Schedule for 12/15 - 12/19

M - Music
T - Art
W - Gym & Computer
Th - Pastries for Parents, Music & Media
F - Art & Holiday Party

Just a few reminders:
* Our holiday party will be from 1:30 to 2:30 this Friday. Parents are welcomed to join us. Make sure you stop in the office and sign-in!

* We will do our classroom book exchange on Friday afternoon. Please have your child bring in a new or slightly used book that is wrapped. They can bring the books in anytime this week.

* Send all winter gear to school each day. We want to make sure the kids have everything they need in case they do get to go out for recess.

Stay warm!

Schedule for 12/8 - 12/12

M - Art
T - Gym
W - Music & Computer
Th - Art & Media
F - Gym

Our Kindergarten holiday party will be next Friday, December 19th. Our party will be from 1:30 - 3:00. We will be visiting 3 kindergarten classrooms and doing a project in each room. Then, at 2:30 we will do our book exchange and have a snack. Parents are welcomed to join us if you'd like to! Please be here at 1:30 for when we switch classrooms.

Thank you, parents, for remembering to send in all of the warm winter gear! The students are getting very good at getting themselves dressed and making sure that they have everything before they go to lunch!

The Elves and the Shoemaker

Pinatas and November Character slip winners

Schedule for 12/1 - 12/5

M - Gym
T - Music
W - Old Log Theater field trip & Computer
Th - Gym & Media
F - Music



This Wednesday our class will be heading to the Old Log Theater to see their holiday children's show - The Elves and the Shoemaker. Here's a brief review of the show: "An upbeat, whimsical romp about a troupe of elves who help restore a poor cobbler to prosperity by making a pair of the most fantastic and magical shoes that the town has ever seen. This new heart-warming adaptation, featuring original music, tells a tale not only of midnight enchantment, but of generosity and virtue rewarded. It's the perfect holiday story and is a great way to introduce children of all ages to the magic and fun of theater."
*There will be many other school groups at the theater when we go. Unfortunately, because of the limited seating, we are unable to take any extra parent volunteers.
*We will leave SH at 9:20 and return at approximately 11:45. We will eat our regular lunch when we return to school.

This week we will begin our annual Holiday's Around the World tour. K-1 students will take their passports and "travel" to Mexico (Ms. Haugen's room) on Tuesday to learn about their holiday traditions. On Thursday, they will head to Israel (Ms. Logelin's room). This is a great time for students to learn about other cultures and how their traditions are similar and different from our own.

Schedule for 11/24 - 11/28

M - Gym

T - Music

W - Art, Computer, and Ice Safety assembly with Officer Niccum

Th - No School

F - No School

This week we will be working on the sight word of.  We'll be finishing up our science unit - Trees and Chapter 3 in math.  Our next letter of the week will be after the new year.  

C is for cookie

Today we learned about all things C. We watched a video (see below) and the song was stuck in our heads all day! We also made our own Cookie Monsters. At the end of the day Callie, our Star of the Week, brought in some cookies to share with us.





We also wrote a letter to Mrs. Swanson and practiced using our "Smartie" spelling!

Schedule for 11/17 -11/21

M - Music
T - Art
W - Gym & Computer
Th - Music & Media
F - Art

We'll be working on the letter C this week and our new sight word is was. This week we will be finishing up our unit on Trees and Chapter 3 in math.

Conferences are this week. If your time is after school, the conference will be held in our classroom. If you are scheduled to come on Friday, please meet me in room 200A (go up the stairs by the media center).

Have a great week!

Schedule for 11/10 - 11/14

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music & Computer

Th - Art & Media

F -  Gym

This week our letter is "Dd" and new sight word is "was".  

Report cards will be going home in the Friday folders this week.  Click HERE for a reminder as to what the letter grades stand for.  There will be a few skills on the report card that will not have a grade.  That means we haven't assessed them yet, but will for the Feb. report card.  I will have extra copies available for us to look at during conferences next week. 

