I hope you all enjoyed your Winter Break.  It was a great time to spend with family and friends!  As we begin 2012, Mr. Smith’s class has a lot of accomplishments to celebrate and is looking forward to many new experiences. 

We only had a few weeks in December.  During those weeks we had so much fun practicing for our Winter Program and learning how to apply many of the skills that we learned over the first trimester of school. Students worked hard to become mathematicians, readers, writers, artists, and musicians!  Much of our learning was focused around holiday based themes. 

The students made trees and snowmen in Art which decorated our class poster during the program.  The poster now adorns the hall outside our classroom.  If you haven’t had a chance to see it, please come and take a look!  Our class worked hard to learn to follow step by step instructions.  This not only helps them to work on good listening skills, it provides the opportunity for them to develop patience when moving from one step to the next.  They took great pride in the art that they produced because it wasn’t rushed through. 

We continued to apply many reading and math skills to our gingerbread man theme.  Students listened to and read several stories revolving around this classic story.  They practiced retelling stories and making  personal connections to them.  These are crucial skills for your child to practice when reading stories at home. 

In math students used paper gingerbread men to work with addition and subtraction problems.  They learned about counting on and comparing groups.  They used  math vocabulary (more than, less than and equal or the same) to make comparisons.  The students took one bite of a gingerbread man cookie and then created a graph using a paper gingerbread man to record their data.  They then analyzed the graph, comparing which part most students bit off first.  The class found that most students preferred to bite off the head first. 

All of the students enjoyed the games and activities that we played to reinforce their letter and sound recognition in class.  They worked on phonics activities that helped them to use those skills to identify the  beginning sounds in words.  They practiced building three letter words with letter beads that they slid together on a string.   The students continued to work on rhyming skills and started creating word family cards to put up on our wall.  They began to familiarize themselves with how the “H Brothers” can be used to make more words for our word family cards.  The four diagraphs are: /wh/, /th/, /sh/ and /ch/.  Students  continued to practice their  popcorn words by using them in their   writing, creating bingo cards, playing games like “BANG!,” and looking for them in the books they were reading.  It is important to review all of the letters, diagraphs and sight (popcorn) words at home. 

We ended the month of  December with the Winter Program, a Reading is Fundamental Day and Christmas Party.  The  students did a great job performing twice for the community.  They sang, “Santa is My Buddy” and “Jingle Bells.” 

In January students will continue many of the same “Learning Targets” that they were working on in December. 

In reading students will practice finding popcorn words and picture clues in their stories to help them read.  They will also practice touching each word and hopping over the spaces as they worked through text.  This is called “tracking” or “touch-reading.” Students will need to be able to use these strategies in February.  This is when they will be given their initial reading  assessment: “Developmental Reading Assessment.”  Your child will be able to show how s/he is applying the skills and strategies that the class has been working on, thus far.  We can then set some individual goals for your child to work on during reading time in class and at home.

The class will continue to familiarize themselves with making connections to the stories we read and retelling them in sequence.  We will start discussing the characters, setting, problems and solutions in stories. This is something you can do with your child at home, also.

The January writing targets will remain the same.  Students need quite a bit of practice thinking of stories about small moments in their lives.  It is difficult for them to try to pull a small moment out of something big that has happened to them.  It is easy to get  confused when trying to write about something that is made up or too big of an event.  So, this month your child will think of one small moment, draw a picture, label, and attempt at least one sentence for each story.

In math we will continue to work on counting sets of objects.  We will compare them and use comparative vocabulary such as: most, least, smallest, largest, more than, less than, equal to and the same.  We will use story problems to add to or take away from a set.  We will draw pictures to represent the story and begin to write number sentences to solve the problems.  Finally, we will work on identifying and describing how many sides and corners each 2-dimensional shape has.

Last month we began working on “The Gingerbread Man” stories.  There are so many different versions that we will begin this month by finishing up those stories and then move onto winter stories.  There are several winter stories by Jan Brett that are great for teaching students to retell the sequence of events.

 Book Orders

I will be sending out January book orders with this  newsletter.  If you would like to purchase any books in this order, please return the order form with a check or money order on  Friday the 6th.  NO CASH PLEASE!  This is a great way to build your home library.  Plus, for every dollar that you spend, the classroom gets bonus points to use to purchase books!

Please, don’t forget to send more snack for December if you can.  Thanks for all your help.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

January Learning Targets:

 Help your child aim for these academic targets this month.

Reading: Students will touch each word and hop over each space as they are reading.

