Weekly News & Homework: December 12th-16th

There is NO SCHOOL for two weeks due to Christmas vacation!!!! This is our last week together in 2016. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Years and I will see you back at school on Tuesday, January 5, 2017!!

Monday is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 8:50. The TK and kindergarten classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, and our school principal, Dr. Urrea, as well as coffee and treats. We ask that all grandparents stay in the sanctuary for the entirety of the presentation, grab a treat, then you are invited to join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day for kindergarten will be over at 9:45. We hope you can attend!

Please remember that kindergarten will NOT be performing at the ILCS Christmas Program on Monday night.


Our play is this week!!!! Please come see your fantastic children in "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". We will be performing a school day show at 8:30 on Thursday, December 15th. We hope that parents who work evenings are able to attend this performance. We will have our BIG performance at 6:15 on the evening of Thursday, December 15th. Please arrive at 6:00 (no earlier due to other performances this evening and limited parking space, and no later because we need time to get our costumes on!) We will meet in the church sanctuary. Your children are doing such a fantastic job and we are so excited for our performance! 

More information about our play: 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 14th (please meet us in the sanctuary at 8:00!) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 15th (please meet us in the sanctuary at 8:15!) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 6:00.  Thank you!

Play Costumes: We are providing all of the costumes and props for your children.  PLEASE SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL THURSDAY MORNING AND EVENING WEARING A PLAIN BLACK OR WHITE SHIRT AND BLACK LEGGINGS OR PANTS so that it is easier to put their costumes over their clothes :) Narrators will dress in "Sunday Best".

What Are We Learning This Week?:

This week we will have fun and review everything we have learned so far in kindergarten. We will be learning about the different holidays of the season, working on fun Christmas projects, working on our Christmas Math Problems, performing our play, and reading many books about our holiday season. It's going to be a fun week! We are reviewing all of our sight words and letter teams!

Homework: December 12-16

Flashcards: Review all sight word and letter team flashcards. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support.

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Please practice reading the library book in your child's book bag every night. Just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization as we discussed at conferences.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Check and review your Daily Math worksheets and Math Talks. Ask your child addition and subtraction questions. Tell your child math stories and ask them to tell you how they got their answer. 

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about our Gingerbread Man play. Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Remember that you can bring your writing homework ANY day of the week!  Here is a link to our Sharing Paper. 

Weekly News & Homework: December 5th-9th

We are FULL of information this week so please take a moment to read carefully so you don't miss out on anything! Thank you!

Next Monday, December 12th is Grandparents Day at ILCS! We invite all grandparents who are able, to join us in the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 8:50. The TK and kindergarten classes will be performing a few special songs. There will also be a short presentation from our school director, Mr. Gordon, and our school principal, Dr. Urrea, as well as coffee and treats. We ask that all grandparents stay in the sanctuary for the entirety of the presentation, grab a treat, then you are invited to join us in our classroom. We will do a quick craft together and grandparents will have the opportunity to see our classroom. Grandparents day for kindergarten will be over at 9:45. We hope you can attend!

We will be performing our kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 15th at 6:15. TK will have a small performance at 5:30. Because of so much going on this evening and the limited amount of parking, we ask you to arrive at the Cub's Den (church sanctuary) at 6:00 to get your costume on and get ready. If you come any earlier, another class will be performing/taking pictures/etc. and we need to be respectful of their time. Please arrive at 6:00. Our rehearsals have been going well and the students are having so much fun! We hope that all parents are able to make this wonderful event! 


More information about our play: 

Parent Help for the Play: We are in need of parent helpers on the morning of Wednesday, December 14th (8:00-9:00) to help us with our "dress rehearsal". We will also need parent helpers on the morning of Thursday, December 15th (8:00-9:00) to help us with our school day performance, and will also need parents to help put on costumes for our Thursday evening performance at 6:00. If anyone is able to come help, please let us know! Thank you!

Play Costumes: We are providing all of the costumes and props for your children. A HUGE THANK YOU FOR THE PARENTS FOR HELPING TO IRON AND REPAIR OUR COSTUMES LAST WEEK! We ask that your child come to school on Thursday morning and Thursday night wearing a plain black or white shirt and black leggings or pants so that it is easier to put their costumes over their clothes :) The only costume that we do NOT provide is the narrator - we ask that the narrators please dress in "Sunday Best". 

