Animal Care

Today we had Miss Erin, a veterinary tech. come in and talk to us about proper care of pets. She brought in some special vet equipment, her dog, and some chicks.  We were able to pet her dog, Hope, and pet her chicks.  Miss Erin also gave us stickers and coloring sheets to help us remember how to take care of animals.

Enjoy the pictures from the afternoon!

Wear Blue On Monday!



Did you know ...

• Autism now affects 1 in 88 children and 1 in 54 boys
• Autism prevalence figures are growing
• More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined
• Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.
• Autism costs the nation $126 billion per year
• Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood diseases
• Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism
• There is no medical detection or cure for autism

Information can be found at: http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/facts-about-autism

April starts Autism Awareness month.  In order to shed some light on this, we are asking that everyone wears BLUE on Monday. 



Spring Celebration


We will be having a spring celebration on Tuesday, April 3rd during our afternoon snack time.  Will you please consider donating an item?  Please follow the link to Volunteer Spot to sign up.   Thank you so much for helping out our classroom!

Brewers Day in Kindergarten!

Hooray!  Hooray!  Mrs. Rocky's favorite time of the year is here! 

Baseball is starting up again! 

At school tomorrow we will be celebrating the start of Brewers baseball.  (We won't be here for the REAL opening day, we will be on spring break!)  Please wear Brewers colors tomorrow to help celebrate this special day!

Report Cards Sent Home Today

The kids are bringing home their report cards tonight in their backpacks. They have made some amazing progress this year and it's exciting to think about what we will still accomplish in the final quarter of the school year! Don't forget to check out the Cedarburg School District Parent Report Card Guide here for a more detailed description of how your child was assessed in each area.

As with the past two report cards, please keep the report card but sign and return the empty envelope it came in. This helps us make sure you received your copy. Thanks!

Newsletter

March 29th, 2012

 

Dear Parents,

 

We can't believe we are heading into the last of March!  The students are making such great progress and getting ready for first grade!

During the week they have spent time reviewing many skills and thru assessments have provided us with information for the conferences.  It is always a pleasure to see such growth!

 

Com. Arts:

We are working on the word families, phonemes, decoding words and building independence in reading.  The students continue to work in small groups and spend a scheduled time reading with partners and to self.  We continue to introduce a variety of literature including non-fiction and fiction.

 

Writing:

We are working on writing stories of their choosing about a variety of topics.  There is constant encouragement to think about punctuation, upper and lowercase letters, letter size and rereading thoughts.

 

Math:

The students have been working on graphing, writing numbers to 100, measurement, and applying writing to their number problems. 

 

Science:

We continue to integrate science in all areas and study animals and plants.  We will have a guest speaker, a Vet Tech., come into our classes to talk about pet care, kinds of appropriate pets and various job descriptions when working with animals.

 

Request:

Could you please send in one gallon size zip lock bag with 5 items from home which your child can write about ?  Please mark the bag with his or her name and all items must fit in the bag. They will be returned.  Thank you!

 

Please check your conference times and we look forward to meeting with you next week.

 

Thank you,

Have a great weekend!

The Kindergarten Teachers

Tooth Fairy!

The tooth fairy has come to visit our kindergartners!  There have been lots of friends with loose teeth and holes in their mouths.  Today during project time, we created our own tooth fairy.  Be sure to check out the hallway near our 4th grade friends to check them out.  Also, enjoy the Animoto video of all of our projects!

Muffins With Mom

 

The ever popular Muffins with Mom is tomorrow morning.  Moms and children may start arriving at 7:30 - please stay in the gym till 8:00 at that time our classroom will be open for learning opportunities. Playground supervision will also begin at 8:00 with Mrs. Kortendick, Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Winter out on the playground. Mothers and children will be dismissed at 8:35 with everyone going back to their normal routines.

Thank You!

Thank you to the families who have brought in jelly beans and plastic eggs!  You all are so thoughtful.  We can still use more!  I promise that we will find use for them!  :)

Quarter 4... Things to work on!

We are in the final quarter of kindergarten!  Can you believe it?!  Here are a few things that you can all work on with your kindergartner at home.

In Math:

• Write numbers correctly to 30... or beyond!
• Add to 10
• Subract from 10
• Tell time to the hour

In Communication Arts:

• Retelling a story and places all events in a correct sequence
• Identify all 54 kindergarten sight words
• Writes first AND last name (please work on the last name...many friends are having difficulty with this)
• Represents all phonemes (sounds) in a word (for example: tigr for tiger)
• Have spacing, punctuation, and capitalization in sentences.

I will have specific things your child can work on at our conference time.  I am looking forward to meeting with you!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Answers For Andrew...on NOVA!

I want you to be aware of a PBS show entitled, "Cracking Your Genetic Code" airing on March 28th at 9pm (I believe eastern time).  NOVA has been following our friend Andrew and his parents.  It shows how he goes through genetic testing trying to arrive at a diagnosis for his illness.  Andrew has had numerous strokes over the past year and a half...one being extremely debilitating.  I believe that he is the 21st child to undergo this type of genetic testing.  At this point they still don't have any answers, but apparently there are two companies (perhaps more) that test from different angles.  Another company has agreed to retest him free of charge.  No results yet...we keep hoping and praying for answers!  Feel free to spread the word. We are all hoping that someone watching will hold the missing piece to the puzzle.  

I'm attaching two links. http://video.pbs.org/video/2195620092 is a trailer for the show.  Andrew is the little red haired boy with the c-scar on his head.  The second http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I9J1W17lIE is a video that Paula's sister put together.  It's 15 minutes long, but shows how what Andrew has gone through in his short 6 years.

