News for the Week of August 31, 2020
We have just completed our first full week of online learning. Thank you for being flexible as we work through technical issues and learn our way around teaching in this new format. We really do appreciate your patience and understanding. I am so excited to work with your sweet, amazing, adorable children!
This coming week we will be doing some activities and crafts that involve extra supplies. Please come by the school on Monday or Tuesday between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. to pick up your child’s baggie with his/her name on it. It will be located by the front doors of the school under the covering. Please put these materials someplace safe and wait to do the activities until we give the instructions. The baggie contains 2 crafts, 2 handwriting sheets, and a baggie from the Art teacher.
Please have the following items ready for lessons Monday in addition to your white board/or piece of paper if you don’t have a white board.
A green composition notebook to use for our Science Journal. (If you don’t have a green one, then any color is fine. Just write the word “Science” on it. We will be using the red and blue composition notebooks for other subjects.)
A collection of 10 small items in a baggie. Example: 10 toy cars, 10 legos, 10 marbles,etc.
Here is an overview of some of the stories and skills that we worked on this week:
Mindful moments with different breathing techniques to help us center and be calm to do our best listening
Calendar Time: days of the week, months of the year, graphing, tallies, counting with base ten blocks and ten frames
Books we read: Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook, Molly Lou Melon Stands Tall, Enemy Pie, Only One You, When Sophie Gets Angry- Really, Really Angry…
Letters: reading, writing and practice with letter sounds and pictures to match: Aa - Zz
Rhyming with Nursery Rhymes: Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffett, Wee Willie Winkie
Poem: Bears Eat Honey - spaces between words, words are made up of letters, rhyming
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 7th-Labor Day Holiday
News for the Week of March 9th
Thank you SO much to all of the parents that donated items to our grade level for our science unit that is focused on plants. We planted our jalapenos on Friday morning and we will plant the cilantro seeds when we return to school.
In math, we continued to use counters to work on subtraction problems. We wrote subtraction sentences using the - and = sign. We learned that the answer to a subtraction problem is the difference. We will finish our subtraction unit and take an assessment when we return to school.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "Please Come See," and focused on the sight word, "come." We read the poem several times, wrote the sight word "come" several times and looked for rhyming words in the poem. We finished our unit on Holidays and Celebrations and read the book, "These Are the Best Ways to Celebrate Holidays." We studied opinions a lot with this book. We looked at the reasons the author gave for her opinion of various holidays. We also noticed that photos in the text helped us understand better.
In social studies, we studied patriotic holidays and discussed why we have them and how we celebrate them. We learned about Flag Day and have already learned about Veterans Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day. We read the book America Is... and looked at all of the wonderful things that make our nation. The students then wrote "America Is..." at the top of a sheet of white paper and drew and colored 4-5 things they noticed that America is in the book. We also learned about voting and voted on our favorite lunch choice and our favorite essentials class at school.
Important News
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school when we return.
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Six Flags has extended their Read to Succeed reading deadline! You now have until April to complete the online reading log if you would like to earn a ticket to Six Flags Fiesta Texas* in San Antonio. Please find your student's classroom code here. Then, you can start the online log here. If you have already logged some reading, scroll down to "Already Registered" to log in. Please contact Mrs. Bamford in the library if you have any questions at julianne_bamford@roundrockisd.org.
*This is only for Six Flags. Our school's reading logs for Schlitterbahn have already been completed and submitted.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about the life and interests of our latest superstar student, Tamarion.
We will announce the next superstar student when we return to school.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Apr. 17 Kinder Field Trip to Sweet Berry Farm
May 8 Kindergarten Showcase, 7:20 a.m.
May 8 Kindergarten Mother's Day Program, 8 a.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None
Morris' March Birthdays:
Ryan-3/6
Nikhita-3/9
Francisco-3/13
News for the Week of March 2nd
Thank you for helping your children participate in our Read Across America/ Dr. Seuss Birthday week activities. We had so much fun reading Dr. Seuss books and completing fun activities. We LOVE reading!
In math, we continued our unit on subtraction. We are writing our number sentences and making sure to use the - sign and = sign. We are focusing on vocabulary such as "take away," "difference," and "how many are left?" The students enjoyed drawing apples on an apple tree picture one day and then taking away apples from the tree. They then wrote the number sentence.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "What Day Is It?" We focused on the sight word "day" and wrote it several times. We also looked for rhyming words in the poem.
We read the book "Happy New Year," which is part of our Holidays and Celebrations language arts unit. We identified the central idea or main topic of the text and found supporting details in the text. We also looked at the sequence of events in the book and focused on key words like first, second, next, then, finally, etc.
We also worked on fun activities that went along with Dr. Seuss books. We read The Cat in the Hat and made a hat like the cat wears. We also read The Lorax and made a craft with our picture that we added to a Lorax body. We wrote by finishing the sentence stem, "I can help the Earth by _____." They are hanging in the hallway so be sure to come and look at them. We also worked on creating words from the word families -at, -in and -ug and made "word family" truffula trees. They are also hanging in our hallway. Come and see them!
In science, we finished our unit on the needs of plants and animals. We reviewed what we have learned and then took an assessment that was sent home. We then moved on to our social studies unit which focuses on patriotic holidays and celebrations. We learned about independence day and then created a craft where we painted red, white and blue fireworks in the night sky. The students loved painting the fireworks with q tips.
We also learned about Memorial Day. We learned that poppies are a symbol of remembrance. We painted paper plates that were cut into the shape of a poppy flower. We then painted them and added black pieces of construction paper to the middle.
Important News
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday afternoon.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Monday morning.
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Six Flags has extended their Read to Succeed reading deadline! You now have until April to complete the online reading log if you would like to earn a ticket to Six Flags Fiesta Texas* in San Antonio. Please find your student's classroom code here. Then, you can start the online log here. If you have already logged some reading, scroll down to "Already Registered" to log in. Please contact Mrs. Bamford in the library if you have any questions at julianne_bamford@roundrockisd.org.
*This is only for Six Flags. Our school's reading logs for Schlitterbahn have already been completed and submitted.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about the life and interests of our latest superstar student, Sanvi.
The Monkeys are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Tamarion!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Mar. 11 Incoming kindergarten registration for 20-21
Mar. 12 Send in jalapeno plant and potting soil donations
Mar. 16-20 Spring Break
Mar. 26 PTA Magic Show, 6:00 p.m.
Mar. 31 PTA Meeting
Apr. 17 Kinder Field Trip to Sweet Berry Farm
May 8 Kindergarten Showcase, 7:20 a.m.
May 8 Kindergarten Mother's Day Program, 8 a.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Tamarion!
Morris' March Birthdays:
Ryan-3/6
Nikhita-3/9
Francisco-3/13
News for the Week of February 18th & 24th
Only 2 more weeks until spring break! Time is passing by very quickly! I hope those of you who attended the Multicultural Fair really enjoyed it and learned a lot about other countries/cultures.
In math the last 2 weeks the class worked on subtraction. We counted out sets of ants, ducks, bugs, dog bones and more and then took away a certain amount to find the difference. This past week while I was gone, the students worked on writing subtraction sentences and used the - and = signs.
In language arts the past couple of weeks we worked on the sight word poems, "I See This" and "What Do Kids Like?" and focused on the sight words "this" and "we." We read the poems several times, wrote the sight words several times and found the rhyming words. We finished our unit on Stories Have a Message by reading Ly's Goldfish. We asked and answered questions about important details, we made connections to the text and we used the illustrations to support the text. The students began a new unit last week called Holidays and Celebrations. They read the book Celebrating Earth Day and used monitoring strategies, identified the main idea and supporting evidence and learned about cause and effect.
The students also worked on interactive sight word activities in their reading response journals. They traced the sight words, wrote them, cut apart letters and built the word and then took words and built a sentence with the sight word in the correct order.
In social studies, the students learned about what maps are and why and how they are used. We also worked on making a map of our playground.
In science, we sorted pictures of items into the categories living and nonliving. We also did a fun Nearpod lesson with our iPads on living and nonliving things. The students really enjoyed this activity. We then finished our unit by reviewing what we learned and taking an assessment on living and nonliving things. Last week, the students began learning about the basic needs of plants and animals. The Monkeys made a craft of plants needs, created a waterfall book of animal needs, matched pictures of needs to either plants or animals and they read and colored two emergent readers about plant and animal needs to add to their book boxes.
Important News
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday afternoon.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Monday morning.
READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK - March 2nd - 6th
Monday (March 2nd) - Wear a Dr. Seuss shirt or Dr. Seuss character costume
Tuesday (March 3rd) - Wear Pajamas
Wednesday (March 4th) - Wear your favorite color
Thursday (March 5th) - Wacky Socks Day
Friday (March 6th) - Wear your Class of 2032 shirt
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Six Flags has extended their Read to Succeed reading deadline! You now have until April to complete the online reading log if you would like to earn a ticket to Six Flags Fiesta Texas* in San Antonio. Please find your student's classroom code here. Then, you can start the online log here. If you have already logged some reading, scroll down to "Already Registered" to log in. Please contact Mrs. Bamford in the library if you have any questions at julianne_bamford@roundrockisd.org.
*This is only for Six Flags. Our school's reading logs for Schlitterbahn have already been completed and submitted.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Sanvi!
Here is the picture of Cara's poster from 2 weeks ago:
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Mar. 2 Dr. Seuss' Birthday/Read Across America
Mar. 6 Kona Ice after school
Mar. 16-20 Spring Break
Mar. 26 PTA Magic Show, 6:00 p.m.
