Scholastic Book Order Survey

I have a problem with the scholastic book order forms. They do not send me enough for both classes. We have been making copies of the order forms and sending them home. These are time consuming to make and expensive for the school. I am wondering if there is another option.

You can view the book choices online through their web site. Would you mind clicking this link to give me feedback on what you would prefer?
Thanks!

Click here to take survey

Valentines

Valentines are more than welcome in our room! Not only are they excellent opportunity to practice handwriting, but they’re fun! Have your child write the names of their classmates on their valentines in their best handwriting. The kids can start bringing in their Valentines on Monday, Feb. 7th. *Please make sure that your child has a valentine for every student in their class. We don’t want any hurt feelings. The kids will have an opportunity to read their valentines at our Friendship celebration on Monday the 14th.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask!

School Wide Postal Service

There will be a school wide postal service the week of 7th- 11th and your child can send their friends a letter or note through the “mail”. You may send your child a letter through school mail, too! Letters must be labeled with the each student’s first and last name and their room # (this must be written legibly!). There must also be a return address of the sender’s first name, last initial and room #. No actual stamp is required. Simply attach a sticker or have your child draw his/her own “stamp”.
I encourage everyone to write a short note on each piece of mail they send. This is a great time to get to practice some real world writing!
I will be sending all the kids in my class a piece of mail so that no one will be without, however, the more mail you send the more likely you are to receive! So if your child is really interested in receiving mail, please remind them that they need to send mail to others too!
If you are interested in participating in this activity, please have your child bring the completed postcard with them to school between Feb. 7-11th and we’ll drop it off in our hallway mailbox.

Classroom Update 1.28.11

In reading groups, we learned about initial “Ll” (words with “Ll” at the beginning) and listened to “Nature’s Spy” by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler. This book introduced us to the word, “spy” and showed us how you can see new things if you look closely at nature. During guided reading we read, “Nap in a Lap.” While reading this book, we continued making predictions and discussing the main ideas, the characters, and the setting. These discussion opportunities are helping us to comprehend the stories that we read. Please continue using these questioning techniques at home. Our word of the week was “go.”

In math we learned about how to represent numbers with sticks and introduced the idea of the "ones" place and the "tens" place. Students also drew pictures of three things they did during the day and put them in order. We discussed the importance of sequencing. Finally, the students learned to make addition stories using words, pictures and/or numbers.

I will be sending home your child’s January journal soon. Please take some time to look through it with your child and have him/her read you his/her journal entries. Possible areas to discuss:
o Finger-spaces
o Temporary/Dictionary spelling
o Detailed/ colorful pictures(5 art B's)
o Neat “Ball and Stick” handwriting using uppercase and lowercase letters
o Correct punctuation (the use of periods)

Next week is Standford testing. Please make every effort to be on time to school.If a student happens to be absent next week, make up tests will occur the following week. Make up tests are done in a different room in the school proctored by an EA or someone from the office staff.

Have a great weekend!

MLK Assembly

On Monday January 24th there will be a school-wide assembly honoring MLK. The assembly starts promptly at 9:30 and ends at 10:15. If any PM students want to attend this assembly, they may attend accompanied by their parents.

Stanford Testing

Just a reminder that Standford testing will begin on 1/31. There will be a practice test on 1/28. We will not need any volunteers on 1/28, 1/31, 2/1,2/3,2/4.
Thanks!

Bus Zone

Many parents have been parking in the bus zone right outside of Grand Central for pick up and drop off. This was okay for awhile, however we now have students who ride the bus and the buses are not able to access the bus parking.

Please park your car in the parking lot or somewhere else on the street so we can leave the bus zone open during drop off and pick up times.

Thank you!

Enemy Pie Author | Derek Munson

Today we had the opportunity to listen to Derek Munson speak to us about his book, Enemy Pie. He was such a great speaker and really engaged the kids in the theme of the book. He called up many kids from the audience to help make his enemy pie!
Anna and Chloe teammed up to put in sidewalk chalk and cat litter.

Amanda put in something that made your breath stink, I think!


Anna putting in dog food...

Snowman Art

Today we had our artist in residence come back for a snow day make up art session with the PM class. Luckily, I had my husband bring me my camera in time to capture the kids working. These turned out SO well! I just love the creativity. To be honest, when they first started working on them, I was a little nervous how they would turn out. My mantra now is "Thou shall not judge a kindergartener's art until it is finished!"

Spring Field Trip Survey

Please click on the link to complete a survey about our spring field trip. Thank you!

Spring Field Trip

What a Week!

My, what a week it is turning out to be! I wanted to let you know about the activities that we are doing (or at least trying to do) this week.

The letter of the week is Rr. The students highlighted Rr words in a poem during reading time. We are also learning to read a poem about a snowman. Each day we read the poem and then reconstruct it after I have cut the poem apart. This will eventually be a literacy station.

We are so fortunate to have our art teacher, Pam Savore come to us again and teach the kids how to use oil pastels to make a snowman. They look so cute hanging up in our room! I am always amazed at how unique each child's art is even though all the students are taught to create the same thing.

