Kids to Kids Toy Drive

Kapco with the help of Thorson Elementary is sponsoring a toy drive.  Please bring new unwrapped toys to our classroom to help needy children.  You may bring in these toys from December 3rd until December 13th.  

Gingerbread Houses-Frosting 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 next week as to what your child suggested.

I am in need of 3 volunteers to make the frosting for our gingerbread houses. 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 click on the following link to VolunteerSpot to sign up?  This link is also available to the left of our blog.
Thank you so much for considering!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Star Word Practice

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Today your child is bringing home their own personal sight word notebook.  The notebook is composed of our Star Words which need to be mastered by the end of kindergarten.  Once a child masters these words, other words and lists will be sent home to practice.  This may seem like a lot of words; however, the more words your child knows, the more fluently he/she will be able to read.  Please practice a few minutes each night, as this is the only homework your child has in kindergarten.  Please do not wait until the end of the year to begin working on the lists- it is tough to catch up.

Make sure your child brings his/her sight word notebook back each day.  Thank you so much for your support!

PLEASE DO NOT MARK IN THE BOOKLET, as I will mark in it each week to show mastery.  Once a page is mastered, ALL words will have a check beside them I will write "GO:" on the page, so they can move on.  Please do NOT move on until you see "GO!"  If you see a word without a check ,please practice this word again until mastery.  It is also a good idea to g back over old words, so they do not forget!  Thank you in advance for your assistance.  :)

Love,
Mrs. Rocky

What Did You Do At Recess?

What Did You Do At Recess Today?

Ethan: I played on the play structure.

Luke: I played football.

Abby: I played kittens.

Ellie: I played with my friends on the play structure.

Ty: I played save the kitties.

Kason: I played on the monkey bars.

Charlie: I went down the slide.

Bailey: I played save the kitties.

Sophia: I played on the play structure.

Lauren: I played kitties.

Elaina: I played save the kitty.

Tanner: I played on the play structure and I did a flip!

Alex: I played with my friend Logan.

Ally: I played kitties.

Kyle: I played football.

Ben: I played football.

Kellen: I played kitties.

Rose: I played kittens.

Missing! Lost!

These hats and this glove are lost!  They need their owners.  Do they belong to you?

Please let Mrs. Rocky know.

Thanks!

A Note From Our School Nurse

Dear Families,

This letter is to inform you that there was a case of head-lice identified at Thorson Elementary today.  Thorough head-checks were completed today for the entire class in which the case was recognized.

In effort to prevent head lice from spreading throughout the school, we are asking that you keep a close watch over your child's scalp at home.  Please check your child's hair over the next week or two for lice and nits.  For advice on what to look for and how to treat/prevent head lice on your child please reference the Thorson Elementary website.

(Parent Information-Health and Safety-Lice)

If you have any questions, please feel free to give one of us a call.

Sincerely,
Mary Beth Larscheidt-District Nurse- 262-376-6149
Peggy Yee-Elementary School Nurse-263-376-6705

A Very Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Families,

A very happy thanksgiving to all of you!  I hope all of your bellies are full of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  I hope you have enjoyed your day with family and friends.

I just wanted to say how thankful I am for all of my kindergarten friends.   Thank you for trusting me with your "babies" everyday.   I have loved getting to know all of them and seeing them grow since September.  They are truly remarkable and I am so proud of all of their progress.

I look forward to the rest of the school year!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Pajama Day/Feast Day/Half Day

Just a reminder that tomorrow is pajama day for friends in Mrs. Rocky's class!  We won the Box Top contest for kindergarten!  Hooray!

We will be having our Thanksgiving Feast tomorrow!  Thank you to the families who contributed!

Tomorrow is also a half day of school.  School will be let out at 11:35am.  Please be sure you have plans made for your child.  If you choose to do something different for pick up than what is on your child's going home plans, please be sure to write a note.  Thank you!

Scholastic Book Clubs

Scholastic Book Clubs Ordering Information
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
Class Activation Code: HFYK6
Due: December 6th, 2012

Dear Parents,
This month's Scholastic Book Club flyers are ready for you to explore with your child. Children
read more when they choose their own books, so I encourage you to look at the flyers together.
You can return the order form and payment to me, or give online ordering a try. It saves time,
offers more book choices, and earns extra rewards for the classroom!

I have sent home Holiday ones early as in hopes that they will be delivered before the holiday break!

Happy reading,
Mrs. Rocky

P.S. When you place your order online, you'll help earn FREE Books for our class and you also
get a $5 FREE Book Pick Coupon to use on your next online order!
Ordering online is fast and easy:
REGISTER at www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter
CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
SUBMIT the order to your child's teacher
EARN FREE Books for you and the classroom too!

