Schedule for 12/14 - 12/18

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music

Th - Art & Media

F - Gym & Computer

This week we will be celebrating Holidays Around the World. Each student will have a passport and will travel (walk!) to the other kindergarten classrooms. Each K teacher is teaching about 2 different countries, so when the week is over the students will have learned about traditions in eight different areas of the world.

We will be having our book exchange on Friday afternoon. If you'd like your child to participate remember to send in a wrapped new (or gently used) book by Friday.

This Thursday will be Ms. Goodwater's last day with us. She's done a great job with the kids and will be a terrific teacher. We will miss having her in our room!

Schedule for 12/7 - 12/11

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

This week the class will be learning about the letters G and F. Our new sight words are here and this.
Please make sure that you are sending snowpants, boots, hat, and gloves/mittens each day!

Our birthday boy!

Our November Character slip winners!

Birthday kids, math centers, December journals...

Schedule for 11/30 - 12/4

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

This week we start a new theme in Language Arts: On the Farm. We will be singing songs, learning about our letter of the week "Ii" and our new sight word come. Our new vocabulary words are: squabble, mischief, uproar, tend, soggy and wobble.

Ms. Goodwater has been doing a great job with the class. She will continue to teach about geometric shapes in math this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Schedule for 11/23 - 11/25

M - Music
T - Art
W - Gym, Computer, and Media
Th - No School
F - No School

This week we will be reviewing the letters, sight words, and vocabulary words that we have done so far. Ms. Goodwater will be starting a new chapter in math. Look for a note in backpacks on Monday afternoon!

I was able to change our schedule a bit because of the short week. On Wednesday, we will be joining Mrs. Koepp's class for media. Please make sure that library books are back by Wednesday this week for your child to check out a new one.

Have a good Monday!

Schedule for 11/16 - 11/20

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music & Evening Conferences

Th - Art, Media, & Evening Conferences

F - Gym & Computer

This week we are on Lesson 9 in Language Arts. We will be reviewing the letters/sounds and vocabulary. Our new sight word is he. We will continue to learn about story characters, summarizing, and captions.

In Math, Ms. Goodwater will be finishing up Chapter 4 (Numbers 6-10) with the class. We will be practicing number writing and learn a card game to help with number ordering.

We will be talking about family characteristics and what makes families special in Social Studies. The students will be making a book about the "gifts" in their family!

I will be conferencing this Wednesday and Thursday evening (as well as Monday, the 23rd). Please arrive on time and I will do my best to fit everything in 20 minutes and keep us on schedule :)

Schedule 11/9 - 11/13

M - Music
T - Art
W - Gym
Th - Music & Media
F - No School - Teacher workshop day

Conference reminders were sent out in the Friday folder last week. Conferences are 20 minutes. Please let me know if you will not be able to make it and we will reschedule! I am working on report cards this week and they will be sent home in backpacks next Tuesday.

That's all for now. Mrs. Fitz brought the class outside to enjoy the weather (and new swings) instead of to nap!!!

Grandfriend's Day

Today was a great day in room 103. There were lots of smiles and it was fun to see the students spend time with their Grandfriends! They were able to check out the book fair and do a craft project in the classroom. The students also enjoyed showing the SmartBoard to our guests! I was happy to hear that lots of grandparents have been checking our blog!

Click HERE for a slideshow of today's pictures.

Family Fun Night

Family Fun Night is TONIGHT in the Media Center from 5:00 - 8:00. There will be hotdogs, chips, poetry readings, and lots of books! Stop by and check it out!

Our October Character slip winners.

Our tree that finally lost most of it's leaves!

Our birthday girl!

Schedule for 11/2 - 11/6

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music

Th - Art & Media

F - Gym, Computer, and Grandfriend's Day

This week instead of focusing on a new letter, the students will be learning phonograms: -at, and -an. They will use what they have learned about rhyming

and letter sounds to help them blend sounds together to create words. Our sight word for the week is to. Vocabulary words are: sly, proceed, apparel, announced, imaginary and precisely.

In math we will be finishing up our chapter with numbers 0-9. It's very important the the students are learning how to write their numbers (and letters!) correctly. In class we've been practicing starting at the "sky", going through the "fence", and ending at the "ground". When you practice writing at home, please reinforce this skill!

