Thursday, September 23, 2004
September 20 - 24
September 24, 2004
Dear Families,
Seasons and weather were discussed this week. We took an “end of summer” walk to look at the trees, flowers, grass, etc. We talked about how the trees are still full of green leaves. We noticed that some of the leaves are already turning colors, and some have even fallen off the trees. The kindergartners talked about how the trees change for each season. Have them tell you about how the trees change. We finished working with our senses. This week, we learned about the senses of touch, smell, and taste. We used the feely box to learn about the sense of touch by putting objects inside and guessing what they were. We also smelled several different containers to see if we could identify what they were just by using the sense of smell. We also had the opportunity to try four foods which had very different tastes. We sampled M&M’s, pretzels, dill pickles, and unsweetened chocolate to demonstrate how we like the taste of somethings and not others. To finish our unit on the five senses, we made a small book about some of the ways we use our senses at home.
Last week the kindergarten students participated in the DIBELS Benchmark Assessment. We had several different people working with our students on this evaluation including Mr. Foster. (So if your student tells you that he/she had to work with Mr. Foster, that probably wasn’t a bad thing!) We will share these evaluations with you at your fall conference.
If your child practices writing numbers, their name, or the letters as we learn them at home, send that paper to school. We will give them a sticker for their work.
Next week we will be talking about the letters of the alphabet. We will learn how many letters there are, why we need letters, letters make different sounds, and what letters our names begin with. We will begin learning to write our first name the “kindergarten way.” We will also be reading and doing activities with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. We will read other alphabet books and learn some alphabet songs. Next week’s sharing needs to be something that deals with the alphabet. This item can be a book, a puzzle, a game, an educational toy, etc.
An important date coming up is Wednesday, October 13th. This is school picture day. Watch for more information to be sent home soon! Hearing checks for kindergartners will be Thursday, October 14th. Also remember that the Kindergarten/1st Grade Family Math Night will be Thursday, September 30th. Notes were sent home earlier this week. There is still time to reserve your spot!
The kindergartners are hosting their annual bake sale on Thursday, October 7th. We are raising money to buy some reading materials called “Read Naturally”. First and second graders are using some of these materials, and they discovered that there is a kindergarten version. It costs approximately $100. Each kindergartner is asked to provide AT LEAST 6 items to sell. Families could send more! The bake sale will take place in our room starting at 11:30. Kindergartners are able to buy bake sale items also. If you do not enjoy baking, prepackaged items are also wonderful sellers.
Please remember that each Monday the kindergartners get a new library book. If your child forgets to return the book that day, the teachers will try to get them to the library for a new book as soon as they can. It may NOT be the very day theirs is returned due to our busy schedule.
We hope your child is enjoying kindergarten. Things are going well! Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, Ms. McGowen, Mrs. Herink
Dear Families,
Seasons and weather were discussed this week. We took an “end of summer” walk to look at the trees, flowers, grass, etc. We talked about how the trees are still full of green leaves. We noticed that some of the leaves are already turning colors, and some have even fallen off the trees. The kindergartners talked about how the trees change for each season. Have them tell you about how the trees change. We finished working with our senses. This week, we learned about the senses of touch, smell, and taste. We used the feely box to learn about the sense of touch by putting objects inside and guessing what they were. We also smelled several different containers to see if we could identify what they were just by using the sense of smell. We also had the opportunity to try four foods which had very different tastes. We sampled M&M’s, pretzels, dill pickles, and unsweetened chocolate to demonstrate how we like the taste of somethings and not others. To finish our unit on the five senses, we made a small book about some of the ways we use our senses at home.
Last week the kindergarten students participated in the DIBELS Benchmark Assessment. We had several different people working with our students on this evaluation including Mr. Foster. (So if your student tells you that he/she had to work with Mr. Foster, that probably wasn’t a bad thing!) We will share these evaluations with you at your fall conference.
If your child practices writing numbers, their name, or the letters as we learn them at home, send that paper to school. We will give them a sticker for their work.
Next week we will be talking about the letters of the alphabet. We will learn how many letters there are, why we need letters, letters make different sounds, and what letters our names begin with. We will begin learning to write our first name the “kindergarten way.” We will also be reading and doing activities with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. We will read other alphabet books and learn some alphabet songs. Next week’s sharing needs to be something that deals with the alphabet. This item can be a book, a puzzle, a game, an educational toy, etc.
An important date coming up is Wednesday, October 13th. This is school picture day. Watch for more information to be sent home soon! Hearing checks for kindergartners will be Thursday, October 14th. Also remember that the Kindergarten/1st Grade Family Math Night will be Thursday, September 30th. Notes were sent home earlier this week. There is still time to reserve your spot!
The kindergartners are hosting their annual bake sale on Thursday, October 7th. We are raising money to buy some reading materials called “Read Naturally”. First and second graders are using some of these materials, and they discovered that there is a kindergarten version. It costs approximately $100. Each kindergartner is asked to provide AT LEAST 6 items to sell. Families could send more! The bake sale will take place in our room starting at 11:30. Kindergartners are able to buy bake sale items also. If you do not enjoy baking, prepackaged items are also wonderful sellers.
