Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Placemats
The students enjoyed eating their snacks on the special placemats they made using weaving patterns!
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Monday, November 21, 2016
Friday, November 18, 2016
November 18, 2016 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We've had another busy week in Room 115! We have learned a little about Wampanoags and Pilgrims. We read a story called “Tapenum” about a young Native American. We also read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl. We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!
The students wove placemants, decorated Native American tipis, and started making turkeys in the art area. They completed two class books about where they live and what they are thankful for. These books will be circulating around to homes along with all of our previous ones. Please be sure to read the books with your family and send them back to school as soon as possible for others to enjoy. The students also wrote about the Pilgrim boy and girl we read about and did some more rhyming activities too.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school. Dismissal will be around 11:30am. A form went home this past week for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents. Please return the form as soon as possible. Lunch will not be served at school that day.
It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities! We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 15th. Please be sure to send in the $10 for the field trip. There are several parents interested in volunteering for the field trip. I will be pulling names from a hat/bowl early next week and will send a confirmation email by Tuesday. We are tentatively planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Thursday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An invitation will be going home soon. It is one of the biggest highlights from our year in Kindergarten!
We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too. You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme. It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers. Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!
There is a great website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice. It is www.starfall.com. It may be fun for the students to explore.
There is a Principal’s Confidentiality Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 6 at 8am. If you haven’t attended one yet, I would encourage you to try to make it. It is one of the requirements for volunteering in the classroom and chaperoning field trips.
I am looking forward to meeting with you for conferences the week after Thanksgiving. Please be sure to check the schedule and let me know if you can’t make it.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!
We've had another busy week in Room 115! We have learned a little about Wampanoags and Pilgrims. We read a story called “Tapenum” about a young Native American. We also read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl. We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!
The students wove placemants, decorated Native American tipis, and started making turkeys in the art area. They completed two class books about where they live and what they are thankful for. These books will be circulating around to homes along with all of our previous ones. Please be sure to read the books with your family and send them back to school as soon as possible for others to enjoy. The students also wrote about the Pilgrim boy and girl we read about and did some more rhyming activities too.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school. Dismissal will be around 11:30am. A form went home this past week for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents. Please return the form as soon as possible. Lunch will not be served at school that day.
It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities! We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 15th. Please be sure to send in the $10 for the field trip. There are several parents interested in volunteering for the field trip. I will be pulling names from a hat/bowl early next week and will send a confirmation email by Tuesday. We are tentatively planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Thursday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An invitation will be going home soon. It is one of the biggest highlights from our year in Kindergarten!
We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too. You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme. It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers. Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!
There is a great website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice. It is www.starfall.com. It may be fun for the students to explore.
There is a Principal’s Confidentiality Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 6 at 8am. If you haven’t attended one yet, I would encourage you to try to make it. It is one of the requirements for volunteering in the classroom and chaperoning field trips.
I am looking forward to meeting with you for conferences the week after Thanksgiving. Please be sure to check the schedule and let me know if you can’t make it.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Cloud Show
Mr. Musselman from the Burlington Science Center visited our classroom today and taught us some interesting facts about clouds! He even taught us how to make clouds!
What did we learn?
Clouds come in different shapes and form in different parts of the sky. Different kinds of clouds tell us about different kinds of weather...
Cirrus Clouds - form high in the sky where it is cold, can form before a storm.
Cumulus Clouds - look like puffy cotton balls and form low in the sky.
Nimbus Clouds - rain may be on the way!
Stratus Clouds - are like damp sheets, hang low in the sky and often cover the whole sky, rain or snow may be on the way.
Clouds are made up of three ingredients, water, heat and cold air. You can make one in your own kitchen!
How to make a cloud:
1. Heat up water.
2. Put snow, ice or ice pack in an aluminum pie plate.
3, Cover water with aluminum pie plate.
What did we learn?
Clouds come in different shapes and form in different parts of the sky. Different kinds of clouds tell us about different kinds of weather...
Cirrus Clouds - form high in the sky where it is cold, can form before a storm.
Cumulus Clouds - look like puffy cotton balls and form low in the sky.
Nimbus Clouds - rain may be on the way!
Stratus Clouds - are like damp sheets, hang low in the sky and often cover the whole sky, rain or snow may be on the way.
Clouds are made up of three ingredients, water, heat and cold air. You can make one in your own kitchen!
How to make a cloud:
1. Heat up water.
2. Put snow, ice or ice pack in an aluminum pie plate.
3, Cover water with aluminum pie plate.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Veterans Day Assembly
Our school honored several veterans and serviceman today at our whole school assembly out by the flag in front of our school. Our class enjoyed learning more about Veterans Day and some of the American symbols we have been learning about. We also enjoyed listening to the fourth and fifth graders sing some patriotic songs and to one of the music teachers play the Taps on her trumpet.
We want to give a special thank you to all the men and women who have served or who are currently serving our country, especially to those connected in some way to our classroom!
The Bald Eagle...Another American Symbol
The students enjoyed learning many interesting facts about bald eagles including why the bald eagle was chosen to be a symbol of the United States of America. They used their hands to make their own bald eagles to help decorate our classroom.
Friday, November 4, 2016
November 4, 2016 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We had a busy week in Room 115! We started the week with our Halloween Parade and had a lot of fun dressing up and doing some fun Halloween projects. We spent the rest of the week talking about our families and American symbols. The students created large collages of their families and labeled each family member. This was a huge project and the students put a lot of effort into them. They look amazing on display in our classroom.
The students enjoyed learning about some American symbols. We will continue learning more about them next week and will talk a little about the election and voting process. We made a giant flag using hand prints as well as bald eagles. The students enjoyed learning more about bald eagles this week and actually did a small research report on them too! You will have to ask your child about what bald eagles eat and where they live! We started a book on American symbols today and will continue it next week. The students were excited to share what they already knew about them!
The students completed more class books this weeks, which are circulating around to different homes. Please be sure to read the books with your child when they come home and return them on the next school day. The students also completed an individual book about things they like. They will practice reading them a few more times at school but will bring them home soon for more practice.
We will start learning about the Wampanoags and Pilgrims during the next couple of weeks before Thanksgiving. I hope the students will be able to comprehend a little about how different it was to live 400 years ago. We will start the unit by reading a book by Kate Waters entitled, "Tapenaum, the Story of an Indian Boy". This book has accurate information and photos taken from the Wampanoag village at Plimouth Plantation. It is a book that depicts the lives of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags in the 1620's. We try to emphasize how different their lives were from ours, but that family was then, and is now, very important. Hopefully they will come away from this unit with a tiny bit of understanding and thankfulness for all we have today.
We will continue talking about our our families and homes. Please help your child learn his/her address and phone number. Both are important pieces of information for them to know.
The students have been working hard in math. We are still working on writing our numbers, one to one correspondence, and different math language (i.e. which is more or fewer, etc.). Please take a careful look at the math papers coming home and ask your child to explain what they learned for extra reinforcement.
Reminder: No school on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday next week.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS...Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings this weekend!
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