Happy Vacation Families, I hope you are all enjoying some relaxation and family time together. The kiddos and I had a lot of fun with activities from Fun Friday and the 100th Day of School. Miss F also loved all of the birthday cards all the students made for her! We had a special day of celebrations. Below I have taken lots of photos for you to enjoy and get a glimpse of our week :) Kindergarten Academic Day Literacy: This week, we focused on learning three more sight words and locating them in sentences in short stories. This weeks sight words were: you, was, my. The children enjoyed playing Sight Words Four Corners in the classroom AND outside! Students read a variety of stories in reading group as well as worked on writing! Students have been introduced to nonfiction texts during reading groups. On the 100th Day of School, the children completed a variety of literacy and math activities to further develop their skills. Students counted to 100, wrote about what they wanted to do before they were 100 and so much more! Below are some pictures: Math: Although the 100th day of school was on Wednesday, it seemed like the celebration was all week! We sang a number of songs counting to 100, wrote/traced numbers up to 100, licked a lollipop 100 times and built different structures using 100 cups. In addition to these fun activities, the children continued to build their fact fluency by completing a variety of worksheets with addition ranging from 0-5, 0-10 and 0-15. Later in the week, the students did some partner work with adding and subtracting. They played a game called "Growing Train". This activity works on communication skills and addition/subtraction fluency. Below are lots of pictures from this weeks adventures!! 100th Day Collections Kindergarten Enrichment Social Studies This week in our social studies curriculum, we investigated American symbols. We have researched the American Flag, the White House and we are now moving on to the bald eagle. When we return, Miss F and Miss M will team up to complete a fun art project regarding the bald eagle. Below are some of the videos we have seen in class! -White House Video -American Symbols Video -American Symbols Video 2 Below is a picture of some of the books we have read during our social studies unit on American Symbols. Micro: This week in micro, students completed a writing assignment from their managers. They were asked to write about what their favorite business within our Micro City society. These writing pieces went into their writing portfolios :) When we return in March, students will receive an opportunity to change their job position and even their business. Students in K, K and 1st will have the option to apply and interview for one of those businesses. In addition, our February employee of the month will be announced on 3/6/18! Beautiful Sunshine & Warmth on Tuesday & Wednesday: Hello Families, I hope you all had a fabulous Valentines Day! Our kindergarten class had a wonderful week with lots of fun! Please remember there is no school on 2/19/18. In addition, the 100th day of school will be Wednesday February 21st. If your child chose to make something for the 100th day, please send it on before then. We will be having a "museum walk" to show off different ways 100 can look. Kindergarten Academics Literacy: This week, we continued to add three more trick words to our sight word rings (come, like, have). The children practice identifying and spelling these words in class, however should work on them at home as well. Miss Froleiks introduced a new sight word game called four corners. The children have been very eager to play a few times a week. In reading groups, we have been continuing to work on identifying key elements of a complete sentence. The students work hard to look for punctuation, capitalization and spaces between words. These elements have been helping your own child to apply them to his/her own writing. Speaking of...we have been working hard on writing a few times a week! Not only during literacy block, but in Micro as well (Below will have some pictures). The children have truly been inspired from Jason Robie last Friday in class :) Towards the end of the week, the children continued to practice all of their sight words and writing skills but with a Presidents Day twist. We began researching the holiday and why we celebrate it. The children completed fun activities to get them engaged and wanting to know more about this holiday they got a day off from school. Math: For this whole week, the children had several lessons on TEEN NUMBERS. From a previous assignment, I could tell we were not strong in identifying, counting, recalling etc. in teen number amounts. Both Miss Froleiks and Miss Preston paused in math curriculum to give extra practice. You will start to see several worksheets coming home that deal with representing teen numbers in 10 frames and writing teen numbers in correct sequence. Please continue to work with your child on teen numbers at home (10-19). Valentines Day: What a blast we had on 2/14! The children enjoyed all of my games and projects to be had! We continued with literacy centers in the morning, however had a big twist of Valentines spirit to them. Sight word practice, fine