A Special Visitor!

Today the K2ers had a very special visitor. They were happy to see Santa Claus come visit our classroom!

 

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Addition

This week we have started Topic 6 titled "Addition". Our vocabulary words for this topic are: join, in all, addition sentence, add, plus sign (+), equal sign (=), sum and equation. Here are two addition video songs. Happy Adding!!!!

Week in Review ~ December 7th -11th

It was another busy week at JA...it seems to be getting busier and busier the closer we get to vacation. K2 visited the elf shoppe on Monday and on Wednesday we were treated to a Holiday concert from the 5th grade band and the JA chorus. They did a fabulous job!

In ELA our essential question was what do people use to do their jobs? Our vocabulary words were equipment, uniform, utensils, expect, and remained. We discussed the different equipment that different jobs used as well as the uniforms some jobs wear. We listened to the stories Whose Shoes, Little Juan and the Cooking Pot, and Workers and their Tools.We also worked on the vowel Oo and introduced the sight word you. In learning centers we sorted words with the short vowel o sound, wrote in our journals about what job we'd like to do someday, sorted sight words, and practiced writing various letters introduced so far.

 

In Math we have been talking about Classifying and Counting Data in Topic 5. We have done a lot with sorting items, putting them into categories, and discussing why they are in a category together. We even had fun using ourselves to make categories such as boy/NOT boy, long hair/NOT long hair and striped shirt/NOT striped shirt. The K2ers also used many manipulatives in the classroom to sort and categorize. Can you figure out the ways they sorted things?

 

Next week we will start to work on Topic 6 titled Addition.

Monday is Picture Re-Take Day. If you were not happy with your child's original pictures then send in the purchased package and your child will be able to have a re-take picture taken.

Today we had to say good-bye to our custodian, Mr. Frank. He is heading to the H.S. but he explained to the kids that he will see them again...when they are in H.S. The K2ers made him cards to say thank you!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

 

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Week in Review ~ November 9th - 13th

This week in ELA our weekly concept was "Rules to Go By" and our essential question was What rules do you follow in different places? We discussed how rules that we follow at school may be different than the rules we follow at home or when we play sports. We listened to the fantasy story "How Dinosaurs Go To School", Aesops Fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and an informational text titled "Be Safe!" Our vocabulary words were rules, cooperate, guard, prank, and responsible. This week we also worked on the vowel Ii. We were making words using the letters m, s, p, t, a and i such as map, pit, sat, tip. At center time we worked on blending sounds to read words. Here is a video of a K2er saying the sounds in the word, blending the sounds together and then reading the word. Try writing some cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words down on paper and have your child try to blend the sounds to read words. We also introduced the sight word "to" this week. We have songs to sing to remind us how to spell the different sight words. These "Heidi Songs" the K2ers LOVE! Here they are listening, and singing along to, the song for "like." In Math we started Topic 4 titled Numbers 0-10. We will be ordering the numbers, talking about greater than and less than, more, fewer, equal and as many as.

As a reminder, Parent/Teacher Conferences are coming up on Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. A reminder of your day and time will be sent home this week. If you are no longer able to make your scheduled appointment please let me know ASAP so that we can reschedule.Conferences are held in 15 minutes time blocks so please make every effort to be to your scheduled appointment on time so as we do not hold up others waiting for their appointment. If after the 15 minutes you feel you need more time to discuss your child's academic progress, I would be happy to schedule another meeting at a different time.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Turkey in Disguise

Today the K2ers came home with a fun homework assignment which is to come up with a Turkey Disguise to help save a turkey from his possible Thanksgiving fate. All turkey's are due back, in their disguise, on Thursday, November 19th. Feel free to send them in before then if they are completed early.

Have Fun!

 

 

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Picture Day Reminder

As a reminder, tomorrow is Picture Day! We read the story "Picture Day Perfection" today. Be sure to ask your child all about it...it was silly what the main character did on picture day.

Even if you do not wish to purchase a photo package your child's picture will be taken so that they are part of the class photo composite. If you do wish to purchase a package, payment is due the day of pictures.

 

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Week in Review ~ November 2nd - 6th

We've had another busy week in K2! In ELA we finished up Unit 2 week 3 talking all about insects. Our vocabulary words were curious, observe, attaches, process and slender. We read the stories " I Love Bugs" and "From Caterpillar to Butterfly." Ask your K2er about the life cycle of a butterfly and the process it goes through. We reviewed the letters Mm, Aa, Ss, Tt, and Pp as well as the sight words the, we, see, a, like. In learning centers we wrote about our favorite insect, sorted insects by whether they fly crawl or hop, sorted pictures by their initial (first) sound, and reviewed our sight words.

We finished up Topic 3 this week in Math and next week we will be moving onto Topic 4 where we will be comparing numbers 0 - 10.

