A Holiday Party

Happy Holidays everyone!  Be safe and have lots of fun over break.  See you on January 2nd, 2012!
Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Friends Singing Rudolf



Pictures from the Party

(Sorry if I didn't get a single shot of your child!)

Newsletter

December 22, 2011

Dear Parents,

          Wow!  What a busy month this has been!  It seriously flew on by.  With all of the craziness that December brings, we have seen MANY friends display Positive Jaguar behavior.  We have seen friends help clean up messes that they did not make.  We have seen friends be patient.  We have seen friends be quiet in the hallways.  Ask your kindergartner how they have been a Positive Jaguar this month.  As a reminder to all- How to Be a Positive Jaguar is to:

                   Be Respectful

                    Be Responsible

                   Be Ready to Learn

          We would also like to say thank you to all of the families that donated treats and supplies to our holiday party.  Thank you too to the volunteers that took time out of their day to help out with the party.  We are truly lucky to work with such caring families.

**Upcoming reminders:

1.    No school tomorrow- start of our holiday break!

2.    We will see you back at school on January 2, 2012

3.    When school starts back up again, please be sure your child has their FIRST and LAST name in their winter gear.

4.    Please be sure your child has a healthy snack to eat at snack time- no candy, chips, or cookies.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail or

call anytime. Thank you for all your support!

The Kindergarten Teachers

Reminders for Tomorrow

Here are a few reminders for tomorrow:

1. Please have your child wear red or green tomorrow.

2. Our holiday party starts at 2:30pm.  Our half day friends are welcome to attend.

3. If you volunteered to bring in an item to contribute to our party, please remember to bring it on in.


Thanks everyone!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

So Proud!

Friends have been working really hard at writing our star words on white boards.  They have been doing this during center time and during free choice time.  Here are a few pictures of our hard working friends!

Writing To Gordy

Today during Writing time we wrote to Gordy our class elf and told him all of the good and nice things we have done.  Gordy will be sure to let Santa know.  Here are all the good/nice things friends in

 our class have done.

Tess: I played XBox with my brother. 

Nora: I was nice by playing games with Elena.

Sammi: I was being a positive jaguar. 

Andrew: Thank you for watching us.  Thank you for coming to watch us.

Cassidy: I was good helping my mom set the table.

Jaden: I was good by helping my mom bake cupcakes.

Mary Grace: I was nice by helping my mom make a scarecrow.

Sam: I was nice helping my brother with a craft.

JD: I helped to do the dishes.

Elizabeth: I cleaned my own room.

Elena: I was a positive jaguar sitting at the carpet.

Maggie: I helped Mrs. Rocky by being the caboose.

Emily:  I was being ready to learn.

Carter: I gave Connor a tshirt because I didn't wear it anymore.

Lily: I cleaned my room.

Aryah: I cleaned my room.

Brady: I was nice to a friend.

Lauren: I helped my mom and dad.

Anna: I play with my sister.

Tyler: I helped a friend.

Lindy: I was being a positive jaguar at school.

Claire: I cleaned my room.

Connor: I am respectful, responsible, and ready to learn.

Alex: I helped my mom bake cookies.

Reese: I cleaned my room this morning.

Gingerbread Houses

Thank you to all my families who helped out with our gingerbread houses.  They turned out great!  Enjoy the Animoto video of our tasty day!

Weekly Newsletter

Dear Parents,

This week we worked on the unit Animals We Know in guided reading.  We reviewed the letter “Oo”.  We also learned the sight words "at" and “play”.  We reviewed these words in the stories, poems, and writing we did this week.   We continue to review all words and assess through the year! Please continue to work on these words with your child. 

We are also practicing the strategy of story structure. We are doing this by using the skill of making and confirming predictions.  Predictions are making a good guess as to what you think might happen next in the story.  To make a good prediction, we look at what we have already read and what we already know in the story. We did this by reading/ listening to a book called Mama Cat Has Three Kittens It was a silly story about Mama Cat who had two kittens that did what she wanted and one kitten that always took a nap!  Talk to your kindergartner about this story!

          In math students have been working on making creations with the pattern block template.  Students were also introduced to the addition symbol and had a chance to work on some basic addition facts.  We also continue to work on number recognition and number formation.  Please continue to work on these with your child. 

          During Science we are continuing to observe and learn about the weather.  We talked about what a thermometer is and how it helps us measure the temperature. 

          Today we were able to create our gingerbread houses.  The children had a fantastic time adding frosting and candy to their creations.  They also enjoyed sampling some candy too!  Thank you to all the parent volunteers and to every family who brought in items to create our houses.  We are so lucky to work with amazing families!

**Upcoming reminders:

1.     Please have your child wear purple or white tomorrow to cheer on UW Whitewater- they are going for a division 3 National Title!

2.     No school next Friday- this is the start of our holiday vacation.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail or

call anytime. Thank you for all your support!