motor reinforcement, letter writing etc. Pictures are below :) Kindergarten Enrichment Social Studies: The children started off the week reviewing information about the American Flag. Students received the opportunity to draw their own flag as well as create a flag for our school (since we don't have one). This assignment really showed off student creativity! In addition, the children were able to learn about Presidents Day. As a whole class, we read a scholastic magazine and mini readers (which were sent home on Friday) for each child. Students were even able to guess what future American symbols might be come up thanks to the informative scholastic magazine info! Micro: As your child may have come home and shared, our marketplace days have changed. The following is our typical micro schedule until the end of the school year: Monday: Manager Meeting/Reflection Day Tuesday: Production Day Wednesday: Marketplace Thursday: Business Day Friday: Marketplace Throughout the week, students were taught about taxes in class. The children had to pay their first round of monthly taxes to the government. Miss Froleiks taught about where tax money goes to and how it circulates to help the communities we live in. One student from our class even got her writing recognized by the NH DOT itself! Below are some student examples along with marketplace pictures! Kindergarten Academics Literacy: Since beginning a new month, the children have begun blending sounds together more and more in class. We have been using our magnetic letter boards to form CVC words and for some reading groups, CCVC words. The children are becoming more independent with applying reading strategies in class. Please continue to practice sight words at home on a regular basis. Feel free to go to my "Trick Word" tab up above under "academics" for a full list. These trick words are often seen in our literacy group books, therefore they are important to learn and memorize. The students are also working hard on writing a kind sentence for each new birthday book we create (we have had a lot lately!). The children are beginning to remember each important writing convection. Math: In math, the children are working on breaking apart word problems. They have been great listeners while searching for clues in the written problems Miss F reads allowed. They search for words that give clues to wether or not they will be adding or taking away. In addition, many other students have been working hard to "prove" their answer. They are practicing drawing out a quick picture and verbalize what they think the answer is OR isn't. In addition, we are in full swing practicing addition fluency. Students are asked 2 days a week, to visit Xtra math on a tablet to practice those math problems. Both in Xtra math and in whole group lessons, students are seeing ways math problems can look (sometime horizontally, other times vertical). The children enjoy the change to answer their xtra math practice within 3 seconds so they can get more smily faces :) Author Visit: On Friday, we were lucky to have author Jason Robie come in to class. He read us his book and gave us a writing assignment to complete. The children enjoyed creating their own stories in class. In addition, Mr. Robie gave the kids the task to name his main character! Each student K-4 got to write down a name they wanted the main character to be. He will be picking one name from the box and giving "credit" to a MACS student soon :) Kindergarten Enrichment: Social Studies: Currently, we took a break from science (we had a hefty weather unit we just finished up) and are focusing on different American symbols. We have been reading books, watching videos and discussing special symbols that represent our country. Our first symbol is the American Flag. Students learned that the flag didn't always look the way it is now. We researched about who supposedly created the flag and much more! Micro: We had an exciting week in Micro! The children started on Monday with a Town Hall Meeting. We had one student from our class earn an integrity award! Congrats to Clara for her honesty and making the right choice when no one was truly watching :) In addition, the children completed a writing assignment on what job post they would like to change to. The students are applying writing conventions taught during literacy to their independent piece. The children copied a sentence starter off the board and then filled in the remaining bit by sounding out or using the word bank on the whiteboard! Below are some pictures: Hello Families! What a great week we had in Kindergarten. We had some excitement do to more birthdays and Groundhog Day celebrations. We have officially begun learning sight words or trick words as Miss F sometimes calls them. Read below for some great information on what we are up to :) Literacy: At the start of the week, our class finally finished up learning about lowercase letters! We wrapped up the alphabet by learning about letters y and z. As usual, students learned about their writing formation as well as reviewing their sounds. Miss F has introduced sight words to our class this week we have/will be practicing these sight words: I, a, and, can, go, said, for, see, the. On Thursday, we created at