What a great week have had! It just flew by! I'm looking forward to conferences next week. If you can't remember our time, e-mail me. We have a big week next week. Tuesday is our 100th day of school! YAY! We are celebrating all day doing activities all having to do with 100! If you would like to send in something for Tuesday, let me know. So far, we are having cupcakes and muffins. Thursday and Friday are early release days. Carpool starts at 12:15!
Specials next week is: Monday: P.E., Tuesday: Media, Wednesday: Music, Thursday: P.E., Friday: Spanish.
Jordan was picked for student of the week. He has "Max the Moose" this weekend. Have fun! We have enjoyed reading about Max this year, now that everyone has had a chance to take him home!
Mrs. Barnes and I starting a new behavior incentive system. Since we are learning all money in math....we will be handing out pennies/nickels/dimes throughout the day for good behavior. On Friday, the the money that is earned, the students may save or purchase items in the "store". The students have to count the money before they purchase something. If you would like to donate items to the "store", it would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm hoping spring fever is not upon us yet. However, we are really working on good behavior, not tattling, copying bad behavior to get attention and in general following directions. Please continue to talk to your child about these topics. Thanks! :)
Academic Update:
Literacy: We are continuing the unit on sunshine and raindrops. We have talked and written a lot about weather.
Keep working on our sight words. Since we are approaching the 100th day of school, it's so awesome to announce, we have a handful of students that already know over 100 sight words already! Whoop!!
Math: We are continuing our chapter on money. We have now learn about all four coins and how much they are worth. We are really practicing exchanging them now. 5 pennies = 1 nickel...etc.
Science: We continued learning about living/nonliving. Elianna's dad came and taught us a really great lesson on static electricity.... which ended up in balloon animals. We had such a blast with it. Pictures to come soon.
It looks like we are going to have great weather this weekend. Get outside and enjoy it! Have a great weekend!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Estes Extras...
Welcome new year and a new face lift to our blog! My husband and I are really working to improve my blog. There will be changes and more updates as they come a long. I can't believe we were out of school all last week because of the snow and ice. How crazy! I'm glad we are back. This week was crazy being back and only four days too. We had brainstorm on Tuesday! It was awesome fun! I was sick partly too, which doesn't help with the craziness.
Conferences are Feb. 3rd and 4th. These are early release days. My forms were suppose to go out today, but with my sickness and students being absent, they got lost in the mix. They are going out Monday for signing up for a time. I'm sorry for the last minute sign-ups.
If you have not sent in your form on whether your child is returning next year, you need to turn it in on Monday!!! If your sheet is turned in, that secures your child's spot for next year. If you haven't turned it in, your name will go into the lottery. Also, this is a good time to check your volunteer hours too! Remember there is lots of ways to volunteer in and out of the classroom!!
Scholastic Books are due on Friday, 1/29. You can Order online too! :)
Our specials next week are: Monday: Media (Which means- if you have not turned in a library book, bring it back on Monday!) Tuesday: Music, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Spanish, Friday: Art.
We wish Meghana good luck at her new school. She moved this week to Forsyth County.
Kayly had a birthday today! Happy Birthday! Her mom came and read to us as our mystery reader too! :)
Carla was chosen for student of the week. She has Max the Moose all weekend! Have Fun!
Academic Update:
Literacy: We started a new unit on weather called sunshine and raindrops. We are starting back with our guided reading. I send book bags home. These are books we read at school in our reading groups. If we don't get the book returned, I can't send the next one home. Keep working on sight words and lots of writing!
Math: We started a new chapter on MONEY this week. So far, we have learned about the penny, nickel and dime. We are really working on how much each coin is worth. Knowing the coin name and how much it's worth is a Kindergarten standard! The students have learned a song about the money... ask them if they can sing the "what's in my penny bank" song. It's super catchy and fun! :)
Science: We are learning about nonliving and living things! Elianna's dad came and taught us an awesome lesson about gravity on Wednesday. We are talking a lot about winter weather to tie it along with our literacy.