The Kindergarten Teachers

Awesome Authors!

Do you know there are authors in kindergarten?  Well there are 26 amazing authors!  I am so pleased with all of their hard work in writing.  I am tyring to capture each author on video and share them on our blog.  Please enjoy these short videos of some more amazing authors!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Sammi

Tess

Elena

Reese

Elizabeth

Andrew



Field Trip!

Reminders for This Weekend

Families,

Today in your child's mailbox was a green note that explained what your child volunteered to bring for the Gingerbread houses.  Please be sure to send it in next week.  Thank you in advance!

Please remember that you still have time to order books online.  Book orders are due on Sunday evening.  I plan on sending it in then.

On Monday, please have your child dress up for the play.  By dressing up, we are showing the performers that we are respecting what they are doing.

Have a fantastic weekend!

See you all on Monday!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Book Orders

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: HFYK6

Dear Parent,

There’s no time to lose! In order to make our deadline and have all our books arrive on time, your order to Scholastic Book Clubs is due by Friday, December 9th- in class and Sunday, December 11th online.  Use the order form in the flyer your child recently brought home and return it to me with your payment right away!

Or, make it easy and send me your order online!

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and log in using your user name and password.

If it’s your first time ordering online, use the Class Activation Code shown above to get started

• SIGN UP at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. On the parent page, click the “Register” button in the “First Time Here?” section. Register for your own user name and password. When prompted, enter the one-time Class Activation Code shown above. This code ensures that your order is sent to me.
  
• SELECT the books you’d like to order—choose from thousands of titles—many more than in our monthly flyers.
  
• SEND your order to me online by the due date and your child’s books will be delivered directly to my classroom.

Ordering online is fast and easy!

Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*


Thank you!
Mrs. Rocky

*Excludes eBooks.

Thursday Newsletter

December 8, 2011

Dear Parents,

Another week just flew on by!  The kindergartners are doing well settling in the morning. They all enjoy checking in for the day on the Smart Board as well as doing our morning routine on the Smart Board as well. 

This week, we finished up our unit on Food Traditions in guided reading.  We reviewed the letters "N, n" and the letter “C,c”.  We also learned the sight words "it" and “is”.  We reviewed these words in the stories, poems, and writing we did this week.   We continue to review all words and assess through the year! Please continue to work on these words with your child. 

We are also practicing the strategy of summarizing. We are doing this by using the skill of making inferences.  Inferences are what you learn from the book plus what your own knowledge is and making a brand new idea.  We are doing this by reading/ listening to a book called Yoko Ask your kindergartner about this story!

          In math students have been working on using the number line and comparing numbers.  With the number line the students are able to explore addition and subtraction concepts and strategies.  Students were also able to compare numbers by playing the card game Top It.  In Top It, two cards are turned over and the card with the greater value wins.  The owner of that card then takes both cards.  You may all remember this game as called “War”  We also continue to work on number recognition and number formation.  Please continue to work on these with your child. 

**Upcoming reminders:

1.     Please have your child wear red or green tomorrow for the Kapco Kids to Kids assembly. 

2.     There is no school tomorrow afternoon.  School is out at 11:35am tomorrow.  Please be sure your kindergartner has plans.

3.     Monday is our field trip to the play.  Please have your child DRESS UP for this performance.  It shows respect to the performers. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to e-mail or

call anytime. Thank you for all your support!

The Kindergarten Teachers

Hooray!

Thank you to Matthew's family and Carter's family for offering to make frosting for our gingerbread houses.  I am so lucky to work with such helpful families.

Please be on the look out for the sheet that asks you to bring in a candy item for our gingerbread houses.

Thank you so much!

Have a great evening!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

New Videos Added!

I added some new videos to our videos we enjoy page!  We just added these songs to our morning routine or as a song break and the kiddos love them.  Now you can enjoy them with your kindergartner any time you want. 

Have fun!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Writing Time Volunteers

A HUGE thank you to all the families that signed up to help out our class during writing time!  It has been so nice to have more one on one time with the kiddos in the classroom.  I know that the friends that leave to play a game with our parent volunteer have LOVED it!  Plus, they are practicing some great phonemic awareness skills.  Thank you again for offering your help!  We all really appreciate it! 

Please look for more volunteer opportunities in the upcoming months.

Love,

Mrs. Rocky

3 down 2 to go!

Thank you so much to Maggie's family, Tyler's family, and Andrew's family for offering to help out with the gingerbread frosting!  I am in need of two more families to offer their help.  Remember, if you help out with the frosting, no need to purchase extra candy as well.

Help is Needed!!

Families,
For those families new to Thorson, there is a tradition that the kindergarten students make a gingerbread house for the holidays.  Families are asked in bring in special candies to help decorate the houses.  As a class we decided upon candies that we would like to have.  I will be sending home notes later in the week as to what your child suggested.