The book fair is going on in the Media center. Stop in and check out all the new books! The class will have the chance to fill out a wish list. I'm hoping to coordinate a time with our 4th grade buddies to get the list filled out. We will send them home as soon as we get them finished.

Friday is Grandfriend's Day at Shirley Hills. If your child is going home with their Grandfriend on Friday, please make sure that you have filled out the yellow form and have sent it back by Friday morning.

Our class will be having a student teacher start with us on Monday. Ms. Goodwater will be with us through December. We are looking forward to having her learn all about Kindergarten! Look for a letter from her in this week's Friday Folder.

Ok, enough for now. Go Vikings!

Halloween Party

We had a busy and exciting day in K-1. Our day started with a concert put on by the high school band. They played lots of great songs. One of the favorites was a song from Star Wars! In the afternoon, the class got their costumes on and came back to the classroom for the party! We had 3 volunteers work very hard to coordinate a party complete with games, decorations, and even ice cream floats. It was "spooktacular"! Thank you to all of the parents that helped during the party and to those that visited us after the parade!

Mrs. Williams introduced us to the author Frank Asch last week. Check out one of his animated books about Halloween titled Popcorn!

Have a happy and safe Halloween weekend!

News

We did a shared writing activity and talked about what a newspaper is. We looked at a recent copy of the Laker to give us ideas of what interesting news would be. Then the students created a list of news from our day at school. Here's what they came up with:

We did our calendar. We wrote the letter A. We went rollerskating. Some of us had mashed potatoes for lunch. It was warm and we played kickball. The Dad-on-Duty pushed us really high on the tire swing.

Schedule for 10/26 - 10/30

M - Gym

T - Music

W - Art

Th - Gym & Media

F - Music, Computer, Halloween Party

This week we will be learning about the letter A. The students will review the sight words that we have already learned: I, a, my, the, and go.

The class will be rollerskating this week with Mr. Halvarson. Please send along a helmet on Gym days.

On Friday we will have our Halloween Party. Students are welcomed to bring in their costumes (in a separate bag) and can wear them in the afternoon. At 2:30 parents are invited to come into the Gym to watch all of the classes parade through!

Rain day

Despite the rain today, we were able to enjoy a fun day inside. It was Jake's birthday...

And the class went rollerskating with Mr. Halvarson for the first time. Thanks to the 4th grade helpers for making things run smoothly!

This afternoon the class met their 4th grade buddies. We will be meeting with our buddies from Mrs. Henkels' class a few times a month to read and do activities!

C is for Cookie

K-1 students did a great job of getting back into the swing of things at school! We have gotten many things accomplished today.

We learned about our new letter of the week - Cc. The cookie monster helped us!

And then we created our own cookie monsters!

This afternoon we took advantage of the dry weather and headed outside to check out our tree. The students each collected a leaf and we did leaf rubbings in our tree journals.

Schedule for 10/19 - 10/23

M - Music

T - Art

W - Gym

Th - Music & Media

F - Art & Computer

Our letter for the week is C and new sight word is go. More later in the week!

Brrrrr!

This week there is no school. Grades 1-4 will be conferencing tonight and tomorrow. Remember that Kindergarten conferences aren't until November. I will be sending out reminders once it gets closer! In the meantime, I hope you are able to enjoy some extra family time this week....and enjoy the snow!

Field Trip

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Schedule for 10/5 - 10/9

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music

Th - Art, Media, Apple Orchard field trip

F - Gym & Computer

This week we are working on the letters N and P. Our new sight word is the. Our vocabulary words for the week are: feast, gusto, prepare, lonely, remind, and preoccupied.

In math, the students will be working on the numbers 0-5. We will practice writing the numbers, use 0ne-to-one correspondence, and identify groups that have more or less.

Our field trip to the apple orchard is this Thursday. We will be leaving in the morning and will be back in time to have lunch at school. Please make sure that your child is dressed appropriately!