Mar. 31 PTA Meeting
Apr. 17 Kinder Field Trip to Sweet Berry Farm
May 8 Kindergarten Showcase, 7:20 a.m.
May 8 Kindergarten Mother's Day Program, 8 a.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Sanvi!
Morris' March Birthdays:
Ryan-3/6
Nikhita-3/9
Francisco-3/13
News for the Week of February 10th
Thank you SO much to all of the parents that helped and volunteered to make our Valentine's Day party a success! The students had a wonderful time and felt the love! A special thank you to Lauren Perkins, our room parents, for helping organize the party.
Also, thank you very much for all of the cards, sweet treats, flowers/plants and gift cards that you gave me for Valentine's Day! I am spoiled by your generosity and thoughtfulness!
In math this week we finished our unit on addition. We created robots and added amounts of two different colors of hearts to come up with a sum. They are hanging in the hall, so please come to see them. We reviewed our plus and equal sign. We wrote many addition number sentences and joined together groups of objects to make more. We took an assessment on addition on Friday, which went home in the folder. Next week, we will begin our unit on subtraction.
In language arts, we read the poem, "Good Helper, " and focused on the sight word "look." We read the poem several times, wrote the sight word "look" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We read the story The Legend of the Coqui and reviewed how legends and folktales usually began by being told by word of mouth. Then we identified and described the setting and events (problem and solution) from the story, we made text to text connections between this week's story and last week's story "The Boy Who Fed His People," and we used evidence from the details in the story to determine the theme. We also worked hard on our Valentine's day boxes which took A LOT of time to make. In writing, we worked on coming up with ideas for the Valentine owl we made our parents. The students finished the sentence stem, " 'OWL' Always Love You Because..." and created the owl. We hope you loved it!
In social studies, we discussed how people are alike and different. We learned that our similarities and differences are what make us special and unique. We read the story "We Are All Alike, We Are All Different" and drew and colored a picture of ourselves and one of our friends. We then compared and contrasted our picture to our friend's picture. We also read "Same, Same, But Different" and "It's Okay to be Different."
In science, we began an new unit on living and nonliving things. We sorted pictures of living and nonliving things and discussed what makes a living thing, living. Living things eat food/make food (plants), drink water, grow and change, need air, move on their own and reproduce. We went on a scavenger hunt to find living and nonliving things. We also wrote in our science notebooks about one living thing and why it is living and one nonliving thing and why it is not living.
Important News
Library Wednesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to library time on Wednesday afternoon, due to no school on Tuesday.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Wednesday morning. Since it is a short week, new book will not go home in book envelopes until Monday, February 24th.
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about our superstar student Cara's life and interests! There will be no superstar until the week of March 2nd. I forgot to snap a photo of Cara's poster and will have to add it next week.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Feb. 17-18 No School
Feb. 25 PTA Meeting
Feb. 26 Dress up like your favorite storybook character!
Feb. 28 Multicultural Fair, 5:00 p.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None
Morris' February Birthdays:
Cara-2/13
Lucas-2/20
News for the Week of February 3rd
Thank you to the Monkeys class for my 1/2 birthday banner, card and gift card to Starbucks! I appreciate your thoughtfulness!
In math this week, we continued working on addition. We drew 2 cards and added the numbers by drawing the two amounts and counting them all or counting on from the larger amount. We worked on writing number sentences and made sure we put the plus sign and equal sign in the correct place. We discussed what the word "sum" means. We will finish our unit on addition this upcoming week.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem "Silly Rhymes" and focused on the sight word "look." We wrote the sight word several times and found the rhyming words. We also had to make up our own rhyme at the end of the poem. We began a new unit this week called "Stories Have a Message." We read the book "The Boy Who Fed His People." We discussed folktales, legends and fables and learned how the author has a purpose to teach us a lesson. We made text to self, text to text and text to world connections. We also looked at how illustrations in the book supported the text. We used text evidence to determine the theme of the book and the theme of the fable The Fox and the Crow. In writing, we read the book Love, Splat by Rob Scotton and discussed what we think love is and wrote down our ideas. We then finished writing the sentence stem, "Love is __________." We made a Splat the Cat and added our writing to it. These cute cats are hanging in our hallway! Come and see them!
In science, we finished our unit on forms of energy. We had fun learning more about thermal/heat energy by taping some crayon pieces to the top of a sheet of cardstock and adding heat to it with a hair dryer. The students LOVED seeing the crayons melt and watching the liquid blow onto the bottom of the page and watching the wax roll down the page.
We also went on an energy walk and looked for examples of thermal/heat, light and sound energy. We noticed things such as the sun (light/heat), an airplane (sound), etc. We also took the assessment on forms of energy and that went home in the folder on Friday.
Important News
*FAST PASS FOR VALENTINE’S PARTY VOLUNTEERS
Please complete the form so we can preprint badges needed for the Valentine Party. This will help expedite the check in process for badges. If you have not had your driver's license scanned into our system before, you must bring your driver's license or some sort of picture identification in order to enter the building. Thank you!
Please click here for link to Fast Pass
*Reminder no child care will be provided for this party. Siblings (older and younger) are not allowed in the classroom so you will need to make alternate arrangements.
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Tuesday morning so I can send home new books.
Valentine's Day Cards: A hot pink note went home in Tuesday folder two weeks ago and explained that if you and your child would like to make/purchase valentines for the class, to please make one for each student to ensure there are no hurt feelings. We have 17 students in our class. Please do not address the "To" section or your child may write "To: My friend." Please have your child write their name in the "From" section. This makes passing out valentines much easier for the students. Thank you!
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about our superstar student Annie's life and interests! We are excited to learn about our next superstar student, Cara, this upcoming week!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Feb. 14 Class Valentine's Day Party, 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 17-18 No School
Feb. 25 PTA Meeting
Feb. 28 Multicultural Fair, 5:00 p.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Cara!
Morris' February Birthdays:
Cara-2/13
Lucas-2/20
News for the Week of January 27th
Thank you all SO much for helping your child make a shirt with 100 items for our 100th day of school celebration! The students loved seeing Zero the Hero and participating in the parade. We had fun all day working on activities about 100. Thank you so much for attending the parade parents! Also, a huge thank you to Lauren Perkins and the other kindergarten room moms for organizing the sign up genius to get snacks donated for our 100th day afternoon snack. The room parents also put together the 100 shaped snacks for the morning after the parade and got the 100th day of school bracelets for the students.
In math, we worked on writing number sentences for addition and focused on remembering to write the + sign between the amounts we were adding and the = sign before the sum. We are still practicing using vocabulary such as "addition," "plus," "equal," "add," "sum," "in all" and "altogether."
In language arts we read the sight word poem "Rain" and focused on the sight word "on." We read the poem several times, wrote "on" several times and looked for rhyming words in the poem. We finished our unit on Technology. We read the book The No-Tech Day of Play and identified and described the characters, setting and events (problem & solution). We summarized parts of the story, also. The students were able to listen to a book using Mrs. Morris' childhood record player. Many students have never seen a record or a record player before and were amazed. This was a great illustration of how technology has changed over the years. On Monday, we made art that showed how we think we will look when we are 100 years old and finished the sentence stem, "When I am 100 years old, I will ________." These are hanging in the hallway. Come and see them! We also made a picture using our imagination using the numerals 1, 0 and 0. We drew a picture of what we would buy with $100 and finished the sentence stem, "If I had $100, I would buy _______." Did you know that you can buy a Lamborghini for $100? Or buy 100 houses for $100? We also painted 100 gumballs and made cute gumball machines that we will hang in our hallway. In phonics this week, we looked at the ending sound of words and matched pictures of objects by their ending sound. For example, cat, basket, hat, goat and moon, sun, spoon, ten.
In science, we continued our unit on forms of energy. We learned about light energy and explored some toys/items that light up and even worked with a Lite Brite. We made shadow puppets and used the projector screen in our classroom to explore them. We learned about thermal/heat energy and used a variety of items like a popsicle stick, a foam block, a metal lid and a plastic chip. We took the items and felt them and then rubbed them on the rug quickly and created friction. We then felt them to see if heat was created. We will finish our unit on forms of energy this upcoming week.
Important News
*FAST PASS FOR VALENTINE’S PARTY VOLUNTEERS
Please complete the form so we can preprint badges needed for the Valentine Party. This will help expedite the check in process for badges. If you have not had your driver's license scanned into our system before, you must bring your driver's license or some sort of picture identification in order to enter the building. Thank you!
Please click here for link to Fast Pass
*Reminder no child care will be provided for this party. Siblings (older and younger) are not allowed in the classroom so you will need to make alternate arrangements.
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Tuesday morning so I can send home new books.
Valentine's Day Cards: A hot pink note went home in this past week's Tuesday folder and explained that if you and your child would like to make/purchase valentines for the class, to please make one for each student to ensure there are no hurt feelings. We have 17 students in our class. Please do not address the "To" section or your child may write "To: My friend." Please have your child write their name in the "From" section. This makes passing out valentines much easier for the students. Thank you!
Cereal Box: Kindergarten has an upcoming project of making a Valentine's Day mailbox that we will be completing in our classroom. Please save one cereal box for your child and send it to school by Monday, February 10, 2020
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about our superstar student Connor's life and interests! We are excited to learn about our next superstar student, Annie, this upcoming week!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Feb. 14 Class Valentine's Day Party, 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 17-18 No School
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Annie!
Morris' February Birthdays:
Cara-2/13
Lucas-2/20
News for the Week of January 20th
Thank you to our families that came out for STEAM night! We hope you enjoyed the evening and learned something new!