Please make sure to send your child to school with appropriate clothing for going outside (i.e. hats, gloves, warm jackets).  They will go out each day for recess...weather permitting!

October character slip winners

Travels with Pierre

Today we learned more about trees.  We learned about the different parts of a tree (roots, trunk, branches, leaves) and added those words to our Word Wall.  We learned that leaves have veins and compared the job of those veins to the veins in our bodies!

Click HERE to see the slides that we watched about Pierre the acorn!

The results are in...

K-1 exercised their rights as American citizens today and voted for our new President! They had their own little voting booth and each student cast their ballot.


The results are as follows:
Obama - 11
McCain - 9

Check out this website to have your child vote along with other kids across the nation:
ZOOMout the Vote

Schedule for 11/3 - 11/7

M - Music & Character Class
T - Art
W - Gym & Computer
Th - Music, Media, & Grandfriends' Day
F - No School - Teacher workshop

We have a very busy week ahead of us! This week we will be working on the letter H and our new sight word is have. Here are the seven sight words that I will be assessing the students on in the next couple of weeks: I, a, the, see, to, he, and have.

On Monday, K-1 will have their first Character Class with Mrs. Swanson in the afternoon. She will be doing activities that are centered around our six character traits (honesty, kindness, respect, responsibilities, self-control, and work ethic).

Also on Monday evening from 5-8, stop by Shirley Hills to check out the Sholastic Book Fair Safari. Last week during Media, Mrs. Williams explained to the students how the book fair works and showed them lots of cool new books that will be available!

Thursday is Grandfriends' Day at Shirley Hills. Two weeks ago you received a purple note from Mrs. Bray explaining the schedule. Our class will be singing in the 1:30-2:45 performance. At 2:45, Grandfriends are welcomed to come down to our classroom to do a project with the students. Please make sure to send back the bottom of the purple slip to let me know how many Grandfriends are attending and if you would like your child to go home with them at the end of the day.

One more thing! Friday folders will be going home on Thursday this week. Check them for a reminder about when your child's conference is.

Have a great week!

Trees

We are beginning our first science investigation in Kindergarten - Trees. Throughout this unit students will learn to observe and describe properties of trees and leaves in the schoolyard, compare similarities and differences of trees, and observe trees throughout the school year for changes that come with the different seasons.
Yesterday, we completed the first two steps to our KWL chart (see below). We will complete the third step at the end of our investigation. Click on the chart to enlarge it.

Halloween Info.

This coming Friday we will be celebrating Halloween at Shirley Hills. Students are welcomed to bring a costume to school and wear them for the parade in the afternoon. If your child's costume has any sort of fake weapon, please leave that at home! It usually works well if you send the costume to school in a plastic bag, then they will change out of their costumes and bring them home at the end of the day.

At 9:00am on Friday, we'll head down to the Gym to watch the Westonka high school band perform for us. At 9:30, Officer Niccum will be talking to students about ways to stay safe while out trick or treating.

Our parent volunteers have been busy getting games and activities ready! Our classroom party will be from 1:15-2:15. The parade will be begin at 2:15. If you are interested in watching the parade, please go to the Gym at 2:15 and you'll get to see all of the grades walk through.

Schedule for 10/27-10/31

M - Art
T - Gym
W - Music & Computer
Th - Art & Media
F - Gym & Halloween Party

*Check back later in the week for more details about the Halloween party and parade!

Blue Ribbon Celebration

Here are some pictures of our Blue Ribbon celebration on Friday.  Thank you to all of the parent volunteers who helped to tie shirts, dye shirts, and spray hair. Everyone had a really fun day!

Schedule for 10/20 - 10/24

M - Gym
T - Music
W - Art & Computer
Th - Gym & Media
F - Music & Blue Ribbon Celebration

We will be working on the letter J this week. We'll begin Chapter 3 (Equal Groups) in math. Students will use one-to-one correspondence to compare groups, use problem solving strategies to make graphs, and learn about estimation.

