December 7th-11th

Claire and Margot take a ride on the polar express!

We will miss Ms. Anna!

Ms. Anna, our 8th grade intern was so special!

Hello!

This week we enjoyed learning about 3 new holiday's and starting a new math unit!

Please do not forget that we will be having our gingerbread house decorating event December 17th at 1;00. Please let me know if a family member cannot come for your child! Parents are most definitely invited to help decorate. :) We will also have pajama day December 18th which is the last school day before break.

Math workshop:

We started a new math unit called nonstandard measurement. We love measuring things with items from the classroom! In kindergarten we do not use rulers, yard sticks and other types of standard measuring units. We use candles, unifix cubes, blocks, marker, glue sticks etc.

We measured various items around the classroom, we measured gingerbread houses with gum drops and we also took a giant foot and measured things with the giant foot (and our own foot too).

Reader's Workshop:

We learned a new site word this week: do! We also worked in our handwriting without tears books.

Writer's Workshop:

We are still working on patterned books! We also spent time editing a few books in our writing folders this week.

Thematic Unit:

We are still studying holiday's around the world. This week we studied Las Posadas, Sinterklaas and Kwanza.

We rotated through several centers:

1. Make a poinsettia to represent Las Posadas.
2. Illustrate the Sinterklaas book.
3. Make a klompen with hay and carrots for Sinterklaas.
4. Make Kwanza candles out of construction paper and tissue paper.

**Do not forget about the gingerbread house decorating and pajama day!
Have a happy weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

November 30th-December 4th

The pilgrims said HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 Margot and Cole selling ice cream outside. 

Ella was taking pizza orders.

Check out that turkey!

Our Thanksgiving feast! Everyone enjoyed their yummy lunch!

Liam was cooking as the "dad" and Ella was on the phone with the doctor because one of the twins was sick. Allison was the older sister helping Ella with the babies. Kindergarten dramatic play is SO much fun! Love capturing these sweet moments.

Hello!

Can you believe it is December already?? Please be sure you remember to write down the gingerbread house decorating party in our classroom!! We will hold this event December 17th at 1:00. Please let me know if one of your family members cannot make it. We will have everything here. I will also send out a sign up genius next week for gingerbread house assembly. If you can sign up, please do! Please start saving small milk cartons (like the ones from the elementary school cafeteria) for gingerbread houses as well. We will also be going on our first field trip soon (December 15th). We will travel to the Laurel's Nursing Home. If you would like to go, be on the lookout. 

Math:

We played race to 100 with a huge mat on the floor. Each team rolls the dice and tries to get to 100 the quickest. We continued to play "war" but this week we played with ten frame cards. They look like this. This number would be 6! 

We also filled out the December calendar to practice writing numbers 1-31.

Reading: We learned two new site words this week: "this" and "is." We practiced these words with play dough, writing them 4 times and each and reading the words over and over in our mini paper books.

Writing:

This month we are working on making pattern books. Pattern books are pretty self explanatory but they follow a pattern. The site word books we send home are a perfect example! They repeat the same pattern on each page.

Thematic Unit: 

We started our new unit called Holiday's Around the World. This week we studied Hanukkah. We rotated through 4 main centers and even have a battery powered menorah (Thanks Sarah!) to play with and "light."

Centers:

1. Make the Star of David out of popsicle sticks. Count the lines, points, big triangles and little triangles.

2. Measure a giant menorah with two different objects.

3. Play the dreidel game and try to win!

4. Illustrate the 5 Little Candles book.

We cannot wait to learn about more holidays next week!

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

November 16th-20

Making catapults with Mr. Andy (Josephine's Dad) in science.

We looooovvveee our 8th grade intern Ms. Anna who comes every Friday. 

Story telling time with Ms. Tasia in art. She was telling ancient Native American tales. 

Hello families! Another week has flown by! Please remember that we do not have school next Wednesday, Thursday or Friday for Thanksgiving break. Please also be sure to sign up for an item for our class feast if you can. 

**Several friends do not have their winter change of clothes with socks and underwear. Please do this! Almost everyone has already changed once this year because of something. If you are unsure if you have done this, email me and I will let you know. 

