at our upcoming week:

Spalding: This coming week we will learn 4 new phonograms ng, ea and the partner phonograms aw/au (cue: not used). 

We will also learn our first five spelling words: 

Me, do, go, and, at. Please refer to your child’s homework for the correct markings on each spelling word. 

Sight Words: This week we will review list 1 and then test on Friday.

Literature: This week we will read "The Gingerbread Man.”  We will explore different versions and in the afternoon we will even go on a hunt to catch the Gingerbread Man. The poem will be, "Three Blind Mice. Please continue to send your child’s book bag daily with their sight word lists inside. Students should be be reading their assigned book to you each night and reviewing their sight words. Thank you for your continued support!

Math:This week we will discuss capacity.  Students will work with different size containers and decide which container can hold more.  We will also discuss equal sets (for example: cups and straws).  There will be an assessment on weight, capacity, and equal sets on Friday.

Science: We are exploring magnets this week! Students will learn that magnets have 2 poles and that they can attract and repel other magnetic things. Scholars will get to experiment with magnets around the classroom. They will predict what things a magnet will attract and what it will not.

History: We will be learning about the continent of Europe. Scholars will become familiar with the names of a few countries in Europe as well as their famous landmarks. We will learn more about European castles and why castles were important in medieval times.

                                                     Thanksgiving Week Fun!

                    

                      

                     

   

         

           

            

                           

                               

 

  

          

Week 15 - November 19-20 (No School Wed-Friday) Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Sunday Families! On Monday we will be completing our unit on the Pilgrims and celebrating Thanksgiving!  Half Day students are welcome to stay for the whole day.  Please let me know ahead of time if your child will NOT be staying the whole day.  Pick up times will be 2:45 (K-2), 3:05 (3-5), 3:25 (Prep). Tuesday will be a normal day. 

Happy Belated 6th Birthday Benjamin! Thank you for
sharing your reading skills with the class. :)

Happy 6th Birthday Sadie!

Spalding:  This week we will review all phonograms we have learned so far. Be on the look out when we come back from Thanksgiving Break we will be starting our weekly spelling words. 

Sight Words: We will review all sight words we have learned so far. When we come back from break we will start back at list 1 and go through each list once more before we introduce a new list. Take these next 3 weeks to work through any Sight Words your child is still struggling with.

Literature: This week will learn two poems, Georige Pordgie and Little Jack Horner. We will also read "Turkey Trouble," and students will discuss the problem and solution of the story.

Math: This week we will explore weight.  We will introduce students to how to use a balance.  Students will decide which object weighs more.  Homework is due Tuesday, November 20th (sorry for the mistake).

History: We will wrap up our unit on the First Thanksgiving this week! Students will read a story about the very first Thanksgiving and they will enjoy a feast of their own! If you’d like to donate to the feast please do sign up on the SignUp Genius.

Practicing perseverance like the Wright Brothers!

           

                 

                       

                          

                         

                      

Homework Survey

In an effort to provide a fruitful homework experience for our scholars, we rely on the feedback of our families. Parents, please share your feedback by completing this homework survey at your earliest convenience.

Week 14- November 13-November 16

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend! Don't forget that it's concert week! It will be at Higley Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday November 14^th.  Students’ attire for our performances is NOT school uniform. 

                 -Gentlemen are expected to wear a plain white dress shirt, black pants,       black socks and black closed toed shoes. Solid dark colored vests and ties are optional for gentlemen. 

               -Ladies are expected to wear a white top, black skirt, black tights and black closed toed shoes. 

Please have your kindergartners at Higley Center for the Performing Arts by 4:45pm.

Congratulations to our October Virtue Award Winner! Claire, thanks for
being a great example of the virtue of Honesty.  

Happy 6th Birthday to Kiersen!

Spalding: 

Last week we learned the Er’s (er, ir, ur, wor, ear). In order to tell these phonograms apart we use our cues and the sentence “Her first nurse works early.” We will spend this week reviewing the er’s and learning two partner phonograms ai/ay and oi/oy. 

Sight Words: 

We will continue to review list 3. These words should reviewed each night during reading time with your child. 

Literature: We will explore King Midas and the Golden Touch in Literature this week.  We will read the story and discuss the characters, setting, and plot.  It’s a good idea to ask these questions of your child while reading their books at home, too.  We will discuss the consequences of being greedy by comparing King Midas and the book “The Magic Fish.” Old King Cole will be our poem.

Math: We will continue our unit on size.  We will be measuring items, using vocabulary like “bigger, smaller, longer, shorter”.  On Friday, we will have an assessment on length and size.

History: We will continue to learn about the events that lead to the First Thanksgiving. Students will learn that the Mayflower was a large ship that the pilgrims rode to this new land. We will talk about the Native people, the Wampanoag who helped the pilgrims survive. Later in the week we will learn all about the Wright Brothers and their invention of flight! Our kiddos will get to practice perseverance and make their own flying paper airplanes.

Week 13- November 5-November 9

Happy Sunday! What a fun and energetic week we had in kindergarten! The Read-a-Thon was incredible! Thank you to all the families that donated and volunteered. We couldn't have done it without you! Click HERE to see pictures from our eventful week! 

Spalding: We will continue to learn our double letter phonograms this week by adding 4 new phonograms and teach our first phonograms with cues er, ir, ur, When saying phonograms with cues you will say the sound, have your child repeat it, then give them the cue, your child will not repeat the cue. 

Cues are:

er (her)

ir (first)

ur (nurse)

We will also learn the phonogram oy. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Sight Words: This week we will begin reviewing list 3; at, be, this, have, from, or, one, had, by, said

Literature: This week our story will be another African trickster tale, “The Great Tug-of-War.” Our poem will be, “There Once was a Little Girl.” We will continue with reading each day with reading groups on Wednesday. Please continue to read nightly with your child as well as practice their sight words. They are off to a great start! 

This week we will use part of our literature time to give our students an opportunity to complete their second service project. Their first service project they wrote thank you cards to our community helpers.  My plan is do a service project once a month moving forward. We would love to show our students the satisfaction of giving back and helping others. For November students will write thank you letters to the troops for Veterans Day. Our kindergarten goal is to write 200 letters! If your family would like to participate you are more than welcome to send letters in your child’s green folder.

Math:Our unit for this week will be Length and Size.  We will begin by using every day items to measure school supplies and ourselves!  These items will include unifix cubes, paper clips, yarn, and various body parts. We will use the language of shorter, longer, tallest, smallest. 

History: Scholars will begin the week by learning about Louis Braille. We will hear about how his passion for learning and his inability to see motivated him to create a system in which the blind could access the written word. Later in the week, we will begin a unit that will lead up to the First Thanksgiving. Students will learn about Christopher Columbus and his travels.