September 28th-October 2nd

Hello families!

It has been a great rainy week.

Dates to remember:

1.     Fairytale Celebration: October 15^th at 11:00 in our classroom

2.     Dad Pumpkin Carving: October 22^nd at 1:00 in our classroom

3.     Optional Parent/Teacher Conferences: October 29^th and 30^th (A sign up genius will go out soon and you may sign up for one 30 minute conference.)

Writing:

This week we had writer’s workshop and we worked on writing for a little bit longer than last week. We discussed how a book is supposed to read and open (left to right) and also that books can have pictures only.

We worked on a handwriting letter this week and reviewed the other capitol letters from last week. The new letter this week was: K.

Reading:

We continued to play the games SWAT and Roll, Say, Keep.  We also have several options to choose from during reader’s workshop if we are not playing those two games. We have read to self, read to a partner, work on writing, and listen to a book at the listening center. The options that change weekly are magnetic letters/play dough letters, white board writing, letter writing, site word puzzles and letter puzzles. We are still trying to get through Marvelous Me with everyone as well.

Book Buddies:

We met with out second grade books buddies again! Our second grade buddies read a story and then we illustrated the main character from our story together.

Science:

Last week Margot’s mom did a really cool floating/sinking experiment! She let us test different floatation devices to see what worked best to get the goats to cross the water.  She even let us build a raft and take it home to test it!

We also planted grass seed to make troll grass heads. We talked about the things plants need including soil, sun and water. Once the grass starts growing it will look like our trolls have crazy green hair.

Thematic Centers:

We are taking a break from thematic centers to get ready for our play! We are practicing our play lines and starting to create props and costumes.

Math:

We reviewed “Gone Fishing” and played that several times. We had a new game in our tubs where students had to match the number to the correct amount of unifix cubes. There were three numbers written on a sentence strip and students had to build that number of unifix cubes.

The estimation jar has been going so well! We are doing this every morning and everyone gets so excited to see what is in the jar.

Counting collections:

This is very exciting! We are asking all the kids to bring in a collection from home to count. Please bring this by Wednesday. They can bring anything they want to count! Please also be sure that your child can count the quantity in the bag. Some suggestions are: erasers, marshmallows, stickers, marbles, straws etc. Do not feel like you have to go buy something special. Find something from home, label it with your child’s name and send it in next week! We are going to have a blast counting.

Announcements: 

1. The sign up genius was already sent out. 

2. You may want to send in a jacket each day. It is quite chilly in our room and kids are trying to put their arms in their shirts because it is chilly!

3. Girl's need to have shorts or pants under dresses on Friday for PE. 

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Schultz

September 21st-25th

Everyone loved their hands! We read The Kissing Hand and picked a safe spot for our hands. Some friends wanted to take their hand(s) home and that is fine too! We gave them a big kiss. How special!

Building marshmallow and toothpick bridges for the troll to live under!

Sweet Allison and Sarah holding hands on the field. 

Hello families!

We had another great, short week this week.

DATES TO REMEMBER!

1. Fairytale Celebration: October 15th at 11:00 in our classroom. Next week we are starting to work on "costumes" and "props." So exciting!

2. Dad's Pumpkin Carving: October 22nd, at 1:00 in our classroom. You will need to bring a carving pumpkin, your design and any carving tools needed. Remember, if Dad cannot come any family member can!

Thematic Unit:

We finished our Three Little Bears centers and we started studying Three Billy Goats Gruff. We rotated through 4 main centers. We also graphed our porridge taste testing data. We had 3 people who did not like porridge and 17 people who liked it.

1. Marshmallow and toothpick bridges……these are turning out to be so awesome!
2. Torn paper trolls: use different colored paper and use your thumb and index fingers (only) to tear paper to make a troll. This works on fine motor skills!
3. Three Billy Goats Gruff mini book: color pictures and read the book to an adult to work on tracking words.
4. Graph the characters from The Three Billy Goats Gruff story.

Math Workshop:

We learned a new math game called "Gone Fishing" and we also started our first "teacher tables." Gone Fishing goes like this:

Down by the river, down by the sea,
Jim and Bob went fishing with me.
How many fish did they get?

Two children pull out a string of "fish" (paper clips strung together in different quantities). Children compare the amount of fish they pulled out and use phrases like "Jim had more fish than Bob." We count  each amount and then place the fish back in the sea.

We also started puling children for teacher tables. This is how we can differentiate the best during math. Children who need to be challenged are working on specific math concepts. Children who need to work on number recognition and counting can work on that! These are small groups or one on one.

Book Buddies:

We met our book buddies this week! We interviewed each other and got to know one another better. Next week we will read together! We try to meet once a week. Our buddies are in Mrs. Washam's second grade class. We cannot wait to become better friends. This is a great way to connect our school and get to know other students from other grades.