This morning, during announcements, Mrs. Swanson read the names of all the Kindergarten students that earned character slips (purple slips) in September. Students can earn slips if they demonstrate good character traits (kindness, honesty, respect, responsible, self-control, work ethic). The students got their slips back and will bring them home today!

New Picures

We've been keeping busy in K-1. Here are a few pictures of our first time with Mrs. Williams in the media center and the computer lab.

Today we took a little break from learning about the letter T and played Tic-Tac-Toe.

Have a great weekend!

Schedule for 9/28 - 10/2

M - Gym

T - Music & Picture Day

W - Art

Th - Gym & Media (remember to return books)

F - Music & Computer

This week we will be learning about the letter T and our new sight word is my. There are no new vocabulary words for the week, but we'll spend time reviewing the ones that we have already learned.

The class has been working on syllable segmentation. We talked about how words are like puzzles. They can be taken apart and put back together again. Practice this skill at home! Examples: pen-cil....pencil, mark-er...marker. We even practiced words with 4 or 5 syllables!

In math we will continue our work on patterns. Students will practice copying and extending patterns.

We will begin our first Social Studies lesson - Who Am I? Students will learn about how they are similar and different from their classmates. We will discuss things that we care about and things we can do. At the end of the lesson the students will create a book about who they are.

A few reminders:

* Library books are due on Thursday's. If you finish them early you may bring them back early.

* Picture Day is on Tuesday. If you would like to order pictures, make sure you send the form back on Tuesday.

* Next Thursday is our first field trip to the Deardorff Orchards in Waconia. We have a couple of parents riding the bus with us, but if anyone else is interested you can meet us there. E-mail me for more details!

* It looks like we'll have some cooler temperatures this week. Make sure to send a jacket with for when the class is outside!

Nature Hike

We started recording our observations in our tree journals this morning. We'll check out the changes in this tree by the playground throughout the year.

We're also celebrating a special day for Owen!

Patterns

We started working on patterns in math today!

Our whole class joined in on the fun!

We used different colors to make a pattern.

We practiced using our scissors.

Our hard work paid off and we now have bouncing snakes that are decorated with patterns!

Schedule for 9/21 - 9/25

M - Music

T - Art

W - Gym

Th - Music & Media

F - Art & Computer

This week our computer time may be moved to a different time. The upper grades are working on some testing in the labs, so I'm hoping to find an open time and get the class in at some point this week. Also, this Thursday will be the first day for book check out in the library for our class. Sorry for any confusion!

We will be working on the letter R and our new sight word is a. Our vocabulary words for the week are: differ, stalking, mellow, automatic, perfectly, and resemblance.

Have a good week!

Day 5

The students are getting used to our routine. Each day we've been able to have some free choice time, which is a crowd favorite! We've been working on the letter M and S a lot. We are learning the sounds that they make and listening for them at the beginning and end of words. Today we used Smelly Markers and made fireworks!

We also had a guest visit us this morning. Ms. Savageau is our school social worker. She came to tell us about herself and what her job is at Shirley Hills.

Have a great night!

Expectations and Responsibilities

We've been spending a fair amount of time working on school procedures and student responsibilities. We created a few lists to help us remember what some of the expectations are while we are in school.

The class came up what should be expected of them while they are at school.

They enjoyed listing what is expected of me!

Parents, don't worry, we didn't forget about you! Here is what is expected of you this year!

Schedule for 9/14 - 9/18

M - Art

T - Gym

W - Music

Th - Art and Media (students will check out 1 book)

F - Gym and Computer

We will be practicing the letters M and S this week. The first sight word that we will introduce is I. Students will be learning the meaning of words when we do our "Robust Vocabulary" words. This week we will learn the words: ability, confident, reverse, complained, talent, and encourage.

The first two days were wonderful and I'm hopeful that this week will be as well!

A great start!

K-1 students have had a terrific couple of days. All 19 students came in eager to be at school and they quickly got to work. I was very surprised at how quickly they all made it through the lunch line! Thanks to Mrs. Swanson, Mrs. Fitz, Mrs. Couser and the parent volunteers that helped to make things run smoothly.

Today we had went over the procedures for bus safety and an evacuation. The students were great listeners! Owen and Jake even helped their classmates make it safely out of the bus!