We still have friends in our class that are ill. I am hoping that everyone is feeling better this weekend. The school has been "fogged" this weekend to kill germs in our building. Please remember to keep your child at home until they are fever free for 24 hours or have not been vomiting or had diarrhea for 24 hours. You might want to consider not bringing your child to school if you have a doctor's appointment scheduled to test for the flu or strep. Please consider waiting for the test results before bringing your child to school. That way, other students and staff will not be exposed to potential contagious illnesses. Thank you!
In math this week, we continued working on addition. We joined together groups of cookies and ladybugs to make a larger number. We focused on the + sign and the = sign while writing addition number sentences. We also worked on previously taught math concepts in our math rotations.
In language arts, we read the poem, "Mix the Soup!" and focused on the sight word "in." We read the poem several times and wrote the word "in" several times. We then looked for rhyming words.
We read the "how-to" book "How to Make a Solar Oven," and learned about this new type of informational text. We noticed new features such as sidebars and steps in a procedure. We talked about the sequence of steps in the book and the author's purpose for writing the text.
In science, we began our unit on forms of energy. We discussed light, thermal (heat) and sound energy. We observed a lamp and wrote about how we noticed light energy with our eyes and heat energy with our hands. We also focused on sound energy. We played musical instruments in the classroom and other devices that made sounds. We also matched sounds we heard when shaking old film canisters with objects inside. We will continue to learn about forms of energy this week.
Important News
Have you ordered your 2019-2020 yearbook yet? The yearbook costs $25, with the option to personalize the front cover for an additional $5. As always, all proceeds go to support your CCE PTA! Order now, and yearbooks will be delivered to classrooms the last week of school. After January 31st, we cannot guarantee availability, so don't wait! Place your order now from the Balfour website.
To order, go to https://www.balfour.com/texas/austin/canyon-creek-elementary-school. Orders are due January 31. Questions? Email ccetxyearbook@gmail.com.
*FAST PASS FOR VALENTINE’S PARTY VOLUNTEERS
Please complete the form so we can preprint badges needed for the Valentine Party. This will help expedite the check in process for badges. If you have not had your driver's license scanned into our system before, you must bring your driver's license or some sort of picture identification in order to enter the building. Thank you!
Please click here for link to Fast Pass
*Reminder no child care will be provided for this party. Siblings (older and younger) are not allowed in the classroom so you will need to make alternate arrangements.
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Tuesday morning so I can send home new books.
100th Day of School: An orange note went home two weeks ago in the yellow Tuesday folder explaining how to help your child make a shirt for the 100th day of school with 100 things on it. Pinterest has a lot of great ideas. Please work on this with your child and have them wear it to school on Friday, Jauary 31st. Thank you!
Cereal Box: Kindergarten has an upcoming project that we will be completing in our classroom. Please save one cereal box for your child and send it to school by Monday, February 10, 2020
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT: The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about our last superstar student Ayan's life and interests! We are excited to learn about our next superstar student, Connor, this upcoming week!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Jan. 30 Class Group Photo & Spring Individual Photos
Jan. 31 100th Day of School
Feb. 14 Class Valentine's Day Party, 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 17-18 No School
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Connor!
Morris' January Birthdays:
Sanvi-1/7
Burt-1/11
Connor-1/28
News for the Week of January 13th
I hope you are all enjoying our 3 day weekend! We had 6 of our classmates sick and/or absent on Friday. Hopefully, this long weekend is helping them feel better. We made sure to use a lot of hand sanitizer, we wiped down our tables with anti-bacterial wipes and I sprayed Lysol on many surfaces.
Mrs. Hougham, our counselor, came this past week to teach the students a lesson about listening. They all did a great job and the students love seeing Mrs. Hougham!
In math this past week, we completed our unit on measurement and took an assessment that went home in the folder. We began a new unit on addition. We are focusing on joining sets of objects together by counting all of the items or by looking at the set with the larger number and then counting on. We are being exposed to vocabulary such as "addition," "altogether," "in all." If a solid foundation is built learning about addition, when numbers increase or parts of a problem are missing, the students will be prepared.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "By the River" and focused on the sight word "by." We read the poem several times, wrote the sight word "by" several times and looked for rhyming words. Our new unit for language arts and social studies is Technology at Home and at School. We read an informational text about technology long ago and today. We are learning about how technology has changed over the years and made many things in life faster and easier. While reading the book, we worked on skills such as summarizing the text, comparing and contrasting technology long ago and today and we used illustrations/photos in the book to determine the author's purpose.
We read books and our Scholastic Let's Find Out magazine about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We discussed his contributions to our society and why we celebrate the MLK, Jr. holiday. The students learned that his dream was peace and wrote about their dreams for the future.
In science, we finished our unit about rocks, soil and water. We discussed the uses of rocks, soil and water. We also made a list of the properties of water and observed a sample of tap water and compared it to a sample of bird bath water. The students used descriptive words such as clear, dirty, brown, wet, liquid, odorless, bad odor, etc. We will take an assessment on this unit on Tuesday. We did not take it on Friday due to so many absent students.
Important News
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library books this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday.
Book Envelopes: If your child did not return their book envelope on Friday, please send it back to school on Tuesday morning so I can send home new books.
After School Activities: If your child will attend after school activities such as Chess Club, Mad Science, Runners Club or any other class, please let me know what they will attend and what day it will happen. Some classes have not started yet and some end before the end of the semester. Please let me know dates. I do not receive this information from the classes you sign your children up for.
STEAM Night: Our school-wide STEAM night is coming up this month on Thursday, January 23rd. Every grade level will have an interactive exhibit displayed in and around the cafeteria. Save the date because we hope to see you there and have some fun together!
100th Day of School: An orange note went home two weeks ago in the yellow Tuesday folder explaining how to help your child make a shirt for the 100th day of school with 100 things on it. Pinterest has a lot of great ideas. Please work on this with your child and have them wear it to school on Friday, Jauary 31st. Thank you!
Cereal Box: Kindergarten has an upcoming project that we will be completing in our classroom. Please save one cereal box for your child and send it to school by Monday, February 10, 2020
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our friend Ayan was absent on Friday, so we are excited for him to share his journal on Tuesday.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Jan. 20 No School
Jan. 23 STEAM Night
Jan. 30 Class Group Photo & Spring Individual Photos
Jan. 31 100th Day of School
Feb. 14 Class Valentine's Day Party, 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 17-18 No School
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None
Morris' January Birthdays:
Sanvi-1/7
Burt-1/11
Connor-1/28
News for the Week of January 6th
I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing winter break! I am so happy to have my Monkeys back at school! We are getting into our normal routines again. We started the week on Wednesday with revisiting our social contract. We made a new one for this semester that was very similar to our previous one. We discussed how we wanted to treat each other and we all signed the contract to show that we promise to follow it.
Here is our new social contract!
We started our new year discussing resolutions and goals for the new year. We wrote about what we were excited for in 2020. We made a toast/egg craft and completed the sentence stem, "Here's a toast to the new year! I am "egg"cited to ____________ this year!" Come and check out our work in the hallway!
We also finished up learning about weight in math and comparing objects and using the vocabulary "heavier," "lighter," and "the same." We began discussing capacity and will finish up this week.
We took a walk around the school during science and looked for rocks, soil and water and then made a chart after of where we saw those things and how they were used. Rocks made up our sidewalks, flower beds and the walls on our buildings. Water was at our water fountains, the sink, the restroom. Soil was in our flower beds and made up our track. We will finish our learning about rocks, soil and water this week.
We read the poem, "Lots of Boxes," and focused on the sight word "of." We wrote the word several times and found rhyming words in the poem. We also made a KWL chart about penguins. We listed things we "know" about penguins, we wrote down questions of what we "wonder" about penguins and we wrote down what we "learned" about penguins after reading and researching. We are making a book about penguins and writing pages about what penguins can do, what they are and what they have. We also labeled the parts of the penguin's body and we will finish making the book this week.
The students had a wonderful time participating in enrichment activities Friday afternoon with our two TAG teachers, the librarian and our technology specialist!
Important News
Library Tuesday: Please send back your child's library book this week. We will go to our regular library time on Tuesday.
After School Activities: If your child will attend after school activities such as Chess Club, Mad Science, Runners Club or any other class, please let me know what they will attend and what day it will happen. Some classes have not started yet and some end before the end of the semester. Please let me know dates. I do not receive this information from the classes you sign your children up for.
Superhero Day: This is scheduled for Wednesday, January 15th and we are encouraging all students to dress up as superheroes!
STEAM Night: Our school-wide STEAM night is coming up this month on Thursday, January 23rd. Every grade level will have an interactive exhibit displayed in and around the cafeteria. Save the date because we hope to see you there and have some fun together!
100th Day of School: An orange note went home in last week's yellow folder explaining how to help your child make a shirt for the 100th day of school with 100 things on it. Pinterest has a lot of great ideas. Please work on this with your child and have them wear it to school on Friday, Jauary 31st. Thank you!
SPRING 2020 READING INCENTIVE PROGRAM:
Packets went home before the winter break so students could get a jump on their reading but there is still plenty of time to complete the reading hours and benefit from the free tickets to Schlitterbahn and Six Flags! Two things to remember:
1. The Schlitterbahn log requires 10 hours and the HARDCOPY log DOES have to be turned in to the teacher or Mrs. Bamford
2. The Six Flags log requires 6 hours, and the log should be entered ONLINE (NOT turned in). This is a new format this year.
Here is the registration link for Six Flags and our classroom code: TKY7A
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Ayan!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Jan. 14 Report Cards go home
Jan. 15 Dress like a superhero
Jan. 20 No School
Jan. 23 STEAM Night
Jan. 31 100th Day of School
Feb. 14 Class Valentine's Day Party, 2:00 p.m.
