Feb 19- March 8th

For the next three weeks we will begin our Weather Unit. We will be learning the words this, do, and, & what. We will be talking about Ee, Bb, & Ii. The middle e sound and i sound are super tricky for Kindergarten students to hear when sounding out words, please help them recognize the difference as we will be working on it in class. Recognizing the difference between lowercase b and lowercase d also seems to be tricky as well. We will also be talking about different seasons and how weather affects us. We are also starting our 3D shapes unit!

SEPs will be on Feb 28th. Feb 28th is a short day (like a Friday schedule). SEPs will only be 5 minutes long. I will give you a summary sheet and some comments.  If you would like an email with this information instead, please email me and we can have an email conference. If you would like to meet, please sign up for an SEP time on the google doc below.


SEP Schedule

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate at school. I wanted to let you know ahead of time what we do in class and some of my thoughts about the holiday.

Each students will get a bag to decorate in class for their valentines. These bags have handles on them and are much easier to carry than a shoe box or lunch bag.  

This may be a student's first experience with Valentine's Day in a school setting and you will learn that every teacher may be different. It's been my experience that all children in this age group love to participate in giving everyone in our class valentines. In order to avoid hurting feelings or create bad experiences, please give each child the same valentine. If your child wants to do something special for a best friend that extends beyond a valentine in class, please make a special time for them to get together outside of school or schedule a play date. I love to facilitate play dates among my students. AM has 23 total and PM has 18 total (includes students and teachers).

In my class, I like to focus more on the act of friendship, giving, and thanking. Our party usually consists of small academic valentine activities while small groups take turns putting their valentines in everyone's bags. At the end of the day, we will sit in a large circle and empty our bags. I ask students to try to read the names and say thank you to those who have given their token of friendship. It is my hope that everyone will get the same amount of Valentines and have an enjoyable experience. 

If you are planning to give a small food treat, they must be store bought. Your child is also welcome to make their own valentine's cards. Please keep them somewhat simple and inexpensive. Here is a website with some fun ideas https://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=valentines+for+kids if you choose to go that route. The cards from a grocery or craft store are just fine too. 

While researching how to describe Valentine's day from various parenting websites, I found this very enlightening and wanted to share it.

"Remember as parents, we transmit values to our children through our behavior. If we celebrate Valentine's Day by exchanging expensive gifts, its likely that our children will want to do the same. It's never to early to help children express love and friendship in ways that transcend materialism. Because young children are concrete thinkers, it's hard for them to understand a concept that can't be represented by objects. But by watching you give gifts of kindness, time, compassion, respect, and thoughtfulness to the people you love-- not just on holidays but throughout the year-- they will learn that "I love you" means so much more than three words inscribed on a candy heart."--- familyeducation.com 

I am so excited to celebrate Valentine's Day with your children this year. If you have any questions about Valentine's Day, please do not hesitate to email me.

Mrs. Anglesey

February!!!!

February is one of our biggest months!

February 5th we will be celebrating our 100th day of school. As a kindergarten, we think it is fun to dress up like a 100 year old. Your students are welcome to participate by dressing up like a 100 year old person. We will be celebrating throughout the day during our math and reading lessons as well as our centers.

February 7th will be our field trip to the Gateway Children's Museum. Please send your child to school at 8am and pick up at 12:30pm. This is for both morning AND afternoon students. If you are volunteering, make sure you contact my parent coordinators and arrive at school at 8:30am for bus loading. We ask that if you are volunteering, please do not bring little ones. Mrs. Sheldrake's extended day class will still be held that day.

February 14th will be our Valentine's Day celebration. If your child is passing out Valentine's, please only write his/her name on the Valentine in the "FROM" section. Please do not write names of the students in the class on the Valentine's--in the past, this has proven too hard and time consuming when passing out. In the AM we have 20 students and 3 teachers (me and our aides). In the PM we have 16 students and 2 teachers (me and our aide).

Homework

It looks as though the homework was sent back from the copiers wrong. Please finish the worksheets that are there and ignore the one that is not.

Classroom Volunteers

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to our first full week of school. For the rest of the school year we will be doing centers a little bit differently and I need your help. When you come in, you will have a table to work with and an activity. I'll also need help putting papers and books into backpacks. 

Please sign up on this Google doc for classroom volunteers, I know that sometimes schedules change so I want you to have access of when you volunteer. If you want to volunteer more that once a month that is great, once every few months, when you have time, etc. Please sign up! If you'd like a set schedule (i.e. first Monday each month) sign up for all the days. There can be up to 2 volunteers each day. We wont be having any volunteers on Friday, unless we decide to do a project of some kind. We will use this sign up instead of the google calendar.

You will also be required to sign in at the front desk and get a name tag. We've been ask to send you back to the office if you haven't checked in. 

Here is the link,

AM Volunteer Calendar

PM Volunteer Calendar

Michelle

Just a couple of things..

Tomorrow is our Grinch play! We have been working diligently to make this a special treat for you. After our play, we ask that you come back to our class for a brief moment so your child can give them your Christmas gift.

In the PM class, we ask that parents help their child bring back their chair and then get their Christmas gift.

AM class- 8:00-8:30ish
PM class- 1:00- 1:30ish

In response to the even that happened in Connecticut on Friday, I won't be discussing it in class.We do have protocols in place in case something of that nature occurs.  I want you to know how much I care for your children and how much I love them.

 At the beginning of the new year, we will be starting a new volunteer calendar where I will ask everyone to sign up on a new google doc. Each month I'll make sure our parent coordinators email to remind you. I do ask that each of you make sure your background checks are up to date so that we have the safest environment (I think the school has information about this). I'll also be giving parents more responsibility in the classroom (putting away take home library books in their backpacks and teaching a center).

Thank you for all you do!
I'll see you tomorrow!

Grinch Play

AM Grinch Play script

PM Grinch Play script

Our Party will follow our performance. We have parent volunteers that have signed up. Please contact our parent coordinators for more information.