Science Matters!

Every Thursday afternoon each kindergarten class meets in our common area for 40 minutes for science related activities. These topics have ranged from learning about our five senses and how they help us find out about the world; to an extensive study of animal groups, how they move, where they live, and what they need to live; and to different kinds of weather and the four seasons. Now our focus will be on healthy foods and the various food groups. We will talk about how different foods help us grow and stay healthy.

We will also find out about taking care of our teeth and how that helps us stay healthy, too. On March 1 at noon our class will go to Dr. Levitt and Dr. Dan's dental office to learn about the important job of the dentist. Please let me know if you would like to go with us on this field trip.

Has your child been talking with you about how our loft was changed to the dentist office? Upstairs is the examining room and downstairs is the secretary's desk and the waiting room. Our dentist office has been very popular with both the boys and the girls as they dramatize the different roles of the secretary, dentist, nurse, and the patients. Now you know why your child has been comes home wearing stickers from the dentist office.

I would be very helpful if the parents talk with their children about having a healthy life style and what that means.

This Wednesday, February 16th students will participate in the "Science Matters Teach-In" from 1:00 - 2:30 pm. The kindergarten class will be learning the principles of insulation and how things stay hot or cold. Activities include working with Jello and Baked Alaska. The children will rotate from station to station and using the scientific method, form a hypothesis and record data through their observations. All this will be set-up and run by our wonderful parents! It should be great fun and educational, too! We can't wait!

Reading 100 Books?

My class accepted the challenge of reading 100 books in one hour last Thursday on Day 100. At 10:00 we started reading books to both Mrs. Kiernan and me. We were quickly joined by Bronwyn's, Cate's, and Wiley's mothers. Soon Dr. Bianco, Mrs. Weinman and Mrs. Smay arrived to help us meet the 100 book challenge. Readers were zooming all over the classroom reading to the different adults. As each book was read, it was collected and added to the finished pile. By 11:00 all the read books were stacked up and then counted into pile of ten books each.

The class then counted the piles by tens until we reached the grand total of 170 books read! With much cheering, we celebrated our exciting accomplishment. This meant that each child read about 9 to 10 books each during the hour. We had a lot of fun and each child was proud to be able to show off their terrific reading skills.

Great Job, Class!

IMPORTANT ONLINE RE-ENROLLMENT INFORMATION:
We are excited to announce that we are moving to an online re-enrollment process! This will allow you to complete your enrollment contract online, as well as make payments online. We believe that this will save you time and effort.

You will no longer need to complete lengthy paperwork, as student information will be pre-populated on each student's individual enrollment form. Once the enrollment contract is submitted online, you will be able to print a copy of the contract for your records.

In addition, we are pleased to offer you an easy, secure online payment system to make electronic payments of tuition deposits, tuition refund plan payments, tuition, and donation payments. This convenient alternative for families will allow you to make electronic payments by e-check or credit card (Master Card, American Express or Discover only).

A convenience fee of 2.75% will be charged if you use a credit card; however, there is no fee for using e-check, which is a direct debit to your bank account. You will be receiving further information the week of February 16.

100 Days of Kindergarten!

This Thursday, February 3, will be our 100th day of school! Just think how far each student has come! We are all reading many words and writing many numbers! Everyone is writing terrific Small Moments Stories! We have learned so much about our five senses, about where animals live and how they move, and recently about weather and the five seasons! We have learned about our classmates and about the holidays! We have learned about cooperating and sharing, about being dilegent with our assignments, and always doing our personal best! And 75 more days of kindergarten to have fun and to continue to grow and bloom!

On Day 100 I will challenge the class to read 100 books. If you can help us fulfill this goal, please stop by our classroom on Thursday from 10:00-11:00 to listen to the children read. If you can't stay the whole hour, come for what ever part you are available.

Other events on Day 100 will include writing to 100, drawing 100 things, touring the 100 Day Museum with all our great projects that we made with 100 items, and creating a snack with 100 treats! We will also talk about what we would like to have 100 of and what we do NOT want to have 100 of! Day 100 will be a very busy and fun-filled day!