Each year, we like to show our hard-working custodians how much we appreciated all they do for our school. Each year we ask for a $3 donation per student for a special custodian gift that will be presented to them before we break for the holidays. Please turn in your donation in an envelope marked "Custodian Gift" or bring it to the office by December 9th. Thank you! 

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, December 12: Grandparent's Day
Thursday, December 15: "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" 6:15
Friday, December 16: Holiday Centers 

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, our classroom would love: 

Christmas Stickers and Prizes/Trinkets

Treasure Box Prizes 

Black Expo Markers 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OUR, WHO, THINK, THING, THAT.

Letter Team: INK (like in PINK, SINK) and ED (We are learning that tricky Mr. ED goes at the end of the word to tell us that something has already happened - making the word past tense. Mr. ED is tricky because sometimes he makes the "T" sound - like in LOOKED, sometimes he makes the "D" sound - like in PLAYED, and sometimes he says "ED" like in WANTED).

Reading: We are reading many books about the holidays. Students will continue to take home leveled Reading A to Z books and library books in our book bags, as well as fluency passages. Please practice reading these sheets and these books every day at home. Please remember that everything in your book bag MUST come back to school every day! 

Writing: We will continue to work on our writing goals as we strive to write three to five sentences every day. Some students will be writing topic sentences, three details, and a conclusion sentence. 

Math:  We will continue working on fun Christmas story problems and playing fun addition games. 

Leadership: Don't forget to ROAR everyday to keep earning those ROAR tickets! 

Homework: December 5-9

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (OUR, WHO, THINK, THING, THAT), and letter teams (INK and ED). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support.

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your book bag! Read your fluency passage from your book bag! Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization as we discussed at conferences.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice counting, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), practice number writing, practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Counting and Cardinality and Geometry areas where they may still need support.  Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill.

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: Please write THREE SENTENCES about a special holiday tradition in your family. Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Here is a link to our Sharing Paper. 

Weekly News & Homework: November 28th-December 2nd

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving week off with your families. I am so excited to be back at school. This is such a fun, yet busy time of the year in kindergarten with so much going on. Please take a moment to read through our news and upcoming events so that you don't miss out on anything. Thank you!

Our kindergarten classes are doing a Christmas play this year! We will be putting on "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". Every student should have received his or her CD before break. Each student will receive a special part this week!!! Our kindergarten classes will be doing two performances in the evening on Thursday, December 15th. Mrs. Marion and Mrs. Bobrink's classes will perform at 6:00 and Mrs. Bess and Mrs. Stanley's classes will perform at 6:45. Please mark your calendars now. This is an event you will not want to miss! We will give more information about costumes, help, and times to be there as it gets closer. 

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, December 12: Grandparent's Day (more info coming soon!)
Thursday, December 15: "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" 6:00
Friday, December 16: Holiday Centers (more info coming soon!)

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, our classroom would love: 

Christmas Stickers and Prizes/Trinkets

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: AS, NO, KNOW, ABOUT, BY.

Letter Team:  KN (the K is silent, like in KNOW and KNIGHT), and EW (like in NEW and STEW).

Reading: We are reading a variety of books about the Gingerbread Man this week. We are also learning about landforms (mountains, valleys, deserts, and plains) and bodies of water (rivers, oceans, lakes, and ponds). We will be taking home leveled Reading A to Z books and continue taking home library books in our book bags this week. Students will be taking home fluency passages this week. Please practice reading these sheets every night at home, sending them back to school every day in your book bag. 

Writing: We will continue to work on our writing goals as we strive to write three to five sentences every day. Some students will be writing topic sentences, three details, and a conclusion sentence. 

Math: This week we will learn addition "DOUBLES" in our fun DOUBLES SONG. You can help at home by asking your child doubles addition questions (2+2, 7+7, 10+10, etc.) We will start working on fun Christmas story problems and playing fun addition games. 

Leadership: Don't forget to ROAR everyday to keep earning those ROAR tickets! 

Homework:November 28-December 2

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (AS, NO, KNOW, ABOUT, BY), and letter teams (KN and EW). Study flashcards every day.

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills - rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, and beginning/middle/ending sounds. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Foundational Skills areas where they may still need support.

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your book bag! Read your fluency passage from your book bag! Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Practice writing every day! Our expectation at this point of the year is for students to write three sentences every day! Please make sure your three sentences are on the same topic with details, focusing on neatness, punctuation, and capitalization as we discussed at conferences.