 Reading: Students will use the initial sound and picture clues within a story to help read unknown words.

 Reading: Students will identify the characters (who?)and setting (where?) of a story.

 Writing: Students will think of stories about “small moments” in their lives.

 Writing: Students will use beginning and ending sounds to write words in a sentence about their stories.

 Writing: Students will begin to correctly spell popcorn words in the sentences that they write.

 Math: Students recognize and use the numbers from 0-20.

 Math: Students will use pictures and numbers to solve word problems.

 Math: Students will identify and describe 2-D shapes:  circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon.

The weather definitely made November an interesting month for Mr. Smith’s class.  The students watched as fall turned quickly to winter with snow, wind and cold!

During the weeks of November we studied two new animals to finish up our Animals 2X2 science curriculum.  Students learned that worms come in many sizes.  They learned that worms have tiny bristles to help them move through soil.  We discussed how snails are harmful to gardens and worms are helpful.  Then we studied isopods.  These small animals can be found in moist areas in gardens under rocks and leaves.  You may know them by their common names pill bugs and sow bugs.  They need moisture because they breathe through gills.  They are not insects because they have 14 legs.   They have a hard shell called a carapace to protect themselves.  Pill bugs can roll up into a ball and sow bugs can move very quickly to try to escape harm.

In reading students practiced finding  popcorn words and picture clues in their stories to help them read.  They also practiced touching each word and hopping over the spaces as they worked through text.

Students wrote stories of playing in the snow and building snowmen.  They added snowy days to the weather graph on the calendar.  Snow boots, mittens, hats and gloves decorated our classroom.

Even though the students had a lot of early winter fun, the wreaked havoc on our evening conferences during conference week.  I want to thank all of the parents who risked the winter roads to come to their child’s conferences, as well as, those who have had to reschedule and come in after Thanksgiving Break.

As the end of the first trimester approached everyone worked so very hard practicing letter names and sounds, as well as, sight words.  We have finished our reading wall and every student has a letter that they are the expert of.  Just this week we added “The ‘H’ Brothers” to the wall.  These are the four diagraphs: /wh/, /th/, /sh/ and /ch/.  It is important to review all of the letters, diagraphs and sight words that we have been practicing at home.

I enjoyed sharing the all of the progress that your child has been making this trimester.  Keep working on the foundational skills that we focused on in September, October and November.

Since the beginning of school the students have been reading a collection of paper books and keeping them in their book tubs.   They have been looking for “popcorn words” and circling them. On Monday these books will be sent home.  Please take time to read these books with your child and then have him or her circle any “popcorn words” that he or she may have missed.  Keep them in a collection box (eg. shoe box) so that when your child needs more books to read or something to color these will be available.

We spent time during conferences going over many of the activities and material that was covered during the first trimester.  So, for the rest of this months news letter I intend to focus on looking forward to the month of  December.

As we finish our 2011, we will be taking many of the skills that we learned over the first three months of school and applying them. Students will continue to have fun developing the skills to become            mathematicians, readers, writers, artists, and musicians!  Many of the activities that we will be doing will be  focused around holiday based themes.

In music class students will be preparing for our winter program.  They will be learning to holiday songs to perform with Mrs. Squires’ kindergarten class and one song to be sung as a finale with the entire school.  The program will be performed twice on December 15th (once at 9:30 and again at 1:00).  Please, plan to attend one of these and come early as seating is limited.  Our winter    program is always well attended and standing room only.

In art we will be learning to follow step by step  instructions as we prepare a large poster for the program.  Students will be using drawing and  cutting skills to creatively produce their  works of art!

We will be developing skills in reading and math focused around the stories about the gingerbread man.  Students will be listening to and reading many versions of the story.  They will be practicing retelling stories and making connections.  In math students will be using paper gingerbread men to work with addition and subtraction.  The students will work on graphs and word problems.  It is important that they learn to recognize and use their numbers up to 12 during December.

Students will be writing stories based on their life experiences.  Many will choose to write holiday themed stories and letters.  Some will write stories about small moments in their lives.  They will learn to use          beginning and ending sounds when trying to write  unknown words.  By the end of the month most students should attempting to write a sentence about their story.

On the 16th we will have a Reading is Fundamental event during the school day.  In the past we have had these events in the evenings and many students missed the opportunity to experience the activities.  For the event on the 16th we will have activities all day focused around The Polar Express  children’s book.  It is a Christmas tale of a boys adventure to the North Pole on a train.