**Please remember our school is NUT FREE! This does not just mean peanut free. We cannot have any type of nut in our classroom/school or any product that contains nuts. We have noticed several lunches and snacks throughout the year that have contained nuts and we really need your help. This includes nutella, which contains hazelnuts. We have to be super careful in our classroom because we have several nut allergies. Please help keep our children safe!

Reading:

This week we started learning about our first site word! We learned the word "my." We do several things to memorize site words. We made a site word "my" book and we traced the word with our finger, 'bumpy' traced the word with a textured paper and wrote the word "my" four times each. We also used it in a sentence and placed it on our word wall. Site words cannot usually be sounded out when reading and writing. You just have to memorize them! We do our best to make the memorizing fun. 

Writing:

We are still working on writing like scientists by drawing, labeling and listing. We are also still working on our capitol letters in our handwriting books. 

Math:

We learned two new math games. We played a game called "plop." Everyone stands in a circle and we choose what to count by (ones, fives, tens) and we choose a plop number. Let's say we wanted to count by ones and our plop number was 6. We would go around in a circle and the first person would say one, then two, three, four, five and then plop and that person would sit down. 

We also learned a game called "war." You play this game with two players. The two players flash their top dot card. The player with the most dots gets to keep the cards. The game is over once one player has all the cards. 

Science:

Josephine's dad came last week and we made bug catapults. This was a blast! We cannot wait to see what this Friday holds. 

Book buddies: We will be attending their play tomorrow and we cannot wait! 

Thematic Centers:

WE finished our snake and ant centers and started our quick Thanksgiving unit. We learned that ants are very helpful! The head ant is called a queen, ants have 6 legs, ants have two antaneas and ants help turn the dirt to keep the plants growing strong. We labeled an ant body and made ants on a log. We will start our turkey/Thanksgiving centers this week and finish up next week.

Enjoy the rest of the week and weekend.

Hugs, 

Mrs. Schultz

November 9th-13th

Tripp and Landon are holding hands singing the Star Spangled Banner for spirit Friday. So sweet!

Hello!

Please remember we will be out for Thanksgiving break November 25th, 26th and 27th.

Please be sure that you are following proper attendance procedures if your child will be out of school. You need to email attendance (attendance@csdspartans.org) and CC your classroom teacher (eschultz@csdspartans.org).


This week we are continuing our study of creepy crawlies. We finished our bat centers and started with snakes. We will begin studying ants next week.

We have two snake centers and two ant centers so that we leave enough time for Thanksgiving and Native American studies before our break. On November 24th we will have our class "feast." This is for kids only but we will be asking for a cornbread mix, items to make homemade butter, green beans and mac and cheese. I will send this sign up genius out next week so be thinking if you would like to bring any of those items in!

Snake Centers:

We learned that snakes do not have legs, they shed their skin, some snakes are harmless and some are poisonous, snakes can't bite food so they have to swallow it whole, snakes have scales and snakes do not have eyelids.

1. We learned about making patterns and we used beads and pipe cleaners to make a patterned snake.
2. We made a tissue paper snake and wrote three facts about snakes.

Math:

We continued to play monster squeeze on our number line which is a class favorite. We also added two new games. We played "I have, Who has." Each player has a handful of cards with numbers. The first player says "I have 16, who has 3?" The person who has 3 says "I have 3, who has 12?" This game is so fun! We also played a pumpkin seed matching game where you match the number of pumpkin seeds to the number. You draw a pumpkin from the "patch" with a number on it and place that many pumpkin seeds on the card. This works on number recognition and one to one correspondence when counting.

Writing:

We are still working on writing like scientists by labeling, observing and listing. We worked on the capitol Z during handwriting and reviewed all the other capitol letters we have learned so far.

Reading:

We are learning another new poem this week! We are highlighting the rhyming words and learning to "read" the poem by looking for patterns within the words and using the rhymes to help us solve the words. We also finished Marvelous Me! Margot was so patient. :) We will begin learning site words next week! We are also starting our next class big book. We are working on a book called "Mrs. Schultz's Class, Mrs Schultz's Class Who Do You See?" This book is a spin off from the book "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?"

Science:

Last week we learned all about colors. We watched a neat video about primary colors, secondary colors, tints and shades. Each child received all the primary colors, black and white. Before we started mixing we made predictions about what would happen if we mixed certain colors together. After we made our predictions, everyone started mixing! We sent these papers home because some of the colors that were made were too cool. Ask your chid how he/she made certain colors. The class favorite was GOLD.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

November 2nd-6th

Margot gets a kiss from her twin brother during indoor recess. ;)

We had an amazing time at the parade of fiction!