home sight word rings that students take home their weekly sight words and add them to a ring at home for continually practice. Please look out for these whole punched notecards weekly :) Under my academic tab is a "trick word" page were you can see what words we have learned. My mid week, all of our students worked on taping out words and reading CVC or CVCC words in small groups. the children are getting better at blending sounds together :) Math: In math, my students have officially begun practicing fact fluency. As you all have received, your child has an Xtra math account. Although it is not required, your children can continue to work on their fluency at home on a computer or tablet. Please feel free to reach out if you are having difficulty getting it to work. In class, the children have been working on composing shapes themselves. Each child use language skills to talk about and describe various shapes in our world. When given a picture, each child needed to recognize at least 4 different shapes. Example: when given a picture of a classroom, the child could have recognized a circle as the clock or a square for the table they sit at. Students received an option to play Top-It or work on their rolling and adding worksheet from last week. By mid-week, the children were using Xtra math on our classroom tablets and getting ready to do some fun Groundhog day math! The children spent Thursday and Friday playing various Groundhog Day math centers with small groups or partners. These games continued to help your child practice their number identification as well as shape identification and simple addition fluency. Kindergarten Enrichment Science: In science, we wrapped up talking about our extensive weather unit. The children loved learning about different types of weather via class readers, videos, songs and much more. The next unit we will go into will coincide nicely. It will be about Sunshine & Shadows. We ended this last unit barely touching upon shadows so next time we will be able to go more in depth! On Thursday and Friday we solely focus on learning about groundhogs. Students were curious about what they eat, how they stay warm and why they sleep for so long! With all of this said, we will be taking a "break" from science to focus on social studies curriculum. We will learn about American symbols! Social Studies: Recently, we have been heavily focusing on science topics. Since presidents day is fast approaching, Miss F will begin teaching about American symbols. Students will learn about the White House, Liberty Bell, Capitol Building and much more. In addition, I wanted to take a moment and congratulate our two class members who participated in the whole school Geography Bee. They worked hard to study various geography elements and showed no fear when standing up in front of an audience :) Way to go!! Buddy Reading: On Wednesday of this week, Miss Carideo's class came downstairs to buddy read :) The kids are building such wonderful relationships! MicroSociety: In Micro, your child has wrapped up their first full month of business days, production days and marketplace days. They are in the swing of things for their particular job position(s). In addition, our managers selected one particular employee who demonstrated unbelievable dedication, courage and focus while working. Congratulations to Clara, one of our Office Clerks! She is employee of the month for January! She received her picture on the website and an extra $10 micro bucks from Miss F! What a crazy week! We had two 2 hour delays, a winter party, a winter concert and a lot of excitement! The students finished up their mid year assessments and showed Miss F everything they have learned so far in the school year :) Literacy: Students this week worked on the following lowercase letters: s, t, u, v, w and x. We are so close to the end of the alphabet. The children are continuing to practice identifying these letters as well as writing them with specific formation from Handwriting Without Tears. During our whole group lessons each each, the students practice recalling all 5 vowel sounds. I share with the students that the 5 vowels can sound very similar so its important that we keep practicing. We have been watching THIS video to practice :) In addition, the students are getting close to finishing up their uppercase and lowercase orange handwriting books. The children typically work on these with Ms. M once or twice a week. She has seen some great improvement with pencil grip, control and formation of all letters. Recently, we have been having a lot of birthdays. The students are not only getting a chance to celebrate one of their peers but also learn to write a complete sentence. In Kindergarten, I strive to have my students write birthday messages to their peers. We are working on remembering to use finger spaces, capital letters and punctuation. Math: In math this week, we discussed what a 100's chart was. The students used a program on ABCYA.com to color code each group of ten on their own 100's grid. The students enjoyed their ability to spot and search for each group of ten and noticed how the rows changed. Later in the week, the students worked on some addition. They were able to roll two dice and add