Kindergarten Kronicles

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• student work 

Upcoming Dates

• May 10: Last Buddy and Spirit Day of the year

• May 13: Kindergarten Music Concert from 8:10-8:45am in the Heart

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration in our classrooms and at Martin Park (9:45-11:30ish)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We are practicing all our SEL skills and strategies we have learned this year!

• We are talking about how the end of the year is bittersweet - we are happy, sad, excited, worried - all at the same time.

Reading & Writing

• We are using all our reading and writing strategies to be amazing kindergarten readers and writers!

• We are working on writing and illustrating our own poems.

• We will be working on Memory Books.

Math

• We are using all our math skills and strategies to be awesome mathematicians.

• We are playing a lot of fun math games.

Favorite Books from the Week

• This Book Just Ate My Dog!, This Book is Out of Control, We're In The Wrong Book, Salina Yoon's Penguin books  (Mrs. Young)

• The Book with No Pictures, Junie B Jones and the Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, Those Pesky Rabbits (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• How are you feeling about the school year coming to an end? 

• Would you rather never grow up or become a grown up right now? Why?

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• student work 

Upcoming Dates

• May 3: Field Day and Talent Show

• May 12: Last Buddy and Spirit Day of the year

• May 13: Kindergarten Music Concert from 8:10-8:45am in the Heart

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration in our classrooms and at Martin Park (9:45-11:30ish)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We are practicing all our SEL skills and strategies we have learned this year!

Reading & Writing

• We are using all our reading and writing strategies to be amazing kindergarten readers and writers!

Math

• We are using all our math skills and strategies to be awesome mathematicians.

Favorite Books from the Week

• Mercy Watson is Missing, You Are Enough, Penguin and Pinecone, Penguin on Vacation  (Mrs. Young)

• Judy B. Jones and Sneaky Peaky Spying, The Book with no Pictures, The Coach Potato(Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What is your favorite activity to do on the Creekside playgrounds? Why is it your favorite?

• If you could do anything, what would you like to do this summer? Why?

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE- wear or being sneakers 

• Mrs. Young: Art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Talent Show Flyer 

• Impact on Education information

• Student work 

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue to practice SAFE and RESPECTFUL words and actions.

• We continue to LEAP.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing.

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, ck.

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters. 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

  • handwriting.

Math

• We took our Unit 5 Pre-Test this week. 

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • 3D shapes that take up space (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism). 

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, trapezoid).

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Three Little Pigs Count to 100, Not a Box, Not a Stick,  That's Good That's Bad, The Enormous Potato  (Mrs. Young)

• Judy B. Jones and her Big Fat Mouth, Henny Penny, The Big Potato (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• How are you feeling about 1st grade? What is your favorite part of kindergarten?

• What questions do you have about 1st grade? 

Upcoming Dates

• May 3: Field Day and Talent Show

• May 12: Last Buddy and Spirit Day of the year

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration (more info coming soon)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Social Justice information

• School Age Care (SAC) information

• class photos (if ordered)

• Creekside vinyl sticker from 100% Creekside - thanks to all who participated!

• student work 

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue to practice SAFE and RESPECTFUL words and actions.

• We continue to LEAP.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing.

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, ck.

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters. 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

  • handwriting.

• Our book collection this week was Cumulative Tales.

Math

• We took our Unit 4 Post-Test this week. 

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • 3D shapes that take up space (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism). 

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, trapezoid).

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Hattie and the Fox, Henny Penny, My Friend Rabbit, The Story of Diva and Flea (Mrs. Young)

• Judy B. Jones and The Little Monkey Business, Hattie and the Fox (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What has been your favorite part of kindergarten so far? Why?

• What can you do to help keep the Earth healthy? What are ways that harm the Earth? 

Upcoming Dates

• April 19-22: NO SCHOOL - conference exchange days

• April 25: Lasagna Dinner

• May 3: Field Day and Talent Show

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration (more info coming soon)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

100% Creekside

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: Art

• Mrs. Young: Music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• FIELD TRIP form to RETURN in Friday Folders ASAP

• Growth Mindset information from Mr. Eric

• Impact On Education Flyer 

• Colorado Rockies 2024 Schedule 

• student work 

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Developing a Growth Mindset video

• The Magical Yet book

• We continue to practice SAFE and RESPECTFUL words and actions.

• We teamed up with 2nd grade buddies to play the arcade games that the 4th and 5th graders created. It was so much fun to spend time with our Creekside family!

• We are reading books and talking about neurodiversity during Autism Awareness Month this April. HERE is a VIDEO about neurodiversity. Sesame Street has a great clip called Meet Julia.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing.

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, ck

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

  • handwriting 

• Our book collection this week was all about Celebrating Differences. HERE is a fun LINK for teacher approved videos to watch with your family about the importance of celebrating differences!

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • 3D shapes that take up space (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism). 

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, trapezoid).

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Story of Diva and Flea, The Story of Ferdinand, The Cow That Went Oink (Mrs. Young)

• Judy B. Jones and The Stupid Smelly Bus, Big Al, It's Okay to be Different (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What has been your favorite part of kindergarten so far? Why?

• What did you learn about the solar eclipse? What was your favorite part of the solar eclipse? 

Upcoming Dates

• April 1-12: 100% Creekside fundraiser

• April 15th: Field trip to the CU Museum of Natural History

• April 19-22: NO SCHOOL - conference exchange days

• April 25: Lasagna Dinner

• May 3: Field Day and Talent Show

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration (more info coming soon)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

Tap HERE for a HelpAtSchools LINK to help give out prizes from the arcade!

100% Creekside

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• FIELD TRIP form to RETURN in Friday Folders ASAP

• 100% Creekside information

• Green Star School sorting activity and information

• Creekside Parents Night Out information

• Rocky Mountain Day Camp information

• student work 

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue to practice SAFE and RESPECTFUL words and actions.

• We teamed up with 2nd grade buddies to play the arcade games that the 4th and 5th graders created. It was so much fun to spend time with our Creekside family!

• We are reading books and talking about neurodiversity during Autism Awareness Month this April. HERE is a VIDEO about neurodiversity. Sesame Street has a great clip called Meet Julia.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing.

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, ck

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

  • handwriting 

• Our book collection this week was a Grace Lin study.

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • 3D shapes that take up space (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism). 

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, trapezoid).

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Bringing in the New Year, A Very Mercy Christmas (our last Mercy Watson book!), I Ain't Gonna Paint No More (Mrs. Young)

•  Ugly Vegetables, The Story of Ferdinand, Leo the Octopus  (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What has been your favorite part of kindergarten so far? Why?

• What has been your favorite part of spring? Why? What has been your least favorite part of spring so far? Why?

• Would you rather have an extra finger or an extra toe? Why?