Feb. 17-18 No School
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Ayan!
Morris' January Birthdays:
Sanvi-1/7
Burt-1/11
Connor-1/28
News for the Week of December 16th
Wow! We made it through the first semester of kindergarten and I am very proud of all of my Monkeys! Thank you VERY much to all of the parents who made our winter party possible! Thank you to Lauren Perkins, our room parent, for helping plan such a fun party for the students! We appreciate all of the volunteers and parents who attended the party!
Thank you SO much for all of the sweet cards, gifts, gift cards and sweet treats you gave me for holiday gifts! Also, I LOVE the gift from the class for a massage to Viva Day Spa!! I am so grateful to all of you for your generosity and kindness. It has been so wonderful working with your children this school year and I am blessed to be able to come to this job each day! Thank you for all of your support! I hope all of you have a wonderful and safe holiday break!
Here is a picture of our class shoe box lid tree:
In math, we continued learning about the weight of objects. We also had fun making a Christmas tree with different lengths of green paper and put them in order from longest to shortest. The students had fun decorating them with colorful sequins.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "What Am I?" and focused on the sight word "not." We read the poem several times and wrote the sight word "not" several times. We found rhyming words in the poem. We had a lot of fun making holiday crafts. We read The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie de Paola and made a poinsettia. We made a Santa Claus bag to take home our holiday gifts in, we read The Polar Express and wrote about what gift we would choose if Santa gave us the first gift of Christmas and we read The Little Reindeer and made reindeer hats for our holiday sing along and party. We hope you love the candy cane holiday cards we made for you with the students thumbprints and the awesome 2020 calendars! The Monkeys worked hard on the calendars.
In science, we finished writing about facts we learned about rocks and made a funny little rock buddy craft that we will hang up in the classroom after the break.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Dec. 20- Jan. 7 Winter Break, No School
Jan. 8 Classes Resume
Jan. 20 No School
Jan. 23 STEAM Night
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None-will resume after the break
Morris' December Birthdays:
Kane-12/12
Ayan-12/30-will celebrate after the holiday break
News for the Week of December 9th
Wow! This semester of school has flown by! Only 4 more days of school before our well deserved winter break! Thank you for helping your child decorate a shoe box lid to show your family's holiday traditions. Our class shoe box lid tree is displayed in the hallway. Come and see it! I will post a photo of it next week.
In math, we continued to learn about measurement. We worked on comparing the height of objects and decided which were taller and which were shorter. We then began to learn about weight and compared objects and used the vocabulary "heavier" and "lighter."
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "I Am," and focused on the sight word "am." We read the poem several times, wrote "am" several times and looked for rhyming words in the poem. We also continued to read realistic fiction. We read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems. We drew inferences about the story, identified the characters, setting and events. We noticed how illustrations support the text and we sorted words from the story into categories. We also read The Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett and drew and colored a reindeer. They are so cute and are displayed in our hallway. We read Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner and created a picture of a snowman at night. We also wrote about what snowmen do at night. We will display this art and writing in the hallway this week.
In science, we began our unit on rocks. We made a list of properties of rocks such as their size, shape, color and texture. We chose a rock and drew and colored what it looked like and wrote about its properties. We also took some rocks and performed a scratch test on them to see if they were hard or soft. The students enjoyed seeing if a line would or would not scratch onto the rock. We will continue this unit after our holiday break and learn about properties of water and the uses of rocks, soil and water.
Important News
KINDERGARTEN PAJAMA DAY: We will have a fun Kindergarten grade level pajama day on Wednesday, December 18th! Your child may come to school dressed in winter or holiday themed pajamas. Please have your student still wear normal shoes or tennis shoes for safety at P.E. and recess.
From the office:
If you are planning on helping or attending our holiday party (parties start at 2pm on Thursday, December 19th) please fill out this short form and the office will pre-print your badge.
If you have not had your driver's license scanned into our system before, you must bring your driver's license or some sort of picture identification in order to enter the building.
Please make arrangements for your little ones. Siblings are not allowed to attend the party.
Fill out your "Fast Pass" Form here.
Winter Party: Parents are all invited to attend our winter party on Thursday, December 19th at 2:00 p.m., if you are not already volunteering at the party. Please arrange childcare for younger siblings if you plan to attend.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
We enjoyed learning all about our latest superstar, Kane! We learned all about his life and interests.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Dec. 19 Holiday Party, 2:00-2:55 p.m. (please arrange child care for younger siblings if you plan to attend)
Dec. 20- Jan. 7 Winter Break, No School
Jan. 8 Classes Resume
Jan. 20 No School
Jan. 23 STEAM Night,
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None-will resume after the break
Morris' December Birthdays:
Kane-12/12
Ayan-12/30
News for the Week of December 2nd
The Monkeys had a great time on their field trip to watch the play "Holiday Heroes" at the Zach Scott Theater! The students laughed a lot and sang holiday songs! Many of the students enjoyed the bus ride on the big yellow school bus the most!
In math this week, we began a new unit on measurement and focused on length. The students became more familiar with the words "long," "short," and "tall." We compared objects to see which were longer and shorter than others. We realized that some objects are the same length.
In language arts, we read the poem, "Please Do!" We focused on the sight word "do" by writing it several times. We also found rhyming words in the poem. We began a new unit called, "Why Writers Tell Stories." We are looking at a variety of fictional stories and this week we focused on "realistic fiction." We noticed that realistic fiction can have characters that seem real, the setting could be a real place and the events in the story could actually happen in the real world. We learned how to infer what might happen in a story and how the character's are feeling by using clues in the text and illustrations. In writing, we watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and then wrote how we could make the Grinch grin. We brainstormed our ideas and made a list. We then created a Grinch craft. Come and see it in our hallway! We also began writing a new story that we will make into a book. The students thought of ideas they would like to write about and then began writing.
In science, we finished our unit on heating and cooling. We used chocolate chips in ziploc bags and put one on a heating pad, put the other in our hands, and put some in the microwave. We noticed how the chocolate chips melted. We then put the bag of melted chocolate chips on ice and noticed how they hardened back up. We also had a ton of fun making "ice cream in a bag!" We mixed up the ingredients and noticed how they were in liquid form. We then added ice and ice cream salt and began shaking the bag. It formed into ice cream and each student got to taste one spoonful. They thought it was delicious, so here's the recipe: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a54721/ice-cream-in-a-bag-recipe/ We reviewed our science unit and took an assessment that went home in the folder on Thursday. We then made a fun snowman craft and finished the response, "My snowman melted because_____." They are hanging in our classroom for you to see at the Winter party.
Important News
KINDERGARTEN PAJAMA DAY: We will have a fun Kindergarten grade level pajama day on Wednesday, December 18th! Your child may come to school dressed in winter or holiday themed pajamas. Please have your student still wear normal shoes or tennis shoes for safety at P.E. and recess.
Winter Party: Parents are all invited to attend our winter party on Thursday, December 19th at 2:00 p.m., if you are not already volunteering at the party. Please arrange childcare for younger siblings if you plan to attend.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our next superstar student is Kane! We look forward to learning all about his life and interests!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Dec. 11 Coffee Chat, 7:45-8:15 a.m. in the library
Dec. 19 Holiday Party, 2:00-2:55 p.m. (please arrange child care for younger siblings if you plan to attend)
Dec. 20- Jan. 7 Winter Break, No School
Jan. 8 Classes Resume
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Kane!
Morris' December Birthdays:
Kane-12/12
Ayan-12/30
News for the Week of November 18th
The Monkeys had a fun week full of exciting events and learning! We really enjoyed making turkey hats for our Thanksgiving lunch at school.
In math, we finished our unit on comparing numbers 1-20. We discussed more/less/same and which numbers come before and after a specific number. We played fun games with partners and took an end of the unit assessment. The assessment went home on Friday in the folder.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "Can You See a Rainbow?," and focused on the sight word, "you." We wrote "you" several times and looked for rhyming words in the poem. We finished our unit on "Rules at Home and in School." We discussed the central idea and what supporting details we found in the text and in illustrations. We read many Thanksgiving books and watched a video about the Thanksgiving holiday. We worked hard on our Thankful turkeys and wrote things we are thankful for on the feathers. These came home on Friday and we hope you love them!
In social studies, we finished discussing authority figures in our community. We made a book with our picture in it that shows us as a variety of different community helpers. We are saving these for our end of the year book.
In science, we began learning about how heating and cooling cause change. We made popsicles and noticed the change in the juice after a night in the freezer. We used room temperature water, our hands (body heat) and a blow dryer to get pennies out of ice cubes. We also felt a piece of an apple that had been chopped up and then noticed the change in the apples after cooking them in the crockpot all day. We will continues this fun unit after the Thanksgiving break.
This year was also our first Turkey Trot during essentials time. Each time the students finished a lap around the course in the parking lot, they were handed a popsicle stick. The class with the most sticks won. Congratulations to Mrs. Meredith's class! It was a lot of fun! Even the teachers jogged and walked during the Turkey Trot.
Important News
*FIELD TRIP: Our field trip will be on Thursday, December 5th! We will watch the play "Holiday Heroes" at the Zach Scott Theater. Buses will leave the school at 10:30 a.m. Please send a separately packaged and labeled "large snack" for your child on this day. We will eat the snack first before we leave on the field trip. When we return around 1:00-1:30 p.m., the cafeteria will be closed, so we will eat a lunch from home in our classroom. Please pack your child a lunch box on this day.