In the morning we will watch the movie The Polar Express. In the afternoon we will read the story and discuss the  differences and similarities between the book and movie.  Then we will have an art activity.  The day will culminate with a holiday celebration with hot cocoa, cookies and bingo.  Each student will get to choose a book of their very own to take home and keep forever.  It should be a memorable day for all!

Please, don’t forget to send more snack for December if you can.  Thanks for all your help.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  It is going to be a great school year!

December Learning Targets:

Help your child aim for these academic targets this month.

Reading: Students will touch each word and hop over each space as they are reading.

Reading: Students will use the initial sound and picture clues within a story to help read unknown words.

Reading: Students will identify popcorn words and reading them in their stories.

Writing: Students will think of stories about “small moments” in their lives.

Writing: Students will use beginning and ending sounds to write a sentence about their stories.

Writing: Students will begin to spell popcorn words in the sentences that they write.

Math: Students recognize and use the numbers from    0-12 to match sets of objects of equal number.

Math: Students will use pictures and numbers to solve word problems.

Math: Students will identify and describe 2-D shapes:  circle, square, rectangle and triangle.

October was a month filled with  discoveries for Mr. Smith’s kindergartners.  Our class had an awesome time learning many new skills and fun facts this month!  

We continued getting to know each other, as well as, practicing our procedures and routines all month.   We have learned to follow the rules for our classroom and school and had a behavior party to celebrate our success.  Students are still making new friends and working on their friendship skills. 

We began homework the first week of October. Each student brought home a early level (paper) homework book to read with their families over the week.  They should start their reading time each night with their homework book.  They can practice finding letters, words and spaces.  Practice finding the front and back, as well as, the title.  They can touch each word as you read it to them and then they can “echo-read” it back to you  touching the words.  By the end of the week your child may even be reading the book to you!  Use this book as a warm-up and then let them pick their  favorites from your own library. Try to read around 15-20 minutes with him or her each night.  Above all, enjoy this time and have fun!  These paper homework books should be returned on Friday with your child’s homework so that they can continue to practice reading them in class.

Along with the reading homework your child will have four different activities to practice skills that we have been working on in class each week.  You can work on one each night or do them all in the same evening.  If you find that your child is struggling to do one of these skills, s/he made need to practice it more.   

On the back of the homework sheets are be three sight words that have been introduced in the classroom.  Put these words on index cards and use them as flashcards. Look for them in books,  magazines and newspapers.  Your child can practice writing them in the spaces or glue words found in articles that can be cut out.

 During the first week of October in Mr. Smith’s All-Day Kindergarten class we began to study goldfish.  We observed our new class pets “Fred, Ginger, and Gus” in their fish tank.

 We also continued practicing number writing, counting, and representation in our October Math Journal.  We also worked on patterning by making pattern snakes.

 We added guppies to our science animal study during the second week of October.  The students enjoyed seeing a different kind of fish in our classroom and made many comparisons to the goldfish.  We were especially excited to find that our guppies had live babies in their tank on the second day.  These new additions were so small, but are growing quickly!

 In addition to studying fish, we looked at patterns in a new way.  We made hopscotch paths by alternating the number of squares in a pattern. The students recorded their designs  and then we drew them on the blacktop and practiced hopping on them.

 In the third week of October we began our study of apples.  The students each brought apples in and we graphed them by color.  We weighed them, measured their circumference, drew pictures of them, made pattern borders to frame the pictures we drew of them, and we made a puppet to take home.

 We continued to add to the animals in our classroom by looking at land and water snails.  Students labeled the snail’s parts and did many observations of how they moved.

 The fourth week was packed full of activity.  We started the week finishing our study of apples by cutting our apples into small pieces and cooking them to make apple sauce.  We then did a taste test of different products made from apples. 

Students chose from apple juice, dried apples, a slice of whole apple, or our homemade apple sauce.  When the results were graphed, we found that apple juice was the overwhelming favorite!

 In science our snail unit ended with “The Great Snail Race.”  It was definitely an interesting one to watch, as snails climbed over each other to reach the lettuce on the outside of the track.  The next animals to be studied are earthworms and redworms.  We had a little fun with this during our Harvest Party on Friday, as students were given a gummy worm in a cup of Oreos and chocolate pudding mixed to look just like dirt.  Many didn’t want to try it until they were told what it was.   

  It has been an Awesome October for us all.  The students had so much fun discovering, being scientists, mathematicians, readers, writers, artists, and musicians!  We have been working hard to meet all of our October Learning Targets.  Every student is now a Letter Expert!  We are using all of the letters and their sounds in our reading and writing.

 With the introduction of each new letter I have sent home a “little letter book” for you to read and discuss with your child.  Please keep all of these in a box so that you can review them over and over.  If your child is missing any of them, please let me know and I will be happy to make another one for him or her.

 Thanks for all your help.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  It is going to be a great school year!

The month of September flew by for Mr. Smith’s kindergartners.  It was a truly memorable month for our class!  

We have had a great time getting to know each other and how to be good learners.  We have been practicing our procedures and routines all month.   We are learning to follow the rules for our classroom and school.

As the school year began at Deer Park    Elementary, the excitement could be felt most by the kindergarten students.  In Mr. Smith’s class the students spent much of the first few days practicing procedures,  touring the school, and making new friends.

We have started with 19 students; 8 boys and 11 girls.  All of the students did a great job learning the school’s guidelines. 

The first week’s activities revolved around the book “The Kissing Hand.”  It is a story that talks about first day worries.  We had many good discussions about worries that can come when you are starting something new.  The students seem to be settling into the classroom  routine very well.

We also used the story to discuss the characters and made a Chester puppet.  Then we did an activity that focused on the beginning, middle and end of the story.

During the second week in Mr. Smith’s All-Day Kindergarten class we began to study colors and    numbers.  We began with the  primary colors: red, yellow and blue.  We also practiced writing the numbers 0 thru 5.

We read the book, “The Enormous Watermelon” over and over.  It is a       wonderful book in which the    characters Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, and Wee Willy Winkie help Old Mother  Hubbard pull a huge watermelon home and get to share it together. 

This led us to study a watermelon.  We did many activities with our watermelon.  Before we cut it we put it in water and found that watermelon float. We weighed it and ate it.  We talked about what it looked like, tasted like and felt like.  The students loved the discoveries we made and the sweet treat!

During the third week we worked on writing the numbers 6 thru 10 and  finished the     secondary colors: orange, green and purple. Then we did pink, black, and white. After we finished the colors each student voted on their favorite. We created a  predictable chart and our first class book called, “We like colors.”  The book follows the pattern “I like (color), said (student’s name).”

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom several times.  This began our discussion of  uppercase and lowercase letters.  We started drawing names for Letter Experts on our reading wall.  If your child’s name has not been drawn yet, please continue to look for the gold sheet in your child’s folder.  We will continue to choose new “experts” for the next few weeks.

Each day I have sent home a new “little letter book” for you to read and discuss with your child.  Please keep all of these in a box so that you can review them over and over.

When we got to week four we began to discuss AB patterns and focused on counting sets of objects in class.

We also began Reader’s Workshop Stations.  Students were put into groups of two or three and given one station to go to each day.  The reading playstations involve many early reading skills.  They went to listening center to practice following a story, computers to practice letters on the website starfall. com, phonics to practice a rhyming game, spelling to practice matching letter puzzle pieces to picture words, ABC to practice matching lowercase letters, library to practice looking at books and Games to practice matching student pictures to names.

Last week the students had a great time learning about the farm.  We read many farm related books, talked about farm animals, sang farm songs like “Old MacDonald,” and we even made our names out of beans!

The students ended the week by going on a  fieldtrip to the Clayton Fairgrounds.  The Deer Park High School FFA put on a great show!  We saw a horse, a rabbit, a pig, cows, chickens, goats, and sheep.  There were  exhibits with tractors, branding, roping and more.  They all did a great job listening and following directions from the adults and high school students.  I was very proud of them!

It has truly been a September to Remember.  The students are all having so much fun!

Thanks for all your help.  Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  It is going to be a great school year!

I would like to welcome all of the new kindergarten students in my classroom and their families to the 2011-12  school year at Deer Park Elementary.  I am looking forward to meeting all of you at our Kindergarten Orientation on August 29th. 

Students will have the chance to meet me, take a look around their classroom and meet some of their classmates.  We will be discussing what to expect during the first days of school.  I will be giving each family a welcome folder that contains important information to help your child have a successful year.  I will be taking pictures of each student with their families.  These pictures will be placed on our classroom wall to remember the day.  Each student will receive a “Cool Kindergartener” bracelet.

If you cannot make it to your scheduled time, please call me at 464-5614  to schedule a different time. 

This is the first post of the school year.  Please, continue to check back to this website regularly.  I will continue to post new information monthly. 

If you have any question, please feel free to contact me using the contact information on the home page.