the dots together to fill in a chart. The students worked independently at their table spots for this activity. In addition, the class got time to play one of their favorite games: Top-It! By the end of the week, we were recalling past lessons about ten frames and got to use some colored bears as counters. Kindergarten Enrichment: Geo Bee: All Kindergarten students participated in a geography bee preliminary test. Miss F was extremely proud of her students! Next Monday will be the live Bee! Winter Concert: This week the children got to experience their first winter concert. They all looked so cute performing their two songs on Wednesday afternoon! Winter Party: A huge thank you to our room parent Mrs. Schneck who put together a fun winter party :) The children all enjoyed talking about shapes while creating their snowmen! Happy Snow Day Families, Mother Nature has hit us once again! Good news is, it seems to be light and fluffy. It will be good snow for the kiddos to play in on the playground! Below are important messages for you to know! Please read carefully: IMPORTANT: -All winter snow gear should be brought to school daily. Students go outside when it is 20 degrees or warmer. -Students are still continuing to be assessed on both math and literacy concepts in class. -Music Concert for K-3 has been moved to 1/24/18 @ 1PM -There will be a Parent Night Out occurring this Friday 1/19/18! Please reach out to Mrs. Williams with any questions [email protected] -Preliminary Geo-Bee testing will occur on Monday 1/22/19 in the classroom. Kindergarten Academic Day: Literacy: This week we continued our journey to learn about lowercase letters. Students were exposed to learning specific handwriting of the following letters: e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l. In addition, we reviewed these letter sounds as a whole group. During literacy stations, students completed worksheets to practice these letter formations and review the matching uppercase letter. Students also had opportunities throughout the week to participate at a listening station and the tablet station. Students also enjoyed continuing to practice reading CVC words in various group activities. **No reading groups occurred this week since Miss Froleiks is completing Mid-Year Assessments at this time. *COMING UP NEXT WEEK*(1/16-1/19): Students will begin to learn about SIGHT WORDS! They first 3 sight words are: I, a, the Math: On Monday and Tuesday, students were introduced to hexagons in class. We used this particular shape to problem solve if other shapes put together could also create a hexagon. For instance, students discovered that a hexagon shape could be made out of 3 blue rhombuses, 6 green triangles or 2 red trapezoids. Students worked on this task over a two day span both independently and in small groups. On Wednesday, we used cubes to compose and decompose numbers up to 5 in a whole group setting. We created mini cube trains to show various ways to build the number five. Ex: 1 green cube and 4 blue cubes, 3 green cubes and 2 blue cubes etc. Students were able to represent their different findings on a worksheet. For further practice, students were given a different number (6, 7, 8 ,or 9) and they needed to work with a small group to figure out the different ways of composing those numbers as well. On Thursday, students practiced identifying numbers in ten frames. We also reviewed teen numbers and wrapped up working on various types of patterns in class. *COMING UP NEXT WEEK*(1/16-1/19): Students will be set up with Xtra Math Accounts and begin practicing addition math facts up to ten in class. JAN BRETT DAY: Students had a blast on Friday (1/12/18) rotating through the K-3 classrooms to work on different art projects. The children were able to guess the different themed Jan Brett books each teacher chose. Several of the kiddos mentioned how fun each activity was to complete :) Some projects are still being sent home, since they needed to dry for a few days. Kindergarten Enrichment: Science: We are continuing our science unit on weather and weather watching! The children are very observant of different weather patterns we see at recess or even what types of clouds are up in the sky that day. We continue to talk about the following: clouds, different precipitation and seasons. On Thursday and Friday, students were taught about shadows. They quickly picked up on the fact that you need a source of light in order to create a shadow. We brainstormed different sources of light that could be used both inside and outside. Students were given an opportunity to trace their shadows in class on both days. Then in the afternoon on Friday (1/12), Miss MacMillan (the art teacher) had the students decorate their shadows. Micro: On Monday, we had a Town Hall Meeting! Some students from our class were recognized for amazing citizenship this past month! Please view the photo down below :) On Tuesday and Friday in Micro, students have been continuing to practice their Post Office duties. Students are getting use to setting up their job stations and for some, recording data for their managers. On Wednesday and Thursday during our business and production days, students help prepare various things for our Post