February 22, 2015

Dear Kindergarten Families,

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day celebration!  The class exchanged valentines, decorated hearts, wrote messages, graphed with candy hearts, dressed up for a photo booth and decorated cookies. A special thank you to Angela Canton and her family for planning an amazing celebration for our class.  She went all out for our celebration and the class had a fabulous time! Thank you to all the parents who were able to come in and help the students hand out valentines, write notes and clean up. We are trying to post pictures on shutterfly, hopefully it will work soon.

Tuesday is our 100th day of Kindergarten!  I am so proud of all of them and how they have grown!  We will be celebrating by counting to 100, doing different activities with 100 and drawing a portrait of our selves at 100 years old. The students will also be sharing their own personal collection of 100 things. Please help your​ your child put together and bring a collection of 100 things by Tuesday. The collection should fit into a gallon ziplock bag or smaller.  Some ideas would be gold fish, ans, small plastic animals, pennies, legos, shells.

    We have started going to art with Ms. Lynn! We are learning about line and shapes.The class drew lines and shapes with pastels and then painted their pictures with watercolors.  On our way to art we get to walk through the green space.  We have been looking for signs of spring ever since Groundhog's Day!  We will begin to sketch the signs of spring we see in journals on our way to art. 

For the past month the class has been learning how to write post cards and letters. The class wrote to their 3rd grade reading buddies, the tooth fairy, family and friends.  We have also been working on writing personal narratives from small moments we remember in our lives. It is wonderful to see the growth each student has made in their writing abilities.  The checklist of skills I use to evaluate their writing in winter includes: writes left to right, begins with a capital letter, use spaces between words, uses lower case letters, spells some high frequency words, uses beginning and ending consonants, adds details to drawing and writing, and incorporates character and setting.  Students have been practicing to go back and check their work when they are done writing. They will learn how to independently use their own checklist and edit their work this week. They are all very proud of their journals and letters and will be choosing a favorite piece for our personal best class bulletin board!  

In the last few weeks I have been of reading with every student to assess their winter reading gains. Throughout the term I have been impressed with the continued progress in decoding (sounding out) words. Almost everyone has met our district targets for winter and many children have already reached end of the year reading benchmarks. Often readers are strong at decoding words and fluently reading, but are not understanding what they have read. We are practicing retelling skills to improve our comprehension skills.  When I assess for  comprehension I am listening for plot, characters, setting, vocabulary, details and inference without prompting.  

In Math the children are beginning our “Sea Creatures Across the Curriculum” math unit.  The children will have opportunities to act out scenarios and then turn these activities into story problems.  The students will be writing their own addition and subtraction story problems to match a picture they create. We are playing games with pennies and nickles, learning 3-dimensional shapes (sphere, cylinder, cone and cube), counting to 100, skip counting and writing numbers to 30.

We have many exciting activities coming in the next few weeks...

Tuesday, February 24 - We will celebrate the 100th day in school.  Please help your​ your child put together and bring a collection of 100 things by Tuesday. The collection should fit into a gallon ziplock bag or smaller.  Some ideas would be gold fish, ans, small plastic animals, pennies, legos, shells.

Monday, March 2  -  Read Across America Day - Dr. Seuss' Birthday

Our Seussical Celebration will be Pajama Day in Kindergarten.  Traditionally we have a pancake breakfast in class and spend the morning reading our favorite Dr. Seuss books. In order for us to have our pancake breakfast I will need parent volunteers to help cook pancakes, serve breakfast and read with small groups from 8:00-10:00. Younger siblings are welcome! This is one of our most special days in kindergarten!  Please let me know if you can help.

Saturday, Feb. 28th - Red Ball - This year the Ainsworth auction will be at the Downtown Hilton. This is a wonderful event to meet other Ainsworth families and help support our amazing students.

March 18 - Late Start

March 23-27 - Spring Break

Thank you to all of our volunteers who give their time both in and outside the classroom! An extra special thank you to Alison Friday and her family for coming in and creating our class auction project.  The class drew and painted watercolor owls that have been framed individually on wood.  They are gorgeous!  Thank you Alison!

Thank you for all you do!

