Dear Families,
We learned the letters s and h together make one sound “sh”. The kindergartners started decorating kites and Easter eggs to put up to liven up our classroom and hallway. We reviewed some letters and practiced writing them the North Tama kindergarten way along with some sight words and last names. The four different coins were reviewed. The boys and girls continue to turn the eggs two times a day and wait for chicks to hatch. This is an exciting process to watch! The students worked on a few Easter projects throughout the week.
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to work with writing. When we work with writing we are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. We wrote sentences about a picture we picked out or about spring. We could trace a sentence about spring and then copy it on the paper. We could write letters to different people. The kindergartners are learning how to sound out words and write how they think it is spelled. As they do more writing, they will learn how to spell more words correctly. (This is called inventive spelling.) The kindergartners started out working with writing for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! Our goal for working with writing is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with headphones for listening to reading. Colored chalk (not sidewalk chalk) is also wanted!
Please check with your kindergartner on the condition of his/her pencils at school. Some need replaced! Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it.
Since next week is Easter, the boys and girls need to bring an Easter item or a spring item for sharing. The Friday students may bring their sharing any day next week since we do not have school on Friday!
Next week Mrs. Turner’s blue team will get new books on Monday, and Mrs. Daugherty’s red team will get new books on Tuesday. There is not enough time on Thursday to check out new books!!!!! Please be prepared!!!!
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
The kindergartners continue to work with the green, yellow, and right light system. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our new goal is to have 4 days in a row without any YELLOWS. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the new goal. (There is a chance that we meet this goal this week after this newsletter is printed, copied, and stapled.)
Snowpants and boots are not needed during this awesome weather. If it snows again, you will need to send the snowpants and boots again.
Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Kids that wear sandals and flip flops to school like having socks for p.e. class.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development.
There is no school for students on Wednesday, May 9th.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
VIP Days (formerly known as Grandparent Days) have been scheduled for May 10th and 11th. Your child will get to invite special guests to come to school and watch a short program in the classroom, enjoy a special snack, and check out our room and school. Students may invite grandparents and/or special friends to attend. The guests choose which day they will attend. Invitations will go home later. A rsvp note will also go home later. Families will need to fill that note out and send it back to school so that we have enough chairs and snacks ready!
Enjoy this wonderful weather!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
March 23, 2012
Dear Families,
We learned the letters c and k together make one sound, and the digraph ck follows a short vowel. This week we continued to work on report card assessments. They boys and girls filled in the missing numbers on a March calendar. They colored a St. Patrick’s Day picture that we used for the report cards. We talked to the students about filling in all of the white spaces and staying inside the lines. On Monday the students made dirt cups with crushed oreos, vanilla pudding, and gummy worms for the members of the school board. The school board members and the principals really enjoyed the delicious spring time snack during the meeting. On Tuesday, Ryan’s mom brought in chick eggs and put them in an incubator. She read a book to us about eggs and hatching. We have to turn the eggs two times a day, and in 21 days the eggs will hatch! This will be an exciting process to watch!
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to work with words. When we work with words we are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. WE practice making words and letters on paper with pencils and markers. We use erasable white boards and stamps to work with words. The kids like using wiki sticks to work with letters and words along with letter magnets on jelly roll pans. The kindergartners started out working with words for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! Our goal for working with words is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with headphones for listening to reading.
Please check with your kindergartner on the condition of his/her pencils at school. Some need replaced! Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
March 21st was the end of the third quarter. We believe that report cards will go home on March 29th.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
The kindergartners continue to work with the green, yellow, and right light system. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. We reached our goal of 7 days in a row with no reds and had a stuffed animal party on Wednesday. Our new goal is to have 4 days in a row without any YELLOWS. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the new goal.
Snowpants and boots are not needed during this awesome weather. If it snows again, you will need to send the snowpants and boots again.
Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Kids that wear sandals and flip flops to school like having socks for p.e. class.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development. There is no school for students on Wednesday, May 9th.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
Enjoy this spring weather!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
We learned the letters c and k together make one sound, and the digraph ck follows a short vowel. This week we continued to work on report card assessments. They boys and girls filled in the missing numbers on a March calendar. They colored a St. Patrick’s Day picture that we used for the report cards. We talked to the students about filling in all of the white spaces and staying inside the lines. On Monday the students made dirt cups with crushed oreos, vanilla pudding, and gummy worms for the members of the school board. The school board members and the principals really enjoyed the delicious spring time snack during the meeting. On Tuesday, Ryan’s mom brought in chick eggs and put them in an incubator. She read a book to us about eggs and hatching. We have to turn the eggs two times a day, and in 21 days the eggs will hatch! This will be an exciting process to watch!
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to work with words. When we work with words we are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. WE practice making words and letters on paper with pencils and markers. We use erasable white boards and stamps to work with words. The kids like using wiki sticks to work with letters and words along with letter magnets on jelly roll pans. The kindergartners started out working with words for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! Our goal for working with words is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with headphones for listening to reading.
Please check with your kindergartner on the condition of his/her pencils at school. Some need replaced! Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
March 21st was the end of the third quarter. We believe that report cards will go home on March 29th.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
The kindergartners continue to work with the green, yellow, and right light system. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. We reached our goal of 7 days in a row with no reds and had a stuffed animal party on Wednesday. Our new goal is to have 4 days in a row without any YELLOWS. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the new goal.
Snowpants and boots are not needed during this awesome weather. If it snows again, you will need to send the snowpants and boots again.
Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Kids that wear sandals and flip flops to school like having socks for p.e. class.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development. There is no school for students on Wednesday, May 9th.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
Enjoy this spring weather!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
Thursday, March 8, 2012
March 9, 2012
Dear Families,
Vowels that are not followed by a consonant say their name. That is what we learned this week. We code vowels not followed by a consonant with a macron. A macron is a straight line that goes over the vowel. Some words we learned to read were so, go, no, he, be, me, hi, etc. Since we are finished learning the letters of the alphabet, the kindergartners started making keyword booklets. Reviewing these booklets over the summer really helps them remember the letters, keywords, and sounds. The boys and girls practiced sequencing with a snowman activity. We have been working on evaluations for report cards. The kindergartners reviewed telling time to the hour and decorated place mats for the school board meeting on March 19th.
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to listen to reading. When we listen to reading we listen to books recorded on tapes or cds. We are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. We follow along in the book so that we can learn new words and listen to a fluent reader. The students loved the different voices and added sounds and music on the cds and tapes. The kindergartners started out listening to someone for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! We did get to practice reading to selves and worked up to ten minutes minutes. Our goal for read to self is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with head phones for listening to reading.
Our chair pockets are an exciting addition to our classroom. Children may now bring their own cool pencils from home to use at school. The pencils stay in the chair pockets so only your child will use them. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it. Check with your student. Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
March 21st is the end of the third quarter. We believe that report cards will go home on March 28th.
There is no school all of next week, March 12th – 16th because of spring break. School will resume on Monday, March 19th.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
This week the kindergartners continued working with the green, yellow, red system. Lately the class as a whole has been talking a lot and not listening to directions. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our goal is to have 7 days in a row without any reds. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the goal.
Please send hats or earbands and mittens or gloves to school everyday. When it is cold outside we make them wear them. If they do not have hats/earbands (or hoods) and mittens/gloves the boys and girls have to borrow from us, and they do not like our selection. Please send snowpants to school, too. Kindergartners have a really hard time staying out of the snow, and we do not want them coming back in the building with wet pants. The rule is no snowpants – no snow. Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Socks tend to get wet at recess or after recess when they walk to put their boots away.
Keep sending the boots everyday until further notice. The North Tama playground has big snowpiles on it that take a LONG time to melt away and there are many mushy places. If it snows again, please send the snowpants.
If we decide that our students do not need to wear boots we will leave them in the room and play outside without them. Please let the teachers make that decision.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night! It is time to “spring ahead”!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
Vowels that are not followed by a consonant say their name. That is what we learned this week. We code vowels not followed by a consonant with a macron. A macron is a straight line that goes over the vowel. Some words we learned to read were so, go, no, he, be, me, hi, etc. Since we are finished learning the letters of the alphabet, the kindergartners started making keyword booklets. Reviewing these booklets over the summer really helps them remember the letters, keywords, and sounds. The boys and girls practiced sequencing with a snowman activity. We have been working on evaluations for report cards. The kindergartners reviewed telling time to the hour and decorated place mats for the school board meeting on March 19th.
