Exploring and Learning

Although we had a short week this past week, we still managed to be very busy! We have been exploring Chinese New Year and the traditions that surround it, such as different types of food, decorations, Chinese dragon dances and of course learning a fun new song too!

We will finish off our Chinese New Year unit by celebrating the day on January 31st. We will march to our own dragon dance through the halls of CCS to show off our creative masks. If there are any parents interested in sharing their Chinese New Year traditions, or even to bring in any special treats, please see Mrs Lemire.

Special Presentation:

Today we had a special presentation on Hand Washing and Germs given by a parent from Mrs Olaybal's class. We learnt the importance of hand washing, where germs hide, and even how to properly wash our hands. Here is a song to help us remember: 

Twinkle twinkle little star

Look how clean my two hands are

Soap and water wash and scrub

Get those germs off rub a dub

Twinkle twinkle little star 

Look how clean my two hands are

We will be practicing this song in class too!

Goats !

We also had a special presentation this week by Faith Benko, a Grade 5 CCS student. She is planning a trip on Spring Break with her family to Kenya, where she will be participating in the Me to We initiative to bring goats to families in need of them. Faith has challenged all CCS students to take part in raising money to provide goats for communities. Each goat costs $50, so if you are able to make a donation ($1-$2) or have any spare change around the house, please send it in so our class can buy a goat!

For more information on Me to We: http://www.metowe.com/

Speech Arts:

On Monday there will be a notice coming home regarding the Speech Arts Festival. This is a fun event taking place within our school to motivate and encourage students in public speaking. Although there are a variety of events taking place, Kindergarten students will be participating in a Choral Recitation of a poem (included in handout) and have the option of also reciting a poem individually and reading a Bible passage. There is in depth information on the Speech Arts Festival in the notice coming home, so please be sure to read it and go over it with your child. We will begin our in class practice of our poem on Monday.

Valentines Day Celebrations

As Valentines Day is coming up in a few weeks there are a couple reminders:

• if your child may want to bring in treats and/or cards for their classmates. If you are sending in cards and do not have a class list with all the students names, please see Mrs Lemire for one. 
• if you would like to bring in treats for the class we will be having our party on Feb 12th in the afternoon

Student Led Conferences:

 On Feb 20th and 21st we will be having Student Led Conferences. These are conferences where your child will take you on a tour of their classroom, show you their best work and even be able to create a mini project with you. There will be a variety of times to which you can sign up for your conference during these days. A sign up sheet for this will be outside the classroom door in the next few weeks. I will also be posting further details about these two days closer to the event itself.

100 days of school project:

Yes we have almost made it 100 days!! In Kindergarten we are getting very excited about our 100 days of school celebration and we will be exploring different activities during the day all focusing on the number 100. We will also be joining Mrs Olaybal and Miss Da Cruz's classes for more 100 day fun!

On February 3rd I will be sending home a project for your child to complete. They will receive a large piece of construction paper and will have to glue on 100 items, and return it to school the following week to display and share. Some ideas for the poster are: stickers, Cheerios, beads, paperclips...etc. Anything that can stick to the paper and will not go moldy is fair game! I will be discussing this with the students, sending home the construction paper and instructions soon. 

Star of the Week: This week our shining star was Shady ! Way to go Shady ! Here are some kind words from your classmates:

He is awesome!

He is cool!

He loves all of us.

He plays with everyone.

He is good at school.

Reading:  As we are getting closer to finish our Letters of the Week, we have now begun to introduce sight words in class. Students are beginning to bring back their practiced sight words challenging themselves to work on more and more words. We are tracking their wonderful progress and are thrilled they are as excited about learning to read as we are!

This week we have begun a class challenge...to begin reading !The class challenge is to read a story to me (Mrs. Lemire) chosen from our class Library that they have practiced on their own. They goal is to get the students excited about reading and motivated to read. The focus is for them to take initiative to find a book, look through it, and either read the book to me or pick out words they do recognize. If there is a book that your child really enjoys at home and would like to bring in to me to read, they are more than welcome to do so. We are charting their progress and they are very excited to see the stickers growing beside their names!