100th day of school is coming up on Feb. 1st! I'm sending a note home on Monday about it. There is going to a home project to go along with it. For example, bring in 100 items glued onto a piece of paper. Just wanted y'all to be thinking about it.
Have a great weekend! :)
Conferences are Feb. 3rd and 4th. These are early release days. My forms were suppose to go out today, but with my sickness and students being absent, they got lost in the mix. They are going out Monday for signing up for a time. I'm sorry for the last minute sign-ups.
If you have not sent in your form on whether your child is returning next year, you need to turn it in on Monday!!! If your sheet is turned in, that secures your child's spot for next year. If you haven't turned it in, your name will go into the lottery. Also, this is a good time to check your volunteer hours too! Remember there is lots of ways to volunteer in and out of the classroom!!
Scholastic Books are due on Friday, 1/29. You can Order online too! :)
Our specials next week are: Monday: Media (Which means- if you have not turned in a library book, bring it back on Monday!) Tuesday: Music, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Spanish, Friday: Art.
We wish Meghana good luck at her new school. She moved this week to Forsyth County.
Kayly had a birthday today! Happy Birthday! Her mom came and read to us as our mystery reader too! :)
Carla was chosen for student of the week. She has Max the Moose all weekend! Have Fun!
Academic Update:
Literacy: We started a new unit on weather called sunshine and raindrops. We are starting back with our guided reading. I send book bags home. These are books we read at school in our reading groups. If we don't get the book returned, I can't send the next one home. Keep working on sight words and lots of writing!
Math: We started a new chapter on MONEY this week. So far, we have learned about the penny, nickel and dime. We are really working on how much each coin is worth. Knowing the coin name and how much it's worth is a Kindergarten standard! The students have learned a song about the money... ask them if they can sing the "what's in my penny bank" song. It's super catchy and fun! :)
Science: We are learning about nonliving and living things! Elianna's dad came and taught us an awesome lesson about gravity on Wednesday. We are talking a lot about winter weather to tie it along with our literacy.
100th day of school is coming up on Feb. 1st! I'm sending a note home on Monday about it. There is going to a home project to go along with it. For example, bring in 100 items glued onto a piece of paper. Just wanted y'all to be thinking about it.
Have a great weekend! :)
Friday, January 7, 2011
Estes Extras...
Happy New Year! We had an awesome start to 2011! We are half way done with Kindergarten. I'm can't believe it's flown by so fast! This week was a short one but a good one. We did lots of winter activities and review from last semester. Report Cards went home today. Please send back the signed signature cards and envelope on Monday. We will discuss any questions about the report card at the conference in February.
Specials for next week: Monday: Spanish, Tuesday: Art, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Media, Friday: Music
Library books are due on Wednesday. We are visiting the library on Thursday.
Aijah celebrated a birthday this week! Happy Birthday!
Elianna was picked for student of the week. She has Max the Moose for the weekend. Have fun!
We have a few students who have forgotten snack before break and recently. I either split my snack with them or hand out snack that I have in the class. But it has become a ritual where they are consistently not bringing snack. We officially do not have snack to be handed out any more! The students do not share their snacks in class either. Please don't forget to send a snack.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We did a small author study this week. We read lots of Jan Brett books. We did lots of winter activities and lots of review. We had some role playing of the book, The Mitten. Keep working on sight words and reading as much as you can. In writing, we are really working on sounding out our words, using capital letters at the beginning and a period at the end of the sentence. We start a new unit on weather on Monday.
Math: We did lots of review and learned new dice games. We even tried out a few addition problems- and we did really good for a first time! We do calendar everyday. Over break, I created calendar notebooks. Not only will be doing calendar everyday, but the students will be writing in their calendar notebooks and following along with me. The items we discuss during calendar time are: Date, Month, Day, tally marks, patters, ones/tens/hundreds, shapes, weather, odd/even, graphing and now money!. It's awesome! We start a new chapter on money on Monday.