*Shoe Box Lid Christmas Tree Project: I sent an email about this project so you could have time to work on it over the Thanksgiving break if you would like. We would like them back as soon as possible, but by Friday, December 6th for sure. We only have 3 weeks after the break and won't have long to display them.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our superstar student was Karly! The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about Karly's life and interests!
The next superstar will be announced on Friday, December 6th.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Nov. 25-29 Thanksgiving Break, no school
Dec. 5 Field Trip to Zach Scott Theater
Dec. 19 Holiday Party, 2:00-2:55 p.m. (please arrange child care for younger siblings if you plan to attend)
Dec. 20- Jan. 7 Winter Break, No School
Jan. 8 Classes Resume
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
None
Morris' December Birthdays:
Kane-12/12
Ayan-12/30
News for the Week of November 11th
We love our class turkey! Thank you all for creating such beautiful feathers!
In math this week, we continued comparing numbers. We have been working hard on learning about numbers that are one more or one less than a given number (before and after). We have used spinners to find a given number and then wrote what was one more or one less. We have also played games where we spin a spinner, write down the number and then let our partner do the same. Whoever has more is the winner and sometimes whoever has less is the winner.
In language arts, we read the poem, "Can You See Me?" and focused on the sight word "me." We read the poem several times, wrote "me" several times and found words that rhymed in the poem. We also read a story called "Rules are Cool!" It was realistic fiction. We found the central or main idea of the story and found supporting details in the text and illustrations. We also compared and contrasted the book to last week's informational text, "Why Do We Have Rules?"
In social studies, we learned about helpers in our community. We read books about a dentist and a doctor and discussed how they are an authority in our community when it comes to health. We learned about what they do and how they help keep us healthy. We made a fun mouth with marshmallow teeth for our dentist lesson and we made a doctor's bag with items such as a tongue depressor, thermometer, q-tip, cotton ball and a band-aid.
In science, we finished our unit on relative position/location and patterns of movement (straight line, zigzag, fast/slow, around and around, up and down, etc. We took an assessment on Thursday and it was sent home in the daily folder on Thursday. We will begin a unit called "Changes in Heat" this upcoming week.
Important News
*FIELD TRIP:
If you have not yet done so, please sign the pink permission slip and return it with $6 (cash or checks made out to CCE) for our field trip to Zach Scott Theater to watch Holiday Heroes on Thursday, December 5th.
*Book Fair is here!
Monday, November 18 - Friday, November 22
7:20 AM - 3:30 PM
OPEN LATE ON TUESDAY until 6:00 PM
New way to pay - set up a digital eWallet for your child (printout not necessary)
Volunteer - we REALLY need more volunteers :)
Click here for VOLUNTEER, eWALLET sign up, and online shopping!
*Please note that we are not accepting Library book returns during book fair. Thank you!
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our superstar student was Burt! The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about Burt's life and interests!
We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Karly!
Here is a photo of Srikari from the week before last and a photos of Burt and his poster from this past week.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Nov. 18-22 Book Fair
Nov. 20 Thanksgiving Feast, lunch time in cafeteria, 11:00 a.m.
Nov. 21 Kona Ice after school
Nov. 25-29 Thanksgiving Break, no school
Dec. 5 Field Trip to Zach Scott Theater
Dec. 19 Holiday Party, 2:00-2:55 p.m. (please arrange child care for younger siblings if you plan to attend)
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Karly!
Morris November Birthdays:
Karly-11/15
News for the Week of November 4th
Thank you to everyone that has returned the pink permission slip for our field trip to Zach Scott Theater on Thursday, December 5th. If you have not returned it yet, please do so as soon as you can. If you have not sent $6 cash or check made payable to CCE, please send that, too! We appreciate your support!
Also, a big thanks to all of you for working with your child on the feather for our class turkey! All of the feathers are up on our turkey in the hallway near the library and they look fantastic! I will post a picture next week!
In math, we continued working on comparing numbers this week. We looked at numbers and figured out what was one more and two more, as well as one fewer and two fewer. We will continue to compare numbers and look at missing numbers in a sequence.
In language arts, we focused on the sight word "be" when reading the poem, "I Can Be Anything." We wrote "be" several times and found rhyming words in the our poem. Our focus this week was our new unit on "Rules." We looked for the central idea in this informational text and found supporting details in the text. We also discussed the author's purpose for writing the informational book, "Why Do We Have Rules?" We read "A Plump and Perky Turkey," and had fun making a cute turkey and we finished the response, "Save a turkey! Eat more ____." Come and see them in our hallway!
In social studies, we began talking about authority figures in our home, school and community. We read about police officers and firefighters this week. We made fun police officer hats and badges and we created a firefighter and wrote a fire safety rule.
In science, we finished our unit on magnets and took an assessment that went home in the folders this past week. We began discussing relative location and using words such as above, below, beside, between, in front of, behind, etc. We read Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins and drew and wrote the relative location of Rosie at different times in the story.
Important News
*FIELD TRIP:
If you have not yet done so, please sign the pink permission slip and return it with $6 (cash or checks made out to CCE) for our field trip to Zach Scott Theater to watch Holiday Heroes on Thursday, December 5th.
*Report Cards: If you did not sign and return the report card envelope that was send home on Tuesday, October 29th, please do so as soon as possible.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our superstar student was Srikari! The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about Srikari's life and interests!
We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Burt!
Here is a photo of Parker from the week before last and a photo of Srikari's poster from this past week.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Nov. 11 Veterans Day Ceremony, 8 a.m.
Nov. 18-22 Book Fair
Nov. 20 Thanksgiving Feast, lunch time in cafeteria
Nov. 21 Kona Ice after school
Nov. 25-29 Thanksgiving Break, no school
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Burt!
Morris November Birthdays:
Karly-11/15
News for the Week of October 28th
The Monkeys had a very busy and fun-filled week! We started off the week on Monday with our 50th day of school! Thank you for helping your children dress up in 1950s attire! We made a craft and finished the response, "I am 50 days smarter! I can _____." It is hanging in the hallway so please come and see it! We also played "Roll a Record" during math time by tossing dice and coloring in that many records.
We also had a fun sock hop dance and colored a book about fun things to do in the 1950s that we put in our book boxes.
In math, we continued our unit on comparing numbers. We discussed sets of objects by counting how many items were in a set and then identified which set had "more" or "fewer."
In language arts, we read the poem, "I Go," and focused on the sight word "go." We wrote it several times and looked for rhyming words. We also read many fun Halloween themed books this week! We read There Was An Old Mummy Who Swallowed a Spider. We retold the story as a class and sequenced the things that the mummy ate. The students then made their own sheet of the characters in the correct order. We also read Spookley, The Square Pumpkin. We worked on an activity book shaped as a square pumpkin. We labeled different shapes of pumpkins, drew a picture of our favorite party of the story, drew, colored and wrote why we are special and drew a picture of how Spookley felt at the beginning and end of the story.
In science, we began our unit on magnets. We had a ton of fun testing objects in our classroom to see which ones were magnetic and nonmagnetic.
Thank you SOOOOOOOO much to parents who donated items for our pumpkin math day on Halloween! Also, a BIG thank you to all of our parent volunteers who made pumpkin math possible for the Monkey class! Without all of your help, this fun annual event could not happen. The students had so much fun describing their pumpkin, counting how many cubes tall it was, counting the lines on their pumpkin, seeing if it would sink or float and most of all, carving it into a jack-o-lantern!
After pumpkin math, we predicted if the witch in the book Room on the Broom would be a good witch or a bad witch. Then we read the story and got to watch the cartoon of the book! As a class, we retold the story and sorted pictures in the correct sequence of what happened. We also created a witch and put the pictures of the characters that rode with her on her broomstick. We were happy she was a good witch! This week we also read the poem, 5 Little Pumpkins, and illustrated it with pictures of the 5 pumpkins sitting on the gate.
Important News
*Please finish working on your child's turkey feather at home. They were sent in last week's Tuesday folder. Return them to school on Tuesday, November 5th. We will have a class turkey displayed in the hall with each child's decorated feather. Thank you!
*If you have not sent back your child's October Pizza Hut BOOK IT! reading log, please do so and your child will get a certificate for a free personal pan pizza. Please work on the November reading log now. It was sent home in last week's Tuesday folder.
*FIELD TRIP:
Coming home in this week’s Tuesday Folder is a pink permission slip for our field trip to Zach Scott Theater on Dec. 5th. Please sign the form and return it with $6 (cash or checks made out to CCE). One parent will be needed to chaperone. If you are interested in being the chaperone, please send me an email to have your name in a hat for a drawing.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our superstar student was Parker! The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about Parker's life and interests!
We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Srikari!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Nov. 5 PTA Meeting
Nov. 7 Picture Retakes
Nov. 11 Veterans Day Ceremony, 8 a.m.
Nov. 18-22 Book Fair
Nov. 20 Thanksgiving Feast, lunch time in cafeteria
Nov. 21 Kona Ice after school
Nov. 25-29 Thanksgiving Break, no school
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Srikari!
Morris November Birthdays:
Karly-11/15
News for the Week of October 21st
Thank you so much for helping your children dress up for the Red Ribbon Week themed days! It was so much fun and the kids looked great! We are looking forward to another fun week coming up! We have our 50th day of school on Monday (dress up in 1950s attire), spooky stories during our library time on Tuesday and our annual pumpkin math on Thursday morning from 8-9 a.m.
In math, we finished our unit on graphing. We graphed things such as our favorite color and if we were afraid of spiders. We looked at which columns had the most and the least. We also noticed that sometimes areas of a graph are the same. We then began our unit on comparing numbers: more/less/same.
