Newsletters

                  Amazing Apples Weekly News

                    Ms. Thornton’s and Mrs. Lachapelle’s Kindergarten

January

The Codington Intent Form is coming home today.  This is very important to complete and return to hold your child’s place at Codington for next year.  Please return as soon as possible.

Thursday, January 15th, we are off to the theater to see Alice in Wonderland.  If you checked that your child would bring a lunch from home, then please remember to send one.

Report cards will be coming home on Thursday.  I will also have parent/teacher conferences to go over the reading and math data from the Middle of the Year.  Please look for that schedule this week to sign-up and I will begin conferences next week.

In math, we will begin composition and decomposition, which is addition and subtraction.  For addition, we begin with part and part is whole.  We will use number bonds, number lines and objects for counting and to represent the problem.  This will transition into mentally solving problems.  We will work to show ways to make 10.

In reading, our new module is focused on the theme America, Then and Now.  We will learn about homes, transportation, schools and communication.  I will really begin to introduce non-fiction texts and their purpose for reading.  We will read The Little House and When I was Young in the Mountains as our fictional examples of a text.  We will focus on changes and using our memories to create stories.

In writing, we will continue to segment and blend to read and to write.  We will be working on Heart words.  Our focus for writing sentences is using a capital at the beginning and punctuation at the end.  We are working on appropriate capitals and lowercase letters.  Our spelling will be sounded out and writing letters to match the sounds you hear as you stretch out the word.

Welcome back and Happy New Year 2026! Ms. Thornton

December

The Family Gingerbread House Making Party will be Wednesday, December 17th at 12:30pm until 1:30 pm.  We are excited to share with you the different versions of The Gingerbread Man.  Today a form is coming home with the items that your child needs to send in to help.  Please look for a sign-up genius for additional items needed.

The Codington Pajama Drive will run through December 8th!  Please help support our service project!

In math, our Module 3 focus comparison.  We will compare 2 groups of objects to tell which one has more, fewer or the same amount. We will learn comparison strategies like matching, counting or comparing length.  We will also use a number line and a tens frame as a tool to help compare objects.  Then we will compare numbers using greater than, less than and equal to.  We will use math stories to compare numbers.  By the end of the module, students will be able to organize, count and record their process.

In reading, our new Module is focused on the theme Farms.  It is time for the end of Module assessment.  There are several end of module tasks: complete a story map telling the characters, setting problem and solution, which will be represented by pictures and segmenting out words to write, then creating or using a tory from our module to show a problem and solution and  last identifying a character on a farm and using a season to show what happens.

In writing, we are segmenting to write words, by focusing on the beginning, middle and end sounds. 

In phonics, we are segmenting a blending real and non-sense words!

December themes: gingerbread men, reindeer and Christmas traditions!

Happy December!  Ms. Thornton

November 17-November 28

The Stone Soup Share is Friday from 12:30 -1:30 pm!  We are excited to share with you the different versions of Stone Soup.  Thank you for sending in the items to help.  Your support makes a big difference for us!

In math, our Module 3 focus comparison.  We will begin with length and height by focusing on the words longer and shorter.  We will use cubes for measurement.  Then we will go into weight and focus on the words heavier and lighter.   We will also compare numbers to show which is more or less and greater than and less than.

In reading, our new Module is focused on the theme Farms.  We are focusing on problem and solution.  We will read The Little Red Hen and retell using a story map with characters, setting, problem and solution.  We will also read The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  We will use the seasons to identify what happens on the farm during each season.

In writing, we are reviewing writing capital letters correctly using the lines.  We are using our sounds to write words to complete a sentence.  We are using heart words to make our sentences and adding them to the word wall.

In phonics, we are segmenting a blending real and non-sense words!

The Codington Pajama Drive begins soon!  Please see the flyer in folders today!  This is my service project that I do every year and we support The Domestic Violence Shelter for Women and Children!

I am thankful for the great families and students that are in our classroom this year!  Happy Thanksgiving!  Ms. Thornton

Updates:

Next week is Spirit Week!  Today in folders a flyer is going home with each daily theme.

Next week is the Fall Festival On Friday!  Please send in orders using the order form or you may go by the front office.  I am working the Cake Walk, so come by and see me!  I am also dressing up!  Kids can wear costumes for the costume contest.  It is also the Basket Raffle and our Reading Shelf is AMAZING!  Thank you for all of the donations!  Maybe one of us will be the winner!  The baskets will be on display next week in the hallways.  Come check out all the baskets!

Picture retakes are October 21st.  Please let me know if you would like your child to have a retake of their picture taken in August.

Report Cards are coming home today and are in your child's folder!

Mrs. Biggs presented Exemplary Attendance Awards today to each student and staff member that had 3 or less absences!  The certificate is in your child's folder.  Please keep the attendance record sheet sent home this week to help keep track of your child's attendance.