Landon leads us in a few stretches.

We were supposed to be cleaning up from lunch but stopped for a selfie!

Happy November!

A few reminders and announcements:

1. Please send in a warmer weather change of clothes.
2. Please send in a two pocket folder for our writer's workshop books.
3. Please send your child to school with a jacket or sweater as it is starting to get chilly.
4. No school November 11th, 25th, 26th or 27th.

Thematic Centers:

This week we are studying bats to continue on with our creepy crawlies unit. We learned that bats fly, they are nocturnal, they eat fruit and insects depending on what type of bat they are, they have two wings and two eyes and they use their sight and smell to find food. We rotated through 4 centers.

1. Put together the bat puzzle and have an adult read the facts on the puzzle pieces.
2. Complete the -at words book and illustrate.
3. Complete your torn paper bat (these are hanging here).
4. Look through the bat fact cards, illustrate a bat and write something you learned about bats.

Reading:

This week we have been looking at words that end in "-at" like bat, mat, fat, cat, hat etc. We learned that many words can have the same endings. We have stamped these words and made them out of play dough. We also worked on our brand new class ipad to practice writing our letters! We played write it quick with letters, sounds and words, made another class big book and worked on our handwriting books. We learned a new poem called 5 Little Bats and we glued that into our daybook. We also completed a bat labeling activity to tie into our writing unit this month.

Writing:

This months theme is to work on observing, labeling and listing like scientists in our writing!

Math:

This week we practiced writing numbers 11-30 on our whiteboards. We also learned a new game called "Monster Squeeze." We introduced the number line this week with numbers 0-30 as we played this game. Mrs. Schultz thinks of a number and tells the class what two numbers it is between. The class starts guessing numbers and the two "monsters" (which are classmates) move in closer and closer as everyone guesses until the number is squeezed and told! We also practiced writing our numbers by filling out the November calendar. We completed spooky counting which is a multi step process of counting objects, recognizing the number, cutting that number out and gluing it in the appropriate spot. We kept these here at school because everyone did such a great job and we wanted to hang them up!

Science:

If someone can sign up for sci fri this week we would love it!! :) Our flying ghost experiment was a real hit last week. Please send pictures if you repeat this awesome experiment at home!

Have a happy week and weekend,
Mrs. Schultz

October 26th-30th

Music Fun!

Spider hats!

Pumpkin Carving fun!

 More spider hats!

Love you sweet Lily!

Balloons in PE!

Hello!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures from the past couple of weeks! Don't forget this is a short week. We have conferences Thursday and Friday.

This week we were preparing for conferences and report cards. We worked on our writer's workshop books, read several Halloween books, reviewed math tubs and finished our spider centers.

We need your help!! We have realized we are in need of writing folders for each child. We have been keeping our writing books in our cubbies but we are not very organized right now. If you would, please send a folder in to class for your child to keep their special books they are working on during wrier's workshop. This does not have to be fancy! It does not need to have pockets or prongs but if it does that is fine. Anything will do. If you are not able to send in a folder, please let me know! I will be glad to pick one up.

Don't forget our Parade of Fiction is tomorrow! If it is raining, we will ask parents to watch the parade in the gym. We will parade through the whole elementary school.  Please email me if you have any questions about this.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 19th-23rd

Hello!

It has gotten quite chilly! Be sure to send a jacket or sweater for recess.

We have been busy this week starting our new unit. Thank you again for helping us wrap up our fairytale unit by attending our play. It was awesome! Huge thanks to Michelle Skaggs for making all of our props and costumes. ;)

**Dad Pumpkin Carving is Thursday at 1!

**The Parade of Fiction is next week on October 28th. I sent an email about this, but please have your child dressed and ready that morning with a change of clothes in his/her bag. Join us for the parade if you want! Please be sure your child has his/her book to hold with his/her costume during the parade. No weapons or full face coverings please!

**No sign up genius needed for next week as we have a short week due to conferences.

Reader's Workshop:

This week we worked on letters and letter sounds. We got to write letters in shaving cream on our tables! I would call out a letter or a sound and the students would write that letter in shaving cream. We also played an alphabet matching/memory game. Students had to match the uppercase letter to the lower case letter. If they got a match, they got to keep the letters. The person with the most matches at the end of the game wins.