Upcoming Dates

• April 1-12: 100% Creekside fundraiser

• April 9: Buddy and Spirit Day

• April 10: CPO Adult-Only Night at Tandoori Grill

• April 15th: Field trip to the CU Museum of Natural History

• April 19-22: NO SCHOOL - conference exchange days

• April 25: Lasagna Dinner

• May 3: Field Day and Talent Show

• May 23: Last day of school for students, End-of-Year Celebration (more info coming soon)

• May 24: Last day for teachers

Spring Break Staycation Ideas

ARCADE information and SIGN UP for volunteering for the arcade

Specials for NEXT week (April 1-5): B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Growth Mindset information 

• Class picture day information -April 2

• Creekside Parents Night Out - April 10

• 100% Creekside information

• City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks information (Jeff and Paige scavenger hunt)

• student work 

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue to practice SAFE and RESPECTFUL words and actions.

• Why Do We Lose Control of Our Emotions

• Mr. Eric is teaching us about growth mindset and perseverance. We practice every day!

• The Incredible Power of Yet!

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • informational writing, narrative writing, and opinion writing.

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • digraphs: wh, ch, sh, th, ck

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

  • handwriting 

• Our book collection this week was Rhythm and Rhyme.

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • 3D shapes that take up space (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism). 

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat (square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, trapezoid).

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Doorbell Rang, Counting Crows, Swallow the Leader, Franklin Endicott and the Third Key (Mrs. Young)

• Who Would Win?, The Day the Crayons Quit, Ready for Anything (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What is your favorite thing to do at school? Why?

• What is something that is challenging for you? Why is it challenging? How will you use the power of yet to become better?

Upcoming Dates

• March 22: Thorne

• March 25-29: Spring Break - no school

• April 1: Ecocycle presentation

• April 2: class pictures

• April 5: Buddy and Spirit Day

• CPO Adult-Only Night - April 10

• April 19-22: NO SCHOOL - conference exchange days

• April 25: Lasagna Dinner

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Sources of Strength Worksheets (Ms. Stefani) 

• Jeff & Paige information

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Mr. Eric continues to teach us about Sources of Strength.

• Ms. Lexi came in and shared her incredible story about how she had to have both her legs amputated. She shared photos of her doing all kinds of activities and she brought in her different prosthetic feet and told us all about them. We got to touch them and ask questions. We learned how to ask appropriate questions instead of staring and making hurtful comments. Lexi is inspiring!

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & 

• We introduced informational writing by learning how to write animal riddles!

• We introduced the digraphs wh and ck.

• We continue to practice:

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing.

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Exploring Non-Fiction (informational) texts.

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • introduce 3D shapes that take up space.

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat.

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Building a House, Too Much Noise, A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds, Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem (Mrs. Young)

• Building a House, Shoes Shoes Shoes, Mustache Baby ARRRR, Tiny T-Rex (Ms. Stefani) 

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• Are you excited that spring is coming? Why?

• Who are your sources of strength? (mom, dad, grandparents, aunts/uncles, teachers ,friends, etc)

• How many ways can you show 6+2=8 and 10-3+7? (fingers, drawing, using objects, verbally)

Upcoming Dates

• March 8: Reading to End Racism

• March 8 and March 15: Thorne

• March 25-29: Spring Break - no school

• April 1: Ecocycle presentation

• April 5: Buddy and Spirit Day

• CPO Adult-Only Night - April 10

• April 19-22: NO SCHOOL - conference exchange days

• April 25: Lasagna Dinner

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• 5th Grade Lasagna Dinner info

• Talent Showcase info

• Celebrating Ramadan info,

• Rocky Mountain Day Camp info

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• The LEAP assembly and Kindness March was filled with love and kindness!

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & 

• We introduced informational writing by learning how to write animal riddles!

• We continue to practice:

  • reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words.

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing.

  • letter name and sound.

  • short and long vowels. 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

  • the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

  • tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Feelings.

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice how to talk about and share our math thinking.

  • introduce 3D shapes that take up space.

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat.

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Mouse Was Mad; Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild!;  Stella Endicott and the Anything-Is-Possible Poem (Mrs. Young)

•  Animalia, Tough Boris, Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild! (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What snacks do you like to eat at school? Why? (have your kids help you make a grocery list with snacks that they like!)

• What did you learn about decomposers? What was surprising? Why was it surprising?

Upcoming Dates

• March 1: Buddy Spirit Day - more info coming soon

• Thorne Nature Experience: March 1, March 8, March 15

• March 5: Jeff and Paige

• March 8: Reading to End Racism

• March 25-29: Spring Break - no school

Specials for NEXT week: C week on Feb 26 and A week on Feb 27- March 1

• Ms. Stefani: PE  (wear or bring sneakers) and art

• Mrs. Young: art and music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

👀 With the very short week, please see February 16th to view skills and content that we worked on this week.

📂 Friday Folders are NOT coming home this week.

👍🏼 We look forward to seeing you at conferences next week on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday!

Upcoming Dates

• February 27, 28, 29:  Feb 27 & 28 are in-person, Feb 29 is virtual

• March 1: Buddy Spirit Day - more info coming soon

• March 1, March 8, March 15: Thorne Nature Experience

• March 5: Jeff and Paige

• March 8: Reading to End Racism

• March 25-29: Spring Break - no school

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Reading to End Racism information

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• The LEAP assembly and Kindness March was filled with love and kindness!

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & Writing

• We practiced reading and writing short sentences with CVC words and tricky little words. 

• We learned about short and long vowels. The /a/ in 'mad' is a short vowel. The /a/ in 'made' is a long vowel. 'Kit' has a short vowel. 'Kite' has a long vowel.  /E/ is a short vowel sound in 'leg' and a long vowel sound in 'eagle'. 'Octopus' has a short /o/ and 'oatmeal' has a long /o/. The /u/ in 'umbrella' is short and long in 'unicorn'. Long vowels say there name!

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Be Yourself and we discussed the importance of loving yourself and being yourself because it's too hard to be anyone else.

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation. We are tapping, writing, and reading words and sentences!

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones).

• We continue to:

  • introduce 3D shapes that take up space

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes that are flat

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc) and different partners for 10.

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5 and within 10.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Pig in the Pond, Three Hens and a Peacock, Ruby the Copycat (Mrs. Young)

•  (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• What do you want to do on our long weekend? Why?

• What is your favorite breakfast? Your favorite lunch? Your favorite dinner? Why?

Upcoming Dates

• February 19: Presidents Day - no school

• February 20: District Professional Development Day - no school for students

• February 27, 28, 29:  Feb 27 & 28 are in-person, Feb 29 is virtual

• March 1: Buddy Spirit Day - more info coming soon

• March 5: Jeff and Paige

• March 8: Reading to End Racism

• March 25-29: Spring Break - no school

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Original Works order forms

• Lunar New Year info and coloring sheet (Lunar New Year starts Feb 10)

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Mr. Eric did his first lesson on Sources of Strength. We learned how ourselves, our families, our friends, and mentors can all be people who help us be strong and safe.

• We have been talking about giving valentines to friends to show that we care about them. SEND IN YOUR VALENTINES ON MONDAY, FEB 12TH!

• The Kindness March is Feb 14th. We will start walking around 9:30. Please join us if you can!

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & Writing

• We learned about short and long vowels. The /a/ in 'mad' is a short vowel. The /a/ in 'made' is a long vowel. 'Kit' has a short vowel. 'Kite' has a long vowel.  /E/ is a short vowel sound in 'leg' and a long vowel sound in 'eagle'. 'Octopus' has a short /o/ and 'oatmeal' has a long /o/. The /u/ in 'umbrella' is short and long in 'unicorn'. Long vowels say there name!

