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

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!

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.

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

Week of January 6-10, 2014

Happy Friday, everyone!
We had another super week in Room 4. The kids wrote paragraphs about how to dress a snowman, they painted snowmen, we worked hard on gifts for family and our 5th grade buddies, we worked with the long vowels and several consonant sounds, and we had a fabulous holiday celebration thanks to our wonderful room moms Cambria Squires and Jennifer Mikacich.

Here is what we have coming up:
Monday, January 6th: first day back at school
Monday, January 20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; no school
Friday, January 24: Art lesson, 10:15-11:00. We would love to have a couple of parents help with this!
Monday, January 27: Art lesson, 10:00-10:45. We would also love to have some parents on this day!
Friday, January 31: Free dress day

Language Arts
When we return in January we will continue reading in our wind unit. We will work on the sounds of /p/, short a, /h/, and /t/.
New sight words: like, too
Writing: we will write a paragraph about our New Years' resolutions. This is always so interesting to see how the kids understand the idea of resolutions and what they come up with for themselves!

Math
We will begin chapter 7 on measurement. This week we will explore length, height, and work on ordering objects from shortest to longest.

Thank you, families for all of your help and support in Room 4 this year! Enjoy your holiday with your families. I look forward to seeing everyone in January!
Please let me know if you have questions or concerns.
carrie.relles@gmail.com

Week of December 16-20, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families,
We had a super week in Room 4. Thank you to everyone who helped with centers this week and to those who volunteered to help with our special holiday centers next week.

Here is what we have coming up:

Tonight: winter craft fair, 6-8pm
Monday, December 16, 10:00-10:45 am: art lesson. Thank you to Ramona Harvan for volunteering to help with this. We would love to have 1-2 more parents come help that day.
Thursday, December 19: Special holiday centers and celebration, 11:45-1. Thanks to Jen Mikacich and Cambria Squires for organizing this and to the others who volunteered to help. It will be fun!
Friday, December 20: Free dress
Moday, December 23-Sunday, January 5: NO SCHOOL
Monday, January 20: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; no school
Friday, January 24: Art lesson, 10:15-11:00. We would love to have a couple of parents help with this!
Monday, January 27: Art lesson, 10:00-10:45. We would also love to have some parents on this day!

Language Arts
We have started our next unit called "The Wind". We are beginning to focus more on putting sounds together to make words, listening for beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words, and the long and short vowel sounds. The kids are loving turning the alphabet cards over and finding out about the pictures on the back.
The letter/sound focus this week will be on long i, /d/, /p/, and long u.
new sight words: at
Writing: This week the kids will use their imaginations to write about what they would do if they were an elf. We are continuing to work on the writing process and focus on topic sentences with details to support our topic.

Math
This week we will take our chapter tests on numbers 1-20. We have been working hard on remembering how to write the numbers 11-20, comparing numbers to 20, and ordering numbers 1-20.

Thanks for everything you do, families! If you have any questions or concerns please don't hesitate to email me at carrie.relles@gmail.com
Have a fantastic holiday.

Week of December 9-13, 2013

Happy Friday, Room 4 Families!
I hope you all had a relaxing Thanksgiving. We are back at work in room 4, and the kids haven't missed a beat. Thank you for all of your support with the homework and Home Run Reader logs.

Here is what we have coming up:

Tuesday, December 10: picture make-up day
Friday, December 13: Winter Wonderland free dress (more info to follow); Craft Faire, 6-8pm
Monday, December 16: art lesson, 10:00-10:45 am. We would love to have 2-3 parents volunteer to help with this.
Friday, December 20: free dress day
December 23-January 3: no school

Language Arts
Today we are starting unit 4 of our curriculum, "The Wind". We will be focusing more on blending sounds to make words and putting words together to make sentences. Watch out for more reading and writing in the homework.
New sight words: can, what, you
Letter/sound focus: the sounds of /s/ and /m/
In writing, we are finishing up a paragraph about imaginary pet reindeer. We are working on topic sentences. The kids are doing a fabulous job with this.

Math
This week we continue working on numbers to 20. We are working on writing, ordering, and comparing numbers to 20.

Thank you for everything you do, families! Please email me if you have any questions or concerns.
carrie.relles@gmail.com