Reading:

We are still working on Marvelous Me and studying names, letters, sounds, syllables, vowels and consonants. We also played a new game called Roll Say Keep. We will play this again next week. You place 6 letters face down on a game board. Roll the dice and whatever number you land on, you say the letter name. If you get it right, you get to keep it. For children who need a challenge, we do letter sounds or site words.

Science:
If you have not signed up for Sci Fri yet, definitely try it sometime. It is becoming a class favorite! Last week we tested dropping hard boiled eggs in different materials to see which would keep the egg from cracking and which would allow the egg to break. We sent the recoding sheets home, so hopefully you got a chance to check it out. So fun! We can't wait to see what Margot's mom has planned for us tomorrow.

We are heading out of town this weekend because my Pirates are playing Virginia Tech. If I am slow to responding to emails, that's why. Cheer for my team if you are watching the game! :)

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

September 15th-18th

Cole's brother was one of our 7th grade interns and he was very popular reading books!

Below are pictures from our very first park trip! 

Hello families! What a fun week!

We just got back from our first park trip and it was awesome. Thanks volunteers! It was also great seeing everyone last night. If anyone needs a packet from curriculum night let me know.

Do not forget our play is October 15th. I am also announcing that our Dad Pumpkin Carving is October 22nd (around lunch time…specific time TBA). Of course if Dad is unavailable, any family member can come! Uncle, Grandpa, cousin, mom etc. This is just a great way to get the Dad's in the classroom. :) Each child will need to bring a pumpkin and carving tools for this event and carve away. We will post more details as the date gets closer.

**No school NEXT WEDNESDAY!

Thematic Unit:

This week we studied Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We compared and contrasted the different versions and we also compared it to the Three Little Pigs. We also talked about typical characteristics of fairytales…. talking animals, a villain and a good guy, a moral to the story, a happy ending and things that come in three's. We rotated through 4 main centers:

1. Porridge taste test: taste plain and sweet porridge and graph if you liked it or did not like it.
2. Place the pictures of the 3 Bears story in order from the beginning of the story to the end.
3. Color and fill in the blanks for the Three Little Bears paper book.
4. Make a Goldilocks WANTED poster and create a reward.

Math:

We added Handy Dandy Maple Candy to two tubs and we had the same math games as last week. We are also still counting more collections. Next week we will add 2 or 3 new games! We are still working on writing numbers, one to one correspondence and accurate counting.

Reading:

We are still working on getting through Marvelous Me studying vowels, consonants, syllables and words that we know within names. We are working on letter identification and letter sounds by planning SWAT. We are also playing Alphabet Soup and reading many, many books. As soon as we finish Marvelous Me for everyone, we will begin working with site words! We finished all of our frog jump capitol letters this week (M&N).

Science:

Tomorrow Ms. Leslie is doing a science experiment. Ask your child what we did when they get home from school! I cannot wait!

I am hoping to get play lines out tomorrow. If not, I will send them home Monday! Be looking for that electronically. If you cannot print the play at home, send me an email and I will send a copy home!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

September 8th-11th

Michael and Cole playing Guess Who. 

Ella and Josephine coloring.

Ms. Leslie stopped by to help us with centers for the first time. 

Lily can swing so high!

Hello!

**I wanted to go ahead and announce our VERY FIRST PLAY! Our fairytale play will be October 15th at 11:00 in our classroom. We will be sending play lines home (for you to start practicing with your child) very soon. We will handle "costumes" here. :)

**No school on Monday the 14th or the 23rd of this month. Do not forget! Scholastic orders are due at the end of the month. Be sure to place your orders before the 30th.

** Check out the sign up genius for parent volunteers next week. If you have never volunteered before, you will need to fill out paperwork at the front desk. You will also need to watch a video and be background checked. After you have done those things, you are free to volunteer as much as you want!

We had a busy week! Read below to find out what we did.

Marvelous Me:

We are still getting through everyone's names. Marvelous Me works on so many wonderful things! When we study each person's name we look at vowels, consonants, syllables and how to properly write their name. We use a capitol letter at the beginning and lowercse letters for the rest of the name. We also study how many letters are in the name. Often children will find similarities and differences between that name and others in the class.

Writer's Workshop:

We had our first writer's workshop yesterday and it was a blast! Each time we write, we have a short mini lesson and then everyone has time to write books, poems, letters etc. At the end we have author's chair and someone gets to share their creation. It was awesome!

Reading:

This week we played a really fun game called Swat. Two players hold fly swatters. The teacher calls out a letter or letter sound and the first person to swat at the correct letter/sound gets to keep it. For children who needed a challenge, we started with site words. We also started reading centers. We have the listening center (books on tape), play dough letters/words, lego words and letters, letter matching games,  the Boggle game and more. Each day the centers are different but they always focus on letters, sounds and words. We also practiced buddy reading and reading independently.