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Animals!  Check out author and illustrator Lois Ehlert!

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds), the 'sh' digraph, and the 'ch' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she, chin, chocolate).

Math

• For the 100th day of school, we made groups of 10 necklaces, hats, and pictures using the number 100!

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones).

• We took the end of Unit 3 Assessment and gave the Pre-assessment for unit 4, which tested them on their 3-D shape knowledge, ability to write math equations, and how to break apart teen numbers into a group of 10 and extra ones. 

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Snowballs, Feathers for Lunch, Top Cat (Mrs. Young)

• Chalk, Snowballs, Frankin Endicott and the Third Key (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child - practice using complete sentences

• Opinion questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and feelings

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• In your opinion, what is love? ("I think love is _____ because _____!")

• Why do you like school? ("I like school because _____.")

Upcoming Dates

• February 12: valentines need to be brought to school

• February 14: Valentine's Day, Kindness March

• February 19: Presidents Day - no school

• February 20: District Professional Development Day - no school for students

• February 27, 28, 29:  Conferences - more info coming soon

• March 1: Buddy Spirit Day - more info coming soon

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art 

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• handouts from Blue Sky Bridge lesson

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue practicing Blue Sky Bridge skills: personal bubble space, using strong and respectful voices to say, "Stop! I don't like that.", distinguishing safe and unsafe touches, and telling a trusted grown up when someone touches you in an unsafe way.

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & Writing

• We learned about short and long vowels. The /a/ in 'mad' is a short vowel. The /a/ in 'made' is a long vowel. 'Kit' has a short vowel. 'Kite' has a long vowel.  /E/ is a short vowel sound in 'leg' and a long vowel sound in 'eagle'. 'Octopus' has a short /o/ and 'oatmeal' has a long /o/. The /u/ in 'umbrella' is short and long in 'unicorn'. Long vowels say there name!

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. 

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Animals!  Check out author and illustrator Steve Jenkins!

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds), the 'sh' digraph, and the 'ch' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she, chin, chocolate).

Math

• We have been working with the number 100 this week in anticipation of the 100th day of kindergarten on Monday, February 5th!

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones).

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Rain, Actual Size and Elephants Swim (we are watching videos and doing animal research), Eugenia and the Unexpected Package (we have been learning about the accordion!) (Mrs. Young)

• Jabari Jumps, Actual Size, Stella Endicott and the Anything is Possible Poem (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Opinion questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and feelings

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• Why do you think 100 is an important number?

• What makes a good friend? Why do you think that?

Upcoming Dates

• February 5: 100th Day of Kindergarten

• February 12: valentines need to be brought to school

• February 14: Valentine's Day 

• February 19: Presidents Day - no school

• February 20: District Professional Development Day - no school for students

• February 27, 28, 29:  Conferences - more info coming soon

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE- wear or bring sneakers! 

• Mrs. Young: Art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Creekside Talent Show Flyer/Form 

• Handout from Blue Sky Bridge lesson

• Student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• Mr. Eric told us about the Great Kindness Challenge and we made hearts for people in our community. 

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP! - Our kindergarteners have been earning money in place of tickets, for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders arcade, coming up in a few weeks. 

Reading & Writing

• We learned about short and long vowels. The /a/ in 'mad' is a short vowel. The /a/ in 'made' is a long vowel. 'Kit' has a short vowel. 'Kite' has a long vowel.  /E/ is a short vowel sound in 'leg' and a long vowel sound in 'eagle'. 'Octopus' has a short /o/ and 'oatmeal' has a long /o/. The /u/ in 'umbrella' is short and long in 'unicorn'. Long vowels say there name!

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we have been practicing opinion writing. 

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. This week we focused on Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, and X and reviewing other capital letters. TAP HERE to learn correct letter formation for all uppercase letters!

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Folktales!  Ask your child what their favorite folktale was!

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds), the 'sh' digraph, and the 'ch' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she, chin, chocolate).

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones).

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

  • looking for partner switches in addition equations. (2+3=5 and 3+2=5, 2 and 3 are partner switches.)

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Magic Fish, Stone Soup (Mrs. Young)

• Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Sleigh, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Magic Fish (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Opinion questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and feelings

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• Do you like to play inside or outside? Why or why not?

• What is your favorite specials class (music, art, pe, library? Why do you think that is the best specials class?

Upcoming Dates

• January 9, 16, 23, 30: Blue Sky Bridge lessons

• January 22-26: Great Kindness Challenge

• January 29: Special presentation about the arctic by John Weller (Orion's dad in Ms. Stefani's class)

• January 30 & 31: Dental Screening

• February 14: Valentine's Day - more info coming soon

• February 19: Presidents Day - no school

• February 20: District Professional Development Day - no school for students

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: pe - wear or bring sneakers!

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Original Works info - order student art work

• Shake Shack fundraiser info

• handout from Blue Sky Bridge lesson

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Tattling vs telling - tattling is when you tell to get someone INTO trouble and telling is when you tell to get someone OUT of trouble and keep them and others safe.

• Mr. Eric told us about the Great Kindness Challenge and we watched one of our favorite videos (Kindness Boomerang) and talked about it.

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

Reading & Writing

• We learned about short and long vowels. The /a/ in 'mad' is a short vowel. The /a/ in 'made' is a long vowel. 'Kit' has a short vowel. 'Kite' has a long vowel.  /E/ is a short vowel sound in 'leg' and a long vowel sound in 'eagle'. 'Octopus' has a short /o/ and 'oatmeal' has a long /o/. The /u/ in 'umbrella' is short and long in 'unicorn'. Long vowels say there name!

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we are getting ready to introduce opinion writing

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercase letters. This week we focused on O, P and reviewing other capital letters. TAP HERE to learn correct letter formation for all uppercase letters!

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Animal Tales/Folktales! 

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds), the 'sh' digraph, and the 'ch' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she, chin, chocolate).

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones. I can also count on from 10...11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Little Red Hen, Where Are You Going, Baby Lincoln? A Home for Everyone (Mrs. Young)

• Eugenia Lincoln and the Unexpected Package, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Sneezy the Snowman (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Opinion questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and feelings

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• Do you like the wind? Why or why not?

• What is your favorite flavor ice cream? Why do you think that is the best flavor?

Upcoming Dates

• January 9, 16, 23, 30: Blue Sky Bridge lessons

• January 22-26: Great Kindness Challenge

• January 30 & 31: Dental Screening

• February 14: Valentine's Day - more info coming soon

• February 19: Presidents Day - no school

• February 20: District Professional Development Day - no school for students

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Creekside Talent Showcase info

• Scholastic book orders

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continue to practice what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process - we are getting ready to introduce opinion writing

  • letter name and sound

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase AND uppercase letters 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercass letters. The week we focused on I, J, K, L, M, N. TAP HERE to learn correct letter formation for all uppercase letters!

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Animal Tales! 

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds), the 'sh' digraph, and the 'ch' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she, chin, chocolate).