Science: Elianna's dad came and taught us an awesome lesson about turtles. He brought their family pet turtle, Einstein, to visit. We learned how to say turtle in Spanish too!
Have an awesome weekend! :)
Specials for next week: Monday: Spanish, Tuesday: Art, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Media, Friday: Music
Library books are due on Wednesday. We are visiting the library on Thursday.
Aijah celebrated a birthday this week! Happy Birthday!
Elianna was picked for student of the week. She has Max the Moose for the weekend. Have fun!
We have a few students who have forgotten snack before break and recently. I either split my snack with them or hand out snack that I have in the class. But it has become a ritual where they are consistently not bringing snack. We officially do not have snack to be handed out any more! The students do not share their snacks in class either. Please don't forget to send a snack.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We did a small author study this week. We read lots of Jan Brett books. We did lots of winter activities and lots of review. We had some role playing of the book, The Mitten. Keep working on sight words and reading as much as you can. In writing, we are really working on sounding out our words, using capital letters at the beginning and a period at the end of the sentence. We start a new unit on weather on Monday.
Math: We did lots of review and learned new dice games. We even tried out a few addition problems- and we did really good for a first time! We do calendar everyday. Over break, I created calendar notebooks. Not only will be doing calendar everyday, but the students will be writing in their calendar notebooks and following along with me. The items we discuss during calendar time are: Date, Month, Day, tally marks, patters, ones/tens/hundreds, shapes, weather, odd/even, graphing and now money!. It's awesome! We start a new chapter on money on Monday.
Science: Elianna's dad came and taught us an awesome lesson about turtles. He brought their family pet turtle, Einstein, to visit. We learned how to say turtle in Spanish too!
Have an awesome weekend! :)
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Estes Extras...
We have made it to Winter Break! This week was filled with so much Christmas activity! We definitely got into Christmas spirit in our classroom! :)
On Tuesday and Wednesday we has Christmas around the world. We learned lots of new traditions from around the world! In Mrs. Bell's class we learned about Kwanzaa. In Mrs. Cronan's class we learned about the USA. In Mrs. Porters class we learned about Germany. In Mrs. Allen's class we learned about Mexico. In Mrs. Moten's class we learned about Sweden. In Ms. Smith's class we learned about England. In Mrs. Van Hout's class we learned about Hanukkah. In my room we learned about the Caribbean Islands. It was two days filled with goodness!
This past Thursday was our holiday party. It was awesome. The kids had a blast! Thank you to all the parents who came! They loved having you in the classroom! The book exchange was fun! I hope all the ornaments made it home safely! :) A big thank you to my sweet students for the gift card to Michaels and to those who remembered me this Holiday season!
We had a blast on Friday watching the Polar Express! We drank hot chocolates and rang our jingle bells. I gave each student a jingle bell with a polar express ticket attached to it. It was so much fun playing in our PJs!
Michael celebrates a birthday over break. He was picked for student of the week and has Max the Moose. Have fun! Elianna is taking care of our class pet, Tom-Tom the turtle over the break!
We return back to school on Tuesday, January 4th. Monday is teacher workday. The specials for next week are: Tuesday: P.E., Wednesday: Media, Thursday: Music, Friday: P.E.
Keep reading as much as you can, working on sight words and numbers up to 30. Count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's. We are only 5 days away from being half way done with Kindergarten!
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you are traveling, be safe! My husband and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary over break! Stay warm and see you in 2011!
On Tuesday and Wednesday we has Christmas around the world. We learned lots of new traditions from around the world! In Mrs. Bell's class we learned about Kwanzaa. In Mrs. Cronan's class we learned about the USA. In Mrs. Porters class we learned about Germany. In Mrs. Allen's class we learned about Mexico. In Mrs. Moten's class we learned about Sweden. In Ms. Smith's class we learned about England. In Mrs. Van Hout's class we learned about Hanukkah. In my room we learned about the Caribbean Islands. It was two days filled with goodness!