***REMINDERS***

Here are some important reminders:

• We are having a Thanksgiving food drive at Johnny Appleseed. Kindergarten is asking for donations of soup and crackers.
• Picture day is Tuesday, November 10th.
• There is No School on Wednesday, November 11th in recognition of Veterans' Day.
• 4th grade is selling popcorn for $1.00 to raise money for Lucy's Love Bus. (http://lucyslovebus.org) Please have popcorn orders returned by Wednesday of the week they are ordering the popcorn. (Due to the Veterans' Day holiday this week, orders will be accepted until Thursday.)

 

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Hand Washing Lesson

Today the kindergarten classes were lucky to have a visit from Kim, a nursing student at Fitchburg State University, to teach them all about the importance of Hand-washing. She talked to them (and showed them using a spray bottle) how far germs can go when you sneeze and don't cover your mouth. She also had them see the spray that was left on the table and explained that is what happens to germs when we don't cover up our sneezes and coughs. Then, using baby oil and sparkles, she showed the students how germs on our hands can get from person to person quite easily. Kim also talked them about all the times they need to wash their hands. Each child received a coloring page before she left that they can color and sign their name to as their "pledge" to wash their hands. Thank you Kim for coming in and teaching the kindergarten students why it is so important to wash our hands to prevent the spread of germs!

 

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Here is the video they watched...Enjoy!

REMINDER...No School on Tuesday, November 3rd!

Tomorrow there will be NO SCHOOL for students due to a Professional Development Day for Teachers. I will see all my K2ers on Wednesday!

Check out this Chocolate Factory!

Here is another Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory creation!

Thank you to everyone that sent me their child's chocolate factory creation from home...I've LOVED seeing them all!

 

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Fun

To conclude the school-wide reading of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl, we we're treated to a day of fun and games! Our morning started with a Bubble Mania show with Casey Carle, the bubble man. The K2ers thought it was the best thing ever...and I have to say he did do some really neat things with bubbles. He made a rocket ship, an ice cream cone and even put a 2nd grader in a bubble.

 

After the bubble show we headed outside for lots of fun activities. There were different games to play, snacks to eat, and there was even a gigantic bouncy slide that everyone got a chance to slide down. Even Superintendent Jolicoeur stopped by to check out all the fun that was being had at JA...he even enjoyed a ride down the slide.

Once back in the classroom we watched the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I gave a special assignment to the K2ers prior to watching the movie and asked them to pay close attention to how the book and the movie were alike and how they were different. After the movie we filled in a Venn Diagram with their thoughts...WOW did they do a great job coming up with likenesses and differences between the two. I was VERY impressed!

We also voted on who liked the book better (8 votes) and who liked the movie better (10 votes).

We really had such a fun day...thank you to Mrs. Buhts and the rest of the school-wide read aloud team that made it an absolutely perfect day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Another Willy Wonka Factory Creation

As our school-wide read aloud of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is drawing to a close this week, another great creation of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory was sent to me. Here it is...

Your child still has time to use their imagination to create a chocolate factory at home and then be sure to send it along to me to show the class.

 

 

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Bus Safety

Today we had a visit from Bus Safety Officer Danny who spoke to the K2ers about bus safety rules. Some of the bus safety rules were:

*Stay seated until the doors open

*Kindergarteners sit up front

*Cross in front of the yellow arm at the front of bus

*Stay seated

*No eating/drinking on the bus

*Pens, papers, crayons, pencils, etc remain in bag so that you are ready to get off the bus when it is time

*Aisle needs to remain clear

Ask your child to tell you one of the safety rules they learned!

 

 

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Week in Review ~ October 19th - 23rd

This week was another busy and fast week in K2! I can't believe that we are almost to the 40th day of kindergarten already.

In ELA we talked about how tools help us explore. We named all different types of tools and the tools that different workers use to make their jobs easier. We even brainstormed some tools we use at school such as pencils, crayons, erasers, and scissors to make it easier to do different things. Our vocabulary words were tools, discover, defeated, fetch, and rumble. We listened to the Informational Text stories The Handiest Things in the World, and Discover With Tools and we also listened to the Tale Timimoto. Ask your child how Timimoto fended off the night giant and what "tool" he used.

We worked on the letter Pp and listened for where in a word we heard the /p/ sound. We started to build and read words that had the letters m, a, s, and p such as map, sap, Sam and Pam.

We also introduced the sight word "a". We have now introduced six words. We are now reading sentences using the sight words and this week I introduced the class to a fun activity where they listen to a sentence and put the words in order.

Please continue to practice the sight words at home. If you need another set of sight word flash cards please send a note in your child's message tube and I will be happy to send a set home.

In Math we continued working in Topic 3 titled "Numbers 6 - 10" where we are working on counting, reading and writing numbers 6 - 10. Almost every day we start our Math lesson with a "Solve & Share" activity. The problem is read to the children and they try and solve it. As I circulate the room I am looking to see what strategies the K2ers are using to solve the problem. As they finish they go sit at the board to go over the problem. I then ask different K2ers to come up and show how they solved the problem. This is such a great way to show how many times there is not just ONE way to solve the problem. The students who come up and share then need to explain to the class what they did to solve the problem. They already have such amazing "math conversations"...it is so great to listen to them.