We will be having a Fall Celebration with rotations for our class on October 30th for our class!  We will have crafts, stories and food treats.  Volunteers will be needed to run a station.  PLease look for the sign-up genius from our room mom to sign up and help make our celebration a success!

October 31st is a Teacher Workday!

We are off to a great start upon our return from break! 

Oct. 15- Nov.  7

The Fall Festival is here!  Our Book Lover Basket looks AMAZING!  Thank you so much for your donations to help us!  There are so many great baskets on display in the hallways!  Get some tickets and pick the ones you would like to win. At the end of the evening they will pull tickets and announce the winners.

The Veteran’s Day luncheon is a special time!  If you are a Veteran, then I hope to see you!  Please remember this can be a parent, grandparent or relative, even a special family friend.  We want to honor our Veterans!

In math, we are focused on shapes, which teaches 2-D, which we call flat shapes and 3D shapes.  The students will learn the attributes to identify each shapes using sides, corners, straight and curved lines.  A Simon Says game came home yesterday!

In reading, our new Module is focused on the theme Farms.  We will compare fiction and non-fiction books.  We will learn the jobs of the farmer, how the farms change through the seasons and animals on a farm.

In writing, we are working on writing a sentence with a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end.  We are learning many words and adding them to the word wall.

In phonics, we are almost through the alphabet!  We are focusing on short vowel sounds and reading CVC words.  We are practicing segmenting words that we hear orally and to read and write words.  We are identifying words that begin with a sound.

We are off to a great start for 2nd Quarter!  Ms. Thornton

The Attractions Book Fundraiser has been extended.  Please return your order or book.  I have a collection bag that PTA checks each day.  Thank you for supporting our PTA!

We have a webpage!  It has links for PTA membership, PTA events calendar and myschool bucks, which allows you to put money on your child’s cafeteria account.

It has our  classroom newsletters, upcoming events and the PBIS Quarter 1 Newsletter that focus on Cooperation for 1st quarter.

This is the link for our class webpage:

https://sites.google.com/nhcs.net/cynthiathornton/home

 In math, we will begin to learn strategies for counting like touch and count and move and count.  We will begin correct number writing and counting objects to match a number and answer How many? Questions.  Then we will work on sorting objects by more than 1 way.

In reading, we are focused on learning how to notice and wonder things and why reading is important for learning.   We will start with “The 5 Senses” by focusing on the characters and settings of the stories.  We will identify how each character uses their 5 senses in several stories.  Each child has a packet for a written response to each story to show what we notice. It also shows comprehension of text and if they can retell the details of a story.

In writing, each week we will focus on 2 letters and learn the correct way to form it.  We will begin using the word wall and vocabulary list to support our writing.  We have focused on the words: I and see.

In phonics, we have already learned T, B, F, N, M, I, U and this week C and O.  After a week of activities and lessons for each letter the students need to know the name, sound and saying on the card to be ready for see to say for reading and hear to write for writing.

Conferences start this week and I will be sharing your child’s Home Connect letter, which tells you child’s levels for reading on the different skills and a composite score, which is a combination of all skill scores.  Please come with questions or concerns that you may have with the start of Kindergarten.

Soon, it will be time to work together to create a Fall Basket for the Fall Festival, which is Friday, October 24th in the evening.  It is so much fun and I always volunteer for the cake walk and I dress up!  Costume contests, basket raffle, games, food trucks, entertainment and so much more!  Our Room Moms will send a sign-up genius once we have the theme and ideas planned.  Please help support our classroom basket and our PTA. Please mark your calendars and bring your whole family!

It is very rare that Mrs. Lachapelle and I are not at school.  Today Mrs. Lachapelle has a funeral to attend.  Next week, I will miss Thursday and Friday to go to the ECU vs. NC State football game.  I graduated from ECU!  Go Pirates!

Amazing Apples Update for the Week of August 4th:

Upcoming Events:

·         August 4-15 - Attractions Book Sales

·         August 6 - Fall Photos

·         August 14 - Spirit Day

·         August 20- Teacher Workday

·         September 11 - Scooter’s Family Night

·         September 13 (8am-noon) - School Clean Up

·         September 15-19 Book Fair

·         September 16 - Book Fair Night, General PTA Meeting, 2nd & 3rd Grade Performance/Schoolwide Art Show

·         September 18 - Spirit Day

·         October 15 - Unity Day

·         October 21 - Fall Photo Retakes

·         October 24 - Fall Festival

The Attractions Books are coming home today!  The class with the most sales gets a pizza party!  Please return your book if you do not have an order.  All Orders are due August 15th!

Picture Day is Wednesday.  This is just individual pictures.  Our class picture will be in the Spring.

