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
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