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to practice counting, identify numbers out of order (make number flashcards!), practice number writing, practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Please check your child's report card from first trimester and see the Counting and Cardinality and Geometry areas where they may still need support.  Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill. 

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: Our turn-in homework will be to write three or more sentences, instead of just one. At this point of the year, please have your child write the sentences instead of dictating it for them. This week, please write three sentences about what you did over break. We are practicing writing a topic sentence then details to go with it. For example, "I had a great Thanksgiving break. First, I went to Disneyland. Next, I had a Thanksgiving feast with my family. Last, I went to the Christmas tree farm." Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Here is a link to our Sharing Paper. 

Weekly News & Homework: November 15-18th

Weekly News: November 15-18 

There is no school on Monday, November 14th due to parent conferences. I hope you are enjoying the long weekend with your families! 

Parent Conferences are this week (Monday-Wednesday). Thank you for signing up on Parent Square for a conference.  I am looking forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child's growth in the classroom. Please remember that because we only have so much time per conference, I'd like to politely ask that you arrive on time so we can make the most of our time together. If possible, please make other arrangements for your children, as parent conferences are for parents and teachers only. Thank you!

Thank you very much for donating to our Thanksgiving Food Box! What a wonderful way to give during this holiday season :) 

Our kindergarten classes will be having a combined Thanksgiving Feast this Friday, November 18th. We are looking forward to a great, big Thanksgiving celebration together! Thank you for signing up to donate items on ParentSquare. Don't forget to bring your fruit for our friendship fruit salad on Friday! Please send a piece of fruit to school with your child on this day. An apple, pear, banana, or small bag of strawberries or grapes are good examples. Each child will get to add his or her own fruit to our fruit salad!  If you would like to come help set up and make this a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast for our kids, you are welcome to join us next Friday at 11:30 for set up.  The feast will begin at 12:00. We need need LOTS of help for set up and tear down! Thank you in advance!

Our kindergarten classes are doing a Christmas play this year! We will be putting on "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man". We will have "auditions" the week following Thanksgiving Break and each student will have a very special role in our play. Later this week, we will be sending home CDs so you can start practicing over break! More information on this fun event to come. Have fun singing!

NO SCHOOL ALL OF NEXT WEEK! Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your families!

Upcoming Events: 

Monday, November 14: No School - Conference Day 

November 14-17: Parent Conferences 

Friday, November 18: Thanksgiving Feast 

November 21-25: No School - Thanksgiving Break! 

Thursday, December 15: EVENING performance of our kindergarten Christmas play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" - more info coming soon, but make sure you mark your calendars now!!

What Are We Learning This Week:

This week we will have fun and review everything we have learned so far in kindergarten. We will also be studying the Pilgrims and Indians, reading about Thanksgiving, and working on fun Thanksgiving projects!! There are no new sight words or letter teams until after break, so please review ALL of the first trimester sight words and letter teams. 

Homework: November 15-18

Please take a moment to read each section of homework. I understand this can be very overwhelming. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Flashcards: There are no new sight words or letter teams this week. Please review and study all flashcards you have made so far this year! Study flashcards every day. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the Foundational skills that he or she still needs to master (blending, segmenting, rhyming, syllables, add/change/delete a sound, etc.) You will have a better idea of exactly what Foundational Skills your child needs to master after our parent conferences. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Continue to work with your child on the writing goals they need to master. While we ARE all at different writing goals, the in-class expectation is now that each child will write three or more sentences every day. Please reinforce this at home with writing homework. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Work on your child's Counting and Geometry goals. Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill. 

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: This week we will have a fun turn-in homework assignment! Have your child make a picture collage of what he or she is thankful for! This can be pictures that you child draws, photographs, pictures cut out from magazines, etc. Have fun and allow them to be creative! :)

Weekly News & Homework: November 7th-11th

There is no school this Friday, November 11th due to Veteran's Day and no school the following Monday, November 14th due to parent conferences. 

I can't believe we are already done with our First Trimester of Kindergarten! Parent Conferences are NEXT WEEK (November 14-16). Thank you for signing up on Parent Square for a conference.  if you have not yet signed up, please do so. I am looking forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child's growth in the classroom. Because we only have so much time per conference, I'd like to politely ask that you arrive on time so we can make the most of our time together. If possible, please make other arrangements for your children, as parent conferences are for parents and teachers only. Thank you!