In language arts, we read the sight word poem, "I Like School," and focused on the sight word, "to." We wrote "to" several times and found the rhyming words in the poem. We also finished our reading unit, "Every Story Has Characters." We read Dog Days of School and described the characters and the setting. We noticed the actions and feelings of the characters. We discussed the problem in the story and the solution. We also compared and contrasted the characters in Dog Days of School to the characters in Wolf Cub's Song from last week. The Monkeys learned about making text to self connections. We read Alexander and the No Good, Terrible, Horrible, Really Bad Day and we shared a time when we had a day where things did not go well. We also read Wemberly Worried and made text to self connections about a time we were worried. The last book we read was Where the Wild Things Are and made text to self connections about a time we felt wild. We will hang up a couple of these cute "connections" crafts!
In science, we finished our unit on properties of objects. We compared salt and sugar using our 5 senses. We looked at the difference in texture, color, smell, the sound it made between our fingers and last, taste. We reviewed all that we have learned about properties of objects and took an assessment on Friday that went home in our folders.
Important News
*Pumpkin Math is this Thursday, October 31st from 8-9 a.m. If you signed up to donate items, please send them on Wednesday. If you are volunteering, I will see you in our classroom, Room 118, at 8:00 a.m. Thank you all very much!
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our superstar student was Eli! The Monkeys enjoyed learning all about Eli's life and interests!
We are excited to learn all about our next superstar student, Parker!
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Oct. 28 50th Day of School, wear 1950s themed clothing
Oct. 29 TAG Information Night, 5:30 p.m. in the library
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math, 8-9 a.m.
Nov. 5 PTA Meeting
Nov. 7 Picture Retakes
Nov. 11 Veterans Day Ceremony, 8 a.m.
Nov. 18-22 Book Fair
Nov. 20 Thanksgiving Feast, lunch time in cafeteria
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Parker!
Morris October Birthdays:
Clifford-10/3
Parker-10/20
News for the Week of October 14th
It was great meeting with you this past week for parent/teacher conferences! I enjoyed discussing your child's strengths and areas for growth. I hope you found the information valuable.
Next week is Red Ribbon Week! Please have your child participate in the below activities if possible:
Monday - “I Believe in Me” - Wear as much RED as you can!
Tuesday - “We are Crazy about Healthy Living” - Crazy Hair Day
Wednesday - “Turn Away from Unhealthy Living” - Wear a CCE t-shirt backwards
Thursday - “Team Up for Good Choices” - Wear your team shirt or jersey
Friday - “Be a CCE Superhero” - Wear a super hero t-shirt or cape
In math, we finished our unit on 2D and 3D shapes. We have been identifying cylinders, cones, cubes, rectangular prisms and pyramids. We took an assessment on shapes and positional words and it went home in the folder on Thursday. We made a scarecrow out of shapes and it will be hanging up in our classroom.
In language arts, we read the poem, "I Can Hop," and focused on the sight word "can." We wrote "can" several times and we found rhyming words in the poem. We read a book called Wolf Cub’s Song and compared and contrasted it with last week’s Horrible Bear! We named opposites like big/ small, up/ down, heavy/ light. We practiced creating mental images to deepen understanding and identified events, including the problem and solution. We also read Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. We made our own creepy carrots and wrote about an action of the main character, Jasper, and the reason for his action. Come check them out in our hallway!
In science, we are continuing our unit on properties of objects. This week we worked on several different stations to experience properties of objects. We used our sense of smell and decided if we liked or did not like cinnamon, onion, chocolate, coffee, garlic and pickles. We compared the weight and length of various objects. We felt objects that were hidden inside of socks and discussed if the texture of the object was smooth or rough. We also sorted pictures by their shape and graphed them.
Important News
*Canyon Creek kids 5 and under, join us on Friday, October 25th from 10:30-11am at CCE for Spooky Story Time with our Librarian! Non-Scary Costumes are welcome but not necessary. Parents must stay with their children. Contact Family Support Specialist Lisette Castaneda at Lisette_castaneda@roundrockisd.org to RSVP
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Next week's superstar student will be, Eli! We look forward to learning all about Eli's life and interests.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:45 p.m.
Oct. 21-25 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 28 50th Day of School, wear 1950s themed clothing
Oct. 29 TAG Information Night, 5:30 p.m. in the library
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math, 8-9 a.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris' Superstar:
Eli!
Morris October Birthdays:
Clifford-10/3
Parker-10/20
News for the Week of October 7th
I am looking forward to meeting with all of you for the fall parent/teacher conferences! We will discuss what your child's strengths are and their goals for this school year. I will see most of you on Monday, October 14th. A conference date/time confirmation form went home in your child's Tuesday folder. If you forgot your time by chance and can't find the form, please email me and I will let you know.
In math, we learned about positional words such as above, below, beside, in front of, behind, etc. We also continued working with 2D shapes and began identifying 3D shapes. We played the game 5 In a Line by spinning a spinner, landing on a specific shape and then covering that shape on the game board. The first one to get 5 in a line was the winner. We are focusing on these 3D shapes: sphere, cylinder, cube, cone, pyramid and rectangular prism.
In language arts, we read the poem "I Like" and focused on the sight word "like." We wrote the word "like" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We began a new unit called "Every Story Has Characters." We read the book Horrible Bear! and learned that fiction has characters, setting, and events with a problem and a solution. We made mental images in our minds of the setting and events. We compared and contrasted characters and we learned about shades of meaning with verbs. For example, "The girl walked away," is very different from, "The girl stomped away." We also worked on rhyming words and made a fun "Franken-Rhymes" craft that will be displayed in the hallway next week. We celebrated as authors by publishing a piece of our writing and sharing it with the class. We are learning how to be a good audience and listen to and clap for our friends.
In social studies, we learned about a few historical figures that have contributed to our nation and state. We learned about Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Stephen F. Austin and Jose Antonio Navarro.
In science, we read Aliki, and discussed our 5 senses. We explored all of our senses by popping popcorn with an air popper! The students absolutely LOVED it!
We also started to learn about properties of objects. We created a class chart of a variety of property words in the categories of shape, size, texture, color and weight. The students played a fun game with buttons and had to guess which button was their friend's by listening to them describe it with property words. We then recorded exactly what our button looked like in our science notebook and we wrote a few property words.
Important News
*Canyon Creek kids 5 and under, join us on Friday, October 25th from 10:30-11am at CCE for Spooky Story Time with our Librarian! Non-Scary Costumes are welcome but not necessary. Parents must stay with their children. Contact Family Support Specialist Lisette Castaneda at Lisette_castaneda@roundrockisd.org to RSVP
*Our class will be going to the library at the end of the day on Wednesday, October 16th this week due to no school on Tuesday. Please remind your child to bring back their library book on Wednesday morning.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Francisco was our superstar student this past week! The Monkeys were excited to learn all about his life and interests! The next superstar will be announced on Friday, October 18th.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Oct. 14 No School/Fall Conferences
Oct. 15 No School/Staff Development
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:15 p.m.
Oct. 21-25 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 28 50th Day of School, wear 1950s themed clothing
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math
Superstars & Birthdays:
None
Morris October Birthdays:
Clifford-10/3
Parker-10/20
News for the Week of September 30th
Our week started off with our Enrichment Day full of lots of learning and fun. The students rotated through sessions Monday afternoon led by our two TAG teachers (Mrs. Henrichs and Mrs. Hamilton), our librarian (Mrs. Bamford), and our Instructional Tech Specialist (Mrs. Owen). The students made masks, capes, videos, and programmed robotic Spheros. The theme of the activities were aligned to CCE's theme for the year, Everyday Superheroes.
In math this week we continued learning about shapes and their attributes. Our focus has been on squares, rectangles, circles, triangles, trapezoids, rhombuses and hexagons. We started our conversation about 3D, or solid shapes, and will continue with that next week. In our math rotations, we continued to work on counting and writing numbers.
In language arts, we read the poem "What Is It?" and focused on the sight word "it." We wrote the word "it" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We finished our unit on informational text by learning about a personal narrative. We read, My Desert Home, by Charlie Alokoy. We learned about characteristics of a personal narrative, practiced using context clues to help us figure out unknown words, and identified the main idea and supporting details. We read The Biggest Pumpkin Ever and made jack-o-lanterns. We each wrote about our pumpkin and it is all hanging in our hallway. Come and check it out!
In social studies, we learned about the needs and wants of people. We discussed a person's basic needs: food, water, air, shelter and clothing. We also talked about how some items are things we really want, but do not need to survive (ex: a new toy, a lollipop, a basketball, etc.). We sorted pictures of things into the categories, "needs" and "wants."
In science, we finished our unit on day and night/objects in the sky. We took an assessment and it was sent home with your child on Friday. If your child was confused and missed a question, please have a conversation with them about what the correct answer would be and why. We did discuss the questions as a class, when the assessment was over.
Important News
October Pizza Hut BOOK IT reading calendars went home in the Tuesday folder. Our goal is to read for 20 minutes five nights a week (you may read to your child). Students who complete the goal and turn in their reading calendar on November 1st, will receive a certificate for a free one topping personal pan pizza. Also, students who turn in their October calendar will also get a snowflake with their name to add to library's display in the hall and will have a chance to win a free book at the book fair.
An email was sent this week with information about helping out with our Pumpkin Math on October 31st. We will be using our math skills to investigate our pumpkin and then will work with volunteers in a small group to carve it. Thank you to all who volunteered to help and/or donate supplies. This is such a fun activity for the students and your help is greatly appreciated!
Our designated conference day is October 14th. A couple of you had to schedule a different date/time. I will send reminders in the Tuesday folder with your scheduled day and time.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Clifford was our superstar student this past week! The Monkeys were excited to learn all about his life and interests!