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones. I can also count on from 10...11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

Favorite Books from the Week

• Francien Poulet and the Ghost Raccoon, All Are Welcome (Mrs. Young)

• The Three Bears, Katie Loves the Kittens, The Little Red Hen (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Opinion questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and feelings

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• What is your opinion on the ocean? Why? 

• What is your favorite pet? Why?

Upcoming Dates

• January 15: Martin Luther King Day: NO SCHOOL

• January 17, 18: Dodgeball (3pm-7pm)

• January 9, 16, 23, 30: Blue Sky Bridge lessons

• Januray 31: Dental Screening 

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - wear or bring sneakers!

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Celebrating Kwanzaa info from the Creekside DEI committee

• Community Night with Denver Nuggets info

• Clinica dental info

• student work

We hope you have a restful, peaceful, wonderful winter break! See you on January 9, 2024!

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - wear or bring sneakers!

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Celebrating Christmas info from the Creekside DEI committee

• student work

• gift from Summit Middle School

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We practiced what safe and respectful bodies and brains look like and sound like. This is important to help our class families work well together and for the most learning to happen while in the green zone.

• We finished our holiday projects for our families. We can't wait for you to open your gifts!

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process, writing narrative stories with who, what, where

  • letter name and sound 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase letter 

• We are learning the correct verbal paths to write uppercass letters. The week we focused on A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.

• We are tapping out words, writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Fun with Language. We really got into onomatopoeia! 

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds) and 'sh' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she).

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones. I can also count on from 10...11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).

• We continue to:

  • explore and compose with 2D shapes

  • learn and practice correctly writing numbers 0-20.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

Favorite Books from the Week

• The Magic Dreidels, Ten Timid Ghosts on Christmas Eve, The Chanukah Guest, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Mrs. Young)

• The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas, Boot and Shoe, Light the Lights! (A story about celebrating Hannukah and Christmas (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Would Your Rather questions encourage:

  • learning how to discuss and debate respectfully

  • critical thinking skills

  • practicing communication skills

  • learning how to support your own thoughts and opinions

  • being open to new perspectives

  • flexible thinking

• Would you rather live in a giant gingerbread house or ride the Polar Express? Why?

• Would you rather sled down a giant hill one time or a small hill 20 times? Why?

• Would you rather wear wet mittens all day or wet socks all day? Why?

Upcoming Dates

• December 18-22: Holiday Spirit Week

• December 21: special science presentation

• December 22: winter celebration

• December 25-January 8: Winter Break - no school (last day before break is Dec 22 & return to school on Dec 9)

• January 9, 16, 23, 30: Blue Sky Bridge lessons

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Celebrating Hanukkah info from the Creekside DEI committee

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We practiced our voice levels this week: level 0 = no voice, level 1 = whisper, level 2 = quiet voice that only one or two people can hear, level 3 = whole room, level 4 = outside, level 5 = emergency.  Use mostly use a level 2 voice in the classroom to help us stay in the green zone and be safe and respectful.

• We spent lots of time this week practicing thinking about others and empathy while making holiday gifts for our families. 

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process, writing narrative stories with who, what, where

  • letter name and sound 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase letters

• We are tapping out words (have your kids show you how to tap out the word DOG), writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was Fun with Language. We really got into onomatopoeia! We will continue this collection next week.

• During Fundations we continue to practice letter names and sounds as well as correct letter formation! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds) and 'sh' digraph. We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she).

Math

• We practice how to talk about and share our math thinking (example: I know this is the number 16 because I see a 10-group and 6 extra ones. I can also count on from 10...11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16).

• We continue to:

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-10 and 11-19.

  • practice teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • Adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

Favorite Books from the Week

• Creak! Said the Bed, Rattletrap Car, Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah (Mrs. Young)

• Where Are You Going Baby Lincoln, Norman Didn't Do it (yes he did), Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What words do you see that you know? (at the grocery store, in a favorite book, on street signs, etc). Can you read them, spell them, and write them? Show me!

• How can you show someone you care about them? (give them a hug with their permission, draw them a picture, write them a note telling them, shovel their sidewalk, help them pick up a mess, etc)

Upcoming Dates

• December 11: Vision and Hearing screenings

• December 21: special science presentation

• December 22: winter celebration - more info coming soon!

• December 25-January 8: Winter Break - no school (last day before break is Dec 22 & return to school on Dec 9)

• January 9, 16, 23, 30: Blue Sky Bridge lessons

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - remember to wear or bring SNEAKERS

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Welcome to Winter Celebrations info from the Creekside DEI committee

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Morning Meeting: we use Morning Meeting to help us with SEL, practice and review skills, introduce new learning, and just to have fun together!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

• We continue to practice our bullying lessons with Mr. Eric. We now have learned all 3 Rs: Recognize, Report, Refuse.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process, writing narrative stories with who, what, where

  • letter name and sound 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase letters

• We are tapping out words (have your kids show you how to tap out the word DOG), writing them on our Fundation white boards, and spelling them with our Fundation magnetic letter tiles. We are changing words by removing a letter/sound and adding a new letter/sound to make a new word (cap - tap - sap - sat - sit - pit - pig...).

• Our book collection this week was fiction and non-fiction. We compared a fiction book and a non-fiction book about the same topic (pigs, hats, chickens/eggs).

• During Fundations we learned how to correctly write z and qu .! We continue to practice the 'th' digraph (both soft and hard sounds) and introduced 'sh' We use these sounds a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother, wish, she).

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-10 and 11-19.

  • we started learning more about teen numbers and beginning place value.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations). 

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

  • learning how to build, write, and draw teen numbers to see how teen numbers can be represented in different ways.

  • Adding and subtracting up to 5.  Practice giving your child verbal addition and subtraction problems and encourage them to use their fingers if needed.

Favorite Books from the Week

• Hats, Hats, Hats; Caps for Sale, Leroy Ninker Saddles Up (Mrs. Young)

• Francine Poulet and the Ghost Racoon, Caps for Sale, Piggies (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How can you show responsibility for yourself? (picking up your own things, zipping up your own jacket, packing your own backpack)

• Why is it important to be independent and try things for yourself? (there is not always a grown up to help or do things for me, I'm already 5 and 6 years old so I can do hard things, being independent helps me to grow and learn new things) - it's okay for kids to struggle 🙂

• What is your favorite December holiday to celebrate? Why is it your favorite?

Upcoming Dates

• December 1: K and 5th grade buddies

• December 11: Vision and Hearing screenings

• December 22: winter celebration from 8:15-9:00am - familes are welcome to join us!

• December 25-January 8: Winter Break - no school (last day before break is Dec 22 & return to school on Dec 9)

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - remember to wear or bring SNEAKERS

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Rethinking Thanksgiving Toolkit from the Creekside DEI committee

• Torchy's Taco fundraiser info

• Denver Nugget community night info

• pesto recipe from our Growing Garden's lesson - we learned that the ingredients for the pesto snack we made together and ate traveled 12.505 miles to get to us!