I am in need of some volunteers to make the frosting for our gingerbread houses.  I need about 5 families to make the frosting.  I have the recipe to make it.  If your family brings in the frosting, you will not be asked in bring in candy too.  Will you please email me if you are willing to bring in frosting?
Thank you so much for considering!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Scholastic Book Orders

Dear Families,
Today your child received flyers for Scholastic Book Orders.  They make great holiday gifts!  Plus, what better way to spend winter break than with a good book?  Please take some time to explore the fyers with your child.  Make your selections and return the order form to me, along with your payment. 

OR you can give online ordering a try!

Online Ordering Information
Web address: scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: HFYK6

It’s fast, easy, and you get instant access to thousands of additional titles plus online-only specials and discounts. Best of all, we earn a FREE book for the classroom library every time a parent places an order online.*

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and log in using your user name and password.

If it’s your first time ordering online, use the Class Activation Code shown above to get started.

Online ordering offers you several advantages:

• Larger selection: Choose from thousands of titles, and more detailed product information than in the printed flyer.
  
• Exclusive online-only offers: Enjoy discounts available only on our Web site.
  
• Easy payment: Use your credit card! No need to worry about printed forms or sending checks to school.

Go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs now to get started.

Book orders and payment are due on Friday, December 9th but online you have until Sunday, December 11th.  It is an early turn around so we are guaranteed that all books will be shipped before winter break. 
Thanks so much for considering!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Santa Face Art Projects

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why,

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Enjoy the Animoto video of today's art project.

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Writing Lessons and Videos

We have been working very hard at doing a good job at writing.  We always make sure we have these four things in each one of our sentences.

1. Sentences start with a capital letter.
2. Sentences end with a period.
3. Sentences have spaces between words.
4. Sentences should have only one capital letter to start with- the rest of the words should have lower case letters.  (Unless it is a name of a special person or place)

We also have been talking about how we really need to s-t-r-e-t-c-h out our words to help us sound them out. (Please check past blog entries on how we do this) We can also look around the room to help us to spell words.  We know that it is MORE important to get our good ideas down and we can fix our spelling later.

When someone tries something new or we haven't seen their work in awhile, that work will go under the document camera.  We will all listen and respond with some appreciations.  Enjoy the videos of our friends Lindy, Jaden, and Mary Grace showing us their good work!

I'm so proud of EVERYONE's hard work at writing time!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Reminders

We all need reminders... here are a few for all of you!

1. Please be sure to label your child's winter gear- first and last names please!

2. Please be sure your child has a healthy snack at snack time.  Many children are coming in from recess hungry and need a little something. 

3. If you are able to, please consider donating a toy to the Kapco Kids to Kids Toy Drive.  You have until Friday morning to donate.

4. Remember that Friday is a half day.  Please be sure that you have plans made for your child in the afternoon.

Volunteers Needed

Are you interested in helping out in our classroom?  Like playing games with a small group?  If so...Please click on the link to your left to volunteer!   I have set up an online calendar that will let me know who is coming in on a certain day.  Thanks so much for considering!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

So Proud!

During free choice time today, some friends finished a HUGE floor puzzle.  This was the first time that they were able to do it.  They are SO proud of themselves.  Here is a picture of their great work!  Way to go friends!  I knew you could do it!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

Kindergarten Jump Around!

Today was Badger Day at Thorson!  Every Friday in kindergarten we sing "On Wisconsin"  and we "Jump Around" to get ready for Badger Game Day!  During "On Wisconsin" we even try to do the famous high step that the Wisconsin band does.  After "On Wisconsin" we do our favorite "Jump Around"  We aren't able to last as long as the students may at Madison but we sure love it!  Enjoy the video of "On Wisconsin" and a video of us doing "Jump Around" 

Here's to a Badger Win this Weekend!

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

On Wisconsin

Kindergarten Jump Around!

Go Badgers!

Let's Go Badgers! 

Wear your Wisconsin Badger gear tomorrow or Red and White to cheer on the Badgers this weekend!

Gordy the Elf

As we came to school today there was a special visitor in our class!  It was a scout elf from the North Pole!  Mrs. Rocky called Santa yesterday to see if he could send an elf to watch over our class during the month of December.  (As everyone knows once you become a teacher or a parent, you get Santa's phone number!)  Sure enough!  Santa sent Gordy the Elf and the book Elf on the Shelf to our kindergarten class.  From the book we learned that every night Gordy will fly back to the North Pole and tell Santa everything he saw.  We also learned that we are NOT allowed to touch him or else he will lose all of his magic.

 Today we found him in Mrs. Rocky's flower vase.  We can't wait to see where he shows up tomorrow!

Gordy the Elf

This afternoon during project time, we made our own elves!  We also filled out an application to be elves ourselves!  We had to answer if we were naughty or nice, if we liked milk and cookies, and what our favorite toys are.  We had to sign our names and put on our thumbprint stamp.  It would be fun to be an elf!