The Monkeys are ready to learn all about our next superstar student, Francisco!
Reminders
*We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Oct. 14 No School/Fall Conferences
Oct. 15 No School/Staff Development
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:15 p.m.
Oct. 21-25 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math (more info to come)
Superstars & Birthdays:
Francisco!
Morris October Birthdays:
Clifford-10/3
Parker-10/20
News for the Week of September 23rd
We had a great first week of fall/autumn at school! The weather is not cooperating yet in Texas, but we hope some cooler temperatures and fall changes come soon!
In math, we continued working in our daily math rotations/stations and began our sorting/shapes unit. We sorted items/pictures by shape, size, color and the type of item. We focused on triangle, circle, square and rectangle and learned a song to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell" for each shape. We ended the week sorting numbers, letters and shapes by those with straight lines and those with curved lines. We will continue our unit on sorting and shapes next week.
In language arts, we read the poem "What Color?" and focused on the sight word "is." We wrote the word "is" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We continued our unit on informational/nonfiction text and read "What Do Plants Need?" We asked questions about what we read, we identified important details about the main idea, we studied informational text features such as chapter headings, photographs, captions, bold words, labels, etc., and we used context clues in the text and photographs to determine the meaning of new words. We will continue our Plants and Animal Needs unit and learn about a personal narrative next week. We made many emergent reader books to add to our book box this week while Mrs. Morris was assessing student skills for the upcoming parent/teacher conferences. We can read these books during independent reading time. During writing we learned to add details to our pictures and to our words when we think we are done writing. We also finished our handwriting book this week by working on forming the letters Ww, Xx, Yy and Zz.
In science, we took an assessment on what we have learned about weather and it went home in our Tuesday folders. We then began discussing the pattern of day and night and made day/night cards and drew objects we see in the sky during the day and at night. We began an observation of clouds in the sky this week and we recorded what we saw in our science notebooks. We will continue to observe clouds and record what we see next week. Hopefully, we will notice changes.
Next week, we will also integrate social studies into our reading workshop time and learn about the basic needs of people such as food/water, clothing and shelter.
Important News
READING AT HOME:
Look for an October reading log for the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program coming home in this week’s Tuesday Folder.
Our class reading goal for the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program for each month will be to read for 20 minutes at home 5 nights a week.
(You may read to your child or your child may read to you if they are able)
Your child will then color in the picture for the day they read on the monthly calendar. After the month is over, return the reading log to school with you and your child’s signatures on the bottom of the calendar and they will receive a certificate for a free one topping Personal Pan Pizza.
Double Bonus: When your child brings the October calendar back to school on November 1st, they will also get a snowflake to add to the library display and have a chance to win a free book at the book fair.
FALL CONFERENCES:
I will send home a conference confirmation form in the Tuesday folder the week before conferences to remind you of the date and time you signed up for.
PUMPKIN MATH:
Pumpkin Math is coming up on Thursday, October 31st. Parents will be needed to donate supplies and to lead a small group. I will send out a sign-up genius next week.
SUPERSTAR STUDENT:
Our first superstar student of the year is, Clifford! We look forward to learning all about Clifford's life and special interests next week!
Reminders
*We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 30 Coffee Chat for Parents, 7:45 a.m. in the library
Oct. 14 No School/Fall Conferences
Oct. 15 No School/Staff Development
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:15 p.m.
Oct. 21-25 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math (more info to come)
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
Clifford!
Morris October Birthdays:
Clifford-10/3
Parker-10/20
News for the Week of September 16th
September is flying by so quickly! It is hard to believe we only have one more full week of September left. The Monkeys worked hard at school this week and we accomplished a lot!
In math, we finished our unit on Numbers to 10. The students took their first math assessment and they all did a great job! We began our new unit sorting and shapes.
In language arts, we read the poem "In My Book," and focused on the sight word "the." We wrote the word "the" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We began our new unit on informational (nonfiction/expository) text focused on the topic, "Plants and Animals Have Needs." We learned that good readers ask questions and that informational text has a central idea with important details that support it. We focused on the beginning sounds of our names and other words after reading A, My Name is Alice. We made a craft of our faces and filled in the sentence, "___ my name is _________ and I like ________." Come and check out our work in the hallway! We also learned about making predictions before reading text and during reading. We read That is NOT a Good Idea by Mo Willems and Suddenly! by Colin McNaughton. We make predictions when looking at the front cover and hearing the title and at stopping points during the reading. We also worked on retelling after reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We colored pictures of the characters from the story and glued them in the correct order on a sentence strip. We added these to our book boxes so we could retell the story during independent reading time. We continued our handwriting this week with the letters Ss, Tt, Uu and Vv. We will finish our handwriting book this next week. We have also been writing each day during Writer's Workshop. We add to our stories, finish stories and create new ones.
In science, we tested out our structures that would protect our toy bears from sun, wind and/or rain, that we made the previous week. We took them outside and there was definitely sun and some wind.
We began learning about the seasons and discussed how the weather changes from season to season. We made seasonal trees with paint and they are hanging in our hallway. Come and see them! We will finish up our unit this week on weather/seasons and will then begin a unit on Day & Night/Objects in the Sky.
Reminders
*We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 30 Coffee Chat for Parents, 7:45 a.m. in the library
Oct. 14 No School/Fall Conferences
Oct. 15 No School
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:15 p.m.
Oct. 21-25 Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 31 Kindergarten Pumpkin Math (more info to come)
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris September Birthdays:
Eli-9/3
News for the Week of September 9th
Thank you to everyone who attended the open house on Tuesday evening. I enjoyed seeing you there and hope the presentation was informative. Please let me know if you have any questions!
On Monday we were lucky to have a visitor in the library. Paige, a service dog in-training, came to visit us and show us some of what she has been learning. Her trainer read us a couple of stories and answered all our questions about Paige. We learned that service dogs can help people in so many ways. We may see Paige around our school sometimes, and we now know that we can't distract her when she is working.
During math this week, we worked with numbers 1-10 in a variety of ways. We looked at the numeral, set of objects, ten frames and counted using one to one correspondence. We were excited to add the iPad station to our math rotations, as well as the guided math table with the teacher! It was fun to play a new game this week at the teacher table: 10 Frame Fill-Up! We previously played 5 Frame Fill-Up
In language arts, we read the poem "I See," and focused on the sight word "see." We wrote the word "see" several times and found rhyming words in our poem. We finished our launching unit of readers workshop. We will begin a new unit on Monday called "Plants and Animals Have Needs." Although, this sounds like a science unit, we are focusing more on the texts we will read related to these topics. We actually have a "science" unit on the same topic later this school year. During this unit we will focus on big ideas such as:
What are informational books?
How do we share what we read in books?
How do we become strong readers?
We will also focus on skills such as predictions and retelling this next week.
Handwriting has continued and we worked on forming the letters N,O, P, Q and R, as well as listening to fun songs for each of these letters. We are also becoming little authors by writing each day in our classroom. Students are writing stories about events in their life, notes to friends/family and some are creating fictional stories.
In social studies we will learn about the basic needs of humans over the next few weeks.
During science, we continued to observe the weather outside and record our observations on our weather chart. We then glued it in to our science notebooks. We discussed different clothing for different types of weather and drew what we would do on a sunny day and what we would do on a rainy day. We also made structures out of a variety of materials such as straws, tape, popsicle sticks, construction paper, toothpicks, etc., that would protect a little plastic bear we had in our classroom from sun, wind and/or rain. The students loved this activity!
Reminders
*We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
*Picture Day is Thursday. An order form was sent home in Tuesday folders. If you wish to purchase a packet, please return this form with payment on or before Thursday. If you wish to purchase online with a credit card, here is the information to do so.
1. Go to http://orders.phototexasphotography.com
2. Use the online order code 1920-0166
*Our Box Tops for Education competition is underway! Classrooms with the most Box Tops collected win a prize and we'd like to be one of those classes! If you buy items with Box Tops on them, you can scan or clip this Box Tops and turn them in by September 17th.
*RRISD requires any person volunteering to submit a Name Based Criminal History Check each school year. The new volunteer application for the 2019-2020 school year is now available. Please remember that applications to be an approved volunteer MUST be submitted EVERY year. The District conducts background checks on every volunteer to help ensure the safety of our children. At this time of year, approval can take up to two weeks, better not to wait!! And, remember, ALL volunteers must be approved - room parents, classroom helpers, field trip chaperones, Watch D.O.G.S., etc., prior to volunteering. Click here to apply
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 19 School Picture Day
Sept. 30 Coffee Chat for Parents, 7:45 a.m. in the library
Oct. 14 No School/Fall Conferences
Oct. 15 No School
Oct. 18 PTA Fun Run, check in at 5:15 p.m.
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris September Birthdays:
Eli-9/3
News for the Week of September 3rd
We hope you all enjoyed the Labor Day weekend! I enjoyed catching up on some much needed sleep and spending time with my family. It was nice to get back in the groove though this week, with a shorter 4 day week.
In math this week, we worked on our unit, Developing a Sense of Quantities to 10. We are working hard to learn our routine for our math stations. We have a math journal station, an independent practice station, a math game station and we will be adding a math technology station this upcoming week. We will eventually add a guided math station with the teacher. We are continuing to look at numbers in a variety of different ways. The students enjoyed playing the game "Five Frame Fill-Up" this past week.
During science, we began a unit on "Weather." We brainstormed many different types of weather, looked at a thermometer and discussed hot and cold and learned about meteorologists. We had a lot of fun making windsocks and testing them outside! We began recording daily weather observations on a chart and will continue that next week.
