Weekly Update

January 28, 2019

This week is a week of changes for kindergarten! We have new homework that will be coming home today as well as new things we are learning in class. Please read on carefully so that you are up to date :).

Spelling Words:
We have ten spelling words this week! We will be taking our spelling test on Thursday of this week because we do not have school on Friday, February 1st.
Our words this week are:

1. do
2. for
3. of
4. are
5. good
6. him
7. big
8. and
9. not
10. got

Math:
This week we are continuing our work in Place Value. This is a really tough concept for kindergarten students. You can support them by having them group items into tens at home. For example, if they are eating Goldfish for a snack, have them pile them into groups of ten and then count up how many they have that way.

Science:
This week in science the kids are working on the concept of motion! It is a really fun unit where the kids learn all about how things in motion continue unless something stops them.

Homework:
Today your student is bringing home their first fluency passage. If they have not mastered all 60 of the kindergarten sight words they will be reading "Sight Word Passages" that are made up of those words. If they have mastered all 60 sight words, they are reading a kindergarten level reading passage. There is a note on the front explaining how it works. The five minutes spent reading these each night count towards their 20 minutes of reading. I would like my students to be reading at least 10 minutes of the 20 minutes they read each night. They can read 5 minutes with their fluency passages and 5 minutes with their decodables. I recommend that you keep those in gallon size ziploc bag to keep them safe. The other 10 minutes you can read to them. :)

Your student's regular homework will come home with them tomorrow :).

January 28, 2019

This week is a week of changes for kindergarten! We have new homework that will be coming home today as well as new things we are learning in class. Please read on carefully so that you are up to date :).

Spelling Words:
We have ten spelling words this week! We will be taking our spelling test on Thursday of this week because we do not have school on Friday, February 1st.
Our words this week are:

1. do
2. for
3. of
4. are
5. good
6. him
7. big
8. and
9. not
10. got

Math:
This week we are continuing our work in Place Value. This is a really tough concept for kindergarten students. You can support them by having them group items into tens at home. For example, if they are eating Goldfish for a snack, have them pile them into groups of ten and then count up how many they have that way.

Science:
This week in science the kids are working on the concept of motion! It is a really fun unit where the kids learn all about how things in motion continue unless something stops them.

Homework:
Today your student is bringing home their first fluency passage. If they have not mastered all 60 of the kindergarten sight words they will be reading "Sight Word Passages" that are made up of those words. If they have mastered all 60 sight words, they are reading a kindergarten level reading passage. There is a note on the front explaining how it works. The five minutes spent reading these each night count towards their 20 minutes of reading. I would like my students to be reading at least 10 minutes of the 20 minutes they read each night. They can read 5 minutes with their fluency passages and 5 minutes with their decodables. I recommend that you keep those in gallon size ziploc bag to keep them safe. The other 10 minutes you can read to them. :)

Your student's regular homework will come home with them tomorrow :).

Weekly Update

January 22, 2019

Welcome back from a long weekend. I hope you all enjoyed Human Rights day yesterday :).

No Homework or Spelling Words
We have decided not to send home homework this week or have a spelling test on Friday. We spent all of last week doing report card testing and so we thought we would use this short week to play catch up and introduce some new classroom activities. We will also be doing another Istation testing session this week as a progress monitor. Enjoy your week at home with no homework. I would still recommend practicing sight words and reading each evening :).

Math
We are beginning our unit on Place Value this week. We will still be reviewing concepts in Counting and Cardinality as well as adding and subtracting (Operations and Algebraic Thinking). I have introduced "tens place" and "ones place". Ask your kiddo to identify them for you! They may not be able to yet, but we started working on it today!

Report Cards
If you have any questions or concerns that you don't feel I addressed in the comments, please shoot me an email.

One of the biggest things you can do to help support your student at home is have them review the phonogram power point. You do need to have Power Point on your computer at home for the link to work. Click here to go to the correct spot on the Vision website and then click on "Spalding Phonograms with Sounds NEW" to download the Power Point. Because our entire reading program for kindergarten through 2nd grade is based off of these phonograms, the sooner your student masters them the better off they will be! :)

January 22, 2019

Welcome back from a long weekend. I hope you all enjoyed Human Rights day yesterday :).

No Homework or Spelling Words
We have decided not to send home homework this week or have a spelling test on Friday. We spent all of last week doing report card testing and so we thought we would use this short week to play catch up and introduce some new classroom activities. We will also be doing another Istation testing session this week as a progress monitor. Enjoy your week at home with no homework. I would still recommend practicing sight words and reading each evening :).