Mini Paper Books: These mini paper books that we send home are so important! Please do not throw these away. These books work on tracking words. When your child reads the book to you, have them use their finger and touch each word as they read. We also work on a another reading skill called, rerun sweep. When your child gets through with the top line, have them return sweep and start all the way at the left to read the next line on the page. This helps reinforce the idea of reading left to right. Be sure to make a special place in your home for these familiar re-reads. This really helps children feel good about reading because they can read all of these! But it also focusses on certain pre-reading skills. Make a special box for these books by decorating an old shoe box. Or carve out a special place on their book shelf!

Math Workshop:

We had the same review games as last week. We are still playing roll and cover, roll and record and we are counting collections (although the number of objects in the bag change). We also added a new game. We played roll a tower build a tower. Children roll a dice and then they have to build a tower however many cubes high. Each time the two players roll they have to announce who has more and who has less or if they are equal. We are also practicing our numbers. We are learning how to write numbers 1-9. Hopefully tomorrow we will learn another math game called Handy Dandy. Player 1 picks up two piles of counters and says "handy dandy maple candy which hand do you pick?" Player 2 chooses a hand and counts how many are there. Then the players switch. We are still working on accurate counting and some children have started working on counting by 2's, 3's, 5's and 10's as a challenge.

Science:

This week we tried the dancing raisins experiment. We placed clear soda in a glass and watched the raisins "dance." Ask your child for details! Hopefully we will have a parent sign up next week to do a really cool experiment too.

Thematic Centers:

We started our first round of thematic centers this week. We are studying fairytales and the first one we are learning about is The 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf. We are reading several different versions along with the original and rotating through 4 centers. We are also learning about the different characteristics of fairytales. There are good guys and bad guys. There is usually a moral to the fairytale story and there is usually a happy ending!
Our centers:

1. Make a muddy piggy using paper plates, paint and construction paper. These will be hanging in the hall.
2. Make a wolf fact book using illustrations and words.
3. Make a fill in the blank mini book and take it home to read it to your families.
4. Make a trifold project of a straw house, stick house and brick house using different materials.

Have a great long weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

August 31st-September 4th

Ms. Rubi (our spanish teacher) had the coolest lesson planned for us on Friday!

 Will and Mrs. Schultz interviewing each other on the playground. Will said Mrs. Schultz had her "best smile on."

Lauren building the perfect beach in the sensory table!

Art Class with Ms. Tasia.

Music class with Mrs. Shutt.

Hello families!

A few announcements before we begin…

1. No school September 7th, 14th or 23rd.
2. Please be sure to pack healthy lunches and snacks. We know there will be days that "unhealthy items" make it into the backpacks. but we really want each lunch to have protein, fruits, veggies etc. That is what keeps everyone focussed and full!
3. If your child is going to be absent please email attendance@csdspartans.org and CC me on the email please.
4. Each night your child will bring home a book that we ask you read to them. Please do not worry if you skip a night and need to keep the book one extra night.
5. We will be starting scholastic book orders this week. A flyer will be going him in the red folders. If you would like to order anything, you can place your order online. We will not be doing any paper orders. Orders are due September 30th.

Math:

This week we focussed on accurate counting. We had "grab bags" that had random quanitities of math manipulatives in them. We counted them and recorded our answers on our recording sheets. Please ask your child the new kindergarten way of counting. Our review games were roll and cover and roll and record. We will had another new game next week. We started our math tubs this week too. Each tub can have 4 children. You can play the game alone or with a partner. We practiced writing numbers too.

Thematic Unit:

We continued our nursery rhymes unit this week. We studied Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty. We glued them into our day books and made mini books to read and take home. We also placed these in the pocket chart at school and practiced reading them on the carpet during reading time. Next week we will start our fairytales unit. First up is 3 Little Pigs….a favorite!

Everyone received the Higgity Biggity Bumble Bee chant book on Monday as well! This is a great resource to keep at home and help your child learn their classmates names. We sing this song at school often!

Handwriting:

We are still practicing our names. We also went over the letters P and B (capitol only). Please encourage your children to start their letters at the top!

Science:

This Friday we will have our first science experiment. We will be testing different items to see if they float or sink. Eventually we will allow parents to come in and do different experiments with us on Friday's. Oh what fun! Be looking for that soon.

Reading:

This week we learned about "tracking" words as we read. We can use our finger to track our words, witches fingers (that we have at school), special reading wands and more. Tracking helps us keep our place when we are reading. We also started making predictions about books before we read based on the cover and our schema (prior knowledge.)

We are still doing Marvelous Me. If your child has not had a chance to go yet, do not worry!

As always, if you need anything do not hesitate to email me!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz