Friday, January 31, 2014

Week of February 3-7, 2014

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy (Chinese) New Year! Ask your kids what they learned this week about Chinese new year. We read several books, learned how to say happy new year, and made Chinese dragons.

February is going to be a very busy month!
Here is what we have coming up:
Friday, February 7: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 10: Lincoln's Day holiday, no school
Thursday, February 13: 100th day of school (see below)
Friday, February 14: pink/red spirit free dress day; art lesson at 10:15; Valentine celebration (see below for more information)
Monday, February 17: President's Day; no school
February 24-28: Parent/Teacher conferences; dismissal will be at 12:20 from the cafeteria. Please see below for more info on conferences.

Language Arts
We are continuing the "Stick to It" unit this week in which we are learning about perseverance.
Letter/sound focus: short a, /h/, /p/
We are working a lot on blending sounds to read words and also listening for all the sounds in words in order to spell them. The kids are doing a fantastic job with this. Thank you so much for reading with your children every night.

Math
This week we begin Chapter 9 on time. We will focus on days of the week and calendars this week and then move to telling time on a clock next week.

100th day of school is Thursday February 13
Thank you to everyone who sent in something for our 100th day trail mix.
We still need two items:
popcorn
pretzel sticks
If you can send these to school before the 13th of February we would appreciate it. We need at least 320 of each item.

The kids will need to bring in a collection of 100 items to show the class. This can be as simple or elaborate as your child wants it to be. Some examples of simple collections are 100 pennies or 100 paper clips. Some more elaborate collections could be to use 100 pieces of macaroni to make an art project or 100 legos to make a lego figure. They will share their collection with the class on the 100th day. If you have questions about this please let me know.

We would also love to have 1-2 more parent helpers for our centers time (8:10-9:00) on the 100th day--February 13. Let me know if you'd like to help.

Parent/Teacher conferences are February 24-28. I will go over your child's trimester 2 report cards and answer any questions you have. Please watch for an email this week about scheduling your day and time.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Have a super weekend. Please let me know if you have questions or concerns. carrie.relles@gmail.com

Friday, January 24, 2014

Week of January 27-31, 2014

Happy Friday!
This week was fabulous. We started writing summaries of a story we read, we worked on numbers 21-30, we reviewed m and s and started working on spelling like first graders, and the staff did a flash mob at morning announcements!

Here is what we have coming up:
Monday, 1/27: Art lesson, 10:00-10:45.
Friday, 1/31: free dress day; Room 4 to work in the school garden at 10:15. We would love to have 2-3 parents to help during this time.
Friday, February 7: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 10: Lincoln's Day holiday, no school
Thursday, February 13: 100th day of school (see below)
Friday, February 14: pink/red spirit free dress day; art lesson at 10:15; Valentine celebration (see below for more information)

Language Arts
The kids are having fun with the "Stick to It" unit, which is all about perseverance. They are working with their 5th grade buddies on writing a story about a character who has to stick to it.
Letter/sound focus: /m/, short a, and /t/.
Sight words: I have introduced all of the kindergarten sight words and am just finishing testing the students on them. If your child knows all the kinder sight words, please watch out for a list of 1st grade words, which I will send home this week.
Writing: we are working on a summary of the story "The Great Big Enormous Turnip."

Math
This week we continue working on numbers to 30. We will focus on finding a missing number on a number line and comparing numbers.

100th day of school 
Thank you to everyone who sent in something for our 100th day trail mix.
We still need a few items:
M&Ms
popcorn
dried cranberries
yogurt raisins
If you can send these to school before the 13th of February we would appreciate it. We need at least 320 of each item.

The kids will have an assignment for the 100th day of school that they may want to start thinking about now:
they will need to bring in a collection of 100 items to show the class. This can be as simple or elaborate as your child wants it to be. Some examples of simple collections are 100 pennies or 100 paper clips. Some more elaborate collections could be to use 100 pieces of macaroni to make an art project. If you have questions about this please let me

Thanks for everything, families! Let me know if you have questions or concerns carrie.relles@gmail.com
Have a super weekend!


Friday, January 17, 2014

Week of January 20-24, 2014

We had another fantastic week in Room 4. Your kids amaze me every day with their kindness, intelligence, and enthusiasm. This week we made pinwheels and windsocks, wrote paragraphs about living in snow globes, explored length, weight and capacity, and worked on reading and writing words with the sounds we are learning.

Here is what we have coming up:

Important Dates

Monday, January 20: MLK day; no school
Friday, 1/24: Art lesson, 10:15-11:00. We would love to have 2-3 parent helpers for this.
Monday, 1/27: Art lesson, 10:00-10:45. We would also love 1-2 more volunteers for this. Thanks to Bob Lipman for volunteering.
Friday, 1/31: free dress day; Room 4 to work in the school garden at 10:15. We would love to have 2-3 parents to help during this time.
Friday, February 7: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 10: Lincoln's Day holiday, no school
Thursday, February 13: 100th day of school (see below)
Friday, February 14: pink/red spirit free dress day; art lesson at 10:15; Valentine celebration (more info to follow)

Language Arts
This week we will start a new unit called "Stick to It". We will be reading stories about and discussing perserverance.
We will review the /s/ and /m/ sounds.
We will begin writing a summary of this week's story "The Great Big Enormous Turnip".

Math
We will begin chapter 8 on numbers to 30. We will work on counting objects to, writing, and comparing numbers to 30.

100th Day of School
Thank you to those families who sent items for our 100th day trail mix. We have received Cheerios, Chex, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. We still need
raisins
goldfish crackers
M&Ms
popcorn
dried cranberries
yogurt raisins
You can send these to school any time.
Thank you!

Thanks for everything, families!
Please don't hesitate to email me if you have a question or concern. carrie.relles@gmail.com
Have a nice weekend.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Week of January 13-17, 2014

Hello Families!
2014 is off to a super start. We wrote New Years' resolutions this week. They will be hanging on the windows shortly, so be sure to come check them out, and be sure to ask your child what his/her resolutions are. Some of them are fantastic.

Here is what we have coming up:

Important Dates
Monday, January 20: MLK day; no school
Friday, 1/24: Art lesson, 10:15-11:00. We would love to have 2-3 parent helpers for this.
Monday, 1/27: Art lesson, 10:00-10:45. We would also love 1-2 more volunteers for this. Thanks to Bob Lipman for volunteering.
Friday, 1/31: free dress day
Friday, February 7: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 10: Lincoln's Day holiday, no school
Thursday, February 13: 100th day of school (see below)
Friday, February 14: pink/red spirit free dress day; art lesson at 10:15; Valentine celbration (more info to follow)

Language Arts
This week we will focus on the short o sound and the sounds of /t/ and /n/.
New sight word: not
We will finish up our unit on the wind this week by reading, discussing and writing about a story called "Wind Says Goodnight".
We will begin writing paragraphs about what we would do if we lived in a snow globe.

Math
This week we continue the chapter on measurement. We will focus on weight and capacity.

100th Day of School
We have been counting our days in school all year and looking forward to the 100th day.We will celebrate the number 100 all day. Part of the homework that week will be for the kids to bring in a collection of 100 items. This can be something simple like 100 pennies, or as creative as they want to be.
We will be making 100th day trail mix that day during centers, so I am asking families to send ingredients for this. We need:
raisins
cheerios
marshmallows
goldfish crackers
M&Ms
popcorn
dried cranberries
yogurt raisins
chex cereal
chocolate chips

Please let me know if you can provide any of these for us.

Thanks for reading, everyone!
Have a super weekend, and please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
carrie.relles@gmail.com