Thanks for watching...set your DVRs!  

Jelly Beans and Plastic Eggs Wanted



Dear Families,

We can do so much with jelly beans this time of year!  We can count, pattern, graph, and sort.  The fun is endless!  If you are able to donate a bag of jelly beans that would be fantastic.  We would put them to great use!  Also, we are in need of some plastic eggs to put our jelly beans in.  If you would be able to donate a few, that would be terrific.  We would need these jelly beans and plastic eggs by Friday, March 30th.

Thank you so much for thinking of our class!

Take care,

Mrs. Rocky

What Do I Do When I Get Wild?

Super cute graphic from from http://www.melonheadzillustrating.blogspot.com/

During our project time, we created Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  We also made a text to self connection by writing down what we do when we feel a little wild.  Here are some ideas that friends had:


When I get wild I run around the house 10 times!

When I get wild I run around the backyard.

When I get wild I jump on my bed.

When I get wild I do a funky dance.

When I get wild I climb my swing set.

When I get wild I do 13 jumping jacks.

Enjoy the YouTube of the author, Maurice Sendak reading Where the Wild Things Are

Newsletter

March 22nd, 2012

 

Dear Parents,

 

Happy Spring!  We are certainly enjoying the weather and all the signs of the new season!  We hope to be sending the boots home one last time!

 

Com. Arts:

We have started a new unit: "Amazing Creatures".  Our theme for this week is "Interesting Insects".  The big book is "Beetles".  The guided readers are " Bugs", "Insects" and "The Insects".  Any books your child would like to share from home are welcome.  Please label them prior bringing them to school.  We will be working on phoneme isolation, blending and segmentation.  Our letter is "G,g" and the star words are "she and he".

We continue to encourage the students to take home books from school and share them with family and the class.  We are also working on fluency and comprehension in our small groups.  A thought: encourage your child to retell the story you or they have written.

 

Writing:

We continue writing in our journals, focusing on the spaces, the proper place for lowercase and uppercase letters, punctuation and rereading one's thoughts. The students have many opportunities to write: science, art, centers and journals.

 

Math:

We are working on joining numbers and writing story problems, solid shapes, and I.D. money.  It would be helpful to practice at a store or home the I.D. of the four coins and even making change.  Number writing and math  games are ongoing in small and large groups.

 

Science:

We continue to discuss the weather, plants and animals.  The students are working in their science journals and looking forward to more time in the Thorson nature center!

 

Reminders:

 

Friday, March 23rd is a work/inservice day for teachers.  NO  SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

 

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up soon.  Please look for the date and time reminder sheet in your child's backpack.

 

Thank you,

Have a great weekend!

 

The Kindergarten Teachers

3D structures with our 3rd Grade Buddies

In math we have been learning about flat shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, etc.) and solid shapes (cylindars, cones, cubes, spheres).  Today we had the chance to actually build some of these shapes using gumdrops and pretzel sticks with our 3rd Grade buddies.  Many groups were able to connect several shapes together to make one large structure.  There was a lot of teamwork by the buddies!  We had a fantastic time!

Enjoy the pictures of our great math morning!

Report Cards/Conferences

Dear Families,

Can you believe that the third quarter is coming to a close in a few short days?  That means only one more quarter together as a Kindergarten class.  (Are you sure they really need to go on?  Don't they want to stay with me?!) 

I just want to remind all of you that your child will be receiving their report cards shortly.  Remember that you are able to visit the school website to see what the Secure expectation is for each strand on the report card.  I also gave each of you a packet what secure meant at our last conference time.  Please also know that you are always able to make an appointment with me to discuss your child's progress.  I want you all to understand your child's progress. 

If you do not remember your conference time, reminders will be sent home shortly.  If you realize you are no longer able to make your appointment time, please be sure to reschedule! 

I look forward to talking with all of you soon!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Arts and Interest Day

Many of you may have noticed the Arts and Interest Day sheet that was sent home.  This year students from grades 1-5 will have a chance to choose what they would like to do.  However, there are special activties that are just for kindergarten.  From what I understand, we will go to these as a group.  Therefore, no need to choose sessions for your kindergartener.  If something would change, I will be sure to let you know!

Thanks so much!

Found!

Hooray!  Our friend Lily found her special animal.  Thank you to everyone who looked.  :)

LOST!

Our friend Lily can't seem to find her special stuffed animal mouse.  We looked everywhere!  If you put it in your backpack by mistake, please bring it back to school on Monday!  Thanks so much!

A Leprechaun In Our Class!

This morning when we came to school... we found a mess!  There was shamrock glitter on the floor, chairs knocked down, toys and books everywhere, and rainbows on the Smart board.  A leprechaun came to visit our classroom this morning!

 We are saying "Shame on you leprechaun!"

Shamrock glitter!

Shame on you for knocking down chairs!

Shame on you for making a mess of the books!

Shame on you for putting rainbows on our Smart Board!

Here is the note from Pat the Leprechaun.

Our leprechaun was super nice though!  Even though he left a mess, he hid treats for us around the classroom.  They were shamrocks with our names on them AND a piece of "gold"!  (A peanut butter cup in a gold wrapper!)

 Maggie and Andrew found their treat!

Lindy and Connor found their treat!

 Our leprechaun also left us a box of Lucky Charms!  We graphed the different types of marshmallows.  On the back of the paper we had to write at least two things about our graph. 

When we were done with our graphs, we were able have a yummy bowl of Lucky Charms... with milk!

What a fun and busy day!

St. Patrick's Day!

 

Listen to the Voki for instructions about tomorrow!