This past Thursday was our holiday party. It was awesome. The kids had a blast! Thank you to all the parents who came! They loved having you in the classroom! The book exchange was fun! I hope all the ornaments made it home safely! :) A big thank you to my sweet students for the gift card to Michaels and to those who remembered me this Holiday season!
We had a blast on Friday watching the Polar Express! We drank hot chocolates and rang our jingle bells. I gave each student a jingle bell with a polar express ticket attached to it. It was so much fun playing in our PJs!
Michael celebrates a birthday over break. He was picked for student of the week and has Max the Moose. Have fun! Elianna is taking care of our class pet, Tom-Tom the turtle over the break!
We return back to school on Tuesday, January 4th. Monday is teacher workday. The specials for next week are: Tuesday: P.E., Wednesday: Media, Thursday: Music, Friday: P.E.
Keep reading as much as you can, working on sight words and numbers up to 30. Count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's. We are only 5 days away from being half way done with Kindergarten!
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! If you are traveling, be safe! My husband and I will be celebrating our 2nd anniversary over break! Stay warm and see you in 2011!
Friday, December 10, 2010
Estes Extras...
What an awesome week! It was packed full of goodness! Next week is a BIG week. Here's what is happening... Tuesday and Wednesday is Kindergarten's Christmas around the world. Our class will be visiting 8 different countries learning all about how they celebrate Christmas! It's going to be awesome! On Thursday is our class Christmas Party! If you have not sent your form back what you are bringing, please do so on Monday! The party starts at 1:00. Don't forget about the book swap. Two students have already sent in their wrapped book already! The limit on the book exchange is $5.00! Make sure it's wrapped! :) On Friday, we are watching the Polar Express! The kids can wear Pajamas on Friday. NO SLIPPERS.
Thank you to Camille's mom for coming to Literacy centers, Sofia's dad for coming to Math centers, Elianna's dad for teaching us a science lesson on gravity, Michael's mom for being our Mystery Reader and to Aijah's mom for coming and cooking with us. We had our first cooking in the classroom experience this week... and it was a messy one. We make "Reindeer Tracks". It was very yummy!
Congrats to our Chick-Fl-A students of the month: Aijah and Nicholas!
Meghana was picked for student of the week, she has Max the moose this weekend! Have fun!
Library books were due today. If you have them at home, please send them back on Monday!
Specials next week: Monday: Media, Tuesday: Music, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Spanish, Friday: Art.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We continued our literacy unit on counting. We have really been working on sounding each sound out in a word. We are still having difficulty on seeing a word we don't know and then trying to figure it out. We are really working on sounding each sound out. If we saw the word cat and didn't know it, we would break it apart /c/ /a/ /t/ then put the sounds together and try to make the word. We also are working on hearing sounds from a word and being able to put them together.
Math: We didn't have a chance to have our math test today, so our math test will be on Monday! Keep practicing numbers to 30, breaking the numbers up by 10s and then seeing how many more are needed to make the number. If the number is 24, we would break items up into two sets of 10 and then count how many more is needed to make 24 and it needs four more. Also, we worked on number word recognition. It was hard to recognize the number words, write the number then draw the amount. Practice number word recognition.
Science: We learned about night and day this week. We also learned more about Christmas traditions. Elianna's dad taught us a great lesson on gravity!
Santa was a big topic of this week. If your child believes or doesn't believe in Santa, that is totally fine. We do have a majority of our class still believing in Santa. The kids are having lots of conversations on whether there is or there isn't a Santa. Please talk to your children about it's OK that some believe and some don't. However, we don't need to argue and tell them they are wrong for what we believe. I told them that I still believe... :)
Have a great weekend! Looking forward to seeing everyone at our class Christmas party on Thursday!
Thank you to Camille's mom for coming to Literacy centers, Sofia's dad for coming to Math centers, Elianna's dad for teaching us a science lesson on gravity, Michael's mom for being our Mystery Reader and to Aijah's mom for coming and cooking with us. We had our first cooking in the classroom experience this week... and it was a messy one. We make "Reindeer Tracks". It was very yummy!