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to listen to reading. When we listen to reading we listen to books recorded on tapes or cds. We are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. We follow along in the book so that we can learn new words and listen to a fluent reader. The students loved the different voices and added sounds and music on the cds and tapes. The kindergartners started out listening to someone for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! We did get to practice reading to selves and worked up to ten minutes minutes. Our goal for read to self is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with head phones for listening to reading.
Our chair pockets are an exciting addition to our classroom. Children may now bring their own cool pencils from home to use at school. The pencils stay in the chair pockets so only your child will use them. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it. Check with your student. Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
March 21st is the end of the third quarter. We believe that report cards will go home on March 28th.
There is no school all of next week, March 12th – 16th because of spring break. School will resume on Monday, March 19th.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
This week the kindergartners continued working with the green, yellow, red system. Lately the class as a whole has been talking a lot and not listening to directions. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our goal is to have 7 days in a row without any reds. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the goal.
Please send hats or earbands and mittens or gloves to school everyday. When it is cold outside we make them wear them. If they do not have hats/earbands (or hoods) and mittens/gloves the boys and girls have to borrow from us, and they do not like our selection. Please send snowpants to school, too. Kindergartners have a really hard time staying out of the snow, and we do not want them coming back in the building with wet pants. The rule is no snowpants – no snow. Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Socks tend to get wet at recess or after recess when they walk to put their boots away.
Keep sending the boots everyday until further notice. The North Tama playground has big snowpiles on it that take a LONG time to melt away and there are many mushy places. If it snows again, please send the snowpants.
If we decide that our students do not need to wear boots we will leave them in the room and play outside without them. Please let the teachers make that decision.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night! It is time to “spring ahead”!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
Thursday, March 1, 2012
March 2, 2012
Dear Families,
Qu week went very quickly! We learned that combination qu says “kwoooo”. The only sight word that we added to our list was what. That word tends to give kindergartners a lot of trouble. The kindergartners drew a person, and that paper was added to their portfolios so that we could share them at conferences. On Thursday a pyrotechnician talked to the boys and girls about fireworks and his job working with fireworks.
The kindergartners started Daily 5 this week. We learned how to read to someone. When we read to someone we sit EEKK style (elbow to elbow, knee to knee). We use quiet inside voices so that our partner can hear us. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. The kindergartners learned 3 different ways to read to someone. They include the following: “Check for understanding” (same book). One person reads a page, and the other person tells him/her what they heard or saw in the story. “I read, you read” (same book). The most fluent reader reads the page. The other reader rereads the pages trying to sound like the first reader. “Read two different books.” (two books). The first reader reads one page of his/her book, and the other person checks for understanding. The other reader reads a page of his/her book and the partner checks for understanding. During Daily 5 the teachers walk around the room and watch the children. We may listen to children read in groups or by themselves. The kindergartners started out reading to someone for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! We did get to practice reading to selves and worked up to 9 minutes. Our goal for read to self is ten minutes.
Our chair pockets are an exciting addition to our classroom. Children may now bring their own cool pencils from home to use at school. The pencils stay in the chair pockets so only your child will use them. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it. Check with your student. In the near future some pencils will need to be replaced by families.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
This week the kindergartners continued working with the green, yellow, red system. Lately the class as a whole has been talking a lot and not listening to directions. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our new goal is to have 7 days in a row without any reds. We made our goal on Monday this past week and celebrated with a dress up day on Wednesday. Our goal is to have 7 “no red” days in a row again.
Please send hats or earbands and mittens or gloves to school everyday. When it is cold outside we make them wear them. If they do not have hats/earbands (or hoods) and mittens/gloves the boys and girls have to borrow from us, and they do not like our selection. Please send snowpants to school, too. Kindergartners have a really hard time staying out of the snow, and we do not want them coming back in the building with wet pants. The rule is no snowpants – no snow. Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Socks tend to get wet at recess or after recess when they walk to put their boots away.