Partner Reading

The children read daily in a variety of different ways. Each week the students shop for five new books from book baskets that hold books on their reading levels. We call these their "just right" books, meaning that they are books that are not too hard or too easy for them to read independently. These five books go into their baggies which are stored in their seat pockets.

The first day we read these books privately, practicing using picture clues and decoding skills to read some unfamiliar words. The teachers circulate, listening to each child read a page or two from one of their new books.

The next day will find the children choosing reading partners. Off they go to various parts of the classroom, sitting shoulder to shoulder, helping each other read their new books. Having a reading buddy is very helpful as the children assist each other to figure out new words and to make sense of the new books. Partners are exchanged often. By rereading a new book several times, the students develop more confidence in their reading abilities and their oral reading will become more expressive and fluent.

The teachers continue to listen to each child read individually throughout the week, encouraging continuous growth both in reading skills and self-confidence. After several days, the children each select one of their baggie books to read the whole book to the teacher. Often this book is sent home in an envelope to be read at home. Many of these books become favorites to be read over and over. Some of the books that were read with partners are often chosen the following week by another student who had the pleasure of having it read to them the week before. The children enjoy partner reading and learn so much from each other.

Writers' Workshop Stories

The class is very motivated to write their personal stories each day. We are continuing to write stories about small moments in our lives. In our daily lessons about writing, we have been talking about how to make our writing so it is easy to read. Using examples from student writing from our class, samples were shown that illustrate good writing that is easy to read. We focused on pictures that were drawn clearly, words that had spaces between them, drawings with labels, printing that was neat, and sentences with good spelling, both standard and phonetic. After writing for about 25 minutes today, the class brought their stories to the circle to share how their stories were easy to read. We also discussed that one of the purposes of writing is so that it can be read by ourselves and by others. The class is doing a terrific job!

Celebrating Our Writing

Since early December we have been busy learning to write books written with word patterns. First we started writing lists of items that were related. Next we transformed these lists onto book pages by adding words to create sentences in patterns. Next, we illustrated each page, added titles and page numbers. Since the winter break we have been talking about changing the words on the last page to make a "twist" ending. These ending usually summarized each book and are often similar to each book's title. Each child went back through his or hers stack of completed books, adding a page at the back to create "twist" endings. We checked to make sure all of our books were completed and reported our book count. Most children have completed about 7 books, some as many as 11. Choosing their best work to share, each child took a turn reading and displaying their publish piece on the Elmo document camera. During this "Author's Celebration" we enjoyed popcorn, juice, and rounds of applause. Each child's completed set of books are kept in individual book baskets to be reread often. In the future we will also be making additional books to add to our collections. But for now, we are returning to writing more three page stories about our own lives. We will be stressing writing so that our stories are easy to read both for ourselves and for others.

It's not too late to reply for our upcoming "Math Night", January 20th at 7:00 pm. We look forward to sharing the Everyday Math Program for grades Kindergarten through fourth.

Thank you to our parent volunteers for their support with science, cooking, book check, and classroom activities.

Welcome, Bronwyn, to Our Class!

Today our class welcomes the New Year and a new classmate, Bronwyn. We are very excite to have another girl in our class, bringing the number of girls to eight, plus our ten boys for a total of 18. Mrs. Kiernan and I like having an even number of students in our class since we do so many activities with partners.

We had fun today interviewing Bronwyn. We found out that her favorite color is pink, favorite food is spaghetti, favorite fruit is watermelon, and her favorite vegetable is green beans. She has a dog, a hedgehog, and fish, but no pet cats. At school she likes to play with her new friends and use the slide on the playground. Her favorite place to go is Busch Gardens and her favorite animals are dolphin.

To find out more about our math curriculum from kindergarten through fourth grade, which is based on the "Everyday Mathematics" program, plan to attend Math Night on Thursday, January 20 at 7:00.

I had an enjoyable holiday in Michigan with my family. I was busy taking care of Baby Jaxon. Thank you to all of you for your special interest in my infant grandson. He is adorable!