This Friday we will be celebrating our Blue Ribbon award. There is a blue note that will be coming home today with more information. Also, check your child's backpack today for their school pictures!

Schedule for 10/13 - 10/17

M - No School - Teacher workshop

T - No School - Conferences for Grades 1-4

W, Th, & F - Education MN Break 

See you next week!

Smartie spelling

This morning I introduced the concept of "Smartie" spelling to the class. We've been talking about the sounds that we hear in words and today the students practiced writing them. The students do not need to spell the words correctly, instead they will write the sounds that they hear. It's a hard concept to grasp at first, so even if they start with writing the first sound in the word, that is fine with me! Eventually, they will start to write the middle and ending sounds.

This morning in their journals there were lots of pictures of houses. They drew a house and then tried to write house. Many of them wrote "hoas". This is a great start! Another example would be school, the student might hear and write "skol". Practice this new concept with your child!

Character slip winners

At the end of each month, during morning announcements, Mrs. Swanson reads the names of the students who have earned Character slips throughout the month.  Today she read the names of the Kindergarten students.  Above are the students from K-1 who earned slips in September.  Character slips are part of our school's character education program.  Slips are awarded for showing kindness, being honest and respectful, and using self-control.  

Schedule for 10/6- 10/10

M - Music & tie dye t-shirts

T - Art 

W - Gym & Computer

Th - Music & Media

F - Art

This week we will be working on the letter S.  We'll spend more time this week on making sure that first names are written correctly and writing numerals 1-10.  

Plans are in full speed to get ready for our Blue Ribbon celebration.  Click here to read about what the award is!  On Monday, K-1 students will be tie-dyeing t-shirts to wear on our October 24th celebration.  Last week the students were fitted for a t-shirt and many of you have sent in the $2 to pay for them.  If you haven't already, please remember to send that in this week, as well as the blue permission form to have your child's hair sprayed blue.  Our class will be creating a Vision & Dream banner to go above our classroom door.  Please send in a photo of your child for this project!  

Have a great start to the week!

Pictures of K-1

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

4th grade buddies & P - D - B???

Today we met our 4th grade buddies!  Each student was matched up with a 4th grader from Mrs. Henkels' class.  The Kindergarteners listened to their buddy read them a story and worked hard to remember the name of their new friend!  We will try meet up with them a couple of times each month.  

I explained to the students how our grading works at Shirley Hills.  The students will not be getting A's and B's on their report cards in November.  Instead, they will be getting P's, D's and B's.  Confusing, right?  Here's the breakdown:

P - Proficient

D - Developing

B - Beginning  

Occasionally, I will use these letter grades on worksheets or projects....now you know what they stand for!

Sight Words

Above is a list of the 34 sight words that your child will learn throughout the year. Most of the words are from our Harcourt curriculum and the rest were added from the Fry Sight Word List. Students have learned the first three so far and I will usually introduce one new word a week.

Schedule for 9/29 - 10/3

M - Art (sport/jersey day)

T - Gym (pj's or comfy clothes day)

W - Music (crazy hair day)

Th - Art & Media (clash/mismatch day)

F - Gym (spirit wear day)

We have a busy week ahead of us in K-1!  It is Homecoming this week in Westonka and Shirley Hills will be participating in the dress up days (see schedule above).  

We will be learning all about the letter B this week.  We will practice writing it, working on the sound it makes, and finding words that begin with B.  We will do a fun art project about Goldilocks and the Three Bears and might even attempt to act out the story!  I will be starting to introduce some of our sight words, as well.  Check back later in the week for a list of all the words that the students will learn throughout the year.  

In math we'll continue our work on patterning and in social studies we will continue to learn about our families.  

Bus Safety

Today the students at Shirley Hills practiced how to ride the school bus safely.  Bus drivers spoke to the students about the importance of staying in their seats and keeping their voices down while riding the bus.  We even practiced evacuating the bus through the rear door.  

Have a good weekend!

Remember to return books!

