Week of January 28-February 1, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families,
Here's what is happening in our classroom:

Important dates:
Friday, February 8: PTO family dance, 6-8 pm
Monday, February 11: No school
Monday, February 18: No school
Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: Shortened days for parent/teacher conferences. Students will be dismissed at 12:20 pm from the cafeteria.

Language Arts:
We started our unit called "Stick to It", and the kids are having a good time with it. We are reading stories about perseverance. If you have any books at home that go with this theme, feel free to send them in and we will read them during class.
We will be reviewing the sounds of /m/, /a/, and /t/.
There are no new sight words this week.
In writing we will be working on a summary of this week's story, "The Great Big Enormous Turnip".

Math:
We are continuing to work on measurement this week. This week's objectives are to compare height and length to reference objects, to understand how height and length are alike and different, and to compare weight to a reference object.

Science:
We are continuing our unit on animals. This week we will focus on reptiles.

Thank you, parents, for all you do! Room 4 would not be a super place to work and learn without you!
Have a great weekend, and as always, feel free to email if you have any questions or concerns.
carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of January 21-25, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families,

Here's what is happening this week in Room 4:

Important dates: 

Monday, January 21: No school, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Friday, January 25: Free dress day

Friday, February 8: PTO family dance, 6-8 pm

Monday, February 11: No school

Monday, February 18: No school

Language Arts:

This week we will finish up Unit 4 about the Wind and begin unit 5, "Stick to It". This unit is all about perseverance. If your kids have any books that go with this theme they are welcome to bring them in to share.

New sight words: not

This week we will work on the sounds of /n/ and /s/. We will work on listening for, reading and writing words with these sounds. 

We will continue to work on identifying verbs.

Our writing for the week will be to summarize "Wind says Goodnight," a story we have been working on.

We will also begin talking about plots that have a problem and a resolution at the end. This type of plot structure is very common, so it would be good practice for you and your kindergartner to talk about the problems in the stories you read and how the characters resolve them.

Math: This week we will begin chapter 7 on measurement.This week's objective's are to compare length to a reference object and to order objects by length from shortest to longest. The vocabulary words are length, longer, shorter, longest, and shortest.

Science: This week we are continuing to study animals, specifically insects and reptiles.

I still need a couple of parent volunteers for our centers time (8:10-8:50) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, if anyone is interested in working in the classroom. This week we will have a centers time on Friday if anyone would like to help then!

100th day of school/Valentine's Day:

We have been counting our days in school and looking forward to the 100th day all year! This year the 100th day happens to fall on February 14. We will celebrate both day 100 and Valentine's day. We would love to have parents help with this! We will be doing a longer centers time on this day--8:10-9:10--and we need 1 more parent volunteer for this. We will celebrate Valentine's day at 12:15 by passing out cards. The kids are welcome to have a valentine for each classmate to pass out that day. I will provide more information as this day gets closer.

Thanks, parents and families, for everything you do! Enjoy your three-day weekend!

Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of January 14-18, 2013

Hello Room 4 families,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a relaxing, enjoyable holiday with your families. We are back to work in room 4. The kids really didn't miss a beat this week as they got back into our routines.

Important dates:
Wednesday, January 16: Open enrollment tour for prospective students, 9am. Please let friends who are interested in learning more about Phoebe Hearst know.
Monday, January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; no school
Friday, January 25: free dress day
Friday, February 8: PTO Family Dance, 6-8 pm

Language Arts:
This week we are continuing our unit on the wind. We will be focusing on the sounds of /h/, /t/, and short o. The kids will be listening for, writing, and reading words with these sounds.
New high frequency words: like and too.
We will be writing paragraphs about what we would do if we lived in a snow globe.

Math:
This week we will finish the chapter on numbers 11-20. We will work on counting to, writing, and comparing numbers 11-20.
We continue to review past concepts during Board Math

Science:
We are continuing our unit on animals. We will be comparing and contrasting different animals, talking about animal habitats, and learning about parts of insects.

If you would like to volunteer during our centers time from 8:10-8:50, we still need 3 more volunteers: one for Tuesdays, one for Wednesdays, and one for Thursdays.

Thanks, parents, for everything you do! Please email me at carrie-relles@scusd.edu if you have any questions or concerns.

Week of January 7-11, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families!
It's hard to believe 2013 is almost here. Here's what we have going on in our classroom:

Important dates:
January 7: first day back at school
Wednesday, January 9: Open enrollment tour. If you know anyone interested in having their kids attend Phoebe Hearst next year, please encourage them to attend a tour!
January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; no school
Friday, January 25: Free dress day
Friday February 8: PTO family dance, 6-8 pm

Language Arts: We are continuing our unit on the wind this week. We have been turning over our classroom phonics cards and working on identifying orally, reading, and writing words with our target sound/letter for the day. This week we will work on d, m, s, p, and short a. The kids are doing a really good job with this. I am able to challenge them frequently with these lessons.
New sight word: at
At the end of this week we will begin working with verbs.
Our writing this week will be about new year's resolutions/goals for 2013.