Keep up the great work Kindergartens!

Next week Events:

Theme: Groundhog Day

Letter of the Week:  "Q"

We have had an exciting week here in Kindergarten!

 With my first week here in Kindergarten at CCS the students and I have had a wonderful time trying new activities and of course they have been super helpful in reminding me of their routines as well. I would like to thank all the parents who have visited the classroom this week as well as those parents who have stopped by to say hello in the mornings and after school. It has been a great week getting to know everybody.

Take a look at some of the things we explored this past week:

Theme: We have been learning about Penguins this week and have been watching real live penguins from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We have seen them swim, eat and even rest and have quiet time just like us! We made observations on our new friends and drew pictures to record the events. Along with studying where they live, what they eat and how they move we have also painted our own penguin pictures using our foot prints.

        I would encourage watching and observing the penguins at home with your child so they can explain to you their new knowledge of Penguins. The link to the website is as follows:

        http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_splash/splash_cam.asp

Science: Thank you to all students and parents who brought in soil and rocks for our exploration in Science. We explored the different types of soil brought into class and what things can be found in the soil. We even found a few worms in some of our samples! We also looked at rocks and discovered similarities and differences in all our examples from home. Please continue to bring in rocks next week as we will be learning how to sort them in different ways.

Religion: This week we discussed how Jesus is a Shepherd and we are the sheep. In addition to decorating out classroom bulletin board with our own sheep, we also talked about how Jesus cares for each and every one of us in different ways. In learning about Jesus the Shepherd we read the story “The Lost Lamb”. The students made great connections to the lamb and themselves understanding how Jesus cares for us even when we stray away.

Printing & Language Arts: We are continuing to work or way through the letters of the week emphasizing  printing skills and expressing our ideas and thoughts through pictures and writing. The students have been working on “Juicy Words” (words that can help express more creativity and make our writing more exciting) which they have been discovering on their own !

 Our juicy words so far:

Gorgeous

Awesome

Beautiful

Fantastic

Fabulous

        

Star of The Week:  Since we did not have a post for last week we have two Star of the Week announcements this week:

Last week Kai was Star of the Week, and this is what his classmates had to say :

He plays with everyone

He loves everyone in the whole wide world.

He is awesome! 

He is a nice artist 

He is gorgeous!

        This week William was Star of the Week and his classmates thought of these wonderful words:

He is gorgeous! 

He is a good friend. 

He is super awesome! 

He is a really good artist. 

He loves everybody.

Reminders for next week:

January 20 Pro-D Day: Please remember there is a Pro-D Day coming this Monday January 20.

January 22^nd we will be having a Pizza Lunch in the classroom (details to follow)

Letter of the Week: Next week’s letter is “P”

Theme: We will be looking at Chinese New Year next week in preparation for the special day on January 31. If there are any families that celebrate Chinese New Year and would like to share their experiences / traditions with the class, please email me (Mrs. Lemire) with information.

Upcoming Events:

-          Speech Arts Festival (information to come soon)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy 2014!  I hope everyone has been enjoying the wonderful Christmas season and that 2014 has started off to be a fantastic year for you all.  It is hard to believe that we are already back to school on Monday when we celebrate the 12th day of Christmas...the Epiphany!  As we celebrate the three wise men's arrival to bring their gifts to Baby Jesus, I hope we also take the time to think about all the gifts we have in our own lives and that we keep the spirit of Christmas with us throughout the year. 

As we welcome all the students back on Monday, we are also welcoming our new teacher, Melissa Lemire.  Both of us will be in the classroom this week and I would encourage all of you to feel free to pop in, introduce yourself and say hello to Mrs. Lemire.  Mrs. Lemire will be getting to know the students and our classroom routines but it will also be wonderful to meet as many parents as possible so you are welcome to stop by at your convenience.  Welcome, Mrs. Lemire!!!

And as we get back to the school routine, here are a few reminders and heads up for what will be happening over the next few days/weeks...