Eat More...

Last week we made some turkeys for Thanksgiving.  However, these turkeys are holding up signs telling us to eat something different for Thanksgiving instead of turkey!  Some turkeys say pizza, mac & cheese, and ice cream.  Enjoy the Animoto video of the students holding up their turkeys.

Peek To Our Short Week

Communication Arts:

* Practice our star words- no new star words this week
* Write stories about our families and Thanksgiving
* Read Thanksgiving Stories

Math:

*Talk about Probability and learn vocabulary related to it.  Example: certain, impossible, possible, etc.
* A variety of number identification games

Special things happening:
Wednesday- PJ Day, Feast!, and half day

Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We would like to begin by thanking you for participating in the parent/teacher conferences this week. Sharing your child's accomplishments is such a fun time for us. We always appreciate the communication!

Com. Arts:

This week our theme is "Traveling Near and Far". Our big book is "On the Go" and describes different forms of transportation around the world. Our guided reading books include: "It Can Go Up", "Fast or Slow" and "The Train Trip". The letters are "T,t, i and p. The star words are "play" and "at" We continue to work on comprehension, classifying and recognizing text structure.  We will continue to work on all letter sounds and the star words. The Daily Five is working well and the stamina is building. The small Kindergarten books which the students are bringing home should reinforce their reading skills and concepts of print.

Thank you for your support!

Math:

We have been working on patterns, sequencing stories for Thanksgiving, and playing domino concentration to reinforce number counting and recognition. 

We look forward to our Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday morning. Thank you for contributing and making it a special time!

Have a great weekend in preparation for a very special holiday!

Any questions or concerns, please call or stop in!

Thank you,

The Kindergarten Teachers

Special Days Coming Up!

Please wear your Thorson Jaguar clothing tomorrow!  If you don't have Thorson Spirit Wear, please wear blue.  

NEXT Wednesday (November 21st- a half day)  Students may wear PJ's to school.  We won the Box Top contest for kindergarten.   The students chose to wear PJ's as their prize!  :)

A Peek to the Rest of Our Week

This week we will- (remember this is kindergarten-sometimes we can't get to everything!  Things are subject to change)

Communication Arts

• Practice sorting words with the /i/ sound.  
• Practice writing short vowel words
• Read the story On the Go
• Practice our star words play & at.  Continue working on past words
• Continue writing sentences on topics provided for us

Math:

• Work on measuring with non standard objects
• Review counting, number recognition, and sequencing numbers 0-20
• Develop understanding of addition and subtraction using concrete experiences

Science:

• Talk about the various seasons we experience.

Veteran's Day Assembly

Our Veteran's Day Assembly was a success!  

Our assembly started out with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of our National Anthem by our 5th graders.  They did a fantastic job!  Then Mr. McFadden, an officer of the United States Air Force, talked about what is Veteran's Day and what it means to him.  He did a fantastic job!  After the speech was complete, it was time for us to sing.  Here are two videos of us singing "Yankee Doodle"

(I'm sorry I couldn't get everyone in the video.  The way we were seated, it was hard to get a good view without blocking other people)

Here is another view!  Thank you to Lauren's mom who taped it and sent it to us.  

When we were finished singing, it was time for us to listen to 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd, and 4th grade sing patriotic songs.  All of the kindergartners did a fantastic job being Positive Jaguars at the assembly.  Way to go!

It was a great morning!

Our Favorite Part of the Day

What is your favorite part of our day?

Luke: I like math.

Abby: I like centers.

Ethan: I like writing.

Ty: I like math.

Kason: I like rest and quiet time.

Ellie: I like reading.

Lauren: I like writing.

Charlie: I like math.

Sophia: I like rest and quiet time.

Bailey: I like doing the projects.

Tanner: I like free choice time.

Elaina: I like doing the projects. 

Kyle: I like math.

Ally: I like math.

Alex: I like free choice time.

Rose: I like free choice time.

Kellen: I like centers.

Ben: I like math.

Mrs. Lane: I like doing the projects.

Mrs. Rocky: I like center time.

Veteran's Day Assembly

On Monday, there will be a Veteran's Day Assembly at 10:30 am.  Our class will be singing a verse or two of Yankee Doodle.  They have been working really hard preparing for this during music class.  I will be sure create a video of this and add it to our classroom blog!  

Please wear red, white, and blue on Monday to help celebrate Veteran's Day!  

Pre-Conference Survey...again

Sorry to be a pest but I am still missing about half of the Pre-Conference Surveys.  I would appreciate a response BEFORE our scheduled conference date.  

