We had a wonderful first week in Kindergarten! We learned many new things including our classroom routines and procedures. We learned how to arrive to school, empty backpack, and turn our red home folders into the basket. We also enjoyed lots of singing during calendar time to begin learning our months of the year, days of the week, and our daily weather. We read the story Owen together and we were very fortunate to each receive a piece of Owen's precious yellow blanket to give us comfort as we embark on our journey of learning. We participated in our Specials classes including, Art, Music, and PE! We played on the playground building friendship. We began building our community through group activities and participation through Singapore Math and Spalding Phonics. We were introduced to two phonograms o and c. Also, ask your child about Spalding pencil grip! We discussed objects that are the same and almost the same in Singapore Math and began using our Textbooks. Overall, it was a very exciting week filled with lots of participation, exploration, and learning! It is going to be a fantastic year!
Snack time is a time to reenergize through a healthy snack and to build community. Our snack time is limited to 10 minutes. We are currently eating snack following Specials at 9:15. Please limit your child's snack to two items. We only have time to eat a small snack to reenergize! We are a nut free classroom so please do not send any nut products including, but not limited to, peanut butter, Nutella, or granola bars with peanut butter. If you send a Lunchable please do not send any other snack because there will be no time to eat additional items. Also, please no Doritos, Cheetos, Cheese balls, or any other cheesy (messy) snacks. Some suggested healthy items are fruit, yogurt, apple sauce, goldfish crackers, cereal bars, or vegetables. Thank you so much! Reminders:
Monday: Music Tuesday: PE Wednesday: Enrichment (Poetry) Thursday: Art Friday: Music
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Dear Kindergarten Families, Welcome! I am Mrs. Lisa M. Picazo and I will be your child’s Kindergarten teacher. I am looking forward to a wonderful year of building relationships, fostering conversation, and guiding exploration within our learning environment. I have a Master’s Degree from Northern Arizona University in Multicultural and Bilingual Education and a Post Baccalaureate certificate in Elementary Education from the University of Phoenix. I am entering my eighteenth year of teaching and I have taught first, second and fifth grades as well as Kindergarten through eighth grade reading interventions in a public school district. This is my second year within Great Hearts as a Kindergarten teacher and I am very excited to be an integral part of your child’s education. I am Angela Trujillo and I was born in Romania and moved to the United States in 1996. I graduated from nursing school in Romania and worked for several years as a pediatric nurse. I am proficient in several languages including English, Romanian, some Spanish and Sign Language. I joined Archway Trivium East last year as a fifth grade Teacher Assistant. This year I am excited to join the Kindergarten team as a Teacher Assistant. I have experience serving as a volunteer classroom support to teachers in private schools and at Great Hearts Academies. Throughout the year your child will be immersed into a community of learners seeking truth, goodness, and beauty. Your child will develop friendships, explore mathematics, and have meaningful conversations in all content areas. I will support and encourage your child as he/she develops an engagement and love for his/her learning. I am positive that your child and I will have a rewarding and successful year as we mutually engage in our sense of wonder and pursuit of truth. In the next pages you will find specifics about classroom policies, procedures, and guidelines. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at [email protected] Sincerely, Mrs. Lisa M. Picazo Kindergarten Lead Teacher We are reading Mouse Soup during our Literature time. We read the book whole group stopping periodically to discuss story elements such as, characters, setting, problem and solution. We reread sentences to read with inflection and expression in our voices. We reread to increase our fluency. Last, we write about what we have read. We have a discussion about what happened first, next, and last in our story then we develop a summary sentence. Each morning your child will copy from the board a sentence about the story and draw a picture for what happened first, next, and last in our story. This is in place of the sentence at the top of their Spalding paper. Following copy work we start calendar around 7:45 prior to reading groups beginning at 7:55. In first grade, students will arrive to school each day and meet on the playground. Students will enter the classroom at 7:45 and independently write in their agendas the homework for that day. I feel confident that all KC scholars will be able to accomplish this task quickly and independently next year.
Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: Art Tuesday: Music Wednesday: Music Thursday: PE Friday: Art I recall Kindergarten Open House and all the eager young scholars gazing up at me with excitement, fear, and anticipation for their first day of school. I would share with them on the first day of school how they are now Kindergartners, in school every day, away from Mom and Dad, and ready to learn, share, and grow. Today, I look around our classroom and see taller children with more maturity, readers, learners, and soon to be first graders. The end of the year will come upon us quickly and I am busily preparing them for their first day of first grade. Your child may come home and tell you that I often tell them we are now doing first grade work because we need to be ready for our first grade teachers. So, as we prepare for first grade here are a few things I'd like to share with all of you.
Poem recitation: I know this poem is longer than our other poems however, it is a familiar nursery rhyme and most students already know the first 2 verses. Please work on the last two verses and help prepare your child to recite Mary Had a Little Lamb next week. First graders will also be required to recite a poem monthly however, they will do it independently, not with a friend as I currently allow. I will add though, most want to recite alone already! Dress code: Dress code will be strictly enforced in first grade and even though all of our scholars adhere to the dress code I do want to point out of few items I see (or don't see) regularly. Students must wear a belt with pants or shorts. I know buckling a belt can be difficult for some, but now is the time to start practicing. I guide students how to fasten it independently, as needed, and some even have velcro belts! I believe velcro belts can be purchased at Dennis uniforms. The other item is shoes and ensuring that they are either all black or all white. Shoes cannot be black with a white sole. Shirts must be tucked in always. We continuously do shirt checks throughout the day to make sure they are tucked in appropriately. Starting Monday I will be sending home pink slips that say "Dress Code Oops!" if needed. These slips are only meant to correct an item mishap. Calendar: I have moved calendar back to 7:45 again! Students enter our classroom, copy sentence from board, and come up to floor for calendar. Reading groups will begin as usual at 7:55. Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: PE Tuesday: Art Wednesday: Enrichment Thursday: Music Friday: Music "This was the best day ever!" as quoted from several of our scholars. What a pleasure it was for all to have our grandparents visit our classroom. Grandparents were able to witness their beautiful grandchildren reciting phonograms, sitting in scholarly position, and reading their leveled readers. As a teacher, it was exciting to see how proud our grandparents were of our scholars which showed in their smiles, hugs, and love for their grandchildren. As I told our grandparents we have a wonderful class filled with wonderful children with caring and involved parents and I want to thank you all!
We have learned the first 70 phonograms and will spend the remainder of the year reviewing and mastering all 70 phonograms. If your child has mastered all 70 phonograms on the bi-weekly assessment then their skill set will no longer have the phonogram sounds only words incorporating our phonograms. For example, nation, plowed, cough, flaw, etc. Words will be followed by a sentence incorporating our spelling words and phonogram specific words. My goal is to do skill sets with your child 2-3 times per week. Thank you for your support at home listening to your child and writing a star next to a mastered sound/word/sentence. Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: No School Tuesday: Art Wednesday: Enrichment Thursday: Music Friday: PE I wanted to share some quick things you can do at home which will help your child with learning. Some are questions, conversation starters, or things to think about while driving to/from school, getting ready for bed, at snack time, or prior to moving onto another activity. For example, I will ask each student what is one more of (any number up to 20) or what is one less than (any number up to 20) while they are taking a quick drink break. This could be done at home as well along with a few others:
These are just some examples and I'm sure you can think of many more that would apply to your daily lives and schedules. Have fun and feel free to share some of the answers you receive! Wish List:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: PE Tuesday: Art Wednesday: PE Thursday: Music Friday: PE I believe our class is finally in a place where we are comfortable with the routine, know the expectations, and are demonstrating growth with reading. We now have a chart in our classroom where each scholar is able to level up using a magnet with their name on it to the next book. I believe the visual representation is encouraging each student to try his/her personal best to decode words quickly and accurately, read with fluency, and comprehend first, next, last in the story. It also helps that they get to move a little magnet which is very exciting for Kindergartners! Many scholars will be beginning to read books with long vowel words, specifically long vowel with final silent e words. Please encourage your scholar to think about the 5 jobs of "e" and apply the rules to decode these new books. In class we have also been discussing the title, characters, and setting along with first, next, and last. You can try this at home with any book! Please have your child respond in a complete sentence. For example, "The setting is...", "The characters are...", "The title is...".