• student work

• PLEASE USE THESE RESOURCES AT HOME

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find sight words that we focus on in kindergarten.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the verbal paths for writing lowercase letters correctly.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find a video that shows letter-keyword-sound for the alphabet. 

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation!

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Morning Meeting 

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

• We continue to practice our lessons from Mr. Eric and how to report bullying behavior by saying, "Excuse me, I need to report bullying." Bullying is words and actions that are mean, purposeful, and happen every day. Tattling is reporting something small to get someone into trouble. Reporting bullying is saying something to get someone out of trouble.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process, writing narrative stories with who, what, where

  • letter name and sound 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase letters

• We did not have a book collection this week. We read Native American books this week. We continue to learn about fiction (narrative) and non-fiction (informational) texts.

• During Fundations we learned how to correctly write x and y. Only two more consonants to go! We also introduced the 'th' digraph. We use this sound a lot in our writing and reading (examples: with, this, brother).

Math

• We continue to:

  • practice correctly writing numbers 0-10.

  • we started learning more about teen numbers.

  • tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction and how to represent the story in different ways (fingers, drawing, 10-frames, writing equations).

  • practice counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

Favorite Books from the Week

• Coyote Places the Stars, Mama, Do You Love Me?, Coyote (Mrs. Young)

• Negative Cat, The Thank You Book, Leroy Ninker Saddles Up (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How can you show someone you are thankful for them?

• What is your favorite activity to do with your family? Why is it your favorite? (use a complete sentence: My favorite activity to do with my family is ____________ because ____________.)

• Here's a silly Would You Rather:  Would you rather wash your hair with mashed potatoes or mac and cheese? Why? (remember to use a complete sentence when sharing!)

Upcoming Dates

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

• November 27: field trip to WOW! Children's Museum in Lafayette - remember sack lunches!

• November 27: Native American Dance Assembly (rescheduled)

• December 1: K and 5th grade buddies

• December 11: Vision and Hearing screenings

• December 25-January 8: Winter Break - no school (last day before break is Dec 22 & return to school on Dec 9)

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• 📝 permission form for a field trip to WOW! Children's Museum in Lafayette - fill out, sign and date, and return on Monday, November 13th (see more information below under Upcoming Dates)

• Native Land Digital info

• CU Science Discovery

• student work

• PLEASE USE THESE RESOURCES AT HOME

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find sight words that we focus on in kindergarten.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the verbal paths for writing lowercase letters correctly.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find a video that shows letter-keyword-sound for the alphabet. 

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation!

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Morning Meeting 

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

• Mr. Eric visited our rooms and we learned how to report bullying behavior by saying, "Excuse me, I need to report bullying." Bullying is words and actions that are mean, purposeful, and happen every day. Tattling is reporting something small to get someone into trouble. Reporting bullying is saying something to get someone out of trouble.

Reading & Writing

• We continue to practice:

  • the writing process, writing narrative stories with who, what, where

  • letter name and sound 

  • the correct letter formation when writing lowercase letters

• Our book collection this week was all about community. We continue to learn about fiction (narrative) and non-fiction (informational) texts.

• During Fundations we learned how to correctly write v and w. 

Math

• We continue to:

  •  practice correctly writing numbers 0-10. In our new math unit, we will learn about teen numbers.

  •  tell math stories to practice addition and subtraction.

  • practice counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

  • practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

  • learn about partners (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc).

Favorite Books from the Week

• Fireman Small,  Pumpkin Soup, Knight Owl (Mrs. Young)

•  Mercy Watson Something Wonky This Way Comes, Leroy Ninker Saddles Up, Fireman Small (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What are partners of 4? (4 and 0; 0 and 4; 1 and 3; 3 and 1; 2 and 2)

• How can you tell if a behavior is a bullying behavior? (It happens over and over again. It is mean on purpose. I can't get it to stop.)

• What is your favorite book? Why is it your favorite book?

• What are you thankful for?  

Upcoming Dates

• November 10:  NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

• November 17: Growing Gardens lesson, Native American Dancers

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

• November 27: field trip to WOW! Children's Museum in Lafayette

  • permission forms coming home on Nov 9 - sign and return ASAP

  • cost is $8 - please let us know if you need help with this

  • every child needs a sack lunch from home because we are having lunch at the museum

  • you may order a sack lunch from the cafe (there is a place to mark that you would like a lunch from school on the permission form) - it is usually a chicken salad wrap and some children aren't very fond of it

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - Wear sneakers that velcro or tie

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• Native American Heritage Month info

• Scholastic book order - Holiday books!  

• PLEASE USE THESE RESOURCES AT HOME

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find sight words that we focus on in kindergarten.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the verbal paths for writing lowercase letters correctly.

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find a video that shows letter-keyword-sound for the alphabet. 

  • 🌟Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation!

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Morning Meeting 

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

• Online resources that we use in our classrooms:

  • Moovlee

  • Cosmic Kids Yoga

  • The Mindfulness Teacher

Reading & Writing

• We are at the point where we are only practicing letter name and letter sound. Make sure to "cut off" the sounds and not add a vowel sound after (schwa) the consonant sound.

• Our book collection this week was Houses and Homes. We continue to learn about fiction (narrative) and non-fiction (informational) texts.

• We continue to learn about and practice the writing process.

• We learned the writing process using who (characters), where (setting), what (action).

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write l, h, k. We only have 6 more lowercase letters to learn how to write. Then we will start learning the correct letter formation for the uppercase letters. PLEASE USE THE VERBAL PATHS TO HELP YOUR CHILDREN WRITE AT HOME. We are working on "unlearning" the less efficient ways to write letters and breaking these "habits" by replacing them with the correct and more efficient way to form letters.

Math

• We continue to practice correctly writing numbers 0-10. In our new math unit, we will learn about teen numbers.

• We continue to tell math stories to begin to learn about addition and subtraction.

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We continue to learn about 2D shapes.

• We continue to practice 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

• We learned a math game called "One More" which helps us practice quickly knowing dice dot patterns, subitizing, and quickly knowing the "plus 1" strategy. (0+1=1, 1+1=2, 2+1=3, etc)

• We are beginning to learn about partners. (2 and 3 are partners for 5; 4 and 1 are partners for 5; 5 and 0 are partners for 5, etc)

Favorite Books from the Week

• Mercy Watson Something Wonky This Way Comes, The Biggest Pumpkin Ever, Monster Cake (Mrs. Young)

•  Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig, I Want to be Spaghetti, Monsters Love Underpants (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Why are rules important?

• How can you tell if a behavior is a bullying behavior? (It happens over and over again. It is mean on purpose. I can't get it to stop.)

• Who would you like to get to know better at school? How can you ask that new friend to play? 

• What are you thankful for?  

Upcoming Dates

• November 3: Spirit Day and 5th Grade Buddies

• November 10:  NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

• November 17: Growing Gardens lesson, Native American Dancers

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

• November 27: field trip to WOW! Children's Museum in Lafayette

  • permission forms coming home on Nov 10 - sign and return ASAP

  • cost is $8 - please let us know if you need help with this

  • every child needs a sack lunch from home because we are having lunch at the museum

  • you may order a sack lunch from the cafe - it is usually a chicken salad wrap and some children aren't very fond of it

Specials for NEXT week: B week

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: PE - Wear sneakers that velcro or tie

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• fill out the TOPIC LIST and RETURN in Friday Folders

• PLEASE USE THE RESOURCES WE SENT HOME LAST WEEK!

