January 18th Newsletter

                                                    Upcoming Events

*January 18- No School, MLK, Jr. Day (see SeeSaw for homework)

* January 20- Late Start 

*January 28 and 29- 1/2 Days of school, Parent/Teacher Conferences 

Thank you!

Thank you so much for the napkins. I think we are set for awhile. It was so wonderful that so many of you responded so quickly! You are awesome. We are in need of one more thing, AAA batteries. The Tag readers that the students use during Daily 5 time take them and they are used everyday! Thanks!

MLK Jr. Day Homework

Even though we don't have school on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr, I have found some fun resources that can help your child learn more about who he was and why we remember him. I have assigned an activity in Seesaw that will appear on Monday morning. I would like everyone to do this activity. I have also assigned a few stories about him in Epic if you would like to log into that and listen. Those are a little longer than the links on Seesaw and more in depth.

New Friend

On Tuesday we will have a new student join our class. Her name is Lennox Campbell and she is coming from out of state. We are so excited to welcome her and get to know her!

NWEA

Last week we went to the computer lab to take the NWEA test to show your child’s growth in Math and Reading. Each test was about 30 minutes. We will do these again at the end of the year. 

                    

Sight Words

We will be starting something new to help us learn our sight words.  We have 6 lists of words, one for each color in the rainbow, going in order from red to purple.  When your child can read a whole list, he/she can color in that strip on a rainbow we have here at school.  When all the colors are colored in, on their rainbow, meaning that your child knows all of our Kindergarten sight words, they will bring home their rainbow and a pack of Skittles to celebrate.  We are going to be checking how they are progressing from now until the end of the year.  When your child gets to a word he/she does not know, they will bring that list home with the word circled.  Please practice that word and the words after it on that list.  They can then have another chance to read the list correctly and color in the corresponding strip on their rainbow.  They will then move on to the next list. 

This Cycle

In language arts we read “Katy’s First Day of School”.  We talked about what we remember about our first day of school as we made connections between the story and our lives. We also worked on using pictures and things we know to make inferences about what is going on in the story. There are so many things we can figure out about a story without the author actually telling us.    

In phonics we have been practicing the letter Bb will be working on the short Uu sound.  This sound can be difficult as a lot of children want to use the Yy sound.  Please practice this sound at home with your child and point it out when reading.

In science we will continue to learn about motion and forces.  We will learn that everything needs a force, a push or a pull, to get moving. We will do some fun experiments in class to learn more about these concepts. In math we are learning about 3D shapes and how they are different from 2D shapes. We are also practicing using the + and = signs. In Writing, we are learning how to write a story about something we have done. This is called a personal narrative. We are learning how to start our story with who was with us and where it happened (the characters and setting) and then move into what happened first, next and last. We finish up with how we felt or another sentence to finish!

Homework Websites

Please remember that you have access to Lexia,  IXL math and Raz-Kids websites at home. These can be used on the computer or ipad and are an excellent way for your child to practice their skills at home! The links to these sites can be found on the Lincoln School Media Center Symbaloo.

Valentine Cards

This year Lincoln School is focusing on how to show love to others instead of just celebrating Valentines day. Therefore, we will not be doing a party or traditional Valentine exchange. More will come on this from Mr. Hubble but just wanted  you to know you don't need to buy Valentines for our class this year. 

100^th Day

We will celebrate our 100^th day of school on Tuesday, February 16^th.  A letter will come home explaining the project you and your child are to do and bring in on the 100^th day.  We will display these for the week in the hallway and then return them home at the end of the week.  The projects can be a collection all together in a container, a collection displayed in a creative way, or items in groups of 5’s or 10’s.  Our 100^th day is coming soon so start planning now what your child would like to bring in for their project!

Solid Shape Museum We have started learning about the 3D shapes cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, and pyramid. If you have items at home that have any of these shapes, please send them in with your child so we can practice recognizing these shapes in our environment by making a solid shape museum in our classroom. (Please label the items if possible and please do not send in fragile and/or valuable items as the children will be touching these).

Parent/Teacher Conferences

It’s hard to believe that it is time to start planning for the last scheduled conference for this school year. The end of second trimester is not until March 5th, but we are doing conferences a little different this year. Our winter parent-teacher conferences are the week January 25th. These will be scheduled with parents on an ‘as needed’ basis.  The goal is to schedule conferences with parents of children needing additional academic, social, or emotional support and those with ongoing improvement plans. I will email you to schedule a conference if I would like to meet with you. If you would like to meet even if I don't request it, I always welcome a chance to connect. Please email me by the end of the day on Tuesday if you would like a meeting. I will be emailing parents by the end of the day on Monday if I feel there is a need for a conference. Report cards won't come home until the spring, so this is a way to touch base in between report cards to inform you of any concerns and update you on progress. If you have questions about your child’s progress at any time, please let me know.

Have a terrific extra day off tomorrow! 

 

January 4th Newsletter

 Happy New Year and 

Welcome Back to School!

Upcoming Events:
January 6- Late Start
January 13- Late Start
January 18- No School, MLK day
January 20- Late Start
January 28 & 29- Half days of School, parent/teacher conferences

I am so excited to see everyone tomorrow! I hope you have all enjoyed the extra time with your family and have had very happy holidays! I can't wait to hear what you all have been doing! 

I want to start out this year saying thank you. First, thank you ALL for the wonderful and thoughtful gifts! I am so blessed by your generosity! Second, thank you to everyone who helped make our holiday party a success last year! Thank you to Katie Mandarino for providing fun games for us to play AND for helping out at the party (because she is a substitute teacher at our school, she can help in our class). Thank you to Katrina Schaefer for a great craft of Fruit Loop candy canes! Thank you to Catherine Kirshenbaum for juice boxes, Carly Edinger for a healthy snack, Julie Anna Hosbein for a sweet treat, and Chloe Long for plates and napkins. I hope you have taken some time to watch the slide show of photos from our party! 

This week we will be reviewing expectations and procedures. I also plan on using our computers more during class so please make sure they are charged and sent to school each day! We will be learning to write a story about something that has happened in our lives. We will also continue to focus on learning our sight words. If you haven't been practicing over break, please get them out and start going over them every night.  Thank you for all you do at home to help your child be successful this year!