During language arts, we read the sight word poem, "I Can!" and focused on the sight word "I." We wrote the word "I" several times, found rhyming words in the poem and drew a picture of one thing we can do. We also learned about how to find ways to help us understand new vocabulary words in fiction text and nonfiction texts. We discussed rules for partner reading and how to appropriately share writing ideas with a partner. We are learning during phonics study that letters make words and words make a sentence. We have read complete sentences and created our own complete sentences orally. Handwriting has continued and we worked on forming the letters J, K, L and M, as well as listening to fun songs for each of these letters.
In social studies, we listened to the video "Old Glory" and discussed the American flag. We made "tear art" American flags that your child took home with them on Friday. We also listened to the story, Lone Star Waves Proudly, and learned about our state flag, the Lone Star flag. We used watercolors to paint Texas flags and added a white lone star.
Reminders
We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
Open House is Tuesday, Sept. 10th. The meeting will start promptly at 5:45 pm in our classroom. I look forward to sharing more about our school year with you!
RRISD requires any person volunteering to submit a Name Based Criminal History Check each school year. The new volunteer application for the 2019-2020 school year is now available. Please remember that applications to be an approved volunteer MUST be submitted EVERY year. The District conducts background checks on every volunteer to help ensure the safety of our children. At this time of year, approval can take up to two weeks, better not to wait!! And, remember, ALL volunteers must be approved - room parents, classroom helpers, field trip chaperones, Watch D.O.G.S., etc., prior to volunteering. Click here to apply
Our doors open in the morning at 7:20 a.m. Parents and students may enter the building at that time. School begins promptly at 7:40 a.m. If students arrive after 7:40 a.m., they will need to go to the office and get a tardy pass. If they arrive after 8:00 a.m., we ask that parents come and sign them in at the office. Teaching begins the moment the bell rings, so if you are in the building after that time, you will be asked to come to the office to get a Visitor badge.
Dismissal is at 2:55 p.m. Your students will walk to their designated exit location with a teacher. We encourage a consistent plan for your child’s dismissal. In the event of a change in their usual method of transportation, please call the main office.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 10 Kindergarten Open House, 5:45 p.m.
Sept. 10 PTA General Meeting, 6:15 p.m.
Sept. 13 Kona Ice, after school
Sept. 19 School Picture Day
Sept. 30 Coffee Chat for Parents, 7:45 a.m. in the library
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris September Birthdays:
Eli-9/3
News for the week of August 26th
It was another great week in kindergarten! We are continuing to establish our routines and procedures which helps our day run smoothly. We are beginning to come together as a community of learners and are growing our friendships each day!
During language arts this week we focused on establishing routines for reading workshop and writing workshop. We read a poem called "Colors" that focused on the sight word "a." We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and focused on the letters in our names. We made "chicka chicka" trees and added our names to them! They are super cute and are hanging in our hallway. Come and see them! We also read Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes, and discussed the importance of our names and how they are all special. We made beautiful "tear art" rainbow names and will hang them in our classroom for the school year. We have been working on our handwriting skills each day and listen to fun songs that go along with each letter.
In math, we are focusing on numbers 1-5 and developing number sense. We look at these numbers in a variety of ways so the students become very familiar with them. This helps to build a strong foundation in math. We had fun starting our math journals this week. We also had a lot of fun playing a math concentration game that is a lot like "Memory."
During science, we discussed a variety of answers to the question, "What is science?" The students learned that it is many things such as space, oceans, the weather, plants, animals, how planes fly, and so much more. We wrote about what we wanted to learn in science this year. We explored science tools and discussed safety during science.
For social studies, we are continuing to focus on rules and procedures. We are learning to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag and the Pledge to the Texas flag.
Reminders
We go to the library on Tuesday afternoons. Please send library books each Tuesday so your child can bring home a new book(s).
Open House is Tuesday, Sept. 10th. The meeting will start promptly at 5:45 pm in our classroom. I look forward to sharing more about our school year with you!
RRISD requires any person volunteering to submit a Name Based Criminal History Check each school year. The new volunteer application for the 2019-2020 school year is now available. Please remember that applications to be an approved volunteer MUST be submitted EVERY year. The District conducts background checks on every volunteer to help ensure the safety of our children. At this time of year, approval can take up to two weeks, better not to wait!! And, remember, ALL volunteers must be approved - room parents, classroom helpers, field trip chaperones, Watch D.O.G.S., etc., prior to volunteering. Click here to apply
Our doors open in the morning at 7:20 a.m. Parents and students may enter the building at that time. School begins promptly at 7:40 a.m. If students arrive after 7:40 a.m., they will need to go to the office and get a tardy pass. If they arrive after 8:00 a.m., we ask that parents come and sign them in at the office. Teaching begins the moment the bell rings, so if you are in the building after that time, you will be asked to come to the office to get a Visitor badge.
Dismissal is at 2:55 p.m. Your students will walk to their designated exit location with a teacher. We encourage a consistent plan for your child’s dismissal. In the event of a change in their usual method of transportation, please call the main office.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Sept. 3 Holiday, No School
Sept. 10 Kindergarten Open House, 5:45 p.m.
Sept. 10 PTA General Meeting, 6:15 p.m.
Sept. 19 School Picture Day
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris September Birthdays:
Eli-9/3
News for the week of August 19th
We finished our first full week of Kindergarten! We had a great week and worked hard! I think students, teachers and parents are all very tired. I hope those of you who were able to make it to our storybook parade enjoyed watching your children! They were so excited and cute! If your child is not included in the image carousel below, they were either absent or you asked me not to include your child's picture on our class google site.
In math this week, we worked on beginning to set up expectations for guided math and rotations. We are building our stamina so math will run smoothly in the future. We are focusing on numbers 1-5 currently and looking at the numbers in different ways. Our current unit is called, Introducing Number Concepts to 5.
In language arts, we began to introduce routines and procedures for reading workshop. We listened to read alouds, practiced routines and engaged in reading mini-lessons such as 3 ways to read a book and features of fiction and nonfiction. We read the book Only One You and learned how we are all special and unique. We created a fish like the character Adri in the book. Be sure to check them out in our hallway! In writing, we are learning that there are all different types of writing. As a class, we shared different pieces of writing on an inspiration board. We learned about writing labels, making signs and explored lists, cards, thank you notes and more. We began work in our handwriting book this week, too. We discussed and worked on correct formation of the letters Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd and Ee.
In social studies, we are focusing on why we have rules at home, school and in the community. We have established our social contract and follow that to work well together as a class. We are working hard to learn the expectations and procedures at our school. We can all be successful in kindergarten if we follow our social contract.
Reminders
If you have not filled out and returned the permission form from our counselor, Mrs. Hougham, please do so as soon as possible. This form will allow your child to work in social skills groups with our counselor. The students LOVE having this opportunity.
Please return the Canyon Creek technology permission slip to allow your child to use apps in the classroom. Your child is monitored when using apps and we use them most days for 10 minutes as one of our math rotations.
If your child is a car rider, please make sure to get one of the car rider signs from me to place on your dash by your windshield.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Aug. 29 Scout Information Night,
Cafeteria, 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 3 Holiday, No School
Sept. 10 Kindergarten Open House, 5:45 p.m.
Sept. 10 PTA General Meeting, 6:15 p.m.
Sept. 19 School Picture Day
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris August Birthdays:
None (after the start of the school year)
News for the week of August 15th
We did it! We all got through the first 2 days of Kindergarten! This week is so busy and full of excitement, nerves and then being tired. We have really enjoyed getting to know all of our new friends! It has also been exciting to learn about our school and where places are! We have been to the cafeteria, to play on the track area (as we wait for our brand new playground to be finished), to Music, Art and to the gym for P.E. Next week, we will get to go to the library and meet our librarian, Mrs. Bamford!
The kids are able to buy their lunch in the cafeteria now if they would like. Please make sure their money is already in their account. Also, make sure to talk to your kids if they are buying their lunch. We want to make sure everyone knows whether or not they will be buying in the cafeteria or if they have a lunch box.
We read the story “The Kissing Hand” and made some precious little hand prints that were sent home today in your child's blue daily folder. The story teaches the kids that Chester's (the main character) mother’s love is always with him when she kisses his hand & he presses it to his cheek. He remembers her love that way.
Each class has created a social contract where the class decides together how to treat the teacher and how to treat their friends. The contract is signed and it is a promise that we keep throughout the year. We also go over consequences when a child is not following the contract. We read a book called, No, David!, and then we sorted pictures modeling good choices and poor choices.
In the cafeteria, we practiced having good manners such as staying seated while we eat, raising our hands for help from an adult, and using an inside voice. We also practiced cleaning up our own trash and walking to the trash can rather than running.
In math, we learned how to work with materials safely and how to clean up math counters/tools. We were very impressed with our students and how well they cleaned up together.
We are so excited to have your child at Canyon Creek Elementary! It is going to be a great year! Have a relaxing weekend!
Reminders
A note will go home in your child's Tuesday folder about the Storybook Parade. It will take place next Friday morning, (8/23/19), at 7:50 a.m. in the hallway at our school. You are welcome to come and watch your child during this time and take pictures. Please sign in first at the office with a valid ID or driver's license and get a badge. All visitors must have a badge if they are in the school building after 7:40 a.m. for safety reasons.
Upcoming Dates to Remember:
Aug. 23 Storybook Parade, 7:50 a.m.
Sept. 2 Holiday, No School
Superstars & Birthdays:
Morris Superstar:
None
Morris August Birthdays:
None (after the start of this school year)