Keep sending the snowpants and boots everyday until further notice. The North Tama playground has big snowpiles on it that take a LONG time to melt away.
We look forward to seeing many families at conferences on Thursday evening. Conferences that WERE scheduled for Monday, February 27th from 4:00 – 8:00. Monday’s conferences will now be held on Monday, March 5th.
There will be no school on Friday, March 2nd. Please mark your calendars! If you find that your conference time does not work, please let us know so that we can reschedule it. Mrs. Turner will have her conferences in the kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Daugherty will have her conferences in the media center.
School will be dismissed at 2:20 on Monday so that the teachers can get set up for conferences. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET!
Keep reading at home this weekend so that the kindergartners may reach their goal and get prizes and surprises! Do not forget to keep track of how many minutes your child read this week and cut this week off of the blue February calendar we sent home. Write your child’s name on the strip so that we may give him/her credit for reading!! Right now we are not very close to our class goal. We want each child to read AT LEAST 10 minutes a day!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
Qu week went very quickly! We learned that combination qu says “kwoooo”. The only sight word that we added to our list was what. That word tends to give kindergartners a lot of trouble. The kindergartners drew a person, and that paper was added to their portfolios so that we could share them at conferences. On Thursday a pyrotechnician talked to the boys and girls about fireworks and his job working with fireworks.
The kindergartners started Daily 5 this week. We learned how to read to someone. When we read to someone we sit EEKK style (elbow to elbow, knee to knee). We use quiet inside voices so that our partner can hear us. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. The kindergartners learned 3 different ways to read to someone. They include the following: “Check for understanding” (same book). One person reads a page, and the other person tells him/her what they heard or saw in the story. “I read, you read” (same book). The most fluent reader reads the page. The other reader rereads the pages trying to sound like the first reader. “Read two different books.” (two books). The first reader reads one page of his/her book, and the other person checks for understanding. The other reader reads a page of his/her book and the partner checks for understanding. During Daily 5 the teachers walk around the room and watch the children. We may listen to children read in groups or by themselves. The kindergartners started out reading to someone for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! We did get to practice reading to selves and worked up to 9 minutes. Our goal for read to self is ten minutes.
Our chair pockets are an exciting addition to our classroom. Children may now bring their own cool pencils from home to use at school. The pencils stay in the chair pockets so only your child will use them. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it. Check with your student. In the near future some pencils will need to be replaced by families.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
This week the kindergartners continued working with the green, yellow, red system. Lately the class as a whole has been talking a lot and not listening to directions. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our new goal is to have 7 days in a row without any reds. We made our goal on Monday this past week and celebrated with a dress up day on Wednesday. Our goal is to have 7 “no red” days in a row again.
Please send hats or earbands and mittens or gloves to school everyday. When it is cold outside we make them wear them. If they do not have hats/earbands (or hoods) and mittens/gloves the boys and girls have to borrow from us, and they do not like our selection. Please send snowpants to school, too. Kindergartners have a really hard time staying out of the snow, and we do not want them coming back in the building with wet pants. The rule is no snowpants – no snow. Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Socks tend to get wet at recess or after recess when they walk to put their boots away.
Keep sending the snowpants and boots everyday until further notice. The North Tama playground has big snowpiles on it that take a LONG time to melt away.
We look forward to seeing many families at conferences on Thursday evening. Conferences that WERE scheduled for Monday, February 27th from 4:00 – 8:00. Monday’s conferences will now be held on Monday, March 5th.
There will be no school on Friday, March 2nd. Please mark your calendars! If you find that your conference time does not work, please let us know so that we can reschedule it. Mrs. Turner will have her conferences in the kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Daugherty will have her conferences in the media center.
School will be dismissed at 2:20 on Monday so that the teachers can get set up for conferences. PLEASE DO NOT FORGET!
Keep reading at home this weekend so that the kindergartners may reach their goal and get prizes and surprises! Do not forget to keep track of how many minutes your child read this week and cut this week off of the blue February calendar we sent home. Write your child’s name on the strip so that we may give him/her credit for reading!! Right now we are not very close to our class goal. We want each child to read AT LEAST 10 minutes a day!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
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