Every culture has phrases and proverbs that make no sense when carried over literally into another culture. Children hear sayings and phrases at home but don't always understand the meaning behind the saying. Each month we post, recite, and review the meaning of a saying. Our saying during the last two weeks has been "Better safe than sorry" and for the following two weeks it will be "Practice Makes Perfect". These sayings have been chosen because they are likely to have some connection to your child's work of experience. At home you can help your child learn these sayings by using them in meaningful situations. My goal for the next few weeks is to use our saying "Practice makes perfect" within our content learning especially reading groups!! Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: Music Tuesday: PE Wednesday: Art Thursday: Art Friday: Music At the Sea-side by Robert Louis Stevenson is our January poem. We will be reciting our poem beginning the last week of January on the 30th. Please practice with your child to recite our poem with fluency (reading like we talk), correct pronunciation, standing straight and tall in scholarly position, and using a loud, clear voice! Our scholars enjoy reciting our poem in front of the entire class. Scholars are proud to demonstrate how hard he/she has worked to memorize our poem.
At the Sea-side by Robert Louis Stevenson When I was down beside the sea A wooden spade they gave to me To dig the sandy shore. My holes were empty like a cup. In every hole the sea came up, Till it could come no more. Next Tuesday is our 100th day of school! If possible, please send a baggie of 100 items that can be glued to a paper for a 100th day activity we will be doing on that day. Some examples of items to bring are: cheerios, fruit loops, dried beans, paper clips, beads, etc. Be creative! Just ensure that the item can be glued onto a paper! Today our scholars finished Kindergarten Mathematics Textbook A in class and it was sent home in their backpacks. Some of the pages were discussion pages and other pages were practice pages. At the end of the unit there is 1-2 Review pages which is our unit assessment. I have graded each assessment but did not always write the answers and/or score at the top. Also, please feel free to finish an incomplete pages for extra practice! We will begin Textbook B on Monday with a discussion of 1 more and 1 less for numbers 1-20. Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Monday: Art Tuesday: Music Wednesday: Enrichment Thursday: PE Friday: Art Amazing project week and fantastic American Symbols night is how I would describe it! I was in awe as our super scholars handed in their American Symbols projects. All of the projects were creative, colorful, and beautiful works of art. Our presentations couldn't have been any better. Scholars were excited to share their projects and all that could be seen around the room were smiles by everyone. Great job scholars (and parents too)!
Mr. Scott visited our classroom with some uniform reminders. I wanted to pass along the information he shared with our scholars.
Thank you so much to all of the wonderful volunteers who have come into our classroom to read with our scholars and assemble book boxes. Words can't begin to express how appreciative I am for all our help. I am a very fortunate teacher to have such phenomenal parents and I thank you! Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Tuesday: Art Wednesday: Music Thursday: Music Friday: PE Thank you families for an amazing second quarter! We have learned up to 57 phonograms this quarter, how to segment and decode words, and read text! We learned the difference between flat and solid shapes, how to extend a pattern, and have been practing counting to 100 by 10's and 50 by 5's. We read The Velveteen Rabbit, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Three Billy Goats Gruff, and Little Red Riding Hood (just to name a few). We celebrated all our quarter 2 accomplishments with The Velvetten Rabbit celebration. Our scholars had huge smiles while creating a tissue paper flower and a stocking for their own "Velvetten Rabbit", enjoying a yummy cup of hot cocoa and sugar cookie, and watching a video segment of our amazing story! Thank you to all our parents for participating in our very special day!
I hope you have a fantastic holiday and winter break! Every scholar has been very excited for a little break from school, playing with their siblings and toys, and spending time with family. I know I too am very excited to spend time with my family, bake cookies, relax with a great book, and enjoy our holidays! May this holiday season bring peace, joy, love, and happiness to ALL!!! Reminders:
Our Specials Schedule: Tuesday: PE Wednesday: Music Thursday: Enrichment Friday: Art |
Schedule7:45 Morning Message Archives
August 2018
Reminders
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