Ms. Fale

Happy February Room 31,

    We have been busy these past few weeks celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., Groundhog Day, practicing retelling The Mitten and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, writing letters, counting with pennies and nickles, learning about the arctic region, polar bears, Antarctica and penguins.  The students have read 500 books through their reading logs since the holiday break! Our next goal is 1000 books! Keep reading! We have started art class with Ms. Lynn.  Art class is at 12:00 on Wednesdays.  We will try to head up to the green space and journal outside before art when the weather permits. 

    

    Report cards came home on Friday.  Please check blue folders and back packs for white envelopes with their report cards.  Please keep the report card at home, then sign and return the envelope in their blue folders.  

    We have a bunch of fun things coming up in kindergarten!  We will have a Valentine's celebration on Friday Feb. 13th.  We will have fun with Valentine's Day all week and then have a party in the afternoon Friday.   We would like to decorate shoe boxes for our valentine mailbox.  Please send a shoe box to school by Wednesday if you have one. Does anyone have a shoe box connection? 

Tuesday the 24th will be kindergarten's 100th day of school! Can you believe it?  We will have an all day celebration of the number 100 and all we have accomplished so far this year.  It will be a fun day full of counting!

Dates to remember:

February 13 - Valentine's Celebration

February 16 - Presidents' Day - No School

February 18 - Late Start

February 24 - 100th Day of School

March 18 - Late Start

March 23-27 - Spring Break

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  

Have a great weekend,

Kelly

Happy New Year!
It was wonderful to have our class back together again!  I missed them all over the holiday break!  
Our first week back was a smooth start.  We celebrated the new year by making "Happy New Year" hats, visiting the office and our third grade buddies to wish them a happy new year and took funny photos in our New Year's photo booth. We wrote four goals for the new year and water colored a picture of our favorite goal.  Most of the class picked to draw and paint a picture of what they want to do for fun this year.  
We have begun to tally the books that were read during break. We have twelve students who have brought back their reading logs and have read over 200 books!  Students are encouraged to bring in the reading logs if they have not already, and we will continue to read and record their reading logs all year.  It is a great way to encourage reading, and we get to count by fives, and tens when we are adding up all of the books that have been read.
We read The Mitten by Jan Brett and The Mitten by Alvin Tresselt. We compared the two stories with their similarities and differences using a Venn Diagram.  We colored and cut out the animals from the stories and will use them to retell the story to our reading buddies. We matched and colored mittens so they were symmetrical. 
Next week we will practice retelling The Mitten. We will be reading and comparing different versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  

Important dates to remember...

Jan 19 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day - No School
Jan 21 - Late Start Wednesday 
Jan 30 - Teacher Planning Day

​December 15, 2014

 ​December 15, 2014

Dear Kindergarten Families,

December always reminds me of how wonderful it is to be a kindergarten teacher. Since Thanksgiving the class has been talking about holidays and family traditions. We have been learning how holidays are different and in what ways they are alike.  We enjoy hearing stories, playing games and making crafts. We will continue to share and celebrate holidays through February. If your family would like to share any of your family’s holiday traditions, games or special foods please let me know.  

Kindergarten has been using our celebrations and the winter season as springboards for reading, writing and math. We are reading stories to learn more about holidays, changes in the seasons and what animals do in the winter. We are writing about stories we have read, holiday traditions, and what we are excited about this holiday season. In math we are practicing numeral writing and recognition, counting, patterning and addition.

I am beginning to see great improvement in Writer's Workshop and REACH centers.  The students are ready to take off as readers and writers. Having volunteers during writing and reading help the class to get more individualized attention. I am also able to meet with more reading groups when the independent students have support from other adults in the room. Please let me know if you are available in the mornings from 8:30-9:20 and or 9:45-10:40.  

I am looking forward to this last fun filled week before break. We will be reading Jan Brett's The Gingerbread Baby and other versions of The Gingerbread Man.  We are hoping to decorate mini Gingerbread Houses with our third grade buddies.  We will end the week by making Gingerbread Cookies and having our holiday party to say goodbye before break.

I would like to extend our gratitude to the family and friends who have given their time and energy in our classroom so far this year.  Our best days come about with your help. Thank you for the volunteers who have been in class to help us in Writer’s Workshop and REACH Literacy Centers.  Thank you to Karen for helping with art very week!  Thank you for all of the help we had for our Stone Soup Celebration! Thank you for all of the work outside of the classroom as well with preparing projects, sharpening pencils and planning the auction art project. Thank you again for all of the dedication and support you are giving our classroom.