We also continued with "Marvelous Me" and handwriting.

Our first class "Big Book" started making it's way around as well. Big books are great for so many things! When students are touching each word as they read it works on one to one correspondence. These big books are great for repetition, using pictures to get clues when reading, sight words and name recognition (when we have class names in the book). Please use the pointer in the bag when reading with your child! Please keep the book in the bag and return it the next day.

Writer's Workshop:

Our writer's workshop lesson this week was writing about small moments. Writing about a small moment in time is harder than it sounds! Here is an example: I am going to write about Disney World but in order to write a small moment story I am going to pick 1 thing to write about rather than tell about the whole trip. I might choose my favorite ride or snack at Disney and write about that as opposed to telling about my entire trip.

Thematic Unit:
This week we started our creepy crawlies unit off by studying spiders! We learned spider webs are very STRONG! Spiders have 8 legs and up to 8 eyes. Spiders are very helpful to us because they eat other bugs. Spiders can also be furry! We also studied the "writing spider" which makes the coolest web. We rotated through 4 main centers.

1. Spaghetti Spider Web Art: Use cold spaghetti to make a spider web and discuss how things stick to the pasta like they do on real spider webs.
2. Non-Fiction Spider Fact Book: Illustrate and read your book to an adult!
3. Spider Web Weaving: Use yarn to weave a web on a black paper plate. Glue a spider on top!
4. Spider Hat: Make a hat look like a spider and choose 8 legs to glue onto your hat and up to 8 eyes.

Math Workshop:

This week we have been focusing on writing numbers 1-20. This is still hard but we have been playing "write it quick" on our white boards. I call out a number and the students have to write it with an Expo maker. We also learned a new game called "Chickety Chop." It goes like this:

"Chickety, Chickety, Chop.
How many times before we stop?
Chickety, Chickety, Chop!"

The students look at a domino card that I hold up with a certain amount of dots on it. We clap for the amount of dots. It gets harder and harder as the game goes on.

Science:

Last week Landon's grandmother brought a science experiment into our class where we tested candy corn pumpkins in different liquids to see if they would float or sink. We also noticed when we placed them in water their "skin" started to peel! It was neat. We cannot wait to see what Katherine's mom brings this Friday!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

October 12th-16th

A few pictures from the previous two weeks. 

Hello! What a great week it has been! This is a big week for us as we have our play tomorrow! Wish us luck. :)

Dates to remember:

1. Play: TOMORROW
2. Dad Pumpkin Carving October 22nd at 1:00 in our classroom (Please bring a pumpkin and any carving supplies you need.)
3. Parade of Fiction October 28th
4. No school/optional conferences October 29th and 30th

Thematic Centers:

We are busy preparing bats, snakes and spiders for our creepy crawlies unit starting next week. We are so happy to be finishing up play practice!

Math Workshop:

This week we learned two new math games. The first game we played is called "Build It." Students draw a card and it has a number on it. Students then have to build that number with unifix cubes. It then says "add____more." Each card has a different number to add on. Students then have to answer "Now how many?" The other new tub we learned is building unifix cube puzzles. Each bag has several puzzle pieces that fit a certain amount of unifix cubes. Students have to build the puzzles and then count how many cubes it takes to complete the puzzle.

The estimation jar is still going well! Thank you for filling it each night when it is your turn.

Reader's Workshop:

This week students worked on something new! We are making our first class big book to read. Big books are great for learning how to track words, how to read, how to hold a book, reading left to right and practicing "return sweep" when reading. When we are all finished we will send the big book home each night with someone to read. We also working on handwriting, SWAT, Roll Say, Keep and Write it Quick. This week we started playing Write It Quick with basic site words as well! We are also working on getting through Marvelous Me.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we worked on adding letter sounds and words to our pictures! It is often intimidating to students to think about writing whole words right now. When we explain they can just write down the sounds they hear it makes it much more manageable.

Science:

Last week Ms. Mary Lee brought milk, food coloring and q-tips covered in dish soap. We dipped the q-tip covered in dish soap into the milk with food coloring and it made the most beautiful display of colors! This is an experiment you should definitely try at home.

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz