Weekly News & Homework: January 17th-20th

I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing three-day weekend with your families!

Last week, we began taking Math Fluency Tests on adding and subtracting math facts through five. These tests will come home every Monday. The goal is to finish the whole page in 2 minutes (to demonstrate fluency in this standard), so the students are given 2 minutes to complete it in pencil. After 2 minutes, they switch to crayons. Their calculated score is based only on what is done in pencil. Please take some time to review these tests, and reinforce and practice these skills at home. Thank you for your support!

A LOOK AHEAD: Our next kindergarten field trip is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31st. We will be going to the Children's Museum of the Desert. It is sure to be an exciting “hands on” experience.  We will be leaving school at 8:15 AM and returning at approximately 1:00 PM. Permission slips for our field trip went out this week. Please make sure they are signed and turned in by FRIDAY (1/20). If you are interested in being a chaperone please email me (bbobrink@inlandleaders.com) and let me know BY FRIDAY JANUARY 20th, as we need to give our final head count to the museum. Chaperones are welcome to follow us or ride the bus and will need to pay a small chaperone fee at the door (approximately $5.00) Please remember that school policy states NO SIBLINGS. Thanks! We are looking forward to a wonderful field trip! 

Upcoming Events:  

Monday, January 16: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 27: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION 
Tuesday, January 31: Field Trip to the Children's Museum
Monday, February 13: NO SCHOOL 
Tuesday, February 14: Valentine's Day Centers 
Monday, February 20: NO SCHOOL

If you are at the store and happen to think of us, we'd love....  
Black Expo Markers 

Valentines Day stickers

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WOULD, COULD, SHOULD, WALK, TALK.

Letter Team:  ANG (like in HANG, SANG) and ANK (like in TANK, BANK). 

Reading: This week we are reading about penguins in both fiction and non-fiction books!

Writing:  We are learning how to write a five sentence paragraph. I have been modeling a structure for paragraph writing called, "Step Up to Writing" for the students. Kindergarten Step Up to Writing is writing a paragraph with a topic sentence, three sentences about that topic, and a conclusion sentence. This week, we will write five sentence step up to writing stories about Martin Luther King Jr. 

Math: We will continue our unit on measurement. This week we will focus on measuring length and height. 

Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. This week, we will discuss how to use our growth mindset to accomplish our goals at school and at home. 

Homework: January 16-20

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (WOULD, COULD, SHOULD, WALK, TALK), and letter teams (ANG and ANK). 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. In addition to Smarty Ants, we ask that you read your Book Bag every night. This includes: fluency passage, paper books, and library books. 

Writing: Write three to five sentences every day in your at-home journal. 

Math: Play Dreambox for 10-15 minutes each night. Continue to discuss measurement and help your child to measure items at home. Reinforce addition and subtraction math facts through 5. Count the money in your "wallet" each day. Tell addition and subtraction word problems to your children and have them explain to you how they got the 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 what we learned about Martin Luther King Jr. Draw a picture to go with your sentences.