Math
We are beginning our unit on Place Value this week. We will still be reviewing concepts in Counting and Cardinality as well as adding and subtracting (Operations and Algebraic Thinking). I have introduced "tens place" and "ones place". Ask your kiddo to identify them for you! They may not be able to yet, but we started working on it today!

Report Cards
If you have any questions or concerns that you don't feel I addressed in the comments, please shoot me an email.

One of the biggest things you can do to help support your student at home is have them review the phonogram power point. You do need to have Power Point on your computer at home for the link to work. Click here to go to the correct spot on the Vision website and then click on "Spalding Phonograms with Sounds NEW" to download the Power Point. Because our entire reading program for kindergarten through 2nd grade is based off of these phonograms, the sooner your student masters them the better off they will be! :)

Weekly Update

January 14, 2019

Spelling Words
We have ten words again this week that we are working on. Last week I did not record the spelling grade. I decided to only use it as a practice test. This week's test will count as a grade. It won't be reflected on Quarter 2's report card, because it is technically Quarter 3 now :). You will be seeing a book come home each week. They are very simple and really focus on our sight words for the week. Please have your student practice reading them to you each night.

Our words this week are:

1. it
2. at
3. in
4. us
5. an
6. did
7. get
8. yes
9. can 
10. had

Math
We will be taking our post test on addition and subtraction this week. We will start our next unit next week because we are going to be working hard on report card testing this week. 

January 14, 2019

Spelling Words
We have ten words again this week that we are working on. Last week I did not record the spelling grade. I decided to only use it as a practice test. This week's test will count as a grade. It won't be reflected on Quarter 2's report card, because it is technically Quarter 3 now :). You will be seeing a book come home each week. They are very simple and really focus on our sight words for the week. Please have your student practice reading them to you each night.

Our words this week are:

1. it
2. at
3. in
4. us
5. an
6. did
7. get
8. yes
9. can 
10. had

Math
We will be taking our post test on addition and subtraction this week. We will start our next unit next week because we are going to be working hard on report card testing this week. 

Weekly Update

January 7, 2019

Welcome back! I was so excited to see all of my students this morning! They got to share about their break and it sounds like everyone had a great one!

Spelling Words
We have hit that point where our "sight words" have now become our "spelling words". I talked to the kiddos today about how now that they know how to read most of them, they are going to learn how to spell them too. They will be taking a spelling test each week on the last day of the week. It is so important to have them practice writing these words each day. Ideas for that are rainbow writing with crayons or markers, sand writing (using a shallow baking dish, salt/sand, and their finger), getting window markers and letting them practice writing them on the window, using shaving cream on the counter and writing in it, etc.
Our words this week are:

1. up
2. I
3. on
4. a
5. no
6. go
7. be
8. me
9. he
10. we

Math
I gave a math test before we went on break to see how my class was doing. They still need work in subtraction. We will be working on that a lot in class with review of some of the pages we did before break. We will continue to work on addition as well with homework and in centers.

Water Bottles
Just a reminder that your child is welcome (and encouraged) to bring a water bottle to keep at school for the week. They have access to this throughout the day and it is just a little easier than letting them roam the halls to the drinking fountain :). I send them home the last day of every week to be washed.

Art
This week your student will be learning about the art element Value by studying the works of Camille Pissarro. Value is the lightness or darkness of colors. They will also be creating their own paintings of a winter landscape using this element.

January 7, 2019

Welcome back! I was so excited to see all of my students this morning! They got to share about their break and it sounds like everyone had a great one!

Spelling Words
We have hit that point where our "sight words" have now become our "spelling words". I talked to the kiddos today about how now that they know how to read most of them, they are going to learn how to spell them too. They will be taking a spelling test each week on the last day of the week. It is so important to have them practice writing these words each day. Ideas for that are rainbow writing with crayons or markers, sand writing (using a shallow baking dish, salt/sand, and their finger), getting window markers and letting them practice writing them on the window, using shaving cream on the counter and writing in it, etc.
Our words this week are:

1. up
2. I
3. on
4. a
5. no
6. go
7. be
8. me
9. he
10. we

Math
I gave a math test before we went on break to see how my class was doing. They still need work in subtraction. We will be working on that a lot in class with review of some of the pages we did before break. We will continue to work on addition as well with homework and in centers.

Water Bottles
Just a reminder that your child is welcome (and encouraged) to bring a water bottle to keep at school for the week. They have access to this throughout the day and it is just a little easier than letting them roam the halls to the drinking fountain :). I send them home the last day of every week to be washed.

Art
This week your student will be learning about the art element Value by studying the works of Camille Pissarro. Value is the lightness or darkness of colors. They will also be creating their own paintings of a winter landscape using this element.