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Mr. Eric continued our bullying prevention lessons. This week we learned the 3Rs: Recognize, Report, Refuse.

• We do Morning Meeting every day. Morning Meeting helps us to learn social-emotional skills and strategies, learn and practice academic skills and strategies, and is a super fun way to start the day. Morning Meeting engages our brains and bodies!

• We continue to learn about and practice LEAP!

Reading & Writing

• 🌟Tap HERE to find sight words that we focus on in kindergarten.

• 🌟Tap HERE to find the verbal paths for writing lowercase letters correctly.

• 🌟Tap HERE to find a video that shows letter-keyword-sound for the alphabet. We are at the point where we are only practicing letter name and letter sound. Make sure to "cut off" the sounds and not add a vowel sound after (schwa) the consonant sound.

• Our book collection this week was books by Eric Carle. Book collections help us to:

  • make connections to authors and illustrators and to other books we have read

  • build our vocabulary

  • hear what fluent reading sound like

  • practice locating and reading sight words

  • increase our comprehension skills and strategies

• We learned about the writing process:

  • First we think about our story.

  • Next we talk about our story.

  • Then we draw and label our picture plan.

  • Last we write the words to our story.

• We learned the writing process using who (characters), where (setting), what (action).

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 'p, e' and 'j'. We reviewed the letters t, b, f, m, n, i, u, a, g, d, s, e, r.  We used magnetic boards and letters to practice our new letters and sounds. We practiced writing these letters on our Fundations whiteboards, using the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. We composed words by putting sounds together. We learned how to tap out consonant-vowel-consonant words (CVC words) like cut, fin, bat. 

• Tap HERE to find sight words that we focus on in kindergarten.

• Tap HERE to find the verbal paths for writing lowercase letters correctly.

Math

• We are learning how to correctly write numbers 0-10. 

• We are learning to tell math stories to begin to learn about addition and subtraction.

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We are learning about 2 dimensional shapes more in depth and knowing how many sides and corners each shape has (hexagon, triangle, square, rectangle, circle, rhombus).

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

• We have learned some fun math games!  We have learned to play Pumpkin Jumble and the Hexagon Shape fill in game to help us compose and decompose shapes.

•  Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation! 

Favorite Books from the Week

• Mercy Watson Princess in Disguise, Ten Timid Ghosts, The Teeny Tiny Ghost (Mrs. Young's)

•  Turtles Live on Every Continent Except Antarctica, Mercy Watson Princess in Disguise, Creepy Crayons (Ms. Stefani)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How can you be safe and show respect at home (with words and actions)?

• Why do you need spaces between words when you are writing? (It helps us read our writing and others read our writing).

• What does compose and decompose mean when building shapes and making words?

Upcoming Dates

• October 27: picture retake day

• Halloween Celebration info coming soon!

• November 10:  NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

Due to a long week of conferences, we have a short Kronicle. Look below to October 13th to see what we continue to work on and learn this week.

Specials for NEXT week: A week

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• important resources for you to use at home

  • sound card and sight word resources - keep these at home and use them to help your child read and write

  • What is the Science of Reading? An Overview for Families

  • Fundation letter formation guide for lowercase letters - when your child is writing at home, encourage correct letter formation!

• YMCA: How to Talk to Your Kids About Racism information

• student work

See the information below (Oct 13) to see what we continued to work on this week.

Our new letters in Fundations this week: e and r

Our book collection: Kindness

Upcoming Dates

• October 27: picture retake day

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU AT CONFERENCES NEXT WEEK!

Specials for NEXT week: C week

• Ms. Stefani: PE - Wear sneakers that velcro or tie

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• individual picture retake day: October 27 ( forms by request for Ms. Stefani's class)

• Mr. Eric handout for the K scope and sequence of bullying prevention lessons

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee information

• Lifelong Learning information

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Every first Friday of the month is Spirit Day with our 5th grade buddies!  

• Mr. Eric will be teaching bullying prevention lessons for the next few weeks.  We had our first lesson this week all about safe and respectful actions and words.  HERE is a video song about respect.

• Morning Meeting

• We used Mindful Listening and Mindful Breathing to regulate and calm big emotions. We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride. We learned about MINDFUL LOOKING to help us practice focusing and paying attention.

• We worked together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

Reading & Writing

• Our book collection this week was all about wordless picture books. It's so important to read the illustrations because illustrations help us understand the story!

• We continued to learn about writing narrative stories.  We learned that the drawing/illustration is our writing plan and we draw it about the line.  Our words/story goes below the line. We practiced saying, hearing, and writing the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. We are writers and illustrators!

• We learned the writing process using who (characters), where (setting), what (action):

  • first we think about our story

  • next we talk about our story

  • then we draw our picture plan

  • last we write our story

• We continue to practice all 26 letter names, keywords, and sounds on a daily basis.

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 'd' and 's'. We reviewed the letters t, b, f, m, n, i, u, a, and g.  We used magnetic boards and letters to practice our new letters and sounds. We practiced writing these letters on our Fundations whiteboards, using the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. We composed words by putting sounds together. We learned how to tap out consonant-vowel-consonant words (CVC words) like cut, fin, bat. 

• We are learning about the difference between a letter,  a word, and a sentence. 

• We are also learning to scoop rhymes (have your child show you how to scoop), clap syllables, and find little words in big words. (hat, cat - they both end it at; dog has 1 syllable, table has 2 syllables; to is in the word today)

• Little words are so important to help us be more efficient and fluent readers. Tap HERE to find these words that we focus on in kindergarten. You can practice reading, writing, spelling, and finding these little trick words everywhere!

Math

• We are learning how to correctly write numbers 6-10. This week we learned 7 and 8 and reviewed 0-6.

• We are learning to tell math stories to begin to learn about addition and subtraction.

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and subitize!

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

• We have learned some fun math games!  We have learned: ZAP!, Racing Bears, and Pumpkin Jumble that helps us compose and decompose shapes.

•  Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation! 

Favorite Books from the Week

• One Duck Stuck, If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don't! (Mrs. Young's)

• Creepy Carrots, A Creepy Pair of Underwear, The Hungry Thing (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How can you be safe and show respect at home?

• Why do you need spaces between words when you are writing? (It helps us read our writing and others read our writing).

• What is your favorite tool to use when you need to get back into the green zone? (examples: drinking water, slowly counting to 10, mindful breathing, listening to music)

Upcoming Dates

• October 13: Creekside Fun Run!

• October 16: Sweet Cow fundraiser

• October 16, 17, 18, 19: Creekside Book Fair

• October 17, 18, 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences - please sign up for a slot if you haven't done so!

• October 27: picture retake day

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

📝SIGN UP FOR A CONFERENCE IF YOU HAVEN'T DONE SO YET. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO SHARING LOTS OF LEARNING WITH YOU!