Please join the PTA!  Our PTA is AMAZING and does so much to support our school!  The link can be found on Codington’s Webpage.  I joined on Friday!

If you would like to be a volunteer, the training link is on Codington’s webpage.  If you want to volunteer in the classroom, then you have to have this training.  There are 2 levels.  Level 1 is just for 1 year and level 2 is for 3 years.  I highly suggest you take this training, because we will be having lots of fun events that you may want to volunteer in our classroom and school wide.

Our Group Email will be set up this week!  I am waiting for a few more responses.

Thursday Night, August 7th, will be Rise Up and Connect with your Teacher Night.  Please come to our classroom.  The sessions will be 5 pm and 5:50 pm. 

August 20th is a teacher workday and I will be scheduling beginning of the year conferences along with other dates.  Please complete and return the form

Have a great week!  Ms. Thornton

July 2025

              Our Beginning of The Year Assessments

This week, we will be working on the completion of Kindergarten Beginning of the Year Assessments in reading and math.  Some are one-on-one with the teacher and some are on the computer that students do independently.  These assessments will help me get to know your child academically, so I can meet them where they are in their learning process! Once the assessments are completed, then I will have parent conferences to share the results in September.

                         Homework/Projects

We will not have homework weekly, but we will have some special projects and activities throughout the year.  Please complete the apple and birthday cake.  Please decorate the apple to help tell about your child and then return to school for your child to share with others as we get to know each other.  Then we will hang them all on our classroom apple tree!  Please color and fill in the information on the birthday cake.  I will display these during their birthday month!  Please return these by July 25t

                       Daily Needs for Your Child

We need a water bottle sent in everyday for your child, please!

Snack- Please send 1 healthy snack every day packed separately from the lunch box in a bookbag pocket for your child.

Lunch:  Our lunch time is 10:56-11:26 and our table is number 7.  I would love to invite you to join us for lunch starting the 2nd quarter, which will give us time to learn expectations and procedures.

Please send in a change of clothes in a bag labeled with your child’s name to keep at school just in case we need it!

                                    Daily Instruction

In math, we will begin with number recognition, counting objects to match a number, writing numbers correctly and using words to describe shapes by colors and size, like smaller and bigger. We will learn to classify or sort objects into categories.  Most of all, I will introduce them to our math program called Eureka 2 and establish the terms and procedures, like turn and talk and how to use manipulatives as tools instead of toys.  This year your child will learn to be a mathematician!

In reading, we use program called Wit & Wisdom!  We are focused on learning how to notice and wonder things and why reading is important for learning.   We will start with “The 5 Senses” and books that focus on that theme. We will begin by focusing on the characters and settings of the stories.

In writing, we will begin with drawing people by using different shapes for the body, chunky body parts instead of lines, types of hair and how to add clothes.  We will look at our lined paper using the clouds, airplane, grass and dirt lines and learn how to write letters correctly on the lined paper. We will be learning each letter by naming it, making it’s sound and how to draw it correctly.

In phonics, we use Fundations!  Each letter has a special saying!  We will be learning all consonant and vowel sounds!  We will focus on 2 letters each week!  The first week will be the letter T.  Next week, we will learn letter B and F.

I look forward to having a great year and seeing these students….grow, grow and grow!

Arriving on time is important, instruction begins by 7:30 am.  The students begin morning work at 7:10 am.

                                    Communication

Please know, my door is always open!  The easiest way to communicate with me is by email: cynthia.thornton@ nhcs.net or you may send a note in your child’s folder.

If you notify me of transportation changes, then you do not need to contact the office.  Please send me an email the night before to let me know about changes.  There will not be any check-outs from the office after 1 pm, due to staff in the office preparing for dismissal.

If your child is sick, please send me an email or send a note with the reason, so I can mark your child sick for the daily attendance.

The purple folder is to be used to help with communication, send home classwork, my newsletters, flyers from the school and PTA.  It will come home everyday and needs to be returned every morning.  We check folders every morning!  Please review all work being sent home and possibly make a special place to display work to reinforce skills taught at school, like letter names and sounds.

We have a No Toys Policy at Codington to ensure our focus for each day is on learning!

               Meet The Teacher and Classroom Visit

Rise Up and Connect Night!  Please plan to attend on August 7th!  I will have 2 sessions:  5 -5:45 pm and 5:50-6:35 pm.  You can pick either time slot and learn all about the expectations and procedures, curriculum and programs used for my lessons, assessments for reading and math and other important information for the Kindergarten year!  All teachers are having 2 sessions for families with more than 1 child.                  

We are off to a great start in Kindergarten and we are so excited to have your child in our classroom this year! Welcome to the Amazing Apples!

 Ms. Thornton and Mrs. Lachapelle