In math this week, we have been working with shapes again, symmetry and simple addition. We also have worked on graphing.

For science, we have been learning about the seasons and what causes them. The children have/will complete an art activity showing what the different seasons look like on a tree.

Friday we are thrilled to go listen to Derek Munson talk about being a writer!

Modified School Day TODAY | NO PM CLASS

In case you missed this notice:

Modified school schedules today — posted January 11, 6:32 AM; updated 6:33 AM

The Issaquah School District will modify its release schedule today to prepare for a predicted snowstorm throughout the region. All morning routes will operate on a regular schedule; however, all schools will release on their Wednesday schedules (earlier for elementary schools and slightly later for secondary schools: see the complete bell schedule for your school online). This also means that:

• PM kindergarten is cancelled.
• PM preschool is cancelled.
• AM and PM Head Start is cancelled.
• Afternoon extended-day care (Before and After School Enrichment) is cancelled.
• There are no after-school activities, meetings, or activity runs.

To recap, students will go to school on a normal schedule but return home at the same time as they do on Wednesdays. There are no afternoon activities.

Thank you for your flexibility. While we cannot predict exactly how much snow we may receive, we do know traffic will be especially heavy and slick this afternoon; the modified release times will allow us to get buses and students off the roads in advance of the commute.

Computer Lab

Each class has now had a chance to learn in computer lab. This time we used a software program called KidPix to create patterns. The kids loved being able to use this fun software to enhance their learning. It's relatively cheap, so I thought I'd post the link where you can buy it for home use if you want. Click HERE.

Lost Gloves

These gloves were left in class today. I am guessing they are from the AM class because no one in the PM class claimed it however, sometimes the kids don't always recognize their own clothes! LOL

I'll save them here in the class on the shelf.

Scholastic Book Order

I went a little crazy on the Scholastic book orders this month. The due date is next Wednesday. The classroom code is:

GTRP8

Author Visit

Big thanks to our PTSA for underwriting the cost of hiring author Derek Munson to speak to our class through their Grizzly Grants program. Derek Munson is coming on Friday, January 14 and an order form will be coming home today if you would like to purchase his book or trading cards.

Popcorn

Rain Rain Go Away, the students will miss their popcorn Thursdays!

Due to the cold and sometimes rainy weather we will be postponing the popcorn Thursday’s till March. January and February are unpredictable and with the popcorn being outside, we just cannot ask our fabulous Popcorn volunteers to stand out in the cold.

Addition Symbol

Today in math we discussed the addition symbol. We used counters on both sides of the addition stick and then said a "number sentence". For example 3 + 2 = 5. Then the kids said a "number story" like, "I had three pigs. My mom gave me two more pigs. Now I have five pigs altogether."

Practicing this concept at home will help cement this language and concept for your child. Thanks!

Grant Application Help Requested

I am considering writing a grant for 7 ipads for classroom use. I can forsee SO many possibilities with this new technology. The deadline for the application is midnight January 28th. I say considering, because my life is extremely busy and I have to asses whether I will have enough time to devote to writing this grant. It is through the Issaquah Schools Foundation. If you have any experience or interest in partnering with me in this endeavor, please let me know as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Author of the Month | Jan Bret

Our author of the month for January is Jan Bret. We will be reading her wonderfully rich books and completing a piece of art work inspired by her book The Mitten, later this month. She has a fun website you can go explore. Just click HERE.

Star of the Week Activities

Several people have asked for a list of the Star of the Week activities again so I thought I would just post it here so you could refer back to it. All of these activities are optional. Do as few or as many as you would like. I try to fit the activities on the day they are scheduled, but sometimes we run out of time and we end up doing an activity the following day.

Schedule of Events
Monday: Star Banner Sharing
Please return the completed “star banner” to school. This will be returned to your at the end of your child’s special week.

Tuesday: Special Sharing
Today, a favorite book belonging to your child can be shared with our class.

Wednesday: Secret Sharing
Please bring an item in a bag that we cannot see through and be sure to keep it a secret! We will use questioning techniques and clues to discover what the secret item is. (PM kinders may choose to do this another day during the star week.)

Thursday: Class book about our star
Today our class will make a very special book about you, our star!

Friday: Estimation Bag
We will use our estimation skills to guess how many items are in your bag—Please don’t tell us! (Families, please keep the number of items to 30 or smaller and place them in a Ziploc bag.)
Reminder:
Your child is more than welcome to share a non-edible birthday treat (ie. stickers, pencils, erasers, etc.) sometime during this week with our class.

Have fun!

January Calendar

Several students have been absent today so I am sending home the January calendar in their mailboxes. Please have them write the numbers for the days and then create the picture with the snowman as shown above. You may keep this at home to enjoy!

Week Preview

Welcome back! I hope you all had a restful break. This week is a review week. We will be reviewing the letters, t, f, c, o and the words "and, are, said, the we, my, I, have, that, you, a, is"

Thanks for all of your support!
~Mrs. Perry