Week of February 25, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families!

Here is what is happening in Room 4:

Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: parent/teacher conferences; shortened days. Students will be dismissed from the cafeteria at 12:20.
Friday, March 8: (tentative) State Capitol field trip. I am still waiting on the transportation department to make sure we have buses.
Friday, March 8: Science Night, 6-8 pm

Language Arts:
This week we will begin a unit titled, "Red, White, and Blue". The kids will be learning about patriotism and our national symbols.
We will continue to work on blending sounds to make words both orally and on the board. The kids are doing a super job with this, and they are very proud of themselves for learning how to blend words like they will in first grade.
We will review and focus on the sounds of /d/, /n/, and short o.
Our writing this week will be a narrative in response to "The Cat in the Hat" (Dr. Suess's birthday is Saturday, March 2, so we will be celebrating this week).

Math
This week we will finish our unit on numbers to 30 and begin a unit on time. We will work on estimating during the beginning of the week, then take the chapter tests, and move on to times of the day and the days of the week.

Social Studies
We are going back to social studies this week after spending a long time talking about animals in science. Our new social studies chapter is "Our Country", which ties in very well with our language arts theme. The kids will be learning about our country's symbols, how people use them, and how symbols remind us of America's greatness and our national heritage.

Thank you to everyone who helped out in the room this week, especially on Friday when I asked for help at the last minute!
Have a great weekend, and please email me if you have any questions or concerns.
carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of February 18-22, 2013

Hello Room 4 Families!
We had a great week in room 4. Thank you to all of you who helped this week, especially with the 100th Day and Valentines activities. The kids had a super time.

Important Dates:
Monday, February 18: Presidents' Day, no school
Friday, February 22: Free dress
Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: parent/teacher conferences and shortened days. The kids will be dismissed from the cafeteria at 12:20.

I am working on scheduling a field trip to the State Capitol to go with our next unit, Red, White,and Blue. The tentative date for this will be Friday, March 8 in the morning. I just need to secure buses, and will keep you posted on this. If you would like to attend this trip and you have been fingerprinted, please let me know.
I would like to have 5-6 chaperones.

Language Arts:
This week we will finish up our Stick to It unit.
We will review previously introduced sounds as well as focus on the /l/ sound.
New sight word: my
The kids will be finishing up their opinion pieces on their favorite story we read during this unit.

Math:
We are continuing our unit on numbers to 30. This week we will begin estimating.

Science:
This week we will finish the animals unit by talking about how animals grow from babies to full-grown animals.

Parent/Teacher conferences: I apologize for not scheduling these sooner! To be honest, the date snuck up on me. Please watch for an email about this soon. During these conferences I will share your child's report card and most recent work and answer any questions you have.

Thanks again, parents for everything! Enjoy your 3-day weekend!

Week of February 11-15

Happy Friday, Room 4 Families!

Thanks for checking the website. Here's what we have going on this week:

Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL. Enjoy!

Thursday, February 14: free dress (red and pink spirit day); 100th day of school; Valentine's Day (see below for information)

Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL

Friday, February 22: Free Dress day

Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: Parent/Teacher conferences. Dismissal will be at 12:20 from the cafeteria

100th day of school/Valentine's Day

THANK YOU to those parents who have volunteered to help with our festivities on Thursday! At this point we have plenty of parent helpers. We do still need some items for the 100th day trail mix. If you want to send in a bag of something we could add to trail mix like dried cranberries, yogurt covered raisins, chex cereal, or popcorn, we would really appreciate it. 

Again, the kids are welcome to bring in Valentines for the class. We will be passing them out and celebrating Valentine's day after lunch.

Language Arts

This week we will continue our Stick to It unit. The kids have been enjoying reading stories and poems about characters who don't give up. Thank you to those who sent in books related to this theme. 

I have been able to challenge the kids a lot with reading and writing words. I tell them that this is what they will do in first grade, and they love it! I hope you have noticed at home that many kids are really starting to read on their own! Please encourage them to read to you as much as they feel comfortable.

This week we will review the /p/ sound and learn the sound of short i.

New sight word: has

The kids will be writing an opinion piece on their favorite story from our Stick to It unit. 

Math

We just started a unit on numbers 20-30. The kids will practice counting objects to and writing numbers to 30. We will also begin practicing estimating. This week will focus on numbers 21-25.

Science

This week we will finish up our unit on animals. We will talk about how animals stay safe and how they change as they grow from birth to adulthood.

Thanks for reading! Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. 

carrie-relles@scusd.edu

Week of February 4-8, 2013

Hello Families!
We have been very busy in Room 4. The kids have been working so hard. I am very proud of them!

Here's what's happening in our room:

Important Dates
Friday, February 8: PTO family dance, 6-8pm
Monday, February 11: NO SCHOOL
Thursday, February 14: Red and Pink Spirit Day (free dress with those colors); Valentine's day (see below); 100th day of school (see below)
Monday, February 18: NO SCHOOL
Friday, February 22: Free Dress
Friday, February 22-Friday, March 1: Shortened Days/parent conferences. Dismissal will be at 12:20

Valentine's Day/100th day of school:
These two are VERY important to our kids! We will celebrate both of these on Thursday the 14th. We will celebrate the number 100 during morning centers time. I hope to have 1 or 2 more parents volunteers for that morning. We will do centers until 9:10. For this day I am also going to ask each student to bring in a collection of 100 items. This can be something very simple, like 100 pennies, or you can get creative. It's completely up to you!
We will celebrate Valentine's day after lunch (11:45am). The kids are welcome to bring in Valentine cards for each other to pass out at this time. I would love to have a few (3-5) parents help out during this time as well.

Language Arts:
We are continuing our Stick to It unit this week.
We will review the sounds of /t/ and /h/.
There are no new sight words this week.
This week we will begin writing simple fictional stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The characters will have a problem they need to solve.

Math:
This week we will finish up our chapter on measurement. We will work on weight and capacity this week and will take our chapter tests on Thursday and Friday.

Science:
We are continuing to learn about animals this week. We will talk about birds and fish this week. A big thanks to Jacqui DeBoo for bringing in their parrot Jordan today! The kids loved it.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thanks for everything you do!

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.