January 11th-14th

Below are some pictures of the class during math tub time. Who knew math could be so fun??

Ms. Alicia was leading a small math group completing the January calendar. Writing numbers can be tricky. 

The crew that built this awesome castle out of blocks. 

Announcements:

1. Don't forget about your Valentine's Day poems! If you need help, send me an email.
2. Mrs. James and I are offering our Acrofitness class again this semester! There will even be a mini trampoline jumping opportunity at the end of every class this session. It will be on Tuesday from 3:15-4:15. We have had several people asking us if we were offering this again, so we decided to go for it. Sign up or send me an email and let me know if you want to join us. If your daughter is doing junior cheer on Tuesday and you would like to still join when junior cheer is over, there will be a discounted rate.
4. Art Gallery Crawl: February 18th at 11:00.
5. Mom/Baby pictures: Please send in a baby picture of you and your child for our next artist center.
6. Our valentine poem celebration will be on February 10th at 1:00. We invite all parents to come in and help us read our valentine poems!
7. 4. No school 1/15, 1/18 and 1/22

Thematic Centers:
We have had a great week! We are saving several art pieces here at school to keep for our gallery crawl next month. We started learning about a new artist this week. His name is Claude Monet. We rotated through 4 main centers:
1. Illustrate the Monet mini book
2. Make a waterlily out of a coffee filter and paint it using liquid water colors. Monet was famous for painting waterlilies outside!
3. Choose one of Monet's famous paintings and water color paint over top of it.
4. Choose a picture and color it using oil pastels and one of Monet's techniques. He used fine lines and then he would blend them together to make a beautiful picture. 

Reader's Workshop:

We learned a new site word this week: for. We also learned about capitalization and why this is important when writing and reading. We completed another page in our bare books and began to brainstorm our next page that will be about artists. 

Writer's Workshop:

We are still working on pencil grips each day and it is very hard! Ask your child to hold their pencil the correct way at home as well. They know how to do it, it is just hard to remember. This will help them as they grow and start to write for longer periods of time. We made several couplet poems as a class and some students chose to create couplets during writing this week all on their own! These are super fun. Hope everyone is enjoying working on these for Valentine's Day. 

Math Workshop:

We played a new game this week called "What's Missing?" The teacher calls out a sequence of numbers but leaves one number out of the sequence. Students have to figure out which number was left out. We went all the way up to 50! This was also printed out and placed in a math tub. 

Example: 4,5,6,__,8,9....The missing number would be 7!

We started something new this week called "Range Cards." This is where children work on coming up with different combinations to get to the same sum. Each child was assessed to figure out which number they needed to begin working on. We work with beans, unifix cubes and jewels to help us come up with different equations. 

Have a happy week and long weekend!
Mrs. Schultz

Welcome Back!

 Silly boys at recess!

Liam's big brother Jack, gave Liam a big hug on the field!

The girls were teaching us their polar express dance.

 Our first field trip to the nursing home.

Ella, Lily, Sophie and Allison wanted warm snuggles on a cold recess day! Can't say I blame them. ;)

William, Michael and Landon love to play soccer on the field with their friends. Check out Lauren as the goalie!

Tripp and Will wanted to take a "friendship" picture. How sweet!

Claire stops to tie Bryson's shoe. We love that she can help us tie!

The girls cheering for the soccer game on the field. 

Hello and welcome back!

There are lots of important announcements:

1. Our valentine poem celebration will be on February 10th at 1:00. We invite all parents to come in and help us read our valentine poems!
2. Please be sure you read the email I sent about the special way we do valentines here at CSD. Every child is responsible for writing couplet poems. If you need help with this or you have any questions email me. This is a really fun project, so enjoy!
3. Everyone needs to bring a picture of themselves with their  mommy as a baby! We are studying Mary Cassatt next (for our artist unit) and she was known for painting babies with their moms. Please bring this by next Thursday (1/14).
4. No school 1/15, 1/18 and 1/22
5. Our Art Gallery Crawl will be February 18th at 11:00. More details to come but mark your calendars!

Reader's Workshop:

We learned how to spell the word you this week as our new site word. We also worked on writing the letter Q, G and S in our handwriting without tears books.

Writer's Workshop:

This week we worked on organizing everyone's writing folders. We also focussed on proper pencil grip and starting our letters from the top!!

Math Workshop:

This week we reviewed all of our old games and started learning about the concept of addition. We talked about the "plus sign" and examined what an addition equation would look like! We also filled out a new January calendar to continue practice number writing.

Thematic Centers:

We started our new unit this week! Our artist unit is going to be a blast! The first artist we are studying is Kandinsky. He is known for his abstract art using shapes and lines. We rotated through 4 main centers:

1. Look through Kandinsky's artwork and create a water color imagine of your choice.
2. Look through Kandinsky's art and use a protractor, pattern block shapes and a ruler to create your own art in the style of Kandinsky.
3. Illustrate the Kandinsky book.
4. Use oil pastels to create circle art like Kandinsky's famous painting called :Farbstudie Quadrate 

Hugs,

Mrs. Schultz

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