• HOT LUNCH: Just a reminder that we are starting our new Hot Lunch program that takes place every two weeks.  The first Hot Lunch will be on January 15th but orders need to be placed online 10 days prior so make sure your orders are in by Sunday, January 5th if you wish to order.  Thank you!
• HOLY CHILDHOOD BOXES: We have been encouraging the students to collect money for children in other countries in their Holy Childhood Boxes that they brought home during Advent and we ask that all donations come in no later than Friday, January 10th.  If you have misplaced the box, please send the money in a ziploc bag so your child can add it to our collection.  THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUSITY!
• FOOD BANK MASS:  This Friday is our first Food Bank Mass of 2014.  Please be generous!
• SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS:  Your child will bring home an order form on Monday as we ask that you send in any orders by Thursday, January 9th.  Thank you!
• ROCKS & DIRT:  We have started exploring the world around us, looking at the weather and now the earth itself.  We will focus on water, land (rocks and soil) and air over the next few weeks and your child will be bringing home a note asking them to bring a rock to school as well as a bag of soil from your home.  Please send these labelled items (small initials on their rock & name on their ziploc bag of soil) by Monday, January 13th as we will be using them in class and making observations.  Thank you for your help.
• SIGHT WORDS:  I am also sending home a note as well as a list of Sight Words that marks the beginning of one of our OPTIONAL home programs in Kindergarten.  There is no expectation that students do extra work at home in Kindergarten as the full day itself is often plenty for most students.  Our first term in Kindergarten has been focused on learning our letters and students should be confident in identifying most or all of both lowercase and uppercase letters.  I encourage families to ask their child the different letters to see which ones they know and which ones may still stump them (usually the ones we don't see too often such as 'Qq').  Our second term together will now be taking a closer look at letter sounds so we are hoping that most students will be familiar with all letter sounds by the end of March.  Our third term will have us looking at Sight Words, which are words that are difficult to sound out and usually are just known by sight. These are words that are high frequency, meaning we see them often in both speech and written word.  While we do not start any routines around Sight Words until April, I know there are some students who have already shown an interest in words and there are some families who have been asking for things to do at home to maintain their child's curiousity.  So we are sending the first Sight Word list home with all of our students and I would encourage you to do what you see fit for your child with them.  You may want to leave them until April (or even the summer) or you may want to look at one or two words each week.  Or you may want to introduce the entire page of words to your child if they are especially interested.  Again, please know that this is completely OPTIONAL and I send home the words for you to use at your discretion.  There is no expectation from our end that the students need to do this at home...it is only if they are interested.  Learning Sight Words will be part of the routine in Grade One and my hope at the end of Kindergarten is just that all of our students know their letters and sounds.  This is just for those who enjoy the extra challenge and are particularly interested in words at this point.  This is a work-at-your-own-pace program so students practice the words on the first list and when they are confident with all the words, they bring it back and Mrs. Lewis will test them.  If they are confident, we give them the next list of words.  The list of words become progressively harder as we go along (ranging from Pre-Primer to Grade Three words).  I have had a few students over the year-who have been incredibly interested in words-read all the lists and if that is to happen, we continue to look for ways to challenge students and keep their interest so then we encourage them to start spelling the words.  This is more of a Grade Two skill but again, in Kindergarten, we often see students show keen interests in different areas and we try to encourage them to explore their curiousity.  By no means should this be something forced on students or something that is not enjoyed.  If you child is not interested in Sight Words, please put it to one side and then try again in another month or two.  Often by April, we see many students eager to start trying Sight Words so perhaps try again then. This is just meant to give you an option.  Any questions or concerns, please let me know.  Their bag of Sight Words will be coming home our first week back.
• STAR OF THE WEEK:  We will be celebrating Kai this week as our first star of 2014! 

Sorry to bring thoughts of school during the holidays...we will spend most of next week just adjusting to being back after all the fun and festivities of the Christmas season but I hope the students are looking forward to seeing all their friends again.  And I have missed them all so I am greatly looking forward to having this time with them and for Mrs. Lemire to get to know everyone.  We have such a wonderful class...I'm sure the rest of the year is going to only get better.  Please say Hi to your child for us and that we can't wait to see them.  See you on Monday and God bless you all!