If you have already filled this form out, I greatly appreciate you taking the time in doing so.  

Inside the Progress Report

Now that you've had the chance to look over the progress report, I'd like to talk about one of the standards your child is graded on.

First let's talk about phonemic awareness.  I found a great link that explains what phonemic awareness is in a very understandable way.  Check it out here: http://www.begintoread.com/articles/phonemic-awareness.html.

As that site says, Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words.  This skill combines with other reading skills like sight word recognition and listening comprehension to turn your child into a skilled reader.  There is no single skill that makes a child a reader.  It is only through a combination of these skills that a child becomes an accomplished reader.

Phonemic awareness is the primary skill your child probably uses when writing at school in kindergarten.  Being phonemically aware is what allows your child to "sound out" a word.

You can practice phonemic awareness skills anytime and anywhere.  In fact, phonemic awareness activities make great games in the car.  Here are some ideas:

• Say a word and let your child make a word that rhymes with it.  Go back and forth saying on rhyming word at a time until one of you can't go any further.
• Say a word and ask your child to say a word that starts with the same letter.  You could also have your child say as many words as possible that star with that word in a given amount of time (in the car, before the stop light changes or before the commercial ends, etc)
• Play a similar game but with ending sounds.  This is a more difficult skill.
• Use phonemes created by combining letters as your child's skills improve (example: use sh, ch, th)

Daily Schedule

A new page to our kindergarten blog has been added- our Daily Schedule!  We are certainly busy in kindergarten and you will see it when you check out the new page.  Please remember that times are subject to change and that assemblies, 3rd grade buddies, and testing may change things up a bit.  

Please check out the new page!  

Thanks!

Report Cards, Conference reminder, and Pre-Conference Survey

Please click on the Voki for a special message!

Book order?

Hi families,

A pack of books- gold medal pack- finally came in!  However, I can't seem to remember who they belong to.  Will you please email me and let me know if these books are yours?  Thanks so much!

Take care,
Mrs. Rocky

Roll and Record Dice Game

Today in math, we played the Roll and Record Dice game.  With this game students were asked to review counting and number recognition though a graphing activity.  Students needed to roll a single die and read which number came up.  They were then instructed to write that number on their graph.  Students continued to do this until a particular column was filled.  As a class we decided to turn our papers over and continue writing the numbers if they came up again.


Here is a video of Bailey showing us how to play the game.

Here are pictures of everyone enjoying the game!

Thanksgiving Feast in Kindergarten

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving in Kindergarten!  We will be having a small feast on Wednesday, November 21st in the morning.  If you are able to donate an item, please click on the VolunteerSpot button.

Thank you in advance for your generosity!

3rd Grade Buddies-Mrs. Buser's Class

Today we visited with our 3rd Grade Buddies from Mrs. Buser's Class.  We made Thanksgiving place mats for the residents at Lasata Nursing Home.  We know that these place mats will bring smiles to many faces.  Enjoy the Animoto video of our morning!

Fox on the Box vs. Bear in the Chair

                VS                 

Over the past few days, we have been reading a story called The Election.  In this book, we found out that the Fox and the Bear both think they would do a good job being the president of the forest.  Fox stands on a box and tells everyone what his plans are for the forest.  Bear sits in a chair and listens to everyone's problems and will work on solving them.  Some friends of the forest liked Fox the best and some of the friends of the forest like Bear the best.  These animals even made signs and posters telling everyone who they wanted to win.  We did this too!  During writing time, we created posters on who we wanted to win the election.  Here are a few samples.

Bailey wrote "I like the Fox."

Rose wrote "I like the Bear."

All posters were displayed!

When it was time for centers, students could read their own copies of The Election to themselves.  These books will be going home later in the month for the students to enjoy.

Today was time for the big vote!  Students went to the special voting area and had the opportunity to cast their ballot.  Students were reminded to vote for only one animal and not to share who they voted for.   We discussed how the one with the most votes would win the election.  We also talked about how we needed to be good sports on whoever won.  

After everyone was done voting, the results were in!  Fox on the Box had 11 votes and Bear in the Chair had 9 votes.  It was a close race!  The students had a great time in our election for the President of the Forest.

A special thanks to my friend Mrs. Weiss from Oak Creek who shared this Election Unit with me.  We loved it!

Report Cards

Report cards will be going home soon.  We want to make receiving your child's report card an informative and helpful event for parents.  Therefore, I want to give you some information on how your child's report card is structured and graded.

First, I encourage you to check out a sample report card here http://www.cedarburg.k12.wi.us/cms_files/resources/Sample%20Report%20Card.pdf  

 This is from last year so there have been a couple minor changes, but nothing major.