Math: This week we will begin a chapter on numbers 11-20.
The kids will learn to recognize, count objects up to, and write numbers to 20. We will continue to review past concepts during Board Math.

Science: This week we will begin a life science unit on animals.

Centers time note: Beginning this week our centers time is going to be 40 minutes long rather than an hour as it has been since September. The kids will complete 3 centers each day Monday through Thursday, and we will not have centers time on Fridays. This will give us more time to work on our phonics and writing lessons, which are beginning to be very involved! A HUGE thank you to the parents who have volunteered their time since September during our centers time. If you would like to start volunteering during centers from 8:10-8:50, please let me know. I do have a few spots I would like to fill on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

THANK YOU, families for the generous Christmas gift you gave me! I appreciate your thoughtfulness, and I'm looking forward to doing some shopping during break. :)
Thank you, also, to those parents who helped out at our holiday party today. It would not have been possible without you! A special thank you to Carolyn Stallings and Jacqui DeBoo for organizing.

Enjoy your holiday everyone! See you in 2013!

Week of December 17-21, 2012

Hello Room 4 Families,
It's hard to believe this is the last week of school for 2012! Your kids have worked so hard and learned so much since September.

Here is what's happening this week:

Friday, December 21: Free dress day/Class holiday party.
If you would like to bring items for the holiday party, there is information in the back of the classroom.

Language Arts:
We started our Wind unit last week. We are reading and learning about the wind and its effects.
We will be focusing on the sounds of m, s, and d. The kids will be blending words with these sounds, listening for these sounds, and writing words with these sounds next week.
New sight words: can, what, and you.
Writing: we will finish our writing about how to dress a snowman, and do an opinion piece on a story we read.
We will continue to work on adjectives that describe the five senses and position words.

Math: This week we will review past concepts rather than begin a new unit right before vacation. We will review numbers 1-10, patterning, and sorting.

Thanks for all you do, parents!
If you have any questions please email me carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of December 10-14, 2012

Hello Room 4 Families!
We have been working away this month on becoming excellent writers and readers. Here is what is coming up next week:

Wednesday, December 12: Open Enrollment tours begin. These will be every Wednesday through February 6th at 9 am. If you have any family or friends interested in attending Phoebe Hearst next year please encourage them to attend a tour. They should meet in the office at 9am.

Friday, December 21: Free dress day. We will also have a small winter  party on this day after lunch (11:45). The kids will be decorating cookies, drinking hot chocolate, and listening to music. If you're interested in helping out with this, please contact Carolyn Stallings or Jacqui DeBoo.

Monday, December 24-Friday, January 4: No school

Language Arts:
This week we are finishing up our Finding Friends unit and beginning a unit called The Wind. If your kids want to bring in any books to share that go with this theme, they are welcome to do so.
This week we will begin focusing on specific sounds and spellings and turning over the alphabet cards to reveal pictures that go with the sounds. The kids have been looking forward to this. This week we will work on the /s/ sound and listening for it at the beginning and end of words.
We will be working on adjectives that describe senses (warm, sweet, sour, etc).
This week we will be writing informational text on how to dress a snowman. We will be using the words first, next, and last in our writing.
New sight words: on

Math: This week we will finish up our unit on graphing. The kids are having a good time with collecting data and putting it into a graph. Thank you for helping them with this on their homework. We will take our chapter tests on Thursday and Friday.

Thank you, parents, for all you do!
Enjoy your weekend and please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of December 3-7, 2012

Hello Room 4 Families!
Here is what's happening in room 4 this week:

Friday, December 7: Craft Faire, 6-8 pm

Language Arts:
New sight words: are and in

We will continue to orally blend and clap out the syllables in words. We have also been writing words using the kids' expert letters, and they are doing very well with this. Encourage your kids to practice writing 3 and 4 letters words as much as possible.

We are continuing to talk about finding friends. If your kids have a book to share that fits with this theme they are welcome to bring it in.

In writing we will begin paragraph called "If I had a reindeer..."

We will review adjectives that describe how many and what color.

Math:
In math we will continue to work on graphing. Each day the kids will be doing a yes/no graph that I have created. This will lead to them coming up with their own yes/no question and collecting their own data.
They are enjoying graphing so far, and doing really well with it.

Thank you to the parents who have been helping out in our room! We couldn't do what we do without your help! If you would like to volunteer all are welcome. I will also have more take-home projects shortly.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. You can email me any time. carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Have a great weekend!