Office. Items such as pre-made postcards, putting together journals for purchase and stamping envelopes ahead of time. Happy Saturday! I hope you are all staying safe and warm! These negative temperatures and huge snowfall totals have Miss F frozen. As you all know, this was a VERY short week. Can you believe we only had school for 1.5 days?! Below is what your son/daughter was up to on our short week :) Kindergarten Academic Day Literacy: When we returned from break, students began to learn about lowercase letters. We are identifying 2 new lowercase letters a day, as well as, learning how to write them using our Handwriting Without Tears program. On Tuesday, students were exposed to a poster in the classroom that identify letters as "chicken", "giraffe" or "monkey" letters. (Below is a picture!) On Tuesday, we focused on literacy in the morning block (since we came to school 2 hours late). Students were exposed to betters a and b (a=chicken letter, b=giraffe letter). On Wednesday, we continued to learn about lowercase letters c and d (c=chicken letter, d=giraffe letter). Lastly, students on Wednesday transitioned through 5 different literacy centers for ELA practice. In reading groups, students worked on sentences and identifying 3 important parts. 1. Every sentence starts with a capital letter 2. Sentences have finger spaces between words 3. Sentence end with a punctuation mark (. ! ?) Math:
Due to the delay on Tuesday, we moved our math lesson back a day. On Wednesday, students warmed up their brains by identifying numbers in ten frames. After a few rounds, students were given slates to write the corresponding number that then matches the 10 frame shown. Afterwards, I introduced teen numbers to students. We discussed how numbers 11-19 are considered teen numbers. Although 11 and 12 do not have the "teen" word in their name, they are still teen numbers. We practiced writing teen numbers, showing teen numbers in ten frames, and turning single digit numbers into teen numbers. For the remainder of the school year, students will not be exposed to and work with numbers 0-20 in our Kindergarten classroom. Kindergarten Enrichment Day: Science: We reviewed three important types of clouds in class (cirrus, stratus and cumulus). In addition, students recalled the process of how clouds are formed. On Wednesday, Miss F read a cloud story to the class and further discussed height of different clouds. Hello Kinder Families,
Before the holiday break, Miss Walchak and I wrapped up our second K-1 Club after school session. We are now here to give a LAST CALL to signing up for our next session of SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS! This session begins on January 3rd, 2018 and will run on the following Wednesday's from 4-5 PM: 1/3/18 1/10/18 1/17/18 1/31/18 The cost is $40 and you can write checks out to MACS. In addition, you must fill out the following form and attach the $40. Forms and money can be turned in up until 1/3 at 10:30 AM in the office with Mr. Nardino. Click Below For: Click Below For: K-1 Club Flyer with Dates K-1 Club Required Health Form If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to email me ([email protected]) with questions! We hope your child can join us! Best, Miss Froleiks Hello Families, Happy New Year, Kinder families! I hope you have all enjoyed your week long break. Miss Froleiks was very busy busy over the holiday spending time with friends and family all over New England. Right before the holiday break, it was a little hectic. Therefore, I am uploading two weeks worth of information from class for you to see! Kindergarten Academic Day Literacy From 12/11-12/14: This week, the students learned about capital letters V, W and Y in class. We discussed how some uppercase letters have diagonal lines when learning how to form them. Students continued to learn about these three letters all throughout the week and did a wonderful job thinking of words that begin with each of these letters. Miss F even played Jack Hartmann YouTube videos to get the kids moving and signing to learn letter names and sounds. In addition, Miss F is beginning to incorporate more vowel identification activities in literacy lessons. Students are working on "tapping out CVC words" and listening for specific vowels. Miss M worked with each reading group to further practice their handwriting of letters V, W and Y. Unfortunately on 12/15/17, the K-3 teachers decided it was not a good choice to rotate through Jan Brett centers due to the significant amount of illness. Therefore, we postponed Jan Brett Day to January 12th. We are hoping all students and staff will be well rested for this new date. Literacy From 12/18-12/20: During this week of school, we wrapped up learning about all uppercase letters. Letters X, Q (QU) and Z were discussed in class. As you all know, the biggest moment of this week was not that we made it through the whole alphabet, but the fact the students got to attend a QU wedding. Students loved having "Q" (Mr. Clermont) and "U" (Miss MacMillan) get married. This truly helps students remember that the letter Q cannot formulate a word without the letter U! The students were talking about this ceremony all week long and I am sure they will continue too