Classroom News And Highlights! 

  

Report Cards!

Your child's first report card of the school year was sent home last week (11-6-09). I am still in need of several comment slips and verification that you received the report. If you have not sent back the bottom portion of your child's report card and the envelop back please do so right away. Also, PLEASE PLACE A STAMP ONTO YOUR CHILD"S REPORT CARD ENVELOPE AND DO NOT LICK IT CLOSED!  We are "going green" and are trying to reuse the same envelope throughout the school year.  Thank you for helping us to make the earth a little bit better one envelope at a time!

 

Poetry Folder

Your child's blue poetry folder was sent home yesterday (11/13/09). Please take time over the weekend to read through the new poems as well as revisit some of the older poems too! We did not get to color our letter 'Pp' pink, purple, with polka-dots or in a plaid pattern so it was also sent home for your fun.

 

New To Our Website...

Books. Books, Books!

Last weekend I posted five different book title that i used in class this past week. I will continue to update that section of our site each weekend. As I mentioned before, it is my ongoing goal to make lots of connections with literature when we are studying a certain skill or concept. The titles I post are just a small way that you can recall the skill/concept that may have been highlighted on the site during a current update or even a past one. Once I post a book title it will remain on the list for your reference. My hope is that all of you can use these titles as a reference each week. Please remember however, it is just as helpful if you take your child to the library and check out other books that are related to the unit idea/plan that is highlighted in the updates. There are wonderful books that I will never get a chance to use and you could extend your child's knowledge and comprehension using a book that is related to our topics but totally different from what we have used in class. Extending their thinking in this way helps them to have a more rich and broader understanding of things learned in class.

 

Classroom Rest Time!

I have decided that our daily rest time will not be a part of our school day. It has been a nice, relaxing time for some while others are not in need of it anymore. If your child comes home tired and (as we say it here at my house) a little "crunchy" then he/she may need to head to bed a little earlier than usual. The 20 minutes of rest time will be used to reinforce literacy and I look forward to doing a 'Teacher Read Aloud' during this time. We will still relax and rest during this teacher reading/story time but those who were dozing off will not be able to do that now. The children did bring home their resting items this past week. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

A Few Dates To Remember!

This Monday evening... 11-16-09 Woodland is having a family fun night at Chick-Fil-A on Howe Road (Chapel Hill Mall Area). The time for the fun is between 5:00 and 8:00pm.  I will be attending the fun between 6:00 and 6:45. Please come and eat a great meal, help raise some money for our school and have fun! I hope to see many of you there.

Wednesday, November 18th Picture Retake Day!  If your child missed the original day or you want retakes please plan for this day.  

Wednesday, November 25th Our "mini" Thanksgiving Feast.  We will need donations of different foods but more information will be sent home at the beginning of next week. There will not be a need for extra parent volunteers that day. 

Thursday 11-26 and Friday 11-27 No School! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Units Of Study!

 

In language arts this past week we recalled the letter and letter sound of 'Pp' while using the themes of things such as pumpkins, places we wold like to go, our principal, pets and the colors purple and pink. We focused on plot (beginning, middle and ending) to various stories. We also practiced the Red Words and became familiar with the ?(question), !(exclamation) and .(period) punctuation marks and how they are used when saying different sentences or when seeing these types of sentences in stories. We also talked about how our voices change (expression) when these types of punctuation is used.  We created two new books for our Book Boxes about positional words (after we played our pumpkin game...sent home yesterday) and a rhyming matching book. Many of these books are still a "work in progress" and will be sent home next week. This week, we also spent time in the Woodland Computer lab working with story puzzles using a website called starfall.com. Our next letter and letter sound will be 'Nn'.  We are in need of magazines for a special "notebook" project. Please send in any FAMILY FRIENDLY magazines you may have for us to use. We will be cutting pictures and words from the pages so they will not be returned. Thank you for your help in making our classroom a great place for learning!

In math, we practiced identifying, creating and extending patterns. We began to look at how we gather information (data) about a specific topic and how we should share the results of what was discovered.  We collected data about the color of our eyes, discovered how many arms and legs are in our classroom and used the vocabulary words more, most, less and least when talking about the results of our data collection. Soon we will be creating and using the concept of surveys to collect data and will be using the information to create various types of graphs.

In science, we focused on how we make our bodies healthy for growth and change by discussing resting and exercise. We had 'Kindergarten Aerobics' and really worked our muscles. We created a brainstorm list and pictures of things we do when we rest and when we exercise. We also talked about germs and what we need to do to help keep them as far away as possible. Next week, we will recall the importance of keeping germs AWAY with a special classroom guest and will also discover the various food groups

 

We had another terrific week of learning together.

Here's to another 'Pp'erfect sun shiny day!

Fondly,

Jeanette