Tomorrow we have Media with Mrs. Williams.  Please help your child remember to return their library book if they haven't already done so.  

Have a great night!

Schedule for 9/22 - 9/26

M - Gym

T - Music & Picture Day

W - Art

Th - Gym & Media

F - Music

This week we will be working on the letter F.  In math, we will begin Chapter 2 - Patterns.  Students will work on copying, predicting, and extending patterns.  We've also made it to Chapter 2 in Social Studies and will be learning about the various people that make up our families.  

This Tuesday (Sept. 23) is our school picture day.  There was a form in the last Friday folder with more details.  If you would like to order pictures, please fill out the form and have your child return it to me on Monday or Tuesday.  Our class is scheduled to get our pictures taken at 9:00am.  

M & M graphing

 The students will learn about many types of graphs throughout the year.  Each morning we graph the weather on a bar graph and today the students had a chance to create their own.  In honor of our letter of the week, M, we used M & M's to fill in the graphs!

Social Studies

The students have been learning a lot about each other through our first chapter in Social Studies. We've made posters about the Things We Can Do, watched a short video about feelings, and today we will begin making our Who Am I books. Each student will create their own book filled with clues about themselves. We'll read the books as a class and use the clues to figure out who the author is. Look for the posters and books to come home in Friday folders tomorrow.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Schedule for 9/15 - 9/19

M - Music

T - Art

W - Gym & Apple Orchard trip

Th - Music & Media (remember to return books)

F - Art

This week we will be working on the letter M.  Students will be practicing how to write upper and lowercase M's and will work on identifying the sound that it makes.  Below is an example of the lines that we write on with our SmartBoard.  

When we work on handwriting, we refer to the top line as the "sky", middle line is the "fence", and the bottom line is the "ground".  Have your child practice writing their first name at home with you!

Apple Orchard Field Trip

Our first field trip is quickly approaching!  We will be heading to the Deardorff Apple Orchard next Wednesday, September 17th.  We will be eating our regular lunch at school and then leaving at 1:00.  We'll return to Shirley Hills at 3:00.  

Our volunteers are all set up to ride the bus with us, but feel free to join us there if you would like!  

Schedule for 9/8 - 9/12

M - Art & Character Assembly

T - Gym

W - Music

Th - Art & Media

F - Gym

This week we will be working more on getting used to our schedule.  The students will also be practicing walking quietly in the halls, raising hands during group discussions, listening to directions, etc.  Spending time on these things procedures now will make it easier later on in the year.  It usually takes a bit of time before it all falls into place!

We will be starting Chapter 1 in Social Studies this week - Who Am I?  The students will learn about the likes and dislikes of their classmates as well as different characteristics that we have.  We will be drawing pictures, playing games with partners, and making a book about ourselves. 

If you haven't already, please remember to send in $28 for our field trips.  Thank you!

First Day of School!

K-1 had a terrific start to the year!  The students are energetic and eager to learn what we will be doing throughout the day.  They were especially curious to know when snack and lunch were going to be!  

We had Gym today with Mr. Halvarson and tomorrow have Music with Mrs. Bray.  

Tomorrow I will be sending home a Friday Folder with your child.  Inside will be projects from the week and notes from the office.  Please return the empty folder with your child on Monday!

Open House/Conferences

It was great to see you all at Open House!  The students seem very excited to start Kindergarten!  Our first conferences are scheduled for next Tuesday and Wednesday.  The conferences will be held in my room (103).  I am looking forward to sharing information about our day and learning more about your children.  The first day of school for the Kindergarten students is Thursday, September 4th.  If you are driving your child to school, please make sure that they are here at around 8:50.  I will meet the students in the lobby and we'll walk down to our room together.  Cameras are welcomed and Mrs. Swanson has organized a treat for you after you drop your child off!  

In the meantime, enjoy the long weekend with your families!

Welcome!

I would am hoping to get this blog up and running before the end of the school year.  Please check back soon for classroom updates!