 

We have read through chapter 24 of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We have been busy discussing why some of the children have had certain things happen to them when they were touring the factory. So far they have said that Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregard, and Veruca Salt do not listen and do not follow rules. Ask your child what happened to each of those children while they were at the factory. They are REALLY into the story...it has been fun reading it with them. We will be finishing up the School-Wide read aloud on Thursday and then on Friday we will be attending the Charlie Fair during the school day.

 

As a reminder, Parent/ Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, November 23rd and Tuesday, November 24th. Reminders of your day and time will be sent home the week of November 15th. If you can no longer make your scheduled time, please let me know as soon as possible so we can reschedule it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

 

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Fire Safety visit

We were lucky enough to have a visit from a Leominster Firefighter today to discuss Fire Safety. One thing that he talked about was what to do if your clothes catch on fire...stop, drop, cover (your face), and roll!

The K2ers enjoyed the visit!

 

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Another Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory Creation!

Great Job!

 

Keep the chocolate factory creations coming...the kids LOVE to see them!

 

 

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Calling all Willy Wonka Candy Factory Makers!

One of our K2ers created Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory at home using his Duplo Lego blocks and was VERY excited to tell the class about it. His mom was kind enough to email a picture of it to me so I could show the class.

After I received the picture it had me thinking so, as a class, we brainstormed different things at home you could use to create Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. If any other K2ers would like to use something at home to "create" Willy Wonka's factory and would like to share the final creation with the class then please take a picture and email it to me so I can show the class.

Happy Creating!!

 

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Please Read a Note from Nurse Jen

Please remember that all Kindergarten students need updated physicals on file in the nurses office. I am still missing some immunizations and have sent that paperwork home. Please send that information into me as soon as possible in prevent your child from being excluded from school. • Massachusetts state law (105 CMR 200.00 – 200.920) requires a physical exam upon entry to school and updates in 4-year increments. • Massachusetts state law (105 CMR 220.000) requires up to date immunizations for school attendance. • Massachusetts state law (105 AMR 460 050 & .060) requires lead testing for all preschool and kindergarten children. Also Please remember to keep your child home if he/she: • Has a fever over 100 degrees f or higher. • Has a persistent cough or cold. • Has had vomiting or diarrhea within the past 12 hours. • Has an unidentified skin rash. • Has “pink eye” with itching and drainage. • Has a contagious illness i.e. strep throat, chicken pox. • Has active head lice or body lice. In order for your child to receive any medication while at school I will need a medication order from the doctor, signed parental consent, and the medication (which must be brought in by a responsible adult). This is a state wide policy and is strictly enforced here at JA. With the upcoming cold temperatures, it is important to remember to dress your child appropriately for cold weather. Hats, mittens, and roomy waterproof boots with socks are essential to protect your child’s fingers and toes against extreme cold. This is especially important for those children who either wait for a bus or walk to school. It is also a good time to remind your child to use his or her own hat and to avoid sharing such headgear, to minimize the possibility of head lice transmission. Please make sure that your child has an extra change of clothes with them in their classroom or backpack. As always, should you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me at 978-534-7765 Nurse Jen http://janursejen.blogspot.com/

Week in Review ~ October 5th - 9th

K2 continues to be a busy place! In ELA. This week we talked about how baby animals move. We listened to the stories Pouch! , The Tortoise and the Hare , and How Baby Animals Move. We worked on the short a vowel sound and the sight word "we" was introduced. We currently have introduced 4 sight words so far: I, can, the, we. Please continue to practice these words at home with your child and possibly look through stories to try and find them. We also continued to work on Nouns. In learning centers the K2ers wrote in their journals about their favorite animal, sorted pictures by person, place or thing, practiced the sight word we, sorted pictures into Fantasy and Real categories and reviewed the sounds /m/ and /a/.

In math we continued with topic 2 about comparing numbers 0 to 5. We discussed the terms greater than, less than and equal to. We also played a fun game of Roll & Cover where students roll a dice and put their colored counter down. Once all numbers are covered we then lined up our counters to see what color was greater than, what color was less than or if they were equal. The kids really enjoyed playing Roll & Cover.

This week at Johnny Appleseed we started the fall school-wide read aloud of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Each day, every classroom at JA, reads the same chapter(s) from the same book. It really gets the students excited and I know my K2ers are so excited when it is time to listen to each day's chapter(s). We made a prediction prior to reading Chapter 7 "Charlie's Birthday" about whether Charlie would find a golden ticket in his birthday candy bar from his family. 13 K2ers said yes, they thought Charlie would find a golden ticket and 5 said no, they thought Charlie would NOT find a golden ticket. Be sure to ask your child if Charlie found a golden ticket in his birthday candy bar.

As a reminder there is no school on Monday for Columbus Day...I hope you enjoy the day!

 

 

 

 

 

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