Specials for NEXT week:

• Ms. Stefani: music

• Mrs. Young: pe WEAR SNEAKERS THAT VELCRO OR TIE

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• book fair gift certificate information

• student work

• Scholastic book order (Ms. Stefani's class)

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Every first Friday of the month is Spirit Day with our 5th grade buddies. Today we wore pajamas and read books. We had so much fun!

• Mr. Eric will be teaching bullying prevention lessons for the next few weeks.

• Morning Meeting

• We used Mindful Listening and Mindful Breathing to regulate and calm big emotions. We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• We worked together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

Reading & Writing

• We took our first iReady assessment (online state assessment) on our Chromebooks. We take it three times a year.

• Our book collection this week was all about wordless picture books. It's so important to read the illustrations because illustrations help us understand the story!

• We continued to learn about writing narrative stories.  We learned that the drawing/illustration is our writing plan and we draw it about the line.  Our words/story goes below the line. We practiced saying, hearing, and writing the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. We are writers and illustrators! 

• We continue to practice all 26 letter names, keywords, and sounds on a daily basis.

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 'g' and 'a'. We reviewed the letters t, b, f, m, n, i, and u.  We used magnetic boards and letters to practice our new letters and sounds. We practiced writing these letters on our Fundations whiteboards, using the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. We composed words by putting sounds together. We learned how to tap out consonant-vowel-consonant words (CVC words) like cut, fin, bat. 

• We are learning about the difference between a letter,  a word, and a sentence. 

• We are also learning to scoop rhymes (have your child show you how to scoop), clap syllables, and find little words in big words. (hat, cat - they both end it at; dog has 1 syllable, table has 2 syllables; to is in the word today)

• Little words are so important to help us be more efficient and fluent readers. Tap HERE to find these words that we focus on in kindergarten. You can practice reading, writing, spelling, and finding these little trick words everywhere!

Math

• We are learning how to correctly write numbers 6-10. This week we learned 6 and reviewed 0-5.

• We are learning to tell math stories to begin to learn about addition and subtraction.

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and subitize!

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

• We have learned some fun math games!  We have learned: ZAP! and Racing Bears!  

•  Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation! 

Favorite Books from the Week

• Mercy Goes for a Ride, The Girl and the Bicycle, The Boy and the Airplane (Mrs. Young's)

• A Piglet Named Mercy, Mercy to the Rescue, Pigeon Rides the Rollercoaster (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How many words are in this sentence? I like to play outside. 

• How many syllables are in these words? octopus, motorcycle, hat, zebra

• What is your favorite tool to use when you need to get back into the green zone? (examples: drinking water, slowly counting to 10, mindful breathing, listening to music)

Upcoming Dates

• October 9: PD day for teacher - NO SCHOOL

• October 10: Birdcall fundraiser

• October 13: Creekside Fun Run!

• October 16: Sweet Cow fundraiser

• October 16, 17, 18, 19: Creekside Book Fair

• October 17, 18, 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences - please sign up for a slot if you haven't done so 

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

Specials for NEXT week:

• Ms. Stefani: Art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• information about BVSD Place to Be Showcase

• information about the Creekside Fun Run

• Mr. Eric's Regulation Station worksheet

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Monday October 2 is World Bullying Prevention Day - Wear a blue shirt to show your support!

• Morning Meeting

• We used Mindful Listening and Mindful Breathing to regulate and calm big emotions. We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• We worked together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

• We learned more about the Zones of Regulation and how all the zones are okay with Mr. Eric. Mr. Eric talked about The Regulation Station and gave each child a copy to keep at home. The green zone is where we learn the best. Learn more HERE.

Reading & Writing

• Our book collection this week was all about colors and how they make the world more colorful and interesting.  Colors make everything better!

• We did our first writing! We learned that the drawing/illustration is our writing plan and we draw it about the line.  Our words/story goes below the line. We practiced saying, hearing, and writing the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. We are writers and illustrators! 

• We continue to practice all 26 letter names, keywords, and sounds on a daily basis.

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 'o' and 'c'. We reviewed the letters t, b, f, m, n, i, and u. We used magnetic boards and letters to practice our new letters and sounds. We practiced writing these letters on our Fundations whiteboards, using the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line. We composed words by putting sounds together!

• We are learning about the difference between a letter,  a word, and a sentence. 

• We are also learning to scoop rhymes (have your child show you how to scoop), clap syllables, and find little words in big words. (hat, cat - they both end it at; dog has 1 syllable, table has 2 syllables; to is in the word today)

• Little words are so important to help us be more efficient and fluent readers. Tap HERE to find these words that we focus on in kindergarten. You can practice reading, writing, spelling, and finding these little trick words everywhere!

Math

• We took our first math assessment this week for Unit 1!  We did a pre-test for unit 2 and we will be working on learning to write numbers 6-10 and how to add and subtract.  We are amazing mathematicians!

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We practiced writing numbers 1-5 correctly. We will start learning how to write numbers 6-10 correctly. Check out the number poems below to learn how to write numbers!

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and subitize!

• We learned how to compare numbers and used the vocabulary: more, greater, less, fewer.

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

•  Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation! 

Favorite Books from the Week

• A Piglet Named Mercy, Cat's Colors, Mercy to the Rescue (our first chapter book!) (Mrs. Young's)

• The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Love the World, I Broke My Trunk (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What words rhyme with star? (car, bar, far, jar, etc)? What words rhyme with jug? (bug, hug, pug, rug, slug, etc)

• What is your favorite special and why? (art, pe, music, library)

• Would you rather be super strong or super fast? Why? Asking 'why' helps kids to think of reasons for their answers and supports the development of critical thinking skills, opinions, and evidence. Having conversations helps support social conventions like turn taking, active listening, and using new vocabulary.

Upcoming Dates

• October 2: World Day of Bullying Prevention - wear a blue shirt

• October 4: Walk and Roll to School Day

• October 9: PD day for teacher - NO SCHOOL

• October 10: Birdcall fundraiser

• October 13: Creekside Fun Run!

• October 16: Sweet Cow fundraiser

• October 17, 18, 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences (more information coming)

• November 20-24: Thanksgiving Break - no school

Specials for NEXT week:

• Ms. Stefani: PE -  wear sneakers that velcro or tie!

• Mrs. Young: art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Friday Folders

• information about CU Wizards

• information about Birdcall fundraiser

• information about the Creekside Fun Run

• individual school pictures

  • The order code printed on the picture day flyer was only good for 24 hours after pictures were taken.

  • If you want to order now, please see an email from your child's teacher with an attached PDF. You can order this way for the next 12 months.

  • If you have picture questions, here are 3 ways you can contact Lifetouch for help:

    • Lorene - Customer Service:  303-565-5203

    • Lifetouch General Customer Service:  800-736-5473

    • To email Customer Service:  colorado@lifetouch.com

• student work

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We did Morning Meeting, learning new games and activities.

• We used Mindful Listening and Mindful Breathing to regulate and calm big emotions. We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• We worked together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

• We learned more about the Zones of Regulation and how all the zones are okay with Mr. Eric. The green zone is where we learn the best. Learn more HERE.

Reading & Writing

• Our book collection this week was the importance of friendship.  Friends make everything better!

• We practiced drawing objects and using beginning sounds (and words) to label our drawings.   

