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.

Weekly News & Homework: January 9th-13th

Weekly News: January 9-13

 

There is no school next Monday, January 16th due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Enjoy the three day weekend with your families!

Students have been doing such a wonderful job on writing last names! If your child is still struggling with this, please practice at home! You can make it a part of your writing homework. 

Our "wallets" have been a big hit in the classroom! Students are excited to "earn money" for making good use of classroom time and for good behavior and hard work throughout the day. On Friday, we had our first visit to the classroom store. Students had the opportunity to trade out their money for larger coins (5 pennies for a nickel, etc) and choose to spend money on a prize or save it for a larger prize later. Please continue to count money received everyday and reinforce the responsibility of taking care of wallets. Also, if you are able, we'd love more prizes for our "class store"!!! Thank you for your continued support!

This week, we will begin taking Math Fluency Tests on adding and subtracting math facts through five. Our Common Core Standard is that by the end of kindergarten, students will fluently (meaning without fingers or manipulatives) be able to add and subtract within five. Students will have the opportunity to practice these facts and take weekly tests. Please remember that we would like all students to master this standard by the end of the year. My hope is that each week, we will accomplish a little bit more on these tests. Please 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 will be coming home as the field trip gets closer. 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 and trinkets

Any sort of small {or big} prizes for our class store

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: OF, BACK, SAY, SAYS, PLEASE.

Letter Team:  CK (We are learning that CK makes the K sound and helps the vowel to say it's short sound, like in BACK, NECK, PICK, LOCK, DUCK).

Reading: This week we are studying and doing projects with "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. We will discuss and record story elements such as author, illustrator, setting, and characters. We will read books about winter and other stories by the author, Jan Brett. In our fluency passages, we are learning how to be "reading detectives" and answering comprehension questions by going back to find evidence in the text to support our answer. 

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. For example, "We had a great day at school today. First, we learned about measurement in math. Next, we colored snowmen at centers. Last, we read a lot of books about winter. As you can see, we had a fun time at school." 

Math: We will learn different ways things can be measured, including length, height, width, weight, and capacity. We will have fun measuring various items around the classroom. A big part of this unit is also sorting and graphing. You can help by discussing measurement, sorting, and graphing at home. Tell your child to sort different things around the house and ask how they sorted those things. 

Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. We will also discuss New Year's Resolutions and make goals for 2017. We will learn and discuss what it means to have a growth mindset and work hard on accomplishing those goals.  

Homework: January 9-13

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (OF, BACK, SAY, SAYS, PLEASE), and letter team (CK). 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.  Please continue to work on Counting and Cardinality and Geometry areas your child may still need support with.  We will begin our Measurement and Data Unit.  Please see the Measurement and Data Goal sheet below. Work with your child on the Measurement Vocabulary and encourage them to use these words to describe everyday objects. (I can measure my weight with a scale, this cup measures capacity, the height of the chair is 4 books tall, the spoon is shorter than the knife, I can measure a book’s height, weight, and length, etc) 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 something that you can measure. Make sure you tell me what you measured and the attribute (length, height, width, capacity, weight). Draw a picture to go with your sentences.

Weekly News & Homework: January 4th-6th

Happy New Year and welcome back to school! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and fun two weeks off with family and friends!

This is a short week, but we will still have new sight words, letter teams, and Friday tests! 

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST AS THERE IS A LOT OF NEW INFORMATION FOR THE NEW YEAR!!

There is no school this Tuesday, January 3rd due to a Teacher Inservice day. There is also no school on Monday, January 16th due to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Beginning after the holiday break, we will now have each student write his/her first and LAST NAME on all papers, homework, etc.  If your child does not know how to write his/her last name, please practice this at home. We will be practicing at school as well. 

You should have received your child's NEW take-home BAG on the last day before our break! This will replace your child's take-home FOLDER and will need to come back to school EVERYDAY! This bag will be for all take-home classwork, book bags, notes to parents, and homework. Don't forget to send your child to school with it starting this Wednesday!

Also beginning after the holiday break each child will have a “wallet” inside of his or her take home bag. The “wallet” is a ziploc baggie. Each day your child will have the opportunity to earn money throughout our day. Students will have the opportunity to receive pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in the classroom as rewards for behavior and hard work throughout the day. Instead of Treasure Box on Fridays, now they will visit the CLASS STORE! Each student will count money, trade money at the bank (example: five pennies for one nickel) and have the opportunity to spend their money on the items that are now “on sale” at the class store. Of course, bigger treasures will cost more money, which I hope will reinforce self-control and teach students about saving. Each child will be responsible for keeping track of their own bank and for counting the money in it. (This will be great math homework practice). Please encourage your child to take care of and keep track of his/her wallet, as lost money WILL NOT BE REPLACED!  Also, if students forget wallets at home, they will not receive money for that day. The wallet is designed to teach responsibility and accountability as well as reinforce math skills. This is a great life skill your child will benefit from in the future! Thank you for your continued support. 

Success Academy begins January 4th (still on Wednesdays and Thursdays) and second trimester electives will begin the week of January 16th. 

Upcoming Events:  
Tuesday, January 3: NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 16: NO SCHOOL
Friday, January 27: 100th DAY OF SCHOOL CELEBRATION (more info coming soon)

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

***Any sort of small {or big} prizes for our class store!!!***
Gluesticks  
Black Expo Markers 

Valentines Day stickers and trinkets

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US.

Letter Team:  WOR (the OR sounds like Mr. ER, like in work and word) and TION (sounds like SHUN like in vacation, invention, connection). 

Reading: This week, we will read many books about winter and snowmen. We will not be taking book bags home due to the short week. 

Writing:  We will continue working on writing three sentences on the same topic and begin thinking of good topic sentences to begin our writing and conclusion sentences to end our writing.

Math: We will begin discussing Number Bonds, along with addition and subtraction and next week, we will begin taking Fluency Math tests. We will continue to learn our Doubles Song. We will also begin our math unit on measurement. We are learning different ways things can be measured, including length, height, width, weight, and capacity. You can help by discussing measurement at home.

Leadership: As always, we will continue to ROAR. Students displaying excellent leadership traits will be rewarded with money to spent at our class store. 

Homework: January 4-6

Flashcards: Make flashcards for our new sight words (WORK, ALL, AWAY, JUST, US), and letter teams (WOR and TION). 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 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. 

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.  

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 winter activity that you enjoy. Draw a picture to go with your sentences. Here is a link to our Sharing Paper. 

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.