Late Start this Wednesday!

Holiday Party:

We will be having a holiday party on Friday the 19^th starting at 12:00.  We will be reading holiday stories, having crafts, playing games, and eating healthy treats. We will be going to the auditorium for Kindersing at 12:20- 12:45, then return to our room to enjoy the rest of our celebration day. Everyone is welcome to come, help and say goodbye before our winter break.

Winter Break Reading Challenge:

I will be sending home a reading log for winter break (attached as well).   I have challenged the class to read at least one book a day everyday we are apart. If the class can read over 100 books during our break we will host a Literature Party!! Please encourage your child to read to you, your dog, a sibling or a stuffed animal. Then write the title of the book on this reading log. If your child is reading longer books, a ten-minute read counts for one line on the reading log. When we return to class we will tally their book total and see if they have earned their party!

Toy and Food Drive:

It is an annual community service project at Ainsworth to collect food and toys for this organization.  Our class will be collecting toys, books and food for the seasonal workers for the holidays. The toys, food and clothes will be delivered Friday after school.

I hope to see you this week before break,

Ms. Fale

 

Welcome to Room 31, Happy first week in kindergarten!

 Welcome to Room 31,

       Happy first week of kindergarten!  We have a wonderful group of 16 students in our classroom; 9 boys and 7 girls.  I am impressed with how kind and responsible they all are. We are going to have a fabulous year!

      I hope all the students enjoyed the first week and settling in to the routines of kindergarten. We have learned so much in the last five days together. We learned how to put away our back packs and lunches, turn our picture card, sign the board, use our supplies, walk in line, play on the playground safely, line up for a fire drill, sit as a group on the carpet, have lunch in the cafeteria, share at choice time, and pack up our things at the end of the day.  We read stories, drew pictures, cut, traced, glued, sang songs, went to P.E., music, Kinder Sing and made new friends.  We learned how to find the office, the library, the gym, the auditorium, and the cafeteria. We have been so busy!

This week in literacy we have focused on:

letters Aa,Bb,Cc,Dd,& Ee,  
words I & am, 
Skill: listening for rhyming words in stories.

Next week:

Letters: E- N, 

Words: I & am

Comprehension skills: Characters and Setting 

Late Start

Next Wednesday, September 17th:   

School will begin at 10:00 & end at 2:15.

Thursday, September 18^th is Curriculum Night

Mark your calendars! Curriculum Night begins at 6:30.  I will be able to tell you more about the exciting year ahead, answer questions, explain volunteer opportunities, snack, and double check I have all of your correct information.

Snacks: Thank you to the Phillips Family for providing snacks the first week of school!  The class had yogurts, pretzels, Pirate Booty, popcorn and Goldfish. We even have snack to start us off next week! Thank you Phillips Family!  Please look for snack sign ups at curriculum night and in the hallway

Blue folders:

Please look for a dark blue take home folder in your child's backpack every night.  I will send important information, announcements, and their work home in this folder. You can send notes to me in it as well.  It is a wonderful tool for communication between home and school.  The right side of the folder is for items that need to come back to school and the left side is for things to be kept at home. The folder is labeled inside to help you remember.

Clothes: Please pack a full change of clothes to be kept in your child’s backpack in case of an accident.  It is much more pleasant for your   child to have their own clothes to change into if they have an accident, get spilled on or fall in a puddle.

Thank you!  An extra big thank you for your help on the first day. Thank you for all helping out to write name tags, put supplies away and help get everyone settled in.

Supplies:

Thank you for sending the school supplies! I am always amazed with the amount of supplies our students will have access to during the year. We will have a wonderful time writing in our journals, cutting and pasting and creating art with all of our new supplies.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

I hope to see you Wednesday Night,

Ms. Fale

Next week:

Letters: E- N, 

Words: I am

Comprehension skill: Characters and Setting 

Welcome to Room 31!
     This will be our new form of communication for Room 31.  Please check this sight for our schedule, announcements, and classroom updates!


Week 1:
     The class has been busy all week getting to know each other and learning where everything is around our school.  They are all excited to learn new things and spend time together.  

Stay tuned to hear all about our adventures!

Please remember this is not a private site. For person or private questions please email me at kfale@pps.net .