Please remember that each Monday the kindergartners get a new library book. If your child forgets to return the book that day, the teachers will try to get them to the library for a new book as soon as they can. It may NOT be the very day theirs is returned due to our busy schedule.
We hope your child is enjoying kindergarten. Things are going well! Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, Ms. McGowen, Mrs. Herink
Thursday, September 16, 2004
September 13 - 17
September 17, 2004
Dear Families,
Senses were discussed this week. Monday the five senses were introduced, and the class made a chart aobut what they use senses for. On Tuesday, the students listened to a tape of different sounds and had to guess what each sound was. On Wednesday and Thursday, the students learned about the sense of sight. They played a game that required them to remember different objects and recognize when one is missing, and learned what it would be like to use Braille if they couldn’t see. On Friday, the students finished the week, by learning about the sense of touch. They learned about how objects feel, and got to touch different things in the room. Also this week the kindergartners worked on sequencing, remembering the details of a story, and above/below.
This week we began reading books about Curious George. The children really enjoy these books. We have discussed the meaning of the word curious, and the children have thought of a few things they are each curious about. You can read your child’s ideas on the windows outside our room.
Next week we will be learning about the 4 seasons. On Tuesday morning we hope to take a summer/fall walk. Please dress your child appropriately.
Sharing for next week is an item in a “secret sack” from your child’s favorite season. Your kindergartner needs to be able to give clues about the mystery item. You are welcome to help your child with the clues. Families may also write the clues down on a piece of paper so that if your student forgets them, we can help him/her. For example, if your child’s favorite season is summer, the sharing item could be a swimming suit. The child puts the swimming suit into a sack (or the backpack). Clues could include: I wear this when it is hot. I like to get it wet. It is purple and green. The other students will then get to try and guess what is in the sack.
The K-1 Family Math Night will be Thursday, September 30th. Information will be sent home soon! This night is a great opportunity to work with your kindergartner on math skills. We hope that many are able to attend!
Again this year we are collecting Box Tops for Education box tops. Send in the box top that has that special logo on it. Each box top is worth 10¢. The school is also collecting Campbells soup labels. Send any that you have to school with your child. Don’t forget about saving those Kemps milk caps. Each cap is worth 5¢. The elementary school is also collecting Hy Vee slips. If you know anyone that shops at Hy Vee, ask them for their receipts. We think that the school gets $1 for every $200 turned in.
The weather will start getting cooler in the mornings. We recommend that families send jackets or sweatshirts on these chilly mornings. It would be very helpful if the coats had names written in them. Many times they fall on the floor, and the teachers do not know who they belong to, and occasionally 2 children have identical coats. Having names written on the coats helps the children identify theirs.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Herink, and Ms. McGowen
Dear Families,
Senses were discussed this week. Monday the five senses were introduced, and the class made a chart aobut what they use senses for. On Tuesday, the students listened to a tape of different sounds and had to guess what each sound was. On Wednesday and Thursday, the students learned about the sense of sight. They played a game that required them to remember different objects and recognize when one is missing, and learned what it would be like to use Braille if they couldn’t see. On Friday, the students finished the week, by learning about the sense of touch. They learned about how objects feel, and got to touch different things in the room. Also this week the kindergartners worked on sequencing, remembering the details of a story, and above/below.
This week we began reading books about Curious George. The children really enjoy these books. We have discussed the meaning of the word curious, and the children have thought of a few things they are each curious about. You can read your child’s ideas on the windows outside our room.
Next week we will be learning about the 4 seasons. On Tuesday morning we hope to take a summer/fall walk. Please dress your child appropriately.
Sharing for next week is an item in a “secret sack” from your child’s favorite season. Your kindergartner needs to be able to give clues about the mystery item. You are welcome to help your child with the clues. Families may also write the clues down on a piece of paper so that if your student forgets them, we can help him/her. For example, if your child’s favorite season is summer, the sharing item could be a swimming suit. The child puts the swimming suit into a sack (or the backpack). Clues could include: I wear this when it is hot. I like to get it wet. It is purple and green. The other students will then get to try and guess what is in the sack.
The K-1 Family Math Night will be Thursday, September 30th. Information will be sent home soon! This night is a great opportunity to work with your kindergartner on math skills. We hope that many are able to attend!
Again this year we are collecting Box Tops for Education box tops. Send in the box top that has that special logo on it. Each box top is worth 10¢. The school is also collecting Campbells soup labels. Send any that you have to school with your child. Don’t forget about saving those Kemps milk caps. Each cap is worth 5¢. The elementary school is also collecting Hy Vee slips. If you know anyone that shops at Hy Vee, ask them for their receipts. We think that the school gets $1 for every $200 turned in.
The weather will start getting cooler in the mornings. We recommend that families send jackets or sweatshirts on these chilly mornings. It would be very helpful if the coats had names written in them. Many times they fall on the floor, and the teachers do not know who they belong to, and occasionally 2 children have identical coats. Having names written on the coats helps the children identify theirs.