Our kindergarten classes will be having a combined Thanksgiving Feast on Friday, November 18th. We are looking forward to a great, big Thanksgiving celebration together!  We will be making many items for our feast in the classroom together! If you are able to donate items for our feast, we would really appreciate it - be on the look out for the ParentSquare sign up coming soon!  If you would like to come help set up and make this a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast for our kids, you are welcome to join us next Friday at 11:30 for set up.  The feast will begin at 12:00. We need need LOTS of help for set up and tear down! Thank you in advance!

Mark your calendars now!  We will be having our very own special kindergarten play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" on the evening of Thursday, December 15th. More information to come, but you do not want to miss this, so mark your calendars now! 

Upcoming Events: 

Friday, November 11: No School - Veteran's Day

Monday, November 14: No School - Conference Day 

November 14-16: Parent Conferences - sign up on ParentSquare!

Friday, November 18: Thanksgiving Feast 

November 21-25: No School - Thanksgiving Break! 

Thursday, December 15: EVENING performance of our kindergarten Christmas play, "The Tale of the Gingerbread Man" - more info coming soon, but make sure you mark your calendars now!!

What Are We Learning This Week:

Sight Words: This week we are reviewing our tricky W words - WENT, WHEN, WHAT, WAS, WANT. Please continue to practice all sight words that we have learned in the first trimester, especially those your child has misread on their Friday Sight Word Tests.

Letter Team: GE/GI (the soft sound of G which sounds like J, like in GENTLE and GIANT).

Reading: We will read many books turkeys and pilgrims and Indians, as we prepare for Thanksgiving. We will practice all of our reading strategies learned so far. We will continue to read our paper books and books from our class library. 

Writing: We will continue to write at least three sentences on the same topic, focusing on neatness, proper punctuation, capitalization, and spacing.

Math: We will continue to work on our Daily Math, fun Thanksgiving story problems and games, and DreamBox. We will learn this week about the different types of story problems - adding, subtracting, and comparing. We will work on different WAYS to solve problems, such as using manipulatives, drawing a picture, counting up or counting backwards, and using resources around us. 

Leadership: Congratulations to our ROAR award recipients for the first trimester - Natalie and Hawk! We will all continue to ROAR in kindergarten and discuss ways to respect, own our actions, act safely, and be a leader in our classroom.

Homework: November 7-10

Please take a moment to read each section of homework. I understand this can be very overwhelming. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.

Flashcards: Study flashcards for our review sight words (WENT, WHEN, WHAT, WAS, WANT,) Make Flashcards for the new letter teams (GE and GI).   Study flashcards every day. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the Foundational skills that he or she still needs to master (blending, segmenting, rhyming, syllables, add/change/delete a sound, etc.) Please see our Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips. 

Reading: Play Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes each night. Read on RAZ-Kids. Read books from your at-home book box! Read to your child every day and have your child read to you every day. Find sight words and letter teams in books, in the car as you are driving - just READ, READ, READ! 

Writing: Continue to work with your child on the writing goals they need to master. While we ARE all at different writing goals, the in-class expectation is now that each child will write three or more sentences every day. Please reinforce this at home with writing homework. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Review shapes:

1. *Is the shape 2D flat or 3D solid
2. *How many sides or faces
3. *How many vertices
4. *curved or straight lines on flat shapes
5. *what shape are the faces on 3D solid shapes
6. *Does the 3D solid shape roll, slide, or stack? 
7. 
   

Keep going over those Daily Math worksheets that go home each day to see if your child needs help with a particular skill. 

We have been working on positional words and naming shapes.  For example:  the sphere is behind the fence, the rhombus is above the lamp.  Students have an easier time with this when the positional word is given - (Draw a circle next to the tree) but when students need to describe the position themselves it becomes much more difficult.  Practice having your child tell you where things are using the following positional words:

1. *in front of
2. *behind
3. *between
4. *next to
5. *above
6. *below
7. *beside
8. *left
9. *right

QR Codes: Download and print the QR Code practice pages on ParentSquare. Work on these pages together. 

Turn-In Homework: A few weeks ago, I asked you to start thinking about your community service project that will be due in May. It is a good idea to think about it early and maybe even log a few hours. For homework this week, please write your plan for your community service project - one or a few sentences about what you plan to do. Here is a link to our Sharing Paper.