Our report card is a "Standards Based Report Card".  This see how each standard is roughly graded you can check out these links for:
Math - http://www.cedarburg.k12.wi.us/Kindergarten%20Math%20Rubric%20Q1.pdf
Communication Arts - http://www.cedarburg.k12.wi.us/Kindergarten%20Communication%20Arts%20Rubric%20Q1.pdf

Your child will receive one of three grades for each standard, either NS (Needs Strengthening), DV (Developing) or SC (Secure).  A DV is the most common grade for students to receive in the first and second quarter.  Kindergarten is usually the first time in our students' lives that they have been presented with the content and challenges placed before them at school.  Therefore, it can take a semester for students to start to build a true mastery.

Some benchmarks for a SC grade change from quarter to quarter and become progressively more advanced.  Therefore, it is possible for a student to receive an SC in first quarter and a DV in the second quarter.  Therefore, please understand that receiving an SC does not imply that your child has mastered that standard for the year.  It means that your child is currently working very hard and you should be very proud and continue to nurture that hard working attitude throughout the year.

Report cards have changed a lot since you and I were in school (In fact the district switched from calling them report cards this year: they are now "Progress Reports").  I want to help everyone understand how we use the report card not to simply assign grades, but as a tool to communicate how we can best help your child grow this year.  Do not hesitate to email me or stop by at pickup time if you have any questions about report cards or anything else.

I look forward to sharing your child's wonderful achievements with you at conferences in a couple weeks!

Thank You!

Thank you to the families who have taken the time to fill out the Pre-Conference form!  If you haven't already done so, please be sure to do so.  This will ensure all questions that you may have will be answered at your conference time.

Parent/Teacher Conference Survey

Please fill out the following survey.  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

We Love Math!

On Halloween, we played a game called the Witch's Brew.  Friends had to roll the dice and depending on which number it landed on, a certain ingredient had to be added to the pot.

Friends at Table 1

Friends at Table 2 

Friends at Table 3 

Friends at Table 6 

 Friends at Table 5 

Friends at Table 4 

When we were finished playing the game, it was time to graph the results.  We first sorted out the ingredients into different piles.  Which one had the most?  Which one had the least?  Were any equal?  Did any have zero or none?

 All tables busy sorting and graphing.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

In the afternoon, we are busy with math centers.  During math centers, we practice a variety of different skills.  We may practice patterns, number identification, sorting, shape identification, and money.  

Adding a certain number of "teeth" to a Halloween character.

Matching the number on our frog to how many flies he likes to eat.

Completing a shape book.  

This book helps us to identify shapes, practice counting, and reading our color words.

Rolling a money cube and finding the same coin in the bucket.

 Identifying numbers in a variety of ways and putting them in order.

Numbers, tally marks, and showing the numbers on fingers.

Pretty Please With a Cherry On Top?

Dear Families,

I have some HUGE favors to ask of you.  Pretty please with a cherry on top?

1. Help your child practice the skill of zipping up their own jacket.  With cold weather coming, we are wearing jackets daily.  There are 20 friends in Kindergarten and all need to go outside for recess.  Having 20 friends being able to zip their jackets will cut waiting time and make for some happy kindergartners to play outside.  Happy kindergartners make a happy teacher!  :)  We will soon have a Club Zip!  This means students who are able to zip their own jackets will get their name displayed in our kindergarten hallway.  All are invited to be in Club Zip!  Hooray!

2. Help your child practice the skill of tying their own shoes.  Again, there are 20 friends in Kindergarten and all wear shoes!  Having children being able to tie their own shoes will be a HUGE help!  Friends who can tie their own shoes will be in Pete the Cat's shoe tying club!  Their name will be displayed in our kindergarten hallway.  All friends are invited to be in this club too.  Hooray!  Here is a video about tying shoes.  There are also lots of other videos out there than can help your child.  

3. In kindergarten we get dressed like this to get ready for recess.  

• Coat-zip!
• Put on hat
• Mittens

Please practice this with your child.  When winter snow gear comes there will be new steps to the process!

4. Finally, please encourage your child to store their hats, mittens, gloves, scarves, etc. in their coat pocket or in the sleeve of their coat.  This way we won't have lost mittens or lost hats.  It will eliminate time having to look for them.  Also, please LABEL your child's items.  Many children have similar black hats, mittens, coats etc.  I would really, really appreciate it!

Thank you so much for working with your child on these skills.  It will make going out to recess that easier and much more enjoyable for everyone!   

Take care,

Mrs. Rocky :)