Congrats to our Chick-Fl-A students of the month: Aijah and Nicholas!
Meghana was picked for student of the week, she has Max the moose this weekend! Have fun!
Library books were due today. If you have them at home, please send them back on Monday!
Specials next week: Monday: Media, Tuesday: Music, Wednesday: P.E., Thursday: Spanish, Friday: Art.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We continued our literacy unit on counting. We have really been working on sounding each sound out in a word. We are still having difficulty on seeing a word we don't know and then trying to figure it out. We are really working on sounding each sound out. If we saw the word cat and didn't know it, we would break it apart /c/ /a/ /t/ then put the sounds together and try to make the word. We also are working on hearing sounds from a word and being able to put them together.
Math: We didn't have a chance to have our math test today, so our math test will be on Monday! Keep practicing numbers to 30, breaking the numbers up by 10s and then seeing how many more are needed to make the number. If the number is 24, we would break items up into two sets of 10 and then count how many more is needed to make 24 and it needs four more. Also, we worked on number word recognition. It was hard to recognize the number words, write the number then draw the amount. Practice number word recognition.
Science: We learned about night and day this week. We also learned more about Christmas traditions. Elianna's dad taught us a great lesson on gravity!
Santa was a big topic of this week. If your child believes or doesn't believe in Santa, that is totally fine. We do have a majority of our class still believing in Santa. The kids are having lots of conversations on whether there is or there isn't a Santa. Please talk to your children about it's OK that some believe and some don't. However, we don't need to argue and tell them they are wrong for what we believe. I told them that I still believe... :)
Have a great weekend! Looking forward to seeing everyone at our class Christmas party on Thursday!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Estes Extras...
We came back from Thanksgiving break and hit the ground running learning lots of new stuff! We had such a great week. We only have 2 weeks left until Winter Break. Next week is a normal school week packed with lots of learning. The following week (week before break- 12/13-17) is a big week. I'm giving lots of heads up in advance. Tuesday and Wednesday 12/14-15 is our Christmas Around the World Brainstorm. We will be visiting lost of awesome countries around the world. 12/16 is our Holiday Party from 1:15-2:15. Parents are welcome. I will be sending notes home about these events next week too. At the holiday party on Thursday 12/16, we will have a student book swap. The cost of the book limit is $5.00. Please do not spend over $5 for the book. If you need help with the book swap, e-mail me- I will help you out! Friday, 12/17 is Polar Express day and we can wear our pj's.
Specials next week: Monday: Music, Tuesday: P.E., Wednesday:Spanish, Thursday: Art, Friday: P.E.
We visited the library today. All library books are due FRIDAY, 12/11! Please remember to bring them back by next Friday!
Carla celebrated a birthday this week! Happy Birthday!
A note to the parents of the boys: The boys in our class seems to really like to play with "shooting noises" and a motion with their hands or another object that resembles a gun. This is completely NOT tolerated and definitely NOT allowed in school. I'm afraid the boys got the ideas from TV, video games, etc. These playful actions are getting out of control. I have written notes home already and talked to a few parents, but it's still happening. Please talk to your child again about this action.
The cold weather is upon us. Please dress your child in appropriate attire. We will be going outside for recess until it get way too cold. We can not go out now, if we have bare arms or legs showing.
We are have trouble buttoning, zipping and fastening our pants. I have buttoned every student's pants at least once or twice this year. Please practice this skill on pants and shirts. Their fine motor skills are still being developed in their hands, which makes unbuttoning and buttoning pants hard for their little fingers.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We started a new unit on counting. The first few books of our unit is about counting food. So, we talked about the food groups. We learned about the an family. The an family is all the words ending in an (can, man, ran). We are not really working on sounding out the sounds within the word, then putting them together. Our school librarian, Ms. Udall, has a tree in the library, where if you read a book to her as a first time read, she adds a leaf to the tree. We had 3 leafs added to the tree this week! Congrats to Meghana, Michael and Aylin. Keep working on sight words and keep reading!