• We continue to practice all 26 letter names, keywords, and sounds on a daily basis.

• During Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 'i' and 'u'. We reviewed the letters t, b, f, m, and n. We used magnetic boards and letters to practice our new letters and sounds. We practiced writing these letters on our Fundations whiteboards, using the sky line, plane line, grass line, and worm line.

• We are learning about the difference between a letter,  a word, and a sentence. 

• We are also learning to scoop rhymes (have your child show you how to scoop), clap syllables and finding little words in big words.

• Little words are so important to help us be more efficient and fluent readers. Tap HERE to find these words that we focus on in kindergarten. You can practice reading, writing, spelling, and finding these little trick words everywhere!

Math

• We took our first math assessment this week for Unit 1!  We are amazing mathematicians!

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We practiced writing numbers 1-5 correctly. Check out the number poems below to learn how to write numbers!

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and subitize!

• We learned how to compare numbers and used the vocabulary: more, greater, less, fewer.

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

•  Tap HERE to find the number poems we use for correct number formation! 

Favorite Books from the Week

• Press Here, little tree, I'm the Best, A Porcupine Named Fluffy (Mrs. Young's)

• David Goes to School, David Gets in Trouble, Grow up David (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What are you the best at? What did you do to become good at that activity?

• What do you want to become better at? How will you work toward that goal?

• What makes a good friend?

Upcoming Dates

• Sept 15-Oct 15: National Hispanic Heritage Month - you may want to check out some of these books from your local library

• September 25: Professional Development (PD) day for teachers - NO SCHOOL

• October 4: Walk and Roll to School Day

• October 9: PD day for teacher - NO SCHOOL

• October 10: Birdcall fundraiser

• October 13: Creekside Fun Run!

• October 16: Sweet Cow fundraiser

• October 17, 18, 19: Parent-Teacher Conferences (more information coming)

Specials for NEXT week:

• Ms. Stefani: art

• Mrs. Young: music

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We did Morning Meeting, practicing each other's names and learning new activities, including how to clap out syllables!

• We used Mindful Listening and Mindful Breathing to regulate and calm big emotions.

• We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• We are working together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

• We learned about the Zones of Regulation and how all the zones are okay. The green zone is where we learn the best. Learn more HERE.

• You can find Mr. Eric's website HERE for more information and resources about SEL.

• Every Thursday, both kindergarten classes get together for Choice time so we can continue to build our whole kindergarten community!  We call this Thrilling Thursday and we all look forward to getting a chance to play and get to know all of our kindergarten friends!

Reading & Writing

• Our book collection this week was all about the alphabet.

• We practiced the 5 Elements of Shape to draw objects (cloud, sun, tree, house, etc) and learned how to use beginning sounds to label our drawings.

• We learned and practiced some letter names and sounds. We have now introduced all 26 letter names, keywords, and sounds.

• We started Fundations (phonics program) and learned how to correctly write 't', 'b', 'f'.

• We are learning to look for words in reads alouds and Morning Messages! (I, a, the, we, go, to, and, is)

Math

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and how to subitize!

• We learned how to compare numbers and used the vocabulary: more, greater, less, fewer.

• We learned about shapes: circle and rectangle. We learned that circles have no sides or corners. Rectangles have 4 sides - two are short and two are long - and have 4 corners. Both shapes are flat because they are 2D (2-dimentional).  We made Rectangle Robots for a fun shape project!

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

• We learned how to play ZAP!

Favorite Books from the Week

• Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too, Knuffle Bunny Free (Mrs. Young's)

• The book with No Pictures, Triangle, We are in the Wrong Book! (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• What was challenging for you this week or today? Why was it challenging?

• When you get frustrated, what can you do to calm down your body and brain?

Upcoming Dates

• September 14: International Festival

• September 25: Professional Development for teachers - no school for students

WASH HAND FREQUENTLY at HOME and SCHOOL! Let's keep our families safe!

Specials for NEXT week:

• Ms. Stefani:  PE (remember PE shoes!)

• Mrs. Young:  art

• find the ABC Specials calendar HERE

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continued practiced Morning Meeting, learning each other's names and learning new activities. 

• We practiced Mindful Listening to calm our bodies and brains to regulate. We learned Mindful Breathing. Both of these help us to regulate and calm big emotions.

• We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• We are working together as a class to do LEAP behavior. Our classes work toward a special celebration!

• Mr. Eric visited our classrooms and taught us what a school counselor does and how he is here to help us. You can find his activity in Friday Folders.

Reading & Writing

• We read a set of books about learning and playing at school.

• We learned about the 5 Elements of Shapes. We practiced drawing on white boards and creating scenes of 4 and 5 in our math books.

• We practiced drawing pictures on our dry erase board and labeling with beginning sounds.

• We learned and practiced some letter names and sounds.

• We are learning to look for words in reads alouds and Morning Messages! (I, a, the, we, go, to, and, is)

Math

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We continue to learn about and do daily math routines and how to subitize!

• We helped Puzzled Penguin solve math problems (he gets confused often).

• We learned the rich math word SUBITIZE. Watch Subitize Up to 5 and Subitize Up to 5 Rap!

• We learned about and practiced 5-groups, 10-groups, and finger patterns so we can be more efficient mathematicians. 

Favorite Books from the Week

• I Say Ooh You Say Aah (Mrs. Young's)

• Knuffle Bunny (Ms. Stefani's)

Questions to Ask Your Child

• Who did you play with this week? What did you play together?

• Did you meet a new friend? Do you remember their name?

Upcoming Dates

• September 4: Labor Day - no school

• September 7: Picture Day

• September 14: International Festival

• September 25: Professional Development for teachers - no school for students

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

• We continued to do Morning Meeting, practicing each other's names and learning how to do different activities.

• We practiced Mindful Listening to calm our bodies and brains to regulate. We learned Mindful Breathing.

• We practiced LEAP behavior: Leadership, Empathy, Accountability, Pride.

• Mr. Eric visited our classrooms and taught us about what school counselors do. You will find the activity in Friday Folders.

Reading & Writing

• We read and sang nursery rhymes and listened to song books.

• We read wordless picture books.

• We learned about the 5 Elements of Shapes. We practiced drawing on white boards and creating scenes of 2 and 3 in our math books.

• We did a color resist name activity and we hung them in our rooms. You can see them at Back to School Night!

• We learned and practiced some letter names and sounds.

• We learned about authors, illustrators, titles, and title pages.

Math

• We practiced counting 1-10 fluently and accurately and practiced finger patterns 1-10.

• We learned daily math routines.

• We drew scenes of 2 and 3 after reading Anno's Counting Book.

• We learned the rich math word SUBITIZE. Watch Subitize Up to 5 and Subitize Up to 5 Rap!

Favorite Book from the Week

• We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins and we also read the other Penelope T. Rex books We Will Rock Our Classmates and We Don't Lose Our Class Goldfish.

Questions to Ask Your Child

• How were you a kind friend this week?

• What was your favorite thing to do in specials this week? (Mrs. Young's class had music and Ms. Stefani's class had art)

Upcoming Dates

• August 30: Back to School Night

• September 4: Labor Day - no school