after break as well. In addition, students continued to use their Handwriting Without Tears books to practice letter formation. After break, we will begin lowercase letters in these orange books! Lastly, the children continued to further identify vowel sounds hidden inside CVC words in class. Some reading groups are building and manipulating CVC words! Math From 12/11-12/14: In math this week, students were reminded of positional words. We used our Finding Dory Friend Bruce, to help show and guess different positional words in class. At this time in the school year, many students have mastered identifying/making/building/representing numbers 0-10. We finished off the school year by wrapping up number booklets in class. When we return in the new year, students will focus on teen numbers up to 20. In addition, the children learned how to play "Monster Squeeze" as a whole group. The students are doing a great job of creating and reciting full number sentences to their teacher and classmates. Later in the week, we practiced writing and representing numbers on slates (mini white boards) on the carpet. The children also enjoyed watching subitizing videos such as the one posted below from Jack Hartmann: CLICK HERE TO VIEW Math From 12/18-12/20: During this week, students started a new unit in Everyday Math! We are on to chapter 4 and ready for new material and concepts. Towards the beginning of the week, students were reintroduced to attribute blocks. We played a variety of games were the students got to "Guess the Attribute" with one another. In addition, students further developed their ability to identify shapes by playing a guessing game that only allowed children to feel a shape hidden inside a box (they could not peek at it with their eyes!). By mid-week, children were back to practicing creating patterns independently. We reviewed several different pattern types (AB, AAB, ABB, ABC etc.) in class before this task was given. As I walked around to observe the children, I got to see students put forth great effort to create patterns of their liking. At the end of the week, students were reintroduced to graphing! We wrote down data, analyzed it and then interpreted it into graph for students to view! All students were able to vote for their favorite color, what could be better! Fun December Activities : Hanukkah Guest Speaker: On December 15th, our class was lucky to have Mrs. Halevi come in and talk to us about Hanukkah! We were able to see menorahs, different dreidels and listen to a few songs! The children loved hearing about Hanukkah traditions and even remembered some that we read about earlier in the week from books. Holiday Party: Unfrotunetly due to a snow day on 12/22/17, our holiday party got cancelled. Miss Froleiks is currently looking into another time when we could have a "Winter Party" in the next month or two. **However, the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed taking a moment to calm their bodies and brain down on 12/21 to complete a Cosmic Kids Yoga: Christmas Themed! Extended Kindergarten School Day: Science: Throughout the week of 12/11, students were introduced to various weather concepts! Wind, clouds, rain, snow and seasons were all discussed. Miss Froleiks was even able to connect 2 Mystery Doug Science episodes with these types of weather! During the week of 12/18, students learned about who a weather man is (meteorologist) and what they do for a job. Students were shown different maps and specialty computers that meteorologists use to help predict the weather. Towards the second half of the week, students worked on a season project. They acted out the four different season as well as drew pictures to help others visualize what it might look like outside. These pictures will be sent home after the new year! Social Studies: Before the holiday, students finished creating Needs and Wants projects! Currently, they are hung in the hallway for fellow Micro Citizens to view. After the new year, these projects will be sent home as well :) Buddy Reading: Miss Carideo and I decided to have buddy reading on both 12/13 and 12/20! Below are some pictures from their reading adventures :) MICRO: Right before vacation, our society was finally ready to be up and running! Students were both excited and nervous for the first day of marketplace. Your child has been given a "day off", they are either red day off (Tuesday) or blue day off (Friday). It is on their day off when students are allowed to spend their money. Ask your child about what other businesses they have visited in our Micro City society! Enjoy some pictures below :) Dear Parents,
Your child needs appropriate snow gear for outdoor play in the playground area. It is also important to pack a change of INDOOR SHOES so the wet boots do not track in wet footprints in the classroom. In addition, snow boots cause black marks on the tile floors, so the change of shoes for inside the building will help to not cause these marks. The following is a list of all the appropriate gear required for outdoor play: -Jacket -Snow pants -Winter Boots (and a change of shoes for inside such as sneakers or flats) -Hat or earmuffs -Gloves/Mittens |
Classroom Wishlist
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