Math: We started working on ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd). The first five numbers are the hardest to remember. Line more than 10 items up and ask in random order, what is the fourth item, what is the ninth item, etc. We also started learning which hand is right or left. Also, in this chapter, we are learning the numbers 11-20. Make flash cards of the number and quiz them. They often know it in their head, but will say the number backwards. For example the number 16, they sometimes say 61. We are having our chapter test next week.
Science: We learned about the food groups and about day and night sky.
We have started talking about Christmas since we will be doing a lot of Christmas activities the next two weeks. We learned about Hanukkah and made a Menorah, since this week Hanukkah started. If your family heritage is from another country and y'all have special Christmas traditions, I would love for you to come in on Monday 12/13 and come in, share with us about them. We would love to hear all about the traditions. Please e-mail me if you are interested!
The school's e-mail was down all week. I'm sorry, if you tried to e-mail me. We were not getting any incoming mail and were not able to send any out mail.
Thank you to the parent volunteers this week: Sofia's mom at Literacy centers, Carla's mom for math centers and Camille's mom as our mystery reader.
Have a great weekend. Stay warm and if you are going to watch the SEC Championship, pull for South Carolina to beat Auburn! :)
Specials next week: Monday: Music, Tuesday: P.E., Wednesday:Spanish, Thursday: Art, Friday: P.E.
We visited the library today. All library books are due FRIDAY, 12/11! Please remember to bring them back by next Friday!
Carla celebrated a birthday this week! Happy Birthday!
A note to the parents of the boys: The boys in our class seems to really like to play with "shooting noises" and a motion with their hands or another object that resembles a gun. This is completely NOT tolerated and definitely NOT allowed in school. I'm afraid the boys got the ideas from TV, video games, etc. These playful actions are getting out of control. I have written notes home already and talked to a few parents, but it's still happening. Please talk to your child again about this action.
The cold weather is upon us. Please dress your child in appropriate attire. We will be going outside for recess until it get way too cold. We can not go out now, if we have bare arms or legs showing.
We are have trouble buttoning, zipping and fastening our pants. I have buttoned every student's pants at least once or twice this year. Please practice this skill on pants and shirts. Their fine motor skills are still being developed in their hands, which makes unbuttoning and buttoning pants hard for their little fingers.
Academic Update:
Literacy: We started a new unit on counting. The first few books of our unit is about counting food. So, we talked about the food groups. We learned about the an family. The an family is all the words ending in an (can, man, ran). We are not really working on sounding out the sounds within the word, then putting them together. Our school librarian, Ms. Udall, has a tree in the library, where if you read a book to her as a first time read, she adds a leaf to the tree. We had 3 leafs added to the tree this week! Congrats to Meghana, Michael and Aylin. Keep working on sight words and keep reading!
Math: We started working on ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd). The first five numbers are the hardest to remember. Line more than 10 items up and ask in random order, what is the fourth item, what is the ninth item, etc. We also started learning which hand is right or left. Also, in this chapter, we are learning the numbers 11-20. Make flash cards of the number and quiz them. They often know it in their head, but will say the number backwards. For example the number 16, they sometimes say 61. We are having our chapter test next week.
Science: We learned about the food groups and about day and night sky.
We have started talking about Christmas since we will be doing a lot of Christmas activities the next two weeks. We learned about Hanukkah and made a Menorah, since this week Hanukkah started. If your family heritage is from another country and y'all have special Christmas traditions, I would love for you to come in on Monday 12/13 and come in, share with us about them. We would love to hear all about the traditions. Please e-mail me if you are interested!
The school's e-mail was down all week. I'm sorry, if you tried to e-mail me. We were not getting any incoming mail and were not able to send any out mail.
Thank you to the parent volunteers this week: Sofia's mom at Literacy centers, Carla's mom for math centers and Camille's mom as our mystery reader.
Have a great weekend. Stay warm and if you are going to watch the SEC Championship, pull for South Carolina to beat Auburn! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