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Howard, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Herink, and Ms. McGowen
Thursday, September 09, 2004
September 6 - 10
September 10, 2004
Dear Families,
This week we continued to review the school and classroom rules and procedures. We also continued to read books about the beginning of school. We worked on colors with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We hope your child will share their similar book with you. We read a big book called All About You, and we learned more about each other. We talked about families and body graphed how many people were in our families. Patterning with our bodies was a fun activity we tried this week. An example was standing, sitting, standing, sitting. The students were getting really good at figuring out the patterns.
It was nice seeing so many families at the Open House on Thursday. We now have faces to put with names as children tell us about their families. The first day of school pictures that were hanging in the hallway will be coming home in the near future.
Breakfast begins at 8:00. Children eating breakfast should not come into the school until 8:00. Other students may come in at 8:10. If your child arrives too early, we will send him/her out to the playground.
We will begin sharing next week with the topic “My favorite _____________.” This item can be a book, food, animal, toy, etc. Each week we will have a specific topic. A list of September topics will be at the end of the newsletter. (Please keep the sharing portion of the newsletter so that you can refer to the sharing list each week.) Your child needs to be able to tell about the sharing item in front of the class. Your child is assigned a sharing day. The kindergartners need to remember to bring their sharing on their assigned day. If a child forgets the sharing item, he/she may not bring it another day. If your kindergartner is gone on their sharing day, then he/she needs to bring their sharing item on the day they come back to school.
On Thursday, North Tama students brought home fundraising packets. This year we are working with the Geckler Company selling food and gift items. Families are not required to sell any products. If you do not wish to participate in this fundraiser, then you may send the materials back to school, and we will give them back to the company. Instead of selling items, families may donate money. The money raised will be used to purchase technology software and hardware for the elementary.
The K-1 Family Math Night has been scheduled for Thursday, September 30th. Mark your calendars now! More information will be coming home soon.
During the month of September the entire elementary is working on the characteristics self control and service. We will be demonstrating self control in different situations and praising those that show self control during the day. Perhaps you would like to work on self control at home!
We hope that your child is enjoying school! Have a super weekend!!
Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Howard, Ms. McGowen, Mrs. Herink
__________________________’s sharing day is __________________.
September Sharing
September 13 - 17: “My favorite _____________.” This could be a favorite book, food, animal, toy, etc.
September 20 - 24: Something in a “secret sack” from your favorite season that we have to guess using the child’s clues.
September 27 - October 1: Something that deals with the alphabet such as a book, puzzle, game, educational toy, video.
October 4 - 8: An item that begins with the letter Ll
Dear Families,
This week we continued to review the school and classroom rules and procedures. We also continued to read books about the beginning of school. We worked on colors with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. We hope your child will share their similar book with you. We read a big book called All About You, and we learned more about each other. We talked about families and body graphed how many people were in our families. Patterning with our bodies was a fun activity we tried this week. An example was standing, sitting, standing, sitting. The students were getting really good at figuring out the patterns.
It was nice seeing so many families at the Open House on Thursday. We now have faces to put with names as children tell us about their families. The first day of school pictures that were hanging in the hallway will be coming home in the near future.
Breakfast begins at 8:00. Children eating breakfast should not come into the school until 8:00. Other students may come in at 8:10. If your child arrives too early, we will send him/her out to the playground.
We will begin sharing next week with the topic “My favorite _____________.” This item can be a book, food, animal, toy, etc. Each week we will have a specific topic. A list of September topics will be at the end of the newsletter. (Please keep the sharing portion of the newsletter so that you can refer to the sharing list each week.) Your child needs to be able to tell about the sharing item in front of the class. Your child is assigned a sharing day. The kindergartners need to remember to bring their sharing on their assigned day. If a child forgets the sharing item, he/she may not bring it another day. If your kindergartner is gone on their sharing day, then he/she needs to bring their sharing item on the day they come back to school.
On Thursday, North Tama students brought home fundraising packets. This year we are working with the Geckler Company selling food and gift items. Families are not required to sell any products. If you do not wish to participate in this fundraiser, then you may send the materials back to school, and we will give them back to the company. Instead of selling items, families may donate money. The money raised will be used to purchase technology software and hardware for the elementary.
The K-1 Family Math Night has been scheduled for Thursday, September 30th. Mark your calendars now! More information will be coming home soon.
During the month of September the entire elementary is working on the characteristics self control and service. We will be demonstrating self control in different situations and praising those that show self control during the day. Perhaps you would like to work on self control at home!
We hope that your child is enjoying school! Have a super weekend!!
Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Howard, Ms. McGowen, Mrs. Herink
__________________________’s sharing day is __________________.
September Sharing
September 13 - 17: “My favorite _____________.” This could be a favorite book, food, animal, toy, etc.
September 20 - 24: Something in a “secret sack” from your favorite season that we have to guess using the child’s clues.
September 27 - October 1: Something that deals with the alphabet such as a book, puzzle, game, educational